Special Birthdays with Special Themes

Every year I try to create a special themed birthday party for the kids.  Generally, the rule was, we would alternate years but when a good idea presents, it is hard to resist.  It is especially true when there is a good educational component with a learning opportunity that helps justifies the extra effort (I always sneak in something fruitful).  Every one of these parties gets the kids involved in the creative process.  It is one big art project that entails planning with much time and effort going into gathering the pieces and putting everything all together.  For example, Baron's Safari party took us into the past to study how safari and expeditions became so popular dating back to the early 1800's. 

Besides all of that, I figure, you are only a kid once and in all reality, a good birthday party is just an elaborate play-date and the difference between ordinary and extraordinary is effort. 

So here are a few of the parties...

Baron's Safari Party

As a big surprise, I rented a gorilla costume and George dressed up and hid in the tree house.  Only Niah, George, and I were in on it.  While I took the kids on an old fashioned, evening Safari tour by candle light around the jungle to view the wildlife, he shook the big oak branches and grunted.  The kids were thrilled and surprisingly brave as they turned the tables on him and attacked! (This is the day after, Baron in the costume.)  

 Niah's Pink Disco Party

 

Baron's Glow in the Dark Outer Space Party

This year, Baron has been studying planets and outer space so it just seemed fitting to have this theme and reinforce the force!  Talk about a last minute plan, within 24 hours, it was a done deal. Whew. 

Another creation by Kookidoo Cakes.  This is Niah's interpretation of the Sun with the other planets at the base.

Niah's Under the Sea Party

Cake by Kookidoo Cakes, a masterpiece indeed!

An undersea habitat befitting of the grandest of Mermaidens!

A feast for the eyes!

Rancho Guajome Adobe Field Trip

The adobe was built in 1852 and served as the headquarters of Rancho Guajome, a Mexican land grant. Abel Stearns had given the rancho to Ysidora Bandini (sister of his wife Arcadia Bandini), as a wedding gift when she married Lieutenant Cave Johnson Couts in 1851.
It is a large rambling twenty-room Spanish Colonial style hacienda with two courtyards, an arcaded veranda, and other structures including a chapel in a former small house.^[3][4] It was built with the profits from the cattle boom of the 1850s, when many California ranchos supplied the Gold Rush miners and associated new American immigrants with meat and leather.^[3]
Couts was appointed sub-agent for the native Luiseño people (San Luis Rey Mission Indians) in 1853, and used their enslaved labor to improve his properties in the area, including this one and nearby Rancho Buena Vista and Rancho Vallecitos de San Marcos.^[5][6]

Landmark

The structures were was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1970.^[2][4] It is also a California Historical Landmark and on the National Register of Historic Places.

wikipedia.com

Working Hard!

Our Desk:  That's about four subjects in process!

 Still seeking the right piece of furniture to go in this space.  It will do for now.

Snack time!  Another interesting creation by Baron.  He knows how to stay busy.

Snake time!

Then there is break time!  Baron has been loving playing in the dirt with his snakes.  Niah usually has her bird out too and all the animals get along and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine.