How to make an Angry Birds Birthday Party

So I was going to post about Spencer's birthday party and thought about all the blogs I read trying to get ideas for his party and thought it only fair I post what I did in case there is anyone else there looking for ideas.  This year after briefly considering a Ninjago or Pokemon party, Spencer decided on an Angry Birds birthday party.  I was a bit disappointed.  I really think Ninjago or Pokemon better suited him, but this was what he wanted.  To be honest I had never even played Angry Birds at this point in time, although the kids play it on daddy's iphone and ipad.  They also play Angry Frogs.  So as I was a bit clueless on the whole Angry Birds thing I turned to the internet.  This was a couple weeks before Christmas.  At this point I thought it may be important that he get one of the Angry Birds toys he was asking for for Christmas.  But I had already bought all his presents.  So I tried to get a hold of the Angry Birds Knock on Wood game.  It was sold out everywhere online and in every store I kept going to and I couldn't get myself to pay 3x the price on ebay.  My sister's daughter had drawn Spencer's name for a Christmas gift exchange and she said she'd buy him something.

Luckily Santa put a couple cat/dog Angry Bird toys in his stocking so he had something Angry Birds at Christmas and then my neice gave him a couple larger stuffed animals.  And on I went thinking about his birthday party.  I found some fun pictures of cakes and ideas for games.  I then decided I should probably play the game myself.  So I did one day for about 5 minutes.  It's kind of fun but I really don't get all the hoopla surrounding this game.  I then set out for party decorations and invitations.  They didn't exist in any store around here so I ordered them online through Birthday Direct (I found them here the cheapest).  I got invitations, plates, napkins, and cups.  Online I also found some printable Angry Bird faces to put on balloons http://www.thepartyanimal-blog.org/angry-birds-balloons-free-templates/.  The kids went crazy over these cute balloons--I made 4 pigs and the birds.  I tied the strings to clear pebble rocks so they wouldn't float away at the party.  So many people stopped us at Jungle Jim's asking about the balloons and my kids at home loved them all the way until the helium went out of them.  Here's Clara walking around with some of them.

At Walmart I found some little Angry Bird beanbags in a 2-pack for $5 and some large bags of Angry Bird fruitsnacks on clearance for 50 cents.  I bought enough to send each kid home with one beanbag and a pack of fruit snacks. 

Then on to the cake.  After plenty of googling I had so many fun ideas.  I ended up going with the cake pop idea.  So I made a white cake and some cream cheese frosting and mixed them together.  Then I used my scooper and rolled them into a bunch of balls (and a few triangles) and let them firm up a bit in the cold garage (this is my 2nd refrigerator during the winter months).  Whie these were firming up I made all the little pieces that would need to go on the birds heads.  I used mini marshmallows that I cut in half (so they didn't stick out as much) for the eyes and for the pigs' ears.  I used jelly beans for the pigs' noses.  And I used Starbursts for everything else.  For the beaks I just cut the 4 corners off yellow starbursts.  For the eyebrows and straight top feather of the black bird I just cut strips of orange starbursts.  For everything else I used a technique I modified from Girls' Camp.  The girls up there taught me the trick of melting Starbursts in the fire.  For my cakes I've modified to melting them in the microwave for about 10 seconds.  This makes them nice and pliable.  Then I twisted, folded, cut, molded them into the shapes of the other bird feathers and bellies.  Here's what all my pieces looked like:

Then I separated out a bunch of the white candy melts (and some green ones my mom had left over and gave me) into separate bowls for each color I would need.  I then melted each bowl one at a time and added Wilton icing colors to make them the colors I would need:  red, black, blue, yellow, left some white, and melted the green candy melts.  Then I dipped these pieces in the right colors for their eyebrows, stomachs, and head pieces.  Then I pulled out my cake balls and dipped the lollipop sticks in some melted chocolate before sticking them into the balls.  Then I re-melted one of the bird colors and dipped them one at a time.  Right after dipping them and shaking off the excess I stuck on all the bird parts so they would stick to the ball as the melted chocolate was hardening.  Then I stuck the bird/pig into some styrofoam (sold in the flower craft section at WalMart) and moved onto the next bird/pig.  After finishing all of them the styrofoam seemed a bit top heavy so once they were set I moved them onto a jelly roll pan.  Then I dotted each of the eyes with black icing on a toothpick. I also used this black on the pigs' noses and ears.  And I used a toothpick to add the cheeks on the white and blue birds.  Then I placed them in my basement storage room (about 60 degrees) overnight.

