The Almost Impossible Astronaut & Ballerina Party Photos

The party day was cold and windy, but that didn't deter us from having a great time! We added an outdoor  fire, s'mores and hot cocoa and we were good to go. The kids stayed outside for more than an hour playing with the rockets, gliders and zipline before we came inside for cake.

My tutu wreath made on an embroidery hoop

Our homemade rockets and goodie bags

I didn't get any pictures of the kids performing on the reclaimed pallet stage,
but both the girls & boys loved it.
They found instruments like our Paperjamz guitar and put on a show!

Dollar Tree foam gliders were a huge hit (while they lasted)

They girls liked the Rocket balloons as much as the boys

Rocket balloons from Dollar Tree - tons of fun!
Tip: buy several balloon pumps if you get these
otherwise they are really hard to inflate

Stomp rocket was played with all afternoon by both boys & girls

Everyone loved the zip line! The flight training sign blew down

 

Space helmet visors raised to eat s'mores

Fortunately you can eat s'mores with your tutu and tiara on

Cake with moon topper and tutu

rocket craft



Craft & cake aftermath...

 

Please see previous posts for more information about the cupcake toppers, rocket craft, helmets, tutus and my tutu cake plate.

Tips of you try this party at home: splurge and buy a zip line if your yard will accommodate it. If you can't manage a zip line definitely buy a stomp rocket (or two!)  The toys from the Dollar Tree (gliders and rocket balloons) were fabulous. You could probably skip the dress up costumes and just buy a glider & some rocket balloons for each guest and they would entertain themselves until they broke and/or were lost.

This was a fun party, but at the end I was (as always!) exhausted. Next year, I swear I'm going to talk her into having her party outside of the house. I'll pay the extra $100 - it took me almost a week to clean the house, decorate and cook. Surely my time is worth at least $100. Live & learn....



Surgically Assisted Rapid Palate Expansion (SARPE) from a Parent's Perspective

 

This is the roof of Amanda's mouth. You can see that her palate (roof of her mouth) is only several centimeters across at the top. As a result of this narrowing her teeth are overcrowded and crooked. She has had several teeth pulled, but it hasn't helped enough.

Now she has to have surgery to correct the problem. Since she is nonverbal it is hard for me to know if she understands what will be happening. It's also hard to know how she will be feeling after the surgery.

Luckily for us there are lots of firsthand experience blogs online for me to reference. I contacted Brandi at Happygoplucky as her surgery was just completed this summer. She was realyl nice - wrote back immediately. I'm sure I'll be in contact with her often as Amanda recuperates.

So, future posts will be on our experiences as parents, rather than as patients. I hope that we can help other parents whose child with special needs - or without- has to undergo this surgery. Stay tuned.

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Simple Rocket Wand Craft

On my quest for activities for the Almost Impossible Astronaut & Ballerina Party, I got lucky and found pretty pastel star wands at Dollar Tree for the girls (3 for $1). I wanted something similar for the boys to decorate and play with. I came up with this easy craft.

I bought 30 paper rocket cut outs at Hobby Lobby for $1.99. I then bought 16 wooden dowels and 3 spools of thin ribbon at WalMart for about $2.50.

All I did was cut various lengths of red, yellow and orange ribbon. Then I glued them on to one of the rockets.

I rolled the end of a wooden dowel in glue. I outlined the rocket in more glue, place the dowel on it and then glued another cut out on top. This project  is so easy that your birthday boy or girl can help you assemble them.

 

The finished rocket wands were ready to be decorated! Each cost about 30 cents to make.

 

Sometimes I think I hear her voice...

Danielle slipped her hand inside mine as we walked down the sidewalk. Looking at the ground she said quietly, "Sometimes I hear a voice in my head. It's not yours or Daddy's. I think it might be Amanda's." 

She stopped walking and looked right into my eyes. "When they fix her mouth will she be able to talk to me?"

It almost broke my heart. I hurt for both my girls. For Danielle who so desperately wants a typical big sister. And for Amanda, trapped in her body with no way to communicate with us.

I get the same question from my father and my friends. "Will the surgeries help Amanda to finally talk?" I hate to give them the painful, truthful answer which is quite simply,"No."

Amanda is about to undergo a series of craniofacial surgeries intended to improve her ability to breath, eat and hear. No one  has given us any reason to hope that these will allow her to speak. We aren't entering into these surgeries casually. They are not intended as cosmetic, rather they are intended to improve and extend her life.

