DEMIGOD Party - A Socially-distanced 10th Birthday

 Another birthday in the books!  J really loves the Percy Jackson books and we've read the second series too with the Roman demigods.  The invites were based off of ones i saw online.  (Once again, we had to keep it small.  I can't wait to have full blow out parties again!)  Simple printout and glue to short pieces of dowel rod.  They were a little tricky to get in the envelopes, but we managed.

For decorations, we went simple, with white and I ordered some cardboard Roman Columns that we attached to the front of an easy up tent.

Activities included..

Getting claimed by your Godly parent.  We made necklaces with the symbol of a Greek or Roman God or Goddess and put them in seal envelopes.  Then the kids were asked to take the envelope that was calling to them.  The necklaces were also used to collect beads for each training exercise they completed.

Zeus' training - air - paper airplane designing and throwing contest.

    

Area/Mars Training - War - we designed shields.  The shields were pizza pans with metal slap bracelets riveted to them.  Then they could use markers and stick-on gems to decorate them.

Hercules Training - Strength Challenges.  Sit-ups, push-up, one-foot balancing, and then endurance balancing rocks on their outstretched arms.

For the contests, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place won pieces of armor (slap bracelets).

The food was pre-bagged chips, fruit snacks, and apple slices.

J doesn't like cake, so we had pudding cups.  

All in all, a decent time.  1.5 hours, done!

ART PARTY! - A Socially-Distanced 7th Birthday

This year is definitely different!  To begin with, we usually invite the entire class and entire scout groups....however, in light of being spaced out and more cautious, we had to tone it down this year....well, as much as this pinterest-mommy's heart could stand!  My daughter reached level 7!!  She chose an art party for this year.  Here below is what we did....

The invites.....i only let her invite a small handful of people.  Mostly, family and neighbors.

The set-up...we setup easy-up tents in the driveway with tables.  No one had to walk into the house at all!  And I used some plastic tablecloths to create walls and add color instead of messing with streamers.

  

For activities, we planned for tie-dye, rock painting, and decorating small wooden treasure boxes.  To prep for the party and minimize a lot of touching, i pre-packaged all the supplies each kid would need.  I got each kid an apron (set of 24 from amazon), a shirt, a little box, a paint brush, a bag with gloves and rubber bands, a bag with stick-on jewels, and (because i was at Walmart and they were calling to me) an individual pack of hand wipes.

 

As each kid arrived, they got to pick a supply kit and a gift bag.  The gift bag was to put their crafts in when they were done.  the pic above also shows the fast food boats (we used to have a food truck, so we have a lot of these leftover!) and the pre-painted rocks we prepared.  

Here is the my daughter working on her tie dye and her rocks.  For the tie dye, i limited the possible designs to just a fan fold or bullseye and we used squirt bottles, 1 at a time, to apply color.  For the rocks, i have little paint palettes and each kid got to pick 3 colors.  For some reason, I did not get a picture of her decorating her treasure box, but if they wanted to paint them, they used the same 3 colors they already had and then they had the adhesive jewels.

Once the 3 craft were done, we handed out snacks.  I let E choose crackers, gummy snacks, and a healthy thing (she went with apples).  Then we had hugs and water.  We prepacked snack bags and handed them out while E opened her gifts.

  

And finally, cake and ice-cream.  I let E choose a snack cake and the individual ice cream cups.  

So, there you have it.  A socially distanced (mostly), masked, clean-ish 7th birthday!

Kid's Cheese Party - Happy Birthday, J!

My middle son take pride in being able to pick the most obscure birthday party themes that force me to actually dig in my creative brain box verses pinte

rest to design and execute.  Last year, he wanted Cheese.  Yes, a Cheese Party.  Do you know, there are not any Pinterest posts on Kid's cheese parties?  (until now, anyway!)  The only Cheese party you are going to find are those involving wine, grapes, and cute little knives.  So, into the brain-vault we go....Turned out pretty awesome, if I do say so myself.

Invite: Simple printed card that I created.

Decorations:  Everything in Yellow and White

Food:  Grilled Cheese, Cheese Sticks, Cheese Platter, Mac&Cheese, Baked Brie, Mozzarella Sticks  (veggies and fruit so we didn't get too blocked up!) and a cheesecake for the cake.

Games/Activities: 
1) Cheese Tasting.  I bought and cut up 10 different cheeses and created a judging sheet where they had to rank the smell and taste.

2) Cheese making.  This didn't do very well, since i only half listened/watched the you tube video on how to do it.  I didn't use enough milk and well....i tried.

3) Cheese ball Toss.  Each kid got a shower cap, we put a pile of shaving cream on top and then partnered them up.  They had to see how many cheese balls they could get to stick to both their caps as a team.  The winners got bags of candy to share. 

The favors were cheese sticks and baby-bells.