The next day was Spencer's friend party.  I made a 9x13 chocolate cake and another chocolate cake split between two 8x8 pans.  I then layered them with a blackberry-whipped cream filling.  I then made a white chocolate ganache dyed with green to pour over the cake.  After doing this I realized I should have made an actual frosting to at least do a crumb coating or cover it all because the chocolate cake showed through.  But then I decided it was supposed to be a hill so who cares if the "dirt" was showing through?  I put some of the large fudge sticks (chocolate covered wafers from Keebler) and some smaller ones for the top.  I stuck toothpicks halfway through the sticks and the other half into the cake so they would stay.  And now that Christmas was over I found the Knock on Wood game that I bought for Spencer's birthday.  I took the slingshot out of the game for the cake.  Here it is at Spencer's birthday party (without a pig on the top):

I let each kid have an angry bird cake pop (turned out the black bird was the most sought after) and a slice of cake.  Then the next day we had family over and did it again with the remaining cake and cake pops.  This time I even let Spencer slingshot the bird and knock over the pigs.  It even worked!

Spencer also wanted a pinata.  So I paper mached a large pig.  I bought a large 24" balloon at Zurchers for just over a dollar and did the whole newspaper strips dipped in a flour/water mixture coating the balloon.  It was too cold in the garage and backyard to hang it so I hung it in the kitchen from the kitchen fan.

Then I spray painted it green in the backyard.  Tessa helped me paint the eyes and nose and then Spencer drew and cut out a crown for it.  I cut out green paper for the ears and we filled it with candy and hung it downstairs for the kids to break open at the cousin party.  I didn't get a picture of it until after it was destroyed.  I had tried to convince Spencer instead of a pinata to let me fill green bags with candy and put pig faces on them.  Then I was going to set up cardboard boxes and paper towel holders with bags on them and have the kids slingshot the bean bags I had bought and have the kids knock over a bag of candy to keep.  I thought that sounded like more fun and more along the theme of the real game.  But he wanted a pinata.  So he had one.

A snow day

Every so often the words, "I wish I lived in San Diego" may come out of my mouth.  But they're really not true.  I love living in Sandy, Utah.  Mostly for the same reasons I occasionally wish I didn't.  Top reason being the weather.  I hate the cold.  And the really hot.  And the dreary.  But then again I love the variety.  I seriously get bored quite easily and love new things--clothes, food, activities, seasons.  I absolutely love when spring time comes.  Trees get new leaves and blossoms, flowers start blooming, grass begins turning green, birds are chirping, and the weather is warm enough to go to parks and play outside without coats on.  Then summer comes.  School is out, it's warm enough to go outside barefoot, we have picnics outside, the garden is producing fresh vegetables, every day is a fun day, we go swimming and play in the sprinklers, and I have to admit I love the feeling of the sun burning my skin so long as I'm able to just sit around and feel it.  I don't like sweating and burning as I'm trying to walk around or accomplish something.  Then by the time I am getting sick of the sweltering 100 degree weather and the crazy water bill to try to keep the grass green, Fall comes.  The weather cools down, school and schedules and order come back into our lives, the mountains are spotted with bright colors as the leaves are turning yellow, orange, and red, we cherish the last of the garden season and can applesauce and peaches, and then we wait for the snow.  I don't particularly like the cold, or driving in the snow.  And I don't like to look at the bare trees or the dead grass.  But when the first magical snow flakes start falling from the sky I think it is the most wonderful thing!  And when there's enough to play outside with the kids, it beats any sandbox or beach!  But then the winter drags on too long and I'm ready for spring again.    And each change of season leaves me marvelling God and his wonders at creating such amazing beauty and variety.

So where's the snow this winter?  That's the question my kids keep asking.  As I have no control over the weather and the forecast wasn't predicting ANY snow, I decided we'd make our own snow day.  I put up the new illuminated snow man I bought on clearance after Christmas before packing him away for the next 11 months.  I then dressed up all the kids in their snow gear and threw a pack of jumbo cottonballs on the trampoline.  I also crumpled up a bunch of white tissue paper and threw these "snow balls" on the trampoline as well.  We jumped around throwing snow and snowballs at each other and had a great evening in the snow.

