A parenting adventure from the summer

I was going through some Facebook blogs and thought I'd share this piece that I wrote last summer.  My family holds an annual disc golf tournament and music event every summer called Discstock.  Since I no longer live in Minnesota, I don't make it back for Discstock every year, but I love it when I do.  This is what happened at Discstock this year:

So, about an hour after I arrive at Discstock on Saturday, Finn projectile vomits all over me. My shirt, shorts & bra were coated in barf.  Luckily, no one from the tourney was around at that time, just the non-players, who were largely female.  I was so covered in barf that I couldn't help Finn, who seemed pretty good at that point anyway, so I had to strip down naked and get hosed off. Yes, with an actual hose. My sister had a shredded too small t-shirt her hubby had brought along as a rag that I was able to put on.  She also found me a fleece blanket made a nice sarong skirt. Then we had to clean off Finn, make a plan, move car seats, & load up all our stuff before I was able to go into town to shower & change. Total time either covered in puke, nearly naked in the middle of a disc golf course, or wearing makeshift clothing, around an hour. 

By the time I was redressed, Finn seemed fully recovered & we went back out & had a great time.  He was dancing to the music and throwing frisbees like he'd never been sick a day in his life.  Hubby had been playing in the tournament and didn't even know Barfstock 2011 until we were already back out to the farm. Parenthood is always an adventure.  Special thanks to my sister, sister-in-law and nieces for helping me out of a very icky situation.

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Up Up and Away! It’s a Hot Air Balloon themed birthday!

Finn has loved balloons since he was old enough to say “LOOOOON” while pointing to anything round and floating. It started as a fascination with any balloon, but for the last year, he’s been especially enamored with hot air balloon.  We had several books and movies that showed them, and soon he was pointing them out everywhere from Diego’s Rescue Pack to the tiny Usborne books logo. His favorite “movie” is watching hot air balloon festival footage on You Tube. So, when our little guy turned 2, it only made sense to surprise him with a Hot Air Balloon theme birthday.

Decorations:
I bought a couple of inflatable hot air balloons, but frankly, the ones I made are just as cute if not cuter, and a lot more cost effective. I made them with beach balls! We also printed off a simple hot air balloon picture from online and added his name for the Happy Birthday banner and hung flags made out of construction paper and tie dyed coffee filters from previous art projects.

11 inch inflatable beach balls (69 cents each online).  Yellow ductape.  Small baskets (I found for 25 cents each).  I folded the duct tape over  so it was thin with just a little bit of stickiness and lined the bottom circle of the beach ball with it.  I attached the baskets to the middle of the circle with another piece of duct tape.  I slid fishing line through the closure at the top of the beach ball for an invisible string to hang it by. 

We had an afternoon party and we waited until naptime to decorate.  Finn woke up to find the balloons hanging all over the house and even outside.  He walked around in amazement, “A hotairballon! A hotairballon! Another hotairballoon!  A big one! A little one! Another one!!!”

Cake:
Pyrex type bowl or round cake pan (I used this one) and cut part of the bottom, but a half dome would be enough.

Regular cake pan or mini pans for bottom of balloon and basket (I used pyrex bowls with flatter bottoms).

Cake Decorations: Frosting, brightly colored candies like Skittles, Nerds, Airheads Xtremes rainbow striped candy.

I cut the Airheads with a clean scissors to create the zigzag pattern on the cake.  I used Chex cereal for basket, and skewers or toothpicks to connect hot air balloon to basket, and added a little flag for his name.

Entertainment:
Aside from the normal 2 year old playtime, we had a special treat of a real live mini hot air balloon - a sky lantern. We put ours on a fishing line so it wouldn’t fly away and potentially set the neighborhood on fire.  After the show, we doused it with water. The kids obviously loved the sky lantern, but we were pleasantly surprised to see how much the parents enjoyed it too!

2 year old Finn, Enjoying his Hot Air Balloon cake

A Halloween Follow-up

Hard to believe that Halloween was over two weeks ago!  As Nora’s birthday followed soon after, I haven’t have a chance to post pictures of their costumes until now.  Nora wanted to be a “rainbow unicorn with a yellow mane and a yellow tail.” (stay tuned for more rainbow unicorn fun, as that was also her birthday party theme).

After looking a bit on the internet, I found a unicorn costume that she and I agreed would be a good starting point.  In mid-September, we happened to find the perfect pants and shirt for her outfit at Mama Goose, our fabulous local kids consignment store.  I had already figured out that the mane would be attached with yellow duct tape, so the clothing would be completely in tact after Halloween.

We had a Repunzel wig that she had received for her birthday the year before that I used for the mane and tail.  I trimmed the tail and hot glued the trimmings on a strip of felt.  I used hair bands on the tail to make it look a little more horse-like at the top.  I hooked a piece of string though the top and tied it to her shirt. . 

The horn is made with craft foam and hot glue.  I painted it “rainbow,” as requested, with acrylic craft paints.  It’s then attached at the bottom to a piece of felt covered craft foam about 2-3 inches long, which acts to place the horn on the forehead rather than at the top of the head.  The original version of this costume suggested attaching the horn extension and ears to a headband, but after a trial run at the Wegmans costume parade the Thursday before Halloween, I found that this didn’t work well at all. The headband kept sliding out of place because it was on the hood rather than behind her ears.  So, instead I just hot glued the horn extension onto the felt part of the mane and taped it all down with a thin layer of duct tape.  I taped down the felt ears and “hooves” as well.

Total cost of the outfit was under $10, plus she’ll wear the rainbow clothing for the next year. I also attached the mane and horn back onto a headband so it can be reused for playing dress-up. 

