Hangin' with 3Po: How to throw a Rock Climbing Birthday Party

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What's harder than climbing a mountain?  How about planning two boys' birthday parties in a single weekend?  Jammy had his 9th birthday party on Friday, and 3Po had his on Sunday, but it wasn't as tiring as it sounds, because I outsourced the location and activities to a trampoline park (for Jammy) and a rock climbing gym (for 3Po).  Just like the twins themselves, the two parties had striking similarities --  the celebrants, most of the guests (and therefore the presents), the birthday cake -- but each one was different, and special in their own way.  Here's how we celebrated 3Po's birthday:



Invitations
I found a photo of 3Po at the top of a free-climb wall, taken last summer at a playground in Wales, and used it to create a custom invitation on Evite.  I decided against paper invitations, since Evite is so much more convenient (and cheaper!) than printing and mailing out paper invitations.



Party Favors
There are lots of good options for rock climbing-themed party favors:  bouncy "rocks", small bags of rocks or gemstones, rock candy, water bottles with carabiner clips, the list goes on.  3Po's goody bags were pretty simple:  a pack of Pop Rocks and a Rocky Road candy bar.




Birthday Cake
Like his brother, 3Po wanted a chocolate chip cookie cake.  To decorate the cake, I made a rock climbing wall out of rice krispies, and stuck in M&M pieces and Wilton candy melts to make hand and foot holds.  Once again, our 2012 Olympic Lego minifigures made an appearance as gravity-defying rock climbers (with the help of a few strategically placed toothpicks!).




Activities
Our main party activity was Scrabble and Go Fish... NOT!  As soon as each kid arrived, the instructors suited them up with climbing harnesses, climbing shoes and safety instructions.  Everyone was literally climbing the walls in their eagerness to get started.  Alfie and I were taught how to belay the kids 30 minutes before the party so we could help out.  There were only 2 instructors and 18 kids, so 2 extra adult belayers meant the kids didn't have to wait too long for a grown-up to belay them while they climbed the walls.  While waiting for a grown-up, the kids were allowed to free-climb the walls up to a certain height (marked clearly with a red line), and they were allowed to run around and play upstairs in the free climb room, so no one had to sit out any of the fun.




Once the kids had gotten the hang (get it, hang?!) of climbing, the instructors organized a couple of games.  While everyone else was in the party room having snacks and cake, they hid some pennies in the free climb room, and the kids had to climb around and search around for the pennies.  They also had a Lava Wall game, where the kids were challenged to climb across the whole room without falling onto the red mattresses below (the "lava").  Finally, the kids went back to the main climbing wall and lined up for a turn on the rope swing.  A huge rope was suspended from the ceiling and the instructors swung each kid, one by one, and had them let go and flop onto a huge mattress.




A rock climbing party does have its challenges, because it requires specific physical skills, and every child is different. Some kids had already done rock climbing before; for others, it was their first time.  Some kids are natural born monkeys, and will clamber around without hesitation, while others are more timid, or uncomfortable with heights, or not as physical.  Alfie and I were gently encouraging; we were able to get several of the first-timers get out of their comfort zone and successfully reach the top of the wall, and it was wonderful to see them light up with that sense of achievement.  Some never made it to the top, and one or two didn't even want to try, so we didn't pressure them.  That's where the challenging part comes in:  boys will be boys, and I did have to remind some of the monkey-boys that it was okay if some of their friends didn't want to climb.



Fortunately, 3Po and his friends are good kids at heart, and there was a lot of ground-level fun (games of tag, mattress jumping and so on), so the non-climbers didn't feel left out.  I also prepared a couple of party games so everyone could have a bit of fun, whether they scaled the walls or not.  I filled a small jar with pebbles and asked each boy to guess how many pebbles were in the jar.  The winner (his guess was short by just 1 pebble!) won a rock candy lollipop.  We also had a marshmallow building challenge, which turned out to be a huge hit.




The boys formed teams of two, and were given a paper plate and 20 mini marshmallows.  I let them use as many toothpicks as they needed to build a structure (I called it a "mountain" to stay consistent with the rock climbing theme!).  I gave them a 5-minute time limit, and the tallest structure that could stay standing was the winner.  It was a great exercise in structural engineering, as the boys quickly realized that a tiny base with a tall antenna would quickly topple over!


