a book shower

To celebrate the upcoming arrival of my baby, my sweet friends asked if they could throw me a shower. I admit that I hesitated, since this was my fourth child... and really, I had everything I needed. But a shower gives you a rare opportunity to gather with friends and really take a moment to celebrate a new baby, and I always feel a little sad when my friends opt not to have a shower at all.

So we decided to have a book shower. Books are always welcome in our house, and I knew each and every gift would be put to good use by the whole family. My dear friend Emily who hosted the shower, found a beautiful illustration from an old copy of Huckleberry Finn and used that as the inspiration for the theme. It was perfect for celebrating the arrival of a new little boy. (Special thanks to my friends at Blonde Designs, who designed the invite.) 

Blankets were laid out on the grass, lanterns were lit, and friends settled in to enjoy a selection of pies. It was almost too pretty to eat. The pies were brought by different friends and included Harvest Berry, Lemon, Fresh Strawberry, Cherry, Rustic Apple, and Coconut Cream. They were all amazing and I think I ate leftover pie for breakfast for the rest of the week!

Little mason jars with tiny votives were hung above the buffet, cleverly tied through the wooden slats of the deck above. Some beautiful books were tucked under the pies and around the shower (picked up at the local library's used book store for 25 cents each). 

I was given so many wonderful books! My friends were worried that I would receive duplicates or books we already owned, so I made a wishlist on Amazon full of books I've wanted for years or new copies of books we've loved so well they are now tattered and torn. The kids were thrilled when I came home and showed them our new stash. I don't think I've ever been more excited about gifts!

As a favor, little bookplates were given to each guest. I took a pile for myself and added them to all the books I received at the shower. I love that these books will be with us for years to come, and each time we open them I will be reminded of my dear friends and this lovely summer evening. Thank you friends!

bee turns five

Bee had several ideas for her birthday party this year, but we decided on a pink pajama party. Bee's birthday is a little before Valentine's day, so hearts were the perfect motif. Invites were simple cards with a sewn on heart slipped into envelopes we made following this tutorial. Bee personally delivered them to all her friends (these envelopes are awfully cute, but I wouldn't try to mail them!).

We blew up a ton of balloons to throw around the house, which is much easier if your husband takes over and blows them up with his air compressor. I usually get a dozen or so helium balloons for a party, but you can about 5 dozen unfilled balloons for the same price, and when it comes to balloons... I say the more, the merrier.

Our party started at 9 AM, and we asked the kids to come in their pajamas (and bring their pillows with them). The kids seemed to get a kick out of showing up in their pjs, and they looked awfully cute all together. Bee requested a number shirt like I always make C for his birthday, so I freezer paper stenciled a 5 in a heart. One benefit of an early party is that it forces you to have everything ready the night before, there's no time to rush around and finish things in the morning, which is great if you are a procrastinator like myself. 

When the kids first arrived we sat at the table and made valentine's... kind of like a kid version of Martha's crafternoon. We had punches and crayons and paper and stickers and the kids did a great job all on their own (I thought it was sweet that most of the kids chose to make cards for their moms).

We spread blankets out and had the kids lie down on their pillows while we read a few of Bee's favorite picture books... JR makes a very convincing pigeon.

During the stories, I took one girl at a time and painted their nails. Bee is a nail biter and I have NEVER let her paint her nails... I said that would be her reward if she could stop biting her nails. A few weeks before the party she showed me her hand so I could see that she had stopped, and much to Bee's delight, we got to paint fingernails at the party!

We used some old pillowcases for sack races in the backyard. We did several heats since the kids were much faster than I thought! We also played "musical pillows", which is just like musical chairs except you jump on a pillow when the music stops.

One game that we made up on the spot was the pillow long jump, seeing how far each child could jump in one jump.. and if they fall, they land on a bunch of pillows! We also played pin the heart on Bee (instead of pin the tail on the donkey).

We kept the food simple: little pink pancakes with strawberry jam and whipped cream, fruit skewers, and orange juice. (It gets busy trying to serve nine five year olds pancakes all at the same time, so forgive me for not having a photo!) I think pancakes are the perfect kid party food.. they all love pancakes and it's nice to be able to make one thing instead of sandwiches where I feel I need to make three varieties to make everyone happy.

We had blueberry muffins for "dessert" so Bee could blow her candles out, it just seemed a little early to be giving kids cake! All in all, a really fun party.. and one of the easier parties we've done in terms of planning. Happy birthday little Bee..

the name game

Now that we have young children, New Year's Eve has become a night of marathon game playing. Kids play Monopoly and Candyland with their grandparents and cousins. Adults play a card game we call Blackout and maybe a round of Carcassonne or Ticket to Ride.

