Ninjago Party Supplies

If you've been looking for LEGO Ninjago party supplies, you're probably getting very disappointed. Are you finding ANYTHING? Frustrating, isn't it? Certainly no Ninjago party invitations to be found. If you want to see the homemade invitations I made, please go back through my older posts. That's the best I could do.

Ninjago is one of the most popular boys' cartoons right now. It's in it's second season on Cartoon Network. It's the only thing my son talks about these days. So, when he asked for a Ninjago-themed birthday party, I said yes. I thought finding supplies would be easy. It's such a popular show, I'd probably have character options and everything. How wrong I was! I looked at retail and party supply stores, searched on-line, and asked around. Could anybody help? No. NOTHING!

If there was going to be a Ninjago birthday party, there would be no ready-made supplies. This would be a DIY Ninjago party. I put on my thinking cap and started taking notes.

Primary colors, like LEGOS. A store-bought yellow table cloth. Blue napkins, plates, and cups. Balloons in the colors of the main Ninjago characters.

I wasn't satisfied. This was LEGO-ish, but not Ninjago-ish. My son doesn't have an interest in LEGOs. It's Ninjago! We needed something that says Ninjago.

Ninjago cups!

Using a color printer and photo paper, print off as many pairs of 1x3-inch Ninjago eyes as you need. Cut around them. Run them through a Xyron sticker maker. Stick them onto your party cups. And, voila!

Here are the eyes I used.

Ninjago balloons!

Making the cups was so easy that in true ninja spirit, I decided to personalize the balloons too! Print, cut, and stick as many 2x6-inch eyes as you need. I made 10 total. Two each of the 5 main ninjas' colors. GREEN: Lloyd, power of Creation. BLUE: Jay, ninja of Lightening. BLACK: Cole, ninja of Earth. RED: Kai, ninja of Fire. WHITE: Zane, ninja of Ice.

Your guests will love it when you tell them they get to take one home from the party.

What I didn't count on was a "helium shortage." Who would have guessed? I was still able to buy my helium-quality balloons at our local supermarket, but they came on plastic posts, which wasn't all that bad. Maybe even made it easier to stick the eyes on.

Conner Prairie

Day 6: Conner Prairie

Final stop... Fishers, Indiana. Our week-long, kid-friendly romp around Kentucky and Indiana was coming to a close. It was Sunday, and we had thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this vacation.

The Huber van pulled in to Conner Prairie Interactive History Park. Dad found a nice shady spot to park. Not a close-to-the-entrance spot, but when has he ever cared about that? He wanted to keep the car cool like he always does. And just as always, he backed into his prime spot so we could pull out easily when we were done.

No line to wait in. We had Conner Prairie to ourselves. For a little while anyway. We bustled around this 1836 prairie town, talking to townspeople, bartering with store clerks, trying new (or maybe old) recipes, and learning how to make a go of it on the prairie.

Try a prairie trade before even going out to prairie town. DT loved the old-fashioned store. Prices were reasonable too. Or maybe he was just giving his dear mom a break.

Spin the wheel to find your fate in prairie town. The trade you land on determines your job for the day. You'll learn what was it like to be a craftsman, a farmhand, a cook, or housekeeper in the 19th century.

Or, you could just end up the town criminal!

DT's swindling list of must-do's.

My little criminal! He's so proud that he just disturbed the peace without harming anyone. Number 3 on his list of must-do's. Check.

Experiment with the hand tools of the 1836 prairie.

Try your hand at candle dipping. Patience required!

Learn an old-fashioned family game. (Notice the wigwams in the background. DT loved the Lenape Indian Camp since he had just made a wigwam diorama for a 3rd grade school history project.)

And be sure to explore the prairie's barn. Pet the baby lambs, goats and calves, or hold a newly hatched chick. They're just so stinking cute!

What a great learning experience! I wish we could have taken pictures during the 1863 Civil War Journey. With performers in period costumes and incredible hologram video projection, it's a 4-D experience that puts you in the middle of General John Hunt Morgan's raid on Indiana. You'll be asked to defend the state from rebel raiders. It's pretty exciting!

I must say it again... Thank you Mom and Dad for planning this vacation for DT and I. We loved it. And we'll always remember this time with you!

