Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (/title/tt0814255/) (2010) User Rating: 6.0 Based on the (2005) novel: "The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan (/name/nm2292894/)
The Happy Birthday Boy-This is the face of the newest/happiest 7 year old! He had a great day (I know cause he told me) and is so happy to be 7 years old. Jense had a great time playing his airbender games. This game involved the fire lord (bad guys- "bag eyes") and an air compressor. The fire lords were defeated...even though we could use some more serious psi on our air compressor. Jensen was handing out his "air bender" treats and delivered one to his sister first because he knew which one she had her eye one. He is such a sweet brother. When one of the other girls wanted the color he already gave his sister, he said... "well, Ellie has wanted that one all day, can you have this one? (showing her) it is kinda purple." Sometimes he has such genuine concern for her. I have been giving him a lot of pep talks about protecting his sister at school, and making sure people are nice to her... I think it is starting to pay off. As part of his airbending task... he air launched the candy bags to all of the guests. The candy was in a brown paper bag taped up which was supposed to represent a rock... and therefore....earth bending? yeah, it's a stretch- but he loved it. The staff is going to come in handy in a few months when he is Aang for Halloween. Miss Mia loved the spaghetti... didn't touch the cake and ice cream. Who's kid is she? Avatar Jensen opened an embarrassing amount of gifts... I was rushing him at the end. He has plenty of Nerf guns and amo for quite some time... and a bunch of avatar paraphernalia. This card was from his grandma Conway who always draws a card on their birthdays. I don't know when the tradition started, but I have a family picture at every birthday party... well kid birthday party, to date. Today was not my finest hour, but I opted for finishing the cake and not getting ready. Not that this post is about me... just sayin. Jense chose to wear a shirt aunt Nat brought him back from Hawaii. He informed me, "mom, this shirt is big enough to get around my owie elbow." He crashed on his bike two days ago and his elbow got worked over. He (and the rest of us) have been babying his "owie elbow." Mia was asleep for most of the party, but mean old mommy didn't want her to miss out on all of it. This is the look you get (hair and expression) when you pull a two year old from her sleeping bliss. Birthday party goer Sam was an angel all day, and let his mommy get everything ready. Sam loves Jense, and does the crazy flap when he talks to him. We need to get the flapping on film because he really goes to town. Ellie trying her hand at fire bending. Some used a fireball, but Ellie opted for the fire stick. The other game not pictured was earth bending. The kids tried to throw paper rocks into targets. Ellie helped make the air bender treats. These were suppose to be prizes for those who completed all of the element tasks, but structured games kind of turned into well... not so structured. The cake that took me entirely too long to make. It was all worth it because Jense was thrilled with his cake! He kept saying the sweetest things and wanted everyone to see his cake when they first walked in. He was so proud of his cake and was very involved too. He picked the layers with water on the bottom, air next, then fire, then earth. The chocolate rocks taste like crunch bars... yum. Luckily there were only 4 elements, or his cake would have not been finished in time. Little Bee... I have a bunch of pic's of kids who came to the party, but this one is my favorite. Bee and Sammers are two weeks apart and she is probably a good foot taller than him- not really, but really. Jense, we sure love you!! Happy Happy birthday to you! I can't believe you are 7 today...where did my little man go? I am so proud of you and love being your mommy. Here are a few thoughts from your dad on your birthday: Jensen is the most prepared little boy you could imagine, he's going to be a great boyscout. Tomorrow is the first day of school and before he went to bed he set out his clothes. Not only are they set out, but he laid them over a chair as if they were on a body, each sock in the shoe it would fill come morning. Last year he was always ready super early, waiting by the door to head to Kindergarten. He is so prepared that he has most everything planned out in advance. For example, this summer the kids and daddy have been doing daily bike rides. I have been very serious about letting Jensen know about how dangerous the cars can be to a biker. This must have been on his mind when he said to me one day as we were riding, "Dad, if you die, how should I get home?" There must be a protocol for that right!? He is a riot. Bike stunts. I showed him this guy on youtube doing some pretty awesome stunts on his bike. He was impressed and asked if I wanted him to do those tricks. I told him heck ya. So he spent the entire day practicing stunts. He drug me out of the house later to show me how he could "pop a wheelie" over a chunk of concrete. Jensen loves his bike, and he is constantly using tools to put on and remove the bike trailer, seat and different bike accessories that he swaps between his two bikes, and sometimes his sisters bike. This week he crashed and got some pretty bad road rash. He told me that it was the second worse thing he had done. His little knees and elbow were raw and swollen, but he was brave and little body parts are healing.
