Boy/Girl Tea Party, Part 1

Let me be clear: I love having four boys. But not having a girl does deny me the option of certain experiences, like shopping for pretty frocks, making pretty crafts, playing with pretty dolls.  Well, I decided, that's life. But --boys or no boys, girl or no girl-- I refuse to be denied tea parties.

Guest List
My oldest and I began by drafting the guest list, trying to balance numbers of boys and girls. We ended up inviting an equal number of each, with four girls accepting and two boys (a third did as well, but in the end couldn't make it), plus my three out of four boys.

the finished product

Invitations
We decided on the theme of a "cupcake tea party." (That way I was only on the hook for producing cupcakes, should time, focus or inspiration fail me.) For invitations, we cut out cupcake shapes from construction paper, with the bottom and top from different colours, and glued them together. Then I simply hand-wrote the details with a coloured pen.

cupcake tops to cut out

Activities
I must admit I was not enthused by most of the activity ideas I found, as a lot was geared for girls (like makeup stations or crafting a handbag) or, if boys were the focus, the "tea party" aspect was largely overshadowed by the addition of pirate or monster themes. (Arrgh, matey! Pass the sugar, or I'll make ye walk the plank!) Nope and nope.

But in the end, a little inspiration and imagination gave us some fun activities:

Decorating Hats

• hats were thrift store finds, various kinds/styles
• kids chose their hat and the decorations from an assortment of feathers, sequins, pipe cleaners, pompoms, ribbon, foamy shapes
• parent-helper used a hot glue gun to attach the embellishments

Tea Cup Treasure Hunt

• kids were let loose to find the tea cups for the party hidden through the house
• certain rooms were off-limits (like the kitchen)
• hunters were instructed that no objects needed to be moved/opened to find the cups; all were in "plain sight"

Mad Hatter Tea

• similar idea to Musical Chairs, but always having the same number of chairs as players (i.e. no one is "out")
• at the start of each course, before serving the food, music is played and kids walk around the table; when the music stops, each kid sits down in the chair s/he is at and stays at that seat until the next round
• I must confess that this one did not actually work at our party. I faced a near-unanimous mutiny. But I still think it's a great idea. Link to the original idea is here.

All right, there were some pirates present.. but very well behaved.

Next instalment: Setting The Table and Food 

Decorating Pumpkins Without The Knife

Am I the only one whose kids have already been clamouring, "Can we carve the pumpkin today?" And, of course, my explanation that if we cut into it now (nearly 30 days before Hallowe'en) it will only go bad, gave little credence to my answer of "no."

Thankfully, Gail Gibbons' The Pumpkin Book rescued me. In reading this, my guys nabbed the idea to decorate our pumpkin without subjecting it to surgical re-invention.

Oh, no! My hair gel is out of control!

What we used:

• bottle caps for eyes
• frozen juice can lid for mouth
• play-dough for nose, hair (or whatever that stuff is supposed to be) and ears
• a discarded pacifier and a trinket we found on the street for earrings

Then we had the brilliant idea to make it look like he's climbing out of our front planter! So we cut the legs off a pair of old pants that were headed for the rag bin, wound an elastic around each on one end, stuffed them with plastic bags and finished them off with a pair of old mittens.

Why is this kid smiling? Can't he see I'm trying to get out?!?

Other items that would make great pumpkin features:

• buttons
• pins, brooches
• costume items like glasses and false noses
• Mr. Potato Head bits
• foam shapes or bits that you have lying around

What else?

Crafting With Kids: Recycled Greeting Card Cones

Now that I've recovered from the big crazy cake adventure, I wanted to share something else my oldest and I did for the birthday party: cones to hold candy made out of recycled greeting cards.

A story that my boy and I really enjoy reading together is A Birthday For Frances by Russell Hoban. In it, there's a description of the table set for the birthday party guests, where each place features a little basket of candy. He'd been asking me for months already if we could do the same thing for his birthday.

I wanted to do something easier (and cheaper) than baskets, and was inspired by the little cones in Gifts From the Kitchen from the Company's Coming series and by this tutorial from Martha Stewart. (I don't usually follow Ms. Stewart, as I don't have the patience --or perhaps, talent-- for her projects, but I could simplify this one.)

marthastewart.com

Our own quick-and-easy version:

1. Use a bowl or saucer of an appropriate size to trace a semi-circle on a recycled greeting card (Christmas cards, birthday cards, etc.).

