Star Wars and Princesses: Turning Six

With the trio turning six last year, it was hard to convince them to do a combined theme birthday party. So, the boys chose a Star Wars theme for their big family bash, and my daughter chose a Princess theme.

It was a lot to plan--every time I added a Star Wars food or game to the planning, my daughter wanted equal games and foods for the Princess side of the party. Needless to say, things got a bit out of control.

The Star Wars party had some fun games. My husband made foam lightsabers--a hit with princesses and Jedi alike. We challenged them to Jedi games--bouncing balloons as long as they could using their foam lightsaber, blindfolding them and then having them try to strike the "training ball." We also tested their Jedi senses: blindfolded, the kids had to identify foods and smells.

For the photo area, we had Jedi clothes for the boy guests and girls wore princess outfits. We used a cheap plastic "starry night" background from a local party store.

For the princess games, we stuck to the classics: a local party store sold a "safe" castle pinata--pulling strings rather than using bats. We also "pinned" the crown stickers on princesses, blindfolded.

A New Chapter

A new chapter has commenced for our family. I am now a mom to "school-age" children. We're out of the "Infant," "Toddler," and "Preschool" categories. It has not been an easy transition. In fact, we are still working out the kinks in our new schedule. In a few more weeks, we will hopefully be a smooth-operating household again. Right now, we are operating. Not smoothly. Sometimes a bit grumpily (mostly me). But we're getting by.

The changes have been numerous and somewhat heart-wrenching (for me again...). I have returned to work part time for my high school, where I teach history. I enjoy my coworkers, I am amused and (usually) inspired by high schoolers, and I love history. But my heart and head have been so fully wrapped around my children and family the past year that it has been hard to give a piece of myself back to work. And there's a sense of guilt that I am not there for the kids' every moment. I miss them.

The children are now at school. They are enjoying kindergarten and have a lot of fun in the after-kindergarten school program, Kinderzone, as well. They've made new friends and come home with new stories each day. I am in the process of trying to understand all the new protocols and expectations that go along with parenting school-age children. There are a lot of forms. And requests for donations. And Special Day photos, Meet Me! photos, My Family! photos, etc. It's...wonderful. And a bit awful.

Beyond school and work, the kids are enrolled in a soccer program this fall that has one practice and one game each week. I am a bit appalled at the level of competitiveness that seems inherent (in the adults), already at the age five level. But the kids are having fun, and that's all that matters at this point. As for the other sign of impending "big-kidness," William has three of his 6-year-molars in already! And Joshua has two very, very loose teeth. Am I wiggling them, you ask? No. Never. I cried when his baby teeth came in (lost my gummy baby), and I'll cry when he loses them.

I will be blogging very infrequently. The kids have their own voices now, and I post pictures occasionally on Facebook. I have private forums at home where I journal daily about the kids. But I will keep this blog open in order to post large sets of pictures accompanied by descriptions. Perhaps I'll be back after Halloween or certainly Christmas. And we may have a big Star Wars party to blog about in April.

Below are First Day of School photos. Sniff sniff.

Tradition #1: Posing by chalkboard to show relative height on first and last day of school.

 Tradition #2: Special Day Plate with homemade goodie from mommy in shape of letter/number for the "year." Rice Krispie letter K = Kindergarten.

Posing with some of the kids on the block. 5th grade, 4th grade (2), 3rd grade (2), 2nd grade (1), 1st grade (1), kindergarten (4). Not pictured, on this same block (!) a senior, sophomore, 7th grader, 6th grader, 4th grader, 2nd graders (2), 1st grader, and one more kindergartner. I think that's mostly right.

A Party for Mom

Krissy here...

I have the type of mom who has spent her entire life caring for others. She has given so much of herself to take care of her family and friends, and she has done so generously and with joy.

I've been wanting to throw my mom a party for a long time. Buuuuut.....when she turned 50, I had just gotten married and my brother and s-i-l had their wedding three days before her birthday. No time for a party. When she retired her childcare business, I had just had triplets (hence part of the reason for her retirement): No time for a party. When she and my dad celebrated their 40th anniversary, I was celebrating my 10th anniversary. No time for a party.

But this May she turned 60, and it was finally time...for a party. I was fortunate enough to stay home this year with the kiddos, so I had spare moments while they were at preschool to browse Pinterest, Etsy, & local stores to create party plans--for both the kids' 5th b-day circus party and for my mom's 60th. We hosted the party at my house a couple of weeks ago. I went with a black and white damask color scheme with splashes of yellow. My mom's dear Bible Study friend, Judy, did all the flowers, and they looked amazing. Five of my mom's seven siblings (and their spouses) were able to make it--some coming quite a distance to get here. And all of my dad's siblings and spouses were at the party as well--travelling several hours also. Here are some pictures. I think my mom had a great time.

Thanks for everything you've done and continue to do, mom. You are loved and cherished by so many.

The dessert table.

The cake (Byerlys/Lunds)

The photograph and favor table.



