So my precious little baby turned 1 today. We actually had a family BBQ to celebrate her birthday last Sunday. I'll backtrack even further to last Friday. It was field day for Spencer at school and I volunteered to help and my awesome sister, Janelle, was gracious enough to watch the girls. After field day and driving out to my sister's house it was getting late. We stopped at Costco on the way home to eat lunch and get stuff for the BBQ party. We got home close to 2:00 and then the kids asked what we were going to do for Friday Fun Day. I was tired and had stuff to do still, so I told them they already had fun at field day and with cousins. They didn't like that idea much so I had them help me make ice cream sandwich cookies for the birthday party. I made extra large chocolate chip and chocolate cake cookies and stuffed them with vanilla and chocolate ice cream. I had the kids roll them in Heath bits, Oreo cookie crumbs, candy flowers, and colorful sprinkles. On Sunday I decided I should try to arrange them to look like a butterfly, to go with her party theme. And I thought she should still get to eat cake, since it's her first birthday and all, so I made a few cupcakes. Here's what I came up with:
Took me a lot less time than my usual birthday cake! Here's Clara with her cake
And even though I let her eat a cupcake, Grandma decided she should eat some cookie ice cream sandwich.
Getting ahead of myself. Back to Saturday--I was feeling bad that we didn't do something for Friday Fun Day together so I took them to Lakeshore Learning for the free kids' crafts. The kids each made a fish puppet and a little paper stage for it. They enjoyed it and want to go back every Saturday.
Sunday after church I decided I should probably do a bit more for Clara's birthday party. I guess I figured since it was just family--and only half of them were going to be able to make it--that I didn't need to go all out. We were just going to have a BBQ and ice cream sandwiches. But I got feeling a little guilty. So the kids and I made about 20 tissue paper butterflies. We took colorful tissue paper and wrapped a pipe cleaner 2 times around the middle of it, leaving the edges of the pipe cleaners sticking up for antennas. I then glued googly eyes onto fuzzy balls and glued those onto the pipe cleaners. Then we went outside--oh my goodness it was hot--and taped them all over the fence, deck, and trampoline. I also hung up a couple little butterfly decorations I had bought. Then Spencer asked about party hats. When I told him I didn't have any he went downstairs and drew a couple butterflies, cut them out, and stapled them onto a thin strip of paper he had cut out. He then measured his and Clara's heads, stapled a few more strips of paper, and made Clara and himself butterfly crowns. Tessa was sad she didn't have one so I cut out a butterfly to let her color and staple it onto a crown for her.
The kids were so excited for the cousins to come. They had a blast jumping on the trampoline and running around the yard with all of them. Tessa was especially glued to Alexis and followed her around like a little puppy dog. It was cute to watch and Alexis was a good sport and even read her some books in Tessa's room. Spencer and Logan were pretty much inseparable and we had to promise them both we'd get them together more often. We had some yummy BBQ food and enjoyed visiting with people well past the kids' bedtime.
The high light of the party was the release of the butterflies. The Easter Bunny had brought the Live Butterfly Garden. It was really so much fun to watch the process as the caterpillars got bigger, climbed to the lid of the container, shed their skin and then turned hard to form a cocoon and then after 10 days the Painted Lady butterflies came out. The kids named them: Early, Lady Flower, Dora Bootsy, Lady Goo Goo, and Late. They actually go to watch Late physically come out of her cocoon. The kids were so excited about these butterflies! We picked flowers from my front garden each day and dropped a few drops of sugar water on them. We got to watch the butterflies actually suck up the nectar.
Anyhow, these butterflies only have a 2-3 week lifespan and since Clara was having a butterfly party we decided it would be a perfect time to let them go. The kids really enjoyed it. One of the butterflies even let Spencer, Logan, Alexis, and Tessa hold it on their finger.
We have so many toys in our house that we really didn't need anymore. I got Clara her own baby doll and a little Disney Princess ride on. I told the kids to find one of their toys to wrap up and give to Clara. Tessa gave one of her many baby dolls and her baby doll potty. Spencer gave her a couple of his favorite Dr. Suess books and his Jeff Gordon NASCAR pillow. What sweet kids! We gave her the presents this morning for her real birthday. She loves them! Of course the other kids also love the baby doll who makes noises and the fun ride-on so Clara has to scream and push them to get to her own toys. I sense bad habits starting...
No comments:
Post a Comment