Cubbies Bear Hug 22 - Happy Birthday!

Hello again. 

Welcome to a series I'm doing on Awana Cubbies!  I hope you enjoy your time here.  If you'd like, you can visit my previous posts, or dive right in!

Introduction
How I started down the Appleseed Trail
Bear Hugs 3-6:  God is Creator
Bear Hugs 7-10:  God's Word is Truth
Extra Cubbies Fun - Gingerbread Nativities
Bear Hugs 11-14 - God is Faithful
Bear Hug 15 - Story of Abraham
Bear Hug 16 - God is Mighty
Bear Hug 17 - Valentine's Day
Bear Hug 18 - Crossing the Red Sea
Bear Hug 19 - God is in Charge

Bear Hug 20 & 21 - God is in Charge

 

This week was the review week for the 'God is in Charge' unit.  It was also the last week where Cubbie and friends were talking about Timothy's birthday!  And so, we celebrated all our birthdays together!  Hooray!

 

I had a lot of fun putting this all together!  I made a bunch of stuff for the birthday party.  Some of it we never used as I bought some things instead, but I'll post it at the end anyway for anyone who wants to use it for their own Cubbies party (not for resale.  I do not own the rights to the Awana clipart).

 

First, I made an extra large birthday card by folding white paperboard in half, printing and cutting out some of the black and white clipart images, and gluing them into place.

The kids were each to sign their names (or we would for them if they didn't know how) on the inside of the card as they came in.

I also made a party table centerpiece.  This was fun.  I just took the one image, made it as large as I could for a regular sheet of cardstock, and then made one flipped.  Also made 'Happy Birthday' images times two for two strips.  The Cubbie and friends pictures were going to be used as extras for decoration that are not necessarily for the birthday party.  Didn't want to waste paper.

Step one - print your sheets on cardstock.

Step two - glue the two Cubbie Bear's together.

Step three - Cut out Cubbie, then cut slits in the top of both the 'Happy Birthday' strips, and the bottom of the Cubbie bear about 1inch long.

Step 4 - Slip the birthday strips into the slits on the Cubbie picture so that they make a circle.  Done!  Take it apart to store flat.   (I want to laminate this to make it last longer).


Next thing I made were cupcake toppers... because cupcakes are so much nicer for serving kids than cake is.  Easy... no cutting!  And the toppers were such a huge hit!

Here they are!  I printed enough for 25.

Step 1 - First you need to print one sheet on cardstock, and then the mirrored sheet on regular paper (so it will fold around the toothpick easier).  Glue the two sheets together lightly with a glue stick.

Step 2 - Now you can rather easily cut out each topper, and it is already double sided!

 See?  And the edges are even!

Step 3 - Now we open the bottom...

 ... add a bunch of glue...

 ... put in the toothpick...

... and press down.  Doesn't Katie Collie look lovely?  So simple for on the cupcakes, too.  Just push in the bottom of the toothpick.

One down, 24 to go.

The kids loved these!  They were asking for their favorite characters when they saw all the cupcakes.  And I heard a few of the kids exclaim 'this is the best birthday party EVER' when they opened the door to this room.

I couldn't resist decorating!  The tissue paper flowers were some I made for my daughter's birthday.  I kept them around in case I wanted to use them again, which has been great!  The table cover, plates, and napkins I found at a Dollar Tree.  Made for easy cleanup.  Cupcake wrappers also from a dollar store.

Doesn't Cubbie look thrilled to be surrounded by friends and cupcakes?  :)

 

I used my go-to vanilla cupcake/cake recipe called Butter Sponge.  It is so tasty!  The icing recipe I use is different from the one I have listed there, though.  You can find it in the first bit of this video of Disney Princess Cupcakes, here.  I only needed 1/2 the recipe to ice 24 cupcakes as seen above.

 

The birthday party was a big hit!  The kids loved it!  The hats were fun, although they kept coming apart (Dollar store hats... what can I say).  And the party blowers were so much fun (no noise version).  They each got some popcorn in some reusable cups with lids that most of the kids took home.  We also had some really small cups (4 oz, probably) that we used to serve water to the kids (no juice needed... lots of sugar here already).

 

 

And now, just for fun, here are a few things I made for the party!  Feel free to use them for your own Cubbies Birthday Party celebration!

 

For the invite below, using the print image program do 4 to one sheet of paper.  The line is blank for you to put the date in yourself.

