“Once There Was A Snowman” Party

All “spare” time this week went toward preparing for Kaitlyn’s birthday party but honestly most of it was play.  Kaitlyn prepared many of the games herself under my direction or we worked on things together.  With Nathan’s help we got all our games, decorations and baking done for our Snowman Party.

First we have our hanging centerpiece.  Nathan, Kaitlyn and I made various sized snowflakes with scissors and the hole punch.  We tied them to white curly ribbon, one flake on each end of the ribbon with extra to dangle and hung them over the fan in the kitchen with gentle hanging curls on the ends.  Haley liked it so much she gave us permission to keep it up for her birthday!  We’ll see if the kids and cats allow for this but it really looked very pretty.

We decorated a Mason jar with stickers, filled it with cotton balls for our “hide the snowball” game to be played as the kids got to the party.  We made a giant snowball (seen in the middle) drawing a snowman face on it’s front to play “pass the snowball” to our “once there was a snowman” music.  Inside it were prizes, one for each child to take home which they found by unwrapping one layer at a time.  And our favor bags were plain snowy white bags stamped with a snowman.  Kaitlyn wrote her friend’s names on the bags and they collected their game prizes in their bags along with a few party favors.

As kids got to the party and got settled in after hiding their “snowballs” around the house they got to make a snowman pin and also string a candy necklace.

With party music in the background these snowmen were glued together with tacky glue by the children using two of three different sized white pom poms, googly eyes, red ribbon for the scarf, orange felt for the carrot nose and black felt hats which I cut out and glued together the night before.  Haley glued a pin on the back of each snowman with the glue gun so they can be worn.  Once this was completed we had a three minute hunt to see who could find the most snowballs.  Peter came in with the largest number of ten.

We gathered for lunch at noon.  Lindsay’s friend Kayla came to help and she got everyone’s hands washed in the bathroom.  This was no small feat after having worked with glue.

We had icy lemonade and snowflake sandwiches made with homemade jam and peanut butter or cream cheese.  Raisins and marshmallows were used for making these into a snowman face because after all!  Sometimes it should be OK to play with your food!  And we had snowball yogurt.

We had frosty fruits which looked frozen and beautiful but were not actually frozen.  It was a trick of egg white and sugar.

Everyone was hungry.  Kaitlyn and Eleanor sit together.  Peter and Keira are next to each other.

  

James enthusiastically decorated his snowman face and Enoch loved the strawberries.

I’m always surprised by how little children actually eat at parties.  You know they’re hungry but I think the excitement wins out.

It was time for games and so we played “Musical Snowmen” to “Once There Was Was a Snowman” music by a cappella group “Inside Out” on Kaitlyn’s “Primary Colors” CD (Hilarious, by the way).  Kaitlyn drew snowmen on cardstock and numbered them for this game.  Lindsay controlled the music and when the music stopped I pulled a number out of the bag as the children scrambled to land on a snowman.  This way nobody was out, everyone could play multiple times and have extra chances to win but everyone won at least once.  This game was a lot of fun and the kids loved picking out their own prizes from the snowman tin.  There were Sweet Tart lollipops in the shape of a heart, heart shaped chocolates, pretty pencils, rubber balls, tiny note pads and small bottles of bubbles.  Many of these prizes were leftover party favors from previous parties that I still had in my party box.  They made GREAT prizes.  The candy, of course, was fresh!!!

We had a relay race, boys against girls, of “Blow the Snowball”.  Every one on the winning team got to pick from the prize tin.

We played “Stamp the Snowball”.  Everyone had a snowball tied to their waist and dragging slightly on the floor.  The object was to try to stamp on other peoples snowball while protecting your own snowball from being stamped on.  Once your snowball was stamped on and came off its string you had to sit down.  The last one standing with the snowball still in tact was the winner.  They wanted to play this game again but this was a one time only game.

We also played pin the carrot on the snowman, a variation of the old party favorite.

I always love watching kids play this game.

Then we played “pass the snowball”, a version of my older kids favorite “pass the parcel”.

 

We again used more “Once there was a Snowman” music and Adelaide showed up just in time for the last game and some cake.

 

Everyone got a chance to unwrap a layer of this snowball when the music stopped and they were left holding the snowball.

This way EVERYONE gets the excitement of unwrapping a present that Kaitlyn picked out for her friends.

On to dessert with the last 15 minutes of the party.  We served Snowball Ice Cream and a cake featuring Snowmen on a Toboggan.