For years Amanda has had sleep apnea. We hear her struggling to breathe at night. Sometimes it grows quiet and then we hear a sudden loud gasp, as she resumes breathing, having briefly stopped for a few seconds. It sounds like someone surfacing from deep underwater, sucking in air greedily. It is terrifying no matter how many times I've heard it over the years. 

As an infant Amanda had difficulty feeding. She was fed through a tube in her nose while she was in the neonatal intensive care unit. When she came home she had difficulty nursing and we had to bottle feed her. I remember being accosted by an elderly man in the grocery store while I was purchasing formula. He scolded me for not breastfeeding my daughter. I wanted to shout, "If I did she would have starved to death by now!" Instead I ran crying from the store and bought formula at a CVS across the street.

Only recently has she been diagnosed as having most of the symptoms of Pierre Robin syndrome (PRS). Pierre Robin syndrome (or sequence) is a condition present at birth, in which the infant has a smaller-than-normal lower jaw, a tongue that falls back in the throat, and difficulty breathing. Amanda's symptoms include a high arched palate, small jaw with receding chin, repeated ear infections, a tongue that is large compared to her jaw, breathing difficulties, choking episodes (as a young child), feeding difficulties, and low blood oxygen levels.

Oddly my fight to give Amanda a "normal" life may have contributed to this delayed diagnosis. If she hadn't learned to eat and was forced to survive on an NG tube doctors might have taken more notice of  the structure of her mouth and jaw. Another contributing factor was  that her genetic condition was so rare that there was no frame of reference for us as parents or for her medical providers. When Amanda was sent for genetic testing the geneticist had assume based on her cardiac anomoly and facial characteristics that she had velocardiofacial syndrome. If the genetics screening had confirmed that diagnosis Amanda probably would have been treated for PRS years ago as it is fairly common with that syndrome.

Danielle's question made me remember. Years ago, when I still had hope that Amanda would speak, I used to hear her in my dreams, too. I miss her dream voice almost as much as I long to hear her true voice. I miss the hope I had when I dreamed those dreams - that I will some day hear her speak.

The Ballerina & Astronaut Party - Games & Activities

Activities

Crafts are a good ice breaker for young children who don't all know each other. I'll have each child decorate a paper rocket or ballerina when they arrive. I bought paper rockets at Hobby Lobby, but I had to cut out ballerinas. The template came from Pottery Barn Kids so at least I didn't have to draw it. The craft materials will come from the supplies we have around the house (glitter, stickers, ribbons, etc.)

I strongly believe in unstructured play time. If you give children a few props and a lot of leeway they can create some amazing games on their own.

Dress Up & Play Time

This is my big splurge - a costume for each party guest. I confess that when I found tiaras and armor at Dollar Tree I tried to talk Danielle into switching to a princess and knight party. No go - she is set on ballerinas and astronauts. It makes me laugh. It's the kind of party we would have had when I was a kid in the 1960s and 70s -- very retro.

Ballerinas: I bought the girls each an adorable tutu from Halo Heaven. With shipping, the tutus were on sale for just over $2 each. (Tip: Get on to their mailing list. They have amazing sales!) They are every bit as nice as ones I've seen for $7-10 in stores. They have satin waistbands and three layers of tulle. Really lovely.

I'll hang the tutus over the windows so they look like curtains before the little girls put them on.

How to Make a Tutu

I think it is impossible to make a tutu for less than the prices at Halo Heaven. However, if you're feeling crafty & brave you can make your own no sew tutus by tying 20 inch strips of tulle around some elastic. All you have to do is fold the strip of tulle in half lengthwise, lay it over the elastic and then pull the cut ends over the elastic and through the loop. There are tons of tutorials out there if you want to go that route. I will warn you, however: one tutu requires about 20-25 yards of 6-inch wide tulle- and a lot of time! I priced 6" wide tulle at $4.99 for a 25 yard roll from Hobby Lobby- wider tulle was 97 cents a yard at Walmart if you don't mind more cutting.

 

I did make one tutu - to go around the cake plate. I love the way it looked and it cost less than $6.

Astronauts: Space helmets for the boys cost $4 and are adorable. Frankly, I think they are cooler than the tutus so I ordered extras in case some of the girls want to be astronauts as well. (My husband assures me that it is unlikely any 6-year old boys will want to wear a tutu. I'm not so sure...) In fact, I think the astronaut theme is much cooler than the ballerina theme - especially as Danielle dropped out of her ballet class.

