Ian at a Birthday Party

 
 
 
 

 
 

Aaron at a Birthday Party

 
 
 
 

My Little Lunch Buddy

 
He was just too cute today so I snapped this photo with my iPhone. Sorry it's so grainy, but it was too cute not to share.

Dr Seuss Playdate

 
 
 
 
Dr Seuss would have celebrated his 106th birthday this past Tuesday. A friend of ours in the playgroup hosted a playdate with a Seussy theme. The kids made clovers with a speck from Horton Hears a Who, paper door hangers with the Cat in the Hat and the Grinch, and Cat in the Hat hats. She also had some lovely snacks. Green eggs and ham. Colored goldfish crackers and Swedish fish candies for One Fish, Two Fish..., and she made Cat in the Hat cookies with white chocolate dipped Ritz crackers and marshmallows. She did a fantastic job and the kids loved it. Her decorations were adorable, too. Such a fun playdate! Thanks, Ali!

 
 
 

Wordless Wednesday

 

Leprechan Cupcakes

 

Okay so it's not really a leprechan cupcake, but that's what I called them. I found this recipe on a blog site called Miss Crafty Pants. She had some sort of sophisticated name for them. Me, I took the recipe and made them for my coworkers. Then decided to say they had baked leprechans in them. The recipe is quite easy and it was really yummy if you enjoy mint chocolate. The key is the mint cookie in the bottom of the cupcake (I used a Girl Scout Thin Mint). Then it's just your regular cupcake batter and your best chocolate frosting with some mint extract added.

SKYPE

 
Daddy is on TDY in Bahrain so he had an internet connection that would support SKYPE. Ian had a grand time talking to Daddy. The called dropped a couple of times, but for the most part, the connection was decent. It was so nice to see him and to be able to share a conversation. He should be home by the end of next month so we are winding down on the deployment.

Hello Robin Redbreast

 
Please tell me that Spring is right behind you.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Playdate

 
 
 
 

Today's playdate was a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom theme. It's Ian's favorite book and he has been dying for his friends to share in his love of all things Chicka Chicka. So we set up our front room with a tall palm tree with letters and our tables for our crafts. The first craft we made was a puzzle. I scanned the board book cover and then cut them out. We then took a glue stick and covered the entire back before placing large popcicle sticks across it not quite touching so that we could cut them apart after they dried. The moms took an exacto knife and sliced them apart and instant puzzle! and Super Easy! You could do this with just about any picture for any themed playdate.

Our second craft was a shaker bottle. I bought these palm tree picks from Oriental Trading company, had each child put one in a dried, empty water bottle and added the alphabet in bead form to make a cute shaker. You could also add glitter or confetti or anything really. We glued the tops on so that they wouldn't let the contents spill out and we let them dry while we made our snacks.

Our snack was a Chicka Chicka coconut tree. We used a wafer cookie as a truck, 4 green apple slices as the leaves, 3 grapes as the coconuts and Alphabits cereal as the letters. The kids gobble this up and it was pretty darn healthy. The wafer cookies are sugar free and less than 40 calories each, plus the fruit and cereal. So really a great healthy playdate snack that looks really cute.

We then took our bottle shakers and went and watched the Scholastic Chicka Chicka Boom Boom video. The kids enjoyed shaking and dancing around and watched the video multiple times since it's so catchy!