Brooklyn's 3rd Birthday Party

                 I can't believe my little Brooklyn is already 3 years old!!  Where have the years gone?  Her absolute favorite movie is Mary Poppins, which she refers to as "Mary Hoppins."  It is the only movie she will sit through.  She knows at least some parts to all of the songs and is constantly going around singing "let's go fly a kite, up to the highest height..." or "it's a jolly holiday with Mary, Mary makes your heart so light..."  For several months, every night before bed, Brooklyn would have a Mary Poppins dance party in her room.  She would give us all props to hold for each song and direct us where to stand and how to dance.  She is very creative in her props - a dirty sock was often used for a kite or an empty water cup for a chimney sweep.  So many good times have been had and memories made as our family sang, danced, and marched around Brooklyn's room singing Mary Poppins songs each night.  So as Brooklyn's 3rd birthday approached, I knew there was only one theme that would make sense for her party - Mary Poppins!!  As I began to search for ideas and listen to the soundtrack over and over to get inspiration, I began to fall in love with Mary Poppins too. This party was so much fun to plan, and I hope Brooklyn enjoyed it!

          I decided to make my own invitations using a blank template on Greetings Island.  I used clip art of Mary Poppins and Bert along with a cute quote from the movie.  I printed the invitations on thick, textured yellow cardstock.

          I made all of the decorations using scrapbook paper, ribbons, and poster boards.  By planning ahead, I was able to watch for those supplies to go on sale; so ultimately, I spent very little money (just lots of time).  Since it's springtime, I decided to focus on kites as a major theme for the party.  Brooklyn was also excited about that because "Let's Go Fly A Kite" is probably her favorite Mary Poppins song.  Next, I came up with the color scheme.  I had found a couple of yellow tablecloths on clearance at Target, so I knew that would be one of my colors and went from there. I decided on red, blue, and black for my other colors and picked four different patterned pieces of scrapbook paper in these colors to use.  I bought several of each piece of paper and used these in every decoration I made to tie everything together.   I especially liked the idea of using striped paper to mimic the stripes in Bert's vest in the movie.  I first made two big kites to hang over the food table.  I used all four of the patterned papers in each kite.  I also purchased four spools of ribbon - one yellow, one red, one blue, and one red and white stripes (which I used for the favors only).  I made tails for the kites by taping on a piece of ribbon and tying two little bows onto the tails.  After making these kites, I decided to continue the kite theme for Brooklyn's birthday sign.  I used three pieces of the black poster board to sketch out a London skyline which I cut out and taped together - this was the backdrop for the food table.  I used the extra poster board to cut out a silhouette of Mary Poppins and the letters for the birthday sign.  I hung the birthday sign kites over the skyline along with Mary Poppins floating with her umbrella in the sky.  Finally, I typed up signs for the different game and activity stations throughout the backyard.  I found movie quotes to go with each game and added that to the signs.  I glued these signs onto the same scrapbook paper to add some color.  To make each station more noticeable, I tied a red balloon to each sign.

           We were blessed with absolutely beautiful weather the day of the party!  As the guests arrived, they were directed to our backyard by a "Mary Hoppins" hopscotch board written in sidewalk chalk.  (This was not a movie reference.  It was inspired by Brooklyn's pronunciation of the movie title.)

 There were several games and activities to keep the children entertained.  I set out sidewalk chalk that the children could use to make their own chalk scenes to jump into - just like Bert does in the movie.

Once all of the children had arrived at the party, we started off my doing a horse race.  I had set up several small jumps using some old wood and bricks.  The kids took turns galloping over the jumps on a stick horse.

After they completed the race, they were directed to the tuppence toss.  I had originally planned to give the kids tuppence (plastic coins) as their prize for winning the race.  They would then try to toss those tuppence  into cornhole boards; however, we ended up just using beanbags.

The birthday girl having fun at the
Tuppence Toss

Next is was time to eat!  I tried to come up with as much Mary Poppins themed foods as I could. Here is the menu:

• A Spoonful of Sugar - plastic spoons dipped in white melting chocolate and sprinkled with sugar       sprinkles
• Chimney Sweeps - big marshmallows on sticks dipped in black melting chocolate and sprinkled with black stick sprinkles
• Umbrellas - Babybel cheese cut in half with a bendy straw (cut very short) for the umbrella's handle
• Strawberry Cupcakes - I used this recipe for the strawberry cake and this recipe for the icing 
• Fresh Fruit - orange slices
• Tuppence Cookies - chocolate chip cookies
• Cheese and Crackers
• Chips
• Raspberry Ice - fresh squeezed lemonade with raspberry ice cubes (I just froze whole raspberries in water in an ice cube tray)

I also made Jane and Michael's Candy Apples by using a melon baller to scoop out tiny apple balls which I then dipped in melting chocolate and rolled in colorful sprinkles.  At least that is how I practiced making them earlier in the week.  However, Matt had suggested that I try dipping them in melted caramel instead of chocolate which seemed like a good idea.  I never practiced the apples this way to make sure they would work (which was my mistake) and quickly prepared them right before the party started.  Sadly, when I went to get them out of the refrigerator to serve them, I realized that the caramel didn't harden around the apples like I thought it would.  I decided that the big platter full of melted caramel with some apple balls on top wouldn't make the best addition to the food table.