We then came in for hot chocolate with marshmallows.  After dinner I had the kids help me make snowflake decorations for their rooms.  We've done the traditional fold the paper a lot and cut little shapes to make a snowflake but this time I bought fishing line from the store (dental floss will work but I like the less visible fishing line) and some white sticker dots.  Wal-Mart only had colored dots so I had to go to Office Max to find the white ones.  I put glue on the dots and sprinkled glitter on them just to add the "sparkle" that real snow has.  Then I cut out a bunch of fishing line strips just longer than the kids' windows.  I then had the kids stick two dots together, sandwiching the fishing line.  We did this every so often down.  I then taped these strands in front of their windows, creating the illusion of snow falling.  This project was finished right as they were going to bed.  Then the next morning we all woke up to actual snow falling outside!  Even if I were a betting person I don't see myself every betting for the weather man.  In any case, here are pictures of the snow falling in their windows.

So again we bundled up in our snow clothes and spent the day out in the snow.  There wasn't enough to build a snowman but Spencer was a great big brother and pulled each of the girls around the yard in the sled and they made a bunch of snow angels.  And then came in for hot chocolate again.

The 12 Days of Christmas

Growing up my mom had made a cloth Advent calendar with Santa Clause and every morning of December there was a piece of candy for each of us kids.  At some point in my life the cardboard Advent calendars with cheap chocolate inside came into our lives.  I've always done the cardboard chocolate Advent calendars with my kids.  A few years ago I got nostalgic and asked my mom about the fabric Santa calendar and she gave it to me.  She felt guilty giving me something so old and worn but I loved it, as did the kids.  I think she felt really guilty so for Christmas that year she bought me and my sister and Advent village that is really adorable!

Last year I set up my cute Advent village and put a candy for each kid in each little door each morning.  My sister of course outdid me and filled hers with little papers saying what fun thing they were doing each day of December.  What an amazing mother.  So this year I thought about being as amazing as my sister, but gave in to laziness and just filled them with a piece of candy for each kid, including Tessa's friend on the days she came over.  But then I was reading one of my favorite blogs (Our Best Bites--you can click on the link to the right) about making a snowglobe.  Seriously the cutest idea I've seen for a long time.  I absolutely had to do it.  And she mentioned all the fun things she puts in her Advent calendar (once again a supermom with activities every day).  I decided I could maybe handle doing the 12 Days of Christmas fun.  So each of the 12 Days I wrote on a paper and stuck it under the tree.  I couldn't believe how excited Spencer was each morning to see what we were doing. 

If you're paying attention I'm writing this much after the fact.  Actually I just saw the ball drop on TV and I'm listening to the fireworks outside.  So I may not remember everything we did or what we did on each day but I'll mention the ones I remember:

Well I used the Nutcracker ballet, Utah Jazz scrimmage game, and Temple Square lights as three of my days.  I also used making cards and presents for their teachers and friends one day.  One day they helped me make homemade candy (Almond Roca and caramels).  One day I had them unwrap some Christmas coloring books I had bought at Macey's for 88 cents a piece and some boxes of new crayons.  Another day I wrapped up a Hallmark recordable Night Before Christmas book I bought at Walmart.  That night I had the whole family take part in recording ourselves reading the story (mainly Spencer and Tessa).  This one was a huge hit!  The kids have loved listening to the recording over and over.  Each time you turn the page it plays the recording for that page.  And I've locked the recording (needs a screwdriver to get to the lock/unlock area) so we can keep the recording and listen to it year after year and remember how dang cute my little one's voices are!  Oh, so I went out looking for stuff for the snowglobes and came across some wooden Nutcracker ornaments that were on clearance for 59 cents a piece and bought 4 of those.  The next day I had the kids paint their ornaments.  Of course we used Crayola washable, non-toxic paints (see Clara eating the paint in this picture):

And then of course there was the Snowglobe day.  I loved these at least as much as the kids.  You can see my cute Advent village with this picture.

The night of December 22nd I was making some Almond Roca to give to my neighbors for Christmas and to have at my house to eat on Christmas.  Then my mother called me to tell me my sweet little neice had passed away.  Dear, sweet Abigail was 5 1/2 years old.  She had quite a few physical difficulties that had kept her from living a so-called "typical" life.  But she had a family who loved her and she was happy almost every time I saw her.  I loved seeing her smile spread across her face when I would talk to her, kiss her, or stroke her nose.  Tessa loved making her laugh and kissing her.  Everyone who had the chance to interact with Abby loved her.  This was a hard night for me.  And I didn't think to leave a 12 Days of Christmas note under the tree for Friday.  On Friday I was still feeling pretty sad that I didn't have my Abby here any more.  I was feeling even worse for her parents and siblings.  By the evening I felt less self-pity.  I know Abby is with our Father in Heaven and she is so happy right now.  She experienced life with such a caring, loving family and group of friends and supporters.  And now she is running, dancing, talking, and singing with the angels in heaven.  I'll miss her as I'm sure so many others will, but I've been blessed to have been with her over the last 5 1/2 years.  In any case by the time dinner was done Friday night I felt bad for not doing anything fun that day so I let the kids watch both Prep and Landings that I had recorded and eat candy downstairs.

