how to have a Lego party!

What to do for my little buddy's fourth birthday party? After toying with ideas ranging from monsters to rockets, we landed on everyone's favorite building toy, Legos!  It helps that between my hubby's childhood Lego sets, sets that he has purchased for--yes--himself as adult, and all the kids various Legos, that we had an obscene amount  plenty of Legos to work with!

So I got busy on Pinterest, found more ideas than I could ever execute, several parties that must have cost a fortune and were way out of our league, and plenty of good, inexpensive fun that were just right for us. Here's what I did:

Favors:  Based on this idea I cut, folded and decorated yellow paper party bags to look like Mini-figure heads. I love Sharpie markers! These bags were filled with a Lego favor (a fabulous friend found batches of these on clearance at the Lego Store--hurray!) and a baby-food jar with a painted lid, filled with Lego-shaped candy.

Decorations: One giant Lego-building table, made by hubby the day before, out of a sheet of plywood, with 2x4's around the edges to create a lip, and edges covered with painter's tape to prevent splinters. Placed on top of a couple low cabinets hubby had in the garage (but cinderblocks or low tables would work well too).

I also used bright primary color streamer-red, yellow, green and blue. I strung up lots of yellow balloons (again with mini-fig faces drawn on) hung upside down from ribbons from stairways, chandeliers and anywhere else I could think of. And I drew some picture "cover-ups" for the art that is in our kitchen, so they matched the decor (just adhere to the glass with painters tape).

Food: Can you have a four-year-old's party without pizza? We couldn't. There were cupcakes with the Lego candy on top, marshmallow-pops, and mini-fig chocolates made from a silicone ice-cube tray.  The candle-holder was made by whittling a regular birthday candle to fit in a mini-figure's hand.

The mini-figure marshmallow-pops are made by putting a large marshmallow onto a lollipop stick (from your local craft store), topping it with half a small marshmallow, and dipping in yellow dipping chocolate (I used Wilton). I used an edible food-marker to make the faces, but piped chocolate might work better (the marker didn't write on the chocolate very well). They can also be made as cake pops but these are easier. Thanks to this party site for the great idea!

Activities:  The kids loved just being able to play with all the Legos! Hubby had set out many of the sets that were already built in areas like Lego City, Airport, Harbor, Space station, and Fort Legorado, on different tables and low book-shelves around the ground floor. We put some Duplo in one area away from the rest of the Legos for the littlest kids. 

And we did play games! After seeing a ton of fabulous games we pared it down and played "Pin the 4 on the mini-figure", and a Lego version of "Hot Potato" with a Lego "potato". The best part of  the Hot Potato game was that every kid got a small prize as they were eliminated from the game so that everyone was a winner (important when you are a kid!).  We had a tower building contest. And a mason-jar of the Lego-shaped candy made a great "guess how many are in the jar?" game--with the winner getting to take the whole jar of candy home.   I had also printed out the Lego Bingo cards from the link above, but found that the energy level of 13 kids aged 3-6 was insane just too high, so we nixed that idea at the last minute. I think older kids would have had a blast with that game.

Lego "Hot Potato"

Pin the "4" on the Lego Man

my "tower-builders" hard at work!

So there you have it...the Lego birthday! It was a great hit, and was fun and pretty easy to plan (thanks again to the wonder of the Internet!).  I hope you enjoyed seeing all the fun!

four is fabulous!

My "little buddy" is not so little anymore! He celebrated his fourth birthday in grand style with FOUR separate parties:

1. Dinner out with mom, dad and sister on his actual birthday, at the Japanese steak house, "with the fire on the table!", and ice-cream cake after.
2. Dinner two days later with both sets of grandparents, and cookie-brownie bars.
3. Snack at his preschool , with cupcakes , and...
4. The amazing Lego Party (which I will give details in a separate post) yesterday!

Here are the candle-blowing highlights!

fourth birthday

My "baby" boy turns four today. FOUR! Its true that time flies and it seems like yesterday that I was holding him for the first time.  And while the party (ok, parties) haven't really gotten started yet, I wanted to share this little poem I wrote for his birthday card.  We'll be headed to "the restaurant with the fire on the tables!" (aka the Japanese Steakhouse) later this evening, celebrating with both sets of grandparents on Monday, treats at pre-school on Tuesday, and the much-anticipated LEGO party with his friends next weekend, so truly, the fun (and pictures!) are still to come.  He's such a love, he deserves it all.

Four years ago, on your birth-day,
Who knew the boy you'd become today!
A boy who loves snuggles and loves tickles,
He even loves olives and lots of pickles!
A boy who is smart and goes to school,
His friends all think he is really cool!
He love to play and build and run,
Blocks and Legos are lots of fun!
Riding his motorcycle really fast,
Who knows how long the fun can last!

What fun you've had these first few years,
And now you're FOUR, lets give a cheer!
A year of growing, laughs and fun--
The celebration's just begun!

Happy Birthday to our wonderful boy!
We LOVE you!!!!

the perfect cat for us

I've been spending enormous amounts of time snuggled up with this sweet girl, who the kids have christened "Cassie" (after a short lived run of "Princess Buttercup"!). She is a little rescue about 3 months old, and she is the perfect cat for us! I have to emphasize that last phrase because after our older cat passed away last fall, the kids have been asking and praying for a new kitten, and I kept telling them that we needed to be patient and pray for the perfect cat for us, not just "any kitty". 

I had gotten a little discouraged after several craigslist dead ends, and had to keep reminding myself that we were waiting for God to bring us that perfect cat.  What was my image of a perfect cat? A short-haired, female kitten, 2-3 months old, affectionate, house-raised, good with the kids, and that I didn't have strong allergies to. (Most kitties and I do just fine, but there are a few out there that I am dreadfully allergic to!)

