Pajama Playdate!!

Browsing Pinterest, and supporting my addictive habit of party and play date planning, I came across a cute theme for a little girls' birthday celebration: a pancake and pajama party.  I loved the idea of having breakfast food and a pajama play date.  Breakfast is the most popular meal in our house; I get my little man to help me mix up pancakes and we sit around on weekends and enjoy a relaxing breakfast together.  So although I don't see myself throwing a little girl's birthday party in the near future, I decided I would find a way to incorporate this theme into a play date.

Here are my rules for a great playdate: (I should admit that I don't always follow my own rules, but these come from my experience of attending some pretty amazing play dates with my little boy.)
1 - Have a fun theme
2 - Have an activity that can be adapted for both boys and girls of various ages
3 - Allow time for free play - kids want some structure, but also use the time to let them burn some energy in the hopes of a nice, long nap later
4 - Be clear if you want the other mommies to bring something or if you are supplying all snacks and drinks
5 - Limit the attendees.  Too many kids can equal chaos, so keep it small and intimate.
6 - Be ready to scrap your entire plan if something changes.  Just like parenting, hosting a great play date will require you to be flexible!

While these are my top 6, I really and truly believe that any mom who opens up her home to others for a play date needs to be applauded and appreciated.  Cleaning the bathrooms in preparation for company alone deserves a round of applause!

For our Pajama playdate, I asked all parents and kiddos to come in their PJ's.  Roll out of bed and come right over for breakfast and playtime.  As I don't have any PJ's for myself that are not either full of holes or 2 sizes too big, I decided I should treat myself to a new pair. I took my son to Target with me to get a new set of sleepwear.  (Although I did go to Target with only this on my list, I did end up spending more than $100 before I left.  Seriously....is anyone able to go into that store and only walk out with 1 thing??!?) My little man had planned to wear his Batman pajamas for the party, and was THRILLED when he spotted a matching set for me.  Swept up in his excitement, I agreed to get Batman too....and then noticed that we were in the Junior's section.  I bought the PJ's hoping that there was a chance that I would be able to fit my fat ass into them!

I opted to do a breakfast instead of snacks, and some moms offered to bring food too.  We had a pancake buffet with a variety of toppings, waffle sticks made with strawberry greek yogurt, egg and cheese sandwiches on whole grain rolls, fruit salad, muffins, donuts, cookies, and yogurt parfaits.   I also had milk and juice for the kiddos to drink.  I found flavored milk straws too, which was a neat treat for everyone. I decorated the food table with a quilt, sheets, and a pillow so it would look like a bed too.

After breakfast, the kids played, and then we got to our activity.  I bought white pillow cases for each child, and then found different fabrics with kids TV shows, themes, or cartoon characters.  I sewed strips of fabric at the opening of each pillow case, and then use a fabric marker to trace matching character/theme pictures on the pillow cases.  The kids all had fabric markers, and got to color their pillowcase of choice.  Confession:  the moms enjoyed the craft as much as the kids.

Two hours later, everyone was ready to go home after a very fun start to the morning.  I loved this playdate theme....and all of the leftover pancakes!

The Cowboy Round Up

The 4th birthday party is probably one of my proudest party-planning accomplishments.  Everything came out exactly how I envisioned, we had amazing friends and family at the party, the kids had a blast, and the only injury I suffered was a minor 2nd degree burn from a hot glue gun.  All in all, that's a success to me!

When planning the party, my son asked for a cowboy party.  I am not a fan of hosting at our home. For one, it's probably a little too small for the events that I like to host.  Secondly, I really don't want to spend the time cleaning for the party, and then cleaning up when people leave.  Nope, better for me to leave the clean-up with someone else.  This is really all about acknowledging my strengths. I'd rather be the planner and coordinator who has a good time, than do any of the actual work!

So I started with the invitations.  I won't be posting a close up of the invitations since addresses and phone numbers are listed, so a description will have to do.  The background was a off-white paper, designed to look like a WANTED poster.  There was a photo of my son, with the caption underneath: WANTED: All cowboys and cowgirls to help celebrate Kevin's 4th birthday!"

