Birthday Party at the Movies part 2!

Well I think the party went pretty well and if I hadn’t been in my 9th month of pregnancy it would have been such an easy party! Most of the kids liked the Clone Wars movie and our boys of course loved seeing it a second time. We lucked out and got the theater with a party room right next to it (other ones are on a seperate floor) so the kids could go back and forth between the movie and the party room. We had the movie to ourselves so it didn’t matter so much that there were a few wild watchers. I had some toys for kids who stepped out from the movie and for after. I brought a big supply of McDonalds Star Wars toys (since they are more expendable than our precious galactic hero star wars guys) and the Mr Potato Head Star Wars guys, 2 Darth Vader masks, Star Wars coloring pages w/crayons and loose balloons all over. The party room also had a big chalk board on the wall so that was a nice bonus activity. I didn’t go nutty making Star Wars things but I made Light Saber pretzel rods (coated with red and blue Wilton candy melts and some matching colored sugar) and I made an attempt at Yoda cupcakes (NOTHING Yoda-like but the kids didn’t care and they were easy). I had plans to make Darth Vader mask cookies using a dark chocolate cookie dough cut with bell shaped cookie cutters with the features piped on in white icing (like these) but I decided last week that I was too pregnant for that or a bunch of other good Star Wars ideas. Ethan had a great time and thats what matters! We will definitely do the movie theater for future parties because it worked out great and can fit any theme the kid is into since you can bring whatever DVD you want or watch one of their second run movies.

Birthday Party at the Movies

We have a lot of fun with the kids birthday parties and normally aren’t afraid to have 20 kids running around our house and yard.   This year Ethan wanted a Star Wars party and while that opens a whole universe (har har) of options, Heather is 9 months pregnant so we decided to keep it simple.  Our local 2nd run movie theater offers birthday parties.  For a flat fee you get a movie for 30 people including popcorn and a drink.  They also have a party room we can use during and after the party.  The timing was perfect and they are currently showing Clone Wars.  Good thing because our backup option was for me to try editing down one of the other Star Wars movies to about 90 minutes (the theater will also play your DVDs).

Heather has a few Star Wars ideas we’ll be working on tonight: Yoda cupcakes and Lightsaber pretzels.  The best part of having the party out is that we don’t have to cleanup our house for company and then clean it up again after the party.  We’ll post some pictures and party ideas after the party.

FYI - While planning this party I discovered the world of Fan Edits.  There is a community of movie fans who are creating their own edits of their favorite movies.  I had heard of the Phantom Edit where Star Wars Episode 1 was edited to remove Jar Jar Binks and a lot of the other hokiness, but I had no idea there were so many people doing this.  To quote parents everywhere, this is something I would like to look into further “when I have time”. 8^)

Ben is 4!!!

Today is my baby boy’s 4th birthday! I can’t believe he is FOUR already! He is very excited and has been counting the days until it was his “real” birthday even though we already had his party. There he is above in his birthday suit after his party (he had to try out his new shark float right away).

Here he is the day he was born (all 9lbs 10oz of him!).

His first birthday!

Second birthday (its the same shirt as the year before but not the same size)!

Third birthday!

AND today he started the day with a birthday cinnamon roll!

Party Pictures!

For some unknown reason we had no internet yesterday and most of today so I couldn’t write about Ben and Jamie’s birthday party yesterday! Now its late and I’m just putting up some pictures of the fun! It was our Red, White & Blue themed party (sort of a 4th of July birthday party). I am glad the party planning is over and I can rest but it was a success I think!I made red, white and blue treats (the dipped strawberries were my favorite).Here are the birthday kids & Brooke (of course I had to buy patriotic ice pops).There were some wild moments!Lots of pool time!AND no party is complete without a PINATA!

Happy Birthday Jamie!

Jamie is 2 years old today! I can’t really believe it but just look at how big she has gotten.

Here she is the day she was born.

This is her first birthday.

For breakfast we gave her a cinamon roll with a candle to start off the day since the boys woke up asking when we’d have her birthday cake!

Red, White & Blue 4th of July Birthday Party!

