Happy Healthy Halloween

Last spring, we realized that the Beast was greatly affected by artificial food dyes and flavors.  We immediately removed them from our diet and changed our eating habits for the better.  Around that time, a good friend was trying to figure out her kids' food sensitivities, and she removed gluten, soy, and dairy from their diets.  Both of us saw such positive results that we knew these would be life changes for us.

Then came the season of let's-knock-doors-and-get-a-truckload-of-candy.  Our kids loved this time of year.  It meant pumpkin patch visits, pumpkin carving, and a visit to the local fall festival to obtain as much candy as possible.  With our not-so-new diets firmly in place, a fall festival seemed like a bad idea.

We decided to hold a small party in which our kids would dress up in their favorite costumes, play some fun games, and enjoy treats that were dye-free, gluten-free, soy-free, and cassein-free.  Yikes!  This was no small task.

 My friend hosted the party at her home.  Thankfully, amidst an October of heavy, cold rain, God saw fit to give us a few hours of sunshine for our party.  The kids had a balloon fight and played Red Rover outdoors.

 We played as many super-active games as we could to get that boundless energy out.

 

 My friend even had a fun bean-bag game and a tiger-hunting game for them to try out their skills.

 Treat time was successful!  We had these adorable tissue-paper covered juice boxes for the kids and all-natural root beer for the grown-ups.  My friend decorated mini-containers of oranges to look like jack'o'lantern faces.  Everyone snacked on veggie and fruit trays as well as little taquitos and yummy chicken meatballs.  Desserts included gluten-free brownies, gluten-free cookies, and homemade marshmallows.

 The final event of the party was the pinata.  I made a cute ghost pinata using a paper bag (will post tutorial later) and the kids had a great time taking turns trying to smash it.  Once broken, the kids quickly scattered to pick up the little Halloween trinkets, pencils, and all-natural lollipops.

We had a great time.  The kids got to wear their costumes.  They got their candy and sweet fix.  They were able to be at a party where all the food and treats were safe for them. 

 

I think this is going to be a yearly tradition!

A Few More Piratey Things

I neglected to mention a couple of things in yesterday's pirate party post. First, how could I have forgotten to include a picture of the cutest pirate at the party?

 She of course loved the attention.  Saucy little swashbuckler!

 And the invitations!  I drew treasure maps per the Beast's request and made copies.  We stained them with tea bags, and unhappy with the not-very-antiqued results, we crumpled them up and dabbed them with brown paint.  Finally, I burned the edges with a lighter, which was my little pyro's favorite part.

We rolled them up, tied them with string, and delivered them to some very excited classmates.  And now you know the rest of the story...

How to Have a Pirate Party - ASD style

It is our family tradition to have a big birthday party every other year.  It works out nicely for us - this year the Beast and Little Sprout will have birthday parties, and next year the Drama Queen and the Spud will have their birthday parties, and so on.  The Beast chose pirates as the theme for his party and was extremely excited to have his friends come over to his house.  Because of his autism and sensory issues, in the past he has not handled birthday parties so well, especially those at loud and overcrowded places (think Chuck E. Cheese, for example).  So I decided to host a party for him and his friends at our house - a place where we could control the environment, the noise level, etc.  

 The first thing I did was hire a "real pirate" to come to the party. :)  Cap'n Blownapart is a college student at our church who had been to clown school and had a passion for all things piratey; so I knew the Beast would be comfortable with him there.

 I kept the decorations pretty simple.  I drew a welcome sign on our whiteboard, mostly because I knew he would get a kick out of seeing his own name.  The Happy Birthday banner was from Dollar Tree, as were a few other decorations and party supplies.

 I also found these super cute pirate decorations to hang from the ceiling at Party City.  Decorations hanging from the ceiling are great - they add a lot of color and punch but are not too distracting or overstimulating for him and his friends.  I talked to the Beast before his party so we could plan what to do in case he got too overwhelmed.  He decided that he would go downstairs to his room if things got to be too much.  During the party, he only disappeared to his room once, and he quickly came back out to join his friends.

 Planning the party food took some thought.  As a family, we started the Feingold Diet last week, meaning no artificial food colors, no artificial flavors, no preservatives, and the elimination of some salicylic foods, such as apples, oranges, tomatoes, grapes, etc.  I ended up making chocolate cupcakes from scratch and decorated them to look like little treasure islands.  The palm trees were plastic drink stirrers from the dollar store.  The main dishes were ham'n'cheese pirate boats, and the side dishes were a fruit tray of mango, cantaloupe, pineapple, and kiwi, and a bowl of organic cheese fish snacks.  The fruit, especially the mango, was the biggest hit!

