Low-key First Birthday Party

Adorable baby #4 sometimes gets the most attention....

and sometimes the least.

I forgot the "1st birthday" onesie and had my mom bring it to me. Then this was the best picture I could get. Oh well.

When it came to his first birthday party, we were already going to be at our vacation house, and it was during the Jewish holiday of Passover, so no normal cake/cupcakes to be had. Also, he's a *baby*, so he doesn't actually have friends. So we decided to celebrate while we were away. We threw the easiest birthday ever. The big kids voted, and they settle don pottery painting. Each kid made a mug, and together we made a platter as a family with each of our handprints on it.

For the treat, we had ice cream, and then we were done.

Big kids called it "the best birthday party ever", and our three-year old, of the Frozen birthday party fame, declared that she *might* be willing to give u her Mary Poppins birthday party (still month away) for a more intimate family party. Yes, yes please.


And now that school is out and I'm going to be totally out of routine, I feel like I've caught you all up on our celebrations. I might check in over the summer, otherwise I'll see you in the fall!

Jessica

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Pirate Birthday Party

Our son turned 6 in May, and he is finally through with the endless rotation of Firetruck Birthday and Construction Birthday!

With 4 kids now, I'm all about low-key, easy, and anything that is either ordered from Amazon or can be made the day-of. I ordered a "pirate party pack" off Amazon, (how could I live without Amazon Prime?), 24 wooden treasure chests and jewels from Oriental Trading, then topped a few store-bought cupcakes with chocolate "pirate jewels" and the flags from the pirate pack.



The cupcakes were my favorite thing ever!

Super easy to make, and thankfully, the cupcake selection at the grocery store was blue that day, so they even looked kind of like water. When we ran out of pirate flags I just stuck a few stray coins in... Then we put them on the pirate ship and added some pirate booty and called the snacks done.




I hired an awesome entertainer to be a pirate but it turns out that two dozen 6 year olds do NOT want to sit and listen to a pirate story:( So they pretty much went wild while I freaked out and tried really hard not to show how upset I was. After a mad-cap pirate dance party they settled down a bit, then she made pirate swords (cue crazy-going), and then I actually kicked them out. Not literally, since that would involve actual kicking, but I opened the front door and said, "thank you all so much for coming, buh-bye".

In the moment I nixed the piñata since I thought giving the kids a wooden bat was a bad idea, so after everyone left I let my three big ones do it on their own, pirate tattoos and candy for all!!!

Thanks Matey!

Jessica

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Frozen Birthday Party

Yes, I totally gave in to the craze, drank the frozen kool-aid, and threw our 3 year old a themed birthday party. I even hired 2 princesses to come and sing with the kids. Sometimes, it's just easier to give in to the desires of the third child, than to pretend that she doesn't watch TV and craft a wholesome birthday party.

I sourced table decor from my house, so vases in blue and white, a silver branch candelabra, pinecones, an owl... anything that felt winter-frozen-blue-white-maybe-it-goes.

We pushed the 2 dining tables together, and had kids attempt to "build a snowman" out of pretzel rods and marshmallows. They also had waffles and fruit.

Of course, I made us take a family photo...

A shot of the food...

Watching the movie an hour before the party to refresh the older two. They aren't addicted like the 3 year old, so they needed a reminder about the song lyrics.

Snowman parts.

"Snow" was popcorn, carrots were Olaf's noses, and "Sven snacks" were Chex mix and pastel M&M's.

Princess Elsa singing Let it Go.

Our 3 year old in heaven!

Both princesses together.

My sister made 2 cakes, which was amazing and generous and kind and lovely and thematically appropriate!

Our happy girls watching Princess Anna:)

Jessica

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Moodboard Thanksgiving

It's getting to be that time of year, so I decided to make a mood board of all my Thanksgiving ideas this year.

The recipe-side will probably come to fruition, the decorating side, might be a wee bit overly ambitious:) Time will tell...

Bacon-wrapped Turkey
Sweet Potatoes
Perfect Gravy
Pumpkin Pie
Peanut Butter Cookies with Maple Bacon

string lights outside, holiday party design by Emily Henderson

It will be a kosher Thanksgiving at our house, so it will be beef bacon (no pork), plus I'll add a few more "green things" to quote my kids. Maybe green beans, or brussels sprouts, or a salad... But sometimes they only get in the way!

Jessica

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Owl Cupcakes #tbt

As i mentioned in my original Throwback Thursday post, I'm embracing some of my favorite posts from years past, just in case you missed them the first time around:)

I've made these Owl Cupcakes each year for Halloween, fun, easy, the kids can do it themselves... Nothing better than that:)

Find my original post with more pics and instructions (in case you need them) here.

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How to Prepare for a Major Holiday

These three days before Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish new year) could be the template for my approach for the 3 days before any big holiday or event.

Day 1: The Messy Stuff

This day I bake, bake, and bake more. Challah braiding, cookies, cakes, anything that will cover my kitchen with flour and sugar and make it a total mess. This week I made 9 challahs, and 2 desserts, plus a really complicated dinner that I wanted to try out. My strategy is that if there are any disasters, I have plenty of time to fix the problem. I also do my grocery shopping today.

