Mom of Boys

Last night I hosted a Christmas Cookie Exchange with some girls from my play group.  We had a lot of fun and we got to taste a bunch of different cookies!  I made Gingerbread Men and Snickerdoodle cookies.  I made the dough for the Gingerbread the night before since it needed to be in the fridge and since I didn’t have to bake anything yet… (and didn’t taste any…)  I just felt like I just needed to make some other cookies! 

So everyone got here and we played a little game.  I had them all take the number of Ingredients, the number of kids they had, the amount of time they had to bake and add that up.  Then I had them add 5 points if they worked part time, 10 points if they worked full time and 5 minutes if they had to refridgerate the dough.  The winner was a girl who made lemon bars, which… to me were WAY too sweet!  They were good, I just couldn’t eat a whole one! 

There were also sugar cookies, chewy coconut cookies (YUUUUMMM!) and some Buttermilk Cookies that were so soft and melted in my mouth!  I forgot to grab a copy of that recipe, but I will have to get it!  Anyways, we have a few more then that but these were my favorite.  I happened to get left with MORE then my share of cookies, which is ok for the cookies that I’ve already eaten tons of!  I do have a whole plate full of those lemon bars though.  Ack!

I realize that I am over a week late in posting this…  But the past couple of weeks have been busy and I have a few more blogs to post AFTER this as well….

We had Caleb’s 4th birthday Party the Saturday after his party.  Everyone who I invited came, and we had a lot of fun!  I didn’t do everything that I had planned on doing, but it was such a good party anyways!  After everyone showed up, we had the kids put on the sorting hat and they were sorted into 4 houses.  Then we decorated party hats and the kids got thier wands.  We had Caleb show the rest of the kids the spell to use when you see a dementor.  That’s when we dropped the dementor pinata from the deck.  Unfortunatly, the pinata was too tough for the kids… and the stick broke!  So, we dumped the prizes out and we had cake.  The cake turned out to be pretty good…  I really though I had gotten in way over my head until it was done.  Everyone loved it and everyone was really impressed, which mad me feel better about it.  Anyways… I was happy witht he party. 

 

One part I forgot. We opened gifts after most of the party had left. We still had family and a few of our close friends around. It wasn’t so crazy and he got TONS of stuff!!! I got him a radio flyer scooter, which he loves! We go out to ride it all the time and it’s easy for us to take along with us to the park or to grandma’s house.

I love to do artsy crafty things and I’m always looking up projects to do with the kids or projects to do by myself.  When I was younger, my step mom taught us how to make all sorts of things, including a our own piñata, which is why when the challenge came up to make Caleb’s Dementor piñata, I had no problem.  Well, Marcus decided to get in on the action and put on the last layers of paper mache for me.  When we were done he was axious to get started on something else.  He started drawing out plans to make a castle piñata!  LOL!  So cute!  I started working on other things and suggested that he try to make a sorting hat out of paper mache.  He didn’t waste any time getting into the kitchen and asking how I made the paste!  Ha ha!  I’m glad I can share my passion for arts and crafts with Marcus.  He told me, “It’s fun… almost like being a kid again!” 

Anyways…  I have been thinkign about making the cake this weekend and freezing.  Although, I have no clue how I’m going to freeze the cake and have it taste just as good?  I thought at first that I would use fondant, but I really don’t like the taste so maybe I will try to work just with the frosting and do all of the details and such by hand?  Maybe I’m in over my head witht he cake…  Crystal, we may be up till 2:00 in the am again on Friday night.  LOL!

I’ve been super busy in the past week.  We went to VA Beach last Thursday and I helped Crystal get ready for Jayden’s birthday party.  I helped her out with the princess cake, which turned out pretty good if I do say so myself!  I’m home now and have been trying to get everything for Caleb and Alec’s party ready and set.  I’ve finished with shopping for the party favors and supplies I need to make the decorations and such…  Today I started to put together the pinata which was a big goooo-ey mess!  Not it just needs to dry and I can put the crape paper on it and dress it up to look like a dementor.  That part shouldn’t take long though… The casing for the pinata will take a week to dry, so I needed to get it done!  I also sat down and made a Harry Potter Playlist of songs to play during the party.  So…  that’s 2 things down! 

I’m excited about this party.  Let’s hope I get everything done in time! 