Chewbacca Chewbacca
My little sister Sam turned 10 in June. A few weeks prior to her birthday she started dropping hints that perhaps I should be planning out her soiree for her, but, unfortunately for her, Kurt and I were finally going to get around to taking a honeymoon on her actual birthday. In a completely un-10-year-old-y move, she decided to postpone her birthday party until I returned. But, lest you think this was because she enjoys my company, it was actually because she knows I throw the most legit-est of all the kid parties. If you find yourself conversing with 10 year olds, then you may have heard of the Warriors book series. In short: it's a book series about gangs clans of wild cats who live in the forest and do cat stuff. I took it upon myself to do some scientific Google research so I could make the party as true to the books as possible without actually having to read them. One thing I found while trying to find parties that other people did (which was very slim pick-ins) was that grown-ups must not have really researched the books and often tried to go with a jungle cat theme. These books are about normal cats that happen to be wild, not leopards. Don't let your little humans down like this, big humans! Cat Ears Sam and I decided everyone would be assigned a cat-sona (see what I did there?) upon arrival. Sam went so far as to make me a list of cat names from the books and their colors so I could be sure to make the right amount of properly colored ears. I even made pairs for Kurt and me. I like to be in character. Hi I'm Sisterpaw. You'll need: headband multi-packs (I found them at Michael's but also check the dollar store) cat colored felt (no leopard or tiger!) pen scissors hot glue and gun Pick a cat ear shape and draw it out on a piece of paper for a pattern. Also make a pattern for the inner-ear shape Trace the outer-ear pattern onto the felt, doubling it over, making sure to leave a little strip between each side of the ear so it can wrap around the headband. Repeat step 2 for the inner ear parts, but don't worry about doubling anything up. The inner ear will only show on the front. Hot glue those bad boys together. Don't stress about how legit the cat ears look. Remember that they're for little kids and will probably be thrown away at the end of the day. Buy them in bulk online if you're craft-icapped. 'Become a Warrior' Station Using the list Sam gave me of all the names of the warrior cats, I made name tags using clear plastic pop-out tags from Michael's. The things were miserable and I broke at least half a pack trying to get them apart to put the names in. I arranged the name tags in square faux grass patches that I got on clearance from Michael's. Sam wrote the warrior names on the inside of the cat ears to ensure that once a name was drawn from the warrior station that everyone had the proper color ears. Gotta love a kid who pays attention to details. Offerings Gifts, duh. 'For the Journey' Gift Bags Sam compiled (in all honesty) some random crap for the gift bags. I think there was a wooden puzzle, a bobble head cat, and some Swedish Fish in it. The good news is that several kids forgot their goody bags and I was able to go in and poach the candy from them. Nom. Moonpool My sister is fortunate enough to live with my parents, who are fortunate enough to have a pool. They also live in the woods so it fit the theme quite well. In the book the cats assemble at a place called the Moonpool so I put my sister's good fortune to use by making the pool into the Moonpool. Kurt and my dad rented a helium machine (which was a waste of money--don't do that) and blew up enough balloons to arch over the pool. They really struggled with this, only to see most of them deflate shortly after (sorry guys!). So if you have the means and really want to do this, I'd suggest hiring a balloon person to do it for you. Fresh Kill Table "Fresh Kill" is straight from the books and just means "food." The sign was from Party City and was actually for a tiki-themed party. I removed the paper backing that had parrots on it and made my own sign with contrasting forest-y looking papers. I made the letters by cutting out bone shapes. The mini tiki torches were also from Party City and were about $7 each I believe, but I found them later at Wal-Mart for much cheaper, so go there first. The backdrop was cheap plastic table clothes cut length-wise and attached to the ceiling light fixture above the table. Strawberry Mice You'll need: a knife black or red (I used red) string licorice (like the Pull-n-Peel kind) strawberries mini marshmallows almond slivers black cake decorating icing (I used the gel kind and it worked well) Cut