(Ant)Arctic Party Planning: Pt 1

When we originally sat down to plan C's Awesome (Ant)Arctic Party, the big question was: what are we going to do with 5 kids? (Our two plus three friends.) I wanted an activity that featured each of the three major animals of the party: Walrus, Polar Beat and Penguin.

During the extensive party prep stage, I found this Arctic Explorer Birthday Party and they had taken a honey bear and painted it for a decoration. Well all the light bulbs went off and I decided right then and there that I was going to make a bunch of them and do Polar Bear Bowling.

In my head I thought we were destined to buy a lot of honey. I was trying to figure out what we were going to do with all the honey because I wasn't going to waste it but where would I keep it? A moot point. After a long discussion, Husband said, "Why don't we just buy empty honey bears?"

Why not indeed? That option wasn't even on my radar but one quick Google search brought me to THESE 8oz Honey Bears. The size bear you would buy in the store is 12oz but I figured it didn't really matter if they were a little smaller. And the price was right. $5.40 for 10 empty bears. They do not come with closures but I didn't need them for my project. I should note here that I did need one closure to paint the bears, but I finished the honey we had anyway and washed that closure for this project.

They came super fast. C LOVED them.  He was so excited!

One night after kid's bedtime I laid out some paper and sat down to work on painting the bears white. Since we did our living room we had some white primer already so I went down the basement and got that.

I took a bear, put about two teaspoons of primer in, put the lid on and shook it all about. It took a lot of effort to coat the whole thing with some vigorous shaking. When the bear was fully coated I held it upside down over the paint bucket. Then on a paper towel for a while to get the excess paint out, for the amount of shaking required I was shocked at how much paint came out in this process. I stood it up right side up to dry and repeated this until they were all white on the inside.

Painting the inside made it so that you could use the black eyes and nose that already come on honey bears, but you could easily spray paint them if you didn't care about keeping the faces.

That is how I made Polar Bear Bowling. Total cost: $5.40 + shipping. A little more if you need to buy paint and closures.

I set up the bowling on our coffee table with a plastic table cloth on top. We used foam baseballs as the bowling "ice" balls. It was a huge success! Perfect for our (Ant)Arctic Party! The actual play of the game was a little harder than I anticipated. But they had fun so it was all good! And the polar bears looked wonderful!

We also had the arctic water table full of blue water beads. We put some of C's Toob animals in, both arctic and penguins and everyone seemed to enjoy that. I love water beads in a sensory table. Hours of fun to be had!

One of our more physical activities was the indoor snowball fight. I just bought a big bag of 200 cotton balls for less than $2, dumped them into a bucket and put it in the middle of the room. And I am telling you it was SO. MUCH. FUN. I really think all ages would enjoy this activity. But buy some more cotton balls if you have more people, 200 was the perfect amount for two adults and five kids 4 and under.

They just ran and jumped, hooted and hollered and it was great. Cotton balls didn't hurt anyone or damage anything. They did leave little cotton strands on my blue carpet but that's nothing a vacuum can't handle! I cannot stress how much fun this would be at a family Christmas or school party.

I will be back tomorrow with more of the activities of the (Ant)Arctic Party.

The Awesome (Ant)Arctic Party

My guy turned 4-years-old yesterday. In honor of him, we planned a super special (Ant)Arctic Party to celebrate him and his love of walrus, polar bears and penguins. It was such a wonderful day and just the perfect way to celebrate C! I 100% admit that while I wanted everyone to have fun, I specifically planned things and details that my guy would appreciate. He did. He didn't miss a detail. And bonus: the three party guests who don't live at our house had fun too!

We kept the food simple because it was a morning party. Arctic Punch. Which was Blue Raspberry Kool-Aid mixed with cheapo Lemon Lime Pop. Blueberries. 

Cheddar Penguin Crackers. Penguin gummies. Which look super cute but also taste great as they're peach flavored! 

And cupcakes, because it was a birthday party. The easiest cupcakes ever. White cake with white frosting in blue foil cups made for our snow and ice. Delicious and easy. Husband designed the walrus, polar bear, Adelie and Macaroni penguin toppers and printed them on synthetic paper so they would just poke right in! 

Last week C's Godmother, Husband and I took a few hours to cut 55 traditional snowflakes and 8 large 3D snowflakes to decorate with. Cheap, handmade decorations that made a big impact. It was magical. It still is, we haven't taken them down yet.

It was the very best party I could have imagined for C. He loved every single second of it. His joy only intensified mine. Gosh I love this kid. And I loved this party. 

I have a series of posts to round out this holiday weekend of ours with some more details of our party, if you're interested. 

Happy Birthday Buddy!

