Party – Page 6 – Learning With My Boys

Halloween Bonfire

We had a Halloween Bonfire again this year. This time we set up a table outside with all the pumpkin carving tools and told people to bring their own pumpkins to carve. The boys actually helped us gut the pumpkins this year… in the past they have said it was too slimy for them. T really like looking at the candles in them. It was fun making jack-o-lanterns together!

We roasted hot dogs and smores too. This was the biggest bonfire that we have ever had, was a fun time!

I bought caramel apples this year instead of making them… they were much better! J just LOVES caramel apples!

Check out our fun Halloween Bonfire from last year!

Surprise Adoption Party

My in-laws finalized the adoption of their 2 girls this past week, so we had a surprise ice cream party for them!!!

I made a family tree poster with our fingerprints. Everyone in our family added their fingerprint as the leaves on the tree. We also had new family photos taken to include the girls. I made a banner that said “Welcome to our Family” too.

Ice cream sundaes! We had several different flavors of ice cream and tons of different topping choices of fruit and candies. We wanted to make this the most special thing to celebrate the girls!

I made “Our 2 Sweethearts” sign/ banner with my Cricut.

Welcome to the family… we love you!

Bugs Birthday Party -1

We had a bug themed party for T’s first birthday! I made bug balloons by filling latex balloons with helium and using rubber cement to hold them together. For the Bee Balloon I used 2 yellow balloons and wrapped some black electrical tape around for the bee’s stripes. Then I used tissue paper for the wings, black pipe cleaner for the antenna, and googly eyes for eyes. I added a mouth with black sharpie. For the Ladybug Balloon I found some red balloons with black spots. I glued a small black balloon for the head, used googly eyes for the eyes, and black pipe cleaner for the antenna again. For the Caterpillar Balloon glued together 4 green balloons and used green pipe cleaner for the legs and antenna. I used a sharpie for the mouth and added googly eyes to the caterpillar as well. I set them up outside and it was a bit too windy for the balloons, most of them ended up popping before the end of the party!

We grilled burgers and hot dogs for lunch. We also had ants on a lot and ladybug watermelon balls (I just put mini chocolate chips in the watermelon balls.) I taped black construction paper ants to my red and white checkered table cloth.

I filled red, green, and yellow water balloons for the kids to play with.

I got kind of carried away with the desserts and ended up making 3 sweets. We had gummy worms in chocolate pudding with crushed Oreo’s on top. We had a beehive cake with cream cheese frosting and bees made out of chocolate covered almonds and mini marshmallow wings. And we had caterpillar cupcakes with candy faces.

I had my sister-in-law, Cloninger Photography, take T’s 1 year old photos and they turned out great!

Happy 1st Birthday Baby Boy! I love you!

I have tons of other kids party themes:

Easter Hunt

We always have an egg hunt and Easter baskets for the kids, but this year we decided to have one for the adults too with huge prize baskets. Everyone pitched in a few dollars to pay for the prizes and it ended up being tons of fun. The boys enjoyed dying and hunting eggs and they loved their Easter baskets too.

My husband hid 3 dozen eggs for the adult egg hunt while I assembled the prize baskets. We had one for the guy with the most eggs and one for the gal with the most eggs. Some of the eggs were camo colored for more fun!

My father-in-law won the guys and my sister-in-law won the gals basket!

The kids also had a fun egg hunt as well!

Diego Birthday Party -5

J is 5 now and loves Diego. I tried my best to transform the living room into a jungle with twisted crepe paper vines, poster board and balloon trees, and stuffed jungle animals all around. I try to decorate while he is not around so that when he enters the room he has a big surprise, I just love seeing him when he enters the party room. I also set out his Diego books and toys for the kids to enjoy.

We had rainforest kabobs with fruit, yogurt, and coconut.

He just loved his Transformers that he got from his dad.

I made a 9×11 sheet cake and decorated it with his Diego toys. I frosted the cake with chocolate frosting then added some green vines to it. I tried to make trees with Pirouette Wafers and marshmallow on top. I covered the marshmallows with green frosting. I put blue frosting in the middle for a river and placed candy rocks along the river bank.

We had a treasure hunt too. I placed the clues on his animals, each clue had animal facts about the next animal. The hunt finally ended in a hidden door that I cut from the bottom of one the fake tree trunks that I had made out of poster board. The kids all loved this!

Happy Birthday to my animal lover!

