Disney Cars Party

This year, for the first time I decided to have the boys 3rd and 5th Birthday Party together. With the impending release of the Disney Cars 2 movie it seemed natural to go with the Cars theme. The first movie has been played over and over as a popular choice on Family Movie Night in our house, so the boys were very excited. As I mentioned in previous posts about birthday parties, I love the planning, making all the bits and pieces and finally the day when it all comes together. This year was no different, only that I had the energy and enthusiasm for one party, instead of the two, that usually fall three weeks apart!!

The Race car theme was based around the two main characters, Lightning Mcqueen and Tow Mater. Here I found an old plastic pavlova stand in my cupboard and sprayed it gold to represent the Piston Cup. The characters are actually both bubble bath bottles that I found in Big W which were much cheaper than purchasing the real cars.

This was the Pit Stop Lane drinks table, where there was Juice (Oil), water, and tea and coffee on offer.

I served home made sausage rolls and hot chips in meal boxes to keep with the race track theme of eating fast food at the race track. I made simple labels on my computer for the meal boxes and bottles of water. The place mats that you can see are just Cars wrapping paper cut in to A4 size and laminated. The kids also had a Cars squeeze yoghurt and one of these super cute apple and grape racing cars.

This is a picture of the loot bags and party gifts that the children received from the boys as a thank you for coming to their party. The loot bags had some cars lollies and two packets of Wikki Stix inside, and each child received a Cars themed board game. The loot bags were just a simple black bag that I attached the tag off the lanyards to with some Cards Themed ribbon from Spotlight.

Here's a snap shot of the room before the guests arrive.

Outside we had used some checkered tape to outline a race track. we had some coop cars and ride on bikes for the younger guests to ride on throughout the party.

This is the entrance to the party. Master 5 stood at the gate with his Nanny to greet the guests and each child received a personalised Crew Pass on a Disney Cars Lanyard that they wore throughout the party and took home. We took photos of each child at the entrance to print off and send as a thank you card.

Here's the Grandparents and Aunt working hard in the kitchen. The adults at the party were served hot sizzling sausages in bread and a bucket of hot chips, which was perfect as it was freezing!

Here's a snap of some of the boys enjoying their meal boxes after having their face painted.

This is a picture of my big boy who actually turned 5 on the day. Master 5 is standing in front of a scene setter that I bought. We decided to buy some cheap wood, paint it black and glue it on to create the backdrop and framed it with the checkered tape. This table was used to place gifts on until they were opened later.

This is the boys aunt who did a fabulous job face painting the kids faces. I had bought two cheap kits from Aldi that worked perfectly.

The highlight of the party.... the jumping castle, which of course was a Cars Themed Castle!

Master 3's Birthday Cake!

Master 5's Birthday Cake!

This is my favourite photo from the day, my two beautiful boys. xx

Once the children finished eating from the meal boxes, I took out the baking paper that lined the box and any leftover food so they could be used to collect treasures from the pinata.

Here's my little guy having the first turn at the Cars Pinata!

Fireman Party

I'm sitting here looking at this photo from my baby's 2nd birthday party last year. I can't believe it's a year on and he is a year older, wiser and cheekier! lol I love celebrating my kids birthday's, and yes I'm a mum who likes to go all out. Why? Because it's what I like to do for my children. Together we spend the month prior to the party choosing a theme, shopping in discount stores for bits and pieces, talking about what you do to get ready for a party, and most importantly talking about their achievements over the past year and how proud we are of them. By achievements I obviously mean those relevant to the level of understanding. I've decided to share Master 2's Finley the Fire Engine Birthday Party with you as it was so much fun.

The birthday boy on the morning of his party with....a fire engine!!

(Sorry about the picture, for some reason I can't rotate it) Here is a picture of the party table all set up in the theme colours of red and yellow.

Now what is a birthday party without sprinkle bread. I always use a cookie cutter to match the theme, in this case a fire engine.

I found these cute biscuit toppers at the Eumundi Markets and just used a little bit of icing to attach them to a tea biscuit.

(Another pic I can't rotate!) I love using a picture from the theme of the party to personalise everything. Also by personalising the drink bottles, it saves children drinking from each others.

Personalised loot cups!

Each child had a personalised place mat that I just printed from my computer and laminated. We also had these super cute (and cheap) fireman hats for all the kids and parents to wear.

