Well, it happened. My baby girl turned 4 years old on Thursday. And in case you can't tell, she loved every minute of it!
She requested a Sid the Science Kid birthday party this year, which I very excitedly agreed to. For one, it wasn't princess. Two, there was no need to do ANYthing in pink. And three, Sid cracks me up. If you haven't ever caught this show on PBS Kids, you should definitely do so.
We started the party off watching an episode of Sid.
And then moved into the "Super Fab Lab" to make some slime. I didn't get many pictures during this time because my hands were covered in slime. But thankfully my mom got one. As you can see, Madi enjoyed her slime!
Next the kids moved on to the "Backyard Science" area for a bug hunt. (This is the only picture I have of the sign that went with this activity. Doesn't Justin look enthralled?!)
Here's the kiddos (and parents) hunting some bugs.
And showing off their catches.
BUGS!
After hunting bugs, it was time to eat! The kids had Food Pyramids to color...
and there was something from each part of the food pyramid for them to eat.
In case you're wondering, the cake and cupcakes fit in the "FATS" portion of the food pyramid. Yummy!
Madi didn't care about the fat, she just wanted to eat the cake!
After lunch, the kids were free to explore the other stations and have fun. Here's the "Tools and Measurements" station where they could make dragonfly/butterfly magnifying glasses, estimate how many Hershey kisses were in a jar (135 for anyone wondering)...
and chart their height.
I think the most popular area was the "Weather" station.
We had dress up items for different types of weather. This was "snowy and cold".
BRRRR!
Next was the "Sunny and Hot" section....
Catching some rays!
And the "rainy" dress-up area...
Take cover!
For the most part though, the kids preferred to mix and match the weather apparel!
Also part of the Senses area were the pools full of packing peanuts. Hidden in the packing peanuts were little toys that they could dig out and keep. This went well for a while.
But the kids had some other ideas of how to have fun. How about if we jump in the packing peanuts?!
And why stop there? Let's throw the packing peanuts OUT of the pool, jump on them, run over them with a cart and bounce a basketball on them. :) Needless to say, the packing peanuts were tiny pieces of foam by the end of the party. I'm sorry and thank you to those who stayed and helped clean it up!!!!
At the "Simple Machines" station the kids got to build with the blocks and bricks and explore how wheels make things easier (which is where the cart came in with the packing peanut destruction!)
Paxton, for one, enjoyed building with the bricks. Well, he liked knocking them down at least!
Last, but not least, was the "Body/Exercise" station.
And of course we had to include the bounce house in this station. What party would be complete without it?!
All of this fun managed to wear the Birthday Girl out.
Who am I kidding? It wore us all out!!!
And while we might have been tired at the end, it was definitely worth it.
Such a fun day spent with friends! Thanks to all of you who came to help Madi celebrate and to my parents who drove up from Texas to help us party. Happy Birthday to my sweet Madigan!
To say she loves it would be an understatement. A few of the things she's mentioned loving - her teachers, her friends, holding onto a rope while walking out to the playground, sitting criss-cross-applesauce on the line, eating a snack, share time, quiet work, and listening to Mrs. Marti read. She's actually been getting up early every morning and asking to get dressed. Maybe we should have started her in school 2 years ago. :)
She loves it all, but especially the playground!
Apparently Mrs. Marti also has them do a little manual labor while at school. I'm okay with that.
Mrs. Marti sent me this picture of Madi at snack time. Notice anything about the other kids at her table? I'm not sure I'm ready for this...
So school has been a huge success. Not to be outdone, Paxton decided to start something new this week - doing chores!
He climbed up on this while I was unloading the dishes. I laughed and then sat him back on the floor. He looked at me, screamed, and immediately climbed back on. So rather than fight it, I think I'm just going to teach him where to put the dishes that he takes out. :)
Another exciting thing about this week is that the temperatures finally dropped out of the 90s and 100s (at least in the evenings!) So one night, the kids and I went for a little jog to the park.
This next series of pictures leads me to an important question. Why is Madigan now completely unable to take a normal, smiling picture?
Umm, cheese?
I mean seriously! Just smile!
Paxton's very different than the last time we went to the park. He loved exploring the playground and scaring Mommy by crawling at super speed toward the edges!
He and Madi even started a fun game of chase. Don't let her get me!
Ted came to pick us up at the park when we were done playing. I thought this was a cute picture of him and Madi at the rock wall.
So needless to say, it's been a busy week! Now we're just looking forward to kicking back and relaxing this weekend. Yee haw!
