Dragons!

A few months ago the little guy turned 5 and we had a "How to Train Your Dragon" birthday party for him. Many hours were spent browsing Pinterest and the internet in general, and we came up with a few games/activities to keep the kids busy. But first Mr almost 5 insisted on a Toothless costume...

So I made one up as I went. I was originally going to have the wings on the back and the sleeves would be Toothless' front legs, but the little guy wanted wings he could flap with his arms and I realized that was going to be way easier to do, so we went with that... The 'top' over laps in the front and does up with a bit of velcro at the neck. The tail goes on like a belt and again does up with velcro. Once Toothless was finished the little guy requested his sister be Stormfly, but that was just a bit beyond what I was willing to do, so we rummaged through the little miss's closet and came up with an Astrid costume instead.

On party day we set up a shield decorating station where the kids could decorate their own shields. This was good to get the kids involved in something as soon as they got in the door, and also kept them busy while waiting for the other dragon trainers to arrive. I pre-made the shields from cardboard, tape & ribbons so the kids could hold them on their arms. We just put out our stock of coloured pencils & markers and the kids loved it.

Next the kids needed to earn a sword to go with their shields, so we played pin the tail on the Toothless. I had planned to make swords, but then I found some inflatable ones for $1 each and figured there was no way I could make anything for cheaper, and they were nice and safe to be played with even after the inevitable sugar rush. Everyone got a sword, but they were handed out in order of who got Toothless' tail closest to the right spot.

After a bit of sword fighting mayhem, we played another game... Feed the Gronckle. Every good dragon trainer knows that gronckles eat rocks, so I made up some rocks out of scrunched up newspaper covered in tape. I printed out a picture of a gronckle and stuck it to a large box. I cut out the bottom of the box and also the mouth of the gronckle, and the kids took turns throwing rocks into the mouth. It was great fun, and the kids kept going back to this one throughout the party.  

 And then one last organized game before cake time... It was our own little version of sheep racing.
The kids lined up into two teams and took turns putting a sheep pom-pom between their knees and delivering the sheep past the line placed at the other end of the room (without using their hands). If they dropped their sheep they had to go back and start again. Again, lots of good fun and the kids really worked together to help each other out with this one. It was pretty much impossible to get a photo of this one, sorry... But then there was cake, a fire breathing cake even!

The party finished up with opening presents and then running around the deck and more sword fighting - fortunately the hanging balloons were a favourite target.

Jellyfish Costume

A month ago we went to a little friend's "Under the Sea" birthday party and the little guy & I needed costumes (the little miss already had a mermaid costume complete with fishy-swishy tail so she was sorted). The little guy isn't really a costume kind of kid, so I did a bit of searching on Pinterest for something fishy that wouldn't involve trying to get the little guy to wear something new...

I loved the (many) jellyfish costumes I found online and after looking through a tonne of photos I decided that an umbrella-jellyfish would not only be the easiest way to go, but also the most likely way to get the little guy into a costume. I had originally planned to get some light coloured, cheap child sized umbrellas and attach tentacles hanging down from the top as I thought the clear ones would be too expensive or difficult to find; however, it turns out the opposite was true! I had also planned to make the tentacles from strips of bubble wrap, but I never did manage to get any in time for the day of the party. Luckily I had a giant roll of white packaging ribbon just hanging around, so I cut it into strips and taped it around the edges. I was hoping they would look ok, and I was pleasantly surprised at how well they actually turned out.















The little guy loved carrying his jellyfish around the house prior to the party and he made a grand entrance in his costume, but it was quickly discarded so he could run around and 'party'. It wasn't abandoned for long though - many a child was seen dancing around with the jellyfish umbrella throughout the party.

Me & my little sea creatures.

Rapunzel Dress

A friend of mine pinned a link to an etsy store selling girls dresses based on the dresses of Disney Princesses. The little miss is quite the fan of anything Disney Princess, so I re-pinned it of course. The Etsy store was My Kids Drawers but I think she's too busy with the orders she gets through Facebook so she isn't putting anything on Etsy at the moment. You can find her on Facebook by looking up 'My Kids Drawers' though.

What I loved about her princess dresses was that they are 'real' dresses that can be worn out and about without looking costumey, but it's also obvious (to anyone who knows their princesses) what they are styled on.

The little miss's current favorite princess is Rapunzel, so I decided to make a little something extra for her birthday. I liked the idea of the dresses being a pesant style: firstly because they are easy for young ones to get on & off themselves, but also because they are a pretty basic style dress and easy to make without a pattern.

Besides being purple, I think the main thing a Rapunzel dress needs is some lacing up the front. I thought long and hard about how I could do this... I thought of using metal eyelets, or strips of fabric with button holes, or sewing on loops of ribon, but they all seemed like just a little bit too much effort! I looked through all of the notions at my local fabric store and found exactly what I needed – pre-sewn elastic loops on a crochet-type strip. I covered it up with some pretty ribbon and used thin ribbon in the same shade for the lacing. I had originally planned to put elastic on the bottom of the sleeves, but when I was sewing them up I really liked the way they looked without the elastic, so I just hemmed them instead.

All in all I'm very happy with how it all turned out in the end; but most importantly, the little miss just adores it!