The month of Wyatt -part 2

The best part of being the mother of a kindergartner is  that he still loves that I come to the classroom to participate in activities. I'll cherish this as long as it lasts, 'cause I'm sure it's slowly waning. Christmas is one of those special times where parents were invited to come in and make gingerbread houses and listen to the kids sing. Too cute. Despite the fact that Wyatt and I had some minor creative differences with our gingerbread house, we powered through and came up with a masterpiece. Oh and the singing? Well naturally my son has the voice of a......lark. Yes. a lark.

                                  

Just in case they didn't have enough sugar......

Singing performance

The Month of Wyatt- Ninjago anyone?

If I am to have a month of me, it is only fair to have a month fully dedicated to The Wyatt as well, is it not?? Let's just say the apple does not fall far. Given our love for parties, Wyatt chose to have a Birthday consisting of all things Ninjago this year-which was a love/hate theme for me. Slightly burnt out from Ninjago after Halloween, I sucked it up for my son and "spinjitzued"through. Well worth it- he and his friends seemed to have a great time. We invited about 16 kids and my awesome girlfriend secured a space within her apartment, seeing as we had no where to go. This arrangement worked out especially well since it naturally started to rain. After some online scrounging, I totally stole, er, "borrowed" Ninjago ideas that moms before me had so painstakingly outlined on blogs.  Thanks random moms!

Not that I have the exact order of events, but with 2 1/2 hrs to fill, I tried to maintain a tight ship...which for me was pretty tough, as that's just not my thing.  We all survived. I like to think we had some fun too.

Pin the Beard on Sensai Wu. I found a picture someone did online, but I wanted it pretty big, so I free-handed Sensai onto larger than life poster"y" paper, made a beard for each of the kids with their names on it and spun them around. Their Ninja bands doubled as blindfolds = Bonus.
"borrowed" mom link
http://www.craftinterrupted.com/2012/05/ninjago-party-game-pin-beard-on-sensei.html

Pinata Time. SUPER easy. I grabbed a mailer box then divided it up half n half with duct tape to make the Red Ninja and the Black Ninja (aka Kai and Cole).

Duct Tape!

It's the magical tape. It covers everything and turns something boring into something amazing. The below are a couple examples of what duct tape can do. 

Obstacle Course-The kids had a ton of fun and the obstacle course was super easy. I had the kids jumping through hoops (literally), digging through baskets for Lego men, running in circles with ninja swords then tagging their team members. I broke them up into 3 Ninja teams....Green, Red and Blue- and they all had their ninja bands on already. They were hysterical.

 Ball Toss and Game Punch-
I found this awesome idea for a game punch- it was huge and in my experience bigger is better. Go big or go home. That's just all there is to it. The game punch consisted of 3 boards connected together with 16 symmetrical holes cut out and small light toys taped to the back of heavy duty tissue paper. At the end of the obstacle course (having run through it a few times) the kids punched through and grabbed a gift. Voila!
I got the idea of the toy punch from this site, but gave it my own twist.
http://blog.celebratethebigandsmall.com/2011/08/10/856/

Ball Toss- Coke cans taped together and wrapped with..........yup. Duct tape. Super easy. Though I'm not gonna lie. The kids were done with it after like 2 seconds. Bummer. 

THE FOOD.

Ah yes. I find that the key to Birthday parties is to NOT have them during lunch, hence the party time of 2:00-4:30 (which should have been 4). Get'm in and get'm out.- All without offering lunch or dinner.

Since parents were staying, I wanted to offer fruit and veggies too. I loved the idea of sushi rice krispies, though I wish they held together better. Cupcakes were easier than making a big ol' cake and I made Wyatt his own personal Ninjago cake. P.S. The Ninjago cake was SO easy. 

Link to sushi/some other Ninjago ideas below:

http://www.empress-m.com/2011/03/more-ninjagos.html

Photo Booth!!!

This was totally my favorite part! I also borrowed this from another site. I free handed the pic I found on large white paper and then hung it up at the party as a back drop with some props. As a thank you card I printed out the photos- I loved the way they came out.

This website is amazing!-http://www.craftinterrupted.com/2012/05/ninja-photo-booth.html

Randomness- SO obviously not everything went according to plan. Thankfully there were other parents who helped out. We had a bouncy castle, AKA Ninja warm up Dojo, ninja freeze dance, (duck duck goose) aka run run ninja run....(or whatever fits in best); Ninja exercises with the help of my hubby.....on and on. Flexibility is key!

 

Wyatt's School Party-

Thank GOD there were left over cupcakes from the party. Like the EXACT number so I didn't have to bake again. I can't even express my joy. Apparently a little bit of food coloring goes a long way......

Updates anyone?.......November in a nutshell.

Sanxia

Again, I feel the need to apologize. Yes, I am woefully behind with my blog writing. I'm telling you, it's as if after I come back from the states, I'm rendered...speechless? Well, not quite, but my urge to write and to update is severely curtailed, and I can't explain why. However...I will do my best to bring everyone up to speed and continue to do so with more regular postings.
I wrote my last post in November, which as many of you know is the month of ME. Yes. My birthday month. It is also the month that we give thanks (yes, not ALL about me...though I'm sure everyone is giving thanks for me right? I kid, I kid....), so once again this year we held a Thanksgiving celebration where we had turkey, all the fixing's, sushi, decadent desserts and MMMM. Mouth watering goodness. Seriously good stuff. In between? Well, see for yourself.  Let's start at the beginning of November and I'll walk you all through the minutiae that is our lives. Brace yourselves.
Let's start with my leg massage-er. My husband, in his infinite wisdom, gave me incentive as well as the freedom of choice to pick out an item as a way to celebrate my 30 lb weight loss. In addition...it's my Birthday month. (In case you forgot). Although Wyatt was trying out multiple items, I went with the machine not being used in the below picture. This little thing is amazing. I mean, foot, calf rubs/heat- it's incredible. Seriously. I can't even describe how good. I'll stop now before this post starts getting weird/uncomfortable. Come on over an try it for yourself.

Next up? Let's just say this month was full of creativity and activity. Cue: Soap-making/Sanxia tour. Oh yeah. You read that right. The local community center has some cool trips, so I signed myself up for a day of adventure. So fun. (Am I captivating you with my heavy duty descriptive detail? So fun? So pathetic. This is why I need to write RIGHT after I do something. My apologies.)
P.S. No one will be receiving handmade soap as gifts. That I can promise you. 

 

Hand carved post at the temple.

The tools. da da da da duuuuum......

Adding in the scented herbs.

Filling the molds

The finished product.

We of course fit in a date night at Brown Sugar. All jazzy and cool and stuff. Much like us.

 

 WHAT? YOU don't take  Chinese Brush Painting classes? PSHHH.Well that's just ridiculous. I've sooooo been there done that baby. Check it off the bucket list.

My November hike through the Center. I'm telling you, November was awesome!!!

Thanksgiving! We are blessed with friends who are like family- we had a great time of fellowship and eating of course. 

The frazzled mess that I am.

Mini apple pies

Thanksgiving!

Desserts!!!

    

   

Carve it Baby!

Our impromptu overnight getaway to Taoyuan. I'll have to post more pics that Will took from this trip. It was very cool- We took the High Speed Rail down, went to the Anping Fort, traveled the markets, saw this incredible tree house.... It was awesome. I'll find the pics so you can see it for yourself. FOUND THEM!!!

This my friends, was a November to remember.