Weekend Recap

On Friday night, Tom took the boys to see The Avengers - they LOVED the movie.  R and I had a movie night at home; we watched Never Say Never.  

She enjoyed the movie, but I liked it more than she did!  I have to laugh at myself, but I have a slight case of Bieber fever.  I am just impressed with how hard he worked to become a star and how talented he is - his story is very different from that of most teen pop stars.  Plus, I think his music is kind of catchy.

On Saturday, we all celebrated Cinco de Mayo with tortilla soup, quesadillas, nachos, and Mexican limeade.

I printed up some Cinco de Mayo coloring pages at the request of C and R, but they didn't color any of them.  Coloring sheets aren't very exciting for them anymore.  

Saturday was also Kentucky Derby day.  I made Kentucky Derby pie (pretty much just pecan pie with chocolate chips in it):

We each chose a horse to cheer for; T's horse came in second.

The most exciting part of the weekend was C's piano recital on Sunday.  He played Kites in the Sky and Row, Row, Row Your Boat.  This was his first recital and he did so well.  We are very proud of him.  For some reason, Blogger will not accept my video, but if you haven't seen it yet, I can email it to you.

K is almost eight months old and this is our first family photo since she was born.

Why don't we have more photos of all of us together?  

Dad's arm looks a little weird sticking out over there; that is because we also had C's friend O with us.  C invited her to watch the recital.

My father took pictures of C playing during the recital.  When I get those, I will update this post with pictures.  

Derby Day Photo Highlights

Fancy Hats

Fancy Drinks -- Nonalcoholic Mint Juleps

T hiding behind his Mint Julep

We know nothing about horse racing, but we had a lot of fun in the spirit of the Kentucky Derby!

Derby Horses

It's Derby Day!  C and R groomed their horses and they are ready to race.  Here they are:

R named her horse Alex Elizabeth

C named his horse Funny Face

To make the horses, I traced a horse onto cardboard and cut it out.  I then let C and R decorate their horses and gave them yarn to glue on for the mane and tail, and C wanted yarn on the back of his horse too.  I taped a popsicle stick to the back of R's horse so that she could hold it like a puppet but C wanted to hold his by the hooves so he doesn't have a stick.  

For more ideas to have fun at home in the spirit of the Kentucky Derby, click here.

Jockey Silks

Our current state for our Fifty States Project is Kentucky and we are getting ready for the Kentucky Derby.  C and R decorated Jockey Silks that we cut out of craft paper. 

Here are a few pictures:

C decided that he did not want his face in the picture; he is hiding behind his shirt.

They used Roll It painters and Do A Dot markers to decorate the Jockey Silks.  I cannot seem to find Roll It painters anywhere (we bought ours about a year ago), but you can click here for a product that looks like the same thing but has a different name.

Dollar Store Kentucky Derby Hats

You cannot have a Kentucky Derby party without hats!  We have made hats out of newspaper and tissue paper before, but we decided to get a little fancy for the Kentucky Derby, so we headed to the dollar store.  This is what we bought to make our hats:

 Two straw hats, bath poofs, and a few leis

I cut the string that held the bath poofs together and we tied the netting around our hats to make fancy bows.

We then cut the leis apart and hot glued the flowers all over the hats.

We spent less than five dollars and the project took about ten minutes.  Now, we have very frugal, fancy, flowery Kentucky Derby hats to wear for our Derby celebration.

I could have included a picture of me in my hat, but I do not look as cute as R, especially with the red, runny nose I have this week!

We learned that women wearing classy and fashionable hats to the Derby are often found in the Clubhouse and Paddock areas, but the infield seating hosts an open-season for mad hatters to display their creative and silly hats.  Where do you think we would be found? 

Kentucky Derby Party

Are you thinking of throwing together a Kentucky Derby party for your  kids?  Here are some great ideas to make your party extra special.

• Let the kids design Jockey silks.  There are so many options for this.  You could let the kids decorate cotton tee shirts, cut head and arm holes out of a paper bag to be decorated, or make multiple copies of this jockey silk printable and hang them up around the party room.
• Decorate hats
• Set up a craft table where kids can make these horse puppets.
• Mix up some non-alcoholic mint juleps
• Have a contest to see who can make up the silliest name for a race horse
• Play horseshoes
• Ride hobbyhorses (you can find directions to make your own by clicking here)
• Make Derby Pie
• Watch Racing Stripes

You don't have to know anything about horse racing to enjoy the spirit of the Kentucky Derby.  I certainly do not know anything about the sport or any of the horses, but we are having a lot of fun with all of these activities!