9th Birthday Party Friendship and Fun

Daughter #1 is very undemanding when it comes to her birthday.  She doesnt want a lot, doesnt demand a lot and is very simple in her needs.  She doesnt know name brands, doesnt ask for specific items, and in fact, this year, she earnestly asked if she might have her very own pack of altoids as a birthday present.  She said that it was the only thing she could think of that she might want.    Im guessing this is because she wants fresh breath?  Not sure.

Even when it came to her birthday party, she had very simple requests.  Now that she is in the third grade, she has begun to truly understand what close friends are and the joy of having a few good friends to make her laugh and support her.  What she wanted was a playdate with her few closest friends and she didnt need much more than that.  Together we discussed what it could look like - whom she would invite, and what the activities would be.  At one point I offered to cook her and her friends a lovely dinner that they could eat together, and she liked that idea.  But before that happened, I got a bit burned out on cooking big meals (had a bunch of events to cook for) so I didnt really want to do it.  In the end, I told her wed do a bunch of fun crafts celebrating her friendships, and she was very happy with that idea.

Ill have to say, this is one of my favorite birthday parties weve had.  I didnt stress much and didnt have to prep for weeks in advance.  It was SOO mellow, with the girls just sitting around and enjoying themselves, and aside from the totally funny guest who made up silly limericks on the spur of the moment, it was mellow and easy-going.

Decorations
Normally this is one of my favorite parts of the birthday parties, but with the return of Husband, my time has shrunk considerably.  I simply didnt have enough time (or any good ideas, although my friend Sillie Smile had me thinking Id like to do a rainbow theme).  I did make her a simple birthday banner, and made #1 put it together for me (since I didnt have the time.) She willingly obliged and it was the extent of the decor.

Friendship Activities
Pendants and Magnets
I came upon this great tutorial on Sun and Moon Crafts website.  I thought that these necklaces would be perfect for the girls to make together and design.  I ordered the supplies, all through Sun and Moon (spent about $60) and then took some time to practice myself.  I wanted to make sure that I would be able to produce what the girls were going to produce before putting them through the process.

Turns out it is very simple to execute and the girls had a fantastic time figure out how to get little images under the glass and essentially "cropping" certain images and deciding what would go under the glass. I found Martha Stewart Magazine to be extremely popular as the pictures in there - vibrant patterns, beautiful flowers, gorgeous prints all lent themselves well to the project.  The funniest hit of all the pictures was the idea of putting a small dog under the glass - and suddenly pet food ads were coveted as often times there was a cute tiny picture of a dog somewhere that they could add to their glass.

We made pendants and little glass rounded dome magnets.

The only caveat to this project is that it is time sensitive.  You need lots of drying time.  You need lots of organized drying time.  Initially I wanted the girls to finish their projects and take home completed projects, but within 10 minutes, it became clear that it wasnt feasible.  I knew that I could finish the projects on my own, so I told the girls to take their time and choose the images that they were going to like best to put under the glass.  We set them out to dry and that was it.  The rest was up to me.  I took me about 1.5 hours over two days to finish up the projects.  I had to cut out the glass from the paper, and then glaze the backs of the pendants, and then attach the bail (the loop) to each pendant.  The drying time was significant, and so was keeping the pendants separated.  But it was all manageable and I was able to send back the finished projects to school in an unmarked brown lunchbag after school so that the girls could take their projects home.

Photo Keychains
I had this great idea that the kids could make photo keychains of the group, especially since one of the girls is going back to Korea this summer and will not be apart of this group.  I thought itd be fun for them to have a momento of their time together, so I snapped photos of them and got ready to print them on my printer.  Unforutnately I ran into a huge technical snafu where the photos wouldnt print and the girls started to get a bit antsy.  I told them to find other pictures that theyd like to put in their keychain from the magazine and this seemed to make them happy and they did so.


Photocards
I managed to resolve the printer problem, and there was enough time so I had the girls make photo cards instead of the photo keychains.  This was simply printing out the photographs and having them mount them into a card and then the girls spent time writing little notes to each other on the cards and put them in envelopes.  It did give me a great idea for a future birthday party, which would be a time capsule project that I think Im going to have at the 10 year birthday party.  (Wait for that one in a year.)  The girls loved this too and it was simple and fun.  Cards, markers and photographs printed out.