the stems out of the strawberries. Shove a mini marshmallow in each strawberry's "butt." Cut small sections of the string licorice. Stick a licorice piece into each marshmallow "butt." Stick two almond slivers in the strawberry for ears. Draw two dots for eyes and one for a nose on the pointy end of the strawberry. Bird Nests You'll need: mini chocolate donuts a baking sheet shredded coconut speckled jelly beans Toast the shredded coconut by spreading it on a baking sheet and baking it at 375 degrees for five minutes. Roll the chocolate donuts in the toasted coconut. Don't worry if this looks messy. Bird nests are messy. Top with speckled jelly beans. Bones You'll need: short, skinny pretzel rods mini marshmallows white melting chocolate a cookie sheet wax paper Stick a mini marshmallow on each end of the skinny pretzel rods so they look like dumb bells. Melt the white chocolate according to package instructions. Dip the 'dumb bells' in the white chocolate and let dry on a wax paper covered baking sheet. Moonpool Jell-O I got the idea for a Jell-O fishbowl (in this case it would be a pond) from Pinterest and let my step mom handle it. She didn't follow the instructions which called for flat sprite and food color to make a light, see-through blue, which was initially disappointing because the fish more or less disappeared in the dark blue Jell-O, but I actually think it lent itself more to the natural body-of-water feel because generally those aren't see-through like a fishbowl anyway. Plus when the Jell-O was served the fish became visible so it was like, "Hey, surprise! There's more sugar in your sugar!" You'll need: a big bowl swedish fish blue Jell-O Make the Jell-O in the big bowl according to package instructions. When set, but not fully hardened, start shoving in random Swedish Fish. Finish with a few popping out of the top. Clan Cookies These were sort of a disaster. My original plan was to roll sugar cookie dough onto a baking sheet, cut out the clan shape, and then draw the clan symbols onto the cookies with cake decorating icing. This did not work out for me. My alternate plan was to just draw the clan shapes and symbols onto round cookies, but this proved to be rather tedious as well. Cookie decorating, as it turns out, is not my strong suit. After decorating one cookie for each clan I lost interest and just stuck one on each pile of cookies. Only the first kid to get to the table appreciated my effort, but I got a picture first, so oh well. Moonpool Bottled Water Just some copying and pasting in Word, printing, and taping. The Cake Sam wanted an ice cream cake which meant any decorating I wanted to do to it would have to be done quickly. I used chocolate chips to render her favorite clan (Thunderclan) in the center and then popped some of the other, already-made decorative foods on there. I thought it looked pretty rough but her and the other kids were ridiculously excited about it, so I guess it passed? Games Pick Your Prey This game was basically an Easter Egg hunt, but cat themed. Sam had a few large bags of stuffed animals that were en route to be donated so we combed through them in search of animals that a cat might eat (mice, birds, etc) and my dad hid them throughout the yard. The kid who found the most "prey" won. Pass The Prey Hot potato, but with a stuffed mouse. I played music from my iPhone and randomly stopped it. Whoever had the mouse was out. This was a good idea in theory but I didn't think to make a playlist ahead of time and just let my iTunes randomly shuffle. I'm 27, I don't have kids, and I went through a serious unedited rap music phase so I promise you this was not a good idea. The Hunt This one's slightly more confusing...but basically it's a complicated version of Tag. I separated the kids into three groups: cats, birds, and mice. Mice received 10 rubber bands to wear around their wrists, birds received five, cats got none. The rules were explained that cats were allowed to tag everyone, birds were allowed to tag only mice, and mice weren't allowed to tag anyone. Mice got a running head start, followed by birds, and then cats. If someone was tagged, that person was to relinquish one of her rubber bands and then had 10 Mississippi-seconds to run away without being re-tagged. The kid with the most rubber bands after 10 minutes was the winner. I'd never seen this game played before so I wasn't sure how it would work out...but in general the "cats" ran around and tagged everyone pretty quickly and no one else had a chance. In a surprising turn of events, however, one "mouse" hid in a bush the whole time and re-appeared after 10 minutes with all 10 rubber bands still in tact and won.
