Kiddo Valentine's Day

 Valentine's Day was more like Valentine's WEEKS around here. The kids made some new decorations for us to enjoy. 

and worked hard on their valentines for Grandparents. They LOVED making these bugs! And can you see that Gwen made origami hearts?

Making our valentines for classmates was fun and not TOO laborious, since there was a free printable (here), but it definitely required adult assistance. 

Caroline dutifully signed her name on the back of each one!

 Daddy tied the strings. Gwen was all over her list of names and chose a bubble color for each friend. 

 Okay, now who can tell me the difference between the above photo and the below photo?...

  If your answer was the tearful face in the background, you can see this was not a quiet activity of contentment all around.

 Now ask this boy why he is sad. 

 "I blow these red bubbles... please?"

 "Emmett's red bubbles." 

(intentionally not a question mark)

 distraction and placation: raspberries. 

 All in his mouth at the same time. Chipmunk cheeks! :)

 For the past couple weeks I have been baking lots of treats. Fun pink deliciousness! Sometimes I have helpers, but usually I bake while Gwen is at school. She is always very happy to help as my assistant chef when the confectioning occurs on the weekends!

 These pink oreo cheesecake cookies (recipe here) were a hit! The girls' favorite part? No eggs in the batter means more pre-baking sampling! lol

Enjoying the fruits of our labors. 

Cupid's Crazy Cafe was a huge hit again this year! All the free printables and blank menus here. I'm told this kind of mixed up dinner is more commonly done on April Fools. Yes, I'd say that makes sense! But we sure enjoy doing it for V-tines! They write down numbers on their menu without knowing the corresponding food item. 

 Each one of the kids (even Emmett!) helped me make a few heart-shaped chicken nuggets. Recipe here. And they were actually WAY easier than I would have thought! Not as convenient as frozen dino-nuggets, but considering how really healthy and delicious they were (JUST chicken breast, eggs, and bread crumbs!), and how well they went over on the kids, definitely a keeper recipe!

 Items from our line-up of potential foods were mostly healthy. That way I don't feel bad if they eat out of order. Heart cucumbers, heart tomatoes, heart nuggets... seeing a theme here?

The cinnamon roll was the exception. Gwen and Emmett both got that on their first course. I knew Gwen would eat everything no matter what, but I was concerned the sweet roll would throw off Emmett's food consumption. I needn't have worried. He didn't even eat it. I ended up eating it. He just wanted more strawberries!

and yes, on Valentine's Day I let them bring a 'friend' to the table to share the love. Emmett chose to bring his letters. Well, as many of them as I would let him put in front of him. I said 'no' to the whole alphabet. Sorry, bud. Did that break your heart? You'll get over it. 

We got a crazy visit from Cupid, of course... funny thing is Daddy happened to be 'outside taking out the trash' (cough cough) when Caroline booked it up the stairs ahead of us and peered out the back door in anticipation of Cupid's next drop. She was surprised that Daddy didn't catch a glimpse... close one! *wink wink*

A Toothless Birthday

Gwen's Toothless birthday party was a huge success!

Since we celebrate birthdays with a 'friends' party only every 4 years, this 8th birthday party was a big deal! We kept it frugal by DIY'ing everything. It was a lot of time and effort, but she had such a great time and I was completely happy with the way everything went down. Thanks to careful planning and an incredibly supportive husband/father, I managed to not be all that stressed through it all! So here are the fun details:

 Dragon riders were invited to the dragon training party! The invites I made in Word. Super fun!

 Goodie bags were simple black bags onto which I glued green cardstock eyes. I wrote out names in runes, looking at a font online for lettering. 

This t-shirt bleaching activity was my favorite part, but also the most expensive. We purchased a t-shirt for each party-comer from goodwill/once-upon-a-child. We ironed on freezer paper stencils and then lightly misted with bleach. Cutting out each stencil took Eric and me an evening movie to complete. :)

 Since the ironing portion was a 1 on 1 craft, we also had this viking shield craft for all the kids to do while waiting their turn to make a shirt. Eric attached duct tape handles on the back prior to the party. Caroline was happy to practice her writing on her shield!

 Here you can see the variety of shields we had! That's Gwen's Toothless shield in the front, there. 