Menu
Daughter #1 had few requests for food. Namely she wanted there to be string cheese, rice krispy pops in strawberry and cupcakes of her choosing with pearl sprinkles.  I added bottled water, fruit salad, pretzels, popcorn and the refreshment table was done.  She asked for a vanilla cupcake and I experimented with a buttermilk vanilla cupcake which isnt quite perfected, but Ill get a recipe up for that as soon as I can.

Buttermilk Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting (coming soon)
Strawberry Rice Krispy Pops
Fruit salad
Popcorn
Pretzels
String Cheese

I coordinated the food (my only other bit of decor) by using some fabric tape and making little flags (made #1 and #2 do this) for the cupcakes as well as the rice krispy pops.  I also embellished the water bottles with  more fabric tape.  

The tape I got was from Korea, but this is the same idea.  Very easy to use and simple to make some coordinating decorative food embellishments.

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Lego Chima Birthday Party Keeping it very very simple

I think Im lucky that Son is as straightforward as he is.  He doesnt hem and haw about what he wants, but clearly asks for what he wants and hears my ideas on how to make it happen.  This year, he was detertmined to have a Lego Chima birthday party, have his friends come over and race speedors, and have a grand ol time.

The problem is that his birthday is in December, right before everything happens in the holiday season.  His special day gets crushed in between a million other special holiday events, so generally planning his birthday is one of the last things on my mind.  Hes always very focused however, letting me know the specifics of what he wants and how hed like it to be.

This year - he had very simple request.  He wanted a LEGO CHIMA BIRTHDAY PARTY where everyone built their own kit.

Inwardly I groaned, but since I planned a similar LEGO birthday last year, I gave him similar ideas of what I could manage. Since we had the kits, one per child, costs were going to rise, so only five other guests, no lunch and Id have on hand my nephew and my student to help troubleshoot things going awry.  Each guest would take their kit home after building and play and wed call it a day.

His response, "THATs EXACTLY what I want!"  Phew for me.

The other fortunate thing for me is that his birthday always falls after Black Friday and Cyber Monday for Christmas gift shopping, so generally speaking, Im able to pick up some kits for a bargain.  This year was no different as the Lego Store had a huge number of speedor sets 50% off and so I snagged a stack of them in order to have plenty for the kids to choose from.  I planned on returning the rest, but then Daughters each wanted one, as did my teenage assistants.

Activities were planned and all I needed to worry about was food.  Son only cares that the food is all stuff he can eat so we went with a super simple menu with my new addition of "chima jello" which ended up grossing me out (artifical flavors and colors) but looked totally awesome in the cups.  Kids had a mixed response to it with one child eating all the jello while Son freaked out when someone told him his tongue was blue.  If I were to change anything, Id make layered jello in individual cups as making the finger jello was a lot stickier and messier than I preferred.

Here is a very simple outline of what I did with some pdfs of things that I thought were fun.

Decorations
Son colored his own pages from the Lego website and taped them to the wall.
I made a Happy Birthday banner with "chima-ish" lettering.  I printed the letters on blue paper and just attached it to string.
Blue tablecloth on the table

Activities
Color pages of Lego Chima characters.  This is great to do while waiting for all your guests to arrive.
Build Lego speedorz.  I had a nice collection and selection of ones that I had gotten 50% off.  I have the kids build them on large baking sheets with high sides as it keeps the pieces organized into individual areas and no one fights.  It seems to minimize the loss and confusion of pieces.

Race and play Lego speedorz. I had an empty floor space where the boys could race and test out each others Speedorz.
Snack time!


Menu
Rice Krispy Pops - made these and put them on a bed of blue sprinkles to simulate the chi water

Chi Jello- yellow and blue finger jello

Hummus and chips
Sacred Chi water (Really just bottled water, but I printed blue labels with the words sacred chi water on them.)

Two hours later, party over!

