A week ago, our friend’s son got married.  We went to the reception. In Canada. Drove 2206.6 miles. My arrivederci was way tired of sitting in the car by the time we got home. Whew!

While visiting them, I spied a couple of things that I wanted to share with you.

Isn’t this absolutely darling?!  These little cupcake fellas would certainly be a hit at a grandchild’s birthday party.  And, they would be easy to make.

Then, I saw these little pots. Such a simple craft and so cute. Easy for grandchildren to make (and this grandma, too).

Dinosaurs. My pets when I was growing up in the Mesozoic Era.

So it is only natural that I was delighted when I learned that our grandson’s birthday party would have a dinosaur theme.

His party started out with a dinosaur ‘dig.’ Pieces of a toy dinosaur was hidden in a container of rice.  We dug around to find the pieces and then assembled them into a small dinosaur.  It was great fun — and a challenge to figure out how to put the pieces together. (We had a race to see who could assemble their dinosaur first. I’m sorry that I made my partner come in last. Sigh . . . )

As part of our meal, we were served a ‘nest’ (lettuce salad) with a dinosaur egg (a hard boiled egg that was cracked and put for a while in food dye.) Isn’t it just the most clever thing? (Click on the picture to see a bigger and better view.)

Making a dinosaur egg with grandchildren would be a hoot! Whether you’re doing a birthday party or just wanting to do something fun, this would be an activity that grandchildren would love — especially boys!

Tomorrow is our grandson’s third birthday.  How exciting!  We’ll be driving to his house for his birthday celebration. I can’t wait. I’ve got a pocketful of kisses to give him and his cute sister — and the other grandchildren who will be there.

Since I’ve got birthdays on my brain, I thought that I would share this idea with you.

Have you seen cakes with pictures on them?  I’ve always wondered how they do it.  Here is a website, Icing Images, where you can send in a picture and they will turn it into a frosting photo that can be placed on top of a birthday cake.  How cool is that?? It only costs $15 for an 8 X 11 inch picture.  For $20, you can get pictures to go on top of a dozen cupcakes.  This could really make a grandchild’s birthday special.

There’s another option for those of you who own Cannon or Epson printers.  You can print these pictures up yourself! How cool is that? You can find frosting sheets (that’s what they print the pictures on) online.  Price ranges around $28 for 24 frosting sheets (or edible frosting sheets).  If you have very many grandchildren, this would be the way to go. It’s a lot cheaper than having someone else print it up and mail it to you.  Cheap is good.

There is a slight drawback.  You also have to have edible ink.  I don’t think anybody wants to eat the regular ink from their ink-jet printer.  At least I wouldn’t particularly want to.

I don’t know how many edible frosting sheets you can print up with the edible ink cartridges.  Sheesh, I don’t know how the frosting sheets get through your printer without getting frosting smeared all over the place.  And now that I think about it, even if I could print it up okay, could my clumsy hands put it on the cake without wrecking the frosting picture? If I can’t make cake pops, how good will I be at making frosting sheets . . . ?

Edible ink cartridges cost over $50. If you don’t have a Cannon or Epson printer, dash over to your local Staples store and pick one up for a mere $340.  Then, make sure you have the right software. It looks like you’re into this fun-frosting-foto-for-grandchildren business almost $450 smackeroos.

Maybe I’ll just go to my local grocery store and see if I can buy a cake with photo frosting on it.  They probably can do it. And it would be lots easier and lots cheaper . . .

How cool is that?

It never ceases to amaze me just many creative people there are in the world.  Like my nephew’s wife, Stephanie.  She did a little activity for my daughter-in-law, Lisa, that I thought was spectacularly fun.  So I wanted to share it here (of course) so that you, my Dear Readers, could learn about it and adapt it for an activity to do with your grandchildren.

Here is what Lisa found recently when she came home from doing a wee bit o’ shopping. (Make sure you click on the pictures to see a larger version.)

	This is what she found on her front porch.  The sign on the string said, “Follow me.” So she did.  Around to the side of the house and into the back yard.
	She followed it around and around the backyard, from bush, to nook, to cranny.
	Occasionally, the string held a special treasure.

This activity made her day!

So take this idea, twist it on it’s head, and turn it into something that you can do with grandchildren. What do you get? Why, a party on a string, that’s what!

If you have only two or three grandchildren, you could have them do this activity together as a group.  If you have  more, divide them into teams.  You’ll have to make different sets of treasures on a string so that there is one set to follow for each group.  You might want to make sure that you have different colors of string so that it will make it easier for the groups to follow their own string.

It might be wise to do this in a big area if you have very many groups.  That way, the yarn from the different groups wouldn’t be overlapping very much.  (If the string did over lap, it might become a frustrating tangled knot for the grandkids — and grandmother!)

This could be a just-because activity.  Or, it could be a fun birthday party for a grandchild.  Or, you could adapt it for holidays by having holiday themed special treasures (i.e. patriotic things for the 4th of July, Halloween things for a Halloween party, etc.).  You could also do this inside the house.  Wherever it’s held, it will be fun for grandchildren.

To top it off, you’ve just GOT to have some treat to eat.  (Of course.  Food = grandma.  At least that was the math that I learned in school . . .)  You might want to have S’more cookies, or Rollo Candy Treats, or Peanut Butter Cup Bars.

Or, you can stay tuned for my next posting to learn how to make a treat that is absolutely a scream!  (I’m just dying — I can’t wait to make them!!!)

Make it a great day!