As I was planning the party, I did some searching on the web and Pinterest for ideas, but didn’t find much off-the-shelf party stuff. I loved this post of  kid party ideas but found lots of stuff for adults, too. We were going for a smaller-scale party and didn’t plan too much in the way of decor.  Mostly, the kids wanted to bounce in a bouncehouse, so we rented one from the base like we did last year.  This time, we got one with obstacles in the middle so they could “explore” the alien planet with less gravity than we have here on Earth.

For decorations, we hung our standard birthday banners, some new Star Trek fabric banners, the big 36″ balloons (Noah named them Kirk, Spock and Scotty) and that was about it.  Noah really wanted me to hang up curtains into the dining room so that he could pretend it was the Enterprise and make the “swoosh” sound when he walked through.  I couldn’t find the curtains we had used for Ava’s party, though, so he had to make the sound without the visual effect.  It ended up ok anyway.

Since we had a small group here for the party, we did things backward.  Cake and ice cream first, then presents, and then lots of bouncing.  That gave us adults time to fix dinner before the kids were hungry and also gave them an outlet for all that sugar. It worked out so well that we might do it that way from now on. Reverse birthday parties rock!

Ava made Noah a fleece Star Trek blanket as a gift. 

He loved it.

Grama made Noah a whole set of Star Trek shirts – Kirk, Spock & Scotty – and they get worn every day they are clean. On the other days, he wears his Reds gear.

In addition to the costumes, Gramma and Grampa send some of Matt’s old Star Trek toys our way. The transporter room and shuttle craft were huge hits (with both the big and small Trekkies in the house). To stick with the theme, Noah received a full armory of phasers.  Matt made him three (a real one and two prototypes) and Uncle Michael made two as well. Once he had opened his communicator from Auntie Brooke and a model Enterprise from us, he was a real-life space voyager.

Auntie Moe scored an awesome sound machine that makes the “swoosh” door sound when you walk by it, so he has one less doorway to make the sound himself when he walks by.  We hung it in the doorway between the playroom and the kitchen so we get to hear it a LOT.

After presents, the kids bounced while we made hamburgers and then we all shared a meal together.

Image re-creation from last year’s bounce house.

We sent everyone home with their own Star Trek command badge, a phaser, and an TOS Pez dispenser.

All in all, I think Noah had a great time and we have 1000% more Star Trek stuff in our house. We got to keep the bounce house through the long Labor Day weekend, so we enjoyed it for several hours in spite of the sporadic rain. Now that the party is over, we play Star Trek daily but, since we can’t play baseball all winter, it’s sort of nice to have a go-to indoor game to play for the quickly approaching Ohio winter.

Live long and prosper, Noah!

]]> http://mscaspers.net/ohbladi/?feed=rss2&p=2285 0 http://mscaspers.net/ohbladi/?p=2281 http://mscaspers.net/ohbladi/?p=2281#comments Sat, 20 Sep 2014 13:40:25 +0000 http://mscaspers.net/ohbladi/?p=2281 Noah’s birthday this year was on a Wednesday, which meant that school and work were non-negotiable. Plus, Matt was away TDY, so we were celebrating as a group of three rather than four. His party was planned for the following weekend, but I still wanted to mark the actual day with some fun.  So, Ava and I took our guy out for a fun evening and kicked off his celebration as we picked him up from school.

We started, of course, with cupcake delivery for snack time in his classroom.

He had been wearing that big, goofy hat all day and LOVING it.  We served chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting (his request) and topped them with Star Trek command badges. Noah loved hearing his class sing him “Happy Birthday” and we apologized profusely to Ms Donna for leaving her with a classroom full of sugared up kiddos.

When we got home, we opened a couple of small gifts (because what good is a birthday without presents, right?) and Skyped with Grammie. Our gift to Noah was a set of tickets to a Dragons baseball game that night. His gift from Grammie and Grandad paired nicely with ours and he was soon all geared up to go to the ball field.

After we answered numerous phone calls, we headed out the door to dinner. Noah picked his favorite place and we yummied on burgers at Five Guys.  We headed downtown and to the ballpark after that. Heater (the Dragons mascot) always hangs out in the plaza in front of the gates before the games, so Noah immediately ran over to say hi. He LOVES mascots (#minorleagueheroes) and always scores a photo op with them at the ballpark.