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Party Version of Turkey Arugula Meatballs Guest Writer KK

This week Im proud to announce that one of my students wrote this post.  The assignment was to write about her favorite food, and unbeknownst to me, these meatballs turned out to be her favorite food.  I always make a lot of them, some for my family and some for her, but I need to make more for her family because she will never share.  Different members of her family have to try and sneak the meatballs from under her vigilant guard, and its only when shes not paying attention can other members of her family snag some.  Her essay was really rather funny and a nice compliment, and I asked her permission if I could publish it.  She is a 4th grader, a type 1 diabetic, and an awesome student to teach.  Go KK!

This is different from my first post as these are designed to hold up under the baking process outlined here.  There is no messy frying but there is gluten (bread crumbs) in these meatballs which helps them keep their shape.  

NOTE: These Are Not Enemy Balls
by KK

Almost everyone has a favorite food that they love and wish they can eat everyday for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Some people like pizza for the crust others like it for the toppings. Some people like french fries because of the salty taste and other people like it for the taste of potatoes. Even though I like hot dogs, I absolutely love turkey arugula meatballs because I like the taste, I can eat a lot of them, and I get to eat pasta with them.

The first reason I love the turkey arugula meatballs is the taste. These meatballs taste fresh, light, and herbaceous. Other meatballs (no cook’s names will be mentioned) are disgusting, heavy, and lacking freshness. I don’t like dark brown and unappetizing enemy balls. Turkey arugula meatballs are the best food in the world because of the taste.

The second reason I love turkey arugula meatballs is that I can eat a lot of them. Since I am diabetic, I have to count the carbohydrates of everything I eat. Fortunately these meatballs are only three carbohydrates each and I can eat 10 meatballs for 30 carbohydrates whereas another food I enjoy, mac and cheese balls, are 50 carbohydrates for 10 of them and they are about the same size as the turkey arugula meatballs. My crazy mom doesnt mind if I eat a lot of meatballs because it won’t spike my blood sugar. Turkey arugula meatballs are awesome because I can eat a lot of them.

The final reason I love turkey arugula meatballs is because I get to eat pasta with them. I love pasta and turkey arugula meatballs separately,  but when they are together, they are the very best food in the whole wide world.  It is the very best food in the world because the smooth texture of the pasta against rough but tender meatballs is the perfect combination. The pasta also absorbs the sweet and bright flavored tomato sauce which makes the pasta sweet. Turkey arugula meatballs are my favorite because I get to eat pasta, my other favorite food, with it.

I love turkey arugula meatballs because of the taste, I can eat a lot of them, and because get to eat them with pasta. In addition to all those reasons why I love turkey arugula meatballs, I also love them because they don’t have many carbohydrates and they don’t make my blood sugar spike. I’m really lucky that my weird and crazy teacher makes them for me and she is willing to make more meatballs for me as long as I finish this essay. I hope after reading this, you are encouraged to give turkey arugula meatballs a chance.

Party Version of Turkey Arugula Meatballs
Serves 8 to 10

Ingredients
5 cups arugula leaves
1 cup panko or breadcrumbs
1 medium onion, finely chopped
4 tablespoons finely minced garlic
2 lbs ground turkey
1½  teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper

Vegetable spray
2 jars or quarts of your favorite tomato sauce.

Method
Preheat oven to 450.  Line a heavy baking sheet with foil, for ease of cleaning.  Spray with cooking spray or grease entire baking sheet with mild flavored oil.

In a food processor chop onion, arugula, until finely chopped.  Combine onion arugula mixture with garlic, turkey, bread crumbs, salt and pepper.  Mix with hands.

Heat tomato sauce in a large pot.  Reduce heat to low.

Roll turkey into 40 to 50  ping-pong sized meatballs. Place on baking sheet.  Spray a bit more oil on top of the meatballs to facilitate a bit of browning if desired.  Cook in oven for 10 minutes, until meatballs have firmed up and taken shape.  Meatballs may not be entirely cooked, but they will finish in the sauce so it is okay.  Carefully move meatballs into simmering sauce and continue process until all meatballs have been cooked in the oven and simmered in sauce.

Serve with your choice of pasta or for a totally new option, roasted cauliflower.

