We Love Aunt Ang

We all love it when Aunt Ang comes for a visit.  She plays with the kids, she usually cooks for us, and gives us an excuse to do special things.  Last time she visited was over New Years and we were all a bit under the weather and during her visit following Hudson's birthday weekend we had a snow storm.  Yet, we were determined to get out and make some memories and weren't going to let the snow get in our way.  Growing up on NW Iowa as a farm girl, Angela and I both had plenty of opportunities to drive in the snow, but Ang has lived in Colorado for over 10 years now and the winter driving there is not quite like ours.  We had planned to go downtown and make a few fun shopping stops and then to a coffee shop.  We probably should have stayed home, as the roads weren't all that great, but we took it slow and steady and got to our destinations safely.

Greta and Angela are good buddies.  

Snowy day adventures with Aunt Ang...

We hadn't gotten much snow this winter and February brought us plenty of inches of the white stuff.  

Checking out the chairs with wheels at West Elm.  

We made it safely all the way back home and then got the van stuck in our driveway.  Angela and Hudson worked hard to clear the driveway of all that snow.  

When you buy your kids snow gear (which isn't cheap) its great when they actually get some good use out of it.  And they all look pretty cute don't they?!   

Afternoon LEGO building and a movie with Aunt Ang was great fun too.  

Celebrating All Day

The night of February 2nd when I snuck into Hudson's room to fill it with silver and black balloons (a birthday tradition at our house is to wake up to balloons scattered on the floor in your room) this is what I saw.  I grabbed one last kiss from the cheek of my sweet 6 year old son.   

Hudson wanted to go to Panera for his birthday breakfast.  He ate a cinnamon crunch bagel, which is also my Panera treat of choice.  Oh how I adore this boy.    

Then we headed to Kid's Workshop at Home Depot for their monthly building event.  

The kids made a mini bean bag toss game.  

We picked up Scratch Cupcakes for an after lunch treat, another one of Hudson's birthday requests.    

Mimi, Bapa and Aunt Angela joined us for his birthday lunch (he picked out what he wanted me to make).  Daddy grilled ribeyes and we had broccoli, applesauce and poppyseed pasta.  After lunch Hudson built LEGOs and watched TV while we got in some last minute birthday party preparations.  

 And this wraps up the birthday party posts and details.  Hudson's 7 year old outer space birthday gets two thumbs up.  7 is going to be a BLAST!     

Space Party :: Take Home Treats

Another one of my favorite party preparations (let's be honest I really enjoy ALL of it) is the take home treats for guests.  Gift giving is one of my love languages.  This time around these take home treats happened to be the first thing we completed, as its easy to do ahead of time and cross off the list.  I got the black treat bags from Target, I cut out a large silver sparkle star and glued them to the bags.  I knotted a piece of black and sparkle silver ribbon on the handle and called it complete.  

Take home treat bags ready for the little astronauts...

Inside the treat bags we put...

Pop Rocks candy

a package of glow sticks

Milk Way candy bars 

a sheet of planet stickers

Starburst candy

an activity page with a maze and a dot to dot 

an outer space pencil 

For the family party we had similar treat bags for the cousins (1 per family).  

For the adults I made my sisters famous Rice Krispie bars and attached Thank You tags.  I made the bars a few weeks ahead, cut them into squares and put them in treat bags and froze them.  The day before the party all I had to do is take them out of the freezer and attach the cute tags.  

Space Party :: A Musical Gift

Hudson prepared a musical gift for his guests.  His piano teacher introduced the song mid January so Hudson had time to practice and perfect his piece.  So proud of our little musician.  

Space Party :: Dessert

As I may have shared before, baking the birthday dessert stresses me out.  I enjoy the whole process of preparing for parties and like to add all the "extras," but for some reason when it comes time to bake a dessert for a bunch of people on a timeline its too much.  If I was only preparing the dessert that would be fabulous, but I'm usually more excited about buying the dessert from someone/where else.  Awhile back a friend shared the name of someone she knew who made yummy cake pops at a good price so I reached out to her.  We shared some ideas we found on Pinterest to make them look like planets and serve them in a silver colander...strange and spacey makes perfect.  Hudson picked the three flavors of cake pops...red velvet, lemon and chocolate.  They were a perfect treat for Hudson's space themed birthday party, especially for the kids when something small and sweet is just right.   