I love Pinatas. They can be used as a great centre piece on the party table before the battering begins! lol

Any excuse to laminate! Lol I printed off lots of signs relevant to the theme and placed them around the house where guests would be going.

I used cheap rolls of red and yellow crepe paper to hang as a fire effect. This is Master 2 with his special little friend who was born the day before him xx

I just love the look on their little faces when you bring the cake out.

As I'm sitting here looking through my photos from the past year of my baby boy and smile as I think about the love, joy and pure laughter that he has brought to our lives, I wonder what I did with my life before he became the centre of it! xx

Tissue Flowers

Step 1: Start with 10 sheets of tissue paper in the color of your choice and according fold it across the pile. The folds should be about 1 1/2 to 2 inches wide.

Step 2: Fold it in half and secure the middle with craft wire or pipe cleaners. In order to get the craft wire tight, I use my fingers to squish the middle in order to pull the wire tight.

Step 3: Fan out the paper on both sides of the wire.

Step 4: Carefully separate the tissue paper one by one on alternating sides of the wire/pipe cleaner. Continue separating the tissue paper, and when you get to the end you'll need to rearrange the tissue paper until it looks even.

Butterflies

These paper towel butterflies are easy enough for preschoolers to do, but creative enough that school age kids will enjoy making them too, because there’s no cutting, gluing or painting involved!

What You Need to Make Paper Towel Butterflies:
• Wooden clothes pin
• Paper towel
• Markers or Dot Markers
• 4” Chenille Stem (a.k.a. pipe cleaner)

How to Make Paper Towel Butterflies:
1. Colour the base of the clothes pin with markers and add a butterfly face to the top of the clothes pin. Be creative! Butterflies are colorful!
2. Use regular markers or dot markers to decorate the paper towel. This becomes the butterfly's wings, so again be creative!
3. Twist the center of the colourful paper towel and slide the twisted part into the slit of the clothes pin.
4. Spread out the edges of the colourful paper towel so it looks like butterfly wings.
5. Twist the chenille stem around the top of the clothes pin and push the ends upwards to create the butterfly's antennae.

Hand Picked With Love

I just love making home made cards with the boys and have to say any card that involves a child's hand print is special. This year for mother's day we have made the boys Nans' these cute flower cards. I love that they are simple to make and have such a personal touch!

Paint your hand ready to print your flower petals.

Draw a circle on your page (this is where the photo will go) and press painted hand prints all around the circle as flower petals.

These cards have been made with such love and I know that the boys Nans' are just going to love them!

Jelly Bean Fun

I had great fun doing this activity with Master 4 as it gave him the opportunity to be able to estimate, count and create a graph using individual jelly beans. This is a favourite of mine that I have used many times when teaching. Children love "real" maths and what more can be real than getting to eat a few jelly beans at the end of your activity! The activity itself has many numeracy opportunities: counting, colour recognition, estimating, graphing, mathematical language development (more/less)

To complete the activity you just need a packet of Jelly Beans and a graphing sheet. Place all the Jelly Beans in the middle of a piece of paper and get your child to sort them into colours.

Introduce the term "estimate or guess" to your child. Get him/her to estimate how many there are of each colour before actually counting them.

Using the Jelly Bean graphing Template talk to you child about what a graph is and why we use them. Then colour the bottom row showing what coloured Jelly Beans you will be graphing. Then get your child to place the jelly beans on the graph one colour at a time. Explain that you can count the total number of each colour individually or you can read the number along the side (if they are at this stage).

Once your child has counted the number of each coloured jelly bean total get them to write the total. This is a great opportunity for those children who are ready to start writing numbers.

Anzac Day Biscuits

Ingredients
1 cup (150g) plain flour
1 cup (90g) rolled oats
1 cup (85g) Ward McKenzie desiccated coconut
3/4 cup (155g) brown sugar
125g butter
2 tbs golden syrup
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Method
Preheat the oven to 160°C. Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper. Sift the flour into a large bowl. Stir in the oats, coconut and brown sugar.
Put the butter, golden syrup and 2 tbs water in a small saucepan. Stir over a medium heat until melted. Stir in the bicarbonate of soda.
Pour the butter mixture into the flour mixture and stir until combined.
Roll level tablespoons of mixture into balls. Place on the trays, about 5cm apart.
Press with a fork to flatten slightly. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown.
Set aside on the trays for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack so it cools completely.