Have Yourself An Angry (Bird) Little Birthday

Even though my son almost never gets to play the video game Angry Birds and you can read about why here he still absolutely loves them and requested it for the theme of his birthday party this year.

Here is how we celebrate an Angry Bird birthday over at Motherhood Is An Art.

First, I made an Angry Bird cake:

I screwed up while making the cake but it ended up turning out okay. I absentmindedly forgot to set aside white frosting to dye yellow and white for the beak and eyes. I had to cut a marshmallow in half for the eyes and I used cereal for the beak. For the head and tail feathers I broke graham crackers into little rectangles, frosted them and stuck them into the sides of the cake.

Next, I created a few games for the party.

I made a poster of the different piggies and we used this for two games. I painted these piggies on freehand but if you’re not into drawing you could cut these out of a coloring book and paste them on as well.

I drew and cut out three different birds from Angry Birds and we played Pin the Angry Bird on the Piggie:

We used this same poster and laid it on the ground for Toss the Angry Bird on the Piggie. We used three plastic Angry Birds that my son already had in his room:

Next I built a life-size Angry Bird game out of various cardboard boxes and piggies made out of balloons. You had to try to knock down the piggies with a Angry Bird stuffed toy we had. The stuff toy we used is heavier than a normal stuffed toy because it has a voice box in it. I don’t know if a regular stuffed toy would have worked as well.

For the piggies I just cut out snouts and eyes from construction paper and used scotch tape to adhere them:

The last game we played had nothing to do with Angry Birds but it was one that we played at my daughter’s party when she was in Kindergarten and I thought it was a good one so I thought we should do it again. I call it Puppies and Kittys. All it requires is long strips of fabric about a yard length long. One child is designated a puppy and the rest are kitties. The ones that are kitties get a piece of the fabric stuck to the back of their shirt with masking tape and this is their tail. The puppy has to chase the kitties around and try to step on their tail to remove it. Once there tail is gone the kitty becomes a puppy too and gets to help get the other children’s tails off.

I had a fun time with the kids and I think my son really enjoyed his party!

Here are some of my other posts related to birthday parties:

Dress Me Up Barbie

Birthday Cake Extravaganza

Birthday Decoration Head Shots

Tissue Paper Party Decorations

A Glimpse Into An 8 Year Olds Birthday Party

 

 

Duct Tape for My Heart

As you may know, my middle son, Bency is a rip tail peeler (other people use that term to describe mischievous children right…or is it just my family?).

Bency’s Kindergarten picture

He is the epitome of what this blog is about…finding the humor in parenting or else you would probably cry.

People often talk about the amount of money it costs to raise a child. Diapering, clothes, food and college tuition are a few items that are often mentioned but I never saw anyone mention the BREAKAGE or the LOSS.

Perhaps it’s because they never parented a Bency.

For Heavens to Betsy (or in this case, Bency) I have never seen so many things broken and lost this year. He started off this Kindergarten year armed with new clothes, shoes, backpack, lunchbox etc. Guess how many of those things made it through the year. None I tell you.

Well, actually, the backpack did make it through only because I duct taped it all over after it got ripped in many places.

this back pack is all duct taped up now!

He broke 3 lunch boxes, put holes in every pair of pants, broke the soles off of shoes and has lost 2 water bottles. He also lost several articles of winter apparel and was reduced to wearing two different mittens at the end of March.

Also in Kindergarten you have rest time which requires a rest mat that basically consists of foam that is covered in a nylon fabric. Guess who managed to break their rest mat and have it sent home several times. I refused to go buy a new one so I just kept duct taping up all of the holes where the foam was falling out. With 3 days left to go in the school year he is basically just sleeping on one big pile of duct tape!

Yesterday I sent Bency to school with an umbrella that has only been used 3 times. It came home broken because he said he tried to chop down a tree with it.

I don’t think I can fix this with duct tape

He is a bundle of energy and is always racing through the house and being loud. The other day after a particularly rambunctious episode that left me feeling weary I told him to go sit down on the chair and not make a sound.

