Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Montessori Birthday

J goes to a Montessori preschool and they celebrate birthdays a little bit differently there. Here are some pictures of his celebration at school.

Parents make and share a poster of the child's life highlighting things such as what they were like as a baby, their first birthday, special trips or events, etc. Most of J's descriptions for each year involved some sort of travel to California or to Florida to visit family. Man, that kid has traveled a lot!

(we added some glitter to his name after I took this picture)

The kids listen to the story of J's life
The months of the year are put on the floor in a circle with a candle in the center to represent the sun. J stood on February and began to walk around the circle while the kids sang a song about the earth going around the sun. He stopped each time he got to February and told something (with some help) that he liked especially in that year. It was hard to remember years one and two! After he walked around 5 times, the teacher lit four more candles and the kids sang happy birthday. J blew out the candles and all the kids gave him hugs. They then shared a fruit salad instead of cupcakes (they discourage sugary sweets-- at first I thought this was a bit of a bummer, but honestly it was nice to not have to make 24 more cupcakes and have leftovers).
walking around the sun
making his wish

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Super Party!

We officially have a 5 year old in the house. J's party was fantastic, and as he said, "This was the best birthday EVER!" Nobody's ever accused him of not being excited about things.

It was a super hero training party. There was cape making, a Batman bounce house, games such as "Pass the Kryptonite" and "Pin Spiderman to his web". The kids attempted to destroy a #5 pinata and also ran on a superhero training obstacle course, which J designed. Many of my pics are blurry, and some were taken after the party was over, so they aren't as clear as I would have hoped, but here you go!


Happy Birthday J Sign


Super Grandma with her Super Grandkids



J wants to hang these in his room






The Super Food-- Power Juice, X-Ray Vision Improvers, Fruit Sabres (with lightning bolt handles), Brain Power Pellets, and Muscle Maker Munch.



Cape decorating-- the kids ran the obstacle course and earned their capes to decorate. The obstacle course involved jumping over rivers, crawling through tunnels, rescuing a cat from a tree, swerving through tall buildings, hopping along a bumpy trail, and pushing a car to safety.




Playing Pass the Kryptonite. We played this game without anyone being out. When the music stopped, instead of being "out", kids got to jumg along with me in a different circle and say, "kryptonite, kryptonite, kryptonite!" It saved a lot of hurt feelings.



This pinata took forever to break. Finally the loot was dispersed to all!





Super Jonah! This cake was made using a 1977 cake pan of my mom's. It took about 3 hours to decorate from making the icing to completing the decorating. It was awesome, but my hands hurt!





Goodie bags said, "Thanks for coming to my birthday party! Your Super Pal, J"



The Super Strongs. We all had superhero shirts. I had Wonder Woman, B was Green Lantern (although he was supposed to be Robin, but his shirt got messed up in the mail twice). The kiddos were superman and supergirl.

I'm hoping that J has super year as a 5 year old. I'd say it's off to a pretty great start!