After we ate, Brooklyn opened her presents.  She got lots of fun things!  Thanks everyone :)

We ended the party with a kite craft.  I had spent lots of time preparing the pieces for the kites before the party so during the party, I would be able to assemble them quickly.  I followed the directions on this website for the most part.  Because I didn't have paper bags, I bought a roll of brown craft paper (they have this at the Dollar Store).  I also bought wooden dowels (I used 3/16" by 36") and string.  I cut the dowels so that I was left with two pieces - one was 21" and the other was 15".  I found the center point of each piece and made a cross which I tied together with the string.  Next, I laid my cross frame onto my paper and traced a diamond/kite shape - leaving extra room at the top and bottom (to glue on my pockets) and drawing the triangles off to the sides (like it shows on the website).  I cut out the pockets for the top and bottom of the kite and went ahead and glued the bottom one on completely and glued the top one on halfway.  I left that one side open so that once the kids decorated their kite, I could easily slide the frame in and tape it together.  I then added my kite strings which I taped and wrapped around empty toilet paper rolls.

During the party, the kids decorated their kites with markers, picked between a few different colored streamers for the kite tails, then brought their kite to me to assemble.  I simply inserted their kite frame, added a few pieces of tape, and they were ready to go fly their kite!

So....these kites weren't the best flying kites, but they were fun to run around with.  As soon as I gave Brooklyn her assembled kite, she took off running through the yard with it singing "let's go fly a kite, up to the highest height, let's go fly a kite and send it soaring...."  That made all of the time I spent working on preparing those kites worth it!

As the kids left the party, they received "Bert's bit o' magic chalk" as a thank you for coming to Brooklyn's party.

What a fun day!  Happy 3rd Birthday to my sweet Brooklyn!!

Easter

This week we focused on Easter instead of doing our normal letter of the week.  I wanted to share the fun things we’ve do so far, and also the things we plan to do the rest of the week.  There are so many fun crafts and activities to do that involve the Easter holiday; however, I knew that my main focus would be to share the story of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection.  This is a difficult story to tell young children who don’t really understand death yet, but I tried to make it as simple as possible as I shared it with Brooklyn each day this week.  In addition to the crafts listed below, we plan to do a few other fun activities later in the week including an Easter egg hunt in our backyard.  To make this Easter egg hunt extra fun, I am planning to put puzzle pieces in the eggs in place of candy.  Once all of the eggs are found, Brooklyn will be able to put the puzzle together to make sure she found all of the eggs.  I’m also hoping to paint and/or dye hard boiled eggs with Brooklyn if we get a chance this week.  

Here’s what we’ve done so far:

Craft #1 - Paper Easter Egg Wreath

I always like to do a craft each holiday that can be displayed to decorate our home.  This year I decided we would make a wreath for our front door.  I first found a piece of old poster board.  I traced a large bowl to make a circle on the poster board.  I then used a smaller bowl to make a circle inside the large circle.  I cut out the large circle first and then the center circle - this left me with a poster board wreath.  I also used a piece of scrap poster board to make an egg template.  I traced this template onto some scrapbook paper scraps to make different colored eggs.  Once the eggs were all cut out, Brooklyn glued them all around the wreath.  We made this into a fun game by sorting the eggs by color then making a pattern around the wreath.  When all of the eggs were glued onto the wreath, we tied a ribbon around it and hung it on our front door.  

Craft #2 - Bunnies, Carrots, and Fingerprints.  

We started this craft by clipping a pom pom to a clothespin.  This created a circular stamp that Brooklyn used to paint the bottom half of her paper brown to represent the ground.  (To give her a guide of where to paint, I painted a line across her paper and told her to paint below it.)  Next, she used the same pom pom paintbrush to make four circles on the ground - these would be the bottoms of the bunnies.  (She decided to make four to represent our family).  It was then time to start getting her fingers in the paint!  She used her thumb, dipped in brown paint, to put a circle on top of her other circles to make her bunny’s heads.  She then made carrots under the ground using her other thumb, pointer finger, and pinky to make three orange dots.  She used another finger to make white tails in the center of her bunny’s bottoms.  Lastly, she used her last few fingers to make blue clouds and a yellow sun in the sky.  I helped her add ears on her bunnies and leaves on her carrots to complete this cute picture.  