It also happens to be my sister's birthday so we usually spend it together, ringing in the New Year and singing Happy Birthday simultaneously. Looking for a fun game to play tonight while you wait for the clock to strike twelve? Try the Name Game. I'm sure this game goes by many other names, but this is what my friends and I always called it. It's great for groups of about 6 to 12 adults, and requires nothing more than paper and pens.

Cut some paper up into little strips (you'll need a decent amount). Each person grabs a handful of paper strips and a pen and writes one name on each. Names can include celebrities, historical figures, people you all happen to know, fictional characters, etc. As you can see from the sampling above we like to include a wide range of interests, and it's best to try and think of names that are well known but a little obscure. Remember that both teams will be using the names, so if you make it TOO obscure like John Tyler (our 10th U.S. president) you'll be hurting when you pull that name yourself.

All the names are folded in half once and put in a large bowl (the folding is important since you don't want people to see other names). Divide your people into two teams, alternating turns between the teams. Each person takes a turn. Reach into the bowl and pull out a name, then try and get your team to guess who it is. There aren't a lot of rules about what you can and can't do. Obviously you can't say the person's name, and you can't do any "rhymes with" tricks.. but you can list movies they've been in, or sing the theme song for their show, or name the books they wrote.

For example, if you pulled out Wes Anderson, you'd say "He's the director who's really skinny and he did Royal Tenanbaums and Rushmore.. and they always star Bill Murray and the Owens brothers!" Your team tries to guess as quickly as they can. The turns are timed (1 to 2 minutes) and you win by scoring the most points for your team. If you get stuck on a name, you can throw it back in the bowl and choose another, but you lose a point. The team with the most points at the end of the bowl wins.

name that kid

Last weekend my husband and I were in charge of putting on our church Christmas party. We usually have a family party, with a visit from Santa Claus, but this year we decided to have an adult only sit down dinner. We hoped it would give people a chance to mingle and get to know one another, more so than when we are busy running after our children.

We knew we needed a game of some sort to kind of bring the party together. So we asked everyone to email a Christmas photo from their childhood, and we used a projector to project the pictures on the wall. They were numbered, so everyone had a card numbered 1-50, and you had to write down who you thought each kid was. We laughed at how easy we could recognize certain people because their children look exactly like them when they were kids. A box of Trader Joes peppermint Jo-Jos was our prize for the winner.

I think this would work well for a Christmas party at home, and you wouldn't need a projector. Just have people bring a photo with them in an envelope (so people don't see who brought which photo), then arrange them on a wall or table along with numbers and have everyone write down who they think is who.

We loved seeing so many photos from Christmases past.. sitting on Santa's lap, acting out the nativity, decorating the Christmas tree, leaving cookies for Santa. It made me realize the importance of documenting these moments with my own kids... to help them remember what Christmas was like when they were a kid.

A special thank you to my friends who let me post their photos here!

the witching hour

First, an apology: These photos don't do justice to this beautiful party. Everything was so lovely in real life, and I'm sorry that I couldn't capture it better with my camera (low light and I do not get along!).

My friend Aleisha has started a new Halloween tradition, a witch party she calls "The Witching Hour". The invite read "Leave your warlocks at home, don your most bewitching attire and come revel in an enchanting ghouls' night filled with a sinister supper and wicked company. Brooms and black cats will be checked at the door. A prize will be awarded for the most spellbinding hat." A baked potato bar was served for dinner. Friends gathered in the backyard around a glowing fire, decked out in black (think striped tights, pointy hats, and lots of black tulle!).

For dessert, I brought some little pots of pumpkin pie (served in tiny mason jars). There were delicious raspberry bars and marshmallows for s'mores to be roasted on the fire.

Little hand pies were left at the door as a favor "for the flight home".

mom beach day

On Saturday we had our first "Mom Beach Day", and I hope it becomes a yearly tradition.

During the summer we spend a lot of our time at the beach. I loved the ocean when I was a kid, and my children love it as well. There are endless ways to spend your time: running from the waves, looking at tidepools, collecting seashells, building sandcastles, chasing the seagulls... The beach is the only place where my children just play! I have to remind them to eat lunch, to drink some water, to put on some sunscreen.

And though I love going to the beach with my children, I can't say it's entirely relaxing for me. I'm always watching to make sure the kids stay close, or that they aren't about to be knocked over by a wave, or that they don't accidentally shovel sand on the person sitting next to us.

This year I sent out an invitation for "Mom Beach Day". It said something like "Join us for a child free afternoon at the beach. Read a book. Go boogie boarding. Plug in your iPod and relax! You don't have to worry that your kids are drowning!". We started at 3 PM, so that people could still spend the majority of the day with their families (and attend soccer games, etc.). Everyone brought something to eat for dinner and a little snack to share.