Finn’s Dinosaur costume has been Nora’s from the year before.  He refused to wear the headpiece for more than the 30 seconds it took to get this picture.  It actually worked in our benefit, however, as without the triceratops head, his costume looked a lot like a dragon and everyone loved how well the unicorn and dragon went together. 

Blogging, Parenting & Protecting

I’m very excited to start posting some blogs about the great birthday parties we’ve had this fall.  I had the urge to write up all the details of my son’s party, but realized I’m getting ahead of myself.  I want to tell everyone about the party, but I don’t want to tell everyone everything about my son.  I’m the kind of person who has never really had anything to hide, so I’ve never been overly cautious about using my full name on the internet. 

However, now that I have kids involved, I want to protect them.  I use their names on Facebook, but I also have my privacy settings up pretty high.  Only my friends can read my information & status updates or see my pictures.  The blog, however, is open to the world. Therefore, when it comes to the blog, I’m going to do limited facial pictures of them and use pseudonyms.  As for our imaginary names, it seems right to highlight or Scandinavian heritage, since so many of the traditions we have as a family revolve around them.  My husband’s dad is 100% Finnish, whereas much of my family is Norwegian.  Therefore I present to you,

Nora and Finn, enjoying this year's first snow.

Ready for Halloween?

 I've always loved Halloween, so I love that the Ithaca area has so many great events for Halloween.  This year we went to the Wegmans parade on Thursday, the Sciencenter on Friday and Ellis Hollow Nursery School on Saturday.  We still have a preschool party on Monday and Trick-or-Treating in our neighborhood in the evening.   When I was growing up in the Midwest, we only celebrated Halloween on one night!  I guess at least this way the costumes get a lot of use. 

This year my 4 year old will be wearing a homemade “Rainbow Unicorn” costume, while my 2 year old will be wearing the dinosaur costume that big sister insisted on having last year after falling in love with it in Halloween edition of One Step Ahead, despite the large box of dress up clothes that we already had to choose from (I need to remember to hide that catalogue).  At least we can get a couple year’s use out of it. Hubby will be a clown, per the children’s request; and I’m excited to step out in my homemade Dora the Explorer costume.  This will be the first time since having children that I didn’t throw my costume together that the very last minute. (For those of you who still haven’t put together costumes, Mama Goose, Trader K’s and Trader K’s 2 all still had good selection as of last week.)

I’ve always enjoyed making costumes whenever I have the time and creative energy.  Growing up, I remember my mom pouring her heart and soul into homemade costumes, the best of which was an elaborate Strawberry Shortcake outfit that I probably wore for about 3 years straight.  However, once I was older, I learned that my memory is a bit unreliable.  My mom recently informed me that she dreaded making homemade costumes and did so only because it was cheaper than buying them (which isn’t always the case anymore!).  Turns out the main reason I was Strawberry Shortcake so often was because she didn’t want to make anything else. 

How about you?  Do you make your costumes?  Buy them new?  Buy them used?   Borrow from friends?

My Favorite: The SPCA Annex in the Mall

From time to time I’ll post a blog about my favorite things in the Ithaca area.  I’d like to start with the SPCA annex in the mall!  The Tompkins County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is a great organization that finds “forever homes” for cats, dogs, rabbits, and pretty much any animal you could think of.  The Tompkins County SPCA is a no-kill, open admission shelter.  I highly recommend visiting their main shelter at 1640 Hanshaw Road. 

However, today I want to sing the praises of the SPCA Annex.  By opening this storefront, the SPCA smartly keeps their adoptable animals on the forefront of mall goers minds.  They also help to make the mall great place to visit on a rainy day.  When my 4 year old was a baby, the only place in the mall that really appealed to kids was the pet store.  Now the mall has Niki’s Party Place (bounce houses), Glow Golf, the arcade, and the SPCA (what my kids like to call “The Kitty Store”). My kids love to play with the cats using the cat toys available (if you can’t find a toy, ask an SPCA employee and they’ll find one for you). There’s an area near the back with toys and books that’s a great spot to kill a little time.  On Mondays at 11 they host a Storytime there too.  Best of all, this little nook is quiet and secluded.  Back when I was nursing, I found it to be the comfiest place in the mall to feed my youngest.  Plus the toys and books kept my toddler happy at the same time.

As great as the annex is, it is expensive for the SPCA to keep staffed.  They’ve had to reduce their hours of operation to 11-7 Monday -Saturday and 11-6 on Sundays.  However, it’s easy to help keep this great place running.  If every family visiting the annex dropped a dollar into their donation box, it would be more than enough to keep the annex afloat.  The Annex also accepts donations of everything from cat toys to paper plates.  For a full list of items needed, check out their web page.

Although we haven’t adopted an animal from the SPCA (our 10 year old cat wouldn’t stand for it!), they make it easy to find an animal that would be good for your home, creating and updating their animals' personality profiles on a regular basis. 

And finally, full disclosure, I am in no way affiliated with the SPCA.  I just love what they do and I love the smiles that their store in the mall brings to the faces of my kids.  They get excited every time they drop a dollar bill in the box to help feed the kitties.  Hope your kids do too!.

Who knew?

So, apparently the Tot Spot opened for the season today.  I realized it was late October, so I called to check when they open, and sure enough, it was today.  Even though I browse the IYB emails I get, I had no idea.  Did you?

For those unfamiliar with the Tot Spot: The Tot Spot is an indoor play area with two slide/climbing structures, many push and ride toys, books and other fun things.  Located inside the Ithaca Youth Bureau at 1 James L. Gibbs Drive in Ithaca, The Tot Spot is generally open from the end of October to Mid-April. Days and times are as follows: Tues./Thurs./Sat. 9:30 - 11:30 am and Sunday afternoon 3:30 - 5:30 pm.  The Tot Spot is for children ages 5 months -5 years, but kids under 4 tend to have the most fun. $4 per child.  607-273-8364