Snacks
I had originally intended to go with the tried-and-true party staple, cheese pizza, but I realized I'd either have to get it delivered ($$) or leave the party midway to pick it up (too stressful), or figure out some way to keep it warm (too complicated).  I went for easy-peasy fruit kabobs (grapes and pineapples), sausages and cheese cubes on a stick, and popcorn.  I did feel the yearning to come up with some rock-climbing themed snacks, but after hosting two birthday parties in three days, the thought of preparing muffins that looked like pebbles or pizza boulders made me want to weep.  I decided to keep things simple, and consoled myself with my awesome rice krispy wall.



Besides, the kids didn't mind.  They gobbled up the food without caring that it had nothing to do with rocks.  The whole themed party business is usually a parent's hang-up (get it?  haha)  anyway.   3Po and his pals certainly didn't need rock-shaped muffins to have a rockin' time (I'm killing it with the rock climbing puns!)

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Valentine's Day Printables: You Rock!

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Valentine's Day is not a crafty holiday for me.  I have never been a fan of handcrafting dozens of valentines for my kids' classmates. It just seems like too much effort (times 3 kids!) for something that just gets thrown away.  My idea of crafty valentines is buying a $3 pack of Hershey's kisses, a pack of $3 drugstore valentine cards, and taping the kisses to the envelopes.

But the adorable images of artsy, craftsy Valentines on Pinterest have been calling to me -- and since I had about a dozen leftover Rocky Road miniature bars from 3Po's birthday party (he had a rock climbing birthday party -- get it, Rocky Road?), I decided to give them away as valentines rather than gobble it all myself.




I created a printable tag that you can cut out, fold in half, and staple to a clear cellophane bag.



One side says "Happy Valentine's Day! You Rock!", and the flip side has a "To/From" tag so kids can write their name and the name of the child they're giving it to.


I added arrows to camouflage the staples; if you position your stapler carefully over the arrow, the staple should be hidden on both sides.




You can give out Pop Rocks instead of Rocky Road bars, but the Pop Rocks need a bigger bag, and a wider tag.  I've made sheets of these tags in two sizes -- the small one can be used for cellophane bags approximately 2.75 inches (7 cm) wide, and the large one can be used for cellophane bags that are about 4 inches (10 cm) wide.  I also made You Rock tags in case you want to hand out rock candy lollipops; just punch a hole in the tags and tie the tags to the lollipop with a red ribbon.



All the printables are below.  These valentines are really easy to assemble.  They don't require any gluing, drawing or anything crafty -- but they're still Pinterest-worthy!


Foldover tags for small cellophane bags:

Foldover tags for medium cellophane bags
All-purpose gift tags

You can download all sizes in a single PDF file below:
Valentine Printables: You Rock by

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Valentine's Day Printables: Yoda One For Me

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In a recent Silicon Valley Mamas article, my friend Robyn writes of a recent DIY Valentine backlash.  I'll admit, I've noticed it too -- which makes it even weirder that I'm going in completely the opposite direction.  Since The Pea was in kindergarten, I've been content to buy cheapo $3-for-24 Valentine cards from Target or Walgreens, but this year I just couldn't resist trying a few of the DIY ideas I've seen on Pinterest.  Yesterday I made some You Rock Valentines with some leftover candy from 3Po's party, and today I made some Yoda Valentines.


3Po loves Yoda, and he chose this one on Pinterest.  It's really more of an assemble-it-yourself rather than a do-it-yourself kind of Valentine:  Just print and cut out the cards, cut two slits above and below Yoda's hands, slip in a Pixy Stix rod (you can also use a glow stick or a pencil if you don't want to give out candy), and tape the back to secure.  It's almost as easy as buying the valentines at the drugstore!

Here is an image file that you can download and print:


You can get up to 8 of these cards on an 8.5"x11" sheet of paper or cardstock (sturdier paper is better).  Below is a PDF document that you can download from my Scribd account:

Valentine Printables: Yoda One for Me by

May the Force be with you!

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Celebrating Dr. Seuss

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Dr. Seuss' birthday is exactly one week away from today, and my kids are excited to celebrate!  Okay, they're actually quite a bit older than they were in the Cat-In-The-Hat-photo above, but they still love Dr. Seuss. They watched The Lorax twice on the plane from Manila to San Francisco, and shhh... don't tell them I'm writing this, but they still ask me to read The Lorax out loud to them at bedtime!

