September Birthdays

My mom was just five days into being 22 when she gave birth to me, and although we are different astrological signs we get to share a birthday month. It's been nice to celebrate her special day with lunch and the kids while everyone else is at school or at work. She then returns the favor on my birthday.

This is the first year that Grandpa wasn't a part of the festivities. I was missing him a lot this year, although I don't think he even realized last year that it was Mom's birthday. We had a sign and balloons that we brought over, but it didn't click with him. I guess that should have been a sign that the days were short.

For my mom's birthday we had turkey salad and Busken's tea cookies for dessert (her favorite) and the kids had pirate/princess cupcakes. Mom got out the dress-ups for the girls to try out and Gracie tried it on, but it was Mere and Charlie who really got into it!

Sunday was the day before my birthday and Kevin and the kids surprised me with a special cake, my favorite ice cream, balloons and a great dinner! I am very blessed to have them all.

Birthday Celebrated, Star Wars-Style

When my kids are in kindergarten they get to have a friend birthday party. Benny has turned six this July and we invited his buddies for a themed celebration of his choice. Currently, my three boys are obsessed with Star Wars, so that is what I set out to create. I need to point out that I know very little of the series of films, tv shows, etc. Fortunately, a friend let me borrow this book that was essentially a college course for me on anything and everything Star Wars!

I struggled for a while on what to do with a possible group of sixteen 4- to 7-year-olds. Some of these kids know what they were talking about when it came to this topic and I feared being called out by them. Silly, I know.

From reading the Ultimate book, I took three major battles and came up with games for each. I should rephrase that, I borrowed a lot of ideas from multiple websites to come up with something that would work with our group and our house.

The set up of the party went something like this:

• Boys arrived and were given a Padawan poncho and belt that I just cut out of some neutral-colored fabric I bought on clearance.
• When all had arrived Adi Gallia (myself) sat the young group of Padawans down and gave them an overview of the day, including the Rules of the Jedi Temple. (Even though the lightsabers I was about to give out were just pool noodles, I feared sending home a crying kid. No worries, all the kids had a good time.)
• Then we went into the activities portion of the party:
  

After the opening speech they were given their lightsabers. All blue (I tried to keep everything the same, focus on the fact that they were Padawans at a Jedi Training Academy. They all took well to this.) Before the "Battles" they had to do the Arturu Lightsaber Training--keep balloons afloat for 30 seconds. This was fun.

First, we had the "Battle of Naboo." They had to go through an obstacle course to save a slave from the camp. The "slave" was a blow up ball that they could take home for a prize. (I'll post more pictures from the games later.)

Next was the "Battle of Geonosis." This essentially is the Clone Wars that all the kids are familiar with. I filled up clear 2-liter bottles with water and blue food coloring and then had some green 2-liters filled with water. On the front of the bottles I taped pictures of the bad clones--Bobo Fett and Jengo Fett--and set up a game of bowling that I called "Blaster Ball." I told them that there was a new weapon called a "blaster ball" and they had two tries to take down as many clones as possible. This was the favorite game of the day.

The last activity was the "Battle of Yavin." This is when the Rebel Alliance finds a fault in the Death Star and destroys the ship, even though Darth Vader escapes. Many parties have used this scenario to bring in a pinata and we did the same. I made the Death Star using the paper mache technique, along with spray paint, a white paint pen and electrical tape.

Afterward, the kids got drinks and plates of food from the snack table while I announced the names of the new Jedis and Benny out certificates to his friends. We took a picture of Benny shaking hands with each guest.

My sister and brother-in-law's dog, Zissou, who was Chewbacca for the day. Everyone loved this, especially his belt!

Afterward we opened gifts, and when each friend came up to hand Benny's his gift he had to say what his favorite Star Wars character was--Yoda was by far the favorite. This, again, was an idea borrowed from one of the many party idea sites out there!

I just made cupcakes and put Darth Vader and Yoda erasers on top of each one. That was much easier for me than doing one of the many cool but time consuming cake ideas out there!

Thank you to Benny's godmother and aunt, Joanie, for taking all the pictures. She took a ton so I'll put up some more in a different post. Thanks also to Uncle Josh who provided the soundtrack for the day--Darth Vader's theme song and random sword fighting sounds, as well as Chewy shoutouts. The kids loved it all!

The Garden Party

On Sunday we celebrated Meredith's second birthday with family in our backyard, making use of our newly planted vegetables and flowers by having a garden party. This suits Miss Meredith because she's is quite the little gardener herself, helping in all aspects of keeping up our yard. She loves to mow, weed (sometimes not the right "weeds"), and she especially loves watering, but what kid doesn't?

But we did more of a "dressy" garden party, wearing nice outfits and drinking lemonade out of jelly jars, and then we threw in the theme of The Very Hungry Caterpillar to help come up with ideas for the food.

This is the happiest, bubbliest baby you'll ever meet--Miss Maggie, my goddaughter. She and her sister Gracie were wearing matching outfits that had flowers on them and they coordinated well with their cousin!

I got this idea from one of the many sites out there that used the book for a theme. I really wanted the menu to include food that didn't require a lot of heat (the oven or the grill), so we made deli sandwiches and because the caterpillar ate sausages, I used the slowcooker to make a peppers, onions and sausage recipe. Easy, and it did make anyone too hot (poor Kev, always stuck with the grilling!).