 Eric led the games while I cleared the crafts from the table and set up the food. We had a fun "sheep toss" relay that really brought out some enthusiasm and competitive spirit in these kids! Eric kept challenging them to new heights and they loved it! We also had a hula-hoop of dragon fire that the kids had to "fly" through musical chairs fashion. I didn't get a picture, but there was much haggling about whether or not a foot or head was actually in the fire at the time the music stopped... those kids were serious about their games! Plenty of cheering too!

Emmett loves the yarn "sheepies" that I made for the sheep toss!

 For lunch we served Viking ships 

 snacks included dragon poop (marshmallows coated in green melt candy)

 dragon's favorite food: fish! (of the Swedish variety) and a combo of cheesy snacks: fire balls, dragon claws and scales. 

 since it was lunch, I made sure there were healthy options too. Green and black. Emmett was all over the black option. :)

 Crystalized fire and Toothless tears

 and 7-up lime sherbet dragon drool. 

 The awesome display of edibles! the backdrop viking hall banner is a green table cloth and a black table cloth that I cut out in the shape of Toothless. 

When the eating was winding down, Gwen opened her presents. Then we gathered back in the kitchen for cake and ice cream.

 Gwen's Toothless cake breathed fire! Chocolate pumpkin cake, chocolate buttercream icing, and gross store bought fondant that no one ate but was just for looks. (No way was I going to attempt to get black on my own, so I got it from Joanns with a Q). I carved the shape, which I thought was great. I had moderate success putting on the fondant. But Gwen thought he was adorable, and that was all that matters!

 Gwen didn't want Toothless's face to melt (she's thoughtful that way), so she blew out the candles really quickly! Everyone enjoyed cake with mint chip ice cream. Well okay, everyone except one child who only wanted to eat hot dog buns and water, lol! :) Then parents arrived and kiddos gathered up various crafts and headed home!

 My kids shirts turned out like this!

Caroline modeling hers. 

It was an AWESOME party! Thank you, Eric, for helping me with all the prep work and for being such a fun game host on the day of! The kids loved you! and so do I. :)

and happy birthday, miss Gwen! Glad we could make your special party day a roaring success!

Asian Love

Eric and I got to celebrate Asia 2 weekends in a row! We had our monthly in-home date to Japan and then the next week was Lunar New Year so we had our annual Korean feast!

Japanese in-home date night. We are poor with no extra vacation flexibility but we both LOVE the idea of international travel! So we decided this year to have a monthly "trip" to a place of interest! We get take out, plan small activities for our date, and then enjoy our evening as though we took a quick vacation! For our kickoff date, Eric chose Japan! We had delicious sushi (not pictured) before we put the kids to bed. 

We made some fancy but sweet origami flowers together.

I put up some gorgeous light posters given to me by my mom's Japanese friend, Yoko, back when I was in 4th grade. I love them! 

We had a great evening of delicious food, music, movies, and entertainment and I am loving our travel dates! Some day we'll go there for real, but in the mean time, this was a ton of fun and nicely romantic. 

We had a great dinner celebration for Lunar New Year this past weekend!

Emmett loved the japchae noodles. He had a pile of them in his lap by the end of his efforts!

kimbap and ddeokbokki

Kasia was a natural at rolling the kimbaps!

Stacey's hubby was a missionary in Korea like I was (just different place and years), so she came along for the Korean market shopping and food prep. It was so much fun to have a friend in the kitchen with me! Thanks Stacey!

Caroline wasn't feeling so well. She fell asleep right there WHILE everyone was running around her!

an impromptu blanket peek-a-boo game was warmly received by all the kidlets!

Our lively game of Yutnori went down in favor of guys... TWICE... but we're saying that we just let them win. Twice. :)

I made Hoddeok for the first time and it was a smashing success! Adding it to the yearly menu for sure! Why have we never done it before? Oh yeah: because there is already so much food and we are always stuffed. Though it is traditionally essential for Lunar New Year, I think I'm going to remove ddeok guk from the menu. No one really enjoys that soup as much as the rest of the food. I'd rather have more room for other foods. Would that be heresy if I left it out? :)

We had a wonderful time! Thanks for celebrating Lunar New Year with us, folks!

