And Happy December! Today is the day that all the Christmas decor gets dragged out of storage to deck the house out in some holiday cheer! But before I get a head of myself, I'm so excited to share with you all Rory's birthday festivities. Yup it happened, we now have an eight year old!
This year Rory bounced around on a party theme, but ultimately landed on Pokemon.
Pokemon bounce house in the works.
Just making sure it's bouncey-ness meets their standards. HAHA!
I found a Pokemon Hunt game on Pinterest for an activity for the kids. I love that Maggie is in the mix helping to find all the characters.
This is the cover of the booklet.
This is the inside of it with all the Pokemon characters that the kiddos needed to find. You can find the full activity and printouts here.
Rory asked for a "Pin the tail on Pikachu" game. A little side note: I spent the better part of a Saturday drawing this guy. He's A LOT harder to draw than he looks. Insert eye roll here.
And than there's the piñata. I totally thought I was going to get off easy with a Pikachu piñata, but Rory requested this guy. Let me start by saying I have no idea who this character is, but after Rory did a google search, it turns out that one of his favorite Pokemon characters is some sort of tree monster. He's definitely the ugliest piñatas I've ever created, but it ended up being the best one for the kids to hit. Because it had multiple pieces (tree branches, arms and root legs), with every kid that whacked it, a part of the piñata would go flying off. And because I designed it so that the pieces weren't part of the compartment holding the candy, each kid thought their blow to the piñata would break it open. By the end we had crete paper tree limbs and root legs flying all over our backyard. It was really awesome! (The piñata-making process is at the end of this post if you want to see how it came together!)
(I had to make the piñata version fatter, because I was afraid that if it was skinner like the character, that it would break in two with the first whack of the bat.)
Rory taking the first crack at it!
Then Rian!
The snack table! Doritos, chips and dip Pokemon Ball platter, cheese balls, olives, tomato-olives-mozzerella cheese skewers, cream puffs and bagels chips for the artichoke dip that was still cooling in the kitchen.
Pokemon Pizza! Rory requested this after seeing it on Pinterest. (I just ordered the pizzas half cheese, half pepperoni, then added the olives once the pizzas were delivered. Super easy!)
This little guy, Chespin, is Rory's favorite Pokemon character. And so he had the honor of adorning Rory's birthday cake.
Someone was warn out from the bounce house!
Maggie always has to be a part of everything.
The goodie bags. Inside Rory's guests received a Pokemon flying disk toy, a Pokemon tattoo and a Pokemon fruit snack pouch.
Opening his gifts. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you to everyone who gave Rory a gift.
The next morning was Rory's actual birthday. The growing tradition of donuts, a balloon, and our gifts. We did this for Rian's birthday and Rory asked for the same. :0) (And yes, I used a couple of the gifts bags from the gifts from the party for our gifts.) HAHA!
He had been asking for the Nintendo Switch since it came out earlier this year. His face says it all!!!
Later that day Rory opened gifts from our family. And there's Maggie in the mix of things again!
Watch Rian's reaction change with every gift that is opened. ;0)
At least Rory kept these two entertained. HAHA!
All Rian wanted to do was color with Nama!
A little Gin Rummy with my Mama! I haven't played in years, and I forgot how much I love it. I have so many fond memories of playing late into the night with my Nana as a kid at her kitchen table as my Papa would say goodnight to us as we played on. I'm sure my mama will get a rematch. HAHA!
And all Rian wants are the toy boxes so that she can sit in them on the couch. Have we explained the purpose of the couch to her?!?
And well the night ended with Rian still fighting the 5 day virus and Rory getting a stomach bug that had him running to the bathroom all evening. Oh and, my mom caught the stomach bug too. *sigh*
The piñata making process:
I always use the same method, which is linked here. Once I created a basic cylinder shape using happy meal boxes. ;0) I began the paper mache process mixing equal parts white school glue and hot water.
I had to inflate one of the kids' beach balls inside so that the paper mache would dry without collapsing in. I used wax paper to protect the ball from being glued to the inside of the piñata.
Once the cylinder walls were dry, I deflated the ball to remove it, along with the wax paper. I attached the flap that covered the candy-loading hole. Don't forget to leave a hole wide enough for you to load the piñata with candy or whatever goodies you are using!
Tree branch arms were then stapled on. I folded the paper towel roll and stapled the fold to create elbows for the tree monster character. You can see here that I used lunch bags ripped into strips to do the final layer of the paper mache. You will see in photos below that I covered the entire cylinder in the lunch bag strips.
Up next were attaching toilet paper rolls at the top to create the branches on his head. I used the same "elbow" technique. The rolls were stapled on the inside of the piñata so that they would stand up off his face. Packaging paper was used to create the root legs. I secured them by using a rubber band around the bottom edge of the piñata, then slipping half the strip of packaging paper between the piñata and the rubber band. Finally folding the strip over the rubber band and twisting it to a point at the end. I used a little glue and water wash to help keep the legs twisted.
Next I took strips of the same packaging paper, folded them long ways and cut a curved piece out of the end. I stapled three together to create the hands, then stapled them into the paper towel rolls.
I eventually took strips of packaging paper and rolled them up tight sort of like the size of a cigarette, then inserted them into each of the top branches. I then released them to create the point on the branch. Sorry I forgot to get a picture of that part. Oops!
Once I paper mached the top with a layer of newspaper, then a layer of the lunch bags strips (and let dry over night), I was ready to wrap the piñata with crepe paper. Always start from the bottom and work your way to the top.
The details were added with construction paper and green crepe paper.
Well that's a wrap on Rory's birthday fun! We're expecting a little visitor today, so I'm off to help him create all little magical appearance! ***Hint, hint...our little friend from the North Pole!
xoxo
-aMie
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