Be sure to check out my other kids party themes: Farm Birthday Party , Blues Clues Party, Bob the Builder Party and Backyardigans Party.

Halloween Bonfire

We decided to have a bonfire for Halloween this year. First we went to a nearby pick-your-own pumpkin patch to choose two big pumpkins. We rode in a wagon pulled by a tractor to the pumpkin patch. After choosing our two pumpkins we placed them in the wagon with T and pulled them to the car so we could take them home and carve them.

My husband and I decided to try more difficult designs this year. We each choose our design and dug in, the carving defiantly took longer than our usual triangle eyes and toothy smile jack-o-lanterns. In the end we were very pleased with our work.

We roasted hot dogs for dinner, and had soda for drinks.

We roasted smores for dessert and had homemade caramel apples and candy corn too.

The kids loved it and we all had a great time!

Backyardigans Party -4

J loves to watch The Backyardigans and play dress up. I had a mirror set up low for the kids with a basket full of fun hats for them to try on and see themselves. We played The Backyardigans theme song and the kids danced with their hats on. J also loves music right now. We decorated with our usually crepe paper and balloons around the room.

For the cake I made a 9×11 sheet cake covered in green frosting. I found a Pablo candle and then placed some of his Backyardigans toys on the top. I tried to make green trees from buttercream along the edges. I made the sand box with licorice and brown sugar. I formed a shovel and pail out of Starburst candies. I made the picnic table out of wafer cookies and stuck a mini umbrella in it.

Buttercream Icing

Ingredients:

1 cup butter
1 cup Crisco
4 cups powdered sugar (2 lbs)
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 tablespoon milk (if thick)

Directions:

Cream together the butter and Crisco with a mixer.
Slowly add in 1 cup of powdered sugar at a time.
Add the vanilla, if it seems too thick you can add a bit of milk.

J really wanted a piñata this year so I found this Pablo one. We only had a few cousins at the party so I didn’t need much candy/toys.

He got some dinos, trains, and a toy bow and arrow (his favorite) this year.

Happy Birthday, Sweet Boy, I love you so!

Be sure to check out my other kids party themes: Farm Birthday Party , Blues Clues Party and Bob the Builder Party.

Independence Day Party

We decided to have an Independence Day party. We had family over for grilling and fireworks. J had so much fun celebrating the 4th of July with us. It was his first time experiencing firework. We were glad to finally have fireworks here, we used to do bigger fireworks when we lived in MT, so this was fun!

We grilled hot dogs and corn. We also had watermelon wedges.

We played badminton while it was still light out, then we tried it with smoke bombs after dark.

Sparklers and smoke bombs were a favorite for the kids.

Bob the Builder Party -3

J had a 3rd birthday party with his cousin whose turning 2. They are only 11 months apart so we decided to have a party together since their birthdays are just 3 weeks apart. We decided to have a Bob the Builder party since they both like it. We made a balloon bouquet for each of the boys and crepe paper round the room. I put out all his Bob the Builder toys and books for the kids to play with for the party.

We made pizza bagels for lunch and had chips, salad and soda with them. I found some small orange soccer cones to put on the table for decorations.

J loves playing dress up now. He got some cowboy dress ups and some pirate dress ups too.

I got some orange construction cones and made some construction looking signs from cardboard and yard sticks. Each boy had a sign that says how old they are and a sign that says their names. I also made a gift box for each boy with Bob the Builder on the front.

We set out their baby books for family to enjoy!

I made a 9×11 sheet cake with some Bob the Builder toys on top. I had a number 2 and 3 candle and a little construction sign that said, “Happy Birthday.” I made a road and dirt pile out of crushed cookies and I added whole chocolate graham cookies for the finished part of the road.

Be sure to check out my other kids party themes: Farm Birthday Party and Blues Clues Party.

Blue’s Clues Party -2

J totally loves Blue’s Clues right now so I decided to give him a Blue’s Clues party for his second birthday. I decorated with lots of blue balloons and crepe paper. I love going crazy with the decorations while he is still so little because when he comes in the room for the first time his face lights up and he knows something special is happening. I had his party right after his nap so before nap the living room looks normal and when he wakes up… SURPRISE!!!

For his cake I just made a single layer round chocolate cake with some chocolate cupcakes. I covered them with my homemade blue buttercream and placed them on the table in the shape of Blue’s paw print. I served chocolate milk with it.