Sprout Spot

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Egyptian Party

Two weeks ago we celebrated Anna and Noah's birthday party. On Anna's actual birthday we went out to eat at her favorite restaurant and then had her requested ice cream cake and little gifts back at home. On Noah's day we went out to eat at his favorite restaurant too, but he wanted to go out for ice cream afterward instead of doing anything at home. So no pictures from his, but this was Anna's bumblebee cake.

The party they shared had an Egypt theme, mostly Anna's choice. She's really lucky to have such a compliant little brother! As you can probably imagine, it's next to impossible to find Egyptian themed birthday supplies. There was very little to choose from, and what I did find was either very adult or made for a high school dance. So we kept it simple. After watching my guest list pass 50 people, I decided to scale way back and make this year family only. That's still about 30 people! And I knew that all the kids really wanted was a fun day with cake. Done.

Thank you Etsy for the only kid appropriate invitations I could find.

Lack of pre-made decorations were no problem for Anna. I loved that she wrote Giza across the bottom. "Ya know mom, like the Great Pyramid of Giza?".

I didn't plan games, but we did set up a little craft area with some supplies to decorate your own sarcophagus, draw a Pharaoh mask, or make Egyptian paper dolls. I knew the girls would love it. I love how much these three look alike even though they all have different parents. ;)

The boys had fun with the crafts too...in between backyard basketball games and bike riding.

Ben has been glue stick obsessed ever since. In the middle of the table you can see the pyramid favor boxes I made, trying to Eygpt things up a little. ;)

The sarcophagus cake was a hit. Made by the same awesome bakery that did Ben's Clifford cake last year, and the ocean cake the Spring before that.

It was tough to cut, but the shape of it did make candle placement pretty easy. I honestly thought I had counted wrong when I put the candles in. That's way too many!

Lots of super fun gifts. Legos, mummy sets, a pyramid excavation set, walkie talkies....the stuff these kids' dreams are made of! See Anna's hair? After telling me she was never going to cut it again, I got her to agree to about a 3 inch chop just last night!

Since the party I've been finding lots of scenes like this around the house. I'm glad the men and ladies can bond over giant coffee cups and bow-wearing hedgehogs.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Adventure boys

These boys. They are BOYS. They were very excited to get to the boy-ish parts of Disney, including Pirates of the Caribbean. After we rode that and purchased a pirate chest for them, we headed over to The Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse for more boy fun (Anna liked it too of course). So they had eye patches, rope, a treasure chest with maps and wanted posters, and yes, plastic knives. Noah's oversized jacket and missing tooth really helped his tough guy look.

Here's my stance on boys and toy weapons: Do I love them? No. Do I wish they didn't like them? Sometimes. But the bottom line is that they are little boys. No, boys don't have to pretend play with weapons, but they often do it naturally, with no encouragement from moms! Playing bad guy versus good guy is fun, and that usually involves weapons. Most little boys play with them and most little boys grow up to never play with the real thing. And these boys are my boys. I know their little hearts inside and out and I know what is okay for them and what is too much. At the end of the day, they are still sweet compassionate boys and playing with a plastic weapon doesn't change that. Stepping down off of my soapbox now. ;)

This podcast was an encouragement to me recently!

http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/toys-for-boys-are-guns-okay-podcast-9

See what I mean? Sweetness.

I will admit that they got a lot of double takes as the ran through the park with their knives, hee. They definitely took full advantage of being in Adventure Land!

We had dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in Magic Kingdom, The Liberty Tree Tavern. Ahhh, sibling love.

We heard the fireworks starting up as we were finishing dinner, so we headed out to see them from behind the castle. I remembered to bring their light up toys from our last trip, and I let Noah buy a lightsaber. Look how amazed he was, ha! Ben wasn't so sure. After the fireworks we headed around to the front of the castle for the Electric Light Parade, always a favorite. It was fun to see that they had added new things. We ended the night by riding a few more rides and then took the buses back to our hotel. Keeping with family tradition, all the boys fell asleep on the ride while Anna and I stayed awake. ;)

While we waited

One thing Disney has a lot of, no matter what time of year you go, is waiting. We've been lucky enough to go in early March for our last few trips and it really is a perfect time. Weather is cool and crowds are smaller, so wait times are much much less than they are in the summer. But new attractions were still busy, so we got Fast Passes as often as we could to cut down on time standing in line. Journey of the Little Mermaid was definitely one we didn't want to wait on for an hour or more, and with the passes we only had to wait about 10 minutes.