Helpful Hint
This dish can be refrigerated and reheated over low heat when needed.  It reheats well in a crockpot and it is my go to dish for the luncheons I throw for teachers. It can be served on a sandwich, over pasta, or as an individual meatball appetizer.

Printable recipe

Not enemy balls.  These meatballs are definitely something you want to make for someone you love.

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Lego Birthday Party for Sons 5th Birthday Low key fun

The cruddy thing about having your birthday in December, as Son does, is that it smashes up against other holidays which means that this momma has a hard time thinking and planning it in a manner that she normally might.   But Son, in all of his wisdom of age 4-and-turning 5 figured out that hed better start laying out his demands for what he thought his birthday should look like early.  And he did.  Just that.

"Mom.  I want a lego birthday party.  I want my friends to come, sit down and build a big lego project and take the lego project home."

"Huh?" I responded, in the midst of reviewing college essays.

"My friends.  My birthday.  Legos and lots of them."

I looked up and said, "Okay.  Thats fine.  But if that is the birthday youre going to have, you can only invite 5 kids."

Son looked dismayed and said, "WHY?"

"Bigger lego kits cost more money - so if that is what you want, you cant have as many boys.  Think about it."  Secretly I actually hoped that hed go this route because that would just mean a lot less chaos for me.

"Okay.  Five boys.  I can decide which five boys?"

"Yes."

And so it was.  I figured five boys, six bigger lego sets (the ones that cost $9-$10), some simple treats, and bam - Id have a party with minimal fuss, which was what I really wanted.  I managed to find a great deal on the size lego set I wanted (buy one, get one 50% off) and bought a couple of varieties.  The lego sets would be their project during the party and their party favor.  Simple streamlined and exactly what the Son ordered.

However, a week before the party, Son entered the party space and casually remarked, "The girls always get some nice decorations.  How come I dont have any?"

"Uh...you need decorations too?"

"Yes.  I just want something that goes from here to there," and he pointed to wall where he wanted his decorations.  My heart sank.  What was I going to do?

Turns out - I was going to make legos.  I had cardstock, in all the appropriate colors and the only thing I needed to buy were foam squares to help raise the circles off the cardstock.  And thats all I did.

Activity
Each child followed the instruction booklet inside their lego kit and built their own.  I was lucky and I recruited my nephew, two of my students, and Daughters (all great lego builders) to all be assistants for my young lego builders.  My nephew in particular, who is a young lego master, was extremely helpful as he was able to troubleshoot when a couple of the builders ran into trouble.  If youre going to go this route, I definitely think having people who are experienced with legos helping out.  (Im good at building too, but I didnt want all the stress. :) )

I used half pan sheets (I borrowed some from my friend) to keep the legos from individual kits in one place and to help organize the children.   Its definitely a worthwhile idea.

I purchased sets similar to this one at a brick and mortar store.  I bought a selection of sets (more than I needed) - three different kinds all similarly priced, so that kids could choose the one they wanted and I simply returned all the extras.  After the kids choose, hide the rest so no one is tempted to change their mind.
.

The half sheet pans which are super nice to use.


Decorations
I did not plan to do decorations, because I figured it wouldnt be all that important to Son.  I thought wrong.  At the last minute, I was inspired by a picture I saw which created lego shapes with paper, and decided to do the same.  I had to come up with my own dimensions however, and these are the ones I came up with using 8.5x11in cardstock.

Square (2 x 2 legos) - 4.5 x 4.5 inches
Rectangle (3 x 2 legos) - 6.5 x 4.5 inches
Mini lego (1 x 2 legos) - 2.25 x 4.5 inches
Large rectangle (2 x 4 legos) - 8.75 x 4.5 inches

I basically cut my 8.5x11 sheets of paper, down the length, into a 4.5 inch strip and a 4 inch strip.  The 4.5 inch strip I cut into the various sizes for the blocks, and the 4 inch side, I used to cut the 2 inch circles.  If you have a 1.5 inch or a smaller punch, by all means just use it.  (I go for the modern representation, and my legos are NOT to scale.)

2 inch circle punch which I just used it to punch away.


