Tuesday, July 2, 2013

A Birthday for Moose

Little Moose is getting pretty big lately.  Literally, he wore a pair of pants, I washed them, and the next time he wore them (maybe a week or two later) they were WAY too short.  He's also acting older a lot of the time...much more mild.  He's phasing out naps, which means that a lot of the time he's a bear in the afternoon from no nap, and the rest of the time he wants to stay up too late because he took a good nap.

At his 3-yr check-up he weighed in at 41 pounds, and measured 41 inches!  Both 97th percentile.

Anyhow, he's still a helper.  All you have to do is use the word "help" and he's usually happy to do it.
He also is a sucker for back scratching.  It's my secret weapon during sacrament meeting.  : )  He'll usually calm down and lay on my lap for as long as I keep scratching. 

A funny thing with his talking is all of his Y's are pronounced as L's.  So "you yell" would be "lou lell."  It's awfully cute.

Anyhow, his actual birthday was not too eventful.  Mr. Fox brought home a giant decorated chocolate chip cookie/cake, which was great since it wasn't my sugar day (I'm doing a challenge, and I only get sugar once a week, which I was saving for the day of his party).  Moose chose pizza for dinner, and he got to open his presents.  He got a fireman raincoat, a big mixer truck, a Tonka story book, and a "life-size" Super Why puzzle.  It was a nice, relaxed birthday.

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Super Why has a HUGE head.



His party was on the Saturday after his birthday, and he invited his two older sisters, 5 local cousins, and the two church friends who are closest in age to him.
 
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It was a construction-themed party, and was super fun for me to put together.

I let the kids help with some of the preparations, which is hard when compared to "pinterest perfection" but I'm trying to overcome that.  Especially because they love helping with projects and the parties are FOR them.  Anyhow, I think the kids had a good time, Moose got a special party that was all for him, and we all got to have fun looking forward to it and planning it.
 
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Each child got a hardhat and personalized tool belt upon arriving.
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They got to use stickers to personalize their hard hats.
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Once everyone was attired, we went downstairs for legos and blocks, as well as "Pin the hammer on the builder."
 
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Then we had a snack break.  My rationale was that I wanted to give them some real food so that later the sugar wouldn't have as much of an effect...but I wasn't very careful in my food selection and it ended up just being more sugar (applesauce muffins, apple slices, and milk).
 
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After snack time, we headed outside for a demolition game.  They were each given a tape measure and were supposed to measure how high to position a "wrecking ball" (painted tennis ball on a string) to knock down buildings (stack of boxes).  It was a bit convoluted, and stacking the boxes on uneven ground was difficult, but the kids liked using the tape measures & swinging the ball (who doesn't love a little demolition, right?)
 
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I don't have any great pictures of the game playing (I think because my brother took almost all of the pictures taken during the party, so I'm IN them, and therefore don't LIKE a fair amount of them...pics from this game were especially honest).  But you can see the kids measuring in the background, and me stacking up boxes...I think Ben (gray t-shirt) was getting the ball ready to swing.

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Moose had a hard time containing himself when we were so close to the presents!
 
After the demolition game, the kids hunted for construction-themed stickers in a pile of sawdust.  I should mention now how awesome Mr. Fox is.  He was able to provide us with some great supplies for the party...free from work : )
 
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By the time we were halfway through the sawdust game I finally accepted the fact that I needed to be less structured.  I KNOW that three-year-old parties should be basically a glorified playdate, but I just couldn't help myself.  So the kids were a bit inattentive when it wasn't their turn (of course) and were interested in other things besides the games (of course).  So at that point I stopped fighting it and they roamed free.  They played in the sandbox and on the swings.  Some kept digging through the sawdust in search of stickers. 

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The cuteness here is overwhelming.  seriously!

 
After a few minutes we also opened up a nailing station with Mr. Fox (who really is fantastic).  They got goggles to wear, and to add to their tool belt.
 
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Love this guy!!!
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Mr. Fox is better with kids than I am, I think.  He's just so laid back and mellow.  He's super awesome.
After a while of the kids playing at all of the various activities in the backyard, we started having accidents...not from the nails, but from falling off of the swings, of all things.  So we took that as a cue to go in for cake.

I was happy with the cake.  And so was Moose, which was the important part.

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I'm all in favor of cakes that are MEANT to look sloppy!


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The inside was hazard stripes, and I am so so so happy with how it turned out!
Much easier than it looks, and I love that "surprise" factor when you cut open a cake like this.
After the cake and ice cream, Moose opened his presents.  He was given nice gifts, and has enjoyed playing with them all since then. : )


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Pretty much all of the party ideas were found online...
Except for this Honey Bucket door : )
My brilliant mind came up with it all on my own. 
I think we're going to leave it painted that way.
The kids were given carpentry pencils and a piece of sandpaper to draw on for the last couple of minutes of the party.  They also got an inflatable hammer as they were leaving, to round out the contents of their tool belts {tape measures, goggles, stickers, sandpaper, pencils, and hammers}.  And I'd like to give a shout out to my friend Heidi, who actually bought the hammers for me!  Just because she's nice!  I had a hard time finding little toy hammers that would work, and I considered hammer cookies, but couldn't find an appropriate cookie cutter...and what is a tool belt without a hammer?!  When I told her of my dilemma she surprised me with the inflatable ones (but there aren't any pictures of them...I think because they were right as the kids were leaving).

While I'm at it, thank you to Heidi and Jen for staying to hold babies as needed! My Mom was scheduled to come tend the babies, but got sick a day or two before the party.

And thank you to Evan for playing photographer.

And thank you to everyone who came!

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I sure love my not-so-little three-year-old!!

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Moose.  so very Moose.

3 comments:

S.Ann said...

Sorry that I missed that one, it looks like a ton of fun.

Katie said...

The cake and the door are awesome! I'm always so impressed with all of your parties!

Annalia said...

That's a great picture of Moose at the end!

Amazing party, Paige!