This cake was to be chocolate but as I was making it realized that the jelly roll portion of the cake was NOT chocolate and so I MADE it chocolate but adding in some cocoa and extra sugar.  Once it was cool I made a chocolate filling for the cake and re-rolled it.  As I made the frosting for the top I realized it was not as dark as I hoped it would look and so I made a ganache and in two stages poured it over the cake.  Then I trimmed it with white icing and coconut and put together snowmen with some almond coconut candies, icing and mini chips.  The only thing inedible was the scarf made out of scraps of red ribbon. 

We sang Happy Birthday to our birthday girl who thought this was like having a second birthday or at least loved spreading out the fun over a longer period of time.

Each child was served a half slice of cake (this is a rich one) and a choice of chocolate or vanilla snowball ice cream.

Kaitlyn loved the cake so much she said she wants it again next year.  I think I’d better start writing down what I did!  (Rick is shaking his head at me with this but agrees I’d better start writing something down).

Two hours for a party is almost not long enough.  Almost!  Without a moment of down time parents began coming for their children and it was already time to say goodbye to Eleanor, Adelaide, Peter, Enoch, Kayla, Keira and James.  This is the most children I’ve ever had show up for a party so the end of January must be a good time to have one.  My rule for younger children is having as many children over as the age of the child plus one or two because inevitably someone won’t be able to make it.  So it was a nice turnout and only one child couldn’t come.

After saying goodbye to Kaitlyn’s best friend Enoch and his brother Peter we opened presents.  We had simply run out of time during the party for this and since it’s the toughest for guests we just skipped it.  Kaitlyn was excited about this.

Kaitlyn got the last prize from “pass the snowball” as a gift.  She got a box of crayons and a purse homemade by Peter and Enoch’s Mom.  The purse is ADORABLE and very much Kaitlyn’s style.

Eleanor and Adelaide brought glow bracelets.  James brought a giant paint book.  Kaitlyn is very excited about both of these gifts as she loves crafting.

Keira brought stampers and an activity book with finger crayons.  So much fun!

Kaitlyn enjoyed getting birthday wishes from friends and the time she got to spend with them having them over to her house to celebrate with her.  I enjoyed helping Kaitlyn plan this birthday party for my very special five year old.  She has nice friends and I think everyone had a very good time, especially Kaitlyn.  I like that this party was uniquely Kaitlyn.  She helped in each stage of preparation for this birthday party and putting it together it even gave me a chance to teach her about budgeting money.  We used a modest portion of the total money that we had set aside for her birthday back when we did our annual budget to pay for the party, including any specialty foods or ingredients not always on hand.  This helped us as we went shopping and she was able to make choices.  I could see what really mattered to her and she was left with what she really wanted.  Plus we had a great time making everything together.  Snowmen are big this year for her and it suited a party to include both girls and boys.  I’m really glad we had a friend’s party at home.

Party Planning Girls

Kaitlyn and I have been busy making plans for her first “Friends Party”, a privilege reserved up until now.  Her real birthday may have been several weeks ago but Rick has been at work for all but one of the Saturdays since then and just coming off of Christmas we needed time to get our plans together.  As birthday parties approach for my children I have this birdie on my shoulder that says “let’s pay someone else to throw a party somewhere else… like a bowling alley or a McDonalds or anywhere else… but then I decide my original idea that home parties are better still holds true and when we get on a roll they are really a lot of fun.  Plus it’s a great way for me to spend time with my child one on one, more or less.  We talk, plan, shop, create, cook and together come up with a great product that is uniquely our own and I’m glad for it all.  This holds true once again.  As we were pouring through various materials for ideas there was one that sort of evolved and then finally jumped out at us.  Why not have a Snowman Party???  So we are doing it up everything Snowman from the music and craft to the games and food.  Even the cake and ice cream will be all snowmen and we’re excited.  We have worked on our home made invitations all week for our “Once there was a Snowman” party and finally they are ready to pass out to friends tomorrow.  They have to be handed out in person or else mailed in a padded envelope (a down side to this particular invitation).   



Here is the bag containing all of the completed invitations to hand out.  Hooray!  Now hopefully we’ll end up with weather NOT be conducive to actually building a snowman but to getting friends over to our house.  January can bring any kind of weather with it.  We’re hoping for all things “Snowman” EXCEPT the weather next Saturday.  (And yes, my invites are going out a little late but I’ve already alerted their mothers to the date via the wonders of technology… No, I’m no Martha).