It felt strange to walk down to the beach with nothing but my beach chair and a good book. My husband even took Baby M (who turns three months old this week!). And I loved seeing all my friends arrive, one by one, without children in tow. I can't say I got much reading done, I spent most of my time just chatting.. it's so much easier to have a conversation when little hands aren't pulling you to the swings or reaching in your purse for crackers.

When it started to get a little bit chilly, we built a bonfire and kept on talking. And at around 8 PM, JR called and reminded me I needed to head back (to feed my baby, to kiss my children goodnight). And very happily I came home.

a balloon pinata - the how to

We needed lots of candy in our balloons for our balloon pinata. Our first attempts, just opening the neck of a standard latex balloon and shoving in as much candy as we could, averaged about 3 to 4 pieces before we poked a hole somewhere. My husband then decided it was time for a new plan and a trip to Home Depot.

The basic concept is to create a vacuum so you can expand the balloon, insert your candy, and then slowly deflate the balloon. This was the method my husband came up with, but you could make a vacuum any number of ways. You'll need a wet/dry vacuum, and a few other items: a 4" PVC pipe elbow, a 4" rubber end cap, a piece of PVC coupling that's big enough for your candy to pass through, a 4" to 2" reducer, and a little valve to help control the airflow. (All this will run you about $20, assuming you have a vacuum.)

You can see everything in the photo above. Starting from the left side: the valve (attached to the wet/dry vac), some PVC pipe, a 4" to 2" reducer (the black funnel-like piece), and a 4" elbow piece of PVC pipe.

You need to cut a hole in the rubber end cap (the black piece on the bottom right) to fit your 2" PVC coupling. This is what you will feed your candy through.

Once you're all assembled, stretch the neck of the balloon over the 2" pipe coupling. Then slide the rubber end cap onto the elbow piece, with the balloon inside the elbow.

Now the tricky part: You need to open up the valve just enough to create a vacuum and expand your balloon. It's all about pressure, you need a decent amount of pressure to expand the balloon, but if you use too much, it will pop. 

It's probably not a perfect seal, so you need to maintain the vacuum with a certain amount of pressure to keep the balloon blown up. JR found it helped to manually tweak the pressure by holding the joint between the valve and the wet/dry vac hose (see photo below).

Once your balloon is expanded, grab your candy and drop it piece by piece through the 2" piece of coupling (we made ours big enough to fit our biggest piece of candy, a box of Nerds). We found 13-15 pieces of candy worked well, when we tried to do more we usually popped our balloon. Then slowly tweak the pressure so the balloon deflates around the candy.

When you open up the rubber end cap, you'll see all the candy with the balloon deflated around it. We then used a small hand pump to blow up the balloons to the desired size. 

We blew our balloons up the night before the party and kept them in a large trash bag. Once we were at the park ready for the party, we staple gunned the balloons to a big wooden board (we covered ours with a plastic tablecloth to avoid splinters).

One at a time, each guest at the party stood about 5 feet in front of the board and threw a dart at the balloons, trying to pop one. The balloon would pop, and the candy would explode, and the child got to run and grab all the candy from their balloon. The kids loved it, and even the littlest guys who were 4 and 5 years old could pop a balloon pretty easily. 

Thanks for figuring this one out JR. I love the crazy way your mind works.

a balloon party

C's 6th birthday was a celebration of all things balloon related: helium filled balloons, giant balloons, rocket balloons, punch balloons, water balloons, etc. We held the party at a nearby park and invited a dozen of C's school friends and cousins. C and I drew up a plan for his birthday with ideas for games, favors, the cake, etc.

The part we were most excited about was the Balloon Obstacle Course, which was based on an obstacle course we did back at Martha Stewart Kids. We held the party at a local park since the obstacle course needed a decent amount of space. (Lesson #1: Parties not held at home require a lot more work! Don't underestimate the time involved in just hauling things from one place to another!)

The obstacle course started by crawling underneath two tables (we also used them to hold the gifts). Then the kids ran over a balance beam we made from some 2x4s. Next was the wagon pull, where they pulled the wagon around some balloons. Then they held a balloon between their legs and hopped to the next station where it ended with a bucket of water balloons. You had to grab a balloon from the bucket and toss it into another bucket a few feet away.

(Lesson #2: Sometimes things aren't quite as fun as you think they will be!) The kids were excited about the obstacle course, and they cheered the first 3 or 4 people on with lots of enthusiasm. One child could run the course in about two minutes, but when you have twelve children at a party (plus more siblings who wanted to try the course as well) the kids who had already gone seemed a little bored of it by the time we were done. I think next time I would figure out some way to involve the kids more in the course itself so they aren't just sitting watching.. make one child your timer, another in charge of yelling GO!, have one hand out the water balloons, etc.

