Washing rocks in the pool:
Eli's carwash, er' tonguewash:
If you are a Kid Craft Weekly subscriber, you will recognize this print project from this week's newsletter. If you are not a subscriber, you should be. It's free and the newletters come in the form of emails direct to your inbox. You don't even have to go outside to your mailbox; it's that easy. 
Kid Craft recommends that you use all sorts of different sized boxes (toilet paper roll, Toberlone Chocolate box, matchbox, etc.), but that just seemed like way too much work especially when you have one of those great Tupperware shape sorters. They wash up really easy too if you use washable paint.
The kids actually did a pretty good job this time keeping each shape in it's own paint. That's a first, usually the colors get mixed up pretty quickly. Another first: Eli and Sadie enjoyed this project more than me! Yea!!!
Crawl through the tunnel:
Over the table:
Crawl under the pool:
Go down the slide:
Race across the lawn on the "bike":
Finally, shoot (and make) a basket:
The meal included: Bug Bite cookies, parmesan cheese, tomatoes, black olives, grapes, letter-shaped pasta, mixed veggies, ranch dip, blueberries, marinara sauce, broccoli and cauliflower, and goldfish crackers.
Eli and Sadie thought that this was the coolest thing ever. They loved the choices. They loved that they could eat their cookies first. They loved that they could eat their entire meal with their fingers. They loved that their food was compartmentalized. I loved that they ate almost every single bite (except for the veggies for Eli as he won't go near those with a 10-foot pole)..jpg)
Yesterdays meal was a little less healthy but we were finishing off leftovers from the party: yogurt, blueberries, pasta salad, tomatoes, corn, watermelon, hotdogs, black olives, potato chips, grapes, ketchup, and carrots.Check out these blogs for more muffin tin inspiration: Sycamore Stirrings, Little White Schoolhouse, Mama Said..., Make and Takes, Muses of Megret.
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Party favors were bug keepers and nets purchased at the dollar store.
I had several games planned, but it turns out that 3 year olds are not that into games so we only did one. We played "pin the antennae on the butterfly" our buggy version of "pin the tail on the donkey".
The highlight of the party was the caterpillar pinata lovingly made by my very talented neighbor who graciously volunteered to make one for Eli. Isn't it too beautiful to whack with a bat? We destroyed it anyways. 
It was a great day. The weather cooperated. We ate simple picnic food. The company was good. The kids played hard. And most importantly, Eli had a fabulous birthday.
but his fish cake was sort of a success if you forget about the melting frosting. 
Sadie's cat cake turned out real cute, but my mom helped with most of it. 
Maybe I should take a class. Anyways, I'll let you know how it goes on Monday. Now, I must go and put glitter on a butterfly...
A kiss for good-luck:
Enjoying (or not) the bubble tea:
I think karaoke is next!!!
P.S. Thanks Alyssa for letting me steal your photos!
Eli picked out the notebook:
P.S. I think she loved it!
She added some glitter:
After putting another piece of contact paper over her finished product, it was ready to hang up:
What a fun activity this is. It's easy and satisfying. It makes a contained mess, unless you have a toddler that chooses to dump paint on the floor instead of on the paper inside the salad spinner. I used washable paint and it came off the salad spinner easily. You can find directions at PlumPudding here.
Mix together equal parts shaving cream and white school glue. I used 1/2 cup of each and it was enough for 4 kids to make a couple of pictures each. 
Paint away. (I must admit that Ienjoyed painting way more than the kids did.)
Let dry. It takes several hours but the result is a soft fluffy cloud! **If you wanted to tie this into a book, you could always read It Looked Like Spillt Milk by George Shaw.