 When party guests arrived, they got fitted for a paper pirate hat and matching eyepatch.  I used the free printable here.  Cap'n Blownapart made balloon swords and other balloon creatures for every pirate in attendance.

 I covered our cooler with brown paper and foil to make it look like a treasure chest and filled it with "pirate water."  (The Nerd designed and printed out treasure map water bottle labels that we put on each water bottle.  The kids used a Sharpie to write their name on their bottle, and presto! everyone had their own drink that was portable and somewhat spill-proof.)

 I hid "booty" for the kids to find in five different locations in the house.  Cap'n Blownapart helped the kids read the scavenger hunt clues, and then off they scattered to search for their treasure.  Prizes found were fish whistles, little plastic spyglasses, and lots of plastic gold coins.  The attending pirates filled their treasure bags and then got to take them home for a goody bag.

In true form, the Beast insisted everyone sing Happy Birthday to him and then plugged his ears as we did so.  By that time, he had had just about enough.  The kids sat on the floor and munched on cupcakes while he opened his gifts.  With each gift, he said, "Shiver me timbers! Thank ye very much!"  I have no idea where he got that line, but it was super cute.
The kids left with their armloads of balloon swords and booty bags, and the Beast stimmed for an hour.  It was worth it though to see him so excited and so proud to have his friends at his house.  I think we found the right balance of excitement and calm for him so that he could really enjoy his day.

How to Have a Perfect Penguin Party

First, make invitations for all the little guests. These funny penguins were made out of construction paper shapes, felt scarves, and star brads for their party celebration hats. All of the party information was written on the back of each penguin.

Next, make cupcakes for your child's class to help them remember that a penguin party is coming up. I made these clever cupcakes following instructions at Family Fun; only we substituted candy orange slices for the dried apricots and mini chocolate chips for the brown m'n'm's.

Then, begin making some special treats for the party. A healthy and almost unbearably cute snack to serve are these black olive/cream cheese/carrot penguins. I found instructions to make these cuties here.

And what's a party without cake? I made an ice cream cake following an old recipe I found in a Better Homes and Gardens cake decorating book and made it look like a frosty igloo. And don't forget to make up some "penguin food" to delight your little guests! It's easy to make up some blue jello jigglers with swedish fish inside!

Hot cocoa is the proper drink for a penguin party (although we did serve up "ocean juice" for those who didn't care for hot cocoa.) I made up a hot chocolate bar so the kids could customize their own hot cocoa with chocolate chips, marshmallows, and candy canes.

Decorating for a penguin party is super easy! We made pretty snowflakes out of coffee filters and hung them from the ceiling along with several blue streamers. My daughter strategically placed a few stuffed penguins around the room, and viola! the room was decorated!

When I googled the words "penguin party games", I found several ideas that sounded like a lot of fun. However, we chose to stick to just a couple of activities for these 5 and 6 year olds. When guests first arrived, they got to play a fun interactive video game called "Start the Party" for the Play Station Move. I originally intended it to be a time-filler until all the guests arrived, but it proved so popular that we abandoned some of our game plans so the kids could have more time playing this game. :)

Then, to get some of that crazy energy out, we staged a giant "snowball fight", in which two teams competed to keep the "snowballs" (balloons) away from their side of the room. Mass chaos and crazy fun!

I personally am not a big fan of having all the party guests sit down and watch the birthday girl open a huge pile of gifts. We always try to do a gift exchange with some sort of theme instead. For our penguin party, we asked each guest to bring a wrapped small stuffed animal. The kids all drew numbers and then got to open a stuffed animal to take home.

The kids liked all the treats, but it seemed that the "penguin food" and make-your-own-hot-cocoa were the biggest hits. We sent those kiddies home happy, a little sugared up, and one stuffed animal richer.

And that's how you have a perfect penguin party!

The Pumpkin Mania Continues

Now that we had our pumpkins from the patch, it was time to make them worthy of standing on our front porch.

The Spud was especially excited to be allowed to use all the interesting tools for this activity. The ice cream scoop was definitely his favorite.

The Beast could not wait to open his pumpkin and get all the guts out; we caught him stabbing his pumpkin repeatedly with his carving tool.

The Drama Queen was quite intent on carving her own this year; and she did admirably well with little help from Daddy.

