Fun Day

Phew, we've almost made it through May!! It has been a whirlwind month between visitors and Ivy's birthday and this week was the big PTO Fun Day at the kids school.

I tried to be more involved in the event this year to attempt to take a lead. It didn't quite work out that way and we had so many issues with the weather this week. Hello spring? Where are you? We are so tired of gray skies, rain, and cold temps! The event was supposed to be on Wednesday but got canceled that morning for pending rain. The bad part about postponing was the rain date was the next day and the rain didn't really stop all night so the field was wet. Mandy and I got to the school at 6 am to help set up and we had to help pivot everything to being half inside and half outside. It was chaos.

But, in the end, everything got pulled off. All the classes got a turn on the bounce houses, a trip to the ice cream truck, spin art, face paint, relays, and water games. Everyone had fun and that's what counts in the end. And it was a family affair. Dan, Mandy, and me all helped out and that was special. Dan ran the bounce houses like the former youth pastor that he is and Mandy managed the face painting team.

As the class mom in Ivy's room, I was supposed to walk around with her but Kip's class had no room parent so I actually got to be with him and bop over to Ivy's class on occasion too so that worked out as well. 

This was Kip's last field day Fun Day since third, fourth, and fifth graders get to go off campus for theirs. But Ivy gets three more years!

The next three and a half weeks of school will dissolve into half days, dragging the kids out the door, scrounging for the last packed lunches, and clawing our way to summer.

Weekending it with Grandma

We had an amazing LONG Memorial Day weekend with Grandma in town. 

On Friday we took the train and subway into the city to meet cousin Kourtney and her boyfriend for an exclusive visit to the American Museum of Natural History! This was the kids first time here and we all really enjoyed exploring the exhibitions. 

We saw the dinosaurs first.

And then the new butterfly pavilion. One landed on Byron!

There was also a really cool immersive light show that that kids loved.

 

 

We were all captivated by the planetarium show (no photos). And ended with the giant whale. 

 

 

It was a long day but we all really enjoyed our time.

 

 

The rest of the weekend the weather was a bit chilly so we mostly just stayed at the house and played. Of course Grandma brought her magical suitcase of treasures and toys and lots of fun activities. We got the Floor is Lava game, planted our magical beans that we got for Easter, and tried spinning markers and weaving looms which were a big hit. 

 

The book stands were open for rentals and purchases and one chilly afternoon the kids put on library programming with special workshops. Kip had us write our own books and Ivy did a tutorial on how to draw unicorns and make her custom crayon rainbows. 

 

 

Of course there was a trip to Target and Walmart and we went to a few restaurants. 

Mostly, we just spent time together which was the best.

 We love you Grandma and we loved getting to spend quality time together with you!!

Ivy's 5th Birthday Party

Ivy dreamed about her birthday party for nearly a year. 

Mandy and I planned and prepared for the party for months. 

The girl has attended approximately two birthday parties in her life, but somehow had ideas upon ideas for her party - all of which included unicorns. We all agreed to host a party for her because she wanted one so badly and Kip had his first (and only friend birthday party so far) when he turned five. Kip's 5th birthday party was extraordinarily scaled back compared to Ivy's shindig but we have learned over the years that our house is just not set-up for parties. And we've never ever hosted a birthday party of this size before. Ivy invited her whole class plus a few friends connected to Kip. Not everyone who was invited attended the party but we still ended up with 12 kids and 11 adults!

We rented the pool club house again, like we did for our pumpkin carving party in the fall. It's a pricey little space but works really, really well for an event of this size since it is large and open, has lots of tables and chairs to use, nice bathrooms, and it has a great view! And fortunately it was sunny on party day.

The theme was unicorns. Of course. We had snacks and Mandy made adorable rainbow fruit trays. We spent over an hour putting up all the decorations we had been collecting. 

Ivy was such a sweet little host, greeting all of her friends when they came in and leading them into the room. I was a bit surprised by this, expecting her to be more timid but she did great!

For activities we had a bunch of balloons that the kids were running around with and playing Keepy Uppy. We also had a big bouncing unicorn they played with and the table top had a giant coloring sheet and unicorn face stickers. There was a ring toss game and we brought some floor puzzles and unicorn play mat toy from home. Half of the guests were between 3-4 years old, so this sort of simple play set-up worked well but was still entertaining for the older kids.  

We let the kids do free play and snack for a bit and then we transitioned to the main activity which was decorating little cardboard pet homes with stickers and gems. Then each kid got to picked a stuffed unicorn or puppy and create a beaded collar for the pet. All the parents stayed for the party so there were lots of helping hands. And it was nice to get to chat with some of the parents I hadn't really gotten to talk to yet. 

I'm kicking myself I didn't get photos of the kids with their little pets but everyone seemed to really enjoy the activity. It combined Ivy's favorites stuffy + crafts. And all the kids were excited to get to keep the pet. Here is a quick photo I took of Kip and Ivy's pets for examples.

After everyone finished their craft, they all ran around again and Dan managed the room doing Pin the Tail on the Unicorn and Duck Duck Goose. 

After some more play time we did cupcakes. Mandy made Ivy's cupcakes by special request and Dan even went to the store late the night before to get store-bought icing when Ivy said she didn't like Mandy's homemade frosting (the horror!) Mimi took the critique well and got the birthday girl what she wanted. And they were delicious cupcakes, homemade frosting or not!

Ivy was so stoic as we all sang to her but deep down she loved it.

 

And a cute little group photo to round it all out!

 

The only tears we had were right at the end of the party when Ivy got upset with me because I gave a guest the party bag she wanted. All the party bags were the same but for whatever reason she wanted that one. We got her settled down and one of her friends stayed longer after the party to play a bit while we cleaned up and I chatted with the mom.

When we got home we ordered dinner out because we were all tired from the weekend and Ivy opened the sweet gifts from her friends.

 

It was a really fun party and I'm glad it went well. Mandy and I had been planning and coordinating for a really long time and worried about making it all work. I always remember my mom being stressed out when we had birthday parties and I get it now, but as a kid you don't see any of that. It's just fun! We learned how to host from our mom and despite the stress, it was worth it. 

 

I mean, I'd do it all over again just for this cute photo right here! My whole heart!