Little Raindrops

Posts Tagged ‘party’

He turned 2, so for his party he had two little friends (plus parents and siblings.) It was the perfect size party and a great time with our friends!

There were lots of balloons on the ceiling and the floor. Blue, green and yellow.

There were cheese and crackers, veggies and fruits, heart-shaped cream cheese and jelly sandwiches, ants on a log, and an assortment of juices. All of Rhino’s favorite snacks. For lunch the kids made mini pizzas. Rhino really loves his cheese!

Rhino loves to color and paint, so after lunch we took out large sheets of paper. There were carefully thought-out blobs of color on one, a beautiful rainbow and mother and daughter on another, gentle strokes of light blue and yellow on a third, then Rhino’s: large marker circles and goopy smears of handfuls of finger paint.

We were going to do presents after the cake, but Rhino snuck away and tore into them without us. I heard from the other room an overjoyed “Elmo! Elmo!” as he discovered his new Elmo microwave! I couldn’t say no then, and let him open up the deluxe Mister Potato Head (40 parts I never knew about!) and tote bag of Play-Doh and accessories. The kids were all mesmerized by the microwave until we drew them away with the cake.

I wanted to make a Blue’s Clues cake because it’s his favorite show. Tanja loaned me a dog-shaped pan and I dyed the batter and the frosting blue and did my best to resemble Blue. Rhino was so overexcited as he danced in his chair and sang along to the birthday song (“happy, happy, happy, happy …”), immediately blew out both candles, and lifted one out of the cake and bit off the bottom of the candle. After we recovered the wax from his mouth, we directed him towards his slice of cake and he wolfed it down in record time!

He’d never seen a party blower before, but it didn’t take him long to figure it out. Soon enough he was blowing it so the extended end would knock his cup over, poke friends in the head, and dip into his fingerpaint (and then roll up again, and extend on the blank paper making little party blower paint marks.) We partied for about two hours and then our friends left and he crashed on the floor, with blue on his face, next to his Elmo microwave. What a party!

Today you are two years old! You are having a great day so far! We are having a family celebration right now and next week you will have a small party with some of your good friends. Last night you went to a party while Daddy and I went to our church Valentine’s Day Banquet, so you were out late and playing hard! You got to color, listen to music, play games, hit a pinata, and have lots of snacks! So you wanted to sleep in this morning. As soon as you woke up, we went to the Weasels’ Den for the Pajama Jam, where you played on the playground and bounce house, had a big breakfast buffet, saw some friends, and watched some Ice Age on a big screen. When we came home, you opened presents from us, from Grandma and Grandpa, and from Grammy and Uncle Ron. You were given some fantastic toys, snazzy shoes, and a Blue’s Clues DVD and CD! We talked to Grammy on Skype while you opened gifts from her, then we traced your hand and you painted a picture. We have more fun lined up for you, but right now you’re enjoying playing with Heron and your new Blue doll.

I thought it would be nice to keep track of some of your favorite things and see how they change from year to year. Love you!

Favorites
Fruit: mandarin oranges; apples
Vegetable: carrots
Snacks: cheese; tuna salad; scrambled eggs; peanut butter
Meal: breakfast
Drink: apple juice
Songs: the Itsy Bitsy Spider; Skinamarinky Dinky Dink
Movies: Aliens vs. Monsters; Potty Power
TV Show: Blue’s Clues
Cartoon Character: Elmo
Book: I Love You Through and Through
Friend: Carson
Toy: Duplo blocks
Stuffed Animal: Yellow Bear you got from Uncle Matt your first Christmas
Playtime Activity: blowing bubbles
chores: sweeping; unloading dishwasher
Place: the Thursday Playgroup room at EDIS

Last week I had my first ever Pampered Chef show! I’d been to two shows since I moved here and that has been my only experience with the awesome cooking tools. I bought some small things: a spatula, some measuring spoons, and a stone bar. I use all of these pretty much every day, if not multiple times a day. I absolutely love them and would love to get more products!

