My sweet, wonderful boy is growing up so fast. He loves science, Legos, and cousins. J is 9 years old this year and his best friend and cousin is 8. Their birthday’s are just 3 weeks apart and they both love Legos so they had a joint party this year. J’s aunt and I had fun planning another party together.
All the kids colored Lego minifig coloring sheets and we hung them up to make a banner.
J made a Lego container to hold the forks. We covered the juice boxes with construction paper and added dots to look like Legos.
We wrapped some of the gifts to look like Legos too.
J got a few new Lego sets and the Lego Movie.
J gave his cousin a watch for his birthday.
The boys had fun putting their Legos together with Papa.
We played Lego games too.
J’s aunt made cookies to look like Legos and Minifig marshmallow pops.
To start the Lego cake I found a Lego font in a Google search. Then I printed out the boys name and colored it to look like the Lego logo.
Then I used my homemade marshmallow fondant to create edible names that look like the Lego logo.
Next I used candy melts to create the candy Lego bricks and minifigs with my silicone Lego molds.
Then I made the cake with colored white cake mix in my checkered cake pans.
Next I made my butter cream frosting green and frosted the cake. I added the candy bricks around the boarder of the cake.
Then placed the green fondant on the top portion of the cake and added the name Lego logos on top.
Marshmallow Fondant Recipe
Ingredients:
16 oz. Mini Marshmallows
3 TBSP water
2 lbs Powdered Sugar (4 cups)
Crisco
Directions:
Grease a large glass bowl with Crisco.
Pour in the marshmallows and water; then microwave at 30- second intervals, stirring after each interval, until melted.
Reserve about 1/4 cup of the powdered sugar. Place the red of the powdered sugar in a large bowl of a standing mixer.
Grease the paddle attachment with Crisco and pour in the melted marshmallows on top of the powdered sugar.
Beat until a dough form; there will be a lot of loose bits and sugar in the bottom of the bowl.
Grease a clean work surface with Crisco and dump out the fondant and all the loose bits. Grease your hands liberally with Crisco and knead the mixture together, just like kneading bread, for about 5 minutes until smooth.
Grease hands again as needed. As the fondant becomes smoother, use the reserved powdered sugar to coat the surface to keep it from sticking.
Once smooth, you can divide and color the fondant. While working with one piece, cover the remaining fondant with plastic wrap to keep it from drying out.
When you have your colors finished coat the fondant in a light layer or Crisco; wrap in plastic wrap and place in a large baggie for at least an hour, preferably overnight.
Store at room temperature for several months. To us it, dust the surface and rolling pin with powdered sugar and roll out to 1/8 of an inch.
Then I placed a thin piece of yellow fondant around the cake above the bricks and set the minifigs on it.
Then I placed the #8 and #9 candles that I had.
Happy Birthday, my growing boy!!!
He wrote about his Lego party the next day in writing class…
T is already 3 and totally into firemen and firetrucks. He will constantly begin his stories with, “When I was on my firetruck…” So he got a fireman birthday party this year. I called the local fire department and got a tour of the fire house and firetrucks. We met at the fire house for the start of the party and then headed over to our house for dinner, games, and dessert.
One of his favorite things about firemen is that they work with hoses so he was excited to hold the fire hose.
Another one of his favorite things about firemen is that they get to climb up ladders so he was excited to climb on the ladder to the firetruck too.
I gave the kids water balloons to throw through a flaming ring (hola hoop covered with shredded plastic table cloth).
The also got to extinguish foam flames with a squirt gun fire extinguisher.
And he had fun climbing the ladder to rescue the cat.
I found a fire hydrant sprinkler for the kids to play in too.
I set out firetruck to play with.
We roasted hot dogs and hand watermelon and corn on the cob too. (I liked that the watermelon and corn matched the color theme I had going on.)
T got a new firetruck for a gift.