Day 2: Me Time

Today is Day 2 (yay)! So I exercised really hard, took a leisurely shower, shaved my legs, went out to get my nails done... Plus I am currently watching Caillou with my 2 year old, will nurse the baby a ton, feed the kids an easy dinner (pizza maybe?), and try to sneak in a few magazines. Ideally, I would also use today to get spiritually ready, but a few minutes to decompress is enough for me this year.

Day 3: Get $hit Done

The "day of" is when it all comes together. I set the table (if we didn't eat breakfast and dinner in the dining room I might have done this on Day 2), do the cooking (briskets, veggies, sides, soup, etc), run  and unload at least 2 dishwasher loads, wipe off counters, and get the house in order.

Of course there is still parenting to do, so day 3 this year also includes a speech assessment for the 5 year old, music class with the 5 month old, and hopefully seeing my stepmom as she drops off kids from school.

After the Event:

We clean up as much as possible that night, then unload dishwashers and reload the next morning.

Just for fun, here is my menu this year:

Whole wheat raisin challah
Cinnamon and cranberry challah
Apples and Honey
Miso-Ginger Soup with Fresh Corn Ravioli
Brisket with Pomegranate Relish
Multi-Colored Carrots and Potatoes
"French Fry" Green Beans (just thin, crispy and with salt)
Coconut Macaroons with Lemon Curd
Fresh Berries

Wine, lots of wine.

Jessica

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Construction Birthday Party Take 2

Our son turned 5 a couple of weeks ago and he wanted "another" construction birthday party.

For his third birthday I went all out, full-on Pinterest worthy, you can check it out here. There were printables (the bane of my existence as a mom), a construction striped cake that took 3 days to bake, assemble and decorate, mason jar sippers, favors, and a theme-specific art project.

This year, 4.5 weeks after he birth of baby #4, I was suuuuuuper laid back. Evites over paper invites. No balloons, no printables. We did end up baking the cake from scratch, but nothing special inside, and I "decorated" it with some toys I found in the play room...

I just now realized I forgot to wash them before putting them on the cake... At least no one got sick!



We did a book swap instead of gifts (see more book swap information in this post from my daughter's 6th birthday party). We had a pinata (ordered from Amazon 2 days beforehand), and some last minute treat bags with construction sticker books and play-doh. All from Amazon:) Yet another reason that I use Amazon Smile so a small percentage of my purchases go to the charity of my choice.



So, those are the very few pictures I managed to capture. Plus a pic of all 6 of us. It was from mother's day, but let's pretend I took a picture at the party. Except I couldn't because our 6.5 year old was at a friend's birthday, "not a preschool/baby party".

Jessica

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Donut Hole Tower and a 6 year old Birthday Party

All donuts and donut holes, all the time.

#bestbirthdaytreatever

I bought a styrofoam tower at Michael's, left the plastic wrap on, and just skewered the donut and donut holes on with toothpicks. Then decorate with some frilly Target tutu thingies, as you do:)

So now, in a break from the onslaught on vacation house pictures and reveals (announcing, why we built, under construction, moving in, the great room, kitchen, master bedroom, master bath...) I bring you my 6 year old's birthday party and the awesome donut hole tower I created for it.

Yes, her birthday was in August. I got pregnant and sick and anti-screen and just never blogged about it. Honestly, I give myself points for even taking pictures.

It had a "princess-pajama-art" theme, which was clearly her own invention and excuse to wear pajamas and a princess dress.

The pj's were off at this point.

4 year old boys, however, refuse to accessorize their construction machine pajamas with princess attire:) Thankfully, my sweetie loves donuts!

Instead of gifts (which I loath to receive and slightly dislike giving), I had each child bring a book (used or new) and the kids did a book swap. While sitting around out coffee table, they sang Happy Birthday, passing the books around. Then when the song stopped if they liked the book in front of them they took it and stepped back. Worked wonderfully, and we had a net loss of 4 books in our house (since some siblings arrived unexpectedly).

Birthday success all around!

Jessica

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Minnie Mouse Birthday Party

One day after last year's rainbow birthday party, my older kids informed me that for their little sister's *next* birthday, it should be Minnie Mouse themed. Because, how else do you come up with a theme, than by soliciting advice from the older sibs?

The cupcakes above were my morning-of decision. Got to love Pinterest and the internet, when I decided that being in the throws of morning sickness and attempting to make a cake shaped like Minnie Mouse was WAY too hard. Cupcakes with Oreo "mouse ears"? Easy peasy lemon squeezy as the first graders are saying.

The far away grandma even came in for a visit! Also note the Minnie Mouse t-shirt from Target, that's about as themed as I was willing to get this year!

Oh, but them my hubby found Minnie and Mickey apple juices at the store, so extra blogger/mommy points! We served bagels with cream cheese and smoked salmon, fruit and cupcakes. Super easy.

The big sister, who was actually willing (and happy) to wear mouse ears!

And there is our 2 year old before she demolished that cupcake!

Jessica

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