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Our kid the Super Hero

It is no secret that this is my favorite time of year.  This year, I’ve found that it’s my favorite time not just because of Christmas and all the festive fun that the season brings but also because of our son Matty’s birthday.  Next post I’ll focus on the Christmas fun – but this one it’s all Superman, my hero.  I’ve been a little worried the last 3 birthdays that he would feel a little pre-empted by the Christmas magic going up on (or even before) his big day.  He’s assured me otherwise, and in fact loves decorating on his bday  This year he also loved his superman themed birthday party.  I’ve included pics of it below – got lots of inspiration from the creative incredibles at pinterest, mom blogs and some awesome craft sites – but the biggest ideas came from Matthew and watching him play superman.

We decided to have Matt’s whole preschool over (20 4 year olds and a few younger siblings).  This was our first party in our new house (moved in late August).  I’ve never (ever) been stressed about a party working out before.  But for this one I stressed.  How would it work to have 20 4-year olds that I barely know? How to keep them entertained? What food will the majority of them like and eat? How to keep our house in one piece? How to impress and entertain the moms – most of which I’d never met?  …and for me – I always want people to chat afterwards about a small detail, food, or event that surprised them.. in my opinion that’s the real secret to a great party – the little things that make people smile hours or days later…

Here’s what we did (and I say “we” because I had huge help from my amazing husband and mother in law in art construction and design and cape making, from my mom in day of hosting and from our wonderful nannies in super hero activities):

We took apart some of our moving boxes that the kids have loved playing with – and painted the city on them – then cut them out in city scape shapes.  We painted some black with lights in the buildings for the entry ways and some all red and all blue – the colours of the party – for the activity rooms:

Then we made a telephone booth out of one of the hanging boxes (gratuitous photo of super dad included) :

And made a photo booth (got this idea from pinterest!) using a simple blue sheet, white clouds that I cut from felt and some of the buildings we made:

I planned to order pizza for the lunch time party and I ordered cupcakes and cookies from a local baker the cake and the giraffe  – so that meant I could focus on healthy snacks for the kids, cheeses, veggies and homemade cookies for the adults and a few treats like home made lolipops (super easy – recipe below) and popcorn cones wrapped in superman comic pages:

Finally we planned to make super hero cuffs and masks with the kids as a craft activity when they came in and then had a super hero challenge for them of aim (throwing bean bags through a homemade target with “BAM!” “POW!” and “BONK!” on it) speed (crawling through a kids tunnel) and strength (smashing through Styrofoam blocks with bare hands – see aftermath below).  Everyone got a personalized super hero pin when they completed the feat, and went home with a super-hero in a box kit that we made … all in all a super fun day!

Lollipops:

place jolly ranchers in sets of two on parchment paper on a pan with space around each set for spreading – you can fit about 8 sets per pan

cook at 250 degrees for 5 min

stick sticks in the lollipop and turn them to ensure candy coats all side of the stick

wait for them to cool – voila!

I’m back…

I re-read most of my posts from over a year ago – and almost each one started with an explanation for why I was delinquent in posting.  Now it’s been more than 16 months and in that time I went back to work full time after being off for a year’s maternity leave with our wonderful twins – then changed jobs two months later, Cam has changed jobs within his company a couple of times, we bought a new house – in a different city, our son started preschool, we changed childcare arrangements, and life continues … at a pace that feels like a sprint, and with days that feel like marathons.  Then at the end of this year I looked around and realized (as I often do when we grab a second to gulp down air) that time is flying – so fast.  Our girls are two and a half and our baby boy has just turned four.  I can’t imagine feeling any more blessed, and I don’t remember to say thank-you nearly enough to god, or my husband, or my kiddos for this life that through some good fortune I’ve stumbled into – I don’t want to blink.  So for what it’s worth – I’m going to try again… a story about our life, my love of being crafty, our love of entertaining, and a little about whatever etiquette or cool new tips we’ve picked up along the way.

Hello again, from our growing family to you.  Thanks for reading – it means a lot to me!