How to Make an Astronaut Costume

Another idea is to make a simple NASA inspired baseball cap. Use a blue baseball cap ($21 for a dozen from Oriental Trading) then attach a space themed sticker to the front ($2.50 for a roll of 100) with fabric glue. Any leftover stickers can go in a pinata or goodie bags. Or - if you have only a few guests or an unlimited budget - use iron on printer paper to print the NASA logo onto inexpensive white T-shirts.

Games: Dancing & Rocket Launches

I had a hard time thinking up dance games that didn't involve a pretend ballet class. First we'll play Freeze Dance. For younger kids you can play the Choo Choo Soul Freeze Dance or Fresh Beat Band Freeze Dance songs. For this party I also like Laurie Berkner's Rocketship Run.  Danielle says those are "too babyish" so we'll probably play Rianna or Usher if I can find songs with G ratings...

Next I created  "Dreamlight Studio Stage" for dancing with colored shadows. Happily, my daugher thinks any raised surface is a stage - it doesn't have to be high. This is one of the rare instances where being a pack rat paid off. We nailed a scrap piece of plywood onto a pallet to create a sligtly elevated  stage. We washed them, then painted the top a pretty pink made from paint samples we had in the garage. Of course, Danielle helped with the painting. Then I draped the ceiling with tulle to create curtains.

This is secretly a very cool science experiment about light. You need three bright lights with colored bulbs (or covered with colored cellophane) and a light or white surface to create shadows against. You'll need a red, green & blue bulb (about $3 each at Lowes). With these three lights you can make shadows of seven different colors: blue, red, green, black, cyan (blue-green), magenta (a mixture of blue and red), and yellow (a mixture of red and green).

If you can only find low wattage bulbs, the kids will have to be close to the wall to see the different colors. I hope I can resist explaining the physics to a bunch of 5 and 6 year olds....


The backyard will be "Mission Control". We'll have a "Launch Pad". We have a stomp rocket already. The kids can also play with rocket balloons and big Styrofoam gliders from Dollar Tree.

I'll create a "Flight Training Center" where the kids can take turns on our zip line. I made sure to include a warning on the sign for the zip line. I'll set a basket of bike & horseback riding helmets near the steps. We wrapped the "target" tree in heavy duty foam padding. I want to keep this as safe as possible.

I found a tutorial on how to make a cardboard rocket playhouse from a garment box. I didn't have any friends who had moved recently but I was able to pick up a new one at a local moving center for $12- beats the $60 kits for sale online!

Party Favors : Moon Rock Hunt

Instead of a pinata we'll end the party with a Moon Rock Hunt. I'll wrap small toys left over from previous parties in aluminum foil and hide them around the yard. There was no candy in these since I was hiding them in the yard. I can't imagine anything grosser than picking up a prize covered in ants.

I'll use bouncy balls, small bottles of bubbles, shaped erasers, pencil sharpeners, plastic rings, yoyos, small plastic figures.  The kids can collect them in brown paper bags labeled "Moon Rocks" in a retro NASA font.

Quick & Easy Crafts --- No Such Thing!

Every time I decide to try a new craft I naively think, "This is it! This will be the one that I am good at; the one that will turn out exactly like the picture in the online tutorial." I get suckered in by articles that state "special tools and materials make this project a cinch.." They never mention that these special tools and materials will cost you an arm and a leg - and take several months to learn to use properly.

For Danielle's upcoming party I think I'm 0 for 5. Let's see... first there was the frosting fiasco. I beat the cream cheese frosting at "medium high speed for 5 minutes" exactly like the bag of confectioner's sugar instructed. I even set a timer so I wouldn't turn the mixer off early.  Only- the instructions weren't for cream cheese frosting and I ended up with a delightful cream cheese soup. It really tasted great - it just ran right off the cake. I poured it into a Ziploc bag and tossed it in the freezer. I figure it will keep and maybe I can use it to ice cookies at some point in the future.


Next I tried the oh-so-easy ballet slipper craft. Seriously? Can anyone dip stuff in melted chocolate and make it look good?!? Most of the things I try look like hairballs my cat might have coughed up. And then the gleeful DIY fairy states that next you just, "pipe on the finishing details.." Ahh! And how do I do that, exactly? My attempt using a Ziploc bag as an icing bag was less than stellar. In fact, after several tries I gave up completely on the adorable ballet slippers and decided instead to serve simple pink sugar wafers (Goya $1.99/package) - no adornment required.