Location was key for this party, because everyone knows I LOVE a good theme.  There is a local not-for-profit farm.  I remembered seeing a small picnic pavilion on a previous visit, so I called to see if they rented it out for parties.  And although normally reserved for weddings, they did rent out the farm.  Location found! 

Once that was done, I went a little crazy with the theme.  Pinterest is to blame.  I see things on there that some supermom does, and I HAVE TO DO IT TOO.  It's an addiction. I can't help it. (See blogs about Trunk or Treat for further proof that I am totally correct in blaming Pinterest.)  So of course, the first thing I had to do was build a western town out of cardboard.  Because every kid needs one of these, and it is totally normal, right???  I will say that my husband was an enabler on this one, building wooden stands that were hammered into the ground to hold the town upright for the party.

The party started at the pavilion, where the guests were directed to parking and the party. 

I had the cardboard town right by the pavilion, so the kids could play while guests arrived, and I also found a cute craft at Oriental Trading.  Each kid got a horse head to decorate with crayons, googly eyes, yarn, and ribbon, and then attach to a pole so every cowgirl and cowboy would have their own horse. 

They all also got sheriff's badges, bandanas, and cowboy hats as they walked in. 
The party then continued to the farm area, where we split into two groups.  One group got a barn tour and saw horses, pigs, sheep, and the cows. 

The other group got to go into another barn where they were able to pet bunnies, chicks, and baby ducks.  (My husband just pointed out that the correct word is "duckling" but I think the two readers of my blog both get that a "baby duck" is the same thing.)
Then the groups swapped and got to go to the other barn. 

After that, we headed to a grassy area where we were welcomed by the ponies I rented (yes, I know, go ahead and roll your eyes) and some games.  Think what you want of the ponies.  The kids loved them. I was awesome mom. 
We had several games set up and the farm also let the kids shell some corn that we would later feed to the chickens. 
I'm not a big fan of favor bags at parties (see blog post about our carnival party last year). So just like last year, I had prize buckets at each game so the kids could help themselves after "winning."  I also gave out bags so the parents wouldn't have to carry all of the goodies around.  Prizes included bendy cowboy figures, corn and pig water squirters, magnetic faces on WANTED signs, and mini western coloring books.

My enabler husband again came through with bringing Pinterest to reality when he built some of the games.  He's amazing...really. So in a short afternoon, he built two horses that we used with some hula-hoops for "Lasso a Bronco."  On a side note, these are now for sale to the highest bidder!!

 We also had a "Pan for Gold" game where I used an old sweater box, a couple of bags of sandbox sand from Home Depot, and some cheap "jewels" from the craft store.  The kids took metal pie tins and sifted the sand to find their "gold."

We had a corn toss, where the kids threw ears of corn into baskets. 

 

 And no western party would be complete without horseshoes, so we used a plastic set for the kiddos to throw. 

After breaking a cowboy pinata (more candy for their prize bag) and feed the chickens (followed by a healthy dose of hand sanitizer), the party headed back to the pavilion for cake.
Now for the previous 2 years, I've served meals at the birthday party.  This year, the party was from 1-3pm.  And it always seemed like we were coming home with as many leftovers as we'd taken to feed the guests.  So I opted not to have a meal this year.  I had plenty of drinks for kids and adults, plus did a candy/cookie/cake table instead. 

 This table was a little more crowded than I'd planned, but again....I was the awesome mom in the eyes of the kids.  The parents may not have loved that I stuffed their kids with sugar and then sent them home, but so far, I haven't lost any friends because of this. 

Kevin had his own cake with candles to blow out.  But since blowing without spitting hasn't been mastered yet, I had cupcakes for the rest of the guests.  The cupcakes were decorated with mustache rings, red, white, and blue chocolate starts, and plastic cowboy hats. 

 I found white Styrofoam cupcake stands, and used the offending hot glue gun to decorate with red and blue ribbon. 

I also made sugar cookies and put them in individual bags for the kids.  I was able to find cookie cutters for a cowboy hat, cowboy boot, a circle I decorated with cow print and a sheriff's star.

The table also had a stand with S'mores pops.  These are amazing and so easy.  Put a marshmallow on a stick, dip in chocolate, and then lightly coat with crushed graham crackers.  Amazing.