My Wonderful Guy,

I almost cannot comprehend how it is possible you are 4-years-old today. You and I are such a team and it breaks my heart to know that our whole days together are closing fast. In August you will start preschool at the "big school" and you are so excited. I am going to miss you but I cannot wait to watch you bloom!

You have the sweetest, most sensitive soul. You are very susceptible to picking up tension and when people are unhappy. You are a crier, like me. Sorry about that. I hope that you will continue to grow in your ability to use words to express your feelings, but you feel every emotion to the extreme and that is hard. The upside to your big feelings is your propensity for snuggling. Your love language is definitely physical touch and you give the best hugs/snuggles/high fives/wrestles I can imagine.

I love being in awe of your memory. It should probably stop surprising me but it hasn't yet. The things you pick up and remember is astounding. I am going to take some credit for that as well. You spout out some pretty impressive knowledge for just-turning-four and I am thrilled that you love to learn.

This past year you have grown to write your name and draw people but it takes a lot of coaxing and a lot of affirmations to get it done. You just have more important things to do with your time besides drawing and that's okay. Really. You've shown me you can and that's what's important. That's how you and I work though, you decide when you will or won't do something and I just go along for the ride.

You know all your letters, their sounds, the vowels and their two sounds and you're starting to sound things out. I am sure you're going to be a reader, your favorite activity besides animals is paging through books and telling yourself the stories.

My favorite thing in the world is that you still love walruses so much. I never would have ever thought that my 20 month old would have zeroed in on the walrus, but you did. Penguins are giving the walrus a run for their money but it's because penguin books and toys are so much easier to come by! You love them both though and tell everyone that. I know that I went overboard on you (Ant)Arctic Birthday Party, but I couldn't help myself. You have such a unique interest and I want to celebrate that. I am sure there will be super commercial parties in our future, but man I love the creativity of your theme this year.

You came downstairs this morning to see the Arctic land your dad and I created last night while you slept. "I love this birthday party!" And you kept saying it. "This is the best birthday party I've ever seen." And it was little boy, because it was the perfect party to celebrate you. 

When I ask you what you want to be when you grow up you say "A Penguin Doctor" or a "Zoo Doctor." I would not be one bit surprised if that came true. You love animals and science. You have a thirst for knowledge and a tender heart so of course a caring profession makes sense.

On Mother's Day, you came and gave me a hug and said, "I am glad I am your boy." Well, I am too. And I am glad I am your mom. Happiest of birthdays to you buddy! 4 is going to be a great year, I just know it! I love you and you are awesome.

Love, Mom

This Is All I've Got Today

First off, thank you for your prayers. Henry, my father's Godfather passed away early this morning. Even though we have known for a week now that it was very likely, it doesn't make it any easier. He was a very dear man and I am sad. I am however glad that he wasn't in pain, he wasn't alone and he is now at peace. That is something to be thankful for certainly.

In much much happier news, I have to tell you that I got my Backyard BBQ Scentsy warmer today. 

It was billed as a "Father's Day" bundle. And I get it, dads like to grill. Makes sense. But oh.my.cute. I just love it. This warmer sold out in a week and I totally get it. I am kind of whatever on the wax that came with it. The Man scents aren't my favorite. (Well I totally dig Bonfire Beach so 1/3.) 

I don't usually do the whole "warmers for different seasons thing." We don't have holiday warmers that we rotate in and out. If I am being honest, we do have a Christmas penguin warmer, but if you think C would ever let that be unplugged from his room, that's just not true. I don't even usually buy warmers these days. But this little grill is going in my red kitchen for the summer months. Because I love it. And it really is the brightest spot in my day so I am just going to enjoy it. 

Today was my last normal school day!! We did "cooking." Which in preschool speak means we made Chex Mix and Muddy Buddies/Puppy Chow. And we watched Doc McStuffins. And played outside. I brought my A-Game the rest of the year, and I will on Thursday again. But today... they got my C-Game. 

Ignore the apostrophe that has no place there. Trust the sentiment. I wanted a clean version. That's how I say it in my head too. Look at all the Fs I give. 

I will go out with a bang on Thursday. Mark my words. And I will have the blog posts (yes plural) to tell you all about C's (Ant)Arctic Birthday Party. Because you guys, my guy is going to be 4-years-old. 

7QT: Randoms and a Prayer Request

one. I don't know, it may be because I am left-handed, but since we bought our Dyson Ball with wedding money in 2010 I have been annoyed by the cord. It never wraps correctly and I always had to twist the end around the entire bunch of cord to get it to stay. Even with the clip thing.

