7 Quick Takes - Birthday Bash!

On Wednesday our family celebrated our 5th annual birthday bash with 130 of our friends and family.  Instead of having 7 separate parties for the children, we combine them into one mega-party and go all out.  Using the 7 Quick Takes format, here is a peek at this year's celebration.

(1) T-shirts

We buy shirts on sale ($2.50 each) and Todd makes an iron on for the front (5th Annual Kraft Birthday Bash) and the back (child's name and birthday) so that the birthday kids are easy to pick out in a crowd.

Here's the front of this year's shirt...

and the back!

(2) Carnival Games

We have a carnival set up in our backyard and the neighbors graciously let us spill over into their yard as well.  Throughout the year we pick up prizes as they go on clearance (Target dollar aisle when it's 70% off if a favorite place to look!) to keep the budget down in that area.  Each child gets a bag with 30 tickets inside that they can use at any of the carnival games. The fishing game is always a huge hit!

Here's Haley and Eleanor getting the sucker pull ready - another crowd pleaser!

(3) Food

This is kept really simple and requires no cutlery.  I have sloppy joes or hot dogs along with carrot sticks, watermelon, and chips.  I also have two big drink containers - one filled with water and the other filled with lemonade.

We have the food set up in the garage.  There are a few tables and chairs, but folks take their food and sit on the lawn or in chairs they bring along to watch the magic show.

(4) Cake

I order two full sheet cakes from Sam's Club for $37 a piece.  This is a super tasty cake and is the best price I can find anywhere.

Esther really wanted to stick her finger into that big frosting balloon!

(5) Strolling Magic

This is the second year we had Magician Matt Dunn attend the party.  He did some strolling magic during the carnival which was a hit again.  More than one mom came up to me and said, "Your magician stole my watch!"  The kids loved being able to be up close and personal with a "real, live magician".  It was pretty spendy, but a favorite and memorable addition to the party.

(6) Magic Show

Magician Matt Dunn did a magic show after supper.  He has a very dry sense of humor and had us all laughing out loud.  He did an excellent job utilizing volunteers from the audience and including our children into his show.

Here's the guests all finding a spot to watch the magic show.

They loved being part of the show!

(7) Food Shelf Donations

Each year we ask that our guests bring a donation for the food shelf instead of a gift for our family.  This year we collected  606 pounds of food!  Over the past 5 years of birthday bashes our friends and family have blessed the local food shelf with 2,400 pounds of food!  Isn't that amazing?!?  It is such a wonderful thing to have the children bring the donations to the food shelf and know that their celebration is helping other families in need.

That's what 606 pounds of food looks like in the back of Big Blue!

Waiting for the staff to add up the total pounds of our donation.

And of course I need to mention all the generous souls who volunteer to help us with this wonderful event.  We couldn't do it without all of them.  We thoroughly enjoy this celebration and look forward to it all year long.  Eleanor asked me today, "Mommy, how many more days until the next Birthday Bash?"  I'm sure that isn't the only time I'll have to answer that question!

God Bless!

Heather :-)

Birthday Bash 2011

Whew!!!  We made it!  Our 4th Annual Birthday Bash was this past Wednesday and it went off without a hitch.  I can only say that because of all the help we had from family (thanks Grandma and Grandpa!) and a host of friends and neighbors.  We were just under 200 guests and had 9 families drive and hour or more to get here!  We collected almost 700 pounds of food for the local food shelf and $95 in cash donations.  We have hundreds of photos, but I've chosen a few to give you a look at our event.

The Carnival

Face painting, tattoos and sucker pull - huge favorite!

Trampoline, bounce house and duck pond

Fishing pond, bucket ball toss and putt-putt

The magician was great!  The kids (of all ages) really enjoyed the walking magic during the carnival

Food and Cake

Guests finding some shade to enjoy their supper (hot dog or sloppy joe, watermelon and chips) and cake

All the Krafts with the birthday cake - yum!

 Magic Show

Everyone getting settled for the magic show to begin

Family friend Mr. Alzen led the group in "Happy Birthday"

Magician Matt Dunn had the Kraft kids help him with one of his magic tricks - great fun!

Food Shelf Delivery

Big  Blue was all loaded up and ready to head to the food shelf - notice the little heads poking out above the bags of food!

Bringing all of the donations into the food shelf

Family photo (minus dad - someone had to take the shot!) with our birthday bash shirts on outside the food shelf

This was, by far, our best bash yet.  We are making notes about what went well, amount of food/prizes/supplies purchased, and things to change for next year.  It is a lot of work, but it is so worth it.  It is a great memory for us all filled with family, friends and fun.  I would really encourage you to give it a try - especially those of you with larger families.  Think of it...one party to plan...no gifts or "stuff" to find homes for (everyone brings something for charity of your choice)...sounds appealing, doesn't it?!