The table was also covered with candies and I made a bag of peanut-free Happy Trails Mix for every guest. 

Since I had every desire to capture each moment on camera for future blogging, Pinteresting, and scrapping booking, but had no intention of actually doing the work myself, I found a reasonably priced photographer to photograph the party.  She got great pictures of the action, and took the time to photograph just about every family that attended.  After the party, she stayed and did some of our family photos around the farm and some special ones of just the birthday boy. 

I used those to build a Shutterfly share site.  I sent all of the guests the link to the share site in the "thank you" notes so that they could download the pictures of their family. 

I had so much fun planning this party, and most importantly, my son had an amazing party with his friends.  Now to start for next year.....

And the planning begins....

My son's birthday is 2 months away.  The clock is ticking.  Party planning now has to get kicked into high gear.  Expectations are high, and are weighing on me like a ton of bricks made of parental guilt and a healthy sense of competition.
I booked the venue in January. The theme is settled. Invitations have been ordered.  Now it's time to take care of the other details:  cake, candy, craft, entertainment, ponies (oh yes, ponies. It's time to really up my game!), favors, decorations....and the list goes on.
The actual party details will come later, once I have the photos of the actual party to share.  But now it's time to share last year's party.  I posted the 2nd birthday music party, and the 3rd birthday topped that with a Carnival theme.
Since Kevin's best bud has a birthday the day before his, and they had the same group of friends from daycare, we again split the party between the boys.  I am a firm believer in hosting the party at a venue or location that is NOT MY HOME.  The time saved to clean to get ready for the party, host the party, and then clean up after the party is well worth the cost to rent.  In that vein of thought, I rented a fire hall for the carnival. 
Entertainment for a 3 year-old's party is key, so then began the search for a magician.  After reading reco's from mom's groups and doing some interviews, that was decided.  Maximizing on the out-sourcing theme, I also hired the magician to do cotton candy, face painting, and balloon animals.  They also brought a candy card for the kiddos to fill up their favor bags.

 

Waiting in line for the Balloon Animals after the Magic Show

 

 Face (or arm, in Kevin's case) painting

 Making selections from the candy cart

The Magician and his assistants

The magician also brought all of the balloons, which we used as centerpieces. I also made some fun candy-themed centerpieces for the tables.  The tables were decorated with red, blue, and yellow table clothes.  We put banners and flags up on the walls in the same primary colors. 

Upon entering the party room, guests were given a bag for prizes, a clown nose, and a box of animals crackers. 

 
The kids them took the bags to the carnival games we had set up.  Each game had a prize bucket, where the kids could help themselves after they won.  These prizes were our favor bags.

 Clown ball toss with rainbow mini-frisbees for prizes

 Ring Toss with Carnival Finger puppets as prizes

 Carnival bean bag toss with blow up mini-beach balls for prizes

 Pitchin' Chickens (toss a rubber chicken in the tub) with carnival big top sippy cups for prizes. 

 Grab a Duck game with carnival themed rubber duckies for prizes. 

Plinko with pinwheels for prizes. 

Besides the candy cart, we did serve a full meal for the kiddos and their parents.  We tried to keep it as carnival themed as possible with chicken fingers, mini hot dogs, hot pretzels, corn on the cob, sausage & peppers, and perogies. 

We also had chocolate milk and juice boxes for the kids. Along with soda, water, and some "adult carnival beverages."

Finally, we get to the crowning moment of a birthday party: the cake.  Rather than having to deal with cutting a cake for 70 guests, we went with cupcakes for everyone, and small 8 inch cakes for each of the birthday boys to blow out their candles.

Of course, we decorated everything with the primary colors and carnival theme.

It was such a fun party theme to have, and the birthday boys LOVED every minute of their party.  With such a great success, I hope you can understand why I have started to plan the 4th birthday celebration months in advance!

Happy Valentine's Day??

