Elizabeth's party

I was a little behind getting Elizabeth's birthday party planned.  But I figured perhaps it was fortuitous because now it is definitely warm enough for an outside party.  Elizabeth liked the idea of a party with water activities, so we rolled with it.  We invited some friends, got some food for a bbq, filled up our pool, got the slip and slide set up, and we were set.

The birthday girl

 The kids eating their picnic dinner of hot dogs, chips, and watermelon.

 Elizabeth wanted angel food cake with raspberries and whipped cream for her birthday cake.  And ice cream.

 Time for presents.

Next up-games.

This first one was the kids trying to fill giant Solo cups I found at Walmart by pouring water over their shoulders.  The child pouring was supposed to pour without looking.  The kid on the receiving end had to do the best they could trying to catch the water.

 It was pretty fun.

 Then there were balloons with little prizes inside to pop.

 And throwing wet sponges back and forth.

The party went long, But school is out, and the sun is up late, and the kids were having a good time.  We might as well enjoy it.  Thankfully the heat was not as bad today as it has been, so the evening was pleasant.
So, there you have it.  Summer birthday parties are fun.  We might do that again.

A Baby Shower

My friend Rachel and I threw a baby shower for Sarah.  Sarah is expecting baby #5, but every baby is a reason to celebrate, right?  It was a pretty low-key baby shower and pot luck.  

 With the table out in the front room, the kids had a picnic on the floor of the kitchen.  This was most of the kids.

Big Birthday Weekend Begins

We had a very exciting, very busy weekend to celebrate Annie and Maddie turning 5-years-old.  Friday night we had the "friend party."  As this was the day after Halloween, I kept it really simple.  We had an easy fall wreath craft to start us off.  (Picture of the finished products, since I was busy helping during the craft.)

 Then we let the kids play while we finished making dinner.

 We ate the new Kirkland frozen pizzas for dinner.  Between 12 kids and 2 adults, we ate a lot of pizza.

 Sean, Noah, Ian, Jane, Annie, Kennedy, Maddie, Elizabeth, Tanner, Amber and Jaxon sitting around the table.

Then we let Annie and Maddie open their presents.  

 Then let the kids play with the new toys.  I was a little amused to see Tanner and Noah enjoying the Polly Pockets.

Cake and ice cream time.

(I think Jane got in on blowing out the candles...)

Ryan had to go to the high school for a bit, so I turned on a movie, and let the kids watch or play as desired.

Harry Potter Party, part duex

The party started after school Friday afternoon.  (We'd had to reschedule this party 2 or 3 times due to other birthday parties we were invited to.  I just wasn't fast enough getting the invites out.  Who knew a week was too slow?)  I got a picture of the two birthday girls in the glaring sun.  Emma really got into it, and put on her Hermione costume.  

 We had coloring pages and a Who's Who game while we waited for our guests to all arrive.

 Then we played Pin the Scar on Harry.

 It was funny to see the lightening scars all over Harry's face at the end.

Then we had the kids make up their personal pizzas.  

While the pizzas baked, we had the kids pick their wands, and turned them all loose with a list of spells from the series.  Thank goodness the wands were fake, because the spells were flying in every direction.  There was one condition- no Unforgivable Curses. 

 The kids even went after our chickens.

Then it was dinner time.  I even peeled off the labels of the bottles of soda and replaced them with appropriate Harry Potter-esque printables.

 Then our Golden Snitch cupcakes!

 Presents.

I made this sign, but our guests weren't as excited as my family to pose a la Sirius Black.

 Ryan got a little too into it.  Horrible Mullet Wig made an appearance.

The kids played Spells for a long time after dinner.  The Lumos and Nox spells were used a lot on all of the lights. When they got tired of that, we turned on a Harry Potter movie until parents arrived.

To see the invitations and decorations, click here.

Harry Potter Party

Emma and Elizabeth wanted a Harry Potter birthday party this year.  I spent some time looking online for ideas, and found tons.  There are many talented party planners out there, but I think I pulled off one that made the kids happy on a MUCH smaller scale.

First were the invitations:

Then I made wands out of cake pop sticks, hot glue and brown acrylic paint, all of which I had already:

 (They turned out super cool.  Who knew you could do that with hot glue?  Thanks, Pinterest!)

Then I used my Silhouette to make some vinyl lettering for the bathroom.  This was mostly for my own amusement.

I thought I was so funny that I took a picture with my phone and uploaded it to facebook to share.  You definitely have to be a Harry Potter fan to understand.  (The kids have shared my fun, and announce to the world that they are visiting the Ministry of Magic every time they go in there.)

Here is the sign to go with the birthday invites- Welcome to Platform 9 3/4.

Theses are not actually Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Jelly Beans.  For one, I'm too cheap to get them, and two, who wants the disgusting kinds?  These are jelly beans from the bulk section at the grocery store.  I also put in a "Golden Snitch" white chocolate truffle in the party favor bags.

These are the Golden Snitch cupcakes I made.  They were not quite what I pictured, but they sure tasted good.
To read about the rest of the party, click here

Minute To Win It- Thanksgiving Style

This month while I was sick and good for nothing except lying around all day, I decided what we needed for Thanksgiving was an activity.  So while I was a blob on the couch, I looked up Minute To Win It party games online and decided on a few of the many out there for our gathering.  It turned out so fun.

We started with Breakfast Scramble.  This is a puzzle of the front of boxes of cereal.  Strangely, this is harder than it sounds.

 Then there was Face the Cookie.  Seriously, so funny.  You have to get the cookie from your forehead to your mouth without using hands.

 Next, we had Shake It.  This is where you have to shake 6 ping pong balls out of a kleenex box.

 Then, we had "This Blows" which requires you to blow 15 dixie cups off the bench with a balloon.

 Penny Hose had us try to reach pennies in each of the feet of a pair of panty hose without using your hands to help the other hand.

Smiley Faces had us use straws to move M&Ms onto a paper plate in the shape of a smiley face.  Two eyes, one for a nose, and five for the mouth.

 Lastly, there was Noodling Around.  This was using uncooked spaghetti noodles to scoop up penne.  6 for adults, 4 for the kids.  No hands allowed- for those of us 8 years old and up.

I had a lot of fun.  Judging from the laughs, I think our guests did too.  I think if we host Thanksgiving dinner in the future, we will do this again.

Once the games were done, I headed to the kitchen.  The turkey had been in the oven for a couple hours, and it was time to whip the rest of it up.  Everyone brought part of the dinner, but it still takes a while to put together.  This was quite a feast!  We drank a lot of Martinellis apple cider too.

 After we were good and stuffed, we needed a little break before digging into the pie.  We had lots, and lots, and lots of pie.