And God heard our prayers. This little girl is playful and smart, loves people and lets the kids carry her around, loves to snuggle up with me and purr loudly sitting on my chest, and she doesn't make me sneeze! She is still making friends with our other kitty, Dora, who has been a bit of a grouch since this little interloper came to stay, but Dora seems to be slowly coming around. This morning, Dora spent over an hour perched on a kitchen chair watching the kitten play on the floor while I cooked. I have hope that they will make their peace and become great companions.

I will readily admit that I have quickly grown to love Miss Cassie, and agree that God most certainly did provide, at just the right time, the perfect cat for us! Wouldn't you agree that she's adorable?

year of the dragon

We are having fun getting ready to celebrate Chinese New Year tomorrow. Honestly, in the middle of winter, with ice outside that really is not good for playing in, any excuse for celebration is a good one. And what's better than getting to eat our favorite Chinese foods, read silly fortunes, and make a cool craft?

After seeing an idea on Pinterest, we gathered what supplies we had on hand and all four of us got into the action tonight, making our Chinese New Year Dragon.  Some plastic cups, cut up paper towel rolls for spacers, yarn, and streamers quickly formed our dragon, with an appropriately scary face created by daddy and the girlie.

You'll notice the girlie's toothless grin, and the tongue stuck in the hole...she lost that top front tooth this afternoon and the tongue has been a permanent fixture in the vacancy!

I love our dragon. He hangs over our kitchen/ family room overlook, where he can proudly observe our festive dinner tomorrow!

Xin Nian Kuai Le， 新年快乐, which I hope means "Happy New Year" (if I believe an internet source!) or something else entirely...but a happy Chinese new year to you all!

winter, in my kitchen

Ah, comfort food. Warm smells, filling tastes, perfect for cold winter days. And since winter finally seems to arrived here after an unseasonably warm December, I spent some time in my kitchen this week...

One of the key comfort foods in my book is bread, and I love playing with recipes, continuing to search for the perfect loaf of bread. This week I made a bread adapted from an Amish recipe I had from, um, somewhere (sorry, no original source). I am slowly making some changes in this bread because it is oh-so-yummy but perhaps not oh-so-healthy. I love that soft white-bread texture and the slightly sweet taste. So this is how I made it this time:

• Dissolve 2/3 cups white sugar in 2 c.warm water (about 110 degrees), and stir in 1 1/2 T active dry yeast. Allow to proof until creamy and foamy (about 10-15 minutes, depending on how impatient you are!)
• Add 1 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/4 c. canola oil and mix well. Add flour 1 cup at a time, starting with a spoon for the first few cups and then mixing well with the dough hook on your stand mixer. I find 6 cups total is just about perfect, and I've been adding a bit of whole wheat flour. This time I used 5 cups of bread flour and 1 cup of whole wheat flour.   Knead by mixer or hand until elastic and smooth.  Turn out into a large oiled bowl and let rise until doubled. (My original recipe says about 1 hour, this week it took about 3 hours, whatever it takes!).
• hint for rising: you need a warm place. I use my microwave which is over my range, and by putting on the light that is under the microwave (that lights up the stove area) this creates just enough heat in my microwave.
• Punch dough down, knead lightly and divide in half. Shape into loaves ( I usually flatten into a rectangle about 1/2-3/4" thick and then roll it up) placing loaves seam side down in two 9x5" loaf pans that are coated in cooking spray.  Allow to rise until about 1" above pan rims (this took about 2-3 more hours this week).
• Bake at 350 F for about 30 min, until golden brown.  Cool 10 min. in pans, then cool on racks (or eat!).

My thoughts for next time: try increasing amount of whole wheat flour to 2 cups, replace sugar with honey.

I thought I'd also include my recipe for the Chicken and rice soup in the picture above!  

• Cook a 6 oz box of Uncle Ben's Original Long Grain and wild rice mix, according to package directions.
• While this is simmering, in a separate large pot, saute' 1 c. chopped onion in 3 T. butter
• Add 6 cups of chicken broth, the rice, 2 c. cooked shredded chicken (about 1 lb), 1 drained 4 oz. can of mushroom pieces, and 1 c. chopped carrots, simmer until carrots are tender and flavors are blended well, about 30 min. 
• Whisk 1/4 cup flour into 1 15 ounce can of evaporated milk (low fat is great). DON'T do this in the can...it will make a mess. I use a 2 c. measuring cup to mix mine in!  Add this to the soup and heat through, just a minute or two, before serving.  

My last bit of baking this week was two loaves of  Blueberry lemon bread, doubling the recipe (and oh-so-glad I did...the first loaf vanished into all of our bellies so quickly). I love lemon and it is an instant "brightener" on a dreary day. 

What's cooking in your kitchen this winter?

when irish eyes are smiling

For the past four months the girlie has been taking Irish Dancing classes once a week. Its a great activity for her--active and athletic, building her coordination and confidence. For an idea of what kind of exercise it is, try standing up on the balls of your feet and then hopping up and down for a couple minutes, without putting your heels down!

Last night her dance school performed at a local Ceili, which is an evening of live Irish music and social (set) dancing put on by an Irish social club in Baltimore. Their performance was during a break in the social dancing, and it was pretty informal, which was perfect for my nervous little girl's first performance. I'm including a video clip here that is pretty long but gives you an idea... and yes, she kind of loses track of things halfway through, but that was the joy of it: no pressure, just fun.