Boy's Airplane Themed Birthday and Neighborhood Memories

At age two and three my boys loved construction vehicles, click here to see their Construction Birthday Party, and by age four, they were all about airplanes. I know my husband's love for airplanes may have had a little influence on them. After all, one of our favorite activities was getting coffee and blueberry muffins, then heading to our airport's fantastic viewing area to watch the planes land and take off. We did this during the hot summer days and cold winter months. When it came time to plan their 4th Birthday, it was a "no brainer" as to what the theme would be.

I started planning a few months ahead of their late summer birthday because I was pregnant with the girls and knew they would arrive close to that time as well. Both sets of twins actual due dates were one day apart! The other reason I began planning so early was because I knew this would be their last birthday party in town with all our family, friends, and neighbors before we moved out of state the following year. So yes, it was going to be big, in many ways.

My first "big" idea was to have the boys be able to get on an airplane and meet the pilot since they had not been on one yet and they were fascinated with all those buttons and levers in the cockpit.  My husband's best friend happens to be a commercial pilot but he is based out of another state and would be nowhere near our city during that time, and of course with all the airline regulations this idea wasn't looking too promising.

That "big" idea was laid to rest and I began to focus on the location of this party. I knew that I would be very pregnant and possibly on bed rest so I did not want to host this party at our house with the large number of guests we were planning on inviting, When a new business opened with a ton of great inflatables, a large climbing structure, and party room I knew this was going to be the place. I was a little disappointed because I had a ton of great decorating and food ideas for an airplane themed birthday party that I would not be able to do at a business. However, I was also relieved not to be responsible for every single detail. We didn't have much of a choice when it came to the food selections as they do not allow you to bring in food (other than a cake) so pizza, bread sticks, and cake it was.

I did make a birthday banner...

and the gift bags which included: an airplane sucker, airplane fruit snacks (both from Oriental Trading) two small airplanes, and bubbles...

I got these bags at Dollar Tree and the stickers from Michael's Craft Store.

We used a local bakery to make this cake...

 
Fortunately, just about everyone we invited was able to come and play. The kids and parents had a great time on the inflatables and the boys made their rounds to greet everyone and play.

Birthday cheers!

Happy to celebrate with their friends

We had a solid hour of play time before lunch, cake, and presents. In all honestly, I always get so involved in the planning and hosting of the few birthday parties we have had for the kids that I almost overlook the fact they are about to receive some generous gifts. And generous gifts they were. The boys had so much fun playing with their friends, eating cake, and of course loved every gift they received. However, the ones that topped their list that year were the bikes, yes, I said bikes that a few of our neighbors got them! I had no idea they had done this and was just as surprised as the boys were! The boys were very excited to say the least.



While our neighbors at "the Hills" did get the boys some amazing birthday gifts, that's not what made living there a wonderful five years. When I eventually did need to rest on the couch the last couple weeks of pregnancy, they helped out by watching the boys play outside, and again when we first brought the girls home. They brought over delicious dinners and precious baby gifts. We had girl's night outs and instant evening "play dates" for the kids and moms since the whole street consisted of kids the same age. You could count on them for anything, whether it was a helpful driveway plow during the winter when your husband was on a work trip, a much needed last minute baby outfit for pictures, or an egg for the dinner that was already underway. We are so blessed to have lived in such an awesome neighborhood with neighbors that I could also call friends.

At one of the neighborhood holiday parties

Watch out for these guys on the road!

So many great memories!

 And, not only did these two little cuties have an amazing birthday party at the bounce house with all their friends but the next day we had a"family only party" for the three birthday kids (the boys and their cousin who is exactly two years younger)! My husband grilled out, my parents who did not attend the previous party gave the grand kids their presents, we had cake, and let off the traditional Chinese wish lanterns on our front lawn to conclude the big, fun-filled birthday weekend!

Enjoying their own personal Birthday cake

Opening presents from Aunts and Uncles

Family silly string battle

Sending off the wish lanterns

Not only was it a fantastic end of the summer, but two short weeks later we welcomed our beautiful twin girls into the world!!

To see more of my party ideas, home decorating, favorite recipes, twin activities x 2, and all things "Mrs.Party Planner" please check me out on facebook and "like" the page. New blog posts will appear in your news feed.

Easter Egg Letter and Numbers Game

Busy looking for matches

At least once a week I try to do a fun learning activity with the kids whether it's doing a few pages in their Kindergarten workbooks or making a fun science experiment in the kitchen. Last week we did the celery stalks in food coloring and water experiment. They set it up and made predictions as to what would happen. The next morning they awoke to colored celery leaves and we had a discussion on how it happened.