Hudson was excited about the Planet Pops and they proved to be a fun and delicious dessert.  

And while we are talking about sweet things, we think these two cuties are pretty sweet.  

We served the Planet Pops with a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce.  We just put on 3 candles at the friend party but I think we could have made room for 4 more.   

A close up of the Planet Pop display...

This homemade hot fudge sauce recipe, which we called Full Moon Fudge, is from my friend Andrea.  We don't make it often, but it is oh so delicious.  

Roy and Greta made the homemade vanilla ice cream, which is another family favorite.  

Ready for the birthday singing and candle blowing at the family party.  

Is it really possible that my our boy is SEVEN?!  

Cousin Clara taking a bite of her red velvet cake pop.  

Miss Mindyn excited about a sweet treat she can eat independently.  

Space Party :: Gifts and Guests

Its meaningful to document the special people who came to celebrate with Hudson so here is the lineup of guests along with some gifts.  

Hudson and Jonah S.

Hudson and Kipton

Evie loves basketball (and we would like Hudson to get more interested in the sport) so she gave him this Hoop Shoot so he could get some practice.  

Hudson and Thomas have been buddies since age 1. 

Hudson and Jonah D. 

Rhys and Teag are in our HSAP car pool and they also gave Hudson a spaceship LEGO set, which he exchanged for ski lodge LEGO set.  

Allison surprised Hudson with a gift after everyone left.  

LEGO building is one of his all time favorite things so LEGOs make the perfect gift.  

The Saturday party line up included our Malaysian friends...

the Kansas Swingers...

and the Large family.

Nana and Papa have been grandparents for 7 years.  

We are thankful Great Grandpa Ells is still able to join the birthday parties at age 94, what a blessing!  

Thanks to some cheap airline tickets Aunt Ang joined the space expedition.  

Mimi and Papa wouldn't miss the party for anything.  

Hudson told me he was the most excited about opening all his gifts.  No surprise there!

Thankful for the generosity of many to help Hudson feel loved (and help keep him busy in the weeks/months to come).  

Ellsy and Clara showing off their beautifully decorated gift wrap.  

Space Party :: Astronaut Food

Along with keeping all the guests entertained everyone comes to a birthday party expecting to be fed, right?!  Planning the meal is another fun part of the preparations for me.  Cousin Allison was our fearless helper in the kitchen for the friend party.  She made sure the Pluto Pizzas were baked to perfection and that each astronaut got the pizza they prepared.  Along with the pizzas we served veggies with dip and hummus and apple slices.  We served Liquid Hydrogen (water) to drink.  The kids worked up an appetite and their plates were cleared.  Success!  

The birthday boy's plate...

I think feeding kids pizza at birthday parties is really the best option because everyone goes home happy because they all like it.  

For the family party on Saturday night I made ham and cheese sliders because they are one of Hudson's favorite meals.  I served ham and cheddar and ham and swiss Flying Saucers.  

 Blazing Beans were the baked beans, another family favorite recipe. 

Comet Crunch = veggie tray with ranch dressing and a lettuce salad made by Nana Sue

Fruity Rockets = fruit kabobs to look like a rocket ships prepared by Mimi

Martian Munchies = chips 

The birthday boy was the first one through the line to get his food.  

Greta always thinks she needs something to "dip," ranch dressing and ketchup are her favorites.   

Ellsy seemed to think the food was "out of this world" delicious.  

The next birthday in the Swinger family belongs to this cutie pie, Maryn Marie.  

Birthday parties with cousins are space-tacular!  

The first table of astronauts eating...

Table number 2 of hungry astronauts...

Table #3 of hungry astronauts enjoying dinner...