Little J's 3rd Birthday

As most parents or small children probably know there is a cartoon on Nick Jr called Mike The Knight. It is about a little boy in medieval times named Mike who is a knight (technically he is a prince) and his adventures with his horse Galahad, dragon buddies Sparky and Squirt, his sister Evie, and various other characters. Each episode starts with Mike on a "mission" about halfway through Mike realizes his mistakes and proclaims "Time to be a knight and do it right!" at which point he proceeds to handle the mission the way it should be done.

My 3 year old ADORES this show. For his 3rd birthday we had a hard time picking a theme. Thanks to PartyCity.com I found a few things Mike and then was able to round out using Etsy, Ebay, NickJr.com, Oriental Trading, and Amazon. More than half this party had to be crafted.

One of the problems I faced was that living in a small town in Wisconsin there isn't a lot of choices for birthday party venues and typically by mid-November it is too cold and wet/snowy to be outside. So I had to come up with activities to do indoors.

Hubby drew Galahad out for me and then I cut out brown felt "tails" for Pin the Tail on Galahad.

 We also had Decorate Your Own Shield. I took the 11x14 inch sheets of craft foam, cut out a shield shape, placed a pile of markers on the table and told the kids to create. We used the scraps from the sheets of foam to make the handles on the back. I had the hubby attach those while the kids had cake and ice cream.

 Our final activity was the pinata. Since I couldn't find a Mike, horse, or dragon pinata I made a pinata (thank you public elementary art class for those paper mache lessons!) Basically I took a 12 inch balloon and inflated it. Rather than spend money on newspaper I tore up old phone book pages (same kind of paper) covered the balloon and let dry. I tried using tissue paper to do the outside but got aggravated so I ended up painting the pinata and then using Mike the Knight cut outs attached them to the pinata with glue. I had ordered Mike the Knight ribbon to use as the pull strings. The pole the pinata is hanging from I made to look like Evie's wand. I took a wooden dowel rod, painted it to match, wrapped ribbon in a spiral around the pole and then attached a wooden egg shape to one end and a round wooden ball to the other. The ribbons didn't quite work like I thought bu a small hole was produced and then the kids just got to rip into it from there.

I always give the kids a choice of having me make their birthday cakes or ordering one from the store. Jonas wanted his made by me this year. I bought the topped from either Etsy or Ebay, did the basic icing myself and then my awesome neighbor (who knows how to decorate cakes) did the rest.









Because it was so windy the birthday banner had to come inside. Hubby helped with this creation. I bought a wooden closet rod, he cut down to size, stained, attached the wooden balls (left overs from the wand) I printed the banner pieces from Nick Jr, attached them to poster board and then hubby stapled them to the rods. The strings on the sides are two 10 foot sections of braided yarn in red, blue and yellow.

 I had a couple left overs from the banner so I attached them to the posts on the porch.








For goody bags I ordered Mike the Knight bags, in them I put coloring pages I had printed on 3x5 index cards, a box of Rose Art crayons, an inflatable sword and knight craft I ordered from Oriental Trading.

We also had Mike the Knight on DVD playing continuously through the party. The kids had fun and while I enjoyed pulling this off I was so tired by the end of the day.

Blessings,
Amy

Fifty Shades of Grey... A Great Big NOPE

I want to take a moment and apologize for any feelings that I may hurt. However I only bring this topic up because I feel so strongly.

So I have NOT read Fifty Shades of Grey nor do I plan to see the movie that comes out tomorrow. When the books first came out I was tempted until I started hearing other women talk about it and heard some of the excerpts. Originally all I heard was glowing reviews, but then I started paying attention to what was being said and I was horrified. As the mother of a girl I consider it my job to teach her to not fall prey to anyone who will abuse her in anyway, mentally, emotionally, physically. As the mother of a boy I consider it my job to teach him to treat girls and women with nothing but the utmost respect. Control, manipulation, stalking (or "following"), dictating, purposely embarrassing, and guilt trips are all forms of mental and emotional abuse; not to mention extremely annoying forms of passive-aggressive behavior.

