Ripley's Odditorium and the World's Largest McDonalds

After working in our yard all day on Saturday, we decided to take the kids out on Sunday to Ripley's Odditorium and The World's Largest McDonalds on I-Drive. Mainly the reason we decided to go was because it was free and we're always looking for new things that aren't as crowded as the theme parks. We also brought along Mimi's son (and my student!) Troy. The kids had a great time looking at all the weird and cool displays.

Here are some of the weird displays. The man that can pop his eyes out of his sockets, the musical car, half ton man, Throne of Passion (?), world's tallest man, largest tire, and a huge chair.






Right next door to Ripley's is the World's Largest McDonalds. We knew this place was going to be crazy, but that the kids would love it. We ran into Birdie (not sure who she is, I remember the hamburglar, grimace (robble robble), and the fry guys)! Upstairs was a huge arcade that we let the kids play in for a while. Then it was time to go home for naps!

Boosterthon Fun Run

Mady's school had their Boosterthon Fun Run on Wednesday. Mady loves running and was excited about running and ran over the 35 lap mark. Guess this means we owe a lot of money for the school! The run was good practice for cross-country season that is coming up. Jacob is going to be one of the coaches at Lawton since practices are held early in the morning!

We're Back.... this time to Animal Kingdom!

We made our first post-summer trip to Disney Thursday, with a visit to Animal Kingdom. Since the kids had off from school and Jacob and I didn't have to work, we figured it would be a good day to visit Animal Kingdom for the day. We did a very brief tour of the park since Mady and Emily still had tennis lessons that afternoon. Mady's friend Emily came and so did her dad.

Our first stop was to Rafiki's Planet Watch. We saw Jiminy Cricket so we stopped for a picture. We also went outside to brush/pet the sheep, but many of them were hiding under the covered area. KK was really into it and loved brushing them.


Riding the train back is a good time for a snack break!


After Rafiki's Planet Watch, we rode the Safari ride and walked the trail to see the hippos and gorillas. Then it was time for lunch at Pizzafari before the Festival of the Lion King Show.


Before the show we walked around and saw some characters. Here they are with Thumper and some other rabbit from Disney.

KK fell asleep during the show. She was exhausted and even with the loud music and dancing she still slept. We left after the show and headed home. Our next visit will be to the Magic Kingdom on Oct. 17 when the girls are out of school again!

Gatorland

On Sunday we decided to take the girls to Gatorland since we all got in for free. We only had to pay for the train, so in all we spent about $14. It was nice to get out of the house, especially since we did yardwork all day Saturday and then Mady had a birthday party Saturday night. Let's just say the girls were not impressed with Gatorland and want to go to Disney instead. We did ride the train, feed the goats, saw the white alligators, and watched the jumperoo show. I'm glad we went, but we will not be going back for awhile! Thank goodness we have Thursday off from school and we told the girls we'd take them to Animal Kingdom for the day!

Apple Day

Mady's class celebrated Jonny Appleseed's birthday and learned all about apples last week. On Friday they had a mini celebration with apple tastings, apple prints, and apple experiments. I visited her classroom for a little bit and worked with the kids on the 5 senses and apples. They were so cute! Mady and I also made a homemade apple crisp the night before for all of the K teachers to enjoy at lunch!

A Very Hungry Caterpillar 1st Birthday Party

I love planning birthday parties! The planning process to me is the most fun part of the whole party. I always start 6 months ahead to gather ideas, look at websites, and find items for the party on sale! It really does help to get the most for your money when you plan ahead!

My best friend's daughter was turning 1 and she asked me to help plan a Very Hungry Caterpillar birthday party for her. Once the 6 month mark came, I got to work! I scoured websites, stores, garage sales, you name it, to get the best of everything at a reasonable price.

We knew the basics of the party, it was going to be held at Wedgewood Tennis Villas Clubhouse, Mr. Richard was going to perform, and it was going to be from 10-1 on a Saturday. After all those reservations were met, it was time to begin the actual planning and details.

The Food! Since the birthday party was at 10 am we knew we wanted to serve lunch, but wanted to keep it simple. We decided on sandwich platters and Chick-fil-A nuggets, plus chips and drinks. We needed something to hang above the food table and found this adorable custom-made banner on Etsy. It's all fabric with a polka-dot theme.

I also wanted something special on the food table that was representative of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I filled these vases with fruit the caterpillar ate in the story. They added a lot of color to the table. I also ordered confetti from Etsy that had all kinds of pictures from the story, but also had the #1 on them and the birthday girl's name.The Cake! The cake is a huge part of any birthday party and this one did not disappoint! I found a caterpillar cake at Costco for only $17.99 and it was awesome. I customized it just a little so that it had mostly primary colors. We added some lollipops around it (the caterpillar eats lollipops in the story) and some primary balloons. To make the table a little more thematic we added The Very Hungry Caterpillar hardcover book (TJMaxx $9.99) and a caterpillar from Kohls ($5).

The centerpieces were a lot of fun to put together and they served a dual purpose as the party favors. We ordered large lollipops from Oriental Trading Co. and found the buckets in the clearance section of Target's summer section. Add some newspaper, floral Styrofoam, and shredded paper and they were very easy to create. We also put gummy caterpillars in them that they kids loved to go around and eat! I also cut out butterflies, the number 1, and an apple with a caterpillar to spread out on the tables.

Every first birthday has to include pictures of the birthday child throughout their first year. Since they change and grow so much it's fun to display their changes. I used picture frames (Dollar Tree) and then put 5x7 pictures of the birthday girl in them from birth to 12 months. I glued pieces of The Very Hungry Caterpillar to the frames that I got from a game I purchased at a garage sale for $2. I also made a month by month caterpillar showing the birthday girl in each link of the caterpillar. We had leftover lollipops so we spread them on the table.

While the kids waited for Mr. Richard to play and for guests to arrive, we had little booklets of the story printed out from the internet and butterfly puppets that I got on clearance from Michaels. We put crayons in little colored buckets (Oriental Trading) so that each kid could take them back to their table to color while waiting for the show!

Finally it was time for the entertainment. Mr. Richard is a local children's folk singer that is known around town. He plays his own songs, plus a couple of familiar songs. The clubhouse was perfect because he had his own stage and the kids had a dance floor.
And finally, the smash cake. We kinda forgot to decorate the chair the birthday girl would be sitting in, so we threw in some balloons and leftover cut-outs. We made her smash cake with cool whip instead of frosting, since it's easier to clean up. However, it is really difficult to decorate a cool-whip cake because icing does not stick to it. But it turned out perfect and the birthday girl loved it!


This party was so much fun to plan! The parents didn't have to do a thing, but enjoy their daughter's first birthday party which is the best part!