Percy Jackson Party

This party was over a year ago for J's 9th birthday. The party was based on the book The Lightening Thief. The book is about a 12 year old boy who discovers he is half human half god and goes to a camp for demi-gods for training. So, this party was a day at Camp Half-blood.

I borrowed the columns from a friend and draped them with white sheer curtains to give them a more Greek look. The blue trident on the right was a devil's pitch from the halloween section of Joann's that I painted blue. The dangling thing on the right is a minotaur's horn that I made from styrofoam and painted to represent Percy's trophy from slaying the minotaur.

The first part of the party was dinner. We had a standard Camp Half-blood dinner consisting of beef brisket, grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese and rolls. To drink they had several beverages to choose from because at camp their cups fill with whatever drink they desire.

For a craft they painted their own shields. I bought pizza pans from the dollar tree and had some metallic paints in my stash. I didn't have enough pans for the birthday boy's brothers to make shields so I cut out some round foam core for them to participate. When they were dry I added a strap to the back so they could wear them as shields when they battled with their plastic swords.

This is the birthday boy the next morning, the party was a sleepover. The battling was quickly sentenced to the basement.

In the book Percy has a thing for blue foods, so for dessert the boys had blue cupcakes, blue cookies and blue taffy.

After a summer at Camp Half-blood the campers are given a bead for their necklaces. The bead for Percy's first summer was a blue trident. So, I made necklaces out of wooden beads I painted and strung on leather cord. They also took home their sword and shield.

Door County

As a reward for making goal at work a couple months in a row Dave and I were able to take a 5 day / 4 night vacation to Door County. It was very relaxing and wonderful all around. It was just the 2 of us. The kids had a great time themselves at Papa and Grandma Cheryl's house where they were spoiled rotten with a trip to the local zoo, going to the Smurfs movie, out to eat, the farmer's market, and multiple trips to the "awesome" library just down the street.

On the drive up Dave and I realized it had been 8 years since we had had a getaway alone for longer than 2 nights. Way too long! I had waited to the last minute to make reservations, that's how we roll, and was only able to find one possible location. We stayed in a 2 story cabin belonging to the motel we've stayed at in the past. It was little expensive but not terribly so, compared to other spaces, because it was not new. A little bit old fashioned, needing a coat of paint, but as the man on the phone said, it was clean. And it turned out the bed was a new queen instead of the double in the website photo. We didn't spend tons of time there anyway. We drove up the peninsula, walked through tons of shops, took walks (Dave mostly), watched cable tv (mostly me), ate lots of great food and on Monday we took the ferry to Washington Island and rented mopeds for the day. Neither of us had ridden them before, and they were a blast. We drove from one tourist attraction to the other and then drove the perimeter of the island.

It was a great way to end the trip. I just hope it's not another 8 years before we get away again!