Parties Archives - Page 12 of 16 - Enjoying the Small Things

Welcome to the North Pole

December 9, 2013 By Kelle

Pour your coffee. Put some Christmas tunes on. Get a cozy sweater. Go ahead, I won’t start this post until you come back.

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I like to start my posts as if we’re already in the middle of a conversation. I pretend that we’re the oldest and dearest friends — as opposed to what we actually are, people who don’t know each other.

Wait. Kathleen Kelly already said that. Nevermind.

I was so busy making reindeer collars, arranging fake snow blankets into mini sledding hills and practicing forging Santa’s name (no “e” in Claus! no “e” in Claus!) on Friday that I never posted Friday faves. I’ll throw it in some time this week.

On to the North Pole Party. You guys. It was magical. It had less to do with the details of the party and so much more to do with these precious kids. To see the world through their eyes and to remember what it felt like to be that awake and delighted with cookies and lights and friends and an unbridled imagination. Okay, I’m still delighted with cookies and lights and friends but sometimes I’d like my unbridled imagination back.

Lainey was a little nervous about going to school this morning because of some current county wide testing going on. We talked among other things about how life isn’t always exactly what you want it to be–sometimes you have to go along with the system, and taking tests is part of it. Not fun, I know. But because I know that life is made up of a lot of challenges and “testing”, perhaps I love even more these opportunities to cushion the hard days, the tests, the real life system with storybook and magic. To teach my kids to create it. They’re going to need it. And indeed we can have both.

So Friday night was just that. Storybook and magic. On a little street in the middle of Naples, Florida, we created the North Pole.

A Night at the North Pole:

Santa called in (coughMYBROTHERcough). That guy is hard to track down this time of year, but I’ve got connections–namely, an elf named Bubby (I forgot to cover the contacts ID on my phone as I held it up for all the kids to see) who weaseled his way into the Toy Factory. With his hearty HOHOHO (seriously, it was amazing), Santa talked to the kids about his reindeer and his toy making and answered questions. I loved their questions. What does your Christmas tree look like? What’s your favorite Christmas carol? Do you know my elf, Snowflake? Was I good?

And this face of Lainey’s while listening? I will never forget it. I can’t even look at it without tearing up.

Lainey’s little friend Mihiri wanted to ask a question but froze when it was her turn. We fed her a question and she giggled through the entire thing. Like I said, magic.

It was a great year for Nella. While last year she stayed pretty close to me, this year she wandered through the crowd eager to participate, found friends to help her make reindeer food and snuck off to the cookie table when we weren’t looking.

Our elf made his annual appearance again on our scavenger hunt, and I overheard a few older kids hypothesizing an explanation of his appearance. The window may slowly be closing for some of these kids and these imaginative stories, but new windows open. And if all goes well, we’ll teach them they can have both. Grow older, get smarter but never lose your sense of wonder and your ability to create a little bit of magic among the testing days.

There will be leftover snowman cookies for an after school treat today. And a reminder that on testing days, you simply do your best and know that how well you test has NOTHING to do with how much you are loved and the most important thing you have to offer the world…give it your imagination, your curiosity, your heart.

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For past North Pole Parties, see NPP 2011 and NPP 2012.

And if you’d like to recreate the Reindeer Food Bar with your own kids (invite friends, get your grandkids together), I have a full D.I.Y. tutorial over at BabyZone this week (with a new free printable for all the reindeer food labels).

Last matters of business, promise:

* Thank you for all of your #BeYourTee orders! This is the last day you can get your Be the Change shirts–help us reach our goal of 1,000 shirts! Youth and Adult sizes and many styles available HERE, and $5 of the sale of every shirt goes directly to the National Down Syndrome Society.

* And an essay on savoring “the last baby” over at All Parenting this week. I went there this morning–“this is the last “first Christmas” we’re going to enjoy.” (cheek smack, cheek smack…pull it together, Kelle!) We’re good now.

Merry merry, friends.

Six Years: Secret Agent Party

May 20, 2013 By Kelle

It’s been an event filled week–the kind that seems impossible to hold all that it did; but here we are, the Monday after, and there’s a mind cellar full of newly canned memories to last us a very long time. Thank God I got the analogy of the day over with. That was stressing me out. Moving along…
More later on reuniting with old friends. For now, someone had a birthday this weekend–the little someone who transformed years of dreaming about being a mama into reality.

Our girl is six.

After my dad gave her a giant fake diamond for Christmas and we used it as a prop in “Find the Missing Diamond” secret agent games, she decided she wanted a secret agent birthday party this year.

