The Mediocre Mom's Guide to Greatness

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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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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