And this was the best I could do!

The third thing I tried to make were the awesome marshmallow aliens. I fell victim to bad blogger syndrome when I wrote" No matter how tempting it is - don't dip them in the food coloring! They will never dry... Trust me on this one." I should have come straight out and said that when I woke up the next morning my test aliens were still so sticky from being soaked in food coloring that they had slid down their little sticks, looking like they had all been lobotomized. I should have been truthful and written that I gave up on that plan and went searching for another, less sticky method of making alien marshmallow pops.

Now imagine these several hours later - looking like they'd been impaled through the head...

Next I thought it would be nice to use up the candy melts since I'd spent $3 on them and already had lollipop sticks.  I had a lollipop mold that I'd bought last year and never used. The pictures on it were lovely. "How hard could it be?" I wondered. I looked up the instructions on line and it was rated "easy". Sounds about right for me....

Wilton's flower lollipops --

The flowers actually were quick and easy even if mine didn't look quite as nice as those on the package.

Tip: Tap the mold to get out air bubbles
or your flowers will look like bugs have gotten to them

I got cocky. I pulled out the elaborate Halloween jack o lantern mold I had also bought last year. (I must have felt particularly ambitious last fall..) I figured that it couldn't be much harder than the flowers. Ha! My poor jack o lantern pops look like The Joker had a field day with them. Despite carefully applying melted chocolate with a tooth pick I had uneven eyes, large misshapen mouths, off kilter noses - and I was following a pattern in the mold! Imagine the mayhem if I had tried to free hand those bad boys.

I didn't even waste lollipop sticks on these monstrosities.

To add insult to injury, when I unmolded them, many of the painstakingly applied chocolate details fell off! In the end I have to ask myself, why did I spend almost $15 and more than an hour's time making 16 flawed lollipops. For about the same price and amount of time I could have driven to a local chocolate shop and picked up an equal number of lovely, aesthetically pleasing chocolate pops.

For a true crafter I suppose there is value in having learned a new skill, produced something with your own hands, and used your time to make something that will bring joy to others. In my case, I have to confess that it really is all fodder for my true hobby - blogging.

If you've been keeping track You'll remember that I said that I was 0 for 5 on this party but I've only listed 4 of my craft disasters... I'm saving one for another time!

Here's to more craft experiments - and more posts. I promise to be more honest with you in the future. ;)
 

The Ballerina & Astronaut Party - The Menu & Recipes

This post pretty much embodies my imperfect style. Very few bloggers have the guts to post their mistakes. Not me! I mess up - probably more often than most of you. The pictures in this post are all things that didn't quite work out the first time...Stay tuned for Party Pictures if you want to see how the final versions turned out.

I really wanted to try my hand at a cake this year. I kept seeing beautiful pictures of fondant covered cakes. I really, really wanted one. (Note: I wanted this; not Danielle.) This was pure mommy-indulgence. If I had $75 for a cake I could have ordered one, but instead I explored the DIY route.

This was my inspiration cake - NOT the one I made!

Turns out fondant is extremely expensive at $10 a box, plus another $10 or so for tools - definitely not within my budget. It's also not a beginner's project. I gave up on my dream of pink cake perfection and decided to try a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting  (Danielle's favorite). I over beat the first batch of cream cheese frosting - it tasted good, but was too runny to use anywhere but in the middle. I wanted to start over but I was out of cream cheese. I only had enough powdered sugar for half a batch of butter cream frosting. Then Danielle wanted to color half of it pink and half of it blue... Despite everything, it tasted really good.

The practice Red Velvet cake - you can just see a hint of the blue frosting...

My Mom used to refer to my style as "assembling" rather than actual cooking. The hardest part of this menu is decorating the *&^% ballet slipper cookies. You can make most of it a day or two in advance. That way you can do what I do - spend the day of the party scrambling to pick up the house!