Judy created all the flower arrangements.

The guests waiting to surprise my mom.

Surprise!

James grilled burgers & dogs for 50 guests.

My co-conspirator (and party funder). Thanks dad!



My mom and her sisters.



My mom with her mom.



Me with my dear s-i-l, who took all the photos for the day, while doing almost all the kitchen work AND taking care of her darling 2-year-old girls. We also managed to coordinate outfits. 

My adorable brothers, who both helped with setup, cleanup, party plans, food, and balloons (despite the nation's apparent helium shortage currently...).

 The immediate family--missing our nephew who couldn't be there.

The original Jorgenson 5.

Turning Five: What a Circus!

I decided to host a circus party for my trio this year because the fun party ideas for a theme like that looked endless. I'm a SAHM this year, and I knew I'd be able to invest a bit of time into decorations, party games, and cake planning while the kids were at preschool for five hours each week. And my sister-in-law in Texas, Allison Aars, had inspired me with the amazing parties she throws each year. Check out her blog (see my side panel for her site "You have your blog, we have Aars") to see my one-year-old nephew's "farm" first birthday party on New Year's Eve!

People who regularly do a lot of party planning: wow. I don't know how you do it. Planning a small, fifth birthday function with about 25 people wore me out. But it was fun. Some of my ideas worked really well and some bombed. But we all had fun :-)

The circus is coming...invitation from Pear Tree Greetings (this is their picture of the invitation, not our actual invitation).

We had to go see a circus so the kids knew what one was! The Shrine Circus was in town this spring. To be honest, it was kind of a disappointing show. And after reading "Water for Elephants" last summer I'm not sure what I think of circuses in general anymore; it didn't help that a couple of people were outside the arena handing out elephant-cruelty literature :-(  But we enjoyed parts of the show--especially the human cannonball and the acrobats.

Weather turned sour the day of the party, so my beautiful outdoor festivities turned into an inside and a garage event. Some of my photo ideas and party plans had to be discarded. But my husband still set up everything so that I was happy in the end :-)  And I had kept the food really simple, which worked with a carnival theme.

You can be so creative with circus games which makes the party fun for the kids. Circus tickets were key--the kids kept playing game after game to get more tickets which they'd exchange later for prizes.

Peanut races.

Uncle Joe, the balloon animal creator.

By far my favorite circus party idea was the "photo booth" filled with clown accessories. We really needed some fabric on the sides of the "booth" as in some pictures the fabric backing didn't cover the whole area, but as a whole, this worked out really well and was a TON of fun. My kids LOVED switching outfits for an hour and taking photos before the party. Usually it's like pulling teeth to get them all to sit for long photo sessions.

I had to get creative for the cakes this year. The only way my kids would agree to a circus party was if they got "cool" cakes (the boys) or a beautiful cake (Ellie).

So for Ellie I made a circus tent cake with pink stripes on it, and a tightrope walker in front of it. There were no templates online for a cake with a tightrope walker, so I had to get creative. I ordered a ballerina who was on one leg off of Etsy. Then since I knew that making smooth buttercream is a challenge for me, and I don't know how to work with fondant yet (a goal for 10 years down the line), I bought some pink sour belt candy strips off "Nuts Online" for the pink striping (a really cute and fun online candy store!). Then a bought Wilton's HUGE cupcake pan (it makes a giant cupcake) and figured I could turn the cupcake bottom upside down to be the tent bottom and then cut off part of the cupcake top to make the tent top. It worked really well, and Ellie was happy :-)  I used "Flour" bakery's yellow cake recipe (really delicious--just be patient while mixing ingredients!) and Mark Bittman's yummy buttercream recipe. Do not ask me how many pounds of butter I used over the weekend. You don't want to know.

Joshua and William agreed to circus train cakes, but only if they didn't carry any "cute little animals." The trains had to be carrying "strong men," stunt bikes, and/or human/animal cannonballs (i.e. Batman or Krypto). The circus train looked SO EASY to make online--using mini loaf pans to create the cake. I only had large loaf pans and was trying to keep down costs, so I thought I could just "wing it." How wrong I was! My cake recipe was too light and moist, so my layers for the engine kept sinking--especially under the thick buttercream. The final product looked nothing like a train--more like a sunken car with random toys attached to its trailers. Oh well. Joshua was happy, although he did mention, "It doesn't look quite like I expected. But...I like it!" William's train cake that was made by my mom, his Grandma Jorgenson, looked like a train! But the cake platter I had purchased for it wasn't big enough. (I did love decorating Joshua's cardboard cake platter from Wilton's--great to use in a pinch and easy to decorate.)

It was a great party, though, and we had a lot of fun. A few days later, we held the kids' "friend" party at a different location, "Pump It Up." It was nice to have someone else take care of the details while we watched the kids jump! Age six birthday--I may have no choice. Star Wars has taken ahold of this household. But I've already pinned a few cute ideas on Pinterest :-)