Secret Agent Birthday Party

 Hey friends!

We had an awesome little shindig for Little Man’s 5th birthday (how the heck is he 5 now??) and I’d love to tell you all about it.

This year we had a little more trouble figuring out what kind of theme to go with. So I perused Pinterest (like always) and saw some ideas for spy parties and knew that as soon as I suggested it to Little Man, there would be no changing our minds!

And while there were plenty of ideas for decorations and food and activities on Pinterest, I was feeling like I needed something a little more cohesive. Since Little Man is the oldest of most of his friends, I was concerned about making it accessible and fun for 4-year-olds. Last year we planned fun games for the kids, but they weren’t that interested in them. So this year I knew the party needed a bit more structure to work.

Children’s Art Piece– For Kids, by Kids

Well, baby #2 will be here sometime in the next several weeks. I feel like I still have loads of things to get ready before this little one arrives.

We’re planning for the new one to bunk with Little Man, at least for a while, so we’re working on making his room fit for two. While this involves mostly adding furniture and reorganizing things, I also noticed we don’t have much up on the walls. When Little Man was born, we got some adorable forest animal decals. As soon as he was ambulatory, he made it his mission in life to climb whatever was necessary to take them all down. Now he has one solitary dragonfly that’s still in place.

I didn’t really have any plans for putting anything on the wall until I got a sweet little machine for my birthday this month. It’s a Silhouette Portrait. (The Portrait is the smaller version, capable of cutting materials up to 8″ wide. They also sell the Cameo, which can cut materials as wide as 12″.) So far I’ve been having tons of fun with it. It comes with software you can install, and then you hook up the machine to your computer. You can buy designs in their store (most of which are $.99 each) or create your own. It’s really quite versatile. I love it.

Anyway, fooling around with my machine gave me a great idea for creating an alphabet art piece for Little Man’s room. The best part? He made it mostly himself.

 

Chubby Little Snowman

It’s winter.

It’s cold.

I have a toddler.

Needless to say, we’re running out of indoor activities. If you’re having a similar experience, I have a little fun project for you.

Little Man goes to an ECFE music class every week, and this is something the teacher has done a few times and LM thinks it’s awesome, so we decided to re-create it at home and share it with you. Plus this is simple enough a toddler can help make it.

Busy Book Pages 7, 8, 9 & 10

Ok, I was going to do these pages two at a time, but I’m going to be honest with you. I am so sick of writing about this busy book. I mean, I was so excited to show it to you at first, but since I can only manage to get out 1 or 2 posts a week, it’s just been dragging on. And I don’t want it hanging over my head anymore. I want to post about Christmas stuff now. So here are all the rest of the pages with instructions.

Enjoy!

Busy Book Pages 5 & 6

Goodness, guys. These busy book posts just keep coming. ;)

Hopefully you’re not getting sick of them yet. But this marks the halfway mark! So many pages…

I promise I’ll do a not-busy book related post this week, too, for those of you who couldn’t care less about busy books & how to make them.

I also have an update to make to the first page, since something broke & I had to do a little redesign. I’ll get that up as soon as I get to it. Which could very possibly not be until after Christmas at this rate.

Sigh.

ANYWAY.