My big question is always what (and how much) to serve. I like to host parties at 2 or 3 PM. It's not lunchtime; it's not dinnertime. No one should arrive hungry, but if they do we'll have plenty of snacks as well as the cake. I'll be serving:

• Chex Mix (a space theme deserves a little retro food, don't you think?)
• fruits kabobs
• veggies & dip (everyone knows ballerinas are always on a diet!)
• pinwheel sandwiches (pb&j, cream cheese & ham, Italian...)
• ballet slipper cookies
• Mini Moon Pies
• marshmallow aliens & pink marshmallow fairy wands
• cinnamon sugar kettle corn
• cupcakes (Vanilla with Strawberry Frosting & Chocolate with Chocolate Frosting)

If you don't want to cook at all you can buy space themed treats at the grocery store: Starburst candies, Milky War bars and Moon Pies for example. I couldn't think of any ballet themed foods, so I stuck with pink, pink, and more pink (strawberry marshmallows, strawberry frosting, pink meringues...)

Quick Treat Preparations

Ballet Slipper Cookie

 

Thanks to Melissa at A Little Loveliness for this project! Mine didn't turn out as well as hers, but I still have time to practice. She used Nutter Butter cookies as the base, but I think any oval cookie would be fine. We're going to use Vienna Fingers.  I'm not sure anything that requires dipping in candy coating can ever truly be considered "easy"...

Marshmallow Aliens on a Stick (or "Martians")

 

These were my trial alien marshmallow pops

 

If you can't find colored marshmallows you can use food coloring to paint marshmallows. Pop the marshmallow on a stick or fork before you paint it to keep your fingers clean.

Use a new cotton swab. Dilute 6-8 drops of food coloring in a teaspoon or two of water or milk. Paint the top and sides of the marshmallows and then let dry. After about an hour you can flip them and paint the bottom if you want. No matter how tempting it is - don't dip them in the food coloring! They will never dry... Trust me on this one.

Use a dab of vanilla frosting to attach an eye to each marshmallow and you're done. I found candy eyes at both Michael's & Hobby Lobby in October.

 

My practice Fairy Wands standing in straws to harden

Pink Marshmallows on Sticks (or "Fairy Wands")

I'll also make some marshmallows for the girls...Stick a marshmallow on a stick, dip it in melted candy coating and then roll in sprinkles. Place in the freezer to harden. Voila! World's easiest party treat. This is why I do test runs in small batches before the party. I didn't like the brightly colored sprinkles with the pink candy coating so I used pastel sprinkles from Dollar Tree instead.

Tip: Place each lollipop stick in a straw to hold your pop upright while the candy coating hardens.

Recipes

Duncan Hines Red Velvet Cake Mix Modifications

The mix only requires three additional ingredients. Here are my changes for a "from scratch" taste:

          Instead of              --->              Use

• 1 1/4 Cups Water ---> 1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar+ milk to make 1 cup+ 1/4 cup black coffee (for a total of 1 1/4 cups of liquid)
• 1/3 Cup Vegetable Oil --->1/3 cup melted, unsalted butter, cooled to room temp
• 3 Large Eggs ---> no change - bring to room temp before adding to mix!

Also add

• 1 small box of dry instant chocolate pudding mix (don't prepare the pudding - just add the dry mix)

Mix and bake as directed on package.

Kettle Corn Recipe

• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1/2 cup popcorn kernels
• salt

Combine cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl. Heat oil in a 3 quart pan over medium low heat on stove top. When it is hot enough to pop one kernel, add the sugar mixture and the popcorn. Cover. Shake the pan - keep it moving or the sugar may burn! If you've never made popcorn on the stove before (and most people these days haven't) - it's done when the popping slows. Don't wait until you hear no pops or it will burn. Pour into a large bowl and toss with salt to taste.

 

Be careful! Don't eat it for the first few minutes --  you can burn your tongue on the hot sugar. How do I know this? Experience!

Lightly sweet, salty and just a hint of spice - ready as quickly as microwaved popcorn
and so, so much better tasting

About Frosting: I learned how to make frosting a few years ago from my 15 year old baby sitter. I figured if she could do it, so could I. Frosting is quick to make, stores well in the frig for about a week and can be frozen.

A few tips:

• Set out the butter and/or cream cheese to soften before you start mixing your cake.
• If you use salted butter, leave out the pinch of salt.
• Make the frosting after the cake comes out of the oven - while its cooling.

 

Naturally Pink Strawberry Frosting

• pinch salt
• 2 sticks butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup frozen strawberries, thawed and pureed
• 3 1/2 cups sifted confectioners sugar

Beat butter & salt until light and fluffy. Add 3 Tbsp strawberry puree and vanilla. Sift confectioners sugar in gradually. Do not over beat or it will turn to liquid. Again, this comes from personal experience....