A Furious Five

Ethan had one Kickin' Kung Fu Party for his "Number 5 birthday." He and I had a great time planning and preparing as much Kung Fu Fun as we could think of. Ethan had some great ideas and plans of his own. It was fun to plan with him and make his ideas a reality. In his mind, momma can do anything!


We invited 4 of Ethan's best friends...together they became The Furious Five plus Avery of course! We started with a game of Master Says. Master Says show me your best Kung Fu move!

The boys had a dumpling race with chopsticks and marshmallows. They each tried to get the most marshmallows in their bowl before time was up. Master and Po fight over dumplings with chopsticks in the first movie and Ethan loves to use chopsticks with the chopstick helpers so it was a perfect game.


Next we had a Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament up the stairs. The winner of each round moved up the stairs to his new challenger while the loser moved down to try his hand at defeating the next player. While they may not really get who won the whole tournament they really liked playing.

The Furious Five had a staring contest with masks. Ethan was thrilled to be Po and face off with Master Shifu.



Tai Lung is the villain in the second movie and of course the Furious Five defeat him. I had Bob draw Tai Lung faces on balloons and the masters did their best to conquer the bad guy!

Finally a few karate chops were in order. Each Kung Fu Master took a chop out of a Kit Kat stack of boards. They each took pride in breaking through so many layers of boards.

His birthday packed a real punch! It was fabulous and my big boy was delighted with every activity, present and birthday wish!

Animals Galore

The kids and I joined Aunt Hailey and Cousin Angela for Free Day at the local zoo. We had a great time! I think I love the zoo, animals, and adventure as much as the kids.

Most of the animals had just been fed when we arrived. It was fun to see the gorilla eating kale and celery and Ethan was treated to seeing a crocodile pick up a rat. Our favorite food scene was the elephants eating their hay from a net up high. We were all impressed with how they could twist the hay with their trunks.


Ethan was our Zoo Guide for the day. He kept the map and gave great directions on where we needed to go and what we still had to see. He loved every minute of it!


The kids were treated to a ride on the carousel. Avery chose the baby giraffe. She was so brave this time...must be all the practice she's had recently.





Ethan could not be swayed from riding "his favorite" the snakes. He couldn't have been happier!




We had a super day and headed home just before the storm blew in.

Thankful!

This Thanksgiving the kids and I really got in to showing our thankfulness in crafts...

We made Thankful Pie for Family Home Evening. Each pie would spin around and show the different things we are thankful for.

We had friends over to make a cute little Indian corn project out of candy corn. The kids liked eating the candy corn as much as gluing them on their paper.



I crafted a Reese's Pieces Indian Corn favor for the Big Feast. I used real corn husks. I thought they turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself.

Finally we joined Bob's family for the beloved Pie Party on Wednesday night and then the Banquet on Thursday. We had a wonderful time munching, visiting, playing, and eating entirely too much!