pLaYgRouP

We do playgroup every Wednesday with 7 other kids from the neighborhood. We get to host it at our house once very 8 weeks. This week was our turn and can I just tell you these little kids make me laugh. When they come they usually DESTROY my basement so today I decided to gather up the toys to play store and see if the kids would maybe leave my house looking somewhat normal. I can't even believe how well it worked. They played store the entire time. And LOVED it. We drew life size sketches of ourselves and they colored them. It is so fun to see how much they love this stuff.

These are the girls that Elsie always refers to as her beff friends.  

Bailey and Paige

These little ladies always have a fantastic time.

Bailey, Elsie, Paige, and Ashley

A playgroup post would not be complete without Elsie's crush Brody.  

She tells me all the time that she is going to marry him.  Oh my...Look at her smile.  Yikes

There are 3 other cute boys but they didn't want a picture.  Elsie looks forward to playgroup every Wednesday.  She thinks it is the best day of the week. 

Our Cub Scout is now a Boy Scout

Tonight JJ took one more of those steps that means he is getting older. I am not sure I really like that part of this. On the other hand I am pretty proud of our son. He earned a ton of awards tonight. The most I have ever seen. He not only earned his Webelos but he also earned the Arrow of Light. He does all of it mainly on his own. He was taken over a bridge into the boy scouts. It is official. It is going to get a lot harder from here on out.

Boo's Pictures are in...and I L.O.V.E. them:)

Seriously could she get any CUTER???  I can't get enough of these pics.  LOVE THEM!

pAiNt dAy

This year Ellie has Ms Yardley which means that she is in the Opera. The kids work really hard on it. The class had a paint day where they painted the scenes for the set. I was able to go and help out. Ellie loved every minute. She painted the left hand side of the sky of the desert landscape all by herself with help from mom. She did great.She was smiling from ear to ear the entire time. 

Now I can't wait to see the Opera.  These kids did a great job.  Ms. Yardley is amazing.

A Trip Around the World

We planned a really fun party for the girls. The invitation were airplane tickets.  She sent a brochure with the invitation telling the girls what countries they were going to and then the plane ticket told the time of the party.  I will tell you EVERYONE questioned the party time of 2:17pm.  Who knows of a flight that takes off at 2:30.  I know I don't.  :)

Next up was the Passport because we all know you won't leave the USA without a passport.  When I was making these I started to feel like I was running a small counterfeit operation.  Each of the moms set me a pic or I stole them off of FB.  Hehe.  I am such a hacker.  I am pretty lucky my cute hubby works for a printing company because these things looked GREAT!

I am one that kind of forgets to pay attention to detail so don't look to closely or you will find out that all the girls are Male and that this is in all actuality Frank Moss's passport.  Do I know Frank Moss you ask...No but his passport is on google. 

Next up these cute girls would need some luggage aka gift bag for all their stuff.  I made these easy EASY bags and they cost me less than any gift bag I was finding.  The girls LOVED them.  Totally worth the time.

Here is where JJ sat.  He was our TSA agent.  He ran the girls through security.  We had each girl come in one at a time like the metal detector and then they picked their bag.  Little did they know some of the bags had scissors in them.  They had to step aside to get interrogated on what their intentions were having contraband in their bags. The girls just giggled and loved this part.  JJ also pulled up their Passport on the computer and identified each girl.  SO FUN!

The gate was E9 for Emma and she turned 9.  We put up a sign and had them go down our long hall to the airplane. 

Then then had to stop at the gate to give us their boarding pass.  I stamped the pass and they headed down the terminal.  My dad was the flight attendant and he showed them to their seat. 

On the airplane the kids watched clips of the country they were going to.  Here they are waiting because right when the party started our cute little birthday girl got stung 3 times by a wasp on the bottom of her foot.  OUCH.  They all waited so patiently. 

