Skip to main content

Happy Birthday, Daddy! (2013)


I really wanted to do a big shebang for my husband's birthday this year. 35 just seems like a big important number somehow -- or maybe it's just that I still can hardly believe I'll be there myself in just a few years. At any rate, with his dearest friends spread far and wide, and myself rather enormous and exhausted with child, I knew a big party would be next to impossible. Instead, I stole this idea from the Dating Divas and planned a balloon-themed birthday celebration.

Several weeks ago, I mailed a letter and a balloon to about 30 of Isaac's friends (the plan, of course, was to get 35 balloons, but I never even got that many sent out, so the fact that I ended up with nearly 25 seemed pretty good to me!). They each blew up the balloon, wrote a note on it in Sharpie, let the air out, and sent it back to me. I collected them in a jar, and when we celebrated, Isaac got to blow them all back up and read the messages.

It was an inflatable-guitar-playing day for Levi.

It was more fun (and less time-consuming) than asking for letters and making a scrapbook, and the kids of course had a blast with 25 balloons to play with all evening. In all honesty, I'm not sure I've ever seen them so wound up!



Total Owen photo-bomb. 
And, not surprisingly, not the only message Isaac got in Hebrew.

Silas was more interested in reading books, as usual.

But Owen was absolutely crazy all night long.

The balloon message in the top picture is on construction paper taped to chocolate-covered pretzels. The plan was to have the boys do the pretzel-dipping, but due to a sudden, severe obedience issue, I ended up making them myself. I thought about doing root beer floats as well, to keep with the "floating" sort of theme, but Isaac had requested a skillet cookie cake and adding anything else seemed like overkill. And with the boys so unbelievably wild, we skipped candles and singing altogether and had the cookie with ice cream after they went to bed! 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Naaman

This week's Bible story was that of Naaman the leper, from 2 Kings 5 . Short version: the prophet Elisha tells Naaman to wash in the Jordan River seven times, and after a bit of moaning and groaning, he does and is healed. I modified this craft , which I found through our preschool curriculum .  We didn't have any blue plastic cups, so first we painted styrofoam cups. Owen had no interest in painting, and as he was playing happily by himself, I saw no reason to make him participate. Painting the outside of cups is actually really easy. Just stick your non-dominant hand inside the cup! I googled "man outline" and searched until I found a workable face, then printed it twice. Levi had the rare treat of using a marker to put red dots ("leprosy") all over the face.  Painstakingly drawing leprous sores on Naaman's ear.  Then I taped Naaman's face (one clean side, one spotted side) to a popsicle stick (which I just now realized y...

Homeschool Curriculum 2025-2026

Given the ages of my children, I will only have two years when I am actively homeschooling all six kids, and this is the first. I have more spreadsheets going than ever before, four student paper planners, one kid using Google Classroom for assignments again, and a giant schedule on butcher paper so that everyone knows whose turn it is in the living room (for instrument practice) or on the laptop. BRING IT ON. Pretty sure we've only gotten all six kids awake for family devotions once in 8 days of school. LEVI: 11th grade Math: linear algebra and multivariable calculus through PSEO at University of Minnesota (online) History: AP world history at Sartell High School, second semester Science: AP physics C (one each semester) online English: World Literature: LLATL gold , Advancing Through Grammar Language: self-study German, with plans to take the AP German test next year Bible: Dust to Glory (Ligonier online) New Testament Extracurricular: piano first semester, wind ensemble at Sarte...

Vanilla and Snowflakes

You may remember from my Goin' Crunchy 2011 post that I started a batch of homemade vanilla back in May. It's all ready for use now, just in time for Christmas gifts!  I bought these little bottles  and a pack of winter-themed address labels on clearance at Target, dug through my craft boxes to find some old ribbon, and ended up with this: (You can't see it, but there is coordinating ribbon around the sugar jar, too.) As you can see, after I was done using my vanilla beans for extract, I cut them up into 2-inch pieces and covered them with white sugar in baby food jars: after about a week, the sugar is delightfully vanilla-flavored!  I haven't used it yet, but hear it's great for sprinkling on baked goods or oatmeal, or stirring into coffee or tea.  Packaged together in a little gift bag, they're making a nice small (and frugal!) gift for . . . those people who need nice, small, frugal gifts.  :)   In other news, I picked up a $1 sheet of snowfla...