The Mediocre Mom's Guide to Greatness

Monday February 1st, 2010

Monthly Goal:

Sometimes us women are WAY too hard on ourselves and I think that we need to celebrate our accomplishments rather than dwell on our weaknesses.  So this month’s goal is to focus on the positive things you do.  Then leave a comment about something good you did that day.  Every mom needs a little recognition and we all know that our husbands and children don’t always give it to us so I say, let’s toot our own horn!  It doesn’t have to be huge.  It could simply be, “Today, I really wanted to yell at my kids and I didn’t!”  Let us celebrate your accomplishments with you.  Because focusing on our best qualities can be hard I’m going to motivate you with a little bit of a prize.  The person I get the most comments from will win a $25 gift certificate to a restaurant in their area.  If there is a tie then I will do a random drawing.  Please only leave one comment at day.  No fair leaving ten every day.  I will participate in this as well and post it on my daily blog posts.

Today’s Activity:

Plan an upcoming Birthday party.  If your kids are like mine they love to plan and talk about their next birthday even if it is eleven months away.

Note:

If there is a birthday coming up right away you can do some detailed planning, otherwise just let your kids brain storm about their dream birthday party.

Evaluate:

Max’s 6th birthday is just around the corner.  At first he said he wanted a baseball party but then it was a Batman party and then an Iron Man Party and then a Super Hero party.  Personally I thought the baseball party was a great idea and he had a super hero party last year so I did a little manipulating.  I told him a few game ideas that I had for an indoor baseball party and he seemed semi excited but then I thought of something that I knew he couldn’t turn down.  Pinatas are generally hit with bats and he LOVES pinatas!  So there you have it, we will be having a baseball party.

Prepare:

Next Thursday we will be having a family etiquette dinner so if today is your grocery shopping day then plan for a really nice formal meal.

Month Goal:

The nice thing I did for my kids today was bring them along on my birthday celebration.  We spent the weekend at Daniels Summit snowmobiling and doing the kids favorite thing (jumping from bed to bed in the hotel room).

PS…HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!  I’m 30 but I still feel like I’m 19!

Tags: birthday party, Giveaway, goal, plan, prepare, recognition
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Ginger Bread Man

I know I know, what a bizarre theme for a party!  Well my mom was a kindergarten teacher so me and my brothers ALL had a gingerbread man birthday party and so did my son!

Invitation:

I picked up some die cuts of a gingerbread man from the craft store and this is what I wrote on back:

So I’ve never made gingerbread before and I didn’t really dare.  Plus I think it is an acquired taste, especially for little ones.  So I made sugar cookies with whole wheat floor (that was really all I had in my cupboard) so they looked brown.  We had frosting out as well as fun little toppings to create a face and of course the gum drop buttons.  One thing I didn’t do that I would suggest is to have a little bag they can put the cookie in to take it home.  It can be as simple as a ziplock bag or you could even use a craft bag and tie it with some pretty ribbon.

Option #2:

This idea would be a little bit complicated.  Let me first tell you about Max’s favorite day of school so far.  At the beginning of the day they made a gingerbread man cookie and then took it to the cafeteria to get baked.  (This was a social studies activity so they could get to know the other teachers and have a tour of the school).  Then they did other kindergarten things when the cafeteria worker came and told them that she opened the oven and the gingerbread man escaped!!!  The kindergarteners were shocked!  At this point they went on a search for the run away gingerbread man meeting all the office workers and seeing where all the other grades class rooms were.  Some people HAD seen the gingerbread man and one women in the office even tried to catch it!  At the end of the day no one had found him.  So Max’s teacher set up a trap with a box and a stick and put M&M’s inside it because EVERYONE knows that M&M’s are a gingerbread mans favorite treat!  The next day during Cub TV (the morning announcements) the Gingerbread man ran across the screen while the children doing the announcements tried to catch him.  All the Kindergartners screamed with excitement!  Later on the Gingerbread man was caught in the trap set by his teacher.  While he was sound asleep the teacher took him out of the box and cut him into pieces so he couldn’t run away and the children all enjoyed a taste of the naughtily little gingerbread man.

