Gingerbread Birthday Party

Christmas Gingerbread Party

My sweet girl Breanna loves parties as much as I do. She started thinking of her birthday party months ago. After much deliberation on what type of party to have, she finally settled on a gingerbread theme. I love Christmas, and could not wait to begin planning and decorating. Bree’s party was the first part of November, so that means my house has been all decked out for Christmas since the day after Halloween. I know, it seems a bit early to be decorating for Christmas but really whats a few weeks right?

These were the birthday invitations we sent out, all the party information is other side. I used foam tape on the gingerbread man to create depth. Bree loved how they turned out.

Bree wanted her birthday cake to look like a gingerbread house. Seemed simple, but I probably should have used supports. The cake slowly started tilting. Whoops. No mishaps, just a slow leaning gingerbread cake. I made 2 9×13 cakes to create this house. The kids always request chocolate cake for their birthday. My Grandmother’s chocolate cake recipe is amazing! I love that it always seems to turn out perfectly and it is so moist and yummy. Thanks Grandma!

The Christmas trees were all covered in little paper gingerbread men and white snowflakes. Since I love using what I have on hand, when I found a large roll of brown craft paper in our basement I was super excited. I was the perfect color for gingerbread men and a bit heavier than regular paper. My sister-in-law is wonderful and spent the evening cutting out all the cute little gingerbread men on her Cricut! Thanks Laurie! I outlined them with white paint. I love how they turned out, plus as a bonus they will be the gift tags on all our Christmas presents this year!

I also used cookie cutters as ornaments. They looked cute and perfect for a gingerbread party.

This is our ever changing wall. It was a beautiful mural painted by Annika’s friends at her Art party and then used a projection wall for Kaleb’s Wii party. For Bree’s party I strung Christmas ornaments on fishing line and used thumbtacks to hang them. The Christmas ornaments look beautiful at night when the tree is on. So simple, yet they have a big impact.

I made 25 little ~~Gingerbread~~ graham cracker houses ahead of time so all the kids had to do was decorate them. They are so simple to make, but take a bit of time to put them together. I used a square of cardboard wrapped in tinfoil as the base. The table and buffets were also wrapped in brown craft paper with a painted edge.

The kids loved decorating their houses. Each of the kids were given a Ziploc baggie filled with icing. I snipped a small corner of the baggie so that it worked as a piping bag. The baggies were easy for little hands to use and mess free. A definite bonus when working with that many kiddos! Each of the kids were given a cup cake liner that they brought to the candy counter. Having all the candy in one area eliminated sticky little fingers reaching across gingerbread houses for more candy and accidentally tipping one over. The kids were welcome to fill their container as many times as they wanted.

Bree wanted to play pin the button on the gingerbread man. More craft paper and white paint and voila a cute gingerbread man. We also played a game of hide the gingerbread man. Bree decorated 3 small gingerbread men with glitter glue. The game was super simple. 3 kids each hid a gingerbread man in the house, once the gingerbread men were hidden the rest of the kids tried finding the gingerbread men. So simple and easy, but the kids LOVED it. I also told the kids that gingerbread men were frightened of loud noises and if the kids wanted to find the sneaky gingerbread men they needed to tiptoe and talk in quiet whispers. So funny to watch a house full of first grades sneak around looking for the gingerbread men.

The houses turned out so cute! I love all the effort the kiddos put into each one. Bree thought it would be cute to only use Christmas colored candies (dots were her one exception). I love how they turned out!

Along with the cute gingerbread houses the kiddos made, we sent each of the kiddos home with homework. At the party while we were waiting for all the guests to arrive the kids made pipe cleaner snowflakes and gingerbread men. They turned out really cute. As part of their take home bag, I made little packets with clear instructions on how to create borax crystals along with a container of borax. Our kiddos love to create these amazing crystals. Here are some examples of borax crystals that we created for St. Patrick’s Day and Easter. I love how the gingerbread men and the snowflakes look sparkling on the tree.

This was a great party and the perfect way to kick off the holiday season. Happy 7th birthday Breanna.

Pretend Elevator

Invite a little imaginary play with this simple idea

Now that the ground is covered in snow imaginative play has become a big part of our day. I love preschoolers imagination and their ability to transform everyday objects into something wonderful. Today we created a pretend elevator in the back hall mudroom. Each floor held a new adventure waiting to be discovered.

Pretend Elevator ~ imaginative play for kids

Kids love imaginative play. No need to make a big “set-up” just flow your kids lead. You might be surprised by the adventure they take you one.

Since the mudroom does not have a door, I used a tension rod and curtain from another room. The kids thought this was great since it is not a normal room to play in.

By coloring each number the preschoolers worked on both color and number recognition. I also love that it was super easy to set up and we used things that we already had. Fun and free, two of my favorite things!

What is your favorite imaginative play activity?

Housing a Forest

Christmas is hands down my favorite holiday! I love family time and traditions, both of which are a huge part of the Christmas season in our house. If you have read my bio, you already know that I love Christmas trees. I have a number of artificial trees, my goal is to have 1 in every room of our home. It sounds crazy, but I guarantee you it is magical! I LOVE white lights and greenery.

