Birthday Parties Past and Present

As promised, I am continuing the birthday trip down memory lane from yesterday.

Then it was YEAR SEVEN!! This year the theme was "Make a Mess" because my son likes to do just that! You may remember the invitation:

We snacked on (organic) cheese puffs, a classically messy snack. And we made slime*, as requested by Noah. Only problem was I forgot I'd need bowls for this, so I was rummaging around pulling out tiny baby bowls (and didn't even have enough of those) at the last minute. Duh. (See what lack of sleep gets you?!) We also played a game where the kids had to hold their hands behind their backs and use only their faces to find 4 chocolate candies in a plate of whipped cream. I was disappointed in this game, too, because the whipped cream was flat and soupy. I don't have a lot of experience with whipped cream. I was picturing the traditional "pie in the face" type look, but ours? Umm...not so much. The kids seemed to enjoy it, though.

Crazy kids. Don't they know they're going to get messy?

What's that on your face, Noah?!

The Winner!!

They had DIRT cake in individual cups, complete with gummy worms. I reminded them to eat MESSY, and, boy, did they! Once things had kind of slowed down, we recruited the parents to help us with one last thing. We had the kids all line up against our retaining wall and told them to turn their backs to us and count to ten. When they reached about 8 maybe, the dads pelted them all with water balloons. There were a few sensitive souls (mostly younger siblings who insisted on doing everything the big kids did) who didn't exactly appreciate this activity, but everyone else really got into it...and retaliated! Wet kids led to wet parents which led to whipped cream-drenchings which led to food throwing...well, long story short, it was a MESSY PARTY alright!!! Good thing it was outside. Clean-up was a breeze.

How 'bout some dirt and worms?!

Blow 'em ALL out!!

One MeSsY Good Friend

Clean

Not So Clean

Party favors were little plastic buckets filled with a washcloth, a sponge, a toothbrush, and packets of Fun-Dip (a candy that can be eaten messily OR neatly, depending on one's mood). 

*slime: (aka "Oobleck") Cornstarch, water, and food coloring. We love this stuff!! And it cleans up so easy. Just rinses away. Right down the drain. No worries.

And now?????? Now we have reached Year Eight!!! It's still so hard to believe. Eight birthdays. Talk about bittersweet. But I trudge on, as I must. Of course, technically his birthday was in April. But who wants to be technical at a time like this?! We have partying to do, however late.

This year Noah's exhausted mommy opted to do a whopper of a combination party. 'Cause she (I?) was hoping to knock it all out at once. Makes it easier for the out-of-town family guests, too. And now she'll quit writing in third person. Whew! (That was weird.) So this year since Gabriel's birthday is May 23rd, we're having both boys' parties together at Jump!Zone. It means a lot more kids, which means a lot more cupcakes, but I'm excited to just be bringing refreshments and not worrying about cleaning my house (before OR after)!!

Here's the invitation I came up with:

I'm HOPING to somehow line up all the cupcakes like a racing strip and make one of those cupcake cakes (aka "pull-apart" cakes). Have you seen them? I thought each boy could be represented by a car or motorbike, on which I could somehow affix a candle. I don't know. I'm still mulling it over. I should totally have this all planned out by now, I'm sure. I can just FEEL a catastrophe on the horizon. And I haven't even mentioned all the other activities we're squeezing in to this coming weekend. Oh, dear...

Birthday Parties Past

Generally speaking, I am an ANTI-theme kind of person, or at least I used to be. I still cling to simplicity when it comes to room design and decor (no Winnie the Pooh or Noah's Ark for me), but as you're about to see--birthdays are a "whole 'nother" story. Since I never blogged about Noah's birthday party last year, and now we're about to have yet ANOTHER party, I've decided to go ahead and go through all of 'em. Oh, the fun!

Noah's 1st birthday: Cows

I chose this theme based solely on what Noah seemed interested in (which wasn't very obvious, considering he was just a BABY). About a month before his birthday, though, he pointed to a large cow-shaped pillow on a shelf in Walgreen's and looked at me inquisitively. I said, "That's a cow. It says Mooooo." He thought this was pretty funny and immediately tried it himself. (I'll never forget how cute his version was). From that point on he noticed every single cow we came across. And a theme was born! I just happened to find invitations at Wal-Mart I could print up myself that were "the cow jumping over the moon."

I made a simple cow-head-shaped cake and stamped cows all over a white paper tablecloth.

There were several farm/cow-themed gifts. And we had family and a few close friends there to see him have his VERY first taste of sugar. The fact that I had to BATHE him after he had his cake is a testament to how much he enjoyed that first taste!