The next day was Christmas Eve so that 12 Days of Christmas was easy.  First the kids started the day off eating the cutest candy house that a sweet neighbor of ours brought over for the kids.  I gave the kids and Brodie haircuts and we cleaned up the house while Brodie was perfecting tamales.  In the afternoon a couple families in our neighborhood came over for a celebration.  Our neighbors across the street, who are really non-blood family to us, have a girl from Mexico staying with them.  They thought she may be a little homesick so they wanted to have a pinata for her.  However, their kids are grown so they asked if we wanted to join them along with another family in our ward who this girl is actually related to.  We volunteered to host the get together.  Our kids and the young kids in this other family had a blast with the older neighbor kids.  Thankfully the older kids were good sports as these younger ones tied them up, knocked them over, tackled them, jumped on them, and rode on their backs.

While chaos was going on Brodie and some other adults were rolling tamales to start steaming.  Then we broke open the pinata and the kids scrambled to gather up candy into their bags.

Then we ate the best tamales I've ever had with some amazing mole sauce and different salsas my awesome husband made.  Ya, you're all jealous that my husband can cook.

After some people left the kids opened their Christmas Eve present where Tessa got some princess pajamas and slippers, Spencer got Perry from Phineas and Ferb, and Clara got ballerina pajamas with rattling puppy dog slippers.

We then read the story of Christ's birth in the New Testament and then read the lift-the-flap Nativity book that we have for the kids.  Then the kids headed up to sleep in Clara's room.  Clara was in her crib and the bigger kids slept in their sleeping bags on the floor in her room.  Every Christmas Eve the kids get a sleepover upstairs so they won't wake up when Santa comes.  I checked on them at 8:30 and was shocked out of my pants that they were all sound asleep.  Thanks to the neighbors for wearing them out!

Thanksgiving, Christmas trees, Muppets, and Gingerbread

Okay so I'm really behind in posts.  I'll do my best to hit the highlights from Thanksgiving weekend.

So this year Thanksgiving was at my parents' house.  And I have to say the people in my family LOVE good food!  My folks brined a turkey and smoked a turkey and we all brought other stuff to dinner.  Brodie and I brought mashed potatoes, gravy (we made our own turkey dinner the Sunday before so we could use the carcass to make real gravy), stuffing, green bean casserole, chocolate pecan pie, banana cream pie, and my Great Aunt Libbie's green tomato mince meat pie with butter rum sauce.  Did I mention we love good food?  Oh, and I think we had enough leftovers for a few more Thanksgiving meals.  We also had a great time visiting as adults and the kids played and played.  And we celebrated two of my neice's birthdays with a pinata full of candy, cupcakes, and presents for Aliya and Afton.

I hate shopping.  No, let me rephrase that.  I hate going to stores.  I love shopping online.  But despite my dislike of shopping in stores and being in crowds and lines, I still go Black Friday shopping.  A couple years ago I got my sister and mother to come with me and we had so much fun that we had to do it again!  But now everything's open Thanksgiving evening.  So after the kids were in bed I picked up my mom and sister and we headed over to Walmart.  I stood by the item I wanted and waited while my mom and sister roamed the store for about an hour.  Then the craziness started with people screaming and tearing off the plastic wraps.  I grabbed some stufff while my sister grabbed some pajamas and my mom headed into the checkout line.  We pushed through the crowds to catch up to my mom and we were out of there.  Then we headed to Target where we waited outside in line for about an hour and  half (they didn't open until midnight--Walmart had let us inside but not open the stuff until 10).  I remember the first time we went a couple years ago when we were waiting outside at 5 am and it was SOOOO cold.  This year was warm enough I survived in my flip flops.  This is the funnest part for me.  We stand around being silly and talking and laughing and if anyone else was with us they would think we had lost it.  But we have fun.  We got what we wanted in Target and then had to wait forever in the line (it was moving the whole time, but went through every single grocery aisle).  I think we were outside for an hour and a half and inside for an hour and a half here.  Then we stopped at Shopko.  By the time I unloaded my mom, sister, and all their stuff and then came home and unloaded my stuff I got to bed at 3:30 a.m.