Take a look at the coolest homemade Pirate cakes. You’ll also find loads of homemade cake ideas and DIY birthday cake inspiration.
You will laugh.
Hi CC!! I hoping...
Apologies for missing last week’s post, I was on the couch sick! Luckily, this post is 2-in-1, so it almost makes up for it, right?! For a close friend’s 30th birthday last year, we did a Gre…
We need one of these in every town.
Bottom tier is lemon cake filled with lemon BC, top tier is chocolate cake filled with chocolate BC
Lara Logan was once a respected "60 Minutes" correspondent. Now she trades in conspiracy theories that even far-right media disavow. What happened?
Draw your own Lego minifigures is a quick and easy Lego game that's perfect for party games for kids, play group, boredom buster, or just for fun. To play, simply print out the 'Create Your Own' Lego minifigures from the Home Grown Learner's blog and grab some crayons!I made this 'draw your own Lego minifigures' game for my sons 8th birthday as he wanted The Lego Movie themed party. It's super easy to make and even more fun to play!
Magical magic show party with "magic wand" chocolate covered pretzel rods, personalized magic capes serving as "chair covers" & more ideas!
You say Rice Krispie, I say Rice Crispy. Same difference. Either way, they’re halal, delicious in all of their zero-nutritional-value glory, and I can never have just one two three four....
Get ready for some cuteness overload via this unique In The Night Garden themed party styled beautifully by Events By Nat. Here's what Nat shared about planning this party; I had the absolute pleasure of styling this dessert table for a gorgeous 1 year old Balan. I've never watched a single episode of this show however, I was lucky enough to discover a set of mini books my daughter had from when she was 1. These mini
A birthday picnic with a towering donut cake.
My first-born son Cole just turned 5 a few days ago, and today he went to school for his first day in kindergarten. It’s a special time for him, to reach half a decade and to make the transition from preschooler to school-aged kid. So to celebrate these milestones we decided to throw him his own party, instead ... Read more
For Téa’s birthday this year we went with the theme of her favorite TV show, “In the Night Garden”. She adores these characters, knows each of their signature dances by hea…
I was playing with my food again. I took Cookies ‘n Crème Fudge (which is super delish, by the way) and made it into some pretty con...
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Utterly charming cakes from nerd nuptials. Much more fun than all of that William and Kate, Royal Wedding stuffiness.
A fashion look from March 2013 featuring blue top, Urban Decay and Kevyn Aucoin. Browse and shop related looks.
