Minecraft 7th Birthday Party Mod.

While preparing for my boys' 8th birthday party coming up in less than two weeks, I started reminiscing about their past parties, and I realized that I posted the details on their Star Wars themed 6th Birthday Party, but I never posted about their Minecraft 7th Birthday Party Mod.

First, I made some invitations in photoshop:

Then I made a list of Minecraft themed snacks which I laid out on a snack table covered in a fake-grass tablecloth (Party City) and decorated with paper figurines from the animal mod (Target).

Thing 2 and the party snacks!

The cake was super easy to make with homemade marshmallow fondant

Blue jello jigglers. These went FAST! I should have made 3x as much!

Twizzlers wrapped with brown fondant

Then I came up with an Agenda:

2:00-2:15 - Make your own Minecraft skin

Just like in the game, each child made their own individual 8-bit character

Supplies: Cardboard w/ tongue depressors, color cardboard squares, glue, scissors

2:15-2:45 Pin the tail on the pig
I made the Pin the tail on the pig poster in photoshop and then because I work at a university, I printed it off at the university library for $4. But Kinkos also prints posters like these for pretty inexpensive.

Supplies: Printed pig poster, pink/red construction paper pig tails with 2-sided tape, Creeper cardboard head with covered eye holes.

2:45-3:15 Scavenger Hunt

I made sure to talk with my surrounding neighbors first, to get their permission to use their lawns as the different "Layers" that the ores would be hidden in. Then right before the party, I went and hid brown paper sacks with the ores and the clues. On each paper sack I had a picture of them ore inside, and a poem with a clue to the next one. I went in order of the ores by layer (Coal>Iron>Gold>Redstone>Lapiz Lazuli>Emerald>Diamond>Nether Quartz).

Supplies: ores (I used "pirate gems" I found on amazon and rocks painted black for "coal" and gold), a "map" of the layers (my neighbor's houses), brown paper bags with clues on them (forgot to take a picture!), and brown paper bags for each kid to gather their ores.

3:15-3:30 Kill the Creeper

Creeper pinatas are easy to make...you just cover a brown cardboard box with crepe paper! Much easier than having to paper maiche an object!

Supplies: Creeper pinata filled with candy, bat/stick, Steve cardboard head with eyes covered

3:30-3:45 Cake time!

Birthday boys!

3:45-4:00 Presents!

The boys were very excited about their torches from Grandma

6th Birthday planning

Thank you Pinterest.com for making planning for my sons' 6th birthday so fun and easy!

Thing 1 and Thing 2 have fallen in love, big time!, with Star Wars. So, it is fitting that for this year's party, we are doing a Jedi Training Academy for the boys' 6th birthday.

First, I made some invitations in photoshop:

Then, I came up with an agenda:

Padawan robes and light sabers

Agenda (3 pm - 5 pm)

3:00   Recruit Intake

As recruits arrive, they will draw pictures of their home planets and paste them on the map of the galaxy. Then they will receive their padawan robes to officially become Jedis in training. (Supplies: poster board, colored paper, crayons, scissors, tape, brown jedi robes, and yarn)

Recruit arrival

Issuing uniforms and light sabers

Our galaxy

The recruits

3:15   Light Saber Training

All Padawans will be given light sabers and will have to practice their skills by keeping a balloon afloat in the air. (Supplies: pool noodle light sabers, balloons)

3:30   Jedi Training Course

All Padawans will complete an obstacle course. Crawl under broken down spaceship,  jump over lava pit, run through storm troopers, and climb through trash chute. (Supplies: jeep top on picnic table, red plastic tablecloth, white helium balloons w/ storm trooper faces drawn on, giant cardboard box full of crumpled up newspaper and packing stuff.)

Crawl under broken down space ship

Cross lava pit

Jump over fire pit

Dodge storm troopers

3:45  Message from Princess Leia

Princess Leia needs your help! She has been captured by The Emperor and Darth Vader and only you can rescue her. All Padawans will work together to pop open the balloons hidden in a box until they find the Princess Leia hidden inside. (Supplies: balloons and letters spelling Princess Leia)

"Help me Padawans, you're my only hope!"

Bust open balloons with lightsabers to find the letters...

(Lost the "N" somewhere)

Rescued!

4:00 Destroy the Death Star

Padawans will take turns hitting the Death Star pinata until it explodes. (Supplies: pinata filled with candy, bandanas, broomstick light sabers)

Death Star Pinata

4:15  Refueling Station

Padawans will refuel on R2D2 cake and Yoda juice. (Supplies: cake, plates, forks, napkins, cups, green punch, bottles of water, pretzels, carrot sticks)

100% edible R2D2 cake (6 layers!)