Friday was pretty rough.  I had a horrible migraine and was exhausted and not really in the fun Christmas spirit.  But it was tree day.  I turned on the Christmas music and got setting up my tree.  Usually I love this.  I don't like anyone to help me.  I set up the tree and stratetically wrap around 2,000 lights.  I then open up and place each of my special Disney ornaments one at a time.  Yes this takes me the entire day.  And because the kids really love my Disney ornaments it's hard to tell them they can't touch them.  But they can't.  So each kid has their own Christmas tree with their own ornaments (mainly Disney of course) that they can set up howevever they want and touch whenever they want. 

 

As I was busy with my tree and in pain with a migraine, Brodie took Spencer and Tessa out for Friday fun day.  They went to McDonald's and got Hello Kitty and Bakugan toys.  Brodie even ate a Happy Meal so he could bring a Hello Kitty toy home for Clara.  What a sweet dad.  Then he took them to the Muppet movie.  They LOVED it.  They came home in great moods telling me about how funny the movie was.  They both agreed their favorite part was the "Fart Shoes" which  meant they pretended they were wearing fart shoes around the rest of the day.

Now that the trees were up it was time to get ready for Christmas.  This included making a gingerbread house, which we did on Sunday.  I love the kits from Costco.  For the same price you can get a kit at any store the Costco one comes already assembled (the others you have to ice together the walls of the house the night before you decorate it so it can set up) and includes a tree and 2 gingerbread people.  And it has white, red, and green icing and plenty of candy to decorate (we didn't even use it all).  So I piped the icing and let the three kids go crazy with the candy.  Here's how it turned out:

Allowance, snow, potatoes, and a repeat trip to the Aquarium

Okay, so I've been bad at this lately.  So this one is for the past two weeks, then I'll post today's Friday Fun day.

Two weeks ago Spencer didn't have school on Friday.  We had "mommy school" instead.  By then I decided whatever we were going to do would be after lunch so we wouldn't have to buy anything to eat.  As I was trying to think of something fun, cheap, and that we hadn't done recently I realized it had been a while since the kids had emptied their piggy banks.  Each day the kids each get a quarter at the end of the day if I feel they've been pretty good that day.  Of course I forget this more often than I remember.  And my kids rarely remind me.  So I probably only get one out of three.  Occasionally I feel guilty and slip a few extra quarters into their banks.  Usually we go spend it when they are around $10.  But Spencer also had $3 from the tooth fairy for losing his first 3 teeth.  We counted their money, took out tithing, and then put the rest in Ziploc bags and headed to Toys R Us. 

We frequently shop at Walmart and even a bit at Target so the kids know all the toys in those stores.  But Toys R Us is a special occasion for the kids.  Seriously--they get to go maybe 5 or 6 times a year to buy a toy with their saved money and that's it.  So we walked through just about every single aisle in the store and carried around a few items that the kids liked until they found something better.  Clara somehow managed to keep finding the little poppers left around and would run to them and push them around until I took them away and made her cry.  At the end of it Tessa HAD to have a Little Miss Muffin toy (the wonderful work of commercials) and Spencer got a Finn McMissile that changes colors in hot/cold water and another small Ninjago set (he is really into this and so far only has the set he got in Legoland).  The kids were VERY happy with their choices and have had a lot of fun with them over the last couple of weeks.

As Toys R Us is basically across the street from Fashion Place Mall, I headed over there next.  I try to go to the malls as minimally as possible.  I do not like shopping in stores--but I do like to do it online!  I especially dislike malls.  However, I had recently (about 45 days prior) bought a couple bras at Dillards and one of them had the wire poke through and it kept poking me.  I know they only take returns for 30 days but I felt a store like Dillards should be able to do something for me with a defective $40 bra after 45 days.  I was wrong.  The girl at the counter was very friendly and told me she was sure they would exchange it but she had to check with her manager.  The manager very coldly told me they couldn't do anything once it had been worn.  Period.  Last time I purchase a bra, or probably anything, from Dillards.  I was surprised how busy the mall was and Christmas was amost 2 months away still!

The next day (Saturday) we woke up to about 8" of snow.  And Brodie had to work this day.  The kids kept begging to go play in the snow, but I had just ordered them boots online the day before so they didn't have any.  After lunch I realized I was going to have to shovel the drive way as Brodie wasn't sure how long he'd be working.  I let Tessa wear some boots my sister passed down, although they were much too big and kept falling off her feet.  I let Spencer just wear his regular shoes.  Other than that they were quite bundled up.  Luckily the wonderful world of Ebay (wonderful to me in more than one way...) had some boots and a snowsuit small enough that I bought when Tessa was this age so I could get Clara out.  I let the kids play in the front yard snow while I shoveled the driveway.

