It's All About Carter

For Carter's Slideshow, click the link below.  (Note:  Turn off the music at the bottom of this page before clicking link.)

http://www.photodex.com/share/bevholte/4akacmg4

Click the link below for Carter's WAOW birthday wishes.  (Don't forget to turn off the music below, if it's not already.)

August

The last post, "'Jake and the Neverland Pirates' Birthday Party" was probably the first post without a single mention of Carlee.....lol   Thought I'd do some catching up for everything else that has happened so far this month.  You can definitely tell summer is coming to an end.....

The Geo Prizm hit 300,000 miles back on the 10th! amazing!!  Truly wish all vehicles were made like this.  It's a '94 and has only had the starter rebuilt twice (once pretty recently).  That has been the only things that have gone wrong.   Gotta say with my Tahoe or (any other vehicle we've had), it's been many things.....   "I love what you do for me Toyota"  :-)

Carter getting ready to swim

Carlee just having fun at the beach

Carter

I taped up two of Jay's old blueprints on the shed, set a drop cloth underneath, put a few plates down, added some washable paint, gave the kids a squishy ball and let the kids roll the balls in the paint and THROW.  Great outdoor activity!!  They looked so neat that I decided to frame one of them.  Besides the kids' pictures, I think it's the best piece on the wall!

We started off with Carlee in her dress......

now just the diaper.....

thanks goodness that we took the dress off!!!

all finished!

goin' back for more   :-)

Carlee helping clean up after making zucchini bread

that's why she didn't want to get out of the truck!!

Carlee playing with her dish set

 Carter & Jay with their finished boat project

Carlee and I giving ourselves a home pedicure

Carter

Carter & Auntie Barbie

Me with the kiddos on my birthday

I'm old!!

Marissia & Penny

Goofy girl!

What a smile!!

My 5-yr old and his buddy getting ready to go to Pizza Hut for his birthday lunch.

Carter & Sawyer

The boys playing video games

It's no professional cake, but his only request was that it was green.  Therefore, I added  about  6 drops of green food coloring to the finished batter and stirred 'til well blended.  He thought it was pretty cool!

An addition to his leapster explorer .  He loves playing with it!

While getting the "Walk the Plank" game together for Carter's party, I caught Carlee bringing her bumble-bee pillow and blanket outside.  (She knows that they should stay in the house.)  Couldn't help but want to go and grab the camera.  :-)

Carter shooting his new BB gun he received at his birthday party.
Yikes!!  

Carlee hand-in-hand with Grandma at Irvin Park.

She got a kick out of the sheep making noises. 

Grandpa, Grandma & Carlee by one of the tigers.

Late Tuesday night, I decided that I was going to take the kids to the Splash Pad in Wausau the following day.  I kept promising Carter we'd go sometime this summer....had to keep my promise.  :-)  They had so much fun!!  I wish I would've gone to this sooner.  Can't beat the price.....$0.50 each person!  After they finally had enough, we decided to take a ride on the train at Marathon Junction (which goes around the Splash Pad and part of Marathon County Park).  We had an afternoon of fun, all for $4.50.  I couldn't believe it!!

This video clip of Carter is SOOOO hilarious!  

Didn't realize how funny it was until I watched it on a bigger screen.
(Note:  Turn off the music at the bottom of this page before viewing video.)

Video clip of Carlee playing at the Splash Pad
(Note:  Turn off the music at the bottom of this page before viewing video.)

Captured a hug!!

Next is the Edgar Steam Engine Days.........

"Jake and the Neverland Pirates" Birthday Party

AVAST, AHOY, AYE-AYE!!

I spent many hours planning this party, so I decided to share this on my blog, in case anyone else is interested in some of the ideas. I received help from many sites online, so it's the polite thing to do for others wanting to give their 'lil pirate the best "Jake" party.  Being that Disney's "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" is so new, there's not much out there for birthday parties yet.  Here, I compiled all of my favorites  for a "Jake" party.

the invitation

games

We played a few games that the kids seemed to enjoy.  The first was called "Musical Islands" which is just a version of musical chairs.  What I used were paper plates with "Jake" characters on the islands (see pic below).  Pretty simple....I put as many "islands" in a circle as there were children, less one.  Started playing "Jake" songs (videos taken from youtube and converted to MP3 files) and the kids had to follow around the circle.  When the music stopped the children had to step on an island.  The child that didn't land on an island had to walk the plank  :-/.  For this, we set up a kiddie pool with a board held up by two big bricks.    I added some ocean creatures in there to float around for an extra effect. (Wish I would've taken some pictures, but I was SO busy.)  The only problem I had was that the kids wanted to get out of musical islands just so they could walk the plank.  :-)

The second game was one of my favorites.  It was called "Sink the Ship".   We used four very large storage bins (two for each ship) and taped on a couple jolly rogers on each.  I made cannon balls (made out of crinkled up newspaper with black duct tape rolled around it.  I separated the kids into two groups; gave each group a pail of cannon balls.  When I blew the whistle, they had to throw the cannon balls in each others ships. (This part was funny because some of the parents helped get involved because not too many cannon balls were landing in the other's ship....lol) Whichever ship had the least amount of cannon balls when I blew the whistle again won that round.  We played two rounds; because each team had won once, I thought that was a good place to end it.  They were allowed to pick out something from the goodie bag for participating in each game, so they seemed to enjoy that part of it also.