2nd birthday: Trains

By the time his 2nd birthday rolled around, it was EASY to choose a theme. This boy was obsessed with trains!

I made a big engine out of an empty appliance box just for fun. We held the party at our neighborhood park/playground on Easter Sunday right after his nap. His favorite food was (and still absolutely IS) pizza, so we had Domino's deliver right to the pavilion.

The party favor (for his one little friend) was a train whistle and a little bag of goodies, which I forgot to give to him. (This has happened on more than one occasion!) Family was there again, along with the same friends. And I made a long train cake using mini loaf pans, several different colors of frosting, and cookie/candy decorations. Noah loved it!

3rd birthday: N is for Noah

Noah had learned his letter sounds four weeks after his second birthday (no joke), so this entire year was FULL of discovering the letters that were ALL around us. He pointed them out (and identified them) on every store front, every street sign, and every vehicle with a logo. It was delightful! SO this year's theme was easy, too. Here was his invitation:

I put out little signs everywhere that said "P is for Piano," "D is for Door," "C is for Cupcake," and so on. Party favors were white T-shirts I personalized with iron-on first initials (a capital and a lower-case) I made on the computer. This time we had a family party on Sunday night and then a mini "friend" party on Monday morning. I did myself a favor and ordered cupcakes this time around. Monday's party was so fun. He had three little friends from church come over (with their parents) and they played with play dough and letter cookie cutters, we read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, took pictures in the new shirts, and ate cupcakes. Like a glorified playdate, but with a birthday song!





4th birthday: Cars (this was before the Disney Pixar movie)

Our boy was continuing in the typical boy kind of way by the time this birthday rolled around. This time, I let Noah decide his theme all on his own. It was an easy choice for him.

It was definitely a BOY'S party. I made the invitations out of plain construction paper and a white crayon, literally throwing them together late one night and mailing them the next morning! (Why do I have to do everything last minute? Or--a better question--why do all my ideas only come to me at the last minute?)

Paul and our friend Jeff hung a tire swing in the backyard. We put another real tire on the food table, and I placed a shiny silver (plastic) tray right in the center of it, like it was a hubcap, on which we served Paul's freshly-grilled "hubcap" burgers. We held it outside in our backyard and on the deck. The kids played relay races in little cardboard car cutouts and a tire-changing game I made. (Wish I had a picture of that one, because I don't think I can remember how it was played.) We also played "Hot Wheels" (instead of Hot Potato) to a Woodie Guthrie song called "The Car Song." The kids got to keep their Hot Wheels vehicle (party favor) when they got "out" of the game. The rest of the favor was a small chunk of homemade play dough (in the shape of a car) and some car-shaped chocolates wrapped in Nascar foil. Once again, I ordered cupcakes and then inserted two checkered racing flags (from Oriental Trading) in each. I'm just sick there aren't any actual party pictures. I don't really know what happened. Except for the fact that I was WITH the kids continually throughout this party. Helping with games and stuff. And I guess I never thought about asking someone to take pictures. So sad.

5th birthday: Noah's Pizzeria

This was a "Make your own pizza" party.

Our house was ENTIRELY too small for this one, but despite overcrowding and running out of food, Noah really enjoyed it. Paul dressed up in a green apron, a chef's hat, and a black (very Italian-looking) mustache. Oh, the kids LOVED that! I made up a "menu" on black foam board to look like a chalkboard menu. (It got a little smudged in the garage afterward.)

We asked our friend, who is a co-owner of a pizza restaurant in town, if we could borrow those fat cheese and pepper shakers to decorate the table, which was covered in a checkered tablecloth. I also hung a string of pizza slice lights over the table. (They were SO cute!!) Favors were homemade pizza-shaped chocolate candy (I found a pizza slice mold on Ebay because they. have. everything.) and a chef's hat and apron, which the kids wore while making their pizzas. And I made a giant cookie cake and a batch of cupcakes, all to look like pizza.

The "pepperoni" is made from fruit leather cut out with a Crayola marker lid (resourceful, huh?)

The "sausage" is made from chocolate chips placed in a blender and pulsed a couple of times. (I swear, this just CAME to me in the middle of the night as I was up baking, and it worked!)

The Cookie Cake

Emeril Lagasse's recipe (made plain)

Friend Ethan making his own pizza

I even found these great thank you notes!

6th birthday: Fish

Noah had never been fishing before and so we decided his birthday would be as good a time as any for his first fishing experience. We decided to meet up at Pinnacle Mountain State Park and hope for a picnic table.

