Super Spy Training Birthday Party

My daughter asked for a spy party for her 8th birthday party, so we set up a "super spy advanced training" party for her.  We sent out invitations:

Future agents . . . you have been
specially selected to attend an
advanced class in super spy
techniques this Saturday, Nov. 20th
at 10:00 am.  Upon graduation you
will have mastered the skills of
observation, sneaking around, and
birthday cake consumption.  black
clothing would be appropriate but
is not necessary.  At 11:30 we will send 
you back out into the filed, prepared
to solve crimes and stop bad guys,
with a license to nil.

(please allow 6to 8 weeks for delivery of license.)

When the guests arrived, we took their pictures to go on their spy license, and had them color spies hiding behind bushes and park benches on a wall mural.  

a very serious spy

Next we chose our spy code names.  I put nouns in one jar and adjectives in another.  Maren helped me come up with them.  We let the kids pull one out of each jar and that was their code name.  Some of my favorites included the black thorn, the ruby snake, silent bear, and the diamond pickle. 

choosing code names

After choosing our code names, we sharpened our observational skills.  I used the same game from the Cam Jansen Book Club activity, where I put out several objects on a tray, let them study it for a few minutes, then had them close their eyes while I took 3 or 4 away.  They then would try and write down what was taken.  Each time I added new things.  We played for 4 or 5 rounds.  

thinking hard

Next we played a game I called "guard dog", to practice our sneaking, but I didn't get a picture of them playing.   I had one child sit with their eyes closed and their back turned to the rest of the group. We put an object behind them that they were protecting.  Then the chosen super spy would try to sneak up as quietly as possible and grab the item.  The guard dog had one chance to spin around and catch them, so they couldn't repeatedly turn around to try and catch the spy.

Their final training exercise was the laser beam challenge.  They formed a line and took turns trying to get through the hallway without touching any laser beams (red streamers).  I started with just 3 laser beams, and after the whole line had a turn, I added more.  By the end the hall was covered in streamers and it was very difficult to get through, but I was surprised how many kids made it without touching.  The kids had a lot of fun with this game.  

careful, careful

Then it was finally time for the birthday cupcakes!  Maren helped me make spy faces on the cupcakes with junior mint sunglasses and various other candies.  She really enjoyed making them, and eating them.

the bald guy's my favorite

When it was time to go home, we handed out the party bags.  I discovered that if you have a child with a birthday at the end of the year, and you're doing a "school" type of party, then you can get some great deals at oriental trading company on graduation things.  My son is having a "clown school" party in a couple of weeks, so we got some for him too.

The party bags included the following:

- magnifying glass
- graduation pen and notepad (from their easter sale)
- spy kazoo, for calling if you need help or secret spy signals
- flashlight (from halloween sale)
- graduation bubbles, to confuse your opponent (hey look, bubbles!)
- black graduation wristband, to help you identify other graduates
- spy mints in a sneaky credit card dispenser (I told the kids they were truth mints, and if you breathed on a person while sucking one, they would have to tell the truth.  I'm sure the parents appreciated that one)
- spy mustache and beard disguise

I made the mustaches and beards out of black felt and garment tape.  I had some garment tape left over from when I wore my wedding dress.  I am so glad I kept that in the drawer for 10 years! I knew it would come in handy.  

the fleet banana trying out the mustache and experimental eyebrows.
we decided not to do the eyebrows, as they really hurt coming off.  

The plan is to send official spy cards to everyone with their picture and code name on them when we send out the thank you notes.  I hope I get around to doing that someday.  (to see spy ID card I finally got around to making, click here)

Number Ladder

One of the kids' favorite math games to play is "number ladder".  I got the idea out of a book called "Games for Math" by Peggy Kaye, although I added candy.  The point of this exercise is to practice basic arithmetic.  You draw a ladder and fill it in with numbers between 1 and 10 in random order.  Then the student rolls the die and has to add the number on the die to the numbers on the ladder, starting at the bottom. Each time he gets the answer right, he moves his little lego guy up the ladder, but if he makes a mistake, he goes all the way back to the bottom and has to start up again.  I put a small treat (in this picture chocolate chips) on the 5th number and the top number, so when he reaches those spots he gets a treat.  Maybe that's why they like to play this game so much. . .  Joshua is working on his addition, but Maren has to practice her multiplication (although if she rolls a 1, I make her roll again).

Cars Birthday Party

My little boy loves the movie "Cars" and wanted that theme for his 3rd birthday party.  We had a party just with family because, hey, he's only 3.  Also it was on a Sunday after church, which is why everyone is all dressed up.

We started with a rousing game of red light, green light.

Then I printed out a "Don't eat Pete" game board with pictures of all the "Cars" characters on it instead of faces.  To play "Don't eat Pete", you put a small food like m&ms or marshmallows or cheerios on each square.  One person closes their eyes while the others choose which square is Pete.  Then the first player opens their eyes and starts eating, a square at a time, and when they pick up the piece of food on the square designated as "Pete" everyone yells "Don't Eat Pete!" at them and their turn is over.

For our last game, we raced laundry basket "cars".  The dads helped push the kiddos across the room.  Everyone had 3 or 4 turns.  Very fun.

The cake wasn't spectacular, but it worked.  Christopher enjoyed being able to keep the cars on top.

Pirate Birthday Party

Last year my turning 5 year old son asked for a pirate party, since he didn't remember very much from the one he had when he was 3.  So I obliged.  We started off with a mural as the kids arrived, just as we did in my daughters' craft party, but apparently I didn't take a picture.  It was a pirate ship on the sea and the kids drew pirates and sunken boats and treasure chests and the like.

Then we played pin the eyepatch on the pirate.