A Robot Birthday

Our Caroline turned four a week ago (which is crazy to me!). Just so happens that 4 is one of our big birthdays (4, 8, 12, 16) that gets a friends party. Caroline was ecstatic to have her first 'real' birthday party! I asked her what kind of party she wanted and her fast response was "ROBOTS!!!"... but I didn't want to get halfway through planning and have her change her mind to princesses, fairies, or dolphins, so I probed further. Her second response was, "ummmmm....SNAILS!!!" (and I started picturing snail impersonation games of slow motion...) so I said, "let's go with robots!" ;)

 She got to invite 4 friends since she was turning 4. My plan was to keep things as simple and budget-friendly as I possibly could. I made the invites in Word bc I didn't want to purchase custom ones. I used free images and fonts I found online and designed it to print 4 to a page so I only had to print 1 sheet of paper. I'm sure if you have better design programs and know-how you could make this way cuter, but it worked for us!

Guests were greeted with this DIY robot welcome sign (one arm broke off before I got a pic)

We played fun robot games--- no winners, just fun!--- like pin the button on the robot

our robot after he got 'buttoned' by all the guests multiple times

We also played a robot pickup game (un-pictured) with those toy robot arms (found them at Target) and various small balls we had around. 

The food spread was simple because I wasn't serving lunch and I figure the kids aren't going to eat THAT much anyway. I hate throwing away platefuls of food. I labeled the food with DIY labels (all in blue, so it used up the remnants of my printer ink. Perfect. Anyone else always use up the yellow first? What's up with that? :) We had nuts and bolts, gizmos, computer chips, bio-cyborg implants, and a robot refueling station. 

Caroline had to be coerced into giving me this meager smile. 

Good thing I caught that one, because all the other faces were blurry dancing pics. :)

Emmett got to try his first birthday cake... verdict was pure joy!

All our little robot friends also made their own costumes. I loved their various designs!

and funny tidbit: if you look closely at Caroline's robot dial plate, you'll see she drew a snail. So I guess she got a snail birthday too! :)

I made magnetic robots using pipe cleaners, milk jug lids, and various nuts/bolts for our friends to take home and also included a robot coloring page and some robot stickers. The tags say "thanks a bot"... hee hee, I amuse myself!

 Items that I purchased: plates, napkins, tablecloth, straws, balloons, green and blue wrapping paper, silver spray paint, nuts/bolts/screws/washers, orange cake mix, cream cheese for icing, peach rings, blue chocolate balls, chex mix, cheetos, tang, carrots/broccoli/cucumber, 3 sheets of scrapbook paper for the gears on the wall, robot stickers for treat bags, set of 10 headbands and 2 robot arm toys.

Items I already own, so it didn't cost but used up some supply: cardstock, printer ink, ribbon, pipe cleaners, foam hearts, star stickers, googly eyes, magnets (the free kind that come in the mail from businesses trying to solicit your patronage), milk jug lids, boxes, cans (from fruit and veggies), toilet and paper towel tubes, hot glue, silver duct tape, ziploc sandwich bags, and paper grocery bags.

Total: about $55

I'd say it was about as cheap as I could make it! 

These pics are from Wed night when we gave Caroline our family gifts. 

Can you believe I found this Melissa and Doug art easel free on the curb? The girls love it and it is still in great (not perfect, but it is for KIDS, so who cares?) condition!

She loved her gifts! In her own words, "I love today that is my birthday!"

Emmett was pretty stoked about the crackle-y wrapping paper

I love my little big girl Caroline! She's part monkey (gymnast) part barnacle (those hugs--- girl's got a grip, I tell ya!). Caroline we love your enthusiasm and affection, your generosity and sensitivity to others, and how willingly you GIVE to your sister without prompting. Love how much you adore Emmett, love your confidence (flips on the gymnastics bars unassisted? I'm astounded!), and love how much you enjoy eating (no coercion necessary to get you to down your dinner. meat and veggies and all!). LOVE your honesty (admitting your mistakes is a gift!) and LOVE how much you love talking about Jesus (every ray of sunshine that breaks through a cloud you declare to be Jesus). 

 Happy birthday stinker--- our family would truly not be the same without your vibrant energy to keep us on our toes. We love you!