PK3 St. Patrick’s Day Party

Riley’s class had a super fun and super green party on St. Patrick’s Day. March 17 also happens to be his partner Claire’s birthday, so her mom Dana organized everything for the double celebration.

 

Rory came with me, and Ms. Amanda and Ms. Lisa were so happy to see him. He also had his first taste of doughnut at the party, and boy did he love it.

 

 

Rory and I hung out in Riley’s classroom for a bit before the kids were dismissed and watched them play “Mystery Word” with Ms. Amanda. They took turns drawing slips of paper out of a hat, each with a word written on them. Ms. Amanda read the words out loud and the kids had to tell her what letter they started with. Fun!

 

Dana also brought in a portable CD player for the party, complete with the Frozen soundtrack. In case you’ve been living under a rock (or you don’t have young kids), Frozen is all the rage right now. Claire spent much of the party belting out the lyrics to “Let It Go” (which actually won the Oscar for Best Song this year), and the kids all gathered round in their classroom to sing a bit more before the day was over.

Another school party in the books. Can you believe there are only two more before the end of the year??? Crazy.

Happy happy birthday, Claire!

Swing on Over! {Rory’s First Birthday}

The day of Rory’s party dawned quite cloudy. It actually rained a lot overnight, so things were pretty sloppy outside. But the rain cleared a couple of hours before party time, and we had a wonderful day celebrating the little one.

(Oh, but aren’t family pictures interesting these days thanks to the wonk potatoes.)

The party started at 11 in the morning, and the birthday boy was awake from his nap and dressed before the first guests arrived. The house quickly filled with people, the party in full swing before too long.

The big kids had a blast in the bouncy house, as I expected they would. I appointed Aunt Lizzie the official party photographer, and I am so glad I did. She actually climbed into the bouncy with my camera to take these awesome pics. Thanks, LPb!

Even Rory and Kate got the check out the bouncy during the party, albeit from a distance. Those big kids just didn’t want to give up their claim to the fun. Next year, you two. Next year.

 

Once everyone had left and the birthday boy had taken another nap, we opened his presents. Riley of course “helped” open everything that Rory got. I barely had enough time to write one thing down before he moved on to the next gift.

Rory mostly got clothes, because again, we already have ALL. THE. TRUCKS. But one of my absolute favorite things he received was a handmade onesie from QP.

It’s the pi symbol in honor of him being born on National Pi Day! LOVE it.

And with that, Rory’s first birthday celebration came to a close. I know he won’t remember it at all, and I know he was a little overwhelmed at times, but I just hope he enjoyed being surrounded by people who love him.

Happy, happy birthday, Sweetness. I love you so much.

Video Wednesday: Home Video Screening

Kenny pulled up an old video of Riley on his phone the other night and showed it to the wonk potatoes. We had just moved into this house and Riley was cleaning up before going to bed one night. He was saying “zoom, zoom, crash…..good job” over and over again as he put his trucks into his mat.

I have never seen Riley laugh so hard as he did this night watching his younger self being silly. I started recording a little too late, but he still lets out a few good belly laughs in the video below. Please enjoy.

Happy Wednesday!

Party Details {Rory’s First Birthday}

Despite the cake smash failure, Rory’s party was really great. Before we get into the party itself, here’s a look at the details.

After a bit of searching on Pinterest, I came up with a front door decoration that Nopsi helped make happen. He cut out a big number 1 from a piece of wood and painted it white. Then I used ModPodge to cover it with printouts of the digital scrapbook paper I purchased on Etsy: an argyle design for the background and two of the polka dot designs to spell out Rory’s name. I outlined Rory’s name with a white paint pen to make it stand out more and finally applied three coats of ModPodge to seal it all together.  

I added two borrowed sock monkey ornaments to the top of the 1 (thanks, UJ!), and voila! A super cute decoration for everyone to see upon arriving at the party.

 

Moving inside, I tried to stick to the red, light blue, and brown color palette as much as I could. We had balloon bunches all over the place, stuffed sock monkeys hanging out in a few strategic places, custom subway art, sock monkey sugar cookie favors, and two very special banners for the birthday boy (also made using the digital papers).

 

 

As for food, we set out grilled sausage, fried chicken tenders, Greek pasta, macaroni and cheese muffins, veggie sticks, goldfish, M&Ms, and fruit. I also had two dips in the kitchen for people to snack on.

And, since most of the kids in attendance needed something to occupy them, Kenny and I decided to get a bouncy house. We weren’t sure the weather was going to cooperate to actually get our money’s worth out of it, but the rain cleared out shortly before the party started.

The bouncy actually arrived pretty early, so we let the boys do some jumping in their PJs after it was all set up. They loved it!

 

The four of us also got back into the bouncy late in the afternoon before the guys came back to pick it up. We had so much fun in there.

Oh, and if you hadn’t noticed already, I had my friend Colleen make a special shirt for the birthday boy to wear for the party. (She also made Riley’s fall wagon shirt and the boys’ dump truck brothers shirts.) He looked so cute in it!

Aunt Lizzie also brought a couple of sock monkey things for me to use if I wanted. I didn’t end up doing anything with them during the party, but I actually put the hat and the slippers on towards the end when I started to clean up. Those slippers were so comfy…..I didn’t want to take them off!

That about covers the details. Actual party recap coming up next, although I may throw another video up tomorrow to buy myself another day. Just warning y’all!