Lego birthday party

Cameron turned six on Saturday.

Since he lives and breathes Lego - Star Wars Lego in particular - there was really no doubt that he had to have a Lego-themed birthday party this year.

We agreed that the party would start with about an hour of indoor play at various Lego stations. Even the dining room table, territory he and I struggle over in Battle-of-the-Somme-type fashion (me daring to advance with meals and baskets of lemons, he trying to establish planet Tatooine), would be fair game.

We set up various Lego stations on the table, living room rug and a small kids' craft table. Naturally, the dining room table's prime real estate was devoted to Star Wars.

Ellis (left) and Cameron assembled some sort of Star Wars fighter jet thingie....

...and the whole cast of characters...


 

...including these guys, (prequel and original film characters mixed together - yes, I know), made for a pretty popular set-up. Anticipating fights over the Star Wars dudes, I coerced my tallest (and hopefully suitably intimidating) friend, David, to help Derek and I supervise. Luckily, there were no scuffles over storm troopers, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Anakin, or even Princess Leia.

Lego expert Noah channelled his inner Jedi knight.

 

A couple of new, more basic kits were assembled during the party, which was satisfying for kids newer to Lego (the youngest guest was three). More experienced Lego builders were able to help out, with only a moderate number of "Brandie, I need another window piece/blue flower/picket fence piece" kind of requests. That's Maddie in the background. She knows from Lego.

My favourite thing that happened spontaneously was this group effort to make a Lego plane fly using helium balloons (not that any of these kids had seen the movie Up).

Note the engineering using pieces of Lego to attach the ribbons to the wing. One side of the plane was actually raised a little.

I can only handle 10 kids inside the house for so long, so they were all kicked outside after about an hour, a plan Cameron and I agreed upon ahead of time. We had no outdoor activities planned, but they got up to their own thing on the play structure...

...while the adults "supervised" from the patio table.

 

Cameron (left) opened his presents (Charlie, middle, Seamus, right)...

 

...and then it was time for cake!

The cake was made by Sweet Escapes in the Distillery District. The red brick was red velvet, the yellow brick lemon, and the blue brick chocolate.

I've never commissioned a fancy birthday cake before, but this time it seemed worth it, since I wasn't killing myself with elaborate and clever Lego games and crafts, and this would enforce the theme in a way Cameron will (hopefully) remember. (And I don't have the cake-decorating chops to take on something like this without serious risk of meltdown.)

 
I think he was pleased.

 

Everyone had their preferred colour or colours of cake...

Adults lingered over cocktails and cake at pick-up time, while the kids played inside and out. Each kid took home a $4 box of Lego and (after a clean-up that seemed to last 24 hours) that was that.

(Only we've gotta do it all over again this Saturday for little brother Alister's 2nd birthday. Help.)

One week until Halloween!

I drove home with a kick-butt jack-o'-lantern belted into my front passenger seat.

Funny thing was, I found myself doing that arm thing that parents do when they have to stop suddenly. You know, where the right arm just juts out in front of the person - whether seven or 70, or actually a bag of groceries (or just a single giant vegetable) - as if somehow that was going to make the critical difference in the event of a collision?

But seriously, this is a special jack-o'-lantern. Toronto Star Living section designer, and resident pumpkin expert, Jo-Ann Dodds, created it for the video we just posted on how to carve a cool pumpkin. Lucky for me and my two boys, Jo-Ann kindly gave it to us to enjoy for the week. As long as we can keep it safe from racoons in our enclosed porch - and provided the weather stays cool - the jack-o'-lantern will be fresh to impress on Halloween.

The video is just part of the great offerings on parentcentral's fun Halloween Guide.

If you haven't seen the pumpkin stencils yet, make sure you download them this weekend.

The weather is perfect for a family outing to a pumpkin patch. Not sure where to go? Check out Patrick Cain's cool map of GTA area pumpkin farms.

And while many of us may start out with great visions of imaginative pumpkinscapes framing our front doorways, when push comes to shove, hollowing out pumpkins is kind of time-consuming. If Thursday comes and you have find yourself with more pumpkins than patience, try these simple mess-free approaches to pumpkin decoration. I'm counting on the toilet paper "mummy" idea to get me out of carving one of our beast-like gourds.

Don't get me wrong. Halloween is really fun when you've got kids, and I'm looking forward to preparing this weekend and in the days ahead. If I get REALLY motivated, I just might make a batch of popcorn balls using my granddad's secret recipe. We'll see.

Attention shutterbugs: This contest is for you!

Oh, come on. Admit it. You took 972 photos at the pumpkin patch this weekend.

Yes, it would be a little embarrassing if you were the only one snapping away as junior looks at pumpkins, sits on pumpkins, sits on a hay bale, sits on a hay wagon, rides a pony, rides his parents for ice cream cone, etc. But you're not.

And chances are you took some pretty great pictures of your kids at Halloween last year, or you will at the Halloween festivities over the next ten days.

This is your chance to share —and possibly to win. Enter our "Click to Win Contest", sponsored by Henry's, and you could win a Nikon D40 camera. All the better for capturing memories over the coming holiday season. Plus, your photo could be shown in our Halloween photo gallery. Get all the details here and the rules and regulations here.

Full disclosure: I took about a hundred photos of my two boys jumping in a pile of leaves on Saturday, and I have hundreds more from Halloween last year. Ditto this year's outings to the Brickworks Farmer's Market, Thanksgiving and our summer trip to Sandbanks. (It might have been a two-night trip to Prince Edward County, but based on the size of the Facebook album, you'd think it was a fortnight in the south of France.)

So don't be shy. Share your photos soon!

Your Halloween helper

Green grocers are stocked with pumpkins. Costume shops are selling out of vampire teeth. Bags of candy line the drug-store shelves. Waistlines are under threat.

