Come Explore With Us │Jack's 5th Birthday Party

After celebrating Jack's birthday at both preschool and his favorite Mexican restaurant, we also had a friend birthday party on Saturday followed by a family gathering on Sunday.

 

It was a busy, but wonderful weekend celebrating our first born.

For Jack's 5th Birthday I decided we should just go with an outdoorsy theme. The weather has been really warm for this time of year and we have been in a drought, so I was fairly confidant it wouldn't rain.

I brain-stormed some basic ideas from Pinterest, but nothing over the top. I had a ton of paper bags in my pantry, so I decided that the kids could make Safari Vests and then go on a Treasure Hunt. 

I also decided to make a campfire cake, using this tutorial. I kind of winged the cake (from this recipe), nothing fancy (or pretty for the actual cake part) but it was delicious. 

I did feel a bit guilty that our mountain had been on fire for two weeks, but I didn't want to change plans last minute, so wildfire or not, we had a campfire cake! At least it was memorable.

I grew up helping to make (and decorate) my birthday cake every year, so we are keeping that tradition alive with Jack helping with the cake.

The Safari Vests and Treasure Hunt were a hit, but I made the mistake of giving the kids whistles during the treasure hunt. DO NOT GIVE KIDS WHISTLES. Sorry to the parents who got to take whistles home with them!

The end of the Treasure Hunt was a pinata – Jack's favorite.

We had a great time hanging out with our friends on Saturday, and then visiting with some of our family on Sunday for one more mini party. This year was low-key and a lot of fun. I didn't stress about the party and we all had a great time.

Thank you to everyone who was able to come and be a part of making Jack's 5th birthday memorable. Thank you all for the gifts as well (rookie mistake, I didn't manage to write down who gave Jack what), but know that we are incredibly grateful for you, your friendship with us and our son, and Jack is loving all of his gifts. Thank you!

 

Birthday videos can be seen in this post.

S'mores with the Moores Birthday Party, Jack's 4th Birthday Party

For some reason October through the end of the year always feel extra crazy. This is the fourth time we have had a birthday party for Jack (though a first time to do it with friends) and we were still scrambling to put it together in a timely manner.

How do birthdays always sneak up on us? Are we alone in this mad scramble?

Anyways, this year we decided to invite a few friends over to celebrate with Jack. He had one specific request: he wanted a pinata. We went to a party earlier this year with a pinata (he called it a piranha) and he was enamored. 

Daniel and I quickly decided on a woodsy-outdoors theme and sent out an invite via Facebook (I'm falling down on the job, there were no printed invitations this year). 

I then said a little prayer that the weather (in November no less) would cooperate and then started perusing Pinterest for party ideas.

Besides the plan for S'mores, I thought an outdoor nature scavenger hunt would be fun, and then of course, we had the pinata.

While Friday was sunny and warm, Saturday we experienced a huge drop in temperature, along with rain. Boo.

This basically meant I had to scrap the S'mores and scavenger hunt idea. At the last minute, I found some animal silhouettes that I printed off and set out on the table, along with kraft paper, glue, markers and leaf stickers. I figured I couldn't go wrong with stickers. We also moved Jack's tent from our screened in porch to the living room.

The kids arrived and had a blast. They weren't bothered by what we didn't get a chance to do. And when they started to fight over who got to play with what, I directed them all to the dining room table for my last-minute craft. The kids decided they were making treasure maps – sure, whatever you want to make is fine by me!

After our craft, we celebrated with Owl Cupcakes that Jack helped to make (thank you Pinterest!, though mine were not nearly as pretty as the online photos I found). But they were delicious!

And finally we let the kids hit the pinata. Jack had a blast, and I'm pretty sure his friends had fun too. I am working on relaxing a bit and enjoying the party and going with the flow. 

I will probably always do a bit of decorating and making things (nothing wrong with that), but I'm trying to find balance and not go overboard.

We still have all of the ingredients for S'mores with the Moores... 
I guess we just have to save that for another day!

 

Birthday Parties from Years Past: 

Trucks Go, Age 1  |  Frogs, Snails and Puppy Dog Tails, Age 2  |  Curious George, Age 3

In This House...

Shortly after Jack was born, I was perusing Pinterest and got the idea for developing a family motto to hang on our wall. You have probably seen the concept: "In This House We..."

