My Little Man is 2 May 18, 2008

We finally had my son’s 2nd birthday party after a one week postponement and a 5 hour rain delay. In the end, it was a beautiful sunny day shared with good friends and family!

If I had to pick which thing my son loves more, dogs or balls, I’d be in a pickle so Doggie Ball party it was!

I made dog ears for each kid to wear in lieu of birthday hats. I got a bunch of sparklie headbands from the dollar store and fashioned some felt & fur ears. They even left them on for 3 minutes!

The hit of the party was the dog bone dig. I had the “big” kids bury the dog treats in the sandbox and then the younger kids search for them. They collected the bones in the dog bowls I also scored from the dollar store. At the end of the party we gave a box of slightly sandy dog bones to a dad at the park who had a dog at home, so no dog bones were wasted in the making of this party.

I made chocolate cupcakes and decorated each with a negative space dog bone. I cut out dog bone shapes out of paper, put them on top of the frosting and then sprinkled confectioners sugar over it to leave the bone shape. I didn’t factor in the wind but it was a party for a 2 year old so, really, a little wonky is just right. I also made some dog themed chocolates for the kids to take home. Candy molds rock, minimum effort for maximum effect. I tried creating candies with multiple colors this time, not so tricky and kinda fun. I will admit that I, myself, would not eat one of these candies on a $100 dare. Something about those little melting disks screams carnauba wax. I’ll have to experiment with higher quality ingredients next time.

We served the cupcakes in dog bowls that the kids took home. The wind never allowed us to light the candles but that did not deter my little guy. He’s been practicing. Every time we said something about his birthday he @@@B……l……e……w@@@ out imaginary candles, very sweet.

The goodie bags were stuffed with stickers, water colors, a notebook and a bone shaped carabiner.

And these didn’t quite make it to the party table:

You are just going to have to trust me when I tell you that these are meant to be dog bone shaped.

Reminder: do not treat the timer as just a suggestion.

edit: These were supposed to be dog biscuits with butter, cinnamon and sugar on top.

Our other big activity was playing “fetch” with a bunch of balls we brought from home and some winning additions to the collection received as presents (Thanks E, S and K)! I think they all made it home with us. A big thanks to K for risking poison ivy to rescuing the basket ball and to E for crawling under the car to fetch the much loved Hello Kitty ball.

This decorating was done for us prior to the party. My friend who likes to take a firm stand on graffiti is planning to bring a sharpie her next trip to the park and change “PooP” into “BooB” - you know, for the greater good.

Sign of a good time spent:

Happy Birthday little guy. You make me stretch my parenting muscles and you challenge me to be better. Most days I thank you for that! I appreciate your wonder at the world and your capacity to love. You have taught me to appreciate the unique gifts each member of our family brings to the table and I am so glad we are a table of four.

I am buckling my seatbelt and looking forward to YOU at TWO!

Birthday April 8, 2008

So when it came time for my youngest son’s first birthday I really thought about what he loved the most and hence the banana birthday was born.

I wanted to make the invitation from something that was cheap, wouldn’t just be thrown away and that would be fun. I was really excited with the result, a banana invitation:

I took inspiration from here for the birthday crown:

We made a mix cd of some family favorites and my brother (who is an amazing artist) made/stole the cover from Andy Warhol:

I got this really cute shirt from etsy (I wish I could remember which shop it was so I could give the woman credit):

Here are the brothers on the slide, my oldest is holding a bean bag I made out of some thrifted pjs:

A good time was had by all:

I’m going to cut this short because, a) It’s not really that short and  b) my family has been waiting for me to finish up so we can go to the library.

I have the Ancient Egyptian birthday and another 1st birthday to share. Hold your breath.

Birthday Crazy Part 2 March 18, 2008

My oldest son is very into Ancient Egypt and chose an Egyptian party for his 5th birthday (and currently says he wants the same for his 6th). We had so much fun working together as a family to make this one happen.

I made this birthday banner using muslin fabric that I tea dyed for an authentic ancient Egyptian look. Click here to see craftastic examples and to get inspired. Check this out for a great tutorial. Freezer paper stenciling, all the cool kids are doing it!

My husband made craft clay, an idea from The Crafts and Culture of the Ancient Egyptians. Each child made their own self hardening pyramid to take home.

I made a Egyptologist bag for each kid that had all the “tools” they’d need for the birthday adventure. I found these cool rulers that had the”Rulers of Egypt” listed on them that the kids used to add steps and texture to their pyramids. They each had a pair of binoculars made from toilet paper rolls and painted black by my son. Each kid also got an egyptian tattoo. We did some more freezer paper stenciling on the bags, a stylized pyramid with a 5 in the center. The tiny bags on the left are for the little kids.

We bought scarab beads and encased the necklaces in more of the sand plaster ahead of time. Each little treasure was then buried in the sandbox and marked with a little flag. The kids unearthed their archeological finds and had a scarab necklace to take home. It was fun to hear them wonder how they got there.

My huband organized a game of “What’s Missing”. We had a tray of ancient Egyptian “artifacts” and each child got a chance to take one away and the rest of the kids had to guess what was missing. He also read a developmentally appropriate book about Ancient Egypt. Can you tell we are both Early Childhood Educators and total dorks?

The kids got to wrap each other in toilet paper to make “mummies”. I debated whether to do this activity or not as it’s kind of wasteful but I bought the cheapest I could find and used the t.p. to clean down the tables when we were done, still wasteful but hella fun. The kids were pumped to wrap each other. My child, who is very much into things being authentic (if he were a superhero he’d be PRECISION BOY), kept saying, “There shouldn’t be a space for the eyes! Wrap me up completely!”

For food we served mummy dogs, both the barking kind (hot dogs) and the chanting kind (tofu pups). Wrapping these was harder than I thought and I didn’t win any points from my son for leaving a space for the little food faces but they were eaten and enjoyed.

My son has food allergies and making cake that looks like cake can be hard (other people are much more successful at this than me but I’m impatient and not nearly as precise as my son). I bought pyramid cupcake molds (they turned out more like diamonds but hey) and made cupcakes that we covered in graham cracker “sand”. Buried under the sand was a white chocolate mummy. Chocolate molds are my new favorite party tool. They are easy, cheap and look like you tried much harder than you did.

I took a photo of everyone at the party with their face in the Tutankhamen mask I painted on an IKEA box. We made a collage to send out as the Thank You card. As I’m typing this whole thing out I’m thinking maybe we’ll do Chuck E. Cheese for the next birthday.

And here’s my final birthday photo (for at least 2 more months):

This has always been one of my favorite photos of me and my brother. Not sure which birthday it is (dad? mom? you still reading?) but it’s a cute shot and I’m rocking the rick rack.