The invitation front is designed with buttons originally being sewn on with different colored threads making the facial features but as my dabs of glue hardened I found it impossible to drive a needle through… so I resorted to fine tipped permanent markers.  Still cute.  The invitations also feature a shimmery blue ribbon, various snowman stamps on the inside as well as the name tag on the invite.  The party information is found inside the folded invitation.  Kaitlyn helped design and glue these together.  She helped me tie the ribbons and she wrote her friends names on the tags herself.  You might guess that we will be busy all this coming week now preparing games, prizes and food. 
Side story… when I went shopping for my family’s two week supply of food AND the party food the cashier giggled when she asked if I found everything OK!!!  I already knew what was coming.  When I said “oh yes, just fine, thank you” she commented that I certainly had a lot of candy, pretzels and cookies!  It was like being on that TV show “What would YOU do?” only I hadn’t signed up for any such thing.  I told her I was shopping for my five kids AND a birthday party and then left her with a smile.  She didn’t say anything more.  One of the reasons I like shopping at Sam’s so much (this wasn’t Sam’s) is because no one looks at you like you have antennas coming out of your forehead when you buy a four pack of butter or five pound container of mixed salad greens or a gallon jug of vinegar or a food service size box of salt or two 25lb. bags of flour.  Now I had a good number of fruits, vegetables, meats, dairy products and even glue sticks in my cart too but the cashier only took note of ice cream flavors and bags of candy for favor bags for 7-8 visiting kids.  I didn’t go into the fact that their $1 deals mean that I stock up on those particular items this time that I won’t buy now until the next time they go on sale.  Yes, I shop differently from most.  Just because I buy 4 bags of chicken this trip doesn’t mean that the only meat I eat for the next two weeks is chicken!  Just because I bought 10 bottles of conditioner doesn’t mean I forgot the shampoo or that I’m buying for a hotel.  People pass judgment way too quickly on other people.  I save a lot of money shopping the way that I do.  Anyway, I digress…
So Kaitlyn is very excited about having her friends over and she’s been looking forward to a friends party for a while now.  It was kind of funny because on her “real” birthday we got done eating dinner and were sitting down in the living room getting ready for presents when Kaitlyn called everything to a halt.  Sitting there she said “Mom, when are my friends getting here?  I can’t open my presents or have cake until my friends get here.”  I told her they weren’t coming that night.  She responded “but I promised Enoch that he could come to my birthday party and have cake with me.  I promised!”  I had to tell Kaitlyn that it was a school night and that we would plan a party with games and another cake for a coming Saturday and we would give her friends invitations.  Then she smiled in relief, rolling her eyes at herself for not understanding.  She’s pretty funny sometimes.

Paws in the Kitchen

Not sure if Sandy is trying to help cook or take a bath in this pan of water but this is where I found her yesterday, standing with all four paws in the pan.  This IS the cat who willingly jumps into the tub with my children during their baths so the bath is a possibility.

Thankfully the stove was NOT on and this water had just been used to cool a pan of scalded milk a little while earlier.  Regardless, Sandy is always looking to get warm in the winter time.  I just hope she doesn’t find herself a little too warm one of these days.

Winter Tea Party

After a few very nice January days outdoors for walks and ball games we found ourselves “stuck” indoors once again out of the freezing cold rain.  We spent the later morning hours mixing up a batch of chocolate chip cookies, the three of us donning our aprons and letting tray after tray of them cool on wire racks in preparation for our afternoon “tea party”.  Sometimes our impromptu tea parties consist of water only but not this day.  We needed some fun and just as the first fat flakes of snow came tumbling down outside of our windows turning the bushes and trees into great clouds of cotton candy we were ready for the festivities.

The children each brought a baby, we spread out a blanket on the floor of the living room, turned on a little soft classical and Kaitlyn brought out her tea set.  After a brief discussion about being polite as well as gentle we got down to the business of having fun.

There was a tiny pitcher of cream, a sugar bowl with a teeny tiny spoon and a pot of apple cinnamon herbal tea.  I don’t know if people usually put those things in tea but my kids really like to add these.

Curiosity got the better of Sandy and we found ourselves with another guest at our tea party as we giggled.

Sandy thought it was very sweet of the children to set up a place for her too!

Kaitlyn showed Nathan how to be very careful and gentle with the tea set.  She is a good big sister to him.

Kaitlyn did not forget to share with her baby.  Nathan LOVED spooning sugar into his cup.

They used polite words with each other as they passed and shared.

All too soon the tea party was cleared away and Sandy seemed a little disappointed as she sat on the sidelines.  Kaitlyn washes each piece carefully by hand and sets them out to dry before tucking the set back in her basket again.  The children had lots of fun as they had practiced some important life skills.  Fleeting childhood at its best.