For those of you who love Dr. Seuss (and who doesn't!), here are some fun ways to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday:



Have some Green Eggs & Ham!  If that grosses you out, top regular scrambled eggs with broccoli -- or do away with the eggs and ham entirely, and bake a Green Eggs & Ham cake.

Source: images.search.yahoo.com via Melody on Pinterest



One Fish, Two Fish Math (I think Rainbow Goldfish Crackers must have been invented by Dr. Seuss!).

Source: classroomfreebies.com via maggie on Pinterest


Dr. Seuss Word Scramble
Source: minds-in-bloom.com via Melissa on Pinterest


Watch PBS KIDS!  They are debuting new episodes of The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That ("Rumbly Tumbly / Planet Name Game” and  “Top of the Sky / Jiggle Bones"), as well as a new online game commemorating Dr. Seuss' birthday week.

Join my Dr. Seuss giveaway!  You could win a DVD copy of The Cat in the Hat: Safari, So Good.  The giveaway ends March 3, so hurry and enter!

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TwtrSymphony's Tremulando Dança to be available for download Monday, October 15th

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Pre-release copies are available NOW for FANS ONLY

Monday, October 15th, TwtrSymphony will release the long awaited 3rd movement of Symphony No. 2 Birds of a Feather, "Tremulando Dança." This piece, which some of our musicians called, "the most difficult, yet rewarding music" is finally out of the studio and ready for the public.

Sound Engineers Garry Boyle and Felipe Gonzalez have been working on this track now for nearly two months. When you hear the complexity of the voicing, the interweaving rhythms and the intricate interplay of the various melodies you'll understand their struggle. Complicating their efforts is the fact that none of the musicians recorded their parts in the same room. The whole concept of TwtrSymphony is connecting musicians from around the world. So, "Tremulando Dança" is a piece comprised of recordings from all over, brought together in the studios of Garry (in Edinburgh Scotland) and Felipe (in Concón, Chile) to create the end product.

The challenge for TwtrSymphony musicians and engineers is to keep the sense of live performance in the music. When sixty-plus musicians are recording their parts individually, without the benefit of hearing what other musicians have done, the result is sixty-plus interpretations to how each note should be played. Through gentle massaging of the recorded tracks, the engineers have pulled together their best work yet.

Sarah Richardson created a video for "Tremulando Dança" which will also launch on Monday. People will be able to stream the music live from TwtrSymphony's website, download the music or play the video on YouTube. The previous track "Birds of Paradise," released in August, reached over 1000 views in just ten days. If this is any indication of TwtrSymphony's growing popularity, "Tremulando Dança" should be even more popular as the rumba-like dance rhythms of the piece are infectious.

Fans of the TwtrSymphony website have a special bonus: right now, downloads for FANS ONLY are FREE. For a limited time, the 1st two movements are being made available for fans, but will be removed from availability next week when Tremulando is available to the public.

TwtrSymphony, conceived by Chip Michael in March 2012, has steadily gained in popularity, reaching over 1400 twitter followers. While no one on the project is paid for their efforts, the quality of their output is getting recognition from newspapers and bloggers around the world with articles appearing in the traditional press as well as online editions.

The first piece Symphony No. 2 Birds of a Feather, written by Chip Michael specifically for the musicians of TwtrSymphony gets to the very core of what it is to be a symphony. Written in four movements, each movement is less than 140 seconds (2 mins, 20 seconds) long, keeping with the premise of TwtrSymphony — to distill the essence of music. Each movement keeps with the tradition of past great composers of symphonies, the first movement in Sonata Allegro form, the second is a slow, introspective work, the third is a scherzo and the fourth (yet to be released) is a theme and variations. Not only does the music capture the essence of what it is to be a symphony, Chip Michael also feels it is important for every part to be fun and relevant to the music. "For a project designed to bring together musicians from around the world, it is important each musician feel integral to the project and not just play a couple notes here and there or just provide a steady beat," said composer Chip Michael.

Jumpin' with Jammy: How to throw a trampoline birthday party

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Last year I went all out for 3Po's and Jammy's 8th birthday parties.  Each of them had themed parties at home, and I sweated over every detail, from the decor to the games to the cake to the food -- and since they held separate birthday parties for the first time ever, I did it all twice.  This year, for their 9th birthday, 3Po and Jammy once again asked for separate parties, but this year I decided to give myself a break and outsource their parties to a local party place, so all I'd have to do was bring the birthday cake.

Of course, it didn't actually work out out that way.  Jammy decided on a party at a trampoline park, and I couldn't help it -- I had to do everything I could to fit a theme.