So…here’s how to make it work for a birthday party: Have the gingerbread man all ready to go into the oven when the guests arrive.  Let them see you put it in the oven.  Go on with other party activities.  While the children aren’t watching take it into another room (or even outside) to hide.  Go open the oven and scream “Oh no!”  This will get their attention and tell them the gingerbread man ran away.  Then go on a Treasure hunt to find it.  You could also set up a trap like Mrs. Armstrong did or just leave clues throughout the house like a train of gumdrops or even just crumbs…another idea is to leave stuffed animals out the resemble the characters in the book, the little old lady, a horse, a cow…etc.   Once you find him cut him up and eat him.

Activity #2: Book

At this point we read the children the book and had an extra copy for each of them to take home as their party favor.

Activity #3:  Ginger bread man game

Supplies: A large cardboard box (big enough for a child to fit in).

How to play:  One child is the gingerbread man and one is the little old lady, or little old man.  Have the “gingerbread man” hide in the box (aka, the oven) and jump out.  Then the “little old man” will chase them and try to catch them, kind of like tag.  When we played this at my sons party the kids loved it.  It did get a little bit crazy once ALL of them started trying to catch the gingerbread man.

Cake:

I made a Gingerbread man cake.  For more details see How to Make Your Own Cake Pan in our tips section.

Tags: birthday, cake, games, gingerbread man party
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Make Your Own Cake Pans

FYI – Eventually this will be a video tutorial…I just need to find the time to make it.    This will work for now.

Growing up my mom always made me my birthday cakes. I thought it was lame and that the store bought ones my friends had were WAY cooler. Then I grew up and realized that my cakes were the best. My mom and her sister always made their own cake pans. You can make them in any shape you want. I love doing this and wanted to show all of you how to do it.

These are a few cakes that I have done in the past. I don’t have a photo of my favorite.   My husband draws cartoon pictures and I made a cake of his cartoon face as a surprise for his 25th birthday. I will have to do it again because I’m so sad that I don’t have a picture of it!

Here’s how you do it:

1st decide on a shape and draw it and cut it out of poster board (the straighter the edges the easier it is). Make sure that it is not too big and will fit on a cookie sheet. If you want to make it bigger than a cookie sheet then you can find some cardboard and completely cover it in aluminum foil, just make sure that it isn’t too big to fit in your oven….this cardboard is now a fully functioning cookie sheet!

2nd you can measure the edge of the cut out poster board (I just eye ball it), add at least two inches to the the measurement and get that much Heavy Duty aluminum foil.

3rd fold the foil almost in half, leaving 1 inch at the end, then fold that piece over again, still leaving the 1 inch at the end. This is going to be the edge of your pan.

4th tape the inch of foil you left on the foil to the bottom of your poster board with masking tape. You will need to shape the sides of the pan as you tape the bottom.

5th once you’ve made it all the way around the poster board overlap the tin foil with the extra 2 inches.

6th place your homemade pan on a cookie sheet and fill the pan with batter and bake. Watch the cake carefully because cooking times will vary depending on the size of the pan.

7th Once the cake is cool you can simply pull off the foil and frost it. The poster board will remain underneath the cake, be sure to remember that while you are cutting the cake.

I know that you are all thinking, no way, this will all just catch of fire. The first time I did it I had the same fear. My mom and aunt have done this for years and NEVER had a fire. Just be sure to place it on a cookie sheet and it should be just fine.

Shape Ideas: You really can do anything!

Tags: cake, how to, make pan, shapes, theme cakes
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Games for Teens

Do you love your neighbor?

Preparation: Set up enough chairs for everyone (minus 1) in a circle.