It's because I am doing it wrong. I twisted the cord opposite of the way I normally do and it ended with the plug coming down, instead of up like it usually did. Game changer. It's probably something that I have done "left-handed" which is my dad's snarky-with-love way of saying that I am doing something not exactly correct. I also stir and slice bread loaves "left-handed."

two. My girl who has never been much of a snuggler has slowly come around to snuggling. It's awesome. She comes in for hugs and kisses. She goes out of her way to come sit with me. Just the best.

three. C brought home one of those siezure-inducing blinking led light balls from school yesterday. They learned about space and I guess it was a star or a meteor or something. I'm not sure. In a weak parenting moment, we didn't take it away last night when he was asleep. The situation has been remedied but not before we had to deal with the blinking this morning.

four. After some frustrating moments of people waking up too early I bought the Teach Me Time clock as recommended by a friend. Last night was C's first night with the clock. He somehow was playing with the clock before he fell asleep and reset the time on it so that it wouldn't turn green until 9:00. (I wish!) But when Husband went into his room he was just waiting for it to turn green so maybe this will actually work? I hope so.

five. Last night we were real life grown ups and went out to dinner with our friends. We had delicious food and a wonderful chat. So great!! It is a rare event so we were all very proud of ourselves!

six. And apparently we are on a roll because we are hosting my friend over tonight for a pizza party. We are also putting her to work on some decorations but there will be good chats and food with the work so it balances out I think.

seven.  I am going to make a long story real short here and say that my dad's Godfather has been in the hospital this week and has moved to a hospice care facility. If you could spare a prayer for him for peace and comfort that would be amazing. He has no remaining blood relatives and we are his family. It makes me incredibly sad to think of this world without him.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Linkin' Up with Kelly today!

Mom-Day

Week in and week out I hang with my kiddos. And they like that. But they LIVE for Saturdays. In our house, Saturdays are better known as "Dad-Day!" They are revered. The kids deeply look forward to their special mornings with their dad and it's basically the best!

So Mondays are kind of hard. Dad goes to work and people are generally disappointed in the prospect of another five days of "real life." Then Mom-Days were born! Mom-Days take the place of boring humdrum Mondays you see. They also, theoretically, make the prospect of Dad going to work slightly less horrible. This does not always work in actuality.

On this Mom-Day we made muffins. In the spirit of open and honest blogging, we make Mom-Day muffins weekly. C gets to pick which kind and today it was banana nut. I was a little surprised by this choice as we had banana muffins last week but I abide by the picks of my dude.

We listened to music and played all sorts of games. Including dump a package of index cards all over the kitchen floor, penguin family and reading stories. Only the true classics at our house.

We played outside. It is cool spring but dry the past few days which is great. So of course we went outside. We planted some flowers and found a worm. We ran. We jumped.

It was fun. Fresh air rocks. 

But then. oh my gosh everybody, the FedEx man came. With a VERY important package. The Penguin Pinata for C's birthday party. 

It currently is living on top of our fridge. (As seen in the photo.) The discussion of making sure we are really gentle with it until the party has been had. We have been watching pinata videos on YouTube to make sure that he understands that the penguin will be broken open at the party. Verdict is still out on how that is going to go down but we'll keep prepping him for it. 

Fun fact: did you know that a few weeks ago the biggest penguin habitat opened at the Detroit Zoo? The Polk Penguin Conservation Center is huge. And pretty sweet. I am pretty sure we have watched the YouTubes a bajillion times and my nearly four-year-old's biggest dream right now besides "Christmas at Disney World" is "The 'Troit Zoo." 

Well after watching more 'Troit Zoo penguin building YouTube videos with our lunch, we played and snuggled, then we went up for rest time. BOTH kids slept which is very unusual these days. 

They woke up only shortly before Dad came home and Mom-Day ended. So all in all, a pretty darn successful day.

I am going to really miss our low-key Mom-Days in the fall. But the preschool schedule is nice, we have Wednesdays off. So I am sure we will fill it with all kinds of fun!

The Thank You Book

If you've been here a few times you probably know that we love Mo Willems. The man can seriously almost do no wrong. (Except for the fold out spread in Knuffle Bunny Free... that was just dumb.)

So it goes without saying that we are big Elephant Piggie fans. It's a series of 25 books. The final book, The Thank You Book was released on May 3. I had it preordered and it came as promised that day. But I didn't open the box.

I couldn't really bring myself to do it. It just seemed so final.

Kind of like this.

But today I gave it and opened the box. And I read the book. And it was good. Piggie thanks everyone who is important to their stories and it is a cute little retrospective for children. (And me.) I may have gotten a little teary as I finished. Elephant Gerald and Piggie are stand up characters who have taught my boy how to wait, recognize when he was cranky, share, make friends, deal with disappointments and other important life lessons. 

My heart is sad that Elephant and Piggie are saying goodbye as characters but I am so glad that there are 25 books in my home that I can go to anytime and hang out with them. 

So as one of the readers, I have to give a big thank you to you Elephant Gerald and Piggie right back double. We love you always.