Aarrgh! Pirate Party!

After much deliberation, Eliza finally decided on a pirate party for her birthday. I have to admit, I was pretty pleased that she wanted a pirate party instead of something princess-y! I don't really know where the pirate came from, or what she really thinks pirates are, but it was a fun theme to play with. We had lots of fun food, with fantastic theme-y, punny names. Plus a giant cardboard pirate ship, a few fun games, costumes, tattoos, pirate gold, and lots of general shenanigans. I don't think I really took enough pictures to capture the fun, but there are a few.

We started the party off with the opportunity to make your own pirate flag or get a tattoo. Eliza really liked the tattoos (which were very pirate-y like teddy bears, ponies, rainbows and the like!) and ended up with 5 at the end of the day. Make a pirate flag wasn't too popular, even though I had special pirate foam stickers for the occasion! A few people stuck the stickers onto the foam pirate hats we had for everybody to wear if they wanted. People also tended to pass on the mustaches, even after I promised them extra cake!

Then we moved into organized games. First up, pin the patch on the pirate. Eliza got it perfect on her very first try! Next up was musical islands - sort of like musical chairs, except we spread out pieces of cardboard on the lawn as "islands" and had a shark swimming around to "eat" whoever didn't have an island when the music stopped.

Finally, we brought the kids back inside to start off our pirate treasure hunt! I had taken pictures to use as clues of various hiding places to take the kids around the house and all over the yard looking for treasure. We had about 8 clues in all. I included a few of the pictures here - can you tell where they were supposed to look? The prize was a box with candy bracelets inside!

clue #1

clue #4

final clue - can you tell where the treasure box was?

After all that pirate-y fun, it was time for snacks. We had a fun assortment of treats, that were all pretty easy to put together. The only tricky parts were the shark and the treasure box cake! We did do jello again, but only one color this time.

cake!

shark!

Spanish galleons

can you read the labels? scurvy dogs, fish-n-chips, pirate booty and cannon balls (whoppers)

munching away - we had to swab the deck later!

Captain Eliza and her treasure chest!

After cake and snacks, we headed outside for some free play fun. We had a tent set up in the woods, a giant cardboard pirate ship, jewels hidden in the sandbox, a costume box of pirate props and the hammock. The kids had a blast running around with a basket full of pirate gold (gold spray painted rocks!), stealing the gold from each other.

digging for buried treasure

rocking the boat

flying the jolly roger

We sent all the pirates home with a hat and eye patch (thanks clearance $1 spot target aisle!), gold and jewels, and candy jewelry. Eliza said it was fun but wished there were more "activities!" Not sure what more we could have possibly fit in! But everyone had a good time, and the treasure chest was delicious! Happy 5th birthday Eliza!

Molly walking the plank as we said goodbye to everyone. Love her jaunty eye patch!

How to Throw a Rainbow Art Party

For her 7th birthday, Hayden wanted to do an art party. This evolved into a rainbow art party because art can just be SO colorful! We had a great time coming up with good activities and snacks to fit the theme. Our food was both gorgeous and tasty. The kids had a great time being creative!

First up, the cake. Hayden wanted a splatter art cake, with different colors inside. It looks fancy, but it was pretty easy to make - and tasty!

the rainbow layers, before icing

splatter painting with icing

finished product!

mmmmm, so tasty and colorful

The other food, we just tried to be as colorful as possible while balancing sweet and salty and trying to stay vaguely healthy. We were particularly proud of the rainbow jello and the fruit tray - good thing she was born in the summer!

rainbow jello - SO beautiful!

raspberries, cantaloupe, peaches, grapes, blueberries, plums

As for activities, we just tried to come up with things that really allowed for creativity. It's about PROCESS, rather than PRODUCT, of course! We started off with painting a canvas. Then moved outside for balloon art, splatter painting and banner painting. After snacks, we read a story about Matisse and then did some scissor/paper art. We didn't even have to do goodie bags because the kids had so much art to take home!

working hard on their own masterpiece

lots of different styles here!

Ready... aim....

..... pop! Balloons as art.

E gets into the splatter painting

banner painting

look at those paint splotches - must be a great art party!

I think cleaning up was almost as much fun as creating!

our grassy drying rack

eating the rainbow

Matisse inspired creations

 All in all, the party went really well. It was fun to see the kids express their creativity in different ways. Hayden says, "It was awesome artistic fun!" We all loved the rainbow jello and will probably try a different version of it (perhaps slightly fewer layers) sometime in the future!

birthday girl adds finishing touches after everyone left

October Weekend Fun

Here's a quick blog about our weekend activities. I thought it'd be good to squeeze in something current, before going back to summer fun - and it can show Jason what we've been up to, since he's currently out of town.

