Anthony's Wild Things Party

Anthony turned 3 on Tuesday. I won't even let myself think the thoughts or feel the feelings about my baby being 3... So I will share the details of all the neat stuff I pulled together for his party. 

His current favorite book is Where the Wild Things Are, so we held a Wild Rumpus for him. Basically that meant inviting mostly family (a 2-year-old who doesn't go to school doesn't have a lot of friends yet) to come eat and play. 

For the invitations, I (or rather, Paul) cut out these wild thing outlines with my Silhouette Cameo cutter, then we used a pen in place of the blade to write out all the details. I love the way it turned out! (The pen ran out of ink on the last one, so I had to write in the date with black on the one we kept... The others were all metallic brown). 

I decorated the house with wild things made from tissue paper poms, a felt leaf garland, and lots of green and brown balloons and streamers all around. 

Anthony wore a "wolf suit", which was just a light gray fuzzy hoodie, light gray sweatpants, a fuzzy tail, and a felt crown (Of course I sewed the latter two).

I glued felt horns and fur onto headbands for our guests to be wild things too.

They played in the "private boat for Max," made with cut-up, taped-together, painted-red moving boxes we had stored in the closet from past parties. It was a hit!

The other thing that went over really well was the craft: make your own wild thing, with sticky back foam cut into horns and teeth and whatnot, googly eyes, and small paper plates. 

We stuck popsicle sticks to them so they could be used as masks. I love how they turned out!

The food consisted of Anthony's favorite foods: cantaloupe, blueberries, veggie tray, and MEAT. Paul smoked a brisket (which he is VERY good at doing), and we also had a few other BBQ staples (except I forgot the pickles!): bread, sauce, baked beans, chips and salsa. 

I added a few signs with relevant phrases from the book to connect the food to the theme, including labeling the blueberries as "terrible eyes" and some Bugles as "terrible claws."

Then, of course, there was the cake. 

I'm particularly proud of the faces; I think I was pretty spot-on in reproducing them from the book. 

The cake wasn't free from headaches; I had some structural issues with the arm Max rode on, and the fondant grass around the base never stuck all the way, and I ended up ripping them off.

Here are a few behind-the scenes pictures. The legs and arms were rice krispy treats; the body and head were chocolate cake. I covered everything in dark chocolate ganache, and fondant on top of that. People often ask how does one cut into a cake with structural supports. This is what it looked like after we ate some. The key is to know where the bars and boards are, and cut around them.

Our guests left with their headbands and crafts as well as kazoos (requested by Anthony), eyeball bouncy balls (to "roll their terrible eyes"), and a chocolate "wild thing" to eat up. 

Since Anthony's birthday is on Groundhog Day (thus the groundhog at the bottom of the cake), our groundhog photo op board had to make its appearance, this time sporting a king of wild things crown (in past years it has worn a sombrero and a hard hat). 

Anthony was a gracious host, escorting his guests to the door as they departed.

Our little wild thing had a lot of fun, and we are thankful to everyone who helped us celebrate him!

Science Week

I am just now getting around to blogging about this, and I kind of wonder if there's a point to it, but I think it could be useful for future science weeks, so here we go. 

We ended the summer with science week, which was also informally "Slime Week" because we made lots of different kinds of slime, among other cool science things. 

We started out by learning about the weather. 

We made it rain in a jar. 

We also tried to make lightning with static electricity, but we couldn't get it to work. It just made our hair frizzy.

Then we reflected light off a CD to make an indoor rainbow

And we caught sunlight outside with a prism to make another rainbow.

Before lunch, we gazed at the clouds and talked about what they looked like.

Then we used the sun to make art on special paper.

This day's slime was color changing heat sensitive slime, and we had a blast making it change from green to yellow and back again.

The heat of their hands turned it yellow.

A box of frozen waffles and then ice cubes turned it back to green.

Our next day was rocks and minerals. We read from a National Geographic book about rocks and minerals, then we made magnetic slime. Super cool. My favorite slime. Kind of messy on the hands though.

We used a crystal growing kit to make some crystals.

We painted rocks, and we also painted with paper clips and magnets under the paper.

That afternoon, we chalked outside. Chalk... it's a rock!

Our 2 next days we learned physics. So we tested the laws of physics at JumpNJungle. Haha. Some of these activities are a stretch, but we had fun, and that's what counts!

We talked about Newton's laws of motion, and we made a balloon rocket.

Anthony loved chasing it.

Then we did a "parlor trick" science experiment. The pencil in a plastic bag of water. The kids were amazed that the water didn't leak out.

We made some rainbow loom bouncy balls to test out some more laws of motion.

And we learned about centrifugal force with spin art.

Build-your-own crazy straws taught them teamwork and water pressure.

Anthony got in on the action too.

Then we made marshmallow shooters... and shot goldfish crackers.

Our last day was "random experiment day." They love mixing things to see what happens.

I gave them cornstarch, vinegar, oil, water, food coloring, dish soap, tapioca maltodextrin (from our molecular gastronomy nights), peanut butter, and a few other ingredients. They made a huge mess, but they loved every minute of it.

Lastly, I made one more kind of slime...

Edible slime!

Now school has started, and they are learning in a more formal setting, so I will have to start planning our themes for next year!

Katie's Octonauts Party

I wrote all about the cake, but what good is a cake if there is no party? I got a lot of help with the decorations and food prep since the cake consumed so much of my time and energy, and I am so thankful for my parents and Paul who made it all come together for our precious Katie.

I made her Octonauts dress with tie-dye spray and iron-on transfer paper. My mom taped the crepe paper "seaweed" on the walls, and the inflatable fish that Paul hung all over the house were reused from her first birthday party (Rainbow Fish themed)... I'm so glad I saved them! We had balloons all around as well, but that was all. Not much decorating is needed for a pool party.

I made her a Captain Barnacles hat with craft foam and a sticker that Paul made for me with my Silhouette Cameo cutter.

It was a lunchtime party, so we had sandwich trays, fruit, veggies with hummus, shells and cheese, goldfish crackers, and "crabby crescent rolls".

An orca attacked the hummus.

Oyster Nilla wafers with icing and a large pearl sprinkle. So easy to make.

A fruit bowl shaped like one of the Gups.

I had a fish craft for the kids in case they got tired of swimming, but it was completely untouched, and I'm ok with that! Better to be prepared and not need than to run out.

We spent most of the party outside.

I was even prepared with outside games, like an inflatable dolphin ring toss game, but the pool was enough entertainment for everyone.

Birthday girl had a great time.

I think our guests had a great time too!

Then we had some cake.

We ended with present time. Katie got a whole army of Octonaut toys and other awesome gifts.

We sent our guests home with some Peso "medical bags" which contained stickers, shark fruit snacks, a squirter fish, sea creature sponge capsules, a nautical band-aid, and a fish ring pop.

Thank you to everyone who came and made Katie's day so special!