Invitations
I didn't bother with paper invites; Evite is so much more convenient for me and for Jammy's guests, plus it saves paper!  But I did customize the invite to include a photo collage of Jammy jumping, on trampolines, on a harness, into the water.  I used the header "Jumpin' Jellybeans, Jammy is 9!", because what would a themed party be without a catchy title, right?




Party Favors
Jammy's initial choice for his party was a science party at a nearby tech museum, so I had already planned to fill test tubes with jellybeans as party favors.  But it didn't work out, and once he decided on the trampoline party, it was too late to cancel my huge plastic test tube order from Amazon.  I didn't want to waste them, so I filled the test tubes with jellybeans anyway, and told Jammy they were Jumping Beans.  Phew, thanks to a bit of creative rebranding, the theme stayed intact!  I also decided to hand out packs of AirHead candies to reinforce the trampoline/jumping theme.



Birthday Cake
This year Jammy wanted a chocolate chip cookie cake like they sell at Mrs. Fields -- but since we were already splurging on the party, I decided to make my own.  It was so easy to make (the instructions are on my chocolate chip cookie cake post) it was just as yummy as the Mrs. Fields version, and it cost a fraction of the Mrs. Fields' version!  I also made a trampoline cake topper out of rice krispy treats (the frame) and fruit roll-ups (the bouncy surface and the covering for the frame).  I didn't have time to buy gummy bears to jump on the trampoline, so I used one of the boys' Lego minifigures instead.  The minifig is a gold-medal gymnast, one of a limited minifig series sold by Lego especially for the London 2012 Olympic games.



Activities
This, of course, was the easiest part!  The trampoline park  took care of everything, so I didn't have to do a thing.  Okay, I actually did prepare a couple of activities in case the kids got bored of jumping around.  I mean, who can jump around for two hours straight, right?  Actually, 3Po and Jammy and all their friends can, that's who!  My origami folding projects and drinking straw/Q-tip blowgun game (which is pretty cool, actually) never even made it out of my basket.  Boredom was the last thing I had to worry about:

The trampoline park -- it's called Rockin' Jump -- had a huge trampoline area, divided into sections so that kids could bounce side by side without affecting each other's bouncing.  The trampoline sections around the edges have sides that slope upwards so kids can literally bounce off the walls.



Another set of trampolines in a separate area was set up as a dodgeball court. The dodgeball court had two Rockin Jump staff members supervising dodgeball games. There was another party going on at the same time as ours, and it was open jump time, so any kid could join in, but there were many times when it was just Jammy and his guests playing dodgeball.  They had so much fun, I lost count of how many dodgeball games they played.



Another area had three trampolines with a huge foam pit at one end.  Kids would line up at the other end, with each trampoline forming a lane, and would take turns running or bouncing down the "runway" and hurtling themselves off the edge and into the foam pit.  They could jump in, do twists in the air, do somersaults or whatever they wanted.




The foam pit was really deep, so no one got hurt.  The child in the pit had to climb out before the next one in line could start -- but Jammy told me it was really tempting to keep everyone waiting while he wallowed in all that foam (maybe a part of him still remembers those ball pits from his preschool days).



Yet another trampoline area had two basketball hoops at one end. The hoops weren't quite regulation height so even little boys could take advantage of the trampoline surface and make a few slam dunks!


Speaking of slam dunks, that's the perfect phrase to describe how Jammy's party went.  All the kids enjoyed themselves, and I'm sure their parents loved the fact that they were all worn out at the end.  I felt like jumping for joy at the sight of Jammy's happy face -- but I think we've done enough jumping for the weekend.

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Hangin' with 3Po: How to throw a Rock Climbing Birthday Party

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What's harder than climbing a mountain?  How about planning two boys' birthday parties in a single weekend?  Jammy had his 9th birthday party on Friday, and 3Po had his on Sunday, but it wasn't as tiring as it sounds, because I outsourced the location and activities to a trampoline park (for Jammy) and a rock climbing gym (for 3Po).  Just like the twins themselves, the two parties had striking similarities --  the celebrants, most of the guests (and therefore the presents), the birthday cake -- but each one was different, and special in their own way.  Here's how we celebrated 3Po's birthday:



Invitations
I found a photo of 3Po at the top of a free-climb wall, taken last summer at a playground in Wales, and used it to create a custom invitation on Evite.  I decided against paper invitations, since Evite is so much more convenient (and cheaper!) than printing and mailing out paper invitations.