 

 

Below I have two versions of the birthday party hat I designed using a blank template I got online (I can no longer find the original, but there are a lot of blank templates you can find online through google or pinterest).  The first version is one the kids can color themselves as a coming in craft.  The second is one you can whip up before Club night and put together at home.  Print on cardstock.

If you want to download the pdf file for the cupcake toppers and the table centerpiece, you can get the free download below!

Free Download for cupcake toppers and table centerpiece
Free Download for the party hats and invites

Enjoy!  Please let me know if you used these files or found this post useful!  I love making these things and hope to make more available in the future!  God Bless!

NOTE:  All images of Cubbie and Friends are Trademarked Awana.  You can find them at awana.org.  None of these things may be sold or reproduced for sale in any way.  For personal/club use only.  Thank you.

Arrrg, Mateys!

  This weekend was my son's 5th birthday party.  He wanted a Jake and the Neverland Pirates theme.  I came up with too many ideas again, and went into overkill mode.  Bram loved it!  He told me he wanted a Bucky cake, a treasure hunt, and treasures.  So, I made a few things from cardboard (like a chest, swords, etc), and filled goody bags with candy, a ring pop, glow bracelet, party blower, and Jake tattoos, and put them in the chest.  Then went to work on the treasure hunt and turning our yard into neverland.

 

First, the goody chest.

 

 

Here's the map with the instructions on how to find the treasure.

 

 

First, we had to dress like pirates at Hangman's tree, then sail three times around skull rock.

 

 

Then Captain Hook wanted to be sure they were pirate worthy by having them play Hook Toss on the Jolly Roger.  If they lost, they must walk the plank.

 

They didn't mind losing. ;)

 

 

Next we went to Shipwreck cove and shot cannonballs at each other... or, you know, plastic balls.

 

 

Then the fairies needed our help blowing bubbles at Pixie Hollow.

 

Off to Tiki Forest for a game of Musical Tikis.  This was fun!  Then time for sword practice at Jake's hideout.

 

 

Off to Neverland desert to dig for gold doubloons (I hid three per child in the sandbox... er... desert)

 

 

Lastly, we had to cross crocodile creek before finding the treasure in Pirate cave (not sure why I have no pics at this point... too busy I suppose).

 

After all that fun, the kids played while I set up the food.  And we had lots of treats.

 

 

On the menu were Hooks Pirate ships (pigs in blankets with paper sails), Tick Tock Crock's Swamp Water, Bones Popcorn, Sharky's raisin pearls, Cubbie's fresh veggies, Jake's Sword fruit kebabs (sword toothpicks made this a hit!), Smee's Blue Lagoon Jello cups, and of course, a Bucky cake centerpiece.  I decorated with grass skirts as a 'roof', gold doubloons and red rubies scattered for treasure around the trays, and Dollarama came to the rescue with the blue table cover I cut for the cake tray cover.

 

 

The boys loved the cake.  And I was thrilled with how it turned out as well!!  I spent hours on it... no idea actually how long with all the interruptions, but I was super thankful for the purchased fondant, even if I had to color it.  Oh, and pretzels make the perfect railing and ladder!

 

The cake turned out looking 'just like Bucky' to the delight of my five year old.  He insisted on there being a slide, and a bell.  A tip... let the fondant harden/dry out before adding it to the cake, and you should be good!  Took a lot of patience on my part to let the pieces dry before adding them (the back panel and the bell, mostly.  I let the slide mostly dry around the handle of a soup ladle before adding it while still a little pliable to get the shape right).  The back panel is my favorite!  And I love the portholes... even added the little hinges to the top of them (forgot to take a close-up photo of them though... darn).

The party was fantastic!  The boys seemed to have a great time, my son loved it, and there was enough food for everyone.  I'd call that a success.  It didn't rain either!  Which was exactly what I was hoping for!  :)

Happy Birthday to my little man... how is it that you've grown so big already?  I still cannot believe you are 5 years old, and will be off to school this next fall (WHAT?!).  You have such a big heart, you are super smart (I think math will be your strong point as you are amazing with patterns and numbers already... counting past 100 with ease, and noticing the pattern of balloons above the window for your party of red yellow blue yellow red yellow....).  I look forward to watching you grow.  Hugs to my not-so-little-anymore boy.

Recycling Crafty Fun

My son is turning 5 this week... FIVE!  For his party, he wants a Jake and the Pirates birthday.  With our newest addition, I'm just not wanting to do much in the way of sewing and whatnot... and since we have so much cardboard, I decided to make good use of it.