I wanted to share two blog posts I read recently to help shed of light on how harmful these books are to women and girls.

1. This one written by a psychiatrist...http://www.megmeekermd.com/2015/02/a-psychiatrists-letter-to-young-people-about-fifty-shades-of-grey/


Ok so by the time I was able to get to this point my other blog I was going to share disappeared. But if you need more proof check out the search results from Bing/Google
http://www.bing.com/search?q=fifty%20shades%20of%20abuse&pc=cosp&ptag=A0E8C88C5FC554BCC84F&form=CONADR&conlogo=CT3210127.

As I was writing I came to a realization as to why so many women are attracted to this series and this type of jack-wagon in general. From our earliest school days we are told "he only teases/hits you because he likes you" and yet we are surprised when women tolerate this type of jerk in their lives.

Ask yourself is the Fifty Shades series the kind of thing you want your daughter to read? Is that the kind of female you want her to emulate? Is that the kind of "man" you want her to be with? Is that the kind of "man" you want your son to become? 

We may not think our kids are listening when we talk to our adult friends, but they are. They are absorbing everything and hearing parents discuss how wonderful books like Fifty Shades are sends confusing messages.

Please reconsider if you are planning to see this movie (or read the books, for those who haven't) don't allow this to garbage too further invade your life and our world.
Blessings,
Amy

Tooth Fairy Pillow

So Little A has been having a fit for over a year because several of her friends at school have lost teeth and yet she didn't even have a loose tooth. I took her to the dentist back in September and she had 2 loose and the dentist said just to wiggle them. I decided to wait and let them get progressively looser on their own as they were barely loose which told me that they weren't ready yet.

Fast forward to early December and one tooth is barely hanging on (bottom left front) we tried several techniques to get her to let us pull it. After several attempts we gave up and decided that maybe the tooth still wasn't quite ready and we would let it go a little longer. Since it seemed the tooth would fall out sooner than later I made a Tooth Fairy Pillow. I had a serious aversion to allowing her to place the tooth under her pillow; my luck I'd wake her up trying to find the tooth or it would fall behind her bed and then when she leaves for college we would find a whole pile of baby teeth in the floor.  And unlike most parents we are not saving her baby teeth; I found mine in my mother's jewelry box and I just want to say EEEWWW.

To make her tooth pillow I looked on line and saw several really cute designs. I sat down with Little A and let her pick out one. She picks out this hot pink crown number and says "Since I am a princess I need a crown for my teeth." After finding the design we wanted I looked up clip art on Google. I allowed her to pick the crown shape she liked best. Then I made my list of supplies and headed to Hobby Lobby.

Supply List
2 pieces of pink felt
1 roll of decorative ribbon
1 pack of shiny "jewel" buttons
1 skein embroidery thread

 I printed and cut out my crown pattern then laid it onto the felt to trace the design.  I used a Sharpie marker inn as close a shade as I had just to make it easier to see the lines to cut out the felt.

Tracing complete and ready to cut out.







So like most little girls, Little A loves all things bling. I used a thin floral themed lavender ribbon and a package of heart jewel buttons. I let her set up the buttons on the crown. I took a picture so that I could remember the pattern she used once I started sewing the buttons on. After the ribbon and about 4 buttons I got tired of sewing and out came the glue gun.



Lastly I took a piece of white felt and cut out a small heart to use as a pocket to hold the tooth and cash. I did a quick whip stitch 3/4 the way around the heart. And since I couldn't find a matching color of embroidery floss I stitched the whole thing together using white embroidery floss.

Finished product. So I didn't quite get my points large enough and was unable to add stuffing to them; I ended up having to use fabric stiffener.








Now it is January 1, 2015 and finally the tooth has come out and waiting on Little A to go to sleep so the Tooth Fairy can come visit.  Thankfully I have a few years before Little J is ready for one; maybe by then I'll be in the mood to make another one. LOL

Thank goodness that is done,
Amy