How to play: The person without a chair stands in the middle of the circle.  Then the person without a chair chooses someone to ask, “Do you love your neighbor?”.  If they answer “Yes” then the people sitting on each side of them have to hurry and switch seats before the person that doesn’t have a chair steals one of the seats.  Other ways to answer the “Do you love your neighbor?” question are, “NO, but I love everyone with blue eyes.” or “No but I love boys.” etc.  Then everyone with blue eyes has to jump out of their chair and find a new chair.  The idea is to always have a chair.  This is a fun and active game.

Running Charades

This game was made up by a friend of mine and I hope he doesn’t mind me sharing it.    I’m sure everyone has played charades, it’s kid of the cliche game that everyone plays.  Well my friend Bruce made it a little less cliche and more active than just sitting in your living room staring at each other.

Preparation:  First come up with your own topics.  Some ideas are 80’s movies, One hit wonders, Tween Movies, Disney Movies…etc.  Choose something that will work for the crowd you will be playing with.  Then make a list of 10 items that fit under that category.  So lets choose 80’s movies: Sixteen Candles, Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Ghost Busters, The Princess Bride….etc.

How to Play:  Break up into at least 2 groups.  When I played this we had 4 groups so you can really play it with as many people as you want.  You will need one person to be in charge of giving out the clues (this person will not play the game).  Put the groups in different rooms of your home or different sections of the yard.  The “clue giver” will stand in a location right in the middle of all the groups.  The “clue giver” (I really can’t think of a better word) will give a clue, ie 80’s movies.  Then each group sends one person over to the “clue giver” and the “clue giver” tells them the first thing on the list, ie, Sixteen Candles.  Then everyone runs back to their group and silently acts out the movie title.  Whoever guesses it right has to go back to the “clue giver” and tell them what it was (whisper it because you don’t want the other groups to hear!).  Then the “clue giver” will show them the next movie on the list, ie, Girls Just Want to Have fun.  The best way to do this is to have a separate piece of paper to cover up the clues that have not yet been given.  The group that finishes the list first wins that round.  You can play with as many topics as you like.

Candy Bar Game #1

Supplies:  Candy Bars (you will want to have enough to play a few times), Newspaper, pie tin (or something you can roll dice on), an over sized coat, over sized gloves, over sized hat, a set of dice, duct tape (or another type of strong tape) and a fork and a knife.

Preparation:  Wrap up the candy bars (individually) in several layers (at least 3) using duct tape to tape it.

How to play:  sit on the the floor in a circle.  Place the wrapped candy bar, the fork and knife and the over sized clothing in in the middle of the circle.  Pass around the pie tin with the dice in it.  Everyone will roll the dice and then pass it to the next person.  IF you get doubles or a 7 or an 11 then you go to the middle of the circle, put on all the clothing and pick up the knife and fork and try to unwrap the candy bar with the knife and fork…NO HANDS ALLOWED!  Once someone else rolls doubles or a 7 or an 11 you have to take all the over sized clothes off and go back to your spot while that person puts everything on and tries to unwrap the candy bar.  Whoever gets it unwrapped gets to eat the candy bar.

Note: I suggest using old silverware that you don’t care about because it will more than likely end up destroyed.

Candy Bar Game #2

Supplies: Enough Candy bars for everyone to end up with one.  Be sure to choose lots of different kids of candy bars.  Paper and pencils

Preparation:  Have everyone write down their name at least 3 times in a little strips of paper.  The longer you want the game to last the more times you want them to write there name down.  Put the names in a bag or basket, or something that you can easily draw them out of.

