Ryan's Halloween Birthday Party

Ryan turned 4 last week and we had so much fun celebrating! Since his birthday is so close to Halloween I've decided that having a Halloween Birthday Party is the perfect way to kill two birds with one stone. He LOVED it!

We started the party off by making monster pumpkins with googly eyes, etc. Then we made playdough monsters!

After that we played pin the eyeball on the monster. :)

I have started hiring my wonderful babysitter to help me during birthday parties, and it has made them so much more relaxing!

After the game we ate BOO-nanas and pirates booty for snack and we made mummy pizzas. The kids also drank from mummy apple juices.

One of our favorite activities involves ice and little trinkets, so we froze everything into a big ice block and the kids used salt and warm water to try and melt the treasure.

Finally, it was time for cake! The chocolate chip 4 looks decent and was made from my favorite types of ice cream plus a lot of chocolate chips. 

We ended the party with a Candy Walk and present opening!

Such a fun birthday party!

Catie turns FOUR!

Catie turned 4 today! We tend to keep her birthday pretty chill to help her enjoy the day and not get overly stressed out.

My favorite simple birthday tradition is that we decorate her door the night before with balloons and birthday signs. Andrew was an awesome sign maker.

Catie woke up at 7am this morning before anyone else and was absolutely adorable. She kept saying, "thanks for decorating my door mom." She played in her room until everyone else woke up and then we all went to her door and sang "Happy Birthday" to her. She was all smiles and you could tell she felt so special.

For breakfast we had leftover waffles from last night's dinner because we didn't have enough time to make birthday pancakes. We'll have to do those another day this week. Catie loved having a candle on her waffles although blowing it out was tough for her! She also loved that I decorated the kitchen a bit and had birthday hats for everyone to wear. She made sure to tell me "thanks for decorating for me" several times. Love her!

We let her open a present or two before Andrew and Kevin headed off for the day. She loved the tea set that her Grandma Shari got her and she and Ryan spent the rest of our time at home having pretend hot cocoa together using the new tea set.

The rest of the morning was spent riding bikes in the gym at the church and playing with friends! She even had some thoughtful friends who made her brownies. She shared them with lots of kids and they were gone before we got home.

In the afternoon she played with some new toys during quiet time and then after school she and Andrew played on the trampoline in the rain and got soaked! I think it was the highlight of the day! We also made spin art and paper plate holiday wreaths. Catie opted for the less traditional holiday wreath with purple and pink on it. Can't wait to see what it looks like once the pain dries and she's able to finish it.

For dinner she requested cheesy shell noodles, then we watched The Nightmare Before Christmas, and then we opened the rest of her gifts! She was so appreciative! For every gift she opened she said, "this is just what I wanted!" She has such generous and kind grandparents! She also loved the Frozen underwear and Hello Kitty socks I bought her. Before she went to bed tonight she changed her underwear 3 times because she couldn't decide which pair was her favorite to sleep in.

After present opening we dived into birthday cake! Catie had requested a Tinkerbell cake and I decided to make it myself since I am too cheap to buy one for her. It is a good thing that she doesn't have any expectations yet regarding how good the cake needs to look... because it was hideous and she didn't care one bit since it had Tinkerbell and friends on it. It was delicious though with lots of frosting just the way she likes it!

The night got a little fun when Catie almost scorched her hair off blowing out candles, but we caught her just in time.

We ended the night with cake and ice cream and she did some LEGO building with her new Ariel princess set from G&G Smith (with help from Andrew). She was so wound up it took awhile for her to head to bed! We are so glad she had such a great day! 

Some details about Catie at age 4 are...

• she loves her stuffed rabbit more than anything in the world
• she goes to a local co-op preschool twice a week and then also does a mommy & me co-op preschool once a week... she loves her friends!
• she is addicted to beverages (especially orange juice) and loves yogurt and applesauce too
• she wears size Small clothes (in girls), no more 4/5T shopping for her!
• her favorite foods are shell noodles, chocolate, and ice cream (my girl!)
• her favorite toys are little people princesses, tinkerbell minifigures, magformers, and my little ponies... to name a few (she loves most things, so I don't think she's met a toy she doesn't like)
• she loves shopping for shoes
• she is a super big and little sister and is loved by her brothers!

We are so grateful to have cute Catie in our family! Happy 4th Birthday to our favorite little girl!

Andrew's Lego Birthday Party!

Andrew turned 4 today. He was sooo excited! When we talked about birthday parties he told me he wanted to have a Lego volcano fireman party. It was tricky to combine all three ideas... so I started with just the Lego one. I've been collecting Lego ideas on a birthday pinterest board for awhile. I'm a procrastinator though, so the party mostly came together on Wednesday and Thursday night this week. Thank goodness for awesome creative people on the internet!

I even procrastinated sending out the actual invite... so people just got this jpg in an email. I had grand ideas of giving each kid a little Lego puzzle to use to put together their own invite... but sometimes simple things still turn out ok.

I am anti large kid parties now. I used to love them. Catie can't handle them and Andrew gets crazy at them... Basically I feel like they turn into chaotic events where moms ignore their kids... So instead, Andrew named seven of his close buddies and they were the only guests (plus his cousin Maddie)- no parents (other than Lego helpers). Loved it!

The kids started off the party by making Lego crowns.

Then we broke them into two groups (yellow and orange group- based on their crown color) and they took turns going to two different activities: 1) Lego racing and 2) Printing with Legos (in play-doh).

Then we did Lego relays and played Red Lego, Green Lego (Red Light, Green Light). They were SO INTO the games it was awesome. The intense looks on their faces were hysterical.   

After the relays, we did two more stations where they broke into groups again: 3) Lego painting and 4) Pin the Head on the Lego Man

Then we did a Lego Man Candy walk (like a cake walk) and a Lego scavenger hunt!

By that point they were ready to relax and eat!! For lunch we had mini Lego shaped pizzas, Lego cupcakes, Lego crackers, strawberries, peaches, and go-gurt (all of Andrew's favorite foods). :) 

The kids also got some Lego candies and Lego colored M&Ms to take home.

We ended the party with some balloon craziness and popping giant Legos (made with bubble wrap and butcher paper). 

Each kid got to take home a little baggie of Lego shaped crayons (bought on Etsy) and a little goodie bag filled with a few candies from the party (plus their painted Lego man and crown).

Andrew has been telling me all day how much he loved his party!! The little group of kids we invited from church were seriously adorable. We could not have asked for better guests.

I am so sad the party is over! It was so fun to plan! Good thing we still have another little birthday party with neighbors to look forward to.

Happy Birthday to my favorite 4-year-old ever!