 

 

I NEED to write all of my ideas out, because I think I have too many!  Caleb really wants a Harry Potter Party, and I’m pretty sure I can pull it off…  I just need to think it through.  A Harry Potter party seemed like a pretty easy thing to do, and I have plenty of ideas! I may need to make a lot of these things myself though, like the invites and I had an idea for the piniata, but… looks like I will have to make the piniata myself too!  Anyways… 

Invites will be printed on “parchment” and sent in the mail with the hogwarts seal to look like an acceptance letter. 
I have to buy the paper and print the letters…

Dear ,  We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for Caleb’s 4th Birthday Party. We look forward to seeing you on Saturday, September 29, 2007 and remember, the train leaves King’s Cross Station (located at , Ashburn) at Eleven O’clock AM sharp and the journey will last 3 hours. Please RSVP by sending an OWL to rdunbaugh@gmail.com or by using the FLEW Network to by Saturday, September 22nd. Note that students may wish to wear their casual robes, as the journey may entail physical activity as well as working with messy potion ingredients.  We look forward to your arrival at Hogwarts.

Respectfully, Deputy Headmistress Robyn L. Dunbaugh.

Class List for First-Year Students: Orientation & Matriculation- History of Magic, Herbology, Potions, Defense against the Dark Arts, Quidditch Practice & Flying Lessons, Care of Magical Creatures, Excursion to Hogsmead, Divination 

The Party:
Orientation & Matriculation- History of Magic:  So… I’m thinking that I will put 2 signs on either side of our walkway to our house…  1 saying Platform 9 and one saying Platform 10.  (our door will be 9 3/4 and the sign for that will be inside.)  Have to make these signs…  Once inside, the kids will get sorted.  I havn’t decided if they should pick what house to be in, or if they should choose a house at random.  Once they are sorted they will get a badge with their house crest on it.  Have to make the badges.  I’ll have them decorate their own wizard hats with glitter, glue, feathers, pompoms & foam stars & moons.  I have to find black party hats, or else spray paint some cheap ones.  For wands, (Olivander’s ?) I can get some dowel sticks, cut them off and paint them…  I’m also thinking about some kind of loot bad, and not some cheesy plastic ones either, cause there’s a lot of ‘goodies’ that these kids will accumulate….  - keeping this in mind.

Herbology:  Kids can plant some seeds into little cups, so that they can take them home and watch them grow.  Maybe soem parsley or soemthing?

Potions:  I’m getting all sorts of sand art bottles from the craft store and I will put in a bunch of different things… oil, vinegar, spices, and we can pour over a cold pasta salad with in bowls.  Then we will do the same with Popcorn.  I will have Popcorn in bags with unicorn dust(cinnamon sugar), dragon scale(taco seasoning), swamp grass(italian seasoning), ghost whispers(parmesan cheese), for the kids to shake over their popcorn.

Care of Magical Creatures:  Kids can go look at bugs, snakes, lizards… (Led by Uncle Norman maybe?)

Excursion to Hogsmead:  (each kid gets 4 galleons to spend) - (Gringots?) Taking place outside…
Lunch at the Three Broomsticks:  need to make a sign  for three broomsticks.  will serve ButterBeer”(rootbeer floats) or “Polyjuice Potion”(lime soda with lime sherbet), pizza and fruit. 
Honeyduke’s Sweet Shop:  They will get to choose from Bartie Bott’s Everyflavor Bean(jellybeans), Liquorish Wands(twizzlers), Chocolate Frogs(chocolate molds & melted chocolate), and Fizzleing Whizbees(pop rocks), Worms (Gummy Worms).

Back to the Great Hall (dining room) for Cake:  I can hang stars from the ceiling just like in the Great Hall.  I found a Harry Potter Birthday Quidditch Cake Decorating Kit.  I still have to bake the cake, and use fondant to make the playing field and all… but I think Caleb will really like it! The cake will take most of my time to prepare, so I need to think about preparing the rest of this in advance, or pulling some major help from my family!

Defense against the Dark Arts:  Dimentor Pinata!!!  The one thing that will actually take longer then the cake, but I can make this weeks in advance.  YES, I’m making a pinata!  It’s pretty easy to do actually… I just need to design it and get it done! 

Quidditch Practice & Flying Lessons:  I’ve had a few ideas on this, but non that are too great.  One being that we could have a sort of relay race, with two teams and two brooms where they put the broom between their legs and ‘fly’ to a hoola hoop.  Go through and then find the GOLDEN snitch in the ball pit (I will have several in there) and then ‘fly’ back.  We could also play ‘Pass the Snitch’ which would sort of be like playing Hot Potato. 

Divination: A glimpse into the future, presents revealed.

 

 

Ok… So I’m super excited about this party!  I think I might have more fun with it then the kids!  Ha!  I’m crazy…