Yoav 8 - Spy Party

This was great fun - a lot of work, but totally worth it!

I was particularly happy that for the first time Yoav was keen on inviting all the boys in his class - not only the English crew, and I wanted to make sure it went well. Yoav can be a bit sensitive at his parties so I made sure he was involved, felt in charge, and employed two young boys- who he really likes -  age 12 to help run the party, especially as it was to be run in Ivrit.
That was the first challenge - we asked someone to translate the invitation and clues for the treasure hunt so we could get it going! The invitation described the idea of the party and came with a code to decipher as the password for the party - I think it was 'Yoav Dickson' - honestly can't remember! They also had a secret handshake to learn!

There were so many ideas for this theme...here is what we did in the end:
The party began at lunch time so we started with Pizza, and they each got water,labelled 'סירופ האמת' .






















Then they each chose a fake passport and filled in the first few pages, including fingerprints and fake names etc. They really got in to this.
They also received a tag to wear for the 'training' school.
Then Yoav split them into two teams, ready for the two first missions. After they completed missions, they had to have their passports signed by the mission officers (my helpers).
Each group took turns and then swapped mission. The first mission was the laser room - we put red wool all across Yoav's bedroom and they challenge was for each member to get to the end without touching, and back again! Worked GREAT.


The other mission was shooting targets. We hung balloons from the ceiling to add to the challenge and they had to try and hit targets that Yoav had made with points on the wall. Was also a success.

Then the main challenge - to find the booty...
Each group had a different clue and set off on the hunt - including clue in the park near our house - they felt grown up to go outside of the house and the girls and Danny were waiting there with water guns to make the challenge harder and fun - they were not allowed to get wet!
The prize at the end was a bag with spy sunglasses, torch, spy treats and fake foreign money, a funky draidel...sadly can't find a close up photo of it right now.
Then the cake - we have been into smash cakes this year, so this was another one. Thought it came out great - a dynamite chocolate shell filled with chocolate money that we gave out after the smash!

The party ended off with some traditional party fun (which they have not grown out of by any means) - dead lions, grandmother's footsteps etc! Oh - and they all posed for photos using the props from Danny's superman party!

Great fun, would definitely do again! Danny, watch this space!

Ideas to limit TV Time!

The truth is, i like to think that TV does not use up too much of your time. Usually you are all busy with school, afternoon activities and homework so TV is limited to 4:30-5:30.
But, there are other times where it feels like you are too absorbed with TV.

2014 I wrote this list of activity ideas which you enjoy doing, but forget about when drawn into those screens...

Read a Book
Go to the Library
Bikes
Park
Baking
Make a film/show/video star
Make posters for your bedrooms
Write a book and illustrate it
Make a power point
Puppet show
Make a boat - or be creative with boxes
Make a garden
Paint a picture
Write letters or emails to your cousins or grandparents or friends
Make a treasure hunt
Sort out your cupboards...

Dan - Superman Party (superheroes) Age 4

Wow! I worked so hard on this party and it was so worth it - Danny really enjoyed himself and I have heard great reports from parents that their children had a great time. After going to a couple of parties with Danny with loud entertainers I think this was a breath of fresh air for the children. I even told the parents they should feel free to leave their children and go - It is easier without parents,and parents were more than happy to do this.

Weather wise, it was perfect and we actually did the whole party outdoors.
I made bottles with Superman logos, capes, cut out masks and madea couple of banners, cupcake toppers and the cake. I had loads of potential activities planned but this is what happened -
1) Arrive (most were dressed up) and pose for photos with the birthday boy, play with the phone box and make superhero masks
2) Get their capes and run around
3) Yoav and Dalia took the children - girls with Dalia, boys with Yoav and they were amazing. Not sure what they were doing with them but they had them all listening intently and repeating superhero chants
4) Superhero Musical statues
5) a quick game of dead lions
6) a few parachute games (but it was a bit mad with so many children although they seemed happy enough)
7) Pizza supper

8) Cake - Danny smashed the cake and we gave out cupcakes
9) We gave everyone little flashlights (the plan had been to find angry birds hidden around the garden but we ran out of time) and ready packed treat bags.

The planning ideas:
So I have started planning well in advance and hope that he will still like Superman as much by Nov 16th!

So the current ideas are: (hoping to reuse the town boxes and telephone box for Yoav's spy party!)

games - photos in front of boxes wearing pre-made capes

find the kryptonite - in the garden - need to 'make' kryptonite!

superhero training - throwing kryptonite bean bags thru hoop to knock over superman toy

learn how to fly - jump off something...

catch - 'it' - telephone box - safe

musical statues

dead lions

http://www.buzzfeed.com/twopoodles/superhero-party

http://www.karaspartyideas.com/2012/07/girly-superhero-5th-birthday-party.html

​town out of boxes - black duct tape and white

big blue bedding backdrop

fridge red phonebox

red capeshttp://www.slideshare.net/jollymom/superhero-cape-template

superman logo on

superman logo cake

superman logo to stick in fairy cakes

Sleep training babies

Always an interesting one and not easy to accomplish!

Without dummies, and for 3/5 children even without comfort toys sleeping could have been a challenge, but as soon as we worked it out with number one, Dalia the same methods seem to work for all of our consecutive babies.