It was a little risky, I guess, looking back, since it just so happened that our scheduled party day was the very FIRST beautiful, nice day of spring we had had. Perfect day for an outdoor party at the park; unfortunately, everyone else thought so, too! So our major obstacle on this day was that some of our guests had a TON of trouble actually GETTING to the party site, because the park reached capacity and they closed the gates. (I didn't know that was even a possibility.) In fact, one little friend never got to come because they wouldn't let him in unless his family parked blocks and blocks away (and they had a baby to tote as well). That still hurts my heart!!

We did get to the party site in time to get ourselves an awesome DOUBLE picnic table right by the bank. It was the perfect location, aside from the fact that it was CRAAAAZY windy!! Anyway, we had asked that the fathers please be present to help with baiting, etc., and it was so nice to see each dad out by the water helping their children learn to fish.

The bad thing was it was a little early in the season to catch anything, so it was an exercise in patience and...disappointment. Awww... BUT we took turns swinging at the fish-shaped pinata and eating tuna fish sandwiches, goldfish crackers, Swedish Fish gummies, and a fish-shaped cake I made.

The party favor was a cane pole and a bag of candy. And I even found these custom thank you notes on Ebay:

And then!!

Then it was YEAR SEVEN!! Stay tuned for tomorrow's post: Birthday Parties Past and Present ('Cause I know by now you're tired of reading...You need a break.)

**Warning: If I find more pictures in the future, I'll probably add them to this post, because as I've said before...this blog is as much my digital scrapbook than anything. So you may get notices of new posts, when it's really just me finding some more stuff. I apologize in advance.

Project 365: Week 20

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Mother's Day

Okay. I'll admit I didn't take these pictures ON Sunday. Mother's Day itself was a little weird due to the fact that Paul had to go to the office to do final preparations on a HUGE case. We did, however, eat lunch at my favorite pizza hangout. (See what a cool mom I am? I requested pizza; not some frou-frou restaurant. Cool, I tell ya!) As soon as we got home, Paul headed out and then didn't return until nine something. But back to the pictures. This was my rockin' Mother's Day gift.

BEFORE

AFTER

Notice anything different about me????????!!!

(Poor Atticus. It was awful bright out there for his baby blues.)

Monday, May 10, 2010

Our sweet friend made us a Chicken Pot Pie and this was the top!! Is that not something?

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Today I was so excited to have our Digi-Block Demonstration Counter up and running again. (Our hundreds place wheel had a broken plastic part, so it wouldn't turn.) After contacting customer service for a part, they sent me a new wheel free of charge! Don't you love it when that happens?

Oh! Digi-Blocks are a math manipulative I fell in love with when I went to the NCTM conference one year (long, long ago) as a second-grade teacher. They're especially great for teaching place value and regrouping. If you live near me and are homeschooling your child and are needing some assistance on the whole regrouping thing, let me know! (Maybe we'll do a video demo sometime. That'd be fun!)

And then...these cards came in the mail today...from my adorable niece (top) and nephew (bottom cover).

Preciousness like this always makes me cry. That and hormones.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Today the kids wanted to have a picnic outside for lunch. So we did. It was windy. The picnic didn't last long since the food kept blowing away.

Oh, yeah. And we had Baked Oatmeal again today. I finally posted the recipe here.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

We had a make-up soccer game tonight instead of soccer practice. I know I've said this before, but Noah is quite the scrapper. No fear.

Stealing the ball

Setting up for...

this!!!!!

We all worked up such an appetite after the soccer game, we headed to Cracker Barrel. There we had a little game of checkers.

And Gabe was fascinated with the "dee-uh" on the wall.

Friday, May 14, 2010

I cleaned the kitchen ALL morning long today. Scrubbed cabinet doors, organized, and mopped. And then I learned never to start the water to running in the sink (that "grammar" was so Southern, y'all...) for the mop water and then walk off to check on the kids, because inevitably there will be a dirty diaper waiting for me. And once I get that changed, I'll need to take the two-year-old to the potty, and then by the time I remember to walk back to the kitchen...

......uuuummmmmmmm....

...I'll probably find that the water is all the way up to HERE!!!

Yes. THE. VERY. EDGE! Whoa. Close call.

But Atticus had fun with it.

Oh! And then I caught these two sitting on Nana's chaise lounge. Noah wanted to read Saylor a story. And she wanted to hear it! It made my heart happy to think how Nana would have loved to know her chaise was being used this way.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

The other day Noah came in after playing with some kids in the neighborhood. He told me that he and another kid had planned to have a Bible study on the corner on Saturday at 1:00. I was thinking, "Oh, really. Mm-hmm. I bet." He said, "We're going to study Matthew." I laughed so hard (inside). I really didn't think that either one of them would remember.

But they did.

Is that not the cutest?

That's my week, folks! I'm linking up at Sara's for the "project."