We kept the food simple: PB+J for the kids, turkey and basil sandwiches for the adults, watermelon, grapes, pretzels, veggies + dip, and lots of juice boxes. For the cake, I blew up little balloons (like the kind you use for water balloons) and tied them to skewers. It made for a festive centerpiece and the balloons were easy to do the day before. (Lesson #3: Cake is a lot more work than cupcakes. It requires a knife, and plates, and forks, etc. I vote cupcakes next time.)

Favor bags were stenciled with a red 6 and held a few dot candies and a punch balloon. The kids used their bags to catch the candy from the "balloon pinata".

The balloon pinata was my favorite part of the party. I love pinatas, and my children always insist on having one at their parties... but the pinatas never seem to work the way I want them to. The kids usually can't get the thing busted open and one of the adults has to step in and finish the job. The pinata just kind of falls to the ground and we have to pick it up and shake the candy out. And then of course, the pushing and shoving as the kids try to grab as much candy as they can.

Here's what we did instead: you know that carnival game where you throw darts at balloons? We filled balloons with candy and hung one balloon for each child on a wooden board (we covered ours with a plastic tablecloth so a splinter wouldn't accidentally pop the balloons). Each kid had a chance to throw a dart (or two or three) at the balloons until one popped and then they got to run up and grab all the candy from their balloon. The kids loved it and we avoided that moment where one child is crying because he didn't get enough candy (which always seems to happen when we have a pinata).

Note: There's a trick to filling up the balloons with candy. If you try to just shove a few pieces into a balloon before you fill it, you'll be able to fit about 3 pieces before you poke a hole somewhere. We wanted a big explosion of candy, and 3 pieces wasn't going to cut it. My husband, who is an engineer at heart, figured out a great way to fill the balloons up with about 15 pieces of candy. And yes, it involved a trip to Home Depot and a Wet Vac. Details to come.

a balloon party - the invites

C turned 6! We had a lot of fun planning this balloon themed party, I love that he is old enough now to really get involved in the planning process. Rather than throwing invites in the mail, I love delivering the invitations in person a few weeks before the party. All the kids we were inviting live close by, and my kids have a lot of fun running around to all their friend's houses. (It also helps me limit how many kids to invite!)

We rolled the invitations into a little tube and then slipped them into a helium filled balloon, along with a few pieces of confetti. It might not surprise you that I worked at a party store when I was a teenager and I can remember filling balloons with confetti or rolled up dollar bills. The trick is to roll up the invitation as small as possible, secure it with a little tape, and then stuff the invite and the confetti into the balloon before it gets filled with helium. Then attach a little sign that reads "Pop me!" to the balloon string.

We used clear balloons so you could see the invite and confetti clearly. C's friends were so happy to see him on their doorstep, balloon in hand. And really, what's more fun than getting to pop a balloon!

More scenes from C's party tomorrow!

a baby shower brunch

Funny story. My sweet friends planned a baby shower for me, a brunch on a Saturday morning. But then I surprised us all by going into labor that Thursday evening, over a month before my due date. When they came to see me at the hospital they insisted we cancel the shower. "No way!" I said, knowing how much work they had already gone to. "The shower is on, I will be there!"

I was due to be released from the hospital Saturday morning at 11 AM. The shower was at 10. "I'm going to need to get discharged early on Saturday," I said to the nurse. "I have a baby shower I need to get to." The nurse looked up at me, "Well you might need to be late for the shower." I replied, "No, see... the shower is for me!" And then all the nurses laughed, and yes, I made it to the shower on time.

It was a lovely morning, in a beautiful setting, with so many of my friends and family. And the food was delicious. So good in fact that I had to contact each person who made something and get the recipe for myself. And of course, I'll share with you (just download this PDF).

The color palette was citrus shades of orange, yellow and a bit of red and green. The sweet invitations were done by my friends over at Blonde Designs (I've edited some information for privacy).

And for favors, my friends made little jars of homemade strawberry jam, which is what JR and I gave out as favors at our wedding. I couldn't believe they had gone to all that work, and the jars looked so pretty sitting out on the table.

I admit I have changed my tune about baby showers. I used to be a strict enforcer of the one-shower-per-person rule. One really great shower for your first baby, and that's it. Friends tried to throw a shower when I had Bee, and I refused, I really hate to be the center of attention. But after struggling for some time to have a baby this go round, I am all about celebrating babies, whether it's your first or your fourth!