So, that’s why I hosted a show in my home with my good friend, Tanja. She dropped off a bunch of supplies the day before so I could use them for anything I wanted to cook. I made some Pampered Chef potato soup, mini-carrot cakes, and an awesome banana/chocolate/cream trifle – delish! I also had some fruits, veggies, and candy out.

Six friends game over to enjoy some good food, gab, and cook with me. We all baked some yummy cheesy bacon bites together. I started out by cutting out circles from some premade pie crust, then called on a friend. She’d grate some cheese, then call on someone else, who would fry some bacon, etc. Eventually we all got to try out some great tools and in the process made some great little snacks (they are tomatoes, garlic, bacon, cream cheese, cheddar baked in pretty little crusts in a mini muffin pan.)

Pretty much all my kitchen gear is cheap, from Walmart or the BX (with the exception of our knives, one pan, and the couple PC things I have!) I’m looking forward to ordering some good quality tools to help make cooking easier and more enjoyable. I’m hoping to get new, baking pans, and some serving dishes! My show closes on pay day, then we’ll see. It would be great to have new things in the kitchen in time for the holiday cooking!

Even though we decided not to celebrate Halloween, I am not against a good, candy-filled party! Our church, Faith Baptist Church, puts on a harvest festival, as many churches do. Matt had to sleep, but I brought the boys so Rhino could get some fun in. It was a good mommy break for me too as I got to hand off Heron to some ladies who have missed holding a little one. And right now Heron loves strangers and didn’t seem to miss me at all!

A lot of the games at the festival were a little old for Rhino, but we adapted them so he could enjoy them. There was a “Fishers of Men” game where you had to hold a fishing rod with a hook on the end of the line and pick up tiny plastic men out of a kiddie pool. Rhino got lots of help. There was also a Jonah game where you’d put a golf ball into a whale’s mouth. Rhino got down on his tummy and placed the ball in the mouth, but I eventually got him to roll the ball. He did successfully knock down the “walls of Jericho” (stacked cardboard bricks) by throwing a tennis ball. He couldn’t use the Nerf slingshot to shoot a ball through the hole in Goliath’s head, but he did slam-dunk it in if I held him up! I didn’t even want to bother with the “Blind Bartimaeus” game where you are blindfolded and feel around in a bowl of rice for tiny safety pins. I could just imagine the mess! There was a face-painting station and Rhino looked at the sheets of clipart and pointed to the colorful train engine. He sat still the whole time while it was painted on his face and it was so cute! The last game we played was by far his favorite — the cake walk! What’s not to love? There’s music and cake, two of Rhino’s favorite things ever! We walked around a few times as I held his hand and he kept trying to walk away. Soon enough all the little kids walking around in a circle wanted to hold his hand too, so I got to sit back. He got a little bored of trotting in a circle and would break free to dance in the middle of all the numbers. Whatever he likes! We did win a cake and he picked out a white frosted cupcake and ate that while dancing for the cake-walking kids. It was a great time and went on for seven hours, but we didn’t stay nearly that long.

Afterward, we headed to the Weasel’s Den to crash a birthday party my friend Sarah had driven down for. We met some new people and Rhino had a great time eating grapes and playing! I had found Sarah’s blog a year ago and really enjoyed reading it then found out that she comes down to Misawa (from the Aomori area) once a month, so we arranged to get together. We haven’t hung out much yet, but I enjoy chatting with her when we have and look forward to her future visits. Her blog is a great read, too!

A year ago I was in the bookstore on base and found a sweet little board book for Rhino titled That’s not my plane… He immediately loved running his little fingers across the squashy wheels and the rough propeller. It’s an Usborne Book, but at the time that didn’t mean anything to me. I just knew we had a great book!