Party Favors
There are lots of good options for rock climbing-themed party favors:  bouncy "rocks", small bags of rocks or gemstones, rock candy, water bottles with carabiner clips, the list goes on.  3Po's goody bags were pretty simple:  a pack of Pop Rocks and a Rocky Road candy bar.




Birthday Cake
Like his brother, 3Po wanted a chocolate chip cookie cake.  To decorate the cake, I made a rock climbing wall out of rice krispies, and stuck in M&M pieces and Wilton candy melts to make hand and foot holds.  Once again, our 2012 Olympic Lego minifigures made an appearance as gravity-defying rock climbers (with the help of a few strategically placed toothpicks!).




Activities
Our main party activity was Scrabble and Go Fish... NOT!  As soon as each kid arrived, the instructors suited them up with climbing harnesses, climbing shoes and safety instructions.  Everyone was literally climbing the walls in their eagerness to get started.  Alfie and I were taught how to belay the kids 30 minutes before the party so we could help out.  There were only 2 instructors and 18 kids, so 2 extra adult belayers meant the kids didn't have to wait too long for a grown-up to belay them while they climbed the walls.  While waiting for a grown-up, the kids were allowed to free-climb the walls up to a certain height (marked clearly with a red line), and they were allowed to run around and play upstairs in the free climb room, so no one had to sit out any of the fun.




Once the kids had gotten the hang (get it, hang?!) of climbing, the instructors organized a couple of games.  While everyone else was in the party room having snacks and cake, they hid some pennies in the free climb room, and the kids had to climb around and search around for the pennies.  They also had a Lava Wall game, where the kids were challenged to climb across the whole room without falling onto the red mattresses below (the "lava").  Finally, the kids went back to the main climbing wall and lined up for a turn on the rope swing.  A huge rope was suspended from the ceiling and the instructors swung each kid, one by one, and had them let go and flop onto a huge mattress.




A rock climbing party does have its challenges, because it requires specific physical skills, and every child is different. Some kids had already done rock climbing before; for others, it was their first time.  Some kids are natural born monkeys, and will clamber around without hesitation, while others are more timid, or uncomfortable with heights, or not as physical.  Alfie and I were gently encouraging; we were able to get several of the first-timers get out of their comfort zone and successfully reach the top of the wall, and it was wonderful to see them light up with that sense of achievement.  Some never made it to the top, and one or two didn't even want to try, so we didn't pressure them.  That's where the challenging part comes in:  boys will be boys, and I did have to remind some of the monkey-boys that it was okay if some of their friends didn't want to climb.



Fortunately, 3Po and his friends are good kids at heart, and there was a lot of ground-level fun (games of tag, mattress jumping and so on), so the non-climbers didn't feel left out.  I also prepared a couple of party games so everyone could have a bit of fun, whether they scaled the walls or not.  I filled a small jar with pebbles and asked each boy to guess how many pebbles were in the jar.  The winner (his guess was short by just 1 pebble!) won a rock candy lollipop.  We also had a marshmallow building challenge, which turned out to be a huge hit.




The boys formed teams of two, and were given a paper plate and 20 mini marshmallows.  I let them use as many toothpicks as they needed to build a structure (I called it a "mountain" to stay consistent with the rock climbing theme!).  I gave them a 5-minute time limit, and the tallest structure that could stay standing was the winner.  It was a great exercise in structural engineering, as the boys quickly realized that a tiny base with a tall antenna would quickly topple over!


Snacks
I had originally intended to go with the tried-and-true party staple, cheese pizza, but I realized I'd either have to get it delivered ($$) or leave the party midway to pick it up (too stressful), or figure out some way to keep it warm (too complicated).  I went for easy-peasy fruit kabobs (grapes and pineapples), sausages and cheese cubes on a stick, and popcorn.  I did feel the yearning to come up with some rock-climbing themed snacks, but after hosting two birthday parties in three days, the thought of preparing muffins that looked like pebbles or pizza boulders made me want to weep.  I decided to keep things simple, and consoled myself with my awesome rice krispy wall.



Besides, the kids didn't mind.  They gobbled up the food without caring that it had nothing to do with rocks.  The whole themed party business is usually a parent's hang-up (get it?  haha)  anyway.   3Po and his pals certainly didn't need rock-shaped muffins to have a rockin' time (I'm killing it with the rock climbing puns!)

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