When Noah told Heater that it was his birthday, he got the royal treatment.  The whole Green Team swarmed and he was treated to a special birthday song, lots of laughs and some fancy balloons.

It’s hard to tell from the video, but his first balloon sword totally deflated mid-song. If you know Noah, you also know that such an occurrence could have put him into a major funk. But, the Green Team magic was at work and kept him in a comical mood.  The team was cracking up and, when they were done singing, Noah said, “I did not see that coming!”  With a new sword in hand for Noah and a green kitty for Ava, we finally went in to watch some baseball.

The kids were SO good for the whole game and were respectful of their neighbors with their balloons.  In fact, the man behind me tapped me on the shoulder in about the 5th inning and said, “Relax! They’re doing really well. You should be so proud of how they’re behaving.” So I did and I was.

The game started at 7pm, which is about 15 minutes before bedtime around here, and we left after the 7th inning stretch because it was a school night.  BUT, Noah and I were up on the big screen while we sang “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” so I think that was pretty much the high note to leave on anyway.

There are two things that are absolutely always true about Noah – he loves baseball and Star Trek in equal measures and with his whole heart. Since we’d be enjoying his other passion for his party, it made good sense to celebrate baseball for his big day.  We couldn’t love our little baseball man more and love watching him grow up.

Happy 4th Birthday, Noah!

Oath of Office with Lt Col Gilbreath

Pinning on the new rank

Such a treat to have so much family in town to celebrate!

Lighting the Christmas Eve carousel.

Sweet kiddo snuggles.

Making sure we get lots of pictures of the ornaments.

It’s tradition! Caspers Kids and Hoffman Kids (2010, 2009).

Reading “Twas the Night Before Christmas” and then they all went to sleep!  Ready for a happy Christmas tomorrow morning!

So glad we’ve had such a fun Christmas Eve tradition here in Vegas.  Thanks for a great night, Hoffman family, and a great four years!

The Friday of Winter Festival is also a school-wide pajama day, so the kids went to school in jammies and parents are invited to wear jammies for the festival.

These two were so cute, it just made my heart ache that day!

At our school, each of the classrooms is open with a fun activity or project for the kids to do and there are decorations and snacks throughout the hallways.  But the main event is that each of the classes in the school practices a song or poem for weeks in advance and then does a little performance for the families at Winter Festival.

I’m so grateful for this school because they’re so fun!  I can’t imagine opening a whole classroom, filling it with sparkle paper and glitter and then inviting kids in to go nuts.  Can you imagine the mess?  But, no kidding, on Monday morning, you’d have never even known it happened.  Talk about extra effort for the good of the kiddos.

Making glitter snow angels.

Noah wasn’t so sure glitter snow angels were awesome.

The babies and toddlers videotape their performances and we get to watch the movie on the big night since there’s no way they’ll perform for a big group on demand.  But, the bigger kids all do a little show and it’s super cute.

Ava’s class performed the poem “Falling Snow” and then sang “Jingle Bells.”  We got an advance preview of her performance at home before we left for the party.

Ava was pretending to be shy when it was her group’s turn to perform and we’re not really sure why.  We know she knew her stuff and she’s quite the ham, so that will probably always be a mystery.  Regardless, we sure had a fun time and all those cute performances sure made up for the sugar crash the next day!

We were thrilled to have company for Pie Day/Enchilada Night on Wednesday and a big group of friends and family join us for dinner on Thursday.  In order to make it through both events, we needed a hero and a little organization – enter Matt & sticky notes.

Dinner for 20 was served only about 30 minutes late, which ended up being perfect for our guests and the turkey cooking.

We ended up roasting one turkey and frying two.  On Wednesday, when Matt and I were talking about it, I thought maybe the 60-some pounds of turkey we were planning might be a bit overboard.  He explained that one of the fried turkeys was more of an “appetizer turkey.”  We joked that there is probably nothing more grossly American than that idea.  “Hey, here’s this huge fried bird I’m going to eat for a snack and here’s this other huge cooked bird that I’m going to have for dinner.”  

Anyway, it worked out and we had more than enough food, dishes and chairs to go around when it was time to finally get to the main event of the day.

