DIY Ice Cream Sundae Bar

We had the most fun beating the heat a couple of weekends ago mega thanks to our mini ice cream party. Aki and I left the house early to buy toppings. On our way to the grocery, we stopped by at each of his friends’ house and invited Justin, Gabbie and Vincent for an afternoon of ice cream at our house.  The kids were definitely psyched! I told them to be at our place at 3:30PM. They arrived at 2:30!

The secret to a fun ice cream party are toppings topping toppings! I was planning to make hot chocolate fudge but since the guests came early and were eager to start, I decided to forego the fudge.

The toppings: graham crackers,crushed Hi-ro cookies, white chocolate Knick Knacks (a surprise hit with the kids), Chocnut, chocolate chip cookies and Nips.

Don’t you just love the colors? My Tita Ming got these colorful Ikea bowls, plates, cups and utensils for only 1 pound per pack.

I could have done a much better job at taking pre-party photos but the kids just could not stop eating my toppings.

For the ice cream, we got 2 flavors – chocolate and cookies & cream.

DIY Volcano Project

Look what I found…. an unpublished blog post. I am so proud of myself yesterday.I got to approve and reply to blog comments, plus stalk and greet some friends a happy new year. All thanks to Aki’s afternoon nap, his very first since the start of the holidays.

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Here’s a quick guide on how to make your very own volcano. If you are planning to have a dinosaur party, you have to have an erupting volcano. Promise! I am not saying that this is an easy project but once you see the expression in the kids’ faces, you will feel that all the trouble is worth it. Plus, once you have a mini volcano of your own, you can have science experiments anytime.

You’d need a bottle. The bottle will dictate the height of your volcano. The opening should be big enough for another small container for your baking soda. For the mini container, I used a “puto” mold.

You would also need something for the base. We used a cardboard box cover.

Other materials to prepare: lots and lots of old newspaper, tape, glue and brush.

Step 1.  Use the strongest tape in the house to attach the bottle to your base.

Now, twist your newspaper and tape them around your bottle.

Once you are happy with the shape of your volcano, you can move on to the fun part – paper mache!

Aki’s Dinosaur 4th Birthday: Dino Egg Hunt

Let’s move on to the finale of the party, the dino egg hunt!

Instead of the usual sweets-filled loot bag, I wanted the kids to be able to choose which souvenir  they get to take home. Instead of just lining up, I want Aki’s friends to be more involved. Treasure hunts are always a big hit with Aki so I was sure that his classmates would also love this activity.

We placed plastic eggs with growing dino babies around the playground. These dino babies are the coolest. Submerge them in water and in a few hours, they grow at least 5X in size. Amazing. We are still playing with ours weeks after the party. Best of all, they are so affordable. I got 24 pieces for only 60 bucks in Divisoria.

Here is my tindahan aka prize showcase.  I made a guide there on the corresponding prize per color of egg. In the end, the kids just chose which prize to take home.

Some details…

All prizes, except for the Booksale books were bought in Divisoria. Binoculars for only 6.50 bucks a piece. Magnifying glass for 60 pesos for 20 pieces. I recycled brown paper bags by attaching straw handles and a thank you tag.
The kids loved their binoculars

Aki’s Dinosaur 4th Birthday: Family and Class Pictures

All photos by Eric of Caslow Photography

These are my absolute favorites

Aki’s Dinosaur 4th Birthday Party: Cake and Pasta

I learned my lesson. Last year, Aki’s classmates barely touched the food we prepared. According to the teachers, that was not unusual. Most of the food served during parties are brought home and are eaten by the yayas. For this year, our menu was pretty simple – penne, cake and juice.

After blowing of the cake,

We opened a couple of gifts. Thank you classmates for your thoughtful presents.

Aki’s Dinosaur 4th Birthday: Homemade Volcano

This year, we spent countless hours and used bottles of vinegar making homemade volcanoes. For Aki’s dinosaur party, I wanted to bring the volcano project several pretty notches higher. With the help and guidance of my crafty sister-in-law Mae, we came up with this.

Watchatink?

Aki and I showed the classmates how the volcano works.

As expected, we got their attention.

Everyone wanted to be the first to try making the volcano explode. Because it was Aki’s birthday, he got to choose which classmate goes next.

Aki’s Dinosaur 4th Birthday: Dino Stencil Shirts

Next activity in this dino party was making dino stencil shirts/sandos.

Prior the party, I made dino stencils usings sticker paper. Super thanks to Franco for making the templates and to my very crafty friend, Irene of Home-eco-nanay, for the tips! I put newspaper inside the shirts, transferred the stencils, and stretched the shirts using masking tape. Come party time, part of the excitement was letting the kids choose the shirt/dino that they will paint.

Teacher Joy, Teacher Tina and Teacher Me helped each kid  dip and dab and paint their chosen shirts.

Aki’s Dino 4th Birthday Party: Shadow Show and tell

Halu!

Finally, I have time to blog. Actually, I had time last week but I just chose to be lazy. I was not in the mood to blog about Aki’s party given the situation in Leyte. Am glad that things are looking brighter now. Have you seen Anderson Cooper’s last report? I cried the whole 2 minutes. Thank you, Mr. Cooper, for showing the world the strength, courage and resiliency of the Filipino people. Let’s continue to pray for the Yolanda victims and share whatever we can spare to help them get back on their feet.

The reason why I have time to blog today is because I am on leave. The reason why I am on leave is because it is my birthday today. But the real reason why I need an extra day off is because Aki’s taking an entrance exam next week. I just learned last week. And because I am a panicky person who does not like to cram, I hate that we are only starting to prepare for this possibly life changing exam just now. Hay hay. Deep breath.

Good vibes. Good vibes.

Anyhoo, as I have shared last month, we celebrated Aki’s 4th birthday with a dinosaur themed party in school. Click here to check out our pop-up dino invite. Before we headed to the school, we had a quick photo session with Eric of Caslow Photography at home.

Some of my favorite pictures…

Aki’s Dinosaur 4th Birthday: Simple Pop-up Dino Invitation

Morning! Here is the first of a series of posts related to Aki’s dinosaur 4th birthday partey! Aki has obsessed with dinosaurs since the start of the year. He has dino toys, dino books, dino clothes and other dino things. When he told me that he wants to have a dinosaur party, the creative juices just  flowed in. There are a lot of dino parties in the net but I still want our party to be different. Not the biggest, but the Aki-est party. I want the details and activities to be fun in the eyes of my son. The first DIY project was this simple pop-up dinosaur party invite. Cute eh?

Photo by CasLow Photography

I got the inspiration from Aki’s Tyson the Terrible book which has a surprise pop-up at the end of the story. I looked for pop-up invite 101 online but did not find any that was easy enough to do. I studied Aki’s book and tried to recreate.

Everything starts with the template. Thank God for husbands who can draw.

Now, the tricky part. I suggest you practice with scratch paper a couple times first. Once you have your dino or any cut-out, you need to make a y-fold. I invented that word, just so you know. Hehe

Make a vertical fold in the lower half. Then, add a diagonal fold. Make another diagonal fold to complete your Y.

Lastly, fully fold all the creases.