When I first set Clara down she just kind of froze--uncertain of what she was supposed to be doing.  Or maybe she was trying to figure out how to move all bundled up.

She cautiously walked through the snow and asked me to lift her up ("Bup!?!") but I was busy shoveling the drive way.  Then the kids asked me for toys to play in the snow so I set the shovel down and pulled out the snow toys.  Okay so the stores really sale them as "Beach toys" but we live in Utah.  We get a lot more use out of these as "Snow toys".  While I was in the garage I decided to pull out Clara's car so she would feel more comfortable.  She sat in it for a while watching the other kids before she finally decided she must be missing out on a lot of fun and she dove off the car landing the only uncovered part of her in the snow--her face.  She cried so I dropped the shovel and brushed off her face and hugged her for a while.  Then I set her down and she proceeded to have fun shoveling and playing in the snow with her siblings.  Spencer worked on a snow tower and Tessa just shoveled and dumped snow.

When I finished shoveling the driveway I pulled out the little saucer sled and pushed the kids in it down the slight incline in our front yard.  They loved this, especially Clara.  After being in the snow about an hour Brodie came home and I decided to get Clara in and down for a nap.  But I don't let the kids stay in the front yard if I'm not out there so I had them move to the backyard.  I also pulled out the full sled and Spencer pulled Tessa around the flat backyard for a while.  When he decided he was done Tessa came in crying so Brodie went out and pulled her around a couple more times.  Then they kept playing for about another hour.  When they finally came in I had them change socks and shoes as Spencer's were a bit wet and cold.  I also made them some hot chocolate. 

Brodie pulled in the Halloween decorations that I hadn't gotten around to pulling in yet and took the pumpkins to the compost pile in the back.  I had bought the face pieces for the kids and Brodie had left those on the table.  Spencer asked what we were going to do with the pieces now and I smiled and said, "I have an idea..." and Spencer said, "Put them on real potatoes like a real potato head?"  I was torn here between feeling pride in my son for thinking the exact same thing I was thinking or feeling quite immature myself for thinking the exact same thing a 6-year old was thinking.  But we ran downstairs and grabbed a few potatoes.  All three kids had a blast!  They kept trading pieces and re-arranging their potato heads and then running into the front room to show dad.  This continued to entertain the kids for at least half an hour.

Okay so then last week Spencer actually had school.  With Christmas coming I once again wanted to make sure we did something cheap.  And indoors as it was windy and cold.  I decided on the Living Planet Aquarium.  This is one place I actually have been a regular pass holder to for a few years.  It's quite close to our house, indoors (which being in Utah we have a lot of really hot and really cold days that I don't want to spend outside), educational, and fun.  And they keep growing.  Since we started going they have added on the Amazon section with caymans, pirhanas, little poisonous frogs, an Anaconda, and many more.  This exhibit is my kids favorite as the tanks and water creatures are so large and easy to see moving around.  They've also added penguins that are a lot of fun to watch swimming and diving in the water.  And they've added the Superhero exhibit.  The funny thing here is that the creatures they have are really quite boring except the gecko at the end.  However there are posted signs that say what their superpower is and this makes the educational part so much fun for the kids.  They've also changed a few exhibits over time.  Of course we love to watch the sharks and the large turtle in the shark tank.  The stingrays are fun when they're swimming around and let you touch them but this day they were just laying on the bottom not moving so the kids moved on.  Clara LOVES to watch the jellyfish and the large coral tank with the clown fish and all sorts of those type.  We were also very excited to see that they will have Sea Otters come January! 

We love the Living Planet Aquarium so much that we go there at least 4 times a year (which is more than any other place we visit throughout the year.  We usually get to the Zoo and the Thanksgiving Point Museum of Ancient Life and Classic Fun Center a couple times a year and other places usually are only visited once a year).  The regular price is $9 for an adult and $7 for a child.  An annual pass is $20 for an adult and $16 for a child.  And if you aren't sure about how much you'll like it they are letting everyone in FREE this coming Monday, November 28th.  And they occasionally have deals in the Happenings (Entertainment) Book or during the summer.

However, I saw something on their website about memberships only being valid through October of 2012 and then "the Sandy location" will be shut down for 6 months.  It also mentioned something about a new location.  Are they moving?  If so, where to?  Or are they making 2 locations seeings how they didn't say the Sandy location would be closed, just shut down for 6 months, and they are currently building the Sea Otter exhibit.  Anyone know the answer to this?

