Zac is Turning Three!

I am having the best time preparing for Zac's upcoming birthday. I've slowly been collecting things and getting organized over these past few months...

Birthday Dinner:

He has requested soup, bread, and pie for his birthday dinner. And he wants to have his good friend and her family over for the birthday dinner. Adorable. So sweet and simple. I can get a pie from the bakery and pop some soup ingredients into the crockpot that morning, go to Natalie's art show from 4-4:30 pm, and still be back in time to host a birthday meal at 5.

Birthday Decorations:

Obviously, we will need to set up the birthday ring. We've had that ring since Natalie was a baby. I got it for her first birthday, back in 2003. And we've been working on our collection of ornaments ever since.

I also love the idea of turning the magnolia into a ribbon tree!

Birthday Presents - Outside Play:

He is getting a ton of gifts from me because three is such an exciting age, and his play has advanced by leaps and bounds lately. For one thing, he's overcoming his sensory defensiveness with mud and that's a huge thing to celebrate. We have recently dug a deep digging pit in one corner of the yard... and he loves to pour water into it and poke the mud with sticks. Today for the very first time he stood in the pit. Hooray!

So... a fully stocked outdoor mud kitchen with pots and spoons and muffin pans and whisks, etc. is the obvious next step. In addition to the kitchen tools, we will be stenciling black circles on an old bench with paint, to be the "stove burners."

Beyond adding a mud kitchen for outdoor play, I'm putting down smooth river rocks where we have a bare area in our lawn, to make a dry streambed for imaginative play. The guy who mows my lawn probably won't be thrilled, but there's no grass there so why not have a pretend stream? I saw one at a Nature Explore playground in Maryland and never forgot it. Such a simple idea that sparks so much creativity.

Birthday Presents - Inside Play:

Indoors, Zac is getting a Jonti-Craft Light Box. I'm so excited!!!! I also have light table things ready to go in little bins below the coffee table.

Also in indoor play, he's getting a few Fagus wooden vehicles from Nova Natural. We have the car carrier and he loves it, so I got him the tractor, horse trailer, and hay wagon.

And I'm making him a ton of hand sewn wool felt foods. He has started making soup constantly in his play stands (bringing me pot after pot of colorful wooden blocks) and so I think it is time. Every evening after the kids go to bed I stay up sewing, creating patterns based on pictures on Pinterest which I think I can replicate. Of course some foods are just simple circles!

Here's the list (and I'll continue to update it as I sew):

Breakfast

pancakes (3) with syrup (1)

banana slices (5)

fried eggs (2)

strips of bacon (2)


Lunch

slices of bread (4)

slices of American cheese (2)

slice of Swiss cheese

lunch meat (2)

snow peas (3)

mandarin orange segments (6)

slices of watermelon (2)

ribbon candy (4)


Dinner

penne (9)

ravioli (6)

farfalle (8)

spinach leaves (6)

carrot slices (7)

bell pepper slices (2)

star-shaped iced sugar cookies with sprinkles (5)

For the sugar cookies I used my Kool-Aid sprinkle dyed wool felt for the icing and little glass seed beads for the candy sprinkles!

I've been so successfully using up my wool felt scraps (and some of my thread, leaving me with handy-dandy vintage wooden spools for crafts) that I am going to need to purchase a new wool felt assortment. I've gotten the one from Magic Cabin three times, and now I'm interested in the one at A Child's Dream Come True, which is 74 colors of merino wool felt for $185.00.

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