This is my son's first year in pre-school.  And I've got to tell you, there's been some Mommy highlights, and then those moments that the I could feel the "Mommy of the Year" trophy being slipping (or being ripped) from my finger tips.
Well, this Valentine's Day, I swore that I would not give the preschool direct any reason to doubt my mommy abilities.
On a side note, I should mention that I am one of two working mothers in my son's class.  Therefore, I have missed two of his class trips and I have not yet been able to pick him up from school. I also made a pretty big blunder on school picture day, but that's a topic for a different blog.
Armed with Pinterest on my Internet Explorer, I searched for class valentines.  Let me tell you, there are a lot of cute ideas out there.  If you have hours of free time, unlimited access to a hot glue gun, and the creative ability of Martha Stewart, you are all set. But after a few Pinterest FAILS, I am very self-aware of my crafting abilities and I didn't want to get in over my head.
So I chose a very cute, simple, and inexpensive idea...and by "chose" I mean shamelessly stealing with full intent to copy. After a trip to Michael's, I returned home ready to assemble what I was sure would be the cutest class Valentines.

Once I was finished, I have to admit, I was damn proud of myself.  The little bubble wands with Valentine's tag were just as cute as I'd hoped, and I am pretty sure that the appeal of bubbles is still there at the age of 3, but without the tendency to inhale and swallow potentially toxic soap solution. All in all, I was pretty pleased with myself.
And then, I called my husband over to show off my talents, and give him the opportunity to shower me with praise and affection.  One look at his face, and I could tell his reaction wasn't going to be what I had expected.  My bubble was burst (pun intended) with one statement: "Johnna, you can't send anything to a preschool that says 'BLOW ME.'"  And just like like that, I felt any bit of Martha that I'd been embodying slip away.  But seriously, who thinks like that?  It had to just be my husband's perverse mind.  I mean, really, nobody else would think like that, right?  No.  Three other friends supported his comments, and just like that I was back to square one, with a small investment in supplies but larger investment of my time, down the drain.
Back to Pinterest. With a new filter. And before beginning, I got the hubby's G-rated stamp - because my mind doesn't work like his does!

Overall, still cute, and I know my son loves popcorn, so hopefully other parents appreciate it too. And to make this even sweeter....I finished up the bulk case of Orville Redenbacher that I bought at BJ's months ago that my husband bet me we would NEVER use before the expiration date. Bet won, so BLOW ME, Joe!

Cardigan Confessions

Hi, my name is Johnna, and I am addicted....to sweater sets.  I admit it, there's not a cardigan and shell set that I can pass up. Whether open, wrap-style, shawl, cropped, ruffled, zippered, or adorned with buttons in coordinating color shades or even rhinestones, I have to have it.  I'm a sucker for argyle, striped, patterned, or solid colors.  I don't discriminate between cotton, cashmere, crochet, or linen blend.  I can find the perfect outfit for long sleeved, short sleeves or three-quarter length. I LOVE THEM ALL!

Before a massive closet cleaning while packing to move to our new home, the cardigan count peaked at 39.  That's right....39....as in I could go an ENTIRE MONTH without repeating a cardigan wear. Of course, that did include the seasonal cardigans, which only make an appearance at the appropriate holiday, but even I know that 39 cardigans is a little excessive.

I should be clear that the majority of the cardigan collection was bought on sale or from the less expensive chains like Old Navy and Target.  However, at $30 average per cardigan....well, you do the math. And I am admitting all of this and banking on the hope that husband doesn't start reading my blog all of the sudden.

So, I decided with my last birthday, that it was time for my wardrobe to grow up with me.  No more cheap cardigans from Old Navy that ball up after two wears. It's time to class-up my cardigan collection.

At Christmas I asked for Talbots gift cards to help with the Cardigan replacement efforts.   To help prepare for the post-Christmas sale spending, I purged any remaining cardigans that didn't have a home in my grown-up wardrobe.  I started shopping for the cardigan staples....a nice black set, a charcoal gray wrap, some solid colors to wear with black or brown pants, and an argyle for those fancy feeling days.  I thought I was doing pretty good....and even threw in a turtleneck and pull-over to mix things up a bit.  (This is a SIGNIFICANT step forward for me!)