In November, my friend Bethany invited me to an Usborne Books show she was hostessing. She had sandwiches at a rec room and I met Kari, the consultant who made the presentation. I felt so bad for Bethany; I was her only guest! I immediately fell in love with every book Kari presented – all the “touchy feely” books, Bible stories, Farmyard stories, math “wrap-ups”, flash cards, fun kits, etc. I thought it would be great to hostess a show of my own someday at get a ton of free books!

In May a good friend from church, Christine, joined the Usborne team as a consultant. I had been telling Kari for a while that I was thinking about hosting a show. When Christine asked if I’d like to book a show through her, I definitely wanted to, but felt guilty for “betraying” Kari. When Christine had her “kick-off” show, Kari (Christine’s supervisor) was there and we talked about it. No big deal, I could book with Christine – she’s a friend! So I had a show through Christine a couple of weeks later.

The party wasn’t a humongous success, but it was good! Now I know I should have been a little more assertive, reminded people who said they’d show up, and not just rely on that e-mail I sent out or the Facebook link I posted. But Katie and her two sweet girls showed up and my good friend Nicole, who doesn’t even have kids attended! She had a great idea to pick up some activity books to have around the house for when they have friends who do have kids come to visit. I served mini-quiches and fruit and we all sat around on the floor thumbing through my library (all ready well on its way) and the display books Christine brought. Along with the home show, I had an eShow so people who couldn’t attend (my moms back in the States!) could still order books. My moms are so sweet; they ordered books for the boys as gifts, which also contributed to my receiving even more free books through the hostess reward (more sales, more free books!) So I received a TON of fantastic books and love all of them! Rhino’s favorites are always changing; right now it’s Find the Duck and Night-Night Stories. I really can’t wait until the boys start to appreciate the story and then when they learn to read. They will have quite the library!

My passion for these books is obvious and Christine picked up on it right away. She suggested I do what she’s doing and become a consultant. I was 7 months pregnant, in the middle of getting my degree online, mom to a toddler, and thinking a job would just be too overwhelming. She backed off, but occasionally put a bug in my ear. I learned that there are no monthly quotas I have to meet, so I don’t have to feel pressured to work when school finals are bogging me down or we go on a family vacation. She reminded me that Usborne is a very family-friendly business and she takes her children to the shows, too. Then she emailed me that in August there would be a new consultant’s special: if I sign up in the first week, my kit (business supplies, catalogs, books to show) would only cost me $15. Well, that isn’t any more than our family spends at McDonalds – definitely not a scary start-up cost! So I went for it and signed up with her. The only thing I had to do was make $85 in sales within my first 12 weeks or I’d have to pay the difference in the kit. $85 in sales is easy, especially considering the average show is around $400. Oh, and another paycheck wouldn’t hurt! The commission is very generous and can help knock out a bill or two, get out of debt (yeah, we’re still there…), help with tuition, go towards a vacation, or anything! So I decided to see how it went with everything else on my plate and I became a consultant.

Last Monday night I had my first show! Tanja, a friend from church hosted it and invited other friends from church. It was a small group, but I was very comfortable since I all ready knew everyone. It was a good way to ease into all of this. The party was in the evening and I decided to bring Heron along since he usually sleeps quite a bit and envisioned him being very easy to manage. Boy, was I wrong! He was extremely angry pretty much all the way through the show. Thankfully all the ladies wanted to hold him and try to soothe him, but I was still very distracted during my presentation. I think I won’t take him along with my again until he can sit and enjoy the books or play with other kids! We played some fun games and the guests won little prizes: cute bookplates, fancy chocolates, and Japanese bookmarks. It seemed like everyone had a good time! I didn’t get a booking for another show just yet, but I’m thinking some of them will enjoy the idea of a whole bunch of free books of their wishlist and will book when they’re ready! I set an eShow up for Tanja that will run through Sept. 7th where people can place outside orders that will ship directly to them and help go towards her receiving many more free books!

I’m planning to host a party of my own and reserve Davy Jones’ Locker and send out base-wide invites later this month. Matt will take the day off and hang out with me and entertain the boys, or take them home if they get bored of the playground and the books. I’m hoping to meet some new people (I love our church family, but I would like to know some people outside the church as well) and have some ladies want to throw book parties of their own!