Daniel and I took this idea a step further and came up with a list of things that were specific to our family; then I put my graphic design experience to use and created a sign that hangs in our foyer where we can see it every.single.day.

Our motto incorporates our hobbies [we hike, camp and bike together], our core family expectations [we say I'm sorry, we forgive] and our faith [we love the Lord Our God, and we love others like ourselves].

As our boys grow, we are trying to make sure that we are raising them with this motto in mind, making the effort to follow through with the things we have clearly stated are important to us.

Lately we have been thinking a lot about our neighbors. We try to practice hospitality as much as possible – which can be hard with our busy schedule. In conjunction with this core belief, the church where we worship is encouraging us to meet our neighbors. Most recently this took the shape in the form of throwing a neighborhood block party, of sorts.

Yesterday was National Neighbor Day and we felt like it would be a good opportunity to get out and meet our neighbors – it's kind of hard to love your neighbors when you don't know them.

We invited those living around the perimeter of our neighborhood park to join us at the park for coffee and cookies. We were encouraged to meet four families we hadn't met before. We were surprised that they came out and stuck with us, even though it rained. 

We want to continue to get to know our neighbors. We want our boys to know our neighbors. We want them to feel safe in our neighborhood and we want to contribute to the safety of other families as well. I hope we continue to get to know our neighbors and have opportunities to show that we care.

I hope you had a Happy Neighbor Day and get the chance to know your neighbors as well... and if you didn't get to celebrate neighbor day, today is National COFFEE Day, so you could always invite your neighbor over for coffee ;)

"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" Luke 10:27

Curious George Birthday Party, Jack's 3rd Birthday Party

On Saturday we celebrated Jack's 3rd Birthday party with family members that were able to come spend the day with us.

Each year I get a little more low key with the party happenings. This year, Jack requested Curious George for the theme. Really, he is thrilled to just have cake, balloons and loved ones to play with for the day.

Being pregnant, I decided we should just order pizza, though I did make a cake. For decorations, I created a fun invitation, and our traditional 12 month photo collage. 

We hung streamers and my brother blew up balloons. Jack was in 3-year-old heaven with the streamers.

He got some really great gifts from family and we bought him a $5 electric toothbrush, because that is what he requested.

For a newly turned 3-year-old he sure has some definite opinions of what he likes and doesn't like. 

We continued to be blessed by having this little guy in our lives. Parenting him is such a joy.

 

1st Birthday Party // 2nd Birthday Party

Preschool Halloween Party

From my childhood, I only remember dressing up for Halloween on the actual evening and walking around my neighborhood in a homemade costume to get candy. 

As a still fairly new mom, I am discovering that this appears to no longer be the norm. At least we get a lot of use out of the costume!

Last Saturday we met with friends to visit a nursing home and bring a little joy to the residents. Then yesterday Jack's preschool class had their class party.

The parents (typically the moms) are supposed to sign up to host one of the school parties during the year. I signed up for Halloween to get it out of the way.

I had no idea what exactly to expect. I didn't want to go overboard, but wanted to make some fun goodies. I resorted to a goodie bag idea I found on Pinterest, then I drew faces on tangerines to look like mini jack-o-lanterns, and finally wrapped juice boxes to look like mummies.

A party for 2-3 year olds involves eating food, kids refusing to put on (or take off costumes) and flat out refusing a group picture. C'est la vie. There were a lot of cute costumes in the room.

Last night Jack got to wear his costume to church (3rd time in the costume this year). After the cupcakes, cookies and candy from the preschool party, Jack was a bit worn out. I had a rough go of it trying to  get him to stay in his class. 

This involved tears, bribery, taking off and putting back on his costume, before finally agree to "be like a big kid" and walking in the hallway parade for church.

Jack was one of the first kids to walk through the hallway (with me trailing slightly behind). He had a little swagger as he marched confidently in his Transformers costume. It was all I could do to not laugh (or tear up a bit, I am a pregnant mama after all).

Overall it was a successful day of costumes. There is still the actual day of Halloween to dress up. If we decide to, there is also dress up at the library and Zumbini class. All of these parties is enough to wear this mama out.

Previous Halloween Experiences:

Hayride and Trunk or Treat 2012 // Hayride and Toddler Party 2013