My love of Christmas trees is the inspiration for the name of my blog. I LOVE how warm and cozy my house feels with all the white lights and decorated trees. We store all the trees in the attic (still set up) during their “off season.” Not too long ago the cable man had to look at something in the attic and commented “wow you guys have a forest up here!” So, Housing a Forest was born.

I have had the artificial trees up for a number of weeks, but we just put up the live family tree. There is something special about a real tree. I would love to have all my Christmas trees real, but that is just not practical. The family tree is nestled in a corner of our dining room, and is the center of many special traditions. This is the tree that is the home to all the special family ornaments; the tree that we will be sleeping under as a family in a few short weeks; the tree that we makes my house smell wonderful; the tree that we will be placing all the gifts under and the tree that will be the backdrop to all Christmas morning present opening photos.

Ornaments are one of the special traditions in our house. Each year the kids receive an ornament in their stocking and I make sure to write their name and year received on each one. The kids love sorting through their ornaments and finding a special spot of the tree for each one. We also have a collection of family ornaments. These are gathered on family trips as a memory of the vacation. It is fun looking back through the ornaments and remembering all the places that we visited together. The year is written on each of these ornaments as well.

I love how many traditions are centered around this tree. It makes me smile each time I walk past it! I enjoy each of the ornaments, and how they each have a special meaning. Even with all the beautiful trees in our home, this one is still my favorite. I love how many special memories it holds.

Diplomatic Decision

We love encouraging our kiddos to be involved in family decisions. I think that it is important to teach them that they have a voice and encourage them to use it. With that said. Every year I have this ~~goal~~ challenge not to turn our heat on until November 1st. We live in the Mid West and often that goal is long after when the weather has turned cold. We spend evenings bundled under blankets and during the day wearing “millions” of layers to stay warm. Yes, sounds terrible right, well I love a challenge and really enjoy striving to meet goals. As for my family, well they sometimes question my sanity. They are pretty easy going and often can be talked into my crazy schemes.

This year we got lucky, the weather was pretty mild through mid October. Oct 21st (I know that was a while ago, but I am playing catch-up remember) we spent a weekend at the north shore enjoying hiking and playing with good friends. The cabin that we stayed at was wonderful and had a cozy fireplace in every nook and cranny. I don’t think that there could be anything better for a girl that is heat deprived than the cozy warmth of a wood fire burning stove! Love it!

Well, I think that we all got a little too cozy and “soft” during our weekend away. The moment we got home, there was a noticeable chill in the air. We were all wishing to be snuggled up next to a roaring fire. Chuck took this to be a great time to teach the kids a little social studies lesson about voting. After a quick explanation about how the United States voting system works, we set up our own voting pole. In order to vote you had to give both a positive and a negative argument for turning the heat on. It was cute to listen to the kids reasoning. Once the “debate” was finished, we were all armed with a secret ballet that simply stated…

The kids LOVED having a voice. Once the all ballets were turned in, it was quickly discovered that there was no reason for a recount. Four votes for turning the heat on and one vote for waiting a bit longer (guess who that was).

Not long after the vote, our house was all cozy warm. Nothing like turning a freezing moment into a teaching moment.

Wii Birthday Party

My sweet boy is 9! Birthdays are a BIG deal in our house. I love to make the kids feel special by transforming our home into a magical space, baking the perfect cake and spending countless hours creating a fun party. However, my caring 9 year old informed me that I did not need to go to a lot of work this year. He would be OK with just a few small decorations and just playing Wii with his friends. Really has this day come already…I don’t need to spend hours creating and playing (something that I LOVE doing) getting ready for the party? Kaleb is so sweet and thoughtful, although I am slightly morning the fact that he is growing up. I love him to pieces, and I pray that he will always be caring, sensitive of other peoples needs!

My Dad and Kaleb share the same birth date of Sept 27th. They like to tease that they are twins. It was super special that my parents were able to drive 21 hours just for Kaleb’s party! Kaleb was so thankful to have them there. I know that they wish they could visit more often, but we cherish the moments that we can steal together. Thanks for making his party extra special.

As per Kaleb’s request, the party decor was very minimal. I made a number of Wii Mii’s and placed them around the house. They looked super cute, and they did not cost me anything! Love that!

I also found a great post somewhere about making Boo Balloons , but I can’t remember where it was so I can link back. Bummer. Kaleb LOVED the balloons.

My mom made Kaleb’s Wii remote birthday cakes. She also made a couple of personal sized Wii Remotes. The cakes looked great and Kaleb thought they were perfect!

Kaleb invited 16 friends. Since all he wanted to do was play Wii and eat cake with his friends, it was a really simple party. Our house does not play video games very often so I didn’t mind dedicating 2 hours to straight video game play.

We set up a projector and 3 large TV’s all connected to different Wii’s (which we borrowed from friends). This allowed all the kids to have a spot to play and they rotated between the games throughout the party. We even had one of the TV’s set up in the kitchen to make enough room for all the friends to play. The party was a big hit with all the kids! Happy 9th Birthday Kaleb, we love you!