I didn't bring my camera as I have plenty of pictures here, but if you want to see some scroll back through my posts as I believe I have 2 prior posts regarding the Aquarium.  I'll bring my camera again when we go see the Otters.

Tessa's Strawberry Shortcake Party

All year long my kids are telling me what kind of birthday party they'll want.  Currently Tessa has the next 4 years themes ready.  Of course they change their mind on a very regular basis so I try not to think about it until about a month before the birthday.  About a month ago Tessa was very sure about wanting a Strawberry Shortcake party.  I tried to find premade invitations but could only find some online and the shipping costs were twice as much as the invitations themselves.  So I made invitations.  I printed off a photo frame printable from Hasbro's strawberry shortcake site and then modified it to become an invitation.  We invited all the little girls within a year of her age in the neighborhood and ward.  Then we invited all our family members 2 hours later.  I've decided it's easier to have two separate parties--one friends and one family--rather than trying to do it all together.

As I was trying to decide what games or activities would be good for 3 & 4 year olds, I decided to do a craft project.  I took an idea from my neice's birthday party and decided it would be fun to decorate baskets.  But I needed strawberry themed baskets and the only ones I could find online were much too pricey.  So I went for the paper mache instead.  I bought red and green craft paper and tore it up.  I paper mached the bottoms of the balloons with red and the top with green.  I tied yarn around the balloon and hung them outside from my trampoline during the process and once I had all 20 done I moved them into the garage for the night.  I did this for 3 nights.  Then after the last drying I popped the balloons and cut out half ovals to make a basket.  Then I spray painted the handles green and the basket red.  I bought foam flower and bug stickers, stick on jewels, little flower blossoms with glue dots, and some lace.  The kids at both the friend party and the cousin party seemed to enjoy decorating these baskets.  Here's Tessa's:

Tessa really wanted cupcakes for her birthday so I made her vanilla cupcakes filled with strawberry gelee and topped off with freshly whipped (and colored) whip cream and sprinkles.  Then I had to make a chocolate cake so I layered it with the same strawberry gelee and covered it with green whipped cream and green coconut.  I then put Strawberry Shortcake in a hot air balloon on top.

Here's when she saw the cake and the new Strawberry Shortcake toy:

I also made a pinata out of a cardboard box to resemble Strawberry Shortcake's house.  I tied ribbons in it so the little girls could just pull on the ribbons to make the candy come out.

Then the girls used their baskets to get all the pinata candy, which was all strawberry (the hard strawberry flavored and shaped candies, frooties, and Twizzlers):

I also put a strawberry lip gloss, a strawberry shortcake charm bracelet, and a strawberry fruit by the foot in each basket.  Then we opened presents.  At the end of the presents Brodie and Spencer returned (I had shipped them off to the Chinese Moon Festival during the party).  After the girls all went home I went to my mom's to pick up Clara (I shipped her off as well so I could focus on the girls).  I came home to re-fill the pinata and put out some more decorative stuff for the baskets before the family group came.  It made me realize how much more calm 6 little girls are than a group with boys.  There is really a very big difference.

Spencer had a lot of fun with his favorite cousin, Logan.  Tessa loved playing with her best friend/cousin Afton and the older girl cousins whom she ADORES!  I tried to give Clara a nap but that obviously didn't work, which combined with me shipping her off for a couple of hours made her very clingy and whiny.  It was fun and Tessa got even more presents and we had more pinata candy.  She was so excited to get so many Strawberry Shortcake toys as the only ones she had before her party were a couple from McDonald's.  She has been playing with these toys soooooo much.

After the parties it was dinner time so we headed over to Cafe Rio with my sister and her family, since they needed to eat before heading 1 1/2 hours back home.  I sure do love Cafe Rio!  I think that is one place I could actually eat at on a weekly basis and not get sick of it.

I have a great husband who helped immensely with the clean up after the parties.  Only Brodie's parents came from his side of the family so we had tons of leftovers.  I had made 3 dozen cupcakes, 2 9 x 13 pans of chocolate cake (layered on top of each other with the strawberry gelee in the middle), and made 20 paper mache baskets.  We ran plates of cupcakes to a couple different neighbors' houses, ate leftover cake for almost a week, and I have a few strawberry baskets still sitting in my garage that I can't get myself to get rid of after all the hard work I put into them.  I'm sure I'll come up with a good use for them soon...or else I have a feeling Brodie will help "get rid of them". 

Clara's butterfly birthday party

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...

Making a Thor hammer, Dino Towne, and Mayan Adventures!