Yesterday, we went to visit Popop at the Farmer's Market. He works with the master gardener program in Durham and we usually go see him when he's manning the master gardener booth at the farmer's market. The kids love to say hi and LOVE to get muffnuts (aka donut muffins) from Scratch Bakery's booth.

muffnut munching - everyone chose chocolate today

climbing the giant cardinal statue

Molly gets her turn at the top!

conquering the turtle statue

pile on Popop!

Then today, we went on another outdoor adventure to check out the new River Walk in Hillsborough. It was a gorgeous fall day - cool enough for pants and long sleeves, but super sunny. The leaves are just starting to change here and the sunshine sparkled through the leaves. The kids fluctuated in and out of grumpy moods (Molly - "uppee! Uppee!!!!") but the paved walk was nice, we even got to see a fox harassing some ducks, learned that they used to mine for gold in Orange Co. and found a cool park to play in. Then we walked up to our favorite Mexican restaurant for lunch!

pretty birch tree

a jaunty hat tilt

Grandma's favorite spot on the walk. :)

Molly FINALLY gets a ride

a horrible forced group picture - guess who was having the grumps at this moment? and who was copying her?!

pretty Eno River

Molly opted out of this one, but these two look great!

So that's what we've been up to this weekend. Along with household chores, book club, playing at Grandma and Popop's, a soccer game, and many other fun things. Happy Fall!

Birthday Season 2014

Wow, it has been a while! We've had quite the whirlwind for the end-of-summer-start-of-fall time period. Among the many things, we've been up to -we traveled across the country, started a new job, had a broken arm, celebrated 4 birthdays, had 2 parties, started school, etc, etc. So we've been busy and this blog has been sorely neglected. With Jason out of town this weekend, I'll make an effort to catch back up - though I also need to do some work on the new job, finish my bookclub book and clean some bathrooms.

So anyway, as part of our busy past two months, we've gone through what we call "birthday season." Just in our immediate family, we have 4 birthdays within 12 weeks (and there are 4 extended family birthdays within those 12 weeks, plus more just before!). With so many birthdays, there are lots of parties and desserts and presents to be had. I'll just catch you up quick on the family birthday celebrations - and hope to detail the two parties (art rainbow! pirate!) that we threw too!

First up was Hayden. She turned 7. I think I mentioned that briefly in an earlier blog. We headed out of town on her birthday, so we celebrated the night before. She chose spaghetti and meatballs for her birthday dinner and chocolate mayonnaise cake for her dessert! She got lots of wonderful presents (thanks everyone!), but I was especially thrilled to give her the collection of Laura Ingalls Wilder books, which I saved for the morning of her 'real' birthday. We both smiled pretty big when she opened them!

the books!

birthday cinnamon rolls (yep, before we left for 4 days, I baked homemade cinnamon rolls)

present from Aunt Lacey - she was really into pandas this summer!

birthday cake!

Molly had the next birthday in late August. She turned 3! We didn't give her a big party (just a few popsicles with her playdate friends) but she had fun at her family party. She chose chicken nuggets and eggs and sausage for her dinner - after going through many, many other choices. And we had poundcake cupcakes with berries and whipped cream for dessert because the girl can put away some fresh berries!

First thing in the morning birthday grin - she loved the decorations we put up for her as a surprise!

Her favorite present was the trampoline from grammy and granddad. (We no longer have this one; we actually traded in for a model that allowed for kids bigger than Molly.) The kids jump on it EVERY day.

opening her very own box of gummies from grandma and popop

blowing out the candles.

Isn't she so grown up now?!!

Then in September we moved on to Jason's birthday. He chose real beef burgers for his dinner (cooked on a new gas grill that was part birthday part dissertation part it's just time present). And we had a chocolate mousse pie for dessert!

birthday boy, his favorite shirt, and chocolate deliciousness

 Then it was Eliza's turn, the last of the family birthdays for the year. She had a hard time picking what she wanted for dinner, or dessert. She finally settled on hot dogs and ravioli, and then we convinced her to save the ravioli for later in the week. I made another mayonaise cake and surprised her by decorating it with a minion!

Eliza and her pile o' presents - she's wearing her new leotard

minion cake!

blowing out the candles (with her new headband on, she wears it every day practically!)

So that was the birthday season. More details to come about Hayden's art rainbow birthday party and Eliza's pirate party. I should mention that in the middle of all this baking and birthday celebrating, I also decided it would be a good idea to host bookclub and for that, I made pavlova since the book was set in Australia. It took me two tries but it turned out quite nice! Bookclub friends said it was very tasty.

pavlova - meringue on the bottom, topped with whipped cream and fresh berries