It is, to the horror of many 'crying it out'. All it takes is oneor two nights with crying and both parents and child are happier. The way i trained the children meant i had to watch my clock carefully which distracted me from the heart wrenching cries. It is not easy but once you have made the decision to do it, both you and your hubbie have to be totally in for it and you have to keep up the same method for any night time waking (unless of course the baby has woken up for a reason or is unwell).

It also works best if your children are already in a nice routine, with regular bed time schedules so that they know that after bath, and teeth brushing, it is time to go to sleep.

After saying good night, close the door and stay nearby. After one minute, go in, pat, say good night and then leave. NO eye contact. Then stay outside another minute and repeat. Then wait two minutes before just going in, maybe a pat or a stroke (no speaking) and leave again. Then wait another two minutes - or more if you are strong enough. Then wait five minutes before going in and out the baby's room. Then ten, then 15. By the time you have waited outside 20 minutes most times the baby will have fallen asleep. If not keep going in at intervals you are comfortable with if it is helping. You should notice times when the baby cries less or more intermittently - in which case he is soothing himself and it is probably better not to go in at all. Play with these rules and intervals - something will work. and the next wake up - even if in the middle of the night you must repeat the process in the same way. After two or three nights you will have your sleep back and wonder why you let the baby take control for so long!

One thing that just worked for Ella this week (20 mths) - I had lots of eye to eye heart to heart chats to her about going to sleep nicely - with no crying...and it worked (well for three nights so far!).

By the way - I think you can try CIO method from as soon as you feel ok with it - even as little as three months. The earlier you do some form of it, the quicker you get to sleep! x

Dalia 9! Top Model party

Well, Dalia is about to turn 10 and I can't believe I haven't written up abut your 9th birthday. It was such a success!
Top model is quite the in thing - basically it's a grown-up colouring book, with outlines of models and you design and colour in clothes and hair and accessories. The girls spend hours on this and there are even by versions with cars to design and stickers etc.

So the invitation told everyone to come all dressed up and once they arrived, they did some top model designs.
Then once everyone had arrived we got out the props and I took loads of great photos of the girls who had the best time posing for the camera. While they ate I printed off sheets of all their pictures and we handed them around. Each girl received a photo frame and made their own photo collages and decorated their frames. I gave them cellophane bags to wrap them in to take home. Was such a success. They were so chuffed with it all! Even the grandparents had fun!

SUPERHERO Party - Yoav 7

Great fun and I just love seeing 7 year olds (and some 6, 8 yr olds) being little boys - having the best time, dressing up and having fun. Some mums told me their son enjoyed this party way more than entertainers - makes me so happy to know the hard work in these parties paid off!

So the theme was superheroes as Yoav is particularly into the Avengers at the moment.
Kids dressed up as Captain America, Iron Man, Spiderman, Ninjago, Ninja Turtle, Batman, and others and i love that many outfits were homemade and the parents got into it as well!

Lucky me the weather was dry just for the duration of the party (rained before and after) - it was this that made the party. The boys arrived and went straight outside where they compared outfits and got into character with playful fights and running around and mingling. Once everyone arrived we went down to the basement to decorate capes and masks which was particularly good for the two boys who decided not to dress up but soon regretted it...A few boys didn't do this but amused themselves somehow without too much annoyance! I had printed out avengers colouring sheets but in the end these weren't needed.

Once the capes were finished i put some back in their packets and others wore them and we went back to the garden as it was now dark...this was the fun part!

It was pitch black out there and everyone received a cool (1 shekel) rocket torch and they played hide and seek - they could only light the torch if they were finding or had been caught. They played this for ages and really enjoyed the run around.

Then it was dinner time and they had pizza and drinks downstairs..and then we did the cake - the captain america shield (which the boys were very impressed with) and ended with a calming episode of avengers to finish off. I cut the cake up upstairs and put on plates with star biscuits on a necklace for them to take home with them together with the capes and masks.

The party was an hour and a half which I think is just right for a party at home and there were only 14 kids altogether which was perfect for this kind of thing.

Yoav has slept in his Captain America outfit for three nights since the party..;) def a success!

Dan 3 - Fireman Party

Dan is 3!!

The happy birthday Boy!

Well this is the original plan..I will update on what actually happened!

Food – peanut butter/choc spread sandwiches

Bamba/crsips/pretzels

Veg platter

Fairy cakes

Food

Fairy cakes/number 3 biscuits (and biscuits with Dan in Hebrew)

Water bottles with labels on (replaced with a jug of squash!)

Making crowns

Activities:

Fireman sam colouring and fireman crowns 

 Fireman scavenger hunt – find the flames scattered around garden -  (cut up crepe paper in red yellow and orange) - Changed this to dolls around the garden that they had to 'save'

 Pass the parcel with torch gifts

Ready to race!

 FIRE ENGINE races - firetrucks - http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/box/firetruck/ These were great and the kids loved them and took them home!

The firetrucks!

Fire engine visit?! - they wouldn't come!

The cake

CAKE - fire engine cake http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1161474/Recipe-Fire-engine-birthday-cake.html

Blowing out the candles