Katie's Dragon Party

This year, Katie has been obsessed with How to Train Your Dragon. I don't really mind because it's much more interesting than whichever Disney Princess is popular at the moment. The even more interesting part is that Ellie was into the dragons and vikings of Berk when she was roughly the same age. I have memories of watching the first movie with her and then flying her around (though Paul did it most of the time because I was big and pregnant) because she declared she was Toothless. It's neat to see the parallels and differences in the way they love and play dragons. Katie is more realistic, preferring to pretend she's a viking (usually Hiccup), while Ellie was always quick to play the role of the non-human (she also had a Thomas the Tank Engine phase, where, yes, she insisted she was a train and would only respond when called "Thomas"). We'll see what route Anthony takes... I'm guessing he'll be the right age when the third HTTYD movie is released. 

After the cake was almost ready, I began to decorate, using some of Katie's dragon and viking toys, streamers we already had, and some new decorations, like the torches and shields that hung on the wall. 

The decorated lunch table (though people ate everywhere!) had a cool viking boat I made as a centerpiece, and a "room transformation kit" I bought helped decorate the walls and windows with shields, dragons, and vikings. 

The party was at lunchtime, so we made "chicken on bone", as Katie says, along with other dragon-themed food, like lava balls (cheese balls), dragon eggs (grapes), a veggie tray with a dragon made out of cucumber in it (unfortunately I forgot to take a close-up picture before it got devoured), trail mix that I called "Ruffnut Mix", and...

Dragon food... Fish and eels! 

We also had some fun with dry ice and made "Zippleback Punch". For the less adventurous, there were also bottles of Scauldron water. 

The cake, the food, the balloons... Everything was ready for our guests to arrive!

First, our friends had to outfit themselves as vikings. They made their own shields, coloring and putting stickers on cake boards that had duct tape handles on the back. 

Then they armed themselves with a sword or an axe (foam of course!), and a viking helmet completed the look. 

Once outfitted for adventure, they ran around chasing dragons (and each other) as we waited for everyone to arrive. 

I then invited them to my tattoo parlor (thank you, Target dollar section!), and gave the kids dragon tattoos. Katie kept hers on for about 2 minutes before freaking out and wanting it removed. Birthday girl was a little overwhelmed. 

Next was the first organized game: capture the dragon. I asked the big kids to help me wrangle up the inflatable dragons they had been slaying and riding, and I lined them up on the floor. Each kid got a turn to toss a hula hoop onto the dragons to try to catch one. It was a good game for all ages (the range was 2-6 years old). 

After all that playing, our vikings were hungry, and the food was ready, so we ate lunch, and birthday girl perked up. She loves any meat on a bone. 

While everyone finished eating, I painted the kids' faces with racing stripes before going outside for dragon races!

We split the kids into two teams, and each kid was given a small toy sheep (they were squishy, like a stress ball). They had to run down, while riding stick-horse dragons (the sock dragons I made during Wizard Week attached to a large dowel), drop their sheep in a bucket, run back, hand off the dragon, and so on, until each kid had a turn. The first team to finish would win the relay race. 

Some of the younger kids had trouble with the finer points of the game, so there was no clear winner, and birthday girl shut down again. It's hard being three. 

So I took a dragon head off a stick, and we went straight to piñata time. Katie was still not in the mood, so I helped her on her turn. 

The other kids got into it, and after a few whacks from the big boys, the dragon was on the ground. It was not a very good piñata. Not much fit in it, so I had to toss a few extra ring pops into the grass so everyone got one. I also stuffed it with dragon stickers inside plastic Easter eggs, as "dragon eggs", and some plastic rings with images of the characters from the movie. 

Then the kids played inside and outside for a while, eating their ring pops, and having fun. 

I wrangled them in for one more activity before cake time: pin the tail on Toothless. I printed a picture of Toothless, pasted it together on a posterboard, and laminated it. The tails were cut with my cutting machine, and double-sided tape stuck them onto the dragon. 

Then it was time to sing. 

Haaaappy biiiiirthday tooooo youuuuuu!

After cake, Katie opened her presents. 

Friends and family were very generous, and in the end, my girl felt very loved. 

Happy third birthday to my little viking girl. She said she enjoyed her party, especially the cake, and this smile is why I do it for her. 

Pretend Play

The last full week of July, Ellie had musical theater camp, so I got some play time with the little ones while she was away. I know that with them, looser structure is always better, especially since Katie just wants to pretend play all day long with dragons, princesses, and her big sister. So there wasn't really a theme for this week. I thought maybe we could do "jobs," but my middle child does not even accept gentle suggestions on how to play... With that in mind, I figured we could try to pretend play with a few fun printables I found on Pinterest and see if we used them or where the playing took us. 

