3rd Birthday Party: Family Fun and Christmas Ornaments

Because of Son's allergies, I've kept him home from pre-school an additional year.  I wanted one more year of watching his allergies, being aware of how they are developing and protecting him from possible accidental harm.  The school where I would send him has an excellent allergy awareness (rated extremely high by Son's allergist) and I know would do a great job of keeping him safe.  However, I just wanted that additional year to allow him to outgrow some more allergies and be more comfortable at school with his peers.

Therefore, Son has no friends by virtue of his own friend making ability.  His friends are children of Husband and my friends, and Son's friends are actually Husband and my friends.  He has many "uncles" and "aunties" whom he considers his friends along with the children of said uncles and aunties.  When I asked Son, whom do you want to have at your birthday party, there were just as many adults as there were children.  At one point I thought of just asking the children to come and kicking out the parents, but there were two sets of parents that Son was insistent attend his party.  (SJ, JJ, JEL and HJL, that's you guys.)  So with that, I made the decision to host families that were on Son's list and invite them over for a nice lunch, bouncy house and ornament making.  It would be a combination pre-holiday party as well as a birthday party.

I chose a menu that could be made ahead of time, wouldn't require anyone to grill and would be warm and satisfying.  I think this menu really hit the spot because there were almost NO leftovers.

Menu
Spinach Dip and Crudites
Hot Artichoke Dip
Curried Chicken Salad
Turkey Chili with fixings (chopped cilantro, scallions, cheddar cheese)
Chicken Barley Vegetable Soup
Macaroni and Cheese
Bagels and cream cheese
Vanilla Bean Vanilla Bean Cupcakes
Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Pink Himalayan Sea Salt

I made everything the day before EXCEPT the Macaroni and Cheese and cookies.  I baked the Chocolate Chip cookies the day of the party as well, although the dough was made a couple of days earlier.  It made the day of the party manageable enough where I could take a shower and put on some makeup.  I also had some wonderful help in friend JJ who showed up early to slice bagels and help set up and Mom who was just an extra set of extremely fast hands in the kitchen.

Activities

We rented a jumpy house and put that in the front lawn. The kids went back and forth inside the house and out after jumping like crazy in the bouncy house.  As a more reserved and mellow activity I also had two craft projects, both making ornaments.  I have to say, that they were a huge hit and the kids loved them.  One was geared for the younger children and the second was for older children and adults.

Beads and Pipe Cleaner Ornaments

These are very simply made with some pipe cleaner and tri beads, which I easily found at Michaels.  You can also buy them online.  If you have no idea what a tri bead is, the link below will take you to some.  Michaels was well stocked with them at a relatively cheap price as well.



Pipe cleaners are simply strung with the beads and then shaped into whatever desired shape.  Kids did hearts, stars, candy canes and there were some girls who even made an octopus.  (okay, Daughter made this HUGE Christmas octopus...it was truthfully a bit scary.)  But it occupied the kids for a long while and they all got to take home an ornament.

Wire and Bead Ornaments (for older kids and adults)
The second craft was using wire, cookie cutters, and beads.  The cookie cutters were essentially a mold around which wire was wrapped three times, and then embellished with more wire.

You can find more information about how to do it here. 

Goody Bags
I saw these crayon rolls and new I wanted to make them.  After all, I have a sewing machine, so why not?  Well - because I'm not skillful enough to make them.  I had to call in the support troops and Mother-in-law was my champion.  I cut and marked all the felt and my mother in law helped me sew all of them. I love the idea of these crayon rolls so much and the kids love them since the crayons don't roll around.  I followed the excellent tutorial of how to make these here. 

It was a fantastic party where Son celebrated with 30 of his close friends and family singing to him.  I felt good feeding all my good friends good food and sharing in good fun!