Craft #3 - Jesus’ Death, Burial, and Resurrection

(Front)

(Back)
I read the story of Jesus dying on the cross for us, being placed in a tomb, and rising from the dead from Brooklyn’s Bible.  We then made a craft to help her visualize this story.  To prepare for this craft, I collected two paper plates, a piece of black paper, and a piece of brown paper.  I cut three crosses and a large circle (the same size as the bottom of the plate) out of the black paper.  I cut an arch out of one of the paper plates - like the opening of a tomb and then cut out a large brown circle  to use as the stone which was rolled in front of the tomb.  I gave Brooklyn the two paper plates.  She colored the bottom side of the cut paper plate brown (she first used a marker then later wanted to sponge paint it).  Next, she used watercolors to paint the bottom side of the other plate like a sky.  While the paint was drying, we made our snack - empty tomb rolls - to illustrate how Jesus was put in the tomb and then rose from the dead.  Once we put the rolls in the oven, we finished up our craft.  Brooklyn glued the black circle to the top side of the watercolored plate, and the three crosses onto her watercolored sky.  Next, we attached the large brown circle, the stone, with a brad in front of the tomb.  Lastly, I stapled the two paper plates together so that the bottoms of the plates were both facing out (you should see the black circle when you look inside the tomb).  I then repeated the Bible story by showing Brooklyn the cross where Jesus died for us, flipping the plate around to the tomb where He was buried, then rolling the stone away to see that Jesus wasn’t there - He has risen!  We finished off our school day by enjoying our empty tomb rolls.  This was just one final illustration of Jesus rising from the dead and leaving an empty tomb.    

Painting the sky

Making empty tomb rolls

The tomb is empty!

T Week

We had a very busy T week!  With appointments, playdates, sicknesses, and the beautiful weather the last few days of the week, I felt very rushed to get school time done most days!  I ended up just doing what I could whenever we had some free time.  I’m still trying to learn to be flexible (even though I hate not doing what I worked hard to plan!).  Our verse was “Trust in the Lord with all of your heart” Proverbs 3:5.  This was a good reminder for me to trust God with the plans He has for my days.  Even though I often think I know best what we should be doing, God may have a different plan.  

Monday was actually the only completely free day we had all week.  We spent some time learning our new songs, poem, and verse and talking about the letter T and the sound it makes.  For our T tree, Brooklyn glued a big, brown letter T to her paper then glued big green leaves on the top to make a tree.  She also did her T dot picture and practiced writing T’s.

We went on a little adventure on Tuesday and didn’t have time to do school.  

On Wednesday, we started by coloring the shapes in the train printout.  I let Brooklyn use her do-a-dot markers which she decided to use to make dots on all of the train shapes.  While they were drying, we did our circle time.  We sang “The Train” song and slapped our hands on our legs to make the noise of a train going down the tracks while we sang.  Brooklyn added in lots of extra verses so that everyone in our family could have a turn riding on the train.  After circle time, we cut out the train shapes and glued them together onto a piece of construction paper.  I ended up trimming the large rectangles down a little bit to make the train fit better on the paper.  I showed Brooklyn the diagram of the assembled train and helped guide her as she figured out where each piece went.  Next, we did our math activity.  I gave Brooklyn 10 toothpicks.  I used colored toothpicks and gave her 2 each of 5 different colors to make this activity easier.  She first counted out the 10 toothpicks.  I then told her to put each color together - this made 5 sets of 2.  I then taught her how to count by 2’s.  This was really confusing to her.  I counted “2, 4, 6, 8, 10” over and over to familiarize her with it.

We spent Thursday and Friday going to story time and the park with friends. Since we only accomplished two days worth of school this week, I decided to carry the letter T over to the next week.  We had a few things going on this week also, so only having three days worth of school time to do worked out perfectly.  

On Monday (of week 2) we learned about turtles.  First, I gave Brooklyn a sponge, a paper plate, and some green and brown paint.  I let her sponge paint the bottom of the paper plate to make a turtle shell.  While the paint was drying, we said the “Turtle Action Poem” then watched a short Youtube video about turtles.  Afterwards, we pretended to be turtles by placing towels on our back and slowly crawling around.  While Brooklyn the turtle was crawling around, I would pretend to be a bigger, scary animal, and Brooklyn would quickly pull her arms, legs, and head into her shell (towel).  We had so much fun with this activity!  Brooklyn now wants to play this all of the time :)  Finally our paint was dry, and I let Brooklyn help me staple the turtles legs, tail, and head onto his shell.  She added eyes to his face to complete her cute turtle.  