Yet another day Spencer didn't have school.  At the end of Mommy School today we made crafts.  Spencer's been begging to go to Burger King and get Thor toys, but I'm not a really big fan of BK (you can read my earlier BK post about this) so I decided he could make a Thor hammer for his craft.  I rinsed out an empty Tropicana orange juice box, squished the spout inside, and folded the top part in to form a rectangle.  I put some glue on it and let Spencer wrap it up in tin foil, like a present.  Then we took an empty paper towel holder and I had Spencer crumple and stuff old papers he had colored on into it to make it firm so it wouldn't squish when he held it.  Then I used clear packaging on the top and bottom of the paper towel holder to keep the papers in it and then taped the orange juice box on top of that.  I didn't have any brown ribbon so I used lime green that I had to tape a loop to the bottom, like Thor's.  Then he decorated it with super hero stickers he had.  I admit it doesn't look just like Thor's, but it's close enough to make Spencer happy and it was made out of stuff that was going to be thrown away, so it was basically free.  Tessa made a Dora bracelet.

Outside was wet, cold, and rainy so I had to think of a Friday fun day activity inside.  Since I had to make a Costco trip today, I decided we'd stop at South Towne Mall and play at Dino Towne.  I know Spencer's taller than the dinosaur's hand (I think it's 42"), but he wasn't near the biggest kid playing.  If you haven't been to Dino Towne it's a dinosaur themed play area for the kids on the lower level of South Towne Mall--and it's free.  The floor is cushy and carpeted.  There's a big tree they can climb in and go down a couple short, but steep and slick slides.  There's also a dinosaur skeleton looking slide, a dinosaur skeleton they can climb inside of or on top of, a small dinosaur they can climb on and pretend to ride, a globe they can spin, and a few other things.  Spencer and Tessa ran around for about an hour.  I even let Clara go down the slides with me helping, and she loved to look in the mirrors that were just her size.  Personally I don't really like going shopping, I prefer online, but if I have to go to the mall I usually choose South Towne just because of Dino Towne.  I rarely make it anywhere without kids and having the bribe of Dino Towne if they behave while I shop makes it much easier than other malls, even though Fashion Place has more of the stores I would go to.  As was, I only bought Tessa some more shorts to wear under her dresses and skirts, but the point was for the kids to have fun and they did.

By the time I got home it was close to dinner time so we decided to go out for dinner.  I was glancing through the Happenings Book we have, trying to decide where to go and saw a buy one get one free at the Mayan Adventures.  We went there once, about 4 years ago, and were so unimpressed I've never had the desire to go back.  I've heard the food has improved and thought the kids might get a kick out of the diving and Brodie agreed.  The kids loved playing on the rock dragons in front of the restaurant.  After climbing up stairs all the way to the 4th floor, we sat down and opened our menus.  If you go, keep in mind about $2-$3 of each meal is the price of the show.  That makes their prices more reasonable.  Really $8 for a kids meal?  Luckily we had the buy one get one free so we got out of there for $34 including tip.  Brodie and I each got he carnitas, which were surprisingly good!  Not something I would crave or go back specifically for, but they were good.  And there really was a lot of pork, more than you would need for the 3 small tortillas they give you, but I was full after only 2 and we brought the rest home.  We had the kids split a chicken tenders meal and Spencer ate 2 pieces and a few fries while Tessa ate only 1 and a few fries.  Clara had some rice and beans and pork.  Maybe it was all the chips they gave us at first, but we were all stuffed when we left.  And more than that the kids LOVED the shows.  Every 15 minutes they have a different show.  The first one was a really cool diving show with about 5 divers playing drums and diving off the "cliff" into the water.  Some of them even swung from the ceiling and then did their flips and spins from the ceiling down to the water.  They were quite talented!  There was also a girl who spun batons with fire on the ends, one who hung down from the ceiling on some material doing the whole wrapping and spinning herself down routine, and one did acrobatics on a hoop hanging from the ceiling.  I was very impressed with the shows and watched most of them myself.  The kids were mesmerized.  Tessa was only scared during the "monsoon" act with the loud thunder and flashes (lightning).  If you think of the prices including a small fee for the show, this is a place I could see us going once a year or so.  It really was fun!  When we came home Spencer ran outside to practice jumping off the garden wall so he can be a diver at Mayan when he grows up.  I totally forgot to bring my camera here, but if you haven't been before or if it's been a while, I really recommend this place.  I also recommend going a little earlier before it gets too crowded and requesting a table by the edge so you can see while you eat rather than having to put down your food and walk over to the edge every 10 minutes.