How to Play:  Sit in a circle.  In the middle of the circle dump out all of the candy bars (Be sure to have a good variety).  Draw a name out, lets say its Jenny.  Jenny gets to choose the candy bar that she wants.  Jenny likes snickers so that is what she chooses.  Jenny doesn’t want anyone else to steal her snickers so she hides it behind her back in hopes that everyone will forget that she got the snickers.  Draw another name, it’s Ashley.  Ashley chooses a KitKat.  Draw another name, it’s Sarah.  Sarah LOVES snickers and she remembers that Jenny picked it so she says, Jenny, “I want your snickers.”  Jenny HAS to give it to her.  Then Ashley’s name is chosen again so she can either choose another candy bar or steal Jennies.  Once all the candy bars are gone when your name is drawn you have to go on memory, if you guess that Jenny still has the Snickers and you’re wrong then you don’t get a candy bar that turn. You continue to play in this manner until all the names have been chosen.  Some will end up with what they want and others will have the candy bar that they hate…but, “You get what you get and you don’t throw a fit.”

Board Games

Some of my favorite board games for teenagers are:

MadGab, ImagineIFF, True Colors, Taboo, Apples to Apples, Are you a Werewolf

PS I HATE Trivial Pursuit games because someone (ALWAYS ME) ends up feeling totally unintelligent.

What if?

Preparation: You will need strips of paper and pens/pencils for everyone.

How to play:  Sit in a circle and give everyone a strip of paper & a pen.  Each person will write a question on one side of the paper and answer their own question on the other side.  For example, Q- “What is your favorite food?” A- “French Fries” Then you put all the strips in the middle and mix them up.  Everyone will choose one (not their own).  Then have one person read the question on the paper they chose “What is your favorite food?” then the person next to them read the answer on THEIR strip of paper, “Stinky feet.”  hehe…then they read their question “What can you smell right now?” (see that answer was stinky feet) and the person next to them will read their answer to their question.  And so on.  This game is HILARIOUS when you haven’t slept much.

Co-Ed Games

Kissing Rugby

This game is exactly what it says and would obviously be for a co-ed party for older teens or single adults.

Preparation:    Assign each girl a number 1-however many girls you have.  Assign each boy a letter A-Z.  Do NOT tell anyone your letter or number, it’s more fun that way.

How to play:  One person will go in the middle, let’s have it be a girl.  The girl in the middle will call out one letter and one number.  The goal of the boy (whose letter she called) is to kiss the girl in the middle before the girl (whose number was called) kisses him.  Whoever gets kissed has to stay in the middle.  This is a really fun game for teens of dating age.  BEWARE it can get pretty crazy.  Once my brothers friend seriously injured his ankle playing this game.  Now some of you may be thinking that you may as well play spin the bottle but the kiss does not have to be on the lips it can be on the cheek, neck, hand…anywhere you can get to.

Wink

Once again, this game involves a circle.  You will need to have one extra girl or one extra boy to play this game.  (Someone could sit out or play a different game and then you could rotate).

How to play:  So, lets say you have an extra boy.  The extra boy stands in the middle while the girls sit or kneel (kneeling is harder on the knees but makes it easier to move) with one boy standing behind each girl.  The boys standing behind have to either close their eyes or look down at the ground.  The boy in the middle will wink at one of the girls and then she will try to get away from the boy standing behind her.  When the boy standing behind her notices her try to move he will reach out his arms and try to catch her but he cannot move from his spot.  You could also put the boys in chairs and the girls sitting on the floor and just not allow the boys to get out of the chair to catch them.  This can be played with a girl in the middle and girls standing behind kneeling boys as well.

Tags: candy bar, charades, co-ed games, neighbor, party games, teens, what if
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Batman Party

Invitation:

My talented husband put together the invitations on Photoshop and I wrote the poem.

We included a Joker card that said I’ll See you there.  This was a little hint that the Joker was going to crash the party.

Activity #1: Super Hero Training Course (AKA obstacle course)

First they climbed over our BIG bean bag.  Then they crawled under the piano bench.  We had a different child pretend to be the Joker and trow my exercise ball at the hero.  Then the hero had to tie up the “joker” and knock down the “brick” (cardboard bricks) wall to save batgirl.