I made flaming cupcakes. I made yellow cake batter with red swirls in it, then I frosted it with orange flames. We also had a smores bar with 3 different kinds of chocolate, grahams, and marshmallows.
And of course I had fire hoses (licorice) for T.
And fireman ladders to eat. I melted chocolate and dipped pretzel rods in it and then pretzel sticks for the rungs of the ladder.
My sister-in-law, Cloninger Photography, did an awesome job with his photos again this year.
Today we talked about the science behind rainbows. We learned that all a rainbow needs is light and water so we went outside to try to create some or our own rainbows. Today we included more rainbow crafts, science, math, literature, and snacks.
What Makes a Rainbow
Discuss: A rainbow needs light and water for us to see it. Show a simple demonstration of how we bend light by using a straight straw and a clear cup that is half filled with water. Even though the straw is straight, it looks bent when we put it into the water. That is just the light bending. When we bend light, it is called “refraction.” Let’s bend some more light. Show the kids a prism, go outside and used a prism to create a rainbow on a piece of white paper. Why do we see rainbows when it rains? The raindrops are like a tiny prism, bending the light that comes from the sun. So we need both sun (light) and rain (prism) at the same time to make a rainbow in the sky. Let’s do a simple demonstration to see how the sun and water make a rainbow. We’ll use the hose in the backyard to make a rainbow. Make sure the sun is behind us and the water is in front of us.
Read: What Is a Rainbow? By Chris Arvetis and Carole Palmer
Comprehension Questions:
What makes a rainbow? Light and water
Fruit Loop Bagel Breakfast
Materials:
Plain Bagels
Cream Cheese
Fruit Loops
Directions:
spread cream cheese on the bagel
place the fruit loops in the shape of a rainbow
Tissue Paper Rainbow
Materials:
colors of tissue papers
pencil with a full eraser
school glue
white cardstock with an outline of a rainbow on it
markers or crayons
Directions:
Have the children use the markers or crayons to color in the colors they want their rainbow to look like.
Cut the tissue into 1 inch squares.
Pour some school glue onto a tray or plate.
Have your child take one piece of tissue, and show them how to center (approximately!) the eraser onto it.
Wrap the tissue up around the pencil.
Dip into the glue.
Hold onto the edges of the tissue, and press the glue tipped end onto the paper, matching up the color from your picture. Slide the pencil out.
Rainbow in a Box
Discuss: Like water drops in falling rain, the CD separates white light into all the colors that make up the rainbow. The colors you see reflecting from a CD are interference colors, like the shifting colors you see on a soap bubble or an oil spill. You can think of light as as being made up of waves-like the waves in the ocean. When light waves reflect off the ridges on your CD, they overlap and interfere with each other. Sometimes the waves add together to make a rainbow.
Materials:
CD
Box
Flashlight
Directions:
Shine a flashlight on an old CD in the bottom of a box turned on it’s side.
Turn off the lights, and move the flashlight across the CD to make the rainbows dance.
Rainbow Addition
Materials:
Paper
Pen
Construction paper
Directions:
Draw an outline of a rainbow on the paper.
Write addition combinations on the blank rainbow. (make sure they are spaced out quite a bit)
Cut the construction paper into rectangles small enough to cover one of the combinations.
Write the answers to the top row of combinations on the red rectangles.
Next row answers are on the orange rectangles. And so on.
Child will look at the combination and find the answer in the colored pieces and place it over the combination. At the end there should be a completed colored rainbow.
I modified the one for A. to counting dots on the white paper and finding the correct number on the colored pieces.
And I modified the tots to matching colors.
Eat the Rainbow
Discuss:
Talk about what different colors of the rainbow that we can eat to be healthy. Fruits and Vegies Then make a chart with the kids that have all of the foods that they suggested written on it.
Materials:
Posterboard
Markers of crayons
Strawberries
Cantaloupe
Banana
Pear
Blueberries
Red Grapes
Kabob Skewers
Directions:
Make a rainbow on a plate or platter with different fruits.