Yes, it is Halloween time again. With Thanksgiving out of the way, there's no denying the spooky season has arrived.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Halloween is — apparently — the second-biggest season in terms of consumer spending (after Christmas). Yes, it can get a little crazy-competitive — with Martha Stewart-esque pumpkin wreaths, $100 costumes and the battle of a thousand cupcakes. But if you can set aside any ambivalence you may feel about that aspect — you've got to admit, there's no time for like it for kids — and their parents, too!

No other holiday is geared just to having fun. There's virtually no family obligation. On Halloween you can (usually) get away with just emailing the grandparents a photo or 17. There's no bird to baste and, compared to Christmas, virtually no shopping. No airports. No long car rides. No weeks-long party circuit.

The anticipation, though, is almost as delicious as waiting to see what Santa will put under the tree. And the rule-bending that the Hallowed Eve brings just doesn't get duplicated the rest of the year. On Halloween, the kids are in charge (well, at least we can let them think that). THEY decide who they're going to be. THEY get to stay up until "grown-up bedtime." THEY get to eat enough candy to make themselves sick.

Getting ready for the big night can take a little prep, though, and you'll be able to make the most of the Halloween season if you check out our new Halloween Guide. If you like to decorate for this cool occasion, you'll want to check out the special section on our sister site, yourhome.ca, as well.

On the parentcentral.ca Halloween page, you'll find safety tips, the dish on costume trends, craft ideas and inspiration for Halloween parties. Check back often, because we're always adding more.

And if you share your favourite Halloween pics, you'll have a chance to win a Nikon D40 Camera, courtesy of Henry's camera shop (plus your little Batman or Hannah Montana could get their mug on parentcentral.ca). Get contest details here.

Enjoy the festivities!

Halloween Hullabaloo

Have your kids decided what to be for Halloween? Last night I discovered (to my dismay) that all the Luke Skywalker costumes on buycostumes.com are sold out. I hope this means I'm not out of luck, but my five-year-old just changed his mind from side kick Hans Solo to the man himself, and I've been - perhaps naively - hoping that, should this happen, I'd be able to borrow the Luke costume, since there had to be at least a dozen Lukes on the playground last year.  The infant-sized Chewbacca costume for my younger son is another story. That's a definite online buy.

Still, for a sewing-challenged parent like me, it's a relief that Cameron is veering toward a mass-produced movie character this Halloween. Yes, part of me feels like it would be so much more creative and interesting to construct some sort of clever D-I-Y costume out of egg cartons and old vacuum tubes. It briefly looked as though I was in trouble when he wanted to be the Pink Panther. Pretty sure they don't have Pink Panther at Toys 'R Us.

Though the toughest Halloween fulfillment order, surely, is what you're faced with when your little one can't decide WHAT to be, and instead concocts some sort of hybrid two-for-one costume in his or her little mind. Like being, say, "half Indiana Jones, half werewolf." I have absolutely no good advice for those situations.

What deadline do you impose for a final decision about Halloween costumes? I'm thinking that it's got to be soon... October 1st?

How do you plan to celebrate? Halloween has, apparently, become the second-biggest festive occasion in terms of consumer spending, and it's clear that some of that goes into decor and party decorations. Some people are clearly forgoing trick-or-treating for at-home Halloween parties, or doing both.

We live in a very kid-friendly, walkable neighbourhood, and Halloween is the time I feel most grateful for that. There's a great vibe on the street, parents socializing as kids bound up and down porch steps, fuelled by sugar and the high of being outside after dark. When the kids are done trick-or-treating, our enclosed porch is a great place to enjoy a drink with friends while the kids count their candy.

Watch here for details of our Halloween contest, and for tips on having a fun, safe and EASY Halloween.

Amusements parks and other business

I got nauseous on the "Berry-Go-Round" at the Ukrainian Festival in Bloor West Village a week ago.

Alongside its plates of boiled perogies and cobs of butter-drenched corn, our little local festival features a tot-sized carnival with rides geared to the bouncy-castle set. Climbing inside one of a half-dozen strawberry-shaped huts along with my five year old and three other riders, I felt well within my comfort zone. But within seconds, the mother sitting across from me and I were both willing ourselves not to be ill. In the final moments, I resorted to being a complete wet blanket and forbidding my son and the other boy on the ride from turning the wheel that spun the strawberry on its unholy little axis.

Needless to say I wasn't ready for the Behemoth when we hit Canada's Wonderland on the weekend.

Does anyone out there know why so many of us are less tolerant of dizzy-making rides as we age? Is there some deterioration of the inner ear that occurs to make us queasy on the Gravitron, and even to cause that little flip in the tummy when we try to relive our high-flying days on the swings at the park? Or is it plain-old fear of injury, the kind you simply cannot experience when you have barely a notion of your own mortality, or even that your bones are breakable? I'd love to know.

But maybe some of you had no time to contemplate amusements rides over the weekend because you were inside constructing a solar system out of papier mache or helping your child work through pages of rote math exercises. I encourage you to check out the interesting discussion that is happening in the comments on Kristin Rushowy's story about homework.

Please visit this blog often. I'll point you to some of the interesting stuff we have on the site (if you haven't yet checked out our great finder tools, including listings of all registered daycares, be sure you do), and share a little of my own parenting adventures (and misadventures) as well, too. I welcome your comments and feedback. This blog can also be a place where we discuss and debate some of the issues that come up in the news. If you're wondering where to find the latest on the Chinese tainted milk story, by the way, you can read it here.

And speaking of milk, Dr. Jack Newman's breastfeeding clinic could close because the private funding source is drying up. Let's hope this clinic — which has helped thousands of mothers overcome some of the difficulties that derail breastfeeding — finds another way to keep its doors open. Read Andrea Gordon's article here.