A EWEHOOO! CUSTOMER FEATURE— I just love hearing from my customers about their super fun birthday parties. So much creativity! Maddie, one of my Mad Science Birthday customers, recently turned six and her mom, Luci, threw her an explosive party— that didn't break the bank! Luci ordered my one-sided Mad Science Party Invite and jazzed it up with some sparkly card stock! Everyone loved the "Dr. Who?" Game. Luci decked out the party table with polka dots and bright colored plasticware from the KALAS Collection at IKEA. You can get a whole set of this fun plasticware for about the same price as you'd spend on paper products. Maybe even cheaper! And it's reusable. Very green idea Luci! Luci found this adorable Mad Science fabric at Spoonflower.com. Love what she did with the chairs! Homemade Mad Science Cake. Yum! These adorable Lab Coats were custom made by her friend. You can get your own at Inventive Threads. Luci had the great idea to give each Mad Science party guest an experiment book to take home, so she asked me to design one for her. This custom printable Mad Science Experiment Book is now available at my shop! Where to get your Mad Science Materials: Petri Dishes: Amazon.com Test Tubes: Steve Spangler Science (empty water bottles work too!) Colorful Safety Goggles: Amazon.com Mad Science Party Collection Printable Labels: My Shop Mad Science Party Collection Printable Experiment Book: My Shop Click here to see the whole Mad Science Printable Collection! Looks to me like the girls had some explosive fun! Thanks Luci for sharing Maddie's party! I'm linking up with these fun blogs today seven thirty three, great fun 4 kids, a creative princess, and Kate's nesting spot,
Jeanette Loff Jean Arthur Jacqueline Logan Faith Bacon Naomi Johnson Marion Davies Marion Benda ...
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My son is an avid fan of the board game Axis and Allies, and is fascinated by World War II ships, air craft carriers and planes. Fortunately, he told me he wanted this theme for his birthday party several months in advance, because it gave me time to come up with a few ideas. World War II is not generally looked at as party material, and is a theme that should obviously be taken on carefully and with sensitivity. Because my son loves the planes and air craft carriers, I tried to focus the activities on that. World War II party ideas, are often aimed at war veterans and older crowds, so I ordered the book “World War II for Kids,” which had a few ideas that I adapted (it also made a great gift for my son), and I came up with several ideas on my own. A few of the sites you can find “World War II for Kids” are below: · http://www.amazon.com/World-War-II-Kids-Activities/dp/1556524552 · http://ebookee.org/World-War-II-for-Kids-A-History-with-21-Activities_218780.html · http://www.panchyk.com/ Invitations: The invitation is a modified draft letter. I started to make it as authentic as possible, but lightened it up and trimmed it down after reading the last few paragraphs of an actual draft letter, which summarizes how soon-to-be soldiers should take care of their personal affairs, get a will, etc. in case they die in battle. There was also the fact that using the actual seal of the U.S. would be illegal. The final product is something more colorful and fun than an actual draft letter, but still has some of the World War II flavor. It can be easily edited for your party needs. Decorations: · Balloons and/or crepe paper in red, white, and blue (many of the Axis and Allies had these colors, not just the USA) or camouflage. · Flags from the Axis and Allies countries - http://www.flagco.com/ is a pretty good site for historical flags. It also has a variety of sizes, including toothpick flags, which are fun for cakes/cupcakes. · World War II posters – you can buy actual posters or get Public Domain pictures from the Internet and print them. Be advised that some of the propaganda posters are not very PC, so you will want to consider your audience (Some propaganda posters have racial slurs and negative racial/gender stereotypes). However, there are plenty of posters that are patriotic, upbeat and even humorous. I was able to find enough that were kid appropriate that I peppered our walls with them for the party. Some sites where you can order posters are: · http://www.art.com/gallery/id--b175844/world-war-ii-propaganda-posters.htm · http://www.allposters.com/-st/World-War-II-Propaganda-Vintage-Art-Posters_c50710_.htm Party favors: · Axis and Allies miniatures · http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=ah/aa/welcome · http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=ah/aam/waratsea · http://www.amazon.com/Avalon-Hill-HAS25066-Axis-Allies/dp/B0026J3PO6 · http://www.popularcollections.com/axalmi.html?gclid=CI_p_JbriLECFQHDtgod32ticg · World War II plastic soldiers – (Hobby Lobby sometimes carries them in store for a reasonable price, but does not always carry them online) · http://www.amazon.com/WWII-Germany-Plastic-Soldier-Bucket/dp/B0063IYEFU · http://shop.toyssale.com/plastic+soldiers · Dog tags · http://www.orientaltrading.com/api/search?Ntt=dog+tags · http://www.partycity.com/product/camouflage+dog+tags+12ct.do · http://www.ezpartyzone.com/pd-camouflage-army-party-dog-tag-party-favors.cfm · World War II posters sticker book by Dover · http://www.booksamillion.com/p/World-War-II-Posters/Anna-Samuel/9780486415666 · http://www.amazon.com/World-War-II-Posters-Stickers/dp/048641566X · Parachute men (variety of styles - usually available at party stores and the toy section of stores like Walmart and Target) · http://www.tintoyarcade.com/products/Giant-Parachute-Jumping-Man-Classic.html?gclid=COqM1ajuiLECFWyHtgodvkPELQ · http://www.amazon.com/Plastic-Jumbo-Paratroopers-ParachuteMen/dp/B004W7GW2M · World War II gliders (these were a huge hit with my son and his friends) · http://www.orientaltrading.com/wwii-gliders-a2-5_9-12-1.fltr?Ntt=airplan+gliders · http://www.amazon.com/ASSORTED-GLIDERS-different-planes-total/dp/B001D99IUA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1341667735&sr=8-1&keywords=World+War+II+gliders The Cake: Make a basic white cake – any shape is fine. After pouring the batter into the pan, put a few drops of red and blue food coloring on the batter. Use a butter knife to swirl the food coloring into the batter. Do not mix the food coloring in completely. The less you mix it in, the brighter the color will be, and the swirls will be more distinct. Also, mixing the two colors together will turn the batter purple J. Another option is to use a chocolate cake, because it works well as the “dirt” under the army figurines. Put one or more small cakes or cupcakes (upside down) on the top of the main cake for the hills in your army landscape. The “dirt” is chocolate frosting with Oreo cookie crumbs sprinkled on top. Coconut dyed with green food coloring works well for grass; however, if your birthday boy or girl hates coconut (like mine did), you can use green sprinkles or green frosting instead. Decorate the top of the cake with toothpick flags (purchased or made by printing small pictures of flags and cutting them out), plastic army men, tanks, etc. Games/Activities: Military Ranks There are many internet sites that have information about WWII military ranks, and you can choose to keep the game relatively simple, or, depending on the age of the party-goers and the branch(es) of the military you want to focus on, you can make the game more challenging. Because my son wanted his party to be themed around ‘Axis and Allies-War at Sea,” we chose the Navy. If you search for “WWII military ranks” on the web, you will find options for other military branches, as well as other countries beside the U.S. At the very beginning of the party, we gave the kids their dog tags, and explained that they were enlisted as “ensigns.” The dog tags we bought had a place to write the boys’ names and their rank. We wrote their names in, but told them that we would fill in the rank at the end of the party. We assigned each of the other games we played a certain number of ranks for winning. For example, if you flew your glider the farthest, you might go up a rank. For more challenging games, like ‘Sink the Ship,’ we had the 1st place winner go up three ranks, the 2nd place winner go up 2 ranks, and the 3rd place winner go up 1 rank. We had certain activities where all the children went up a rank, so that everyone got a chance to advance. At the end of the party, the kid(s) with the highest rank won a special prize, but I found they were just as excited to have us write Vice Admiral or Admiral on the rank on their dog tags. Even the kids that only advanced part way up the ranks were excited to see what their final officer rank was. Sink the Ship You will need: · Flat ‘decorator’ marbles or poker chips – different colors for each team (red, white, and blue) work well · Blocks of wood (painted/decorated with WWII ship names is a fun extra) · A tub or kiddie pool full of water Fill the tub/pool with water and float the wooden ships in it. Have the kids throw the flat marbles/poker chips and try to get them to land on the ships. This is harder than it looks, so make it age appropriate. I had a bunch of very competitive 9-10 year-olds who found hitting the small (abt 6”x 2”), moving targets difficult. In hindsight, larger blocks of wood might have been more appropriate. That said, the kids still loved it, and they didn’t give up until they finally ‘hit’ the ships.
