Birthday Camping

My daughter just turned 4.  We had a nice little gathering and made every attempt to meet her desires for her party.  Her requests were the following:  she wanted to go camping and swimming, she wanted a pink mummy style sleeping bag, and she wanted strawberries and Thomas on her birthday cake.  Those were 100% her ideas, and i gotta admit i got a bit teary with the camping and sleeping bag requests. 

We reserved some camp sites at Falls Lake (one of our local lakes), i took kayaks and there was a nice little swim beach, i managed to find a Eureka Lady Bug kids mummy style sleeping bag that had a big pink stripe (and insides), and we decorated her cake meeting her desires (and some of our :)  The party was a hit and i was pretty excited about how our camp scene cake turned out (check out the pic below). 

Z getting into her new sleeping bag.

Snugglin' down into the new bag :)

Birthday revelers heading out in some of the kayaks.

Z's 4th Birthday Cake

So, with left over holiday candy, some scissors, and toothpicks we made our scene. Graham cracker tent, gummy sleeping bag (cut from a darth vader head) and marshmallow pillow, gum drop fire ring, Twizzler flames, pretzel logs, marshmallow and toothpick roasting marshmallows, chocolate table, Smarty chairs, malt ball shoreline, white chocolate candy bar kayak, toothpick and gummy Yoda ears kayak paddle, and pretzel train tracks.  

The Fate of a Holiday Tree

We finally did it.  We got rid of our Christmas tree.  We make an effort every year with our holiday tree to either get a live tree we can plant, or if it's a cut tree, do something special with it after it's bathed in it's decorated glory. This year we dropped our, and a neighbors tree off to the NC Museum of Life and Science so that it could continue being enjoyed by their resident red wolves.  We've donated our cut tree to the museum before but i think it was pre-red wolves.  Maybe the bears got it last time?

This year seemed to have a little less pomp and fanfare for our giving-of-thanks to the tree.  In previous years we've tried to make a bit of a to-do of things when we retied it.  We'd make an event out of digging the hole to plant the live trees, or go as a whole family to take the tree to the museum, and we've also had a number of bonfire gatherings to welcome in the new year with friends and family (and whoa! let me tell ya, Frasier firs or white pine can be exciting ways to start a bonfire).  However, this year our undecorated tree was placed out in the front yard and waited there for about 3.5 weeks before my daughter and i unceremoniously shoved it into the back of our van with our neighbors tree.  We drove it over to the museum where we dumped it outside of an access fence to be taken away at a later time.  ...I had a moment of sadness thinking about how we didn't create a special, joyous moment with our children or friends, and then my daughter, who had been uncharacteristically quiet through all our endeavors, stepped up to the trees and said "i love our christmas tree."  and then turning to me asked, "now the wolves will love our christmas tree?"  ...little tear ...special moment achieved :)   ...and quick photo op.   Thanks Zella!

Scrappy Holiday

This year for the Holidays i made my kids their big presents.  And the coolest part about them is they are made almost entirely from scraps and re-purposed items!  For Zella, our 1.5 year old i made her a little kitchenette, and for Miles, our 6 year old, i made a castle.  Check 'em out.  If you have questions i'm happy to share more about my experience making them.

 

Kitchenette is made fro scrap lumber and marmoleum, juice, milk & peanut butter caps/lids, lid-less tupperware, unused sink trap, old cabinet handles,and tin packaging.

Castle is made from super thick cardboard box, 4 wooden clementine crates, scrap wood, 2 egg cartons, bottle caps, and altoids tins!

"Spooky" turned Sick Birthday

My son Miles turned 6 today.  He had requested a "Spooky" Birthday.  My wife and i wanted to do our best to meet this request and we put some decent thought and energy into making that happen.  Despite our well intentioned party plans, last night at around 12:30 a nasty, funky stomach bug appeared in the form of Miles vomiting violently all the way from his bed to the bathroom.  This was only the bugs first appearance of the evening...this horrible tummy critter proceeded to keep my son pitifully stumbling to the bathroom literally every hour on the hour until about 5:30ish.  After the bug made its final push to extract contents from my sons insides (that at this point were not there) it seemed to give in.  The Birthday that was planned and prepped was, before it even started, a distant memory.  What happened instead was chilling on the futon watching movies, door step visits of friends (who were going to be at the party) dropping off presents and get well cards, sipping ginger ale and nibbling saltines, reading books, and building with legos ...the entire day! ...holy crap! ...not the day we would have planned, and despite his low energy, Miles seemed to really genuinely have a good time.  Happy Birthday Miles!

Also, just cause i think it's all awesome, below i have posted some pics showing the pinata and cake we made for his "Spooky" Party.

Marshmallow Peep-like tombstone, chocolate eye-balls, bony arms and legs are the sticks for lollipops, and then gummy skulls, worms, tarantulas, and bugs!  Good stuff ;-)