 

To start... paper bags make great map invites!  I cut open the bag, made the whole thing wet, crumpled and straightened it out, then let it dry before ripping into the size needed for the invites.  I printed Jake logos and glued them on, then used Sharpees to write out the info (and make the 'map' portion).  The boys loved them!

 

 

Bram really wants a scavenger hunt (oops... ahem, a TREASURE hunt) at his birthday, so I'll be making maps of our yard similar to the invites, and the end will lead to the treasure... a chest full of loot bags for each guest.  So... to make a treasure chest, I used a box.

Yes... this is kind of a 'before and after' pic, side by side as I had two of the same box.  I just turned the one inside out (yes, that is a thing, haha), cut it to make it have a rounded lid, and used extra pieces of cardboard and black duct tape to trim it up.  And sharpees make it look like wood.  ;) 

Since I thought it would be fun to have the boys pretend to be pirates, I wanted them to have swords they could keep.  Unfortunately, they no longer had them at the Dollarama.  :(  But hey, I've got loads of cardboard... I can make them!  I cut 12 pieces of 'sword' and glued two together for each sword, then drew on them to make wood grain.  Bram loves them!  He and A played with them for awhile while wearing the paper 'pirate hats' I made for the party as well.  I'm hoping to make a few things so that the boys can 'decorate' their own hats, but we'll see how much more I wish to do.  I also bought some cute stick on mustaches from the dollar store... a pack has 6, which is perfect.

Yesturday I pulled out a bunch of cardboard and fashioned two pirate ships from them... the boys will be able to play in the ships (hopefully, weather permitting and all that).  I need more duct tape so I can properly assemble them, and I am just going to use sharpees once again to draw on some portholes and planks.  I also aim to take a board and make a 'walk the plank' out of it for the boys from our deck (which is going to be the Jolly Roger on our maps, haha).  Today I want to make the two large maps (Bram wants there to be two teams of 3 looking for the treasure chest), and maybe the signs for on the yard to help them know what each area is (I'm making a Skull Rock, Pixie Hollow, etc with a sign on something that could kinda sorta be that in our yard).  I think decorations will be limited to that and balloons at the end of the driveway and maybe on the ships and by the food and stuff.  I'm still not sure how to do his cake.  He wants Bucky... but I'm not sure I want to do a complicated cake.  I'm so tired lately, and my two youngest girls are so very clingy this week... we'll see what I can get to.  Otherwise I was thinking of making cupcakes to look like a treasure map.  No cake cutting required. 

So much fun stuff you can make out of what is essentially trashed.  :)  I LOVE it!

Mom-E-xhaustion

Sometimes, I dream about being in a fairy tale.  You know, something like Sleeping Beauty... only I wish to fall asleep and have my Prince actually wait for a few days before waking me up.

 

Actually, eternal sleep doesn't sound too bad right now.

 

Speaking of 'sleep'...

 

How you know you've had an exhausting day... not even enough energy to take off your jacket and lay down somewhere besides the floor you were placed on.

 



 

Sunday was a very exhausting day for more than just me, it seems.  Baby A fell asleep in the van on the way home, and since I had to make 3 trips back and forth to get everything in the house, I put her on the floor (she woke up while I was carrying her), only to come in after carting in Baby B, the diaper bag, and various other things to find her fast asleep.  Poor peanut!

 

This has been one massively tiring week!  Baby A had her birthday, and I can still hardly believe she's 2 years old now!  I guess I should start thinking of her as a toddler now, even though she is still my lil peanut.  I baked cupcakes and cake for her, and since she just adores Olaf, we had an Olaf themed birthday.

 

 

For the first time, I 'cheated' with the cookies.  My husband found the Valentine's frozen 'bake them yourself' Pillsbury cookies with hearts in the centers of them for $1 per 24 pack, and bought 3.  I could hardly believe it!  I didn't have to do much to make cookies!  I printed a bunch of Olafs and put them on toothpicks onto the large cupcakes, then using parchment paper on top of another image of Olaf, I used white and dark chocolate to draw out a chocolate Olaf for the top of the cake.  Made a number of snowflakes similarly, and attached them to the sides of the cake afterwards.  Since I got a  bunch of Valentine's day stuff on sale, I used pink sweetheart candies to decorate the mini cupcakes and the table.  And doilies make lovely decorations, too.  I made pop cans into 3D snowflake decorations using my Snowflake cutter with my BigShot machine, and for relatively little work, we had a pretty dessert table (I was so happy).

