Rylan's Birthday Party Details

I had been asking Rylan for a few months before planning his party what he wanted to do for his birthday.  I suggested a few times having his party at the place we take gymnastics (that's where we had Carter's 3rd birthday party) because it's always easier to have the party away from the house (and it's pretty cheap there).  But Rylan was insistent that he wanted a dinosaur party at the house.  So that's what he had.

After Carter's baseball class awhile back, I took some pictures of Rylan at the park with his safari (or postman) hat that he got from GG and Papa Art last year.  I thought I could get some good dinosaur hunting sort of pictures for the invitation.  The results weren't what I had planned on but I think they ended up being perfect!

To come up with dinosaur party ideas, I searched the internet and combined things I liked with a few of my own ideas.  Having these parties at home always ends up being a ton of work, but it's worth it.  I think it was more difficult this year though because we had 2 vacations in the weeks leading up to the party so I was more pressed for time than usual.

THE DECORATIONS

I made dinosaur footprints and taped them to the sidewalk and front steps.

I made a little sign for the front door as well.

To match the invitations, the colors for the party were brown, green, and red.  The party took place mainly outside, but I still decorated the kitchen where we kept the food with green and brown streamers and red balloons.

I decorated the screen porch too with a banner and balloons.

I cut out green dinosaurs and glued them to brown squares.  Then I put letters on the squares and connected them with red ribbon.  (My mom actually helped a little with this one by helping me cut out dinosaurs when we were in Wilmington.)

I also blew up green and brown balloons and made balloon garland with rid curling ribbon that I hung on the sides of the screen porch.

I came across a set of 6 blow up dinosaurs that I thought would make good decorations (and fun toys for the boys after the party).  One of the dinosaurs has a hole in it that I haven't found yet, but the other 5 looked good in our rock garden.

THE ACTIVITIES

I planned lots of fun things for the kids to do.  Inside the screen porch (where it is cooler out of the sun and with the ceiling fan on), I set up a coloring station.

In the screen porch was also a spot to get a dinosaur mask and tattoo.

On the table outside, I set up a place to decorate bags with foam dinosaur stickers.

The bags were needed first for the dinosaur egg hunt.  I filled over 100 Easter eggs with tiny dinosaurs (the same ones I used to decorate the cupcakes) and set them out on one side of the backyard.

I also bought some dinosaur skeletons and filled a baby pool that we already had with some sand for the kids to dig in.

Since it's always hot at the end of June, I also set up some of our water toys so the kids could keep cool.

We also had a t-rex pinata that Brian hung on our arbor over the garage doors.  I filled it with Dum-Dums, Smarties, and Starburst.

THE FOOD

I made Rylan's cupcakes.  I used white liners, chocolate cake, and vanilla frosting that I sprayed with a green food color spray to look like dirt with grass on top of it.  Then I added a tiny dinosaur to the top of each cupcake.  They actually turned out pretty good!

We ordered pizza from Jet's for the party since it was during dinner time. (We also found out that they are the only ones that deliver to our address!)

And had lots of other food to snack on.

Because cupcakes, juice, and the candy from the pinata was not enough sugar for the kids, we also had ice pops and s'mores!

Rylan's Birthday

Rylan's actual birthday was Friday (the 28th) and we planned his party for Saturday (the 29th).  We started off the morning with opening presents from us.

And singing "Happy Birthday".  Rylan's birthday breakfast request was a bagel with cheddar cheese on it - may seem gross, but he got the idea from me - it's yummy :)

Multitasking: Eating a banana while playing your new Mobigo game.

The boys had gymnastics at 9am and then we headed over to Pump It Up to play on the inflatables.  Rylan's been asking to go to Monkey Joe's a lot lately but I had a Groupon for Pump It Up.  Unfortunately he didn't think it was as good.

However, since there was a party going on and we had to switch between the rooms once to stay separate, they let the kids climb on the climbing wall.  Neither boy wanted to do it until one of Rylan's PDO classmates that happened to be there too tried it.

Carter did great until his feet were at my eye level and then he wanted down.  He did this about 3 times.  Rylan got up to the wall and decided he didn't want to do it (hence, no pictures of him).

The boys had fun in the shooting arena (however there were only 2 pairs of goggles and the balls get shot really quick and it made me a little nervous).  But then we had to leave when an older boy kept trying to get them in the head on purpose and didn't want to stop.  We were there during preschool time but I guess they let in older siblings.

When we got home it was time for nap and then we played in the afternoon until dinner.  Rylan requested macaroni and cheese for his birthday dinner and then we had cupcakes that I let Rylan pick out from the store (they had Monsters, Inc. rings on them!).

The cupcakes were pretty yummy!

Rylan's birthday was pretty laid back but we still tried to make it special for him.  His party was the next day so he would get a lot more special attention then!

Cheekwood Night & Light

Last Thursday we went to Cheekwood for Family Night Out.  It was a hot day (high of 96F) but the Zinghoppers were playing that night so we had to go (Conductor Jack wasn't there but DJ Kitty and two of the animal characters were).  Luckily the shows are always in the shade so it wasn't too bad.

We packed a picnic dinner and ate before the music started.  At least Brian and I ate - the boys were so excited that they wouldn't sit still and were running in circles near us.

The boys enjoyed the first half of the show but had worn themselves out so much in the heat that they couldn't move the second half.

There was lots and lots of jumping.

After the show, the boys found some energy and ran around for 30 minutes while we hung out on the picnic blankets.  Since the boys were going strong again, we decided to stay for the Light exhibit.

Here's a description of the exhibit from Cheekwood's website:

Cheekwood is thrilled to host the second-ever North American exhibition of LIGHT, a stunning outdoor art installation by acclaimed British artist Bruce Munro. Using an inventive array of materials and hundreds of miles of glowing optic fiber, Munro will transform Cheekwood’s beautiful gardens into an enchanting, dream-like landscape. This site-specific exhibition follows a wildly popular U.S. debut at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, and has been uniquely designed by the artist to incorporate Cheekwood's gentle hills, expansive views and magnificent gardens.

While we waited for it to get dark, we explored some areas of the garden around the mansion that we hadn't been to before.  And caught lots and lots of fireflies.

Eventually, the lights came on!  I tried to take some pictures of the different exhibits but need to return when it's darker and when I have my tripod!

"Fagin’s Urchins" in the Reflection Pool:

"Field of Light" on the Museum of Art Lawn and surrounding area:

We had planned to visit Light a few weeks ago for the members-only preview but that was the day Carter got an ear infection and was too sick to go.  But we had bought some Alien glow sticks back then that the boys finally got to use.  The boys loved them but all the other parents probably hated us because almost every kid we passed asked their parents for one.  And there were a lot of people there.  We often had to wait a minute to get through crowds walking the opposite way on the sidewalk.  Heather told me that Cheekwood was having to shuttle people in from a grocery store parking lot a few weeks ago (I can't even think of close grocery store so I'm sure that was quite a hassle).

"Light Reservation" in Mustard Meadow:

"Candlelight" in the Japanese Garden Pavilion:

"Water-Towers" in the Robertson Ellis Color Garden:

These water bottles change colors to music playing in the garden.

The exhibit was pretty cool and I'm sure we'll return again a few times before it ends in November.