We concluded the party with a treasure hunt.  Couldn't have a pirate party without one of these!   We did the treasure hunt as a team, as Jake does in his show.  This is what took me so long to prepare for, but in the end, it was well worth it. Especially when a little kid comes up to you during the hunt and says "I'm having a lot of fun!"  We started out with a treasure map that was given to Captain Carter and read our first clue.  The first picture below is the file picture of the map; the second shows the actual look of the map after it was finished.  I singed the ends of the document before I glued it onto a singed piece of a grocery paper bag.  I thought it looked a little more authentic that way.  :-)    

I did this in photoshop with the help from my mom.  (I know you weren't able to be here, but you helped out a lot with the party, so THANK YOU Mom! <3 u)

Each location, the kids had to figure out the clue and head to that location to search for a bag of gold doubloons and their next clue.  I found a PDF file of these treasure hunt clue cards below on www.familyfun.com; then i brought them into photoshop to add the text.

After the final clue was read, the kids ran to the spot and found their loot bags.  (See pictures below.) I included golden nuggets (rocks sprayed gold), some Hershey chocolate nuggets, individual Rolos, pirate stickers, pirate jokes, a "Jake" coloring page from www.disneyjunior.com, bubbles and a bouncy rubber ball.  They also were allowed to keep the gold doubloons they received from their treasure hunt, as well as their pirate gear they received when they first arrived at the party.  In the Garb Shoppe & Tattoo Parlor, the kids were given a foam pirate hat (already prepared by Marissia & Alisha....thank you girls!), a compass, eye patch, beaded necklace and pirate tattoos.

party pictures

Here are some pictures of Captain Carter with some of his crew mates.  

Some just didn't want their picture taken.  :(

Take note of their pirate names....so cute!

the kids enjoying cake

singing to the birthday boy

food

I really messed up with not getting enough pictures.  I tried to keep with the theme as much as I could.  It was nothing fancy.....we had hot dogs/brats.  For the kids, I had toothpicks with a "Jake" flag; once added into the end of the hot dog with a bun, it looked like a ship.  Then I added goldfish crackers around the plate to make it look like the "ship" was in the ocean.  See the re-enactment of the hot dog ship below.  (It was requested the following day because it was "so cool".)  Also for the kids, I made "Ocean Potion", which was just Berry Blue Jello served in clear cups, with a sour gummy octopus added on top.  The kids drank "Shark's Blood", which was Sprite served in a clear cup with an added ice cube of Fruit Punch. Once added in, it kind of spread throughout the drink....some were unsure of this name.  :)

Carter's Pirate cake

Carter sitting down to eat
You can somewhat see the hot dog ship, as well as the "Ocean Potion" (octopus already eaten) and "Shark's Blood".

The hot dog ship at sea

Wish I would've taken a picture of the watermelon ship.  It was very simple and ended up pretty cute.  I cut the watermelon in half.  Scooped out the watermelon of one half; cut a thin piece of the rind to create a flat bottom.  Cut the other half of the watermelon in chunks.  Added all watermelon pieces to the scooped out "ship"; then added a few pirate sails with wooden skewers.  (I really liked how this turned out.....so wish I would've had a picture of it.)

Thank you to all of those that helped out:  Mom (photoshop things), Jay (my go-to guy for creating the ships and the plank, helping get all of my 1,000 things to the park, for dressing up as a pirate for your son.....I'm sure there's so much more), Shelly, Marissia & Alisha (for helping set up at the park and helping serving food and bringing food and falling through with a pirate costume for Carter), Ashley (for helping out with balloon swords), Jordan & Jared (for doing the best you could with making balloon swords...lol and for helping clean up), Angie & Matt (for going back to my house to get the forgotten items and with the clean up), Bobby (for helping clean up), Rhonda & Larry (for bringing food, borrowing the skull decoration and helping clean up), Del & Re (for bringing food and for video-taping clips of Carter's party), Ryan (for printing out the cool pirate party banners), Jan (for borrowing me her pirate costume), my dad & Nadine (for helping with clean up), and to all the guests who were able to attend and make the party a success and quite a memory for my birthday boy.

A LOT of work, but I had so much fun doing this party!!


2-24-2013 UPDATE: TO ANYONE WHO IS LOOKING FOR A COPY OF ANYTHING:  UP TO THIS POINT, I WAS SHARING ANY FILES ANYONE REQUESTED BECAUSE I FELT LIKE I PUT SO MUCH WORK INTO THE PARTY, I MIGHT AS WELL SHARE IT! AS OF FEBRUARY 21, 2013, I WILL NO LONGER BE ABLE TO SHARE ANY FILES.  NOT BECAUSE I DON'T WANT TO, BUT BECAUSE MY HARD DRIVE WAS DAMAGED AND IT HELD ALL OF MY PARTY FILES. THE ONLY ONE I HAVE IS THE "CLUES" PDF FILE. THIS FILE WAS RECENTLY EMAILED TO SOMEONE SO I WAS ABLE TO RETRIEVE THAT FILE.  THESE WERE SPECIFIC TO OUR PARTY, BUT IF YOU WANT TO MAKE THEM WORK FOR YOURS, FEEL FREE TO DOWNLOAD THEM BELOW:

You may need to copy and paste into your browser.  Although, easiest way is to highlight the link, right click, and select the option to "open in new link".

CLUES, PAGE 1: http://i1127.photobucket.com/albums/l638/bevholte/BLOGGER%20DOWNLOADS/pirate_clue_cardscopy.jpg

CLUES, PAGE 2: http://i1127.photobucket.com/albums/l638/bevholte/BLOGGER%20DOWNLOADS/pirate_clue_cards2copy.jpg