I love Thanksgiving, and especially Thanksgiving in the military, because it really is a “more the merrier” kind of thing.  With no gifts like other holidays, it’s so easy just to ask others to join you and have a good time.  This was probably our most hodge-podge group of guests so far in Vegas, with folks from Matt’s work, my work, TPS, and Hoffman and Lee Families.  But, the upside to that is that everyone just pitched in and made the day fun.

The kiddos spent nearly 8 hours tearing the playroom to shreds, we got treated to magic tricks from Audrey’s grandpa, and the pie and homebrew supplies both took major hits.

The party broke up at about 10:30pm and by 11:30pm, our house was set completely to rights and Matt and I had our feet up on the coffee table toasting “the best Thanksgiving EVER”!

h/t to Sarah’s dad, Tony Lee, from whose Facebook page I stole several of these photos since I kept forgetting to take pictures all day.  

We kicked off the celebrating with a little birthday fun at Ava’s school.  If the birthday boy or girl brings in a cake mix and some frosting, the kiddos will whip up the cake in the morning and then they get to eat it for snack time in the afternoon.  All mommies and daddies have to do is come witness the fun.

This was the look on her face while her friends sang “Happy Birthday”….

this kid LOVES to have people sing her “Happy Birthday.”

Friday is our day at home (and was my prep day for our big party on Saturday), but we had a fun treat delivered late Thursday night for Ava to play with on Friday.

We imported a 5-year-old from California to come play with us for the birthday fun and it was awesome.  Thanks to the Traynors for letting us borrow your kid!  Ava and Lauren played so nicely together that it made it easy for me to get ready for the party.  After all, this was on my task list for the day….

After we had a pizza party on Friday night, Matt and I tucked all three kiddos into bed and then got the house decorated for Saturday’s party.  We were able to re-use some of the puffs from Noah’s party and hung a few extras.  And, the giant balloons were such a big hit last time, I figured they’d be a perfect fit for a rainbow party also.

Turns out, six 36″ balloons is a lot of balloons and a lot of helium.  They’ll really take off on you in the Albertson’s parking lot on a windy Friday night!

Saturday morning, Ava woke up to fun birthday decorations and grandparents!  We started her celebration with a (now traditional) donut and breakfast casserole breakfast.

Then, after sending the kiddos outside with Grammie & Granddad, Matt and I rolled up our birthday sleeves and got her birthday present all set up for the big reveal.

The bed Matt built for her (and I painted) was pretty much a hit.  Ava said, “It’s just like a hotel!  With boards and everything!”  She’s been sleeping quite soundly in it every night, but it’s amazing how high off the ground she seems now!

After the big gift, it was basically party time.  We got the food set out and the music on and our friends started to join us.  The party started with a craft…sweet sun catchers made by each of the little girls (with a little help).

We had fancy (cut into stars, hearts, & butterflies) PBJ sandwiches, chips, fruit, and veggies for lunch and then did some running around to make room for cake while the sun catchers baked in the oven.

When it was finally time for cake and ice cream, Ava loved (again) to hear “Happy Birthday” and blow out her candle.  And, then, she wanted to see her rainbow birthday cake!

After some more running around to get rid of some of that excess sugar (hooray for nice weather so the kids could be outside!), we got around to opening some birthday gifts.  Ava received such thoughtful presents this year, and it’s clear that her friends know her very well – a fancy tea set, a book with a picture of her on every page, a Tiana doll, a book about everyday princesses, a unicorn backpack (as promised by CrayCray), and a follow-the-directions game – have all been oooh’d and aaaah’d and played with to death already.

Even though the real day isn’t until tomorrow (with another whole day of fun planned with just Daddy & Mommy), I think it’s safe to say that Whoozers has indeed had a very happy birthday.  We love you, big girl!

For the grown-ups, the birthday started Friday night as we did some prep for the party the next day.  Grammie & Grandad were here to help Matt and I get the cake ready.  In spite of a few stressful moments when we weren’t sure we’d be able to get it into a refrigerator, we had a great time letting our creativity run wild.

So, needless to say, yesterday was a momentous day.  Noah slept in until 8am.  Just kidding….he really did sleep until 8am, but obviously this day was HUGE because it was our baby boy’s first birthday.  Since his big sister didn’t hook us up with a chance to really sleep in, I had plenty of time to go get our party balloons filled and pick up some special treats for breakfast…donuts!  When we were all awake, we had a special birthday breakfast of breakfast casserole and donuts.