God Bless!

Heather :-)

Joseph Turns 7!

On Wednesday, our Joseph turned 7 years old!  He is the only boy with 2 big sisters and 3 little sisters.  We joke that he will either be a fabulous husband some day or choose to become a priest.  He is definately a rough and tumble boy, but his sisters help him to soften up a bit.  Joseph is a sweet boy with a big heart.

On to some birthday pictures....

Big sister Haley bought Joseph a Lego.  Now that's love!

The rest of the day was spent building and playing with Legos.  What a dream day for the birthday boy!

We always put a sign over the birthday child's doorway and leave it up for a week.  A fun, inexpensive way to give the birthday child a little special attention.

The day wrapped up with some super yummy chocolate chip cookie cake - YUM!

Now we have the month of November off with no birthday celebrations until the beginning of December.  Tomorrow is the 5th anniversary of Lillian's baptism, so I'll make some cupcakes and we'll have one of her favorites for supper.  We've just started to celebrate baptism dates.  I think it's such a great idea!

God Bless!

Heather :-)

Birthday Bash 2010 Revisited

The carnival games have been returned to the church.  The garage and yard are cleaned up.  The house is (almost) back in order.  The grandparents have returned back to North Dakota (sigh).  The food donations have been delivered to the local food shelf.  The 3rd Annual Kraft Family Birthday Bash has come and gone.  It was a BLAST!

The week was hot and humid.  But that didn't stop Todd and Grandpa Jim from working their tails off getting all the outside stuff ready.  The yard was groomed to perfection and the garage was sparkling.  The grandmas helped me with the children, running errands, and food preparations.  The stormy weather happened the day before this year (thank you God!) and the day of our event was perfect!

We had about 150 friends attend our event this year.  We are so thankful for all who helped us with the carnival games.  It's kind of stressful trying to get enough folks lined up to help with the games, but it all fell together and went off without a hitch.  The music was fabulous.  Our friends the Alzen family are so much fun to watch and listen to.  They truly blessed us all by sharing their music and voices while giving praise and glory to God...what a wonderful form of entertainment.  Many of the "manly men" stuck around afterward to help tear down and clean up - another blessing!

We loaded up the food donations into Big Blue (our 15 passenger van) and wow-ed all the workers at the food shelf.  They told us that the local school doesn't even collect this much when they do their food drive!  So, just how much did we bring in?  Drum roll please.....432 pounds and $60!  The children were so proud and couldn't quit grinning.  An extra large thanks to all who donated generously to bless those in need!  It was fun to see you walking to the party carrying heaping bags full of groceries.

Todd compiled all the photos into a Picasa album from our various photographers - another thank you is in order!  It is neat to have a number of people snapping photos as it almost ensures everyone will get their picture taken at one point or another.  If you'd like to see the album, click here.

The children are already talking about next year's bash.  They wouldn't go back to a traditional party, not a chance.  Spending the day with family and friends and having our party benefit a good cause have become what birthday celebrations are to the Krafts.  I'd love to hear any feedback from the party and ideas for changes/improvements for the 4th Annual Bash to be held next summer.  Feel free to leave comments here.

God Bless!

Heather :-)

Birthday Bash

The 3rd Annual Kraft Family Birthday bash in tomorrow...the excitement is mounting!  We have 3 grandparents here to help us pull this off.  The grass is cut.  The yard is groomed. The food is bought.  The carnival games and prizes are ready.  The bluegrass band is booked.  So...what is it?

A few years ago, I heard Chris and Wendy Jeub speak at a home school conference.  Their talk concerned how to have a large family on an average budget.  Now, their family of 13 children is much larger than ours of only 6 children, but I took away many tidbits of information.  One of the best ideas was about how they celebrate birthdays.  Instead of having individual parties for each of their children, they have one, huge, blow-out party to celebrate all the birthdays at once.  Hmmmm....could we do that as well?

Todd and I started brainstorming ideas about how we could make this work to fit our family.  We decided to have a carnival theme.  Our church has a carnival each fall and we were able to borrow some of their games and we made some of our own.  We feed everyone a simple meal of hot dogs, slush burgers, chips, watermelon and cake.  Then, after our guests have all eaten their fill, we have a bluegrass/gospel band play a concert in the back yard.  This year, we're expecting about 150 guests.

That's the very brief overview of what we do.  But I've left out the best part.  We decided that instead of having our guests bring gifts for the children or our family, they could bring a donation for the local food shelf.  We have been so blessed and have more than enough that we use this opportunity to give to those who are in need.  The day after the bash, we load up all the food into the van and bring it to the food shelf.  The children's faces glow!  They are so happy that their party helps to provide food for those who don't have enough.

I'll get a few pictures together to share with you all in my next post.  I'd love to hear any ideas about celebrating birthdays in non-traditional ways.

God Bless!

Heather :-)