4:30  Defeat Darth Vader

When Darth Vader crashes the party, only the Padawans can destroy him. (Supplies: Darth Vader helmet, all black clothes, black cape, and black gloves)

4:45   Jedi Certificates

All Padawans have completed their training and are officially promoted to Jedis by Princess Leia in this ceremony.

Orange Rhino Challenge, 2 Week Update

Two weeks ago, I committed to trying the Rhino Challenge.

Believe it or not, things have actually been going pretty well.

I've been able to stay in the 0-3 range 90% of the time, with the occasional "oopsie" snap. I think I've had one or two that might be considered the nasty snap, but I was able to calm myself down and redirect before reaching the yell. (Explanation of yells types here)

For me, just decided that "it is not okay" to yell and then vowing to report if I do, seems to be pretty effective. Committing to keep accountable by writing it up in my blog adds that layer of being watched (even if only virtually and only by the 2 or 3 people that actually read this thing), and I would never yell around most people because of the "they would think I was a horrible mom" complex.

40 Before 40 Update

I restarted the Couch to 5K (C25K) program on February 13, 2013. I've been doing the program
faithfully 3x a week since then.

Happy Birthday to me!

I decided that instead of waiting until I was already able to run a 5K to sign up for one, that I would go ahead and sign up for one ahead of time. So I found a Color Run in Indy in July. I figured that gave me PLENTY of time to train to run (okay really jog...who am I kidding) a 5K non-stop (goal 7).

But then I thought that also gives me PLENTY of time to procrastinate my training. So I decided to sign up for another 5K, even earlier, to give me a more immediate goal to work towards.

I chose the Hoosier Half-Marathon & 5K on April 6th.

Thursday was my 34th birthday. And while I'm not quite ready to jog the 5K without walking, I am excited that this is the first time that I've entered a 5K as a runner instead of a walker, and I fully intend to run more than half of it. And that is a start!

Superman is doing the half-marathon. Show off!



Update: I did it y'all! I finished in 44:33. I am not crossing it off of my 40 B4 40 list yet, because I didn't do it non-stop, and that is the goal, but I felt really good about what I did considering my training time so far. I'm looking forward to running even more of the next 5K!

Superman got a personal best for his half: 1:40:55.

Orange Rhino Challenge: Day 1

Have you heard of the Orange Rhino challenge?

Basically, a mom of four boys felt guilty that she yelled at her kids so often. So she decided to challenge herself to no yelling for 365 days.

As part of the challenge, she first defines what yelling is and then tracks her yelling for a week (looking for her triggers).

Superman doesn't think I yell too much. But I'm uncomfortable with the amount of yelling I do. And really, her blogpost about 10 Things I Learned When I Stopped Yelling at My Kids really hit home with me...(I cried while reading it). Especially 5. Yelling doesn't work. Because as good as it can feel to let all of my frustration out in that moment, it rarely actually works, usually makes the situation worse (i.e. kid collapses into crying fit on the ground), and/or just makes me more mad and/or guilty feeling.

So I am taking the challenge.

I started yesterday, Wednesday March 27, 2013.

I didn't yell all day.

Since starting the challenge almost 24 hours ago, I have twice stopped myself from yelling.

The first time was during dinner last night. Neither of my boys like sitting at the dinner table. They like to stand up. And bounce around. And dance pirouettes. And constantly run to the bathroom.

Usually I'll ask them to "please sit down" an average of three times before I start yelling. Last night I was able to mostly keep them in their seats by using the veiled threat of "You know, the first thing you have to do in a karate class is learn to listen to your teacher. Because you can't learn karate if you aren't a good self-manager and do what the teacher asks you to do when they ask you to do it." (They really want to take karate lessons.) It mostly worked.

Then, this morning was going really well until Thing 1 spilled his cup of orange juice all over the coffee table. The spill itself isn't what bothered me. Spills happen. It was that he didn't clean up the spill. He let it sit there as I asked him over and over again to get a towel and clean it up (while I was making my own breakfast and packing my lunch in the kitchen). Finally the alarm went off to get jackets and backpacks on for the bus, so I ended up toweling up the spill while telling him how disappointed I was that he didn't take responsibility and clean up his own spill. He wasn't phased by this at all.

I was proud of myself that I didn't yell "THIS IS RIDICULOUS! YOU HAVE SAT ON THAT COUCH FOR 5 MINUTES LOOKING AT THAT SPILLED JUICE! GO GET A TOWEL AND CLEAN IT UP NOW!!!" But I'm not proud that in the end he still didn't clean up his spill or have any degree of responsibility for his action.

This is really what I see to be my biggest obstacle to overcome. I yell because my kids don't listen. I yell because I get frustrated and angry when I feel like they ignore me. But HOW do I get them to listen?? While I'm trying to stop yelling, I really need to find ways to get them to be better listeners.

Because really, it is not that hard to clean up a little spilled juice. I really don't feel like I'm asking too much of my 5 year old to clean it up himself.