And my dad thought it was so cool that Lainey was born in 2007, the last three digits being 007, of course. Whoa, right? I mean, we had to do the secret agent thing at some point. So, a roll of crime scene tape and a few fake passports later, we had ourselves a TOP SECRET soiree for the C.I.A.’s newest agents.

Cupcake toppers: Top My Cupcake Etsy shop

With utmost attention to protecting the agency’s classified files, all new secret agent recruits were welcomed with thorough background checks. Alias creation (ranging from sophisticated names like Rebecca to imaginative alternatives like Sparkle and Stink Bomb), fingerprinting, print scanning–we don’t mess around here at the C.I.A.

Very cool app called Finger Scan that makes you feel all Mission Impossible.

Once all agents were cleared, we set off to follow a series of clues to solve the mysterious case of The Missing Diamonds.

Left: A password hidden in one of the agent’s hats.

After finding some evidence of shed fur, a few dog food kernels and a leash hanging from the tree, the agents concluded Sophie & Latte stole the diamonds. Until a sweet little wide-eyed girl piped up, “But how could dogs steal diamonds? They don’t have any hands!” This is true. This is true.

But they have good digging paws which came in handy when those sneaky dogs buried the diamonds in the woods.

Moral of the Story: Kids are smart. Or something like that.

And the rest goes something like a good party means the house gets trashed. I’m still picking up from the house being overtaken by little agents, but it was worth it.

Inexpensive table cloths: Cover tables with butcher paper, stamp it everywhere with a CONFIDENTIAL stamp, roll a line of crime scene tape down the middle.

And look–our youngest agent.

Coincidentally, this weekend’s recruit training included sleeping through the night for him (twice!). So yes, Agent Dash has been promoted.

I’m finding mustaches stuck to everything, and Lainey now wants every activity to include clues. But it was a good day followed by a sweet night of remembering just how incredible these past six years have been.

Kids clothes have a toddler “T” that follows all the sizes until size 6. Then it just stands there all alone, no “T” to soften the blow of this-kid’s-getting-big. It comes with so much good though, and as she grows, so do we.

Another birthday. More Love.

Happy Monday, Friends.

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Party Details:

All print goods I made. I used Top Secret free font from DaFont.
Fedoras, magnifying glasses, passports, glasses (popped out the sunglass lenses), white lunch boxes, mustaches, black notebook and pen sets: all Oriental Trading.
T-shirts: 5-pack white Hanes t-shirts, painted black tie.
Party Music: Downloaded Mission Impossible and Secret Agent tunes from iTunes

And thank you to Heidi who took most of the pictures in this post so I could tend to C.I.A. duties.

Three: A Lil’ Valentine Party

February 11, 2013 By Kelle

Miss Nellie had a little love themed birthday party this weekend. I don’t think you can ever go wrong with love themed. We tamed our party group to a small bunch and noticed how much better she did. A bit shy and easily overwhelmed, we were so happy to see her all smiles and owning her turf, even if she did end up wanting to ditch her friends for the babies. Always.

Romper: Etsy shop Rae Gun

Pictures make things look pretty and more time-consuming than they are. Really, this was a very simple party to put together. Got paper doilies? You’re all set. We taped and strung paper doilies everywhere, adding them to bagged lunches, take-home treat sacks and yarn lines tied between trees.

Martinelli’s apple juices: Costco. Eyelet skirts, courtesy of hot glue gun.

One easy craft: Valentine Flower Pots

We used $0.79 terra cotta pots–spray-painted white–which the girls painted (lay out some paintbrushes, a plate full of paint colors, a glass of water to clean brushes and baby wipes to clean hands) and added some lace embellishments (they brushed on Tacky Glue to adhere them). Pop in some pretty impatiens, and voila.

The kids took care of everything else.

Foam board painted with target; we used Hershey’s kisses to throw as “darts”

Parties usually end in our driveway, and I love it. A mess of trikes and bikes, sandals slapping fast against cement, little girls giggling as they chase each others’ bike trails, toddlers pulling wagons three times their size, mamas set up in beach chairs and the unspoken understanding that the party might be over but please, stay as long as you’d like.

Seems to be the year of the boy in our group. Ours will soon join these two new little loves, Thomas and Johnny Mac.

Nella sat in the driveway and fed her baby strawberries for quite a while.

…but ended up fascinated with new presents.

A pretend butterfly that realistically flutters in a jar…

…and a new bubble blowin’ car.

Oh, and for the record…

…I still got it.

Our weekend has nicely contrasted that of so many others’ in the country. I’ve loved seeing picturesque snow scenes on IG and hearing of cold cozy nights back home up north. I miss it but can’t deny the fact that our weather has been completely enjoyable lately–warm but breezy, plenty of blue skies and nights with open windows and happy cricket sounds.

And now we wait for baby.