A Very Hoppy Birthday

Jonathan celebrated his second birthday over the weekend. He is just starting to really talk, and "froggie" is one word he can say - although it sounds more like "foggy". Any time he sees a frog, he points to it excitedly and says, "foggie!'" So I decided to put on a frog party for him. After consulting my sisters, my mom, and the internet for good ideas, I decided to make a cake depicting the life cycle of a frog. Everything is edible except the two plastic frogs, the toothpicks, and candles. You can see the pictures enlarged by clicking on them.
Also, various food items on the menu got renamed to be "froggy friendly." Among other things, we served "lily pads" (sliced cucumbers) and "toadstools" (fresh mushrooms) with dip from a bell pepper frog.

We also served "flies" (raisins) and "frogie tongues" (fruit roll-ups) with "pond water" to drink (lime-ade and 7-up with lime sherbet on top to make it "scummy."

Colonel Strong Vincent got into the action by blowing up 360 balloons to create a "frog pond" for the little froggie guests to hop around in. He got to use his compresser which made it even more fun. To complete the pond atmosphere, he put on a tape of pond and water sounds while the little frogs played in the balloons.
Jonathan really seemed to enjoy his birthday and so did Alyssa and the guests. Here are a few more pictures of the fun. You can click on the pictures to enlarge them.
Blowing out the candles.


Alyssa covered her eyes to count to 20 while the guests hid in the balloons. Then Jonathan copied her and said, "Two, five, eight, nine."

Alyssa turns 5

I can't believe that my little Alyssa has turned five already! We celebrated her birthday last week. She wanted a ladybug party, so we invited some of her friends to join us. We decorated little bug boxes and learned about the life cycle of the ladybug. We had a cake decoraged with little m&m's I had painted with dark chocolate to look like ladybugs. Then at the end, all the kids got live ladybugs to take home in their decorated bug boxes. The kids really seemed to enjoy it, and several parents said how much they liked it, too.