Activity #2: Joker Hunt

When the last hero finished the training course a joker card fell out of the the bricks.  It lead the kids on a treasure hunt around the house.  At the end they found the book “Batman Saves the Day” (enough copies for each child to have one, this was our favor).

Activity #3: Story time

My husband read them the book.  In the book it is Bruce Waynes birthday party and just before the cake is served the Joker crashes the party.  It was PERFECT for what we wanted to do.

Activity #4:  Fight the Joker

Just as the cake was about to be served the Joker (AKA my hubby who happened to dress up as the Joker for the previous Halloween) started laughing his scary laugh and then he came out.  All of the kids (without any cue) instantly attacked him.  Once the Joker had had enough of that it was time for cake and  ice cream.

Cake: Homemade

Growing up I thought that my friends were SO lucky because their moms bought their cakes.  My mom always made mine and now I would never buy a cake.  Homemade just tastes better.

I know how to make my own cake pans (learn more here).  So, I made a bat sign Ice Cream cake with cool whip frosting.  Here’s my TIP take it out of the freezer at least a half hour before you are ready to serve it.  It was rock hard and the kids could hardly eat it.

Gifts: Heavy heavy hang over

We decided to see how strong BatMax really was by playing heavy heavy hang over.  Now this game was a hard for a bunch of 5 year olds to grasp.  The kept yelling out, “Max this is Reed and this give is from me.”

If you don’t remember how to play here it is:  You blind fold the birthday child and then everyone says, “Heavy heavy hangover thy poor head what would you wish with a bump on the head?” just as they say bump one of the children bump the birthday child on the head with their gift.  Then the birthday child has to guess who bumped them and they can’t open the gift until they guess right.

Play time:

At this point Max had lots of new exciting toys so we opened them up and let the kids play with them while they waited for their parents.  (PS…this took a long time…I thought with 3 activities & cake & gifts that 2 hours would be perfect but 1 1/2 hours would have been better.

Decorations: Less is More

I don’t generally do a lot for decorations.  We bought some superhero plates etc and put up some streamers but other than that we didn’t do much.

Ideas: Transform your home into a bat cave…cover the windows with black paper, hang paper bats from the ceiling…cut out a bat sign that would fit perfectly over your largest flashlight and shine it on the wall in a dark room (the bat signal)….If you have action figures you can set them up and use them as a centerpiece.

Tags: batman party, cake, games, gifts, heavy heavy hangover, invitation
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Princess Party

Invitation:

My hubby created the invitation on photoshop and I wrote the poem.  You can always do the Date: Time: Location:…invitation but I think that poems are fun.

Favors: Crowns and Tiaras

We gave all the boys crowns and all the girls Tiaras as their favors and they wore them during the party.

Food: “Tea and Crumpets”

We just had finger foods but a few years later I found a really cute book at a Kitchen Supply store that had a lot of princess type finger foods…sorry but I don’t know the name of it but I’ll look for it next time I’m in that store.

So here is what we ate:

mini pigs in blanket

Relish plate

Small sandwiches

Fruit

Russian Tea

Activity #1: Kiss the Frog

I found this idea online while planning this party.  Basically you make a frog out of poster board paper, blind fold the girls and give them a pair of lip stickers to stick on the frog.  Now what I did differently was put bright lipstick on the girls and had them actually try and kiss the frog and if I do say so myself this was WAY more fun.  What little girl doesn’t love putting on a little lipstick?

Activity #2: Rescue the Princess

This game involved the boys because Princes do not kiss frogs.  We assigned every prince a princess.  Then all the princesses hid somewhere in the house and their prince had to rescue them.

Other Princess Activities Ideas: This party was for a 1 year old so those two games were enough.

• Do makeovers
• paint nails & toes
• Play Dress Up
• Ball – have a ball in your living room and let the girls dance with “prince daddy” or they can dance with mommy or together but there MUST be lots of twirling.