Instead of individually serving it, we cut up the caterpillar's fruit and tossed it in a bowl, except for the watermelon, which the kids love eating by the slice. I saw another cute idea where you use a watering can to serve "bug juice." At our house the "bug" was a lemon.

The caterpillar ate a piece of chocolate cake, so I just threw a box of devils food cake in a bundt pan and then used a 4-inch Pyrex bowl to bake a little topper to make this grassy hillside where paper butterflies hang out. I made some icing for the cake but that did not work because the frosting is supposed to drip over the sides and the stuff I made kind of clumped. What's funny is that I got the idea from a variation of a cake Katie Brown did on her PBS show. Lou and Ben watched it with me and they thought it would be the perfect cake for Mere's bug/garden party. When Lou saw me struggling with the icing he said,"Remember what she said, Mom. Wherever there's a mistake, just stick a flower." Such a smart kid, I have. Unfortunately, there weren't enough flowers or butterflies to cover this cake!

Benny's batteries were worn out by the time we sang "Happy Birthday." We went ahead and sang anyway. (You can see the caterpillar's cherry pie in the picture, courtesy of Grandma H.)

That Mere is one excited little candle-blower-outer! She blew it out a few times before we were done with the song and I had to re-light them.

All in all, we had a nice time and the weather cooperated with us this year, as opposed to the catastrophe that was her first birthday!

Back it up: Meredith's 1st Birthday Party

I didn't have my camera at Meredith's first birthday party in June. I may have posted about how insane that day was--a literal torrential downpour; unbelievable humidity; a trickling creek next to the shelter house that turned into wild rapids. It was unbelievable. But we had fun, even though we all ended up soggier and muddier than when we came. Good thing nature cooperated to make this an authentic "under the sea" party!

My mom, fortunately, brought her camera and shared the pictures with me. (Amanda has some great shots, too.) Why I waited for seven months to post them, I have no idea. But here they are, from Meredith's Mermaid Party:

This is a sandcastle cake whose directions I found online. It wasn't too difficult to make (read through the comments after the recipe), but I wish that I didn't have to transport it. Nerve-wracking!

Kevin is such a great sport--grilling food for lunch in the rain. Fortunately, Billy and Jeff, who are used to this job at their own parties, went out to keep him company.

Most of the kids at the party were the boys' friends, as Meredith hasn't met many kids yet. Even though it was mermaid-themed, the boys found a way to have fun! Uncle Jeff helped the guys capture a crawdad, which was the highlight of the day.

Besides the sandcastle cake, I made blue cupcakes and the toppers that go on them. Each topper said "Meredith's 1st Birthday" and had either a mermaid, sand dollar, palm tree, or sea horse.

I'm trying to remember the food we had for lunch. Doing theme parties is so much easier at my house where the food prep is easier and you don't run the risk of forgetting anything. I had beverage dispensers that held "lagoon punch"; there was an aquarium of blue jello that had gummy fish swimming in it; Carribean sea salad (a fancy name for fruit salad!); "shell" mac 'n cheese; and that might be it.

Elizabeth and Meredith's birthday buddy, Grandpa braved the weather to come out and celebrate, and wore color coordinating outfits with the theme!

As the day went on, the boys lost more clothing. The humidity and the sogginess were too much.

Meredith didn't know what to think of it all, especially the blue cupcake. I think it went everywhere but in her mouth. I found a really cute top at Target that had a heart flanked by two sea horses, and a purple ruffly skirt to go with it.

Meredith with her godfathers, Uncle Jeff and Uncle Joe. Behind them on the wall is photo garland of pictures from Meredith's first year. I've seen this done on a number of blogs and I'm glad I did it. It was neat to see all the different stages of her growing up, the past twelve months. All the pictures were printed in black and white and matted on colored foam rectangles, hole punched and strung up. Pretty easy decoration!

There were other decorations that you probably can't see in these pictures. Uncle Paul and Aunt Cassie lent me their grass table skirts. Some had white lights weaved in it, others had sea shells. They also had plastic sea creatures and glass hurricanes for candles with colored fish net on the outside. Each table had a centerpiece of sand, shells and candles. I found a great deal on a big basket of shells at Hobby Lobby.

Here are the two best buds and cousins, Meredith and Gracie. From Uncle Jim, Meredith got these two adorable camping chairs, a hippo and a tiger. Right away they were put to good use!

Probably my favorite thing we did for her party was a 15-year Time Capsule. At one-year-old, there wasn't a whole lot she needed or wanted. But how neat would it be to open a "treasure chest" of items people gave you at your first birthday when you are sixteen? It was so neat to see the presents that people gave, things to reflect 2010, but also things that a 16-year-old might enjoy. Some of the items included: teen magazines, jewelry, silly bands (will they still be popular in 2025?), a CD of top 2010 songs, hair accessories, nail polish, pictures, letters, and many other thoughtful gifts. I don't plan to tell Meredith about it because I'd like it to be a surprise. I decorated a tub to be the chest and guest slipped the items inside.

It has become the norm for our family parties to be rainy, but the good thing is that it doesn't stop it from being fun :)



(As a side note, I have gotten so many great ideas off of other people's blogs for my kids birthdays that I have decided to go into more detail about what we did and where I got information in hopes of helping other people. I'm sorry if you come here for updates on the kids and you have to read through the details of putting the party together!)