At the beginning of our experiment

Today I dug out the plastic Easter eggs and wrote an uppercase letter on one side and the matching lower case letter on the other. This is not my original idea (I actually saw it on Pinterest awhile back) and as one of my five year olds' pointed out, he has these in his Pre-K class with numbers on them. What a great idea! Since I had 36 eggs, I decided to use the remaining for numbers.

Then I simply took the eggs apart and put them all in a bag for them to get busy and find the matches. 

Here is N counting the dots to see what number he needs to look for

They had a lot of fun doing this and breezed through the letters and numbers so next time I am going to make these with some simple sight words. 

N with his pile 

S with his pile

Also, my intent was not to have this as a competition, however, one of my guys thought otherwise and was a little miffed that his brother had more. I told them after school we would do it again individually, but when I picked them up from school S's teacher told me she heard all about this activity and they did a little work on some of the letters and numbers so he was ready for a rematch!

I may have given them a small piece of chocolate in return for their patience so I could work with the boys :)

And because I can't leave out the girls, once the boys went to school we did a practice egg hunt in the house and worked on learning colors with the eggs. 

Spring has Sprung

Hello again! I took a little hiatus from blogging due to a couple of busy months. We were blessed with back to back visits from Yia Yia and Papou (Greek grandparents) and Grandma and Grandpa! When the grandparents are here, it's fun for everyone! There are extra arms to cuddle in, another lap to sit on, lots of projects to create (homemade catapults and paper mache Easter baskets), and fun outings to be had. For me, this means time at the gym exercising, running errands solo, and date nights with my husband! I have also been busy revamping our play room (a post to follow once it's complete), decorating the boys rooms, the master bedroom, and putting on a Valentine's Day party for my kids.

Grandma and three of her six grand kids!

 In early March we still had snow on the ground but I decided it was time to finally haul in the winter planters from the front porch and add some touches of spring around the house.

 

While browsing my favorite local home and floral design store, I spotted a beautiful spring wreath and fell in love. However, I wasn't crazy about the price tag, $95.00. And this was for a basic grapevine wreath with two different colors of  peonies, ivy, and ribbon. Right there I decided I could make a similar wreath for a fraction of the price. Not only was it easy to make, but I had fun doing it and couldn't believe I only spent a quarter of what the other wreath cost.

I already had the grapevine wreath base and ivy so I didn't need to purchase those. However, those can be found at any craft store. I found the flowers and ribbon at Hobby Lobby all on sale. The types of flowers and color are not the same as the wreath I found at the other store, but I was happy with these. I cut the flower stems with heavy duty kitchen scissors and threaded the stems through the branches, added the ivy, and the bow I made out of the ribbon and that was it! It literally took about 20 minutes. If people really pay $100.00 for something similar to this I think I found my new business venture :)  And just between us, I like mine better.

To see more of my party ideas, home decorating, favorite recipes, twin activities x 2, and all things "Mrs.Party Planner" please check me out on facebook and "like" the page. New blog posts will appear in your news feed.

Outdoor Movie Night

The featured movie: A Bug's Life

While day dreaming about a fun summer event, I came up with a party I wanted to call "A Mid-Summers Night Dream." I envisioned our wooded backyard with a white tent, lots of stringed lights, all of our Greek friends sitting outside eating a home cooked Mediterranean meal, and sipping wine under the stars while our kids sat nearby watching an outdoor movie. Then reality set in, I realized a tent and chairs were not in the budget, a few of our friends had vacation plans that weekend, and I was seven months pregnant with twins so cooking and serving a large meal myself just didn't sound fun. While I scaled back on some of the plans, we did not scale back on the fun of what then became "outdoor movie night!" (and stay tuned for the Mid-Summers Night Dream party in the future!) 

We already had a projector which is partly why I wanted to do this. Although you can rent them if needed, just check with your local rental company or friends. We hooked up the projector to our laptop and used quality desk top speakers which played the movie loud enough for everyone to hear. For the screen, I found DIY instructions on how to make the base out of PVC pipe (which is very cheap) and a white sheet for the screen. The step by step instructions I found on Pinterest didn't seem too complicated, but it was something that would take time, and with a husband who was commuting out of state for work and myself on the verge of bed rest I decided to spend a little more money but save a lot of effort and simply rent the screen from a rental company. It wasn't that expensive and very easy to set up and take down.

The inflatable screen

Street view,  it was viewable from both sides which would be great with a large crowd

Side view and the dinner table in the distance :)

In place of the home cooked pastichio (Greek lasagna) and keftdedes (Greek meatballs) we went with easy, kid friendly carry out pizza. Although, I did add a Greek salad, antipasto platter,  fruit salad, and my mother in law's pita (cooked dough stuffed with feta cheese and glazed with butter). Our friends added home made tzatziki sauce with pita bread and a variety of delicious desserts. And yes, you can never have too much food at a Greek gathering!