RED – Strawberries ORANGE – Cantaloupe YELLOW – Banana GREEN – Pear BLUE – Blueberries VIOLET – Red grapes
2. Let the children use the kabob sticks to make their rainbow fruit kabobs.
Read: I can eat a Rainbow by Annabel Karmel while they eat
Make a REAL Rainbow
Read: A Rainbow of My Own by Don Freeman
Discuss: Rainbows appear wherever sunlight falls on water or glass. We used the Rainbow Diagram here to help us with this experiment.
Materials:
Glass of water
Dark kitchen
White Paper
Masking Tape
Flashlight
Directions:
Fill a glass of water (almost to the top) and place it at the very edge of the counter in a VERY dark kitchen or bathroom.
Place a sheet of plain white paper on the floor a few inches away from the counter.
Put two pieces of masking tape over the front of a flashlight so that the light comes out of a slit about 1/8 inch wide.
Shine this light across and down into the water as shown in the figure. When a narrow beam of light is passed through a glass of water, a spectrum can be seen on a white sheet of paper.
Can you see a small rainbow on the white paper? If not, move the flashlight around a little until you achieve the best results.
Rainbow Symmetry
Discuss: A line of symmetry divides a shape into two identical parts. In some cases, as with a rainbow, you’ll find one line of symmetry down the middle. In other cases, there is more than one, like with eight sections of an orange. So if we paint a rainbow on one side of the paper and then fold it in half it should appear the same on both sides forming a symmetrical rainbow.
Materials:
Cardstock folded in half
Paint for all the colors of the rainbow
Directions:
Fold the paper in half and open.
Have the kids how to paint half a rainbow on one half of the paper in the right order.
Fold the paper over and press gently.
Open again to see your rainbow print.
IMG_0701
Rainbow Celebration Cake
Cake Materials:
White cake (2 boxes)
9 in. cake pan
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple GEL food coloring.
Cake Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Spray 9” cake pans. Make the 2 cakes according to the directions.
Divide the batter into 6 bowls (about 1 1/2 cups each.
Then whisk 2 drops of the appropriate food color into each bowl. Pour into the pans and bake for 12 minutes each.
When you remove them from the oven, let them rest on the cooling rack, in the pan, for ten minutes. Then flip, cover, and stash them in the fridge to cool quickly.
Frosting Materials:
2 Cups shortening
2 teaspoons vanilla
½ cup water
2 lbs. Powdered sugar
Frosting Directions:
In large bowl, cream shortening with electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add water and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use.
This icing can be stored 2 weeks. rewhip before using.
IMG_0680I added sugar sprinkles in the shape of a rainbow to it too.
Our family Thanksgiving tradition is making Gingerbread Houses. This year we used graham crackers, we also tried chocolate graham crackers. I made buttercream icing to add the candies.
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 is now 6 years old and getting into superheros and technology. He chose to have a Transformers cake this year. I made a 9×11 sheet cake and frosted it with gray street colored frosting. I added smaller squares of cake for the buildings and made windows by cutting mini marshmallows in half. I added green shrubs around the buildings with frosting too. I made a stop sign with lollipops and wrote “six” on them instead of “stop”. I placed a few of his mini Transformer toys on the graham cracker road and on the buildings. Here the “6” candle is backwards… I didn’t notice until I got the pictures back, but otherwise he loved 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.
He got the Dino Transformers and a set of Schleich dinos for his gifts and was so happy!
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.
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.
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.
I found some blue pinwheels and make a little Blue’s Clues coloring book for the kids too.
I printed out labels for the bubbles, and stuck them to the side of the bottles.
We got J a goldfish for his birthday since he still loves animals, and I am not the biggest pet lover.
J’s favorite song is The Hokey Pokey so we danced to is a couple of times. He loved it!
I put out his baby book again this year for our family to look though.