I know I’ll be writing plenty more about Usborne in the future! I’m just thrilled to be part of a great company that cares about literacy and learning. I’m so excited to raise my own little readers with such beautiful, educational books. And of course, if you need any books for the children in your life, you can email me or go by my site, FroggyGreen.com, to order books!

We have five pregnant ladies (that I know of!) at our church right now, all due within the next couple of months. Friday night we had our first baby shower. Tatjana is having a little girl (Tianna Isabelle) next month. Charren hosted this shower at her home, we had a fabulous turn-out (mostly church ladies) and a wonderful time!

We played a couple of baby shower games, such as finding the safety pins in a bowl full of uncooked rice while blind folded. We also passed around a roll of toilet paper and were told to unroll as much as we use in one day (and with four pregnant ladies present at the shower, the roll went quickly!) After we all had our toilet paper, we were told that we have to say one thing about ourselves for each square of paper we have. Tatjana definitely tore off the most and we got to hear a good deal about her life!

I brought Rhino along because Matt has to work at night and it didn’t really occur to me to leave him with one of the husbands (which pretty much everyone did.) So he was the only little kid there and is kind of distracting (especially at a 3 hour nighttime baby shower!) He was pretty well-behaved, but still very energetic and noisy! When we were all saying things about ourselves during the toilet paper game, he’d often laugh after someone gave a fact. Charren gave a nice devotional about loving your children and Rhino let a nice big burp right in the middle! A lot of the ladies got a kick out of him though, and he definitely enjoyed the attention. Heather was such a sweetheart and spent the most time with him: feeding him (that’s why they’re now best friends,) holding him, wiping jelly off his face, giving him toys, etc. He sang/whined himself down on her and almost fell asleep until he scratched his face on her necklace and came over to me. It was a nice break for me and he is really starting to get friendly with other people, thankfully!

Of course there was cake and presents. Katy made the chocolate cake with fondant and some yellow-cake cupcakes that were both delicious! This is the third cake she’s decorated and it turned out beautifully! I have a bunch of cake decorating supplies and it’s something I’ve wanted to get into, but it’s one of many things on my “to-learn” list that just hasn’t made it to the top yet. We decided we should bake up a bunch of cakes in advance and then have a day together to practice decorating!

Tatjana opened her gifts as we ate the cake. She all ready has a little boy, but this is her first girl and she received so many cute girly things! I got her some wipes, a set of Japanese-style (they tie like kimonos rather than snap) newborn clothes (onesies, sleepers, shirts, socks, etc.), and I crocheted her a little blanket. She also was given a ton of really adorable dresses, a bunch of diapers, and a neat little Japanese activity gym thing. She definitely made out with the adorable girl-loot!

The next three ladies (myself included!!) are all having boys; two of us all ready have boys. I’m told it will be one big shower for all three of us, probably just a diaper shower for the two of us who all ready have plenty of boy things. That’s fine with me (though I don’t really want/need a bunch of disposable diapers because we cloth diaper, but we’ll see!) because I just like getting together with friends (and cake!) Tatjana’s shower was actually the first baby shower I’ve attended other than my own and it was a blast!

On Saturday, Rhino and I went to a 1st birthday party for Carson and Cole, two babies at our church who were born a week apart.

Rhino had a blast playing with all the helium balloons and their strings (so did the other little kids!) We spent about an hour just watching the kids enjoying themselves before we dug in to hamburgers and hot dogs.

Charren (Cole’s mom) and Katy (Carson’s mom) had kiddie music playing: “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”, “The Wheels on the Bus”, etc. and Rhino spent a lot of time just jamming out to the songs and dancing for the guests. His favorite new moves are deep, repetitive squats with his arms straight out or waving around. The boy is going to have awesomely strong thighs!