These foam stickers allow you to create some height from the circles and lift the circles off the cardstock, giving the illusion of legos.


I made a bunch of different blocks in a variety of colors, and made a garland with some, a mobile with some others, and then a randomly hung some strings of them....

Menu
Since Son spends all the birthday parties he goes to surrounded by food he cannot touch, I wanted to have a birthday party for him FULL of food he could eat.  In years past, I always made a cupcake that he could have in conjunction with a dairy and egg rich cupcake for the guests, but this year, I decided that he should have a birthday with his friends only full of food that he enjoys.  I kept it simple, as it was only going to be a snack and not a full blown meal and he told me what he really wanted to have.

Dairy and Egg Free Banana Muffins
Mango Rice Crispy Pops (I just substituted freeze dried mango for the strawberry)
Fruit Salad
Hummus, pita chips, and carrot sticks
Water, in mini water bottles

Son loved his birthday, and at the end of the day, gave me a huge hug and said thank you.  He also sat in the middle of the living room for about 4 hours straight opening various lego birthday presents and didnt budge from his spot building, rebuilding and playing with all of his toys.  It was a lovely, quiet (SOOOO QUIET) birthday party, its one Id like to recreate for each Daughter.

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Movies and Photobooth 8th Birthday Party

Daughter #2 had a birthday party late January, and Im only getting around to writing about this now.  With all three in school and an increased work schedule and activities schedule, throwing the super deluxe handmade birthday parties of before simply is beyond my ability from a time and effort standpoint.  Daughter #2, fortunately for me, is sensible, level-headed, and knows exactly what she wants to do.

"Mom, for my birthday, I just want to watch a movie with my friends.  I want to have snacks and CANDY."

This sounded like a perfectly lovely idea (meaning easy idea) so I agreed that wed throw a movie birthday.  It seemed kind of too passive simply to just throw the movie birthday so I came up with the idea of a photobooth before the movie, and while the movie was going on, I could print all the photos at home, and then the guests could put them all in photo albums and then they could take them home.  It seemed like a simple, doable, and fun party, and it suited Daughter #2s sensibilities perfectly.  The movie she chose was "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2," just out on DVD, and with that the party stage was set.

Opening the Party
It was a great warm-up to the movie, having the girls pose in their photobooth and have fun.  I turned a bare wall into a black wall with chalkboard contact paper, and even bought some chalkboard markers just in case the kids wanted to write something on the board and pose beside it.  I got some basic props from Michaels (a feather boa is a must), and even picked up some cute frames using their coupon which you can find in their weekly ad.  I borrowed costumes and hats from other people and created a space where the kids wanted to dress up and have fun.

After I took the pictures, the trickiest part was ensuring that I had enough photos for each child to put into albums after the movie was done.  I bought simple albums from Michaels, each one about $3, and they were perfect to slide photos into easily after the movie was over.

My photo printer and photo paper were well used at this point.  I just kept printing photos as the movie played.

Chalkboard Contact Paper - I had enough wall space for three rolls.


Chalkboard Markers


The Food
People who know me well know that Im not particularly a huge fan of sweets and processed foods, but for this birthday, I did want the girls to have some candy, but in small amounts.  I found tiny little shot glasses which I figured the girls couldnt fill with too much candy, and put into bowls a variety of candies, not to many of anything, and let the girls fill their cups with a bit of candy.

I also had huge bowls of popcorn that I made so that the kids could dig in while the movie played.

As for food I made, I ended up doing as my friend put it, "Food pretending to be food" which was the direction I really wanted to go in, but exhaustion set in and I could only do a few of the items I had cooked up.  Since the movie was "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" I couldnt help but do meatball sandwiches.  I used my favorite meatball recipe, got some of the torta bread, toasted it, added a bit of cheese, meatballs and cut the sandwiches into quarters.

Using puff pastry, I also made pigs in a blanket.

Finally, for the birthday girl to blow out candles on, Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes.

Ending the Party
After the cake, the girls had a few moments to sift through the 100+ photos that I printed out and make photo albums of their movie.  Parents loved the albums, and I loved the fun and memorable keepsake as the party favor.

Me.  at the end of this party.

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