Movie snacks and glow sticks

We had the movie screen set up in our front yard, so I set up the dinner tables nearby in the driveway. I added a festive red table cloth, brightly colored pin wheels for decoration, lots of tea lights, and hurricane glasses filled with sand, sea shells, and candles. Unfortunately I did not get any pictures of the table or the whole party at night. My mom drove up at the end of the night and said it looked amazing from the street with the candles glowing and movie playing.

Our friends arrived at dinner time so the kids could eat and play before the movie began. One thing I quickly realized is that it needs to be dark for the movie to show up well. We started the movie before sunset because we had young kids in attendance but it was hard to see on the screen. Although once we handed out popcorn and candy it didn't seem to be an issue!

My guys have since requested that we do this again MANY times!

It was a fun filled night relaxing outside under the stars for the kids and adults! The adults got to relax and talk while the kids could watch a movie and run around in the yard.

I will definitely be looking into the DIY screen this summer and planning on a neighborhood movie night in our new backyard!

To see more of my party ideas, home decorating, favorite recipes, twin activities x 2, and all things "Mrs.Party Planner" please check me out on facebook and "like" the page. New blog posts will appear in your news feed.

Family Traditions, Wonderful Memories

Lake Living

Looking back on my childhood, there are a handful of memories that stand out among the rest, the vacations we took and our family traditions. Every Halloween we had dinner together and my family took part in the Halloween party I arranged before we headed out to trick or treat. My dad always took my sisters and I out while my mom stayed inside to hand out candy. And no wimps allowed, when it came to trick or treating we wanted to cover the entire neighborhood and no cold weather or rain would stop us. Once we were satisfied with pumpkin buckets bursting, we hurried home to spread out our goodies on the floor while categorizing and trading with each other.

Most likely my first party invitation, age unknown

Christmas Eve was another favorite, we were allowed to open one present, attended Christmas Eve Mass, enjoyed a candle light breakfast and a reading of  Twas the Night Before Christmas before my sisters and I excitedly gathered in the same room for our "sleepover!" To this day, I actually prefer Christmas Eve with all the excitement and anticipation over Christmas Day.

Of course who can forget a family vacation to Disney World?! I remember my mom planning this trip for months and it was every bit as magical as I had hoped it would be. My husband and I took our boys last year for their first time while the girls got to spend some quality time with grandma and grandpa (we are planning another trip back when the girls are older). It has been six months now and the boys are still talking about it. Plus, it was great to give them our undivided attention again since they have been so patient and loving towards their little sisters.

Another vacation tradition was our week long cottage vacation on Lake Michigan. I remember these vacations like they were yesterday, always the second week in July, playing in the white sand all day, swimming in the warm water, the 100 year old Victorian cottage with a wrap around porch, drifting off to sleep listening to the waves crashing on the shore, picking out candy at the nearby general store, and spending time with our extended family. It was an event we all looked forward to every year and still talk about to this day.

Now that I have my own family, we have started many of our own traditions. Visiting the pumpkin patch for a hayride to pick out pumpkins, filling the kids' rooms with balloons on their birthdays, visiting the tree farm to pick out the tallest Fraser Fir our home can hold for Christmas, and our after dinner walks and water balloon fights during the summer.

This past year we mixed it up and did this instead of filling their room with balloons while they slept. They LOVED it!

I have also carried over many of my old family traditions. One of the those is our week stay at a cottage on one of Michigan's many beautiful lakes during the summer. We started doing this when the boys where just 7 months old and have been fortunate enough to do this almost every year since. This particular year, I was pregnant with the girls and spent a relaxing week over the Fourth of July floating in the water and spending fun filled days with "my boys,"our family and friends.

Sisters having a blast on the water!

The table is set for our 4th of July shrimp boil

I made a shrimp boil for the boys' Under the Sea party when they turned two and was excited to try it again with a couple adjustments. Fourth of July on the lake with our family was the perfect opportunity. Shrimp, clams, red potatoes, onion, corn on the cob, and sausage all boiled with a little Old Bay seasoning and garlic. Simply drain the liquid (strong muscles required, as this is heavy :) and serve with lemons, hot sauce, cocktail sauce, butter, and bread.

Shrimp boil

The rest of the ingredients for a relaxing and memorable vacation at the lake are .......

Peaceful mornings with coffee and a magazine

Lots of time on the water

and in the water

Watching an amazing  fireworks display put on by a fun uncle

Eating lots of s'mores made over a campfire while taking the time to watch the sunset

and lots of love.

So while the latest Lego set or Barbie mansion might be highly desired by our children, it's the family traditions and time spent together that we remember forever.

Do you have any family traditions you would like to share? Please feel free to leave me a comment.

To see more of my party ideas, home decorating, favorite recipes, twin activities x 2, and all things "Mrs.Party Planner" please check me out on facebook and "like" the page. New blog posts will appear in your news feed.