After all the food, the boys opened their presents. I gave each of them a hand-stitched felt ball, embroidered with their name and the year. After everything was unwrapped, the kids tossed it around a lot, so I think it was a hit! I still have to finish knitting up some little bear finger puppets as a belated gift. I just couldn’t get it all finished in time!

After presents we had cake! The party was baseball-themed and the cakes were very cute (and delicious!) baseball cakes with a trophy for each boy. Carson and Cole each were given a chocolate cupcake. Cole was pretty unsure about the cupcake, would cautiously take a little nibble from his dad’s finger, and sort of complain or avoid the cupcake for the rest of the time! Carson, on the other hand, immediately picked up his cupcake by its bottom, and shoved nearly the whole thing in his mouth!

It was a great time chatting with other moms, watching the kids play (Rhino loves being around other kids now!), and getting some yummy food! Happy First Birthday, Carson and Cole!

We hadRhino’s first birthday party at the Weasels’ Den, which is such a great place for the kids! We rented a little barn-kind-of-place for 2 hours and Rhino was so ecstatic the whole time we were there! He had a blast crawling and cruising around the baby area, which is full of padded mats and castle pieces, mirrors, and giant building blocks. The Armstrongs (kids: Josh (5) and Aime (3) ) and the Kisers showed up for the festivities. We had pizza and pasta, chatted a bunch, and did presents and cupcakes.

Rhino received a gift certificate and cute card from the Kisers, a bunch of wonderful books in a pretty bag (Rhino loved the bag, hahah!) and an animal memory game from us. He was a little more interested in tearing the wrapping paper than he was for his little birthday celebration, but he was mostly interested in the ribbons and bag!

I wanted to make cupcakes again because it just seemed to make sense for Rhino to have his own little cupcake rather than a piece of cake or a mini cake just for him. I wanted everything to be colorful for him, so I wanted to make the cupcakes as colorful as possible, too. A few months ago I found a tutorial online for making pretty swirled cupcakes and had been waiting for an occasion to try it out. Thankfully the BX had a great assortment of paste food coloring! The technique is really very easy and turned out wonderfully! Our home just gets so warm that often the frosting would be too runny when it came out of the bag to make pretty, firm stars. Most of them looked pretty good, though! Rhino didn’t care either way, he just gobbled his little cake up!

It was a nice, small first birthday party and Rhino seemed to really enjoy himself the whole time. He didn’t get crabby at all and really likes being around Josh and Aimé. The Armstrongs and Kisers are our best friends here at Misawa right now, so of course it’s always nice for us to spend time with them, too!

Happy Birthday, Baby Boy!

You’ve made it through the first year — hooray! I have known that “time flies”, but I really can’t believe how fast your first year has zipped by!

You’ve recovered completely from the trip to the States and now you’re your usual self. You’ve gotten to the point where I can say now that you are sleeping through the night. You’d often wake for short, frequent nursings, but you’re pretty much finished with that now. We’ve also set you up with your own little mattress on the floor next to ours, so you won’t be sleeping (crawling, kicking, sprawling…) with us when your new brother or sister arrives. You seem to like the little bed more than the big bed!

You’ve become a bit more of a trouble maker lately! Daddy had brought home a package of napkins the other day and left it on the kitchen floor, which was obviously an invitation for you to partake in the napkin fun! You are getting a bit sneaky, too, and will push the limits to see how much you can get away with. Even though you know “no” and that you aren’t supposed to be playing in the trash or grabbing in Daddy’s bag of chips, you’ll still try to when we aren’t looking and check to see if you’ve been caught yet!

You’ve become so affectionate lately! You understand “hug” and will give us big hugs often. You even hug all of your stuffed animals. You’re learning “kiss” now, too, but haven’t yet mastered it. You don’t quite know how to pucker, so when you kiss us, it’s with a wide open mouth and dangling tongue! You’re so sweet and sometimes harass us with sloppy kiss after sloppy kiss! Most of your stuffed animals also now have crusty mouths and noses where you’ve practiced your affection on them.