 

I didn't want to do a big birthday party as I cannot handle a lot of people in my house all at once anymore.  Instead, we had my husband's parents over on Wednesday, his sister came down on Thursday (and we sang Happy Birthday with candles on a cupcake for her), then friends came down on Friday for supper (they have three kids all the same age as our oldest three!  The kids had a great time!).  Saturday was a baby shower for a friend of mine, and then Sunday we were going to have lunch with my family at our house, but I was so tired that my mom said we'd do it there, and I'd bring the cake (hence all the cupcakes and a cake, too.  Instead of one big party, we had 4 mini parties.  I'm so DONE).  It was hard since lately, all I want to do is hide in my house.  I absolutely love doing special cakes and themes and planning parties though... so what's a hermit wannabe to do? 

 

I still cannot believe my lil girl is 2 already!  Where did the time go?  I just love how much she is talking, dancing (she just loves to dance to the Frozen soundtrack), and she loves to give hugs to her baby sister (and crawl all over me whenever I wish to sleep or need to nurse the baby).  Her vocabulary is quite large already, and although we haven't started potty training yet, I really want to (having two in cloth diapers is quite the task).

 

Happy Birthday, Lil A!  You are a joy to watch grow, and will forever be my squishy (even when you don't want to, haha).



Under the Sea

This year, M wanted an Ariel birthday party.  I decided to do an under the sea theme with Ariel added in wherever I could (using whatever we had in the house, or whatever I could make).  She absolutely loved it, and I'm pretty excited with how it turned out as well. 

 

As a warning, this post is going to be photolicious!  Seriously.  Lots of pics here.

 

 Made her a special party hat for the occasion.

 

All decked out as 'Ariel'. 

 We had a treat for lunch... fish, and mac n cheese goldfish.

 

 I reused a bunch of older handmade decorations so I didn't have as much work to do for decorating.  The clouds and pom poms are from Baby A's first birthday, and the raindrops are from my sister's baby shower.  Scrap fabrics are great for other bits and pieces... like Ariel's rock.  Also... toys.  I used all of M's Ariel type toys in the setup.  She was happy to get them for me.

 And now for some of the food...

 I attempted to make the popcorn pink without making it 'sweet', but it didn't turn out quite as hoped.

 Ariel in a jar... you can see the main cake as well.  LOVED how that ended up!

 Blue jello with gummy fish inside.  The fish tasted weird in the jello, but it was a fun experiment.

 

 Some décor, again reusing a few pieces from previous birthdays. 

 I seriously LOVE these oyster cookies!  I wanted to go cheater on this and just buy some round cookies and put icing and yogurt raisins in them, but I couldn't find any cookies that would work besides the ones that already have icing inside them... but I wanted pink icing, not white.  So, I made spritz cookies as pumpkins and used those instead.  More work for me, but those are some TASTY cookies!

 M loves all the foods... and was very intrigued by the 'goldfish bowls'.  Funny thing, I made only 10 (same number as I did for A's 1st birthday rainbow jello cups) and while last time I had jello cups left over, this time they were gone within 10 minutes.

 

As an added bonus....

We had a surprise for everyone.  We found out what our baby gender is this time, and I decided to leave a 'clue' inside the cake.  So, since all the décor was blue (sea) and pink (coral) already, I told everyone to check the inside of the cake for the icing color that would tell them the gender of the baby...

 It's going to be a GIRL.

 

This is the punch.  I love bulk barn as it was the only place I could find blue powdered juice crystals.

 

 
 
 

Opening presents.

 

 We had a lot of people in our house.  I need to seriously consider inviting less people next time as I get overwhelmed quickly by it all!  I love having everyone over, though!  Such a dilemma.

Time to blow out those candles!  :)

 

M had a great time, and she just loved everything!  She makes decorating all these things for birthdays so much fun and so rewarding.  I love how excited she gets!  We leave a few of the decorations up for awhile after the party is over, but not many. 

As for that cake... it was GONE!  ;)

 

Happy birthday, my little M!  I cannot believe you are 6 already!

You have such a giving heart, and I love watching you grow and learn!  People are your passion and you just thrive being around people.  You are gentle in spirit, giving me hugs when you can see I'm upset, and you notice even the littlest of things, commenting politely about them and making those around you feel all the more special for you noticing (like new glasses, new haircuts, furniture that has been moved...).  I am looking forward to watching and learning more from you as the years go by... but don't let them go by too quickly, please!  You seem to be growing so fast and I just cannot understand where the time has gone to!  I love you, M!