After that, we spent the morning just hanging around playing with Grammie & Grandad and even practicing some walking.  While he’s nowhere near proficient, Noah has taken about four or five steps at a time on several occasions.  He’s such a fast cruiser he hasn’t had much incentive to get up and walking in open spaces.  Because, really, when you can cuddle up with your big sister on the floor, why would you start walking?

Before we knew it, it was time to toast Noah’s birth and open his first present!

After lunch and during naps, we took advantage of some kid-free time to put some finishing details on the cake and decorations.

And, then, it was time for the main event…a first birthday party! The guest of honor had to be woken from his nap, but was ready to have a great time after a quick costume change and hair combing.

All dressed up in the outfit Matt wore when he turned one.  Thanks, Grama!

With the guests arrived, we set about preparing dinner.  For this party, we served Matt’s awesome In-n-Out replica hamburgers, pasta salad, fruit salad, baked beans, veggies, chips, salsa, guacamole & Liz’s famous green chiles.  We determined that Noah is definitely a meat-eater…he really tore into that hamburger!

Once everyone was stuffed with dinner, we took a little break and then rolled right into cake and ice cream!  Noah loved having everyone sing “Happy Birthday” and, just like his sister before him, reached right for the candle’s flame.  He wasn’t a very messy cake eater but sure gobbled it up.  After a while, though, the sugar finally got to him and he keeled right over.

After cake and ice cream, we got Noah into his new chair to open some presents.  He was surprisingly patient with and adept at the opening procedure.  Maybe his name was a clue, but there was definitely a recurring theme to Doozer’s gifts.  Animals and vehicles!  From a musical circus train, to dump & tow trucks, to a whole jungle full of animals, little dude is set for Little People animals.

Talking on his hammer “phone.”

Of course, opening presents is always more fun when you’ve got an adoring audience ooh-ing and aah-ing over your every rip and shred of the paper!

The big hit of the night was a gift from Grammie & Grandad.  Enjoyed by one-year-olds and 31-year-olds alike, the shiny red plasma car was an instant high-demand item!

Happy Birthday, baby boy.  Wishing you many, many more.  We love you!

More from the first birthday party tomorrow….

We spent part of each of the next four days in the pool.  Ava woke up asking to go every morning and usually went once in the morning and once in the afternoon.  Such a little fish!  Of course, we were all too happy to oblige since swimming made it seem like we were all on vacation in a fantastic rental house.

On Saturday morning, we loaded up the van and headed north to Mt. Charleston with plans to hike to Mary Jane Falls.  Matt and I had attempted the hike one other time but, since we were idiots and thought we could push a stroller up the side of a mountain, we didn’t finish.  This time, with better gear and rock solid determination, we made it to the top (after a 1.5 hour climb!).

This being a desert, you never know what you’re going to get when you climb a mountain to see a waterfall.  But, Mary Jane Falls did not disappoint.

Ava loved to touch the cold, cold water and climb over the wet rocks at the bottom.  And, in spite of a massive elevation change and having to help carry a three year old up the side of a mountain, even Grama & Grampa were still happy to be there.

The way back down was much easier, but we were all tired and hungry.  For some of us, the rumbling in our tummies made it particularly difficult to keep putting one foot in front of the other…you can decide for yourself who those folks might have been.

We treated ourselves to a picnic lunch at a day camp site and then made the drive back home.  You’d have thought we’d be worn out after all of that, but we still had plenty of energy for a swim that evening!

Along with the swimming and the hiking, we also had plenty of time to just play around the house.  We spent lots of time helping Noah walk with the walker and playing on the floor of the playroom.  Noah even got to open some early birthday presents!  Grama made him his own set of Raggedy Ann & Andy dolls and also brought a birthday outfit.  The outfit was Matt’s on his first birthday and fit Noah perfectly!

We tried to get a nice photo of Noah, Matt & Ava all with their dolls made by Grama (Matt’s were from when he was a kid), but this is the best we could do.

When we let the kids loose, things got a little calmer, of course.

Isn’t it nice how he knows how to sit still for a picture?

On the last evening of the visit, Matt made us fajitas for dinner.  So yummy!  Ava got to help Grama with the tortillas.  Not sure that it’s the most efficient way to cook, but I don’t think anyone had any objections.

Thanks for a great visit, Grama & Grampa!  You’re welcome at Henderson Bar & Resort any time!