2. Cut out the semi-circle and overlap the corners of the straight (i.e. not curved) side to make a cone.

3. Fasten with one or two staples.

4. Cut out a short strip from the same card to make the handle, and attach it to the cone with a staple at each end. And voila! A lovely paper cone!

Now, just add the candy. (We put the cones in a muffin tray to keep them more upright.)

A little bit of taste-testing going on here...

Craft: Old Calendar Sticker Collage

I know calendars seem like a good corporate gift. But then everybody jumps on the bandwagon and the result is madness! Every year, we get a least half a dozen calendars from various businesses (our pharmacy, a few realtors, not-for-profits), as well as friends and family (who are trying to off-load some of their own bounty). And, ironically, I have become that mother that intentionally purchases(!) an additional calendar --the kind that's so big it consumes the entire upper section of your fridge door and that comes with the little stickers for every conceivable event (change furnace filters? really?).


I can't bring myself to coldly toss the excess into the recycling. Such nice pictures! And any that feature animals will only be rescued from the bin by my fauna-loving boys anyways, so I don't bother.

But what to do with all these calendars? It only took me a couple of years of pondering to reach a moment of enlightenment. Involved crafts simply do not happen in our house ... or at least they don't happen well. (In fact, our son's JK report card suggested that we "encourage him to use scissors and glue." Just four-and-a-half and already behind in Glue and Scissor Skills 101!)


But, my three older boys love to make pictures with stickers. So we created story collages using stickers and calendar pages.


Yes, it's as straightforward as it sounds: we stuck stickers on the calendar pictures. And then we made up stories to go with the pictures.

The finished products were added to our "gallery wall" in the dining room.


This one (at left) involved dogs searching for bones hidden in the trees. I don't remember how the cats came into it...


The story for the picture below was that a mummy dog swam to the island while carrying her (many) puppies, one-by-one, in her mouth. Then they all searched for food and played.










Successful crafting session: one point!

Lunar New Year Crafting

The Lunar New Year is only a few days away, and if you're like me, then you've just awakened to that fact and are looking for some kid-friendly activities. Or maybe it doesn't make a difference to you one way or another. We happen to live in a neighbourhood that includes a significant Chinese and Vietnamese contingent. In other words, there's lots of talk about the upcoming celebrations in my oldest's kindergarten class.


In fact, recently my little guy eagerly asked if we could do something to celebrate the Lunar New Year. I almost fell off my chair. A year ago, if I asked him if he'd like to celebrate some occasion, he'd look at me suspiciously and adamantly refuse all participation. (It didn't matter what the occasion was --it could've been a Thomas the Tank Engine circus-themed monster truck candy party-- he'd certainly say no.)


So, when he initiated a marking of the New Year, my mind immediately went to work trying to figure out how we could adopt some low-impact aspects. Some traditional activities I've opted to NOT do are lots of cooking and cleaning. Oh, I'm also choosing to not festoon the house with symbolic live plants. Or artificial ones for that matter. (I've shared what happens to Christmas trees here; it's basically the same for house plants.)

http://crafts.kaboose.com/lantern1.html

I did find, however, some idiot-proof construction paper Chinese lanterns on a crafting website. These are my kind of craft: at-hand materials, a minimum of steps, fully recyclable, and no essential preparation. I made two lanterns with three of my boys present in that late-morning time between peaceful play-time and lunch (you know, the period that starts around 10:30 a.m. and ends when the food reaches their stomachs?).


Now, before you react to my supposed ingenuity, organizational prowess and child-management skills, please note that it states "I" made two lanterns. Hmmmm. Yes. The picture becomes clearer: an infant screaming alternately in his high chair and in his play pen; a toddler defiantly wadding up construction paper and throwing crayons on the floor; and a four-and-a-half year-old waving a pair of safety scissors and whining, "Mawwwwmeeee, it's too haaaaard!" Ah, yes, another family-bonding moment realized thanks to the magic of creativity.


I can't decide if I'm excited or horrified-but-in-denial about our plans to shop for and make nian gao (rice cakes) tomorrow...