My little turtle hiding in her shell

Brooklyn, the turtle

The next free day we had was Thursday, and we spent that day learning about a few body parts that start with the letter T.  We started in the morning while we brushed our teeth.  We counted to see how many teeth we each have.  We talked about the importance of brushing our teeth every morning and night.  Next, we did a little tasting, for our science activity, with our tongues.  I gathered 4 small bowls and placed salt, sugar, coffee, and lemon juice in them.  I then let Brooklyn choose which one she wanted to taste first.  I would dip a q-tip into the bowl of lemon juice, then place it on the part of her tongue that tastes sour things.  For the salt and sugar, I dipped the q-tip in water first so that it would stick.  After tasting all of the flavors, Brooklyn (obviously) liked the sugar the best.  She wasn’t a big fan of the lemon juice.  Our last activity was about our toes.  First, we counted our toes, then traced them onto a piece of paper.  

On Friday, we read the story of Moses going onto Mount Sinai and receiving the ten commandments.  I wrote out the ten commandments in simpler language and explained to Brooklyn what each of them meant.  I cut a paper lunch bag apart, folded it in half, then arched the top.  We opened it up and then Brooklyn glued each commandment inside.  

For details and instructions of these crafts and activities, please click to see my lesson plans.  If you have more ideas for the letter T, please comment and share - I would love to hear them!!

S Week

 S week started with lots of sunshine and spring-like weather.  We had fun swinging and singing “Mister Sun” on these beautiful days.  I do have to admit that when the weather is so nice outside, I have a hard time focusing on school time and just want to go outside with my girls.  We did rush through school time several days so that we could sit on the deck and paint, sing, watch the birds, or just talk.  I’m trying to enjoy this time outdoors before the mosquitoes invade our backyard.

          On Monday, Brooklyn glued her S snake onto a piece of paper and added some brown stripes to him.  She also did her dot S picture.  Then we went outside to enjoy the sunshine!

         Tuesday was all about sunflowers.  Brooklyn loved the “A Sunflower Grows” poem so we acted that out several times together.  I showed her pictures of real sunflowers and we talked about how they look similar to the sun.  We sat outside on the deck, and Brooklyn used a sponge to paint a piece of paper yellow.  She also painted a green stem, leaves, and grass onto a second piece of paper.  Once it was dry, I cut petals out of the yellow painted paper.  I then drew a circle above the stem on the second piece of paper.  Brooklyn used the circle as her guide to glue the petals around.  Lastly, we filled the circle with elmer’s glue, and Brooklyn added seeds to the middle of her sunflower.  (I realized I had forgotten to get sunflower seeds so she used beans instead.)  We ended up getting carried away playing outside and forgot to do the sun activities, so we decided to save them for another day.  

         We went to MOPS of Wednesday and didn’t do school.

         On Thursday we started off by doing our sun, shade, and shadow activities. We went outside in the morning and traced our shadows onto the driveway with sidewalk chalk. I did hers first, then she insisted on tracing mine too.  A few hours later, we went back outside, stood in the same spot and discovered that our shadows had moved and gotten smaller.  I explained how the earth moves around the sun and how the sun rises on one side of our house in the mornings and sets on the other side at night.  We also talked about what makes a shadow.  I explained that when we block the sun, or light, it can’t go through us so it goes around us to make a shadow.  Later, we made a spider in his web.  I painted Brooklyn’s hands (excluding her thumbs) black and stamped them onto the back of a paper plate - palms together.  Once it was dry, Brooklyn stuck on two googly eyes.  I punched holes around the outside of the plate and gave Brooklyn some yarn.  I taped one end of the yarn to make it easier for her to put through the holes.  She then strung the yarn through the holes, crossing over the spider in the middle of the plate - to form a web.  We also enjoyed singing “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” and reading The Very Busy Spider.  We waited to do the sink or float activity during bathtime that night.  We enjoyed observing how boats and empty measuring cups float but washcloths and a few bath toys sink.  

The outline of her shadow around 10:00 am...

...a few hours later, her shadow had moved! 

         On Friday we read the story about Hannah and how she prayed for a baby.  We talked about how she promised God that if He gave her a baby, she would give it back to Him.  We read how God gave Hannah a baby boy named Samuel, and when he was old enough, he went to live in the temple with Eli.  We also read about how God called Samuel in the night and how Samuel was a good listener every time he was called.  Brooklyn then colored her picture of Samuel.  

For details and instructions of these crafts and activities, please click to see my lesson plans. If you have more ideas for the letter S, please comment and share - I would love to hear them!!