It was cute. The neatest part was the mechanical characters because their movements were very fluid and lifelike, which seemed to be a new technology for Disney. It was different than characters we had seen on other rides. Worth the 10 minute wait. ;)

The new Beast's castle area was fun to see as well.

We had read that Enchanted Tales with Belle was one of the must see new attractions. The wait time was about an hour, no fast pass option. So we waited. The kids made the best of it.

She really became a mouse in those ears.

Noah was pretty sad and frustrated with waiting. But I still love his pouty mouth. :)

Story Time was cute. Every person gets a chance to be in the show but none of our kids were interested. We just watched everyone else and then got a photo with Belle when it was over. By then Noah was more than ready to be done with princesses and move on to pirates!

Tuesday, April 09, 2013

Happy Morning

On our first full Disney day we had breakfast reservations at the Crystal Palace restaurant in the Magic Kingdom. We've done this before, but I think only Anna remembered that trip. As you can see though, both boys enjoyed it this time.

Ben was so funny with Eeyore. Of course the characters don't talk, but Eeyore kind of snuck up behind Ben and just started rubbing his head with his furry paw. Ben completely went into a trance! It was hysterical. He stayed that way as long as Eeyore was snuggling him.

He walked up behind me while I was adding this Piglet picture and said, "I go back there and get more cereals?". This was the first time he'd had Fruit Loops, and he hasn't forgotten. ;)

We opted for a family shot with Tigger. Lego man photo bomb.

Speaking of photo bombs, Ben LOVED the characters so much that he would chase them down after they had moved on to other families. At one point he ran after Pooh right into another family's photo while yelling, "I love him! I need him!". I love age 2 so so much!

After breakfast we headed into the park. It was a little cool the week we were there, but we had nothing but sunshine every day.

Nathan tried to pull the sword out of the stone...

...so the kids had to try too. The best part is that these faces reflect genuine effort on their part. They really thought if they pulled hard enough they could be the ones to finally remove the sword.

Hee hee!

Spring Break

The first week of March the kids were on Spring Break so we headed to Disney World! We drove like we usually do, but we took it easy and made it into a two day trip. So our first day we arrived mid-afternoon and went straight to lunch at the T-Rex Cafe in Downtown Disney. The kids loved it, but the parents thought it was overpriced and not that great. But it was all about the kids, right? ;)

They had a little dig site just outside the restaurant that the boys enjoyed for a while.

Next was the real reason we went to Downtown Disney, the Lego store!

It was fun but I was kind of a nervous wreck. It was crowded and Noah was so excited to see everything that he kept dashing all over the store. Luckily he found the little set he wanted (he'd been waiting for months to get his Lego set in Disney!) and we moved on. We went in another store, but we were pretty much ready to get to the hotel since we had driven for a few hours that morning. On the way out the kids stopped to take a picture with these princess statues. Even Noah wanted a turn!

And I couldn't help but have a flashback to 2008 when Anna stood by this one.

Look at that sweet little girl!

Friday, March 15, 2013

Maple Syrup Festival

Back at the end of February we drove the kids up to the Maple Syrup Festival about an hour from our house. It was a super cold day...as you can see by frozen Noah.

But they were still pretty happy to be there. Pancakes with maple syrup and blueberries didn't hurt.

There were lots of cute activities and crafts for the kids.

There were games, and animals to pet...sorta.

Alpaca shaped cookies to eat.

And things to stick your head in. This little kids activity building was a nice break from the cold. Inside the kids were able to climb in this little tree house thingie, do crayon rubbings, tap pretend trees, and make their own candles.

Outside there were booths for the adults to shop and more fun activities. Ben must have run through this tiny hay maze about four hundred times.

Anna decided to try and climb this rope ladder challenge. She really worked hard and kept at it until she made it to the top and rang the bell...while Ben tried to get out of his hood. At one point I heard him say, "I need to escape!".

They also rode this thing. Get strapped into a seat and hang on while these guys wind it up and then let it go. It looked fun, but I didn't try it out.

The kids said it was a blast...even if they were a bit unsure at first, hee hee!

Adoption Timelines