Cardboard Dome, aka Moon Base

As the quarantine order continues, we are finding more and more of those little projects that you pin on Pinterest but never actually intend to do!  The Cardboard Dome or "Moon base" was on ours and since I have an abundance of cardboard (due to my persistent desire to create a little oasis on my back porch), we decided, 'heck, why not'.  Couldn't take more than a few hours, right?  HA HA HA!!!  First, I found the post on Facebook where some family put one together.  They wrote all about some 'instructables' thing that they found to be wrong, so we thought we'd try theirs.  However, they didn't actually write anything USEFUL other than that the instructables instructions we wrong.  Yay.  So, J and I sat down with my trusty friend, Excel, to create our own design.  Guess what?  I'm good at geometry when it comes to sewing, not so much in the 3D world.  Go figure.  Then, my brilliant son says "why don't we just model it off of the jungle gym in the backyard...........yes........mom win.......I’ve taught a child how to think and not what to think and he figured out a solution without re-inventing the wheel.  Now, let me warn you, he still had his mother involved........who isn't very good at following instructions........I eyeballed the dimensions of the jungle gym.......yes, that's right.  Head-slap.  I assumed they were 2ft equilateral triangles.  Guess what they're not?  Yep.  However, we went forth with the plan to make 1ft equilateral triangles.  Armed with our abundance of cardboard and box-cutters (thank you, honey) we went forth and began cutting....

Here is our model:

We cute 40 1ft equilateral triangles.......

We put together 6 pentagons (the 10 extra triangles were for the connector pieces)...

And then began the really fun part.  Putting the pieces together.  Any idea how heavy cardboard can get?  it was falling apart all over the place.  We ran out of duct tape and resorted to painters tape.  Disaster.  

My genius hubby suggested we take a break and order some duct tape for pickup at home depot the next day.  Where does he get these ideas, huh?  so, i ordered the tape.......went and got it this morning and we managed to get it together.  duct tape really is a miracle.  

And, in true Jenna-fashion.....we taped the hell out of it.  Added some extra panels on the bottom to raise it up and ta-da!  

Now, they are fighting over who can fit in it, how high the volume on each of their devices should be, who's foot is in who's face........ahh....harmonious-ness.  i'm done.  Moon base, check.  time for a wine cooler and some gardening!

(bonus picture of what it looks like on the inside)

Dinosaur Birthday - Take 2 - Girl Style!

Another Dinosaur birthday is in the books!  We had a great time and A LOT of kids!  I did some of the same things I did with my older son's birthday, but many changes.

The invitation my daughter chose was not so cutesy as her brothers:

For the food: 
Dino Dogs - hot dogs in buns, cut in half
Dino Nuggets - chicken nuggets i lucked into at Aldi in the shape of dinosaurs
dinosaur claws - bugles
dinosaur bones - pretzels
protozoic slime rolls - spinach rolls
veggies and dip
orange punch

Decorations:
Giant T-rex balloon, pink and green spotted balloons, pink and green streamers, and dinosaur foot prints leading up to the house.

Activities:

Dinosaur hatch.  Found these dinosaur eggs on Amazon that hatch in water.  So, we hid the eggs around the yard and i had mason jars with water.  The first thing the kids did was find an egg and drop it in the water.  we put their names on the jar.  It took quite a while for the hatching to begin, but by the end of the party, most eggs had started to split.

Dinosaur Dig.  I found dinosaur skeletons on Amazon and buried them in a sand pile.  The kids were each given a paint brush to unearth their skeletons.

I also found geodes on Amazon and with a couple of hammers, each kids ended up with a bag of crystals.

To end, we played dino stomp.  I had cut a bunch of dino footprints from different colors and we put together a play list of dinosaur music.  had the kids walk around, cake-walk style, and then called colors.  if you were on that color, you got a lizard and then got to sit in the middle.  once everyone had a lizard, they were all sitting down and ready for cake.

Cake:  layered dirt cake.  I made regular dirt cake and layered it with sprinkles and then marshmallows.  we pressed little plastic dinosaurs into the centers and as they ate, they dug through the layers like little paleontologists to find their dinosaurs.

each got to take home their jar, a skeleton, a lizard, dinosaurs, and a dino tattoo that i just picked up because i was on a role buying dinosaur stuff.

1.5hrs and done!  :)

Y Not?

2012 - Yesterday - I still have not read Mary Poppins, the book.

2013 - Youngin's - Still going through phases.......sigh.  And, thus concludes 2013. 

So, in 6 years, I've only made it completely through Once before?!  Wow.

X-use me

2012 - X-Ray - too perfect.  X would have been Friday's post, and 6 years later, i finally got the all clear from my orthopedic surgeon that my carpal tunnel is done and my incision is completely healed.

2013 - eXecellent Dinner - ahh, yes, my Monsoon Wedding themed dinner party.  Good times.  Too much work.

2015 - eXpress Yourself Through Poetry - perhaps not.  And...that concludes 2015 apparently.