Next came walking the plank.  I'm sorry I only have a picture of me demonstrating for some reason.  The kids stood on the pirate ship couch, then had to walk the piano bench plank, jump into the ocean and swim through the tickling sharks to the island on the other side of the room.  I had to enforce a soft tickling rule and put lines on the floor for the kids to stand on so there would be room to run.  They really thought this was fun.  

Next came island dancing.  My son had picked out some backyardigans songs he liked (some from pirate episodes) and when the music stopped, the kids had to jump into a hula hoop island.  Simple, but fun.

Next was a "fill the treasure chest with jewels" relay race.  I try not to do competitive things with kids this age, just cooperative things.  We lined up and each child took a spoonful of jewels from one table to another and tried to go as fast as they could.  We tried to see how fast we could do it. 

Next came opening presents and the cake.  I went a little crazy on his cake.  I had a very colicky baby and was getting very little sleep, so I don't know why I felt inclined to make an elaborate pirate ship cake.  I guess it was a bit therapeutic for me.  I actually rolled out tootsie rolls and cut them to make the planks on the side.  I don't know how to do fondant, so I did tootsie rolls.  Just plain crazy.  That's what happens when you don't get sleep.  

Craft Birthday Party

I have been busy planning birthday parties lately, and thought I would look through pictures from past years and post some of the things I've done for my kids' parties.

I love birthday parties.  I thought originally I would only do a party every other year for my children, but I really enjoy planning them and doing fun activities with the kids and decorating a cake, so we've been doing them every year.  I don't know that we always will.  I may get worn out.

My daughter loves arts and crafts, and decided she wanted to do some with her friends for her party last year.

We started with a big mural.  I put up some butcher paper, put out washable markers, and as the kids arrived, they drew. I had drawn a setting (it was just some waves) and the kids filled in the details.  They had a lot of fun making a story as they went.  My daughter had drawn a mermaid, and one of her friends went and drew a shark around it as if it had been eaten.  Fortunately my daughter thought this was funny and instead of being upset, counter attacked with some creative drawing of her own.    We left it up for a week or two and it was a fun reminder of her party.

Then we did some thanksgiving crafts I had bought from oriental trading company.
( If you ever do crafts with a bunch of kids that are 7 and under, make sure you have a lot of adult helpers, because I didn't and some kids were really upset that other kids were finishing before them.)

Then we opened presents and ate cake.  I really liked the cake.  I used airheads candy, rolled flat and cut in ovals, for the watercolors.  The paintbrush is a brown tootsie roll, white tootsie roll, and airheads.  I should have used one of those long brown cookie type things for the brush handle, but I didn't have one, so I did what I could.  I made a "box" out of white chocolate I had melted, spread out on parchment paper, and let harden.  I'm not a professional, and I'm sure someone else could make it better, but I really enjoy crafting cakes, and eating them too.

Why Chicken Babies?

Since I've had some people ask why I named the blog "chicken babies", I thought I'd take a minute and explain.

Chickens are just kind of funny.  I don't know why, but if you just throw a random "chicken" in when you're talking to someone, it's a good way to get a laugh; well, if it's the right sort of person, by which I mean me or my husband.

Sometimes I will write a to-do list and when I look at it the next day it will have the word chicken written at the bottom of the list.  Or sometimes I'll ask my husband a question and he'll just answer "chicken".  Hmmm.  This makes my husband sound really weird, but really he's just great.

Chickens make their way into our lives in unexpected places.  The kids usually give Jason a chicken book or chicken themed present for his birthday, Father's Day, and Christmas.  Every summer when we do our "Crazy Kids' Drama Camp" a chicken has to be in the movie somewhere.  Our kitchen has chicken statues in it.  My youngest son asked for a chicken birthday party.  And we teach our kids to "cluck" from an early age.  Okay, not that last one.

Once upon a time, when we were engaged, my husband was watching a rerun of the Cosby Show.  One day while he was watching, he saw the following scene:

Vanessa(crying/whining to Dad): "Rudy called me a baby."
Dad: "Rudy, did you call your sister a baby?"
Rudy: "No, I called her a chicken baby."

Jason thought this was hilarious, and decided he would call his children his "chicken babies", not as an insult, but as a term of endearment.  Ever since Maren was a little baby girl, he has called her his chicken baby.

When I was trying to think of a name for the blog, I was having no luck with anything that involved the words kids, activities, fun, things to do with kids, homeschooling, etc. . . Then I thought about how we call our kids chicken babies, and surprisingly no one had taken it.  (weird, huh?) And a blog was born! Our kids are the chicken babies, and this blog is about the things we do with or for our kids.  Mostly.

thankful windows

Every year we used to do a thankful tree.  I would cut out leaves for each child, or buy die cut ones at the parent-teacher store, and we would have a big tree on the wall and write things we were thankful for.  Last year, I had a very colicky 2 month old baby in November, and the tree just wasn't going to happen, so we simplified.  We decided to write our thankful things on the windows by our kitchen table.  Crayola makes these great things called "window crayons".  I love them.  They work much better and wash off easier than any window markers I've tried, plus the colors are nice and bright. We enjoyed our window thankful things so much last year, we decided to do it this year too.  It's easy, and the kids like it, so that's what makes it great.  At dinner, we all say one thing we're grateful for and I write it down.  And it's so fun hearing what the kids are grateful for, especially the 3 year old.  From him we get gems such as "thankful my water bottle not lost" and "cars, but not real cars, the movie cars".  Jason and I always try to guess how long it will be before one of the kids says they're grateful for their mom and dad.  Sadly, we usually don't make the list until they're having trouble thinking of something and we offer suggestions.  Someday they'll be grateful for us, right?