Kaitlyn’s Grandfather recently asked her if she was going to be a doctor when she grew up.  She thought a moment and then said “Hmmm!  No… I think I’m going to be a Mommy when I grow up”. 

Tooth Fairy Strikes AGAIN!

One lucky little girl had her 2nd visit from the Tooth Fairy last night.  Kaitlyn woke up yesterday morning and after a few minutes found me again and said “I think I’m missing a tooth”!  I took a look and sure enough… there were no bottom front teeth at all!!!  So the hunt began for the missing tooth which fortunately was easily found right in her bed on the sheets .  Phew!  Now, usually I’ve been a little more prepared for these loose teeth but I’ve been finding myself a little behind with things lately… maybe because I’m never alone for about 18 hours out of my day.  I knew this little girl needed a special tooth fairy pillow and NOW!  If you are to buy a special Tooth Fairy Pillow you can pay anywhere from $5 to $45 dollars; most falling somewhere in the middle of that number.  So I set about searching through my scrap bin yesterday afternoon to see what I had on hand.  As I was tucking two little ones into bed last night Kaitlyn realized she hadn’t asked to borrow anyone’s Tooth Fairy Pillow so she knew she was left with no option but to wrap her special tooth in a tissue .  Would the Fairy still come?  How would he/she know?  Could he/she find her?  Clearly this was a big deal!  These and more were questions I needed to answer and I told Kaitlyn that a tissue would most likely be fine.  Try it and see what happens.  As soon as I got children into bed last night and before the older ones came home from their activities I got right to work.  My husband kindly folded the clean diapers when he did get home and in about an hour (a little more to pull out basting stitches from the ruffle) this is what I came up with using all scraps from previous quilts.  I even found one scrap with the perfect dimensions to make a matching ruffle for a pillow this size, it turned out, and I was thrilled.

This is the front of the pillow …             This is the back with a tiny lace trimmed pocket.

This morning Kaitlyn cheerfully came down the stairs exclaiming that her coins were found inside of the tissue she had put her tooth in but the tissue was found in a tiny pocket of a brand new Tooth Fairy Pillow which the Tooth Fairy must have brought.  It was like magic!!!  Kaitlyn was quite pleased with the delivery  of this gift… so was I.

A cute girl with a new smile AND a new Tooth Fairy Pillow!

She has NO bottom front teeth at the moment

Pumpkin Cream Trifle

So it’s not autumn anymore but it’s still a great season for utilizing the recent pumpkin harvest.  Being in charge of FHE treats tonight gave me an opportunity to try something new… and DELICIOUS!  My baker boy enthusiastically got to work helping to count out measurements and crack the eggs calling himself “Chef Nathan”.  The recipe utilizes things that I had down in my “pantry” and the cake mix needed to get used up soon since I find them handy to have on hand but rarely make anything with box mixes.  Here’s is what we came up with and it’s so good it may replace a Thanksgiving Pie next year.  The cake is unbelievably moist and tastes wonderful all by itself without anything to dress it up.  This worked out well for one of my children who prefers plain cake w/ NO cream.  Also this recipe is super easy and would be even easier if the instant pudding in a box is used. 

Pumpkin Cream Trifle – Serves 16 – Easy Recipe
1 box of spice cake mix
1 box instant vanilla pudding mix (I make my own pudding mix)
1 c. pumpkin puree
1/2 c. vegi/canola oil
1/2 c. water
3 eggs
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
Preheat oven to 350.  Spray a 9x13 with non-stick spray.  In large mixing bowl combine cake mix, vanilla pudding mix, pumpkin, oil, water, eggs, cinnamon and ginger.  Mix until batter looks thick and well blended about 3 minutes.  Pour into prepared pan and bake 32-39 minutes till cake center is done and edges spring back.  Cool completely.  (This cake can freeze at this point if desired for later time). 
Cream
2 pkgs. instant vanilla pudding made w/ 2 cups of milk (again, I made my own non instant pudding and cooked it accordingly)
Combine pudding w/ 1 container (2 cups) Cool Whip or Whipped Cream
Assembly
Cut or tear cake into 1 inch cubes and layer in trifle bowl w/ Cream mixture and English Toffee Bits and Pecans (pecans are optional) 3 times each.  Drizzle with Caramel Sauce.  Serve immediately or refrigerate covered for no longer than 24 hours. 
Adapted from the World Wide Ward Cookbook p. 214