Cake:

This was my daughters 1st birthday so I made her a small castle cake (see How to Make Your Own Cake Pan in the Tips section).  I made cupcakes for the other kids and stacked them to make a tower/castle.  Then I made double chocolate bunt cake for the grown ups.  I was ambitious and made WAY too much cake.  PS Some cake shops sell princess cakes with a barbie in the middle they are very cute and perfect for a princess party.

Gifts:

Like I said before this was her first birthday so she wasn’t really sure what was going on so we just sat and opened gifts but here is a fun idea.  Decorate a chair to make it look like a throne, it doesn’t need to be anything too extravagant but just make it look like an extra special chair for a princess.

Decorations:

We decorated with our favors, our frog prince, and I attempted to build a princess tower out of cardboard bricks.  We also added streamers around the house because her birthday is jut before Christmas so we wanted to make it look more like a birthday party rather than a Christmas party.  Here are some pictures of what we did.

Tags: birthday, cake. decorations, favors, food, games, invitation, princess party
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Games for Young Children

Duck Duck Goose - now don’t shake your head at this suggestion.

Duck duck goose can be turned into anything.  Good guy good guy bad guy for a superhero party.  Princess, princess, Witch for a princess party.  Dora, Dora, swipper for a Dora party.  The possibilities are Endless!

Kiss the Frog - AKA Pin the nose on the donkey

Honestly, I think pin the nose on the donkey is the dumbest game ever but Kiss the Frog is fabulous.  I found this while planning a princess party for my daughters first birthday but I changed it up a little.  Basically you make a frog out of poster board paper, blind fold the girls and give them a pair of lips stickers or cut out lips with tap and there you have it.  Now what I did differently was put bright lipstick on the girls and had them actually try and kiss the frog and if I do say so myself this was WAY more fun.  What little girl doesn’t love putting on a little lipstick?

Hide and Seek - I know I know but just like Duck Duck goose this can fit with ANY theme

At our princess party this was Save the Princess.  The girls/princesses hid while the boys/princes tried to “rescue” them.  Each prince was assigned a princess that they needed to find.   This would also work for a super hero party, you could either have the good guys or the bad guys hide while the others went to either capture them or attack them.

Read a Story - Ok, not really a “game” but it works

I’m not a fan of cheap, breakable or edible party favors, the kids just cry after they are broken or eaten.  So I give books instead.  I can usually find some for about $3 each that go with the party theme.  We take a little break from the running around games and read them the book that they will each get to take home.

Treasure Hunt - It’s not just for pirates anymore

This is always a fun one for a pirate themed party.  The pirates can search for a lost treasure by using a map or clues that eventually lead them to their party favor.  BUT you can also use this for other types of parties.  We had a Batman party and after one of the games we had Joker card fall out with a clue and then began the hunt for the Joker but it ended with the party favors instead (the Joker came later).  You could have a Dora party and send them on an adventure exploring and following different clues.  The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles could follow clues to find a bad guy.  This could really work for ANYTHING.  Just be creative.

Obstacle Course

This is my favorite for Super Hero parties.  Set up a obstacle course with bad guys rolling exercise balls at the hero, tying up a bad guy, things to jump over and crawl under.  My mom has cardboard bricks that we would set up as a wall at the end for the superhero to knock over and rescue the damsel in distress.  My brother did an Indiana Jones party complete with the rolling boulder (exercise ball), guns (nerf guns), and snakes (plastic ones of course).  The children had to take a water bottle that looked like some great archaeological treasure and replace it will a bag of rocks and then make their way out unharmed.

Beat up Daddy - What kid doesn’t love wrestling with dad?

Now if your husband is willing to help out (I had to do some convincing) then he can make for the perfect punching bag.  Simply dress him up like a bad guy or villain and let the kids attack. 

Tags: birthday party, Dora, party games, pirates, princess party, super hero, young children
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