So our first stop was France.  After the pilot aka  Jeron gave them the flight information on a little megaphone JJ started the in flight movie.  It was a clip from  Anastasia and Beauty and the beast.  I did the song about Paris and the opening song Belle sings.  This took about 10 min giving us time to set up for the fashion show.  We just put Christmas lights on the floor and made it look like a runway.  Then we set up the couches like we were the audience.   My mom rushed them from the plane to get to their fashion show, which they were late for.  I then went in and instructed them on how to catwalk and told them to hurry, hurry, hurry. Then as they walked out played music real loud and I told about each outfit.  (All of the countries we went to I told the girls if they didn't feel comfortable doing something they didn't have to do it.)  Sadly, about 3 girls opted out of a lot of things so there isn't cute pics with them. 

Then they headed back to the airplane.  Did I mention that Ellie and Elsie were also flight attendants and they served drinks, pretzels, and peanuts in flight. Our next stop was India.  We had them watch a clip from the Secret Garden and The Little Princess.  We turned the couches threw all the pillows on the floor.  My mom brought pillows that were jewel toned and so did my mother in law.  It really did look fun and cozy.  When the girls came we applied Henna tattoo's to each girls hand and did the red dot on the forehead.  We talked about Indian birthday culture.  We had Indian music playing in the background.  Plus for those who wanted we dressed them up like an Indian Princess.   Each girl got to take home a veil that was soooo easy to make. 

Our next stop was Hawaii.  They watch 2 clips from Lelo and Stitch.  Once they got of the plane we put Lei's on them and said aloha.  We had put a tarp down with sand on it.  Beach blankets, and a cheesy palm tree.  Emma had some seashells she wanted to give the girls so we put them in the sand and the girls had to find them.  We prepared a fruit platter with strawberry, pineapple, and grapes on a stick, with umbrella toothpicks.  We did pedicures on each girl (who wanted one)  even my dad helped with the pedi's.  My mom painted most of the toes also.  Each girl got a flower for her hair and an emery board.

I spelled Hawaii wrong.  it is that whole pay attention to detail thing.  Hehehe

Our next stop was Mexico and the girls went straight from the plane to our basement where we had a pinata set up.  And because I stayed upstairs to set up for England we didn't get a single picture:( not even video.  But here is what the pinata looked like. 

 
While the girls were on the plane to England they watched Robin Hood.  When they came out I gave them a quick etiquette lesson.  They thought the rules were crazy but they followed them so well.  The room was silent and believe me the rest of the party was nothing like that.  It was so cute seeing them try to be so proper.  We served muffins, sandwiches, and cookies.  And don't worry it was chocolate milk.  The girls looked so cute in their tea party hats.  They each got to take that home. My mom cut all the cookies, bless her heart.  My mother in law made the darling centerpieces for the table.  The girls loved it all. 

We headed to China next.  They watched a clip from Mulan.  When they came out we had all the supplies for them to make a Chinese fire dragon.  And again I didn't take a single pic of the girls making it.  But here they are on their parade down the street. 

Emma got to be the head.  They really put a lot of work into this.  It turned out darling. 

After all the hard work all they took home was a set of chopsticks. Hahaha. 

Last but not least was Italy where we had dinner.  I made fettuccine and spaghetti so they had a choice.  I cooked the noodles ahead of time so that we just had to put them in hot water.  My parents got the dinner all ready and then they had to go. 

The girls had so much fun. The party last for 5 1/2 hours. It was a lot longer than I thought but it was so much fun. The girls had a blast and one of them even said "this is the best party in all history".

Golly gee mom that hurt

Poor little miss Elsie had her doctors appointment today.  I always tell the kids what will be happening. Maybe this wasn't such a great idea.  She was so freaked out from the moment the nurse left the room, and then when she came back oh, no she wasn't having it.  Poor thing.

She cried harder than any one of my kids.  She was really upset.  We left the office and she was still crying.