I am not super patriotic or anything but I thought it would be fun and gender neutral since its a party for a boy and a girl. So next Saturday we are having Ben’s 4th and Jamie’s 2nd Red, White & Blue Birthday Party. I’m keeping things simple and not going to go crazy so I don’t know if I’ll do all of my ideas or just some. The only thing definite is that we have a big rocket ship pinata and that was Ben’s only request so already I have a winning party! Here are some of my other plans:

Food:

• strawberries dipped 2/3 in white chocolate and 1/3 in blue sprinkles
• red, white & blue fruit salad
• red, white & blue rocket ice pops
• pizza or hot dogs and mac & cheese
• blue gatorade
• red, white & blue jello cups
• my favorite corn salad
• cupcakes

Other:

• I asked on the invitation “dress in red, white & blue and bring your bathing suit too” so I plan on getting a lot of cute kid pictures
• since this party isn’t until after the 4th I plan on getting some on sale decorations and supplies!
• red, white & blue goodie bags (with candy and beach balls)
• red, white & blue rocket ship pinata
• swimming pool (slip & slide maybe too?)
• maybe I’ll put out some red, white & blue art supplies
• do I need anything else?

(Okay so I couldn’t put up any pictures of the party since it hasn’t happened so here are some cute old ones that fit the theme!)

Party Time!

Ethan had 2 birthday parties to attend over the weekend! On Sat he went to a swimming party at the YMCA and Sun he went to a bowling party. It was a nice way to end the school year and celebrate with his friends.

We definitely have to go back to bowl with John and Ben sometime soon. Ethan had 2 spares (with the bumpers up). It was a lot of fun.

Sports Themed Birthday Party

I have been meaning to post about all of the kids birthday parties we’ve had over the years. I am currently planning a 4th of July party for Ben and Jamie since they are born in July and Ben will be 4 this year.  Ethan is already planning his Star Wars party even though he won’t turn 6 until October! One of the best parties was when we threw a Sports Party for Ethan’s 3rd birthday. Things that were big hits:

LARGE basketball pinata that I hung from our outdoor basketball hoop. The kids used baseball bats and hockey sticks to hit it open. I made it by doing newspaper paper mache over a big round punching balloon and then painting it with orange and black tempra paint. The best part was that this held a ton of candy. For the upcoming Star Wars party I’m going to make one the same way but paint it to be the Death Star and John is thinking of making a wooden light saber to hit it with.

Sports themes bounce house. It was our birthday present to Ethan and it was a major activity at the party.

It wasn’t a hit with Ethan but the other kids seemed to like the painting/printmaking with basketballs on our big roll of paper.

Of course a football shaped chocolate cake surrounded by vanilla baseball cupcakes! Both yummy and cute. I had gotten football plates on sale after the super bowl and saved them for the party.

Goodie bags with balls, candy and gold medals

Multicolored Easter Bunny Cupcakes

I decided VERY last minute to make the Easter Bunny cupcakes this morning to bring to our playgroup Easter egg hunt. So they were rushed and not as cute as they usually are but the brown chocolate bunnies were CHOCOLATE so it was worth it to me! In real life they looked cuter than when I look at them in the pictures now but I really threw the features together fast so remember to look at my other bunnies so you can see how they are supposed to look!

Mickey Mouse Ears Cookies

I really like baking cookies and Ben likes things that are “double” so I often put the dough close together on the sheet so he can have “double cookies”. I made a triple cookie by accident one day and it gave me the idea to make cookies shaped like Mickey Mouse’s head/ears. I made chocolate chocolate chip cookie dough and used a medium sized pampered chef scoop for the head and then I used the small scoop to make the ears. I made these for Jamie’s mommy & me class today and the kids seemed to like them! I think they would be perfect for someone planning a Mickey Mouse Birthday Party.

*These cookies are SUPER EASY, just add cocoa powder to your regular chocolate chip cookie recipe (I used about 3 tablespoons) and let them cool a few minutes before you take them off the cookie sheet so that the ears don’t fall off!

*I’m adding a picture before I put the cookies sheet in the oven so you can see how I spaced the dough. I should have taken a picture of one a plate since my old cookie sheets weren’t the best backdrop!

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