Sunday, June 12, 2011

Jonathan's Construction Birthday Party, August 2010


Then came Jonathan's birthday. Daddy gave him a Swiss Army knife at breakfast. Daddy also made french toast, and we put a candle in Jonathan's stack. He thought that was a gas!
We had a construction party! What a fun time! I sent out invitations that were written on paint color chips. You know, those cards in the hardware store that show paint colors? Each box had a sentence..."Jonathan is "fixin" to turn 6! Construction site: our address. Shift: 2-4pm, and the date. RSVP to site boss, Darla, and our phone. Dress for mess!" When each of the 8 kids arrived, they were given a tool belt filled with a paint stir stick, a carpenter's pencil, a tape measure/level, a foam paintbrush, and a painters disposable hat, all of which was theirs to take home. Michael had made a house out of a refrigerator box, complete with windows and a door (with a milk jug handle doorknob!) Half of the kids started painting on the house, and the other half demolished a tower of boxes using a wrecking ball. After that got old, they had a wheelbarrow race. Then the teams switched places so everyone got a chance to use their paintbrushes to paint. Thankfully, some of the moms stayed, or this mom would have been a wreck!

The cake I made was sort of the one shown in the magazine for this party. I decided to use chocolate zucchini cake instead of a pound cake. I DID go to the store hoping to find 4 mini chocolate-covered doughnuts, 4 Twix, and 2 Twinkies. Note to self: don't leave things like this until crunch time. I bought a bag of about 24 mini chocolate-covered doughnuts, a huge bag of Twix, and a box of 12 Twinkies. ugh. Had I thought a little longer, I would have gone to a convenience store, right? Right. Then I wouldn't have had to eat the rest of the doughnuts and Twinkies. Jonathan saw the picture of the cake I was going to bake and said, "That's not an excavator, it's a backhoe loader." He wanted tracks, so we rigged up some Twizzler twists around the doughnuts. The cake was a hit.

Now, if you think that I think up all these things by myself, well, you have another think coming! This came straight from a Family Fun magazine, circa April 2008. (I saw it then, was fully aware of the little boy I was raising, and thought to myself, "Self, you ought to pull this one out and keep it. You're going to want it one of these years.") I am glad I kept it. I went into our local lumber yard to see if they had free nail pouches, paint sticks, brushes, anything I could get free or cheap as I was making a dozen. I had the pages I had torn out of the magazine with me. The lady helping me saw in the list of things to pack in the tool belt "Small measuring tape, $1, Home Depot" and promptly sat to her computer and ordered me a dozen for $1 each! She did everything she could to give me discounts or freebies. We live in a cool town.

Kids' Shared Birthday Party, early August 2010

Well, because Michael and I skipped town on Annisia's birthday, she didn't get a pary with friends. So, we planned a party for both kids to share with their little friends from our fellowship meeting. Annisia got to choose the cake. She chose an ice cream cake! Yippee! No baking! It was so fun to do. I bought a gallon of fudge swirl ice cream ( I NEVER buy a gallon of ice cream, well, only at Christmas time when I get one of those collector tins from Schwan's, but usually never...), I made hot fudge sauce. I used my cheesecake pan, put an oreo crust down, covered it with ice cream, a layer of hot fudge, more ice cream. Then I put blue food coloring into whipped cream and spread it over the top. Once frozen, I pulled off the springform pan and surrounded the cake with Twix and pretzels. I got a Dora and baby twins toy for Annisia and a little Annikan from Star Wars for Jonathan, then borrowed the golf balls from a little golf set the kids had. The dolls went into gummy rings and the balls were beach balls...voila! A pool party!

I decorated a table for the party too. I got the idea from the May 2009 Parents magazine then tweaked it a little with my imagination and what I had available.  I painted a tree and hills. The tree was a big green apple tree, with bowls of green things; green pepper strips, broccoli, Granny Smith apples, green grapes and cucumbers. The tree trunk was covered with pretzels and topped with peanut butter. Beside that was a hot air balloon filled with more grapes. There was a sun...a red bowl filled with goldfish crackers inside a yellow bowl filled with tortillla chips, surrounded by rainbow fruit rollups. There were some flowers with salsa, carrots, ranch dressing, and a couple of caterpillars; snack cups filled with raisins and an animal cracker. It's a good thing mommies came. The kids could have cared less! Simply put, the cake was the cake!
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Annisia's Birthday, July 2010

We gathered at Pizza Hut to celebrate Annisia's birthday. We had the buffet, then I brought out the ice cream sandwiches. We lit a candle in hers and started singing, 8 adults and Jonathan. A table of high school girls who were enjoying lunch after a tough volleyball practice joined in! What a sweet surprise and great addition to our feeble song! The middle photo here is Annisia blushing at all the attention! Makes me laugh every time I look at it...
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