She cried the whole way home and the rest of the day.  I actually started to worry.  The rest of the day she wouldn't walk.  Even the next morning she still wouldn't walk.  She had a fever and was still very upset.  I called the doctor's office and they told me to give her a bath and keep my eye on her.  Fortunately the bath worked.  They said because she was so scared she was extremely tense.  She had a muscle spasm in her leg and that is why it hurt so bad.  Poor little bug.  All is well now.

The 11th Season of JJ's Amazing Race

We started at the park.  The kids picked their teams and off we went.  JJ was not in on any of the clues so it would be fair.  His team was the first to arrive at the first pit stop. 

JJ got to do the road block on leg 2 of the race.  They had to count the number of po boxes.  The total was 895 but we let them get within 20.  JJ was the first one finished.  Keith was next, and then Carson from the last team.

We did all sorts of crazy stuff but the funniest had to be the boys blowing up the balloons, popping them, and then fishing out 11 letters out of a whip cream pie with only their mouth. 

JJ was the first to get his pie go and they solved the puzzle.  I guess JJ yelled out the answer so it became a foot race at the end.  Unfortunately JJ runs like his mother.  His team was on the mat yelling run JJ run. 

Thank goodness there were other people that were slow like my son so his team still won in the end.  The boys had a ton of fun. 

Second Place Team

Third Place Team

This was one of the funniest birthday parties and the best part is they are in your house for 10 minutes only. 

I think JJ had a blast.  He kept telling me "You're the best mom ever."  Can't beat that.  This party really was a ton of fun.  I will have to say I couldn't have done it without all the wonderful drivers that helped out.  Thank you so much.  JJ is loved.

JJ's Amazing Race Party

One of my friends asked me to post exactly what I did for the party.  I was searching the internet for great kid birthday ideas and came across one that was the tv show Amazing Race. I knew JJ loved this show and thought it would be a lot of fun. I love a good scavenger hunt and that is exactly what the Amazing Race is only on a much larger scale. Here is what we did and hopefully it helps you if you want to do this kind of party.

I searched the images on google and found the yellow envelope  logo.  I simply saved it in my pictures and from their I sent it to my printer.  I had it printed on sticker paper 6 in x 8 in.  If you need to be a little more cost effective  you can always print it on regular paper and glue the labels on.

I found these awesome cards on Chica and Jo's website.  The site is very user friendly and they also had other great ideas.  Again, I had these printed on a thinner cardstock. 

I organized each envelope in a number order.  I labeled the outside of the envelope but also the inside corner.  If you look closely you can see the #7 in the road block.  I would match the number with the paper I was putting in.  That way there was a check and balance system so no one got the wrong clue.

I printed up a guide for me as well.  Which Leg had what and what I needed to do on that leg.  This really helped me to stay on top of it.  There were 4 legs on our race and 7 clues.  It really was so much fun to do. 

For the kids I made these packets for them to take with them.  I had each kids bring a backpack, weather appropriate clothes, and a jacket (just in case)

Since the kids didn't all know each other and the drivers didn't know them I made name badges for them.  I also got these at Chica and Jo's.  they worked great on some of the clues also. 

We also had fun making these water bottles.  It just made everything feel so official.  I know, The detail  was more for me but it was fun. 

This has to be the most handmade, cheesiest part but last minute decided we needed tags for the cars.  So I made these darling rear view mirror hangers.  Got to love it:)

I put up route markers so the kids would know they were in the right place or on the right path.  I really wanted the kids to do most of the work on their own without help from their drivers. 

My favorite part was that we had a neighbor that  had done this for a youth group in our area.  They made this awesome clue box and pit stop mat.  I was excited that they let me borrow these.  They just made they whole thing AWESOME.  You could make the clue box like this one or what I was going to do before I borrowed this one I was just going to paint a small box black and add a red and yellow fabric on the bottom. 

Before I forget if you are doing this for kids you will need drivers for them. We had our wonderful grandparents and uncles, and brothers lady love help us out. This was a life saver. You will need someone. Or keep it more localized. There isn't a ton of work to do on this party and it really is a blast for everyone. Have fun doing this one.