Animal doctor

Restaurant

Eventually, she just decided to play dragons on her princess castle. 

We built a fort with an E-Z Fort Kit I had stashed in a closet under the stairs, waiting for its letter to Hog--I mean, waiting for us to use it for a castle or house. 

It was pretty neat. 

Then we combined games: animal doctor in the fort!

I think they had fun! I am still not as fun as the biggest sister, though. And when she came home, they were even happier to play pretend together. It'll be an adjustment when school starts. 

Wizard Week

Initially, this was going to be Science Week, but Ellie requested a Wizard Week, so I just tweaked my plans and made it happen. A few of the activities would suit an older crowd, especially since Katie hasn't read or watched any Harry Potter yet (Ellie has seen the first movie, and we read her the first book). Nevertheless, it was fun! It helped that I showed them a few relevant YouTube clips from the movies before the activities to remind Ellie and to give Katie a context for the activities. 

MONDAY

They woke up to find their owl mail with Hogwarts letters. 

We got ready to go to Hogwarts, finding our owls and supplies, like cauldrons and spellbooks, and making a few also, like hats and wands. 

One of the few specific requests Ellie made was to color a wizard picture. 

The wands we made with paper, hot glue, and paint. 

Then they practiced learning incantations and dueling. 

Even Anthony got into the wizarding spirit. 

TUESDAY

Potions day! I stayed up late relabeling a few household items to make our magical brews. 

Dry ice bubbles were a huge hit. We made big ones...

And lots of small ones!

I even rigged up a bubble blower so they could "catch" the bubbles. This kept us busy for a long time. 

Then we made "gloppity gloop," also known as oobleck. I had never done it before and was surprised that it wasn't as messy as I had thought. The girls liked making it slip through their fingers, then balling it up again. 

Next was "rainbow water", where we layered liquids of different densities in a bottle. 

The results were pretty. 

We took a break to eat some chocolate frogs (with wizard trading card and all!). 

Then we had one more potion to make... But an ingredient was missing! The Marauder's Map helped us find it. 

The ingredient found, we made a homemade bouncy ball to serve as our Golden Snitch later in the week. 

Anthony was asleep for potions (thankfully), but he played with the "Hogwarts Express" for a little while. 

WEDNESDAY

Herbology: we painted pots and planted seeds in them. 

We identified herbs from our garden by sight and smell. 

We made celery stalks change color. 

Charms: we created a chain reaction with popsicle sticks (let go of the end, and they go flying!). 

We made "swirling dervishes" with milk, food coloring, and soap. 

We blew up balloons with pop rocks and soda (Katie), and baking soda and vinegar (Ellie), and compared which was a better method. 

We gathered different items and predicted whether they would sink or float and then tested our hypotheses. We even made a rock float! 

We also played with gravity, dropping a rock and a feather to see what happens when they fall, and then we tried to "Wingardium Leviosa" our feathers. 

THURSDAY

Care of Magical Creatures: we fed my Betta fish, checked on our newest caterpillars, and then we "planted" sea monkey eggs. (Some have hatched now). 

I found dragon eggs that dissolve in water, so we hatched them. 

The baby dragon. They loved this, probably because the dragons were from How to Train Your Dragon. 

Then we made magical foam creatures. 

We also made dragon sock puppets. (The ones I made were for a specific purpose, and they will show up again at Katie's party!)

Divination: using clear glass ornaments, sand, glitter, sequins, and water, we made crystal balls. 

Fun, neat to look at...

... And easily breakable. Ooops. 

Our last activity was a sampling of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans. Ellie only had a few (and spat out most), Katie liked Booger flavor, and Anthony just ate them, voraciously and indiscriminately. Ewww. 

FRIDAY

Quidditch! 

Fun for all!

I only have 2 brooms, so we used a Swiffer too. 

Ellie reenacted Harry's famous first catch. The first Snitch we made got a little mangled, so we made a new one that worked perfectly.  

After having a great time with Quidditch, we had some refreshing Butterbeer. 

Then it was time for more potions! We made chewing gum with a kit I bought on Amazon. It tasted much better than I expected, but there was a lot of hard kneading, and I ended up doing most of the work. The girls did like chewing the results!

Lastly, I let the girls raid the pantry for ingredients (approved by me) to make their own potions. It was a fun, nasty mess!

And that was Wizard Week! Totally magical!

No planned theme this week because Ellie's at a camp, so I'm going to give Katie a little one-on-one time. I have a few creative ideas, but I get the feeling my little free spirit will just want to pretend-play with her dragon toys instead.