He replied with, “Okay mama, but please don’t get mad if I breathe. Sometimes it makes sounds when you breathe and you know we all need to breathe to stay alive.”

I sighed and answered with, “Yes, Bency. You can breathe. I would never get mad at you for breathing.”

And then I walked out of the room and chuckled.

There is something about that boy that makes me want to pull my hair out and laugh all at the same time.

We are about to embark on the celebration of his birthday this weekend. I expect him to break one more thing. My heart. It breaks my heart to see that boy grow older and there is no amount of duct tape to fix that.

Do I look like a rip tail peeler?

Happy 6th Birthday Bency!

I Go Out Walking After Midnight, Out in the Moonlight

Some of you may have recognized my title from the Patsy Cline song, “Walking After Midnight.” However, this story has nothing to do with Patsy Cline even though I am a huge fan of hers. It is actually about an event that took place last week at our house.

If this event had turned out differently; there is a good chance that I would still be sitting in the fetal position, rocking back and forth and muttering incoherent sentences somewhere.

I’ve mentioned before in the story You Can Sleep With Me Forever that my 5 year old son, Bency, has sneaked into my husband and I’s bed almost every night of his life. On the nights that this doesn’t happen, he sleepwalks, and we find him somewhere else other than his bed.

Most of the locations are pretty tame:

the living room floor

his bedroom floor

or a living room chair

However, there was the time that we almost called the police. One night as my husband and I were getting ready to go to bed, I looked in Bency’s room. He was not there! We began searching the house for him everywhere. We looked in every room, every closet and under the beds. No Bency! As I was starting to come unglued I happened to look in the attic playroom and lo and behold there was Bency fast asleep.

sleeping in the attic

We have also had a few instances where Bency has sleepwalked downstairs while my husband and I are still awake watching television. Bency has walked into the living room, pulled down his pants and has come close to peeing on a chair. Thanks to my husband and I’s quick reaction times we have been able to escort him into the bathroom, wake him up enough that he is able to use the toilet. Bency has never had any recollection of any of these occurrences happening!

Now onto my story of what happened last week. My husband and I were in the living room watching television. The kids had been in bed for a few hours. All of a sudden we heard footsteps coming down the stairs that we assumed had to be Bency. Instead of the footsteps entering the living room they went the other direction in the house and we heard the basement door open. My husband and I each shot each other a quizzical glance and quickly got up and bounded to the basement door. When we looked downstairs we saw Bency standing at the bottom of the stairs looking around in a daze.

We asked him what he was doing and he answered with, “Oh nothing, just going to go to the bathroom.”

We responded with, “No, No Buddy. You’re in the basement. There’s no bathroom down there. Come back upstairs and we’ll help you into the bathroom.”

So Bency gingerly made his way back up the stairs and my husband helped him into the bathroom.

But what happened next will explain why if we hadn’t found him right away and ushered him into the bathroom would have caused me some serious cleaning and possibly mental toil.

Bency had explosive diarrhea.

In unrelated news. I finally finished my children’s book yesterday! I sent it off to be made up and it will be shipped to me soon. If everything looks good, I will be holding a giveaway on my blog’s 1 year anniversary July 6th! Here’s a sneak peak of the cover:

the cover of my book, What’s in the Bucket?

 

Every Moment in Time

I take an obscene amount of photos every month. I whip out my camera almost every day to capture something special, something I deem cute, something that makes my heart sing.

Cesar enjoying swinging

Taken the other day at the park

I often ask myself, “Self, is it really necessary that you take hundreds of photos every month? Do you really need to capture every moment?’

The resounding answer is always, “Yes. Yes it is important to me. For every one of these great moments there are an equal number of not so great moments. During those times I can reflect on those incredible instances. I can look at those photos. I can think about those memories. I can trust in the knowledge that this too shall pass and just over the ridge there will be another moment that will make my heart sing!

Let’s face it, life has plenty of these moments too!