We have planned for your birthday party to be next weekend because your birthday weekend falls on Valentine’s Day and lots of your friends mommies and daddies all ready have plans. Daddy and I wanted to do something special on your birthday anyway, so I made you some cupcakes and you got to open gifts from your grandparents! Unfortunately, we didn’t have too much time for festivities because Daddy was at work all day and then we had a church banquet when he got home, so we had your little party over his lunch break. You weren’t so interested in opening presents — maybe because we were hastily tossing them at you! You know how to unwrap gifts pretty well, but this time you just wanted to tear one tiny piece off at a time and inspect each bit. Daddy and I ended up unwrapping everything else for you! You received some really nice outfits, a couple CDs you like to dance to, and some fun toys! Daddy and I gave you a wooden xylophone, which you haven’t quite figured out yet. You like to tink the keys with your finger instead of the mallet, or use the mallet backwards and at a whole arms distance away from the instrument. You’ll get it!

You also had your first taste of chocolate! I made you some yummy cupcakes with chocolate frosting. You were mostly interested in licking all the frosting off the cake and playing with it and made a bit of a mess! You finished the whole thing and seemed pretty pleased with the whole experience! The next morning was Valentine’s Day, so we had a little teddy bear and small box of chocolates for you. You had a piece and liked it, but didn’t beg for any more. I had also given Daddy a bigger box of chocolate truffles, which was left out on the coffee table. You only needed 10 seconds to open the box and shove six truffles into your little mouth and all over your chest! It was definitely time for a bath and you were pretty wound up with sugar the rest of the morning!

It’s been such a wonderful year with you, Rhino, and Daddy and I are looking forward to another fun year with you! Happy birthday!!

Lots of Love,
Mommy

Yesterday Matt, Rhino and I went to the aquarium in Aomori. A little girl we met in our playgroup, McKenzie, was having her first birthday party there and we thought it sounded fun! We brought along another mom and her little girl, Cassidy, also from the playgroup. The drive is about an hour and a half to Aomori and it was nice to chat and get to know Megan along the way. And the drive is very pretty! It is so green and lush around here right now and a lot of the drive was right along the coast. The aquarium was wonderful! We did take some photos, but they really don’t describe the experience. I found a blog entry by an american werewolf in japan that has much better photos of what we saw, and oddly enough the first sentence is appropriate as well. There were so many cool and crazy fish and we loved it! We started out at a tunnel (watch the tunnel live!) where fish, eels, and giant rays swim all around and over you. Rhino seemed to enjoy the tunnel because he would look around somewhat frantically and watch the pretty fish zip by.

There were ugly fish and pretty fish …

We saw a neat dolphin show where the dolphins hit balls and sang and jumped through hoops and over bars and such. The whole thing was emceed in Japanese, so we didn’t really understand what was being said the whole time (well, Matt could pick out bits and pieces), but the tricks were fun to watch. We also saw some kind of depressing penguins, some California sea lions, some spotted seals, and playful sea otters.

There are some goofy signs around the aquarium and this was our favorite!

We visited with Marine, a pretty relaxed dolphin. She just sort of floated around when we were up top, then followed us to hang out some more on the first floor. I think Matt has a crush on her. They also had a neat hands-on kids section and would have loved to show Rhino a starfish, but I’m sure he would have just shaken it violently then tried to gnaw off one of its legs.

All the kids got inflatable sea creatures to play with and Rhino really enjoyed his pretty fish!

The party was a great time and McKenzie is way too cute. We had octopus-shaped cake and some ice cream and lots of fruits and veggies. She wasn’t that messy of a cake eater, really. It wasn’t so much all over her face as it was all over the floor in little crumbs. She wasn’t fantastic at opening the gifts, but she eventually got the job done. Rhino got her some cute Japanese nesting cups and a pretty little sun hat. There weren’t too many kids there, just her and Rhino  and Cassidy and then some other adults, so it was a nice, small party.

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