Happy Birthday, Tuna! (A Minecraft Party)

Today's my baby's birthday. Tuna turns ten years old today. I am so glad to be called her Mama. She's such an incredible person. Here's a video I made of her life so far. I think the song is a good choice for her. Tuna's got confidence pouring from her, and knows that she can do anything. 

I put together a Minecraft birthday party for her. You can't go out and buy much Minecraft stuff. You have to pretty much make it all. Lots of printing, cutting, folding, and gluing went into this party. 

The kids bobbed for apples, hit the pinata, played Minecraft, and listened to Minecraft song parodies. We opened presents, ate food (all Minecraft food!), and hung out with a large group of friends. My tiny German house was packed! Later, she had three of her friends spend the night. 


Here are some photos:

Afraid of the creeper!

My sweet baby girl

Hubs made labels for the foods in PowerPoint. 

I made dozens of blocks out of card stock. I have a bruise form the scissors. Still, the effect was worth it. 

My baby's public nickname, the one she prefers, is on her cake. Never mind that: how awesome is this cake?!?! We had it made by the bakery down the road. We were so impressed! It's perfect!

I found labels for water bottles on Etsy. Link below. 

I used masking tape to Minecraft pixelate my windows. All the first floor windows are pixelated like this. We left them up for her real birthday, too. 

My ghast pinata. This sucker was a lot of work but he is so very cool, isn't he? Tuna loves it. She salvaged it to keep in her bedroom. Only the top was damaged. 

Goody bags were simple lunch sacks with Steve heads glued on. Cookies and torches (glow sticks) were inside. 

Tuna got first swing on the ghast. Looks like it's flying away from her!

Free banner link below!

This was on the front door. It's in Tuna's room now. 

Our menu:

Cooked chicken (BBQ on the grill)
Baked potato (with all the toppings)
Carrots
Bread
Butter
Cake
Raw fish (Swedish fish)
Gold Ingot (Reese's peanut butter cups in the small gold wrappers)
Sticks (pretzels)
Apples
TnT (Twizzlers)
Water


And here are some links to sites where I found help setting everything up:



Happy Birthday Banner

Minecraft Papercrafts

Ghast Pinata

Printable Water Bottle Labels (Steve and Creeper)

Little (Minecraft) House on the Prairie

Tuna loves to learn. In January, when I brought her home from school, she hated school and had no motivation to learn anything. This is no longer the case. My goal of instilling the love of learning and discovery has been met and surpassed. 

I am happy. She is happy. It's a wonderful feeling. 

As I write this blog entry, she's working at the computer to build a Little House on the Prairie scene in her Minecraft world. 

the inside of her log home, with bedstead

We finished reading Little House on the Prairie today, and she watched a couple episodes of season one of the show named for the book online. Then, she started playing Minecraft and decided to build herself Little House scene there. 

Tuna's Little House garden

When building the hearth, her log cabin caught fire and she worked feverishly to put it out, remarking to me that it was "actually a scene from the book since the chimney caught on fire in the book," and asked if I "remember the prairie fire?" before repairing her cabin with stone. 

the outside of her log home after fire damage forced some reconstruction

She added several elements that show me she loved the story and was paying diligent attention while I read. That is plenty of payment for the pain to my throat of reading all those pages aloud. Though she did read aloud, too, about a page at a time, now and then, most of it taxed my vocal chords. 

Tuna's well. There's a cover for it, too. 

I love the form of homeschooling we've settled into, which is on the verge of unschooling. It works so well. Perhaps one day, we will be full unschoolers, though I do see us teetering on the verge for the foreseeable future. 

Whatever works. 

Tuna's cattle