Archive for May, 2008

Fear is not a Factor

{ May 29, 2008 @ 12:37 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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So, for my son’s 7th birthday, he wanted a Fear Factor party complete with all the disgustingness of the tv show.  Easy as pie!

We started out with the invitations. Unfortuantely, I don’t have a picture of them on my computer but I will tell you about them. We cut flags out of yellow plastic material. Anyone who watched the show knows that it is all about the contestants retireving the flags. Hubby carefully ironed on the words “Fear Factor” to 40+ flags. Attached to the flags was a notecard sized invitation that was covered in worms- well pictures of worms actually- along with all of the pertinant information. They were totally cool! Props to the hubby for his creativity!

We lucked out that his birthday falls after Halloween becuase all the leftover candy is on sale. There were gummy bugs and body parts and eyeballs- all required eating for such a party. Of course, we did have to order some additional candy online because you just can’t find crunchy bugs at the store these days. We also ordered an asortment of fake bugs to put in the punch and stuff like that.

We had a great game that we played, which of course involved sticking your hands into all sorts of goo. It went like this:

First, you went to the big lexan that held way to much goo (cornstarch, water and blue food coloring). For parents,this is a scary enough proposition. The kids search thru the goo to find a small piece of paper that has a color on it. This color corresponds with the next part of  the game.

The kids then went to the table that held 4 black containers of other nasty goo protected by a giant bug (which would be door prizes later). They matched their paper to the bucket and stuck their hand in to retrieve a coin with a number on it. This would be used for the next game. The buckets contained either fish eyeballs (blueberry pie filling), smooshed brains (soggy oatmeal), arteries (spaghetti noodles and oil) or human eyeballs (grapes in oil). The kids loved it and the parents stared at us in disbelief that we would encourage all this messiness without the slightest concern that our house could be covered in sticky fingerprints. We did take that into consideration and had a bucket of soap and water that all little hands must use immediately following the bucket experience.

The kids would then take the number over to the tic tac toe game. We actually modified it to have pictures of frogs, bugs, eyeballs, spiders, etc that matched our candy. Kids were trying to get as much candy as they could. It was a huge hit!

We also had the kiddos make thier own party hats. I hate to buy party hats, and as I am a crafty person, I always try to have the kids make their own. Besides that, it gives them something to do while we wait for everyone else to arrive and the party begins. This year they made bug eyes. They were incredibly cute!!

Food is another important aspect of these parties. We had tarantula jigglers, bug punch, and a cockroach cake. We also had more normal fare such as pigs in blankets, baked beans and cheese ball puffs.

Cockroach cake

Some of our goodie bags had papers for door prizes in them. The winners got either one of the large bugs that were guarding the goo buckets or a Fear Factor prize that we ordered online from thier site. It was a fabulous time!

D’oh!

{ May 26, 2008 @ 11:49 am } · { Uncategorized }
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Last year for Chase’s birthday, he decided that he wanted to go with a Simpson’s theme. Cool. We love the Simpson’s though he seems to have a mild obsession with them. He wanted to make sure that we had all of the key ingredients which would be:

  1. Homer                                            
  2. Bart                                                 
  3. Duff Beer (or root beer in this case)
  4. Spiderpig                                         
  5. and of course, doughnuts               

You might think that this would be a tall order with there not being so many Simpson party supplies out there. However, complicated is my middle name and we worked around that problem.

The first thing we needed to do was to decide what the invitations should look like. Well, anyone who knows me, knows that I am a total kitchen gadget geek who just happened to have a mini doughnut maker. Doughnuts were our invitation. White donuts with pink icing and sprinkles to be exact. Hubby and I made 75 mini donuts and boxed them in individual boxes for school delivery the next day.

 Next order of Business was the Duff Beer. Since we decided that we didn’t want to be know as “that type of parent,” we went with root beer instead of the real stuff. Chase and a buddy went with me to make it at a local restaurant and brewery.  The did everything from sanitizing the bottles to making the root beer to bottling and capping it.  Then we brought it home and labeled it. This was our party favor, or at least one of them.

 In order to include Homer in the party, we made him one of the games. It was your basic tossing game but instead of beanbags, we used donut holes. The object of the game was to feed Homer. Hubby drew a life size Homer, cut out the mouth and painted him. He was awesome!! The kids thought that it was so cool to get to throw donuts and the game was a huge success.

Our other game was a pinata, which I am not really a big fan of, and this just reinforced it. We had it made at a little pinata shop down the street from us and they did a beautiful job. Too good a job in fact, as it was harder than heck to bust it open. However, it did finally get broken open and no one lost an eye. All in all, it was okay. 

By now I am sure that you are wondering what we did for food. Well, since our home team for baseball is the Albuquerque Isotopes we thought that it was only fitting to have baseball type food such as hot dogs and popcorn. We also had Harry Plopper cookies and 2 cakes, one of Lisa and one of Bart.

We had a great time putting it all together and the kids had a great time at the party.

Birthday Planning Already??

{ May 24, 2008 @ 5:24 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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Many of my friends and family think that I am totally crazy because I believe in planning birthday parties many months in advance. We actually start planning my son’s party the day after his current party. Of course, we don’t have normal birthday parties anyway. Most families I know invite the class maybe…we invite upwards of about 60 kids and most of them come. Our guest list increases by about 15 kids every year and at this rate, I am a little afraid of what the guest list will be like when he is in high school.

Once I get back into town, I will let you in on what goes on at the parties and the fabulous cakes that go with them.

Kids in the Kitchen

{ May 24, 2008 @ 1:53 am } · { Uncategorized }
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At my son’s elementary school, there are tons of afterschool programs. I happent to teach one called Kids in the Kitchen. I was a little anxious about it first, afraid that I would not be able to handle 12 elementary age children, but it was great fun. So much so, that I am teaching it again next semester and my roster is already full.

The kids had a blast making everything from pancakes to pizza. We did a whole month on Gingerbread houses alone! The kids love it. I would like to think that it is my witty personality or supreme skills, but I think that it really comes down to making a kid feel special by teaching them something that they will always use. Sure, not all of my kids are going to go off and be master chefs anywhere, but they might take the time to teach someone younger, or maybe even older, something that they have learned. Pay it forward, dear children, pay it forward.

  

Dance Hall Days

{ May 23, 2008 @ 8:17 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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Well, it is the end of the school year and that means performances. Dance recitals, plays, concerts…you name it, they do it. And by “they” I mean, my son’s elementary school. My son takes tap and jazz and has a great time doing it. While I am sure that he will never be a Savion Glover, he is getting great stage experience and love of dance, which, in my humble opinion, is reason enough.

So, there are probably a hundred kids in our little after school dance program and they work incredibly hard. I thought that I should reward all their effort, as well as the teachers, with a cake. Now, I love to bake, I even went to school for it. I just don’t make a living at it…yet.

The kids and parents loved it! They just thought it was the best thing ever and I was so glad. I especially loved the part where I didn’t have to take any cake home!