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!

Fall Farm Fun

Another fall favorite I'm going to miss: Jacquemin's Farm!

Emmett loved the corn box. I think part of the appeal was that he didn't want to have to wear his coat (for some reason he hates it) and the corn box was sheltered in the barn away from the chilly wind. That and the construction vehicles, of course. ;) 

 Gwen informed me she was cooking. (These dishes must be her mise en place. Either that or this was a gourmet table setting with multiple dishes)

Emmett condescended to put on his coat in exchange for hot (SERIOUSLY FRESH!!!) pumpkin donuts. He didn't like sticky hands. 

 But had no problem chowing down on the donut!

The girls liked them too. Who am I kidding? We ALL loved them! (side note: I originally was only going to buy 1/2 dozen for us to eat. The price was so reasonable, however, I decided to get a full dozen with the intention of taking the other half home and having donuts for snacks for the next few days. Yeah. We left with 2 donuts.)

Caroline only gave a passing glance at the corn box. She wasn't interested in "quiet" play. She headed straight for the "crazy" and never looked back! About an hour later, Gwen joined her at the bouncy race thing. When Emmett realized he didn't meet the height requirements, he was beyond devastated!

 He recovered, though, when he was given permission to go through the bouncy house despite his short height so long as he didn't climb the ladder and go down the slide. 

 And he was pretty pleased with himself every time! Just turned around and got right back in line!

(side story for posterity but no picture: Gwen got a piece of dirt?sand?mulch?grass? in her eye... and believe me, the entire farm heard about it! She was inconsolable! Eric is an MD and everything, but she squealed and bawled and pulled away and squeezed her eyes tighter and rubbed and rubbed whenever he tried to give her an examination. Finally, he took her back to the car, layed her across the seat, and reasoned it all out with her. She finally relented to opening her eye for daddy and allowing him to flip her eyelid inside out and flick out the irritating offender, saying weepily, "I trust you daddy. I really do. I trust you." As soon as it was out, she quickly recovered. Daddy was the hero of the day!

 Riding the big tractor while waiting for our turn at the hayride. 

 Our little pumpkins!

 Caroline kept her pumpkin close. 

 Gwen tried out all the different places her pumpkin could sit. Her favorite spot, though, was in her pocket. She was just so tickled that it was small enough to fit in there!

 Gwen giving Emmett a nice sister hug.

 Emmett LOVED his little white pumpkin and carried it around the house the rest of the day. He adores his "ghost pumpkin". 

Our fam on the hayride. Emmett got so excited and kept hollering and pointing, "Nother one pumpkin!...hah! NOTHER one pumpkin!" over and over again...it WAS a pumpkin patch, so there were lots of pumpkins to point at... and each one was like a revelation! lol