And then....this came in the mail:

The newest Talbots catalog....with a special sale:  25% off all Full Priced Cardigans. This is like crack to an addict.
I could feel the urge to run straight away to the computer to check out the cardigans online. What does Talbots have on sale? Is that periwinkle blue, open cardi with the ruffles in front available in my size?  My fingers started to twitch, poised to type in payment information. (Did I mention that I do so much online shopping that I have my credit card number committed to memory?)  
It took a few deep breaths, but I managed to control my cardigan shopping urge. And then, I went to Gymboree.com and bought a new outfit for my son.

We Have People

One of the hardest thing to do as an adult is to meet new friends.  Add in two careers and limited free time, and it gets even harder.  It’s so different from any other stage in your life.  It’s not like high school where you spend hours every day with a group of people your age and make friends quickly.  Or like college where you are thrown into a group of strangers where your friends are the link to your social life.  There’s no need to join clubs to build your resume.  You don’t need to meet the right person to get you into the exclusive frat party or invited to a birthday party.  You’re just on your own.

When Joe and I moved to the Poconos in 2002, we were fresh college graduates, adapting to working for a living and leaving our college days behind.  We made friends through our jobs, but not the friends that we hung out with outside of our 40 hour work week.  There are some GREAT work friends, don’t get me wrong.  I have some great friends that I’ve worked with, but we don’t know each other’s spouses and hang out on the weekends.

It wasn’t until Kevin came that we started meeting a new group of people: other parents.  Sure, it’s easy to compare and criticize other parents.  So you have to go into these relationships with an open mind.  But now, with our 3 ½ year old, we’ve figured out who are friends are.

When Hurricane Sandy hit, it was those friends who we were texting with to make sure our families were all ok.  It was those families that offered their homes to those of us without power.  And I don’t think I even realized it then that we’d built this group of people here.

But on Saturday afternoon, as we got ready for our town’s belated Trick or Treat, I looked around my house, which was filled with five families (nine kids), who had all come over to our neighborhood, that I realized “We Have People.”

When your family is not local, and you have children, you build this little network, a group of families who are in the same situation as you, and you build your own little family. Our kids will grow up together.  The dads will watch football together.  The mom’s will compare notes, brag about our kids, complain about our husbands, and plan our kid’s birthday parties together.

Without even realizing it was happening, we did this.  We have “PEOPLE.”  More and more, this place is feeling like our home. 

Valentine's Painting Playdate

What happens when you walk into Michaels or AC Moore with the PINTEREST app on your smart phone? 
My husband's answer: "My wife buys something that is going to cost me a lot of money."  
My answer: "Pure genius!"

My local craft store had a sale on canvas painting boards.  I wondered what I could do with these things.....because really.....who could pass up a deal like that?!?!
Pinterest to the rescue!  I saw lots of really cute ideas for painting words and holiday icons using finger paints and some painter's tape and decided it was the perfect activity.

So...we scheduled a play date!

Our Valentine's playdate would have a snack for everyone, a craft, some free time for the kiddos to play, and a Valentine's story.

The snack was the most fun for me (again, thanks to Pinterest for ideas).  I made Jell-O cut-outs in valentine's theme, white chocolate dipped pretzel stocks, mini corn muffins with heart shaped hot dogs in the middle, Valentine's Chex Mix, heart shaped watermelon pieces, X & O ham and cheese, chocolate heart lollipops, and some heart shaped jelly sandwiches.

Our canvas painting activity was done with washable paints....which is good because it ended up on walls, tables, chairs, and children.  Every parent was asked to either bring a painting smock for their kids or wear older clothes too.

The painting table all set up and ready for kids!

I pre-taped all of the canvases with Valentines' words and shapes.  The kids and parents got to pick the canvas they wanted, and everyone had a paper plate to put their paint color choices on.   The kids had brushes of different sizes or could use their fingers to cover the canvas with paint.  I told them they could use any colors or brushes they wanted - there was only one rule:  They had to cover the entire canvas with paint and leave no white spaces.

 As you can probably imagine, giving the kids a license to cover something with paint was pretty exciting for them, and they had a blast with their creations.

 After painting is completed, but before we removed the blue painter's tape.

 

The finished product! After paint is dried, the painter's tape is pulled away to reveal the white space. 

Once everyone was done painting and washed up, we gathered the kids for a special Valentine's story and some playtime before everyone headed home with their painted canvas creations!