What can I say? We really get into our pumpkin carving around here!

The next day, we hosted a pumpkin party for our friends from our Faith and Family Sunday School class. The table was covered with dozens of pumpkins, all blank canvasses for the party guests. Caramel apples, kettle corn, and pumpkin cookies waited in the kitchen to be served along with an assortment of apple cider and soda pop.

Once the guests heard there would be prizes for the pumpkin carving, they jumped right in. Everyone chatted away while they busily used knives, measuring cups, spoons, scrapers, and. . .

. . . even a power drill. It takes all kinds.

For the younger guests, an assortment of toys was waiting in the boys' room as well as our new Toss-Across game. Note here that the Drama Queen has already set herself up for the perfect win. :)

Many of the guests enjoyed Mario Kart on the Wii. Yes, that is popcorn all over my carpet.

I finally got a chance to carve a pumpkin too. (with a little helper)

The boys discovered how fun it was to use the power drill to make various holes in the pumpkins. One boy put so many holes in his pumpkin I was afraid the whole pumpkin would fall apart.

All in all, after the bags and bags of pumpkin guts and debris were cleared away and the last guest finally went home, I realized that I had thoroughly enjoyed myself. Pumpkins are fun, but friends are the best!

Wordless Wednesday - Race Car Party

vroom vroom!

this past Saturday we had a rip-roarin' Race Car birthday party for the Beast.

our home was overtaken by little boys eager to play with the elaborate Hot Wheels track that the Nerd had set up.

each party guest brought a wrapped Hot Wheels or Matchbox car for a gift exchange.

each boy had to test out his new car on the track.

yummy race track cake was devoured, especially the candy cars.

and it all ended with a photo finish - seven smiling drivers! :)

(not so wordless!) haha

A Really Really Ridiculously Large Energy Drink

It's finally Friday. I am so exhausted.

Tomorrow 14 little boys will invade our home for a Hot Wheels race car party. We just moved into this house and there is still much to be done.

Today I am again going to be cheerful about potty training and try to make it exciting as possible. I will inevitably be cleaning up potty messes.

This weekend I have to get all the consignment clothes washed, ironed, and tagged for the big sale next week. Last I counted, I have over 200 items. Yawn. It makes me super tired just thinking about it.

We are. . . errr. . . not quite finished in the tax department. Owning my home business has proved to be quite the challenge in figuring out taxes this year. So those still need to be filed.

I have seven outstanding orders currently from The Framed Frog. Hence the exhaustion! I have been staying up late and getting up early to find the extra time to work on these.

And somewhere, in between all of these, there are dirty clothes to wash, dishes to put away, meals to make, boo-boos to kiss, and all the other ordinary things in life.

So I'll pour myself another cup of coffee. And then I'll sit here for a few minutes, snuggling with the kiddies. The to-do list can wait. . .

Not Always a Mini-Me

In many ways, the Drama Queen is a mini-me. She can talk a mile a minute and fill you in on the most mundane of details. If you let her, she will describe to you the entire plot of a movie she just saw or a really funny story she just made up. She is just like her mother!

She also loves all things artistic and is in her element when you give her crayons, markers, paints, and blank paper. If you give her a pair of scissors, she is in heaven; and I would venture to say that in a few years (when she is a little older), she will swoon if you give her a hot-glue gun. Yep, she is just like her mother!

The Drama Queen gets excited about the smallest things and is very appreciative of them as well. "Thank you Momma for giving me carrot sticks for lunch" and "It's so nice of you to share your house with me" are classic Drama Queen statements. Uh huh, she is just like her mother!

But when I take her to a birthday party full of little girls, princess stuff, games, and cupcakes, she freezes. She hides in the corner and plays by herself. She doesn't join the others in their activities unless prompted several times. On the way home from the party, she will talk on and on about how much fun the party was and how much fun she had playing with the other girls, even though I know she didn't even venture close to them. This is NOT like her mother! I would be the one in the center of the group, playing all the games and being the loudest.

But the Drama Queen is NOT me! (thank goodness). And so I push down all those impulses to "make" her join in the group and be more social. I let her be who she is (without being rude to our host, of course). And secretly I'm a little glad she is a bit of a wall-flower in these social situations. When I hear the mom next to me hollering at her kid to "be nice to the other kids or else" and another mom asking her child to "please lower the volume now!" , I am relieved that all I have to do is watch my calm and obedient child play quietly and happily by herself.

Ha ha , so definitely not like her mother...