LEGO Travel Adventure & More

Day 5 (continued): Children's Museum of Indianapolis, LEGO Travel Adventure

My parents executed an amazing week-long getaway that had already taken us to Whitewater Canal, Clifty Falls State Park, Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill, Jackson county and Renfro Valley Kentucky, and Fort Boonesborough.

And now we were spending a day at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis. For the sake of time and space, I split our museum stop into two posts. If you're interested in pictures from the Dinosphere exhibit or the Chinese Terra Cotta Warriors, you'll have to go back to my previous post.

There really is so much to see!

If you have a LEGO lover, be sure to hit the LEGO Travel Adventure. This was one of DT's favorite exhibits. There's a bit of history, but mostly just fun!

At one o'clock visitors gathered on every floor to watch this enormous water clock drop 70 gallons of a water/methyl alcohol mixture that had been climbing all day, to accurately reflect the time. With more than 40 specially blown glass pieces, they say it stands at 26.5 feet tall and is the largest water clock in North America. It's an amazing focal point of the museum.

Fireworks of Glass. I'd say this is an appropriate name for the display. It's a 43-foot tall tower that rests on top of the glass ceiling of the lower level of the museum. You can circle it from the museum's ramps and view it from all sides, and even from underneath! You can't possibly comprehend the enormity of this sculpture from this picture, but try to imagine more than 3,200 individually blown, brilliantly colored, smooth, twisted glass horns and goosenecks.

Plan on spending some extra time here in Science Works. There's a construction site where you can design and build simple machines and experiment with physical science. DT tackled this architectural feat and was so proud to put that final keystone in!

If you have a science kid like DT, you'll be here for awhile. This hydrology feature was one of his favorites. He had way too much fun adding dams, changing water levels, and sending his boat down this 30 foot winding water table.

Sorry for the terrible quality of this photo (behind plexiglass), but for the amount of time DT spent here, I'd better include this Rube Goldberg machine. It's like The Song That Never Ends. It was torture for him to be pulled away.

This visit to the museum was a hit! And better yet, we ALL enjoyed it. Plan on loving it just as much as your kids do!

If you're ready to plan your trip, click here:
http://www.childrensmuseum.org/

Children's Museum of Indianapolis

Day 5: Children's Museum of Indianapolis

What a cool entrance to the museum!

If you're in Indianapolis, you've got to visit the children's museum. We happened to find some great coupons online which made it very affordable, but we certainly would have gotten our money's worth even if we had paid full price. There was just so much to do that a full day wasn't enough to take it all in. So we priortized and saw all that we could.

Link to the museum website here: http://www.childrensmuseum.org/

First stop...Dinosphere. Cretaceous Period. 65 million years ago.

This exhibit is impressive. It's one of the largest displays of real juvenile and family dinosaur fossils in the United States, and includes a functioning lab and hands-on activities for the kids.

A close-up view of a tiny dinosaur.

Second stop...Treasures of the Earth by National Geographic. It was an accidental discovery. In 1974 a group of Chinese farmers in danger of losing their crops to dry conditions, began digging a well. After digging 13 feet deep, the ground was still dry. A shovel struck something hard. And they discovered a human body made of baked clay!

An excavation of the site unearthed what many call the Eighth Wonder of the World. A full army of terra cotta warrirors of China's first emperor. Nearly 8,000 of them.

The exhibit shows how archaeologists unearthed and pieced back together the life-sized army, unraveling the mystery of the warriors. Each, individually sculpted, with unique facial features, hairstyles, and clothing details.

Although there is some debate about the origins of the Terra Cotta Warriors, most archaeologists believe they were created as part of a massive underground city for emperor Qin. To guard and protect him for eternity due to the proximity of his burial mound.

We explored two more Treasures of the Earth (the Tomb of the Ancient Egyptian and the Shipwreck of Captain William Kidd), but I I'll limit myself to this. And next time I'll share some pics from the LEGO Travel Adventure exhibit. I wasn't planning more than one entry on any single vacation stop. But clearly, the museum was a big hit!

Fort Boonesborough

Day 5: Fort Boonesborough, Kentucky

You remember the stories of Daniel Boone from American folklore, right? Sadly, in my mind this story had gotten mangled in a foggy swirl of tales with Davy Crockett, Paul Bunyan, and a young George Washington. Until there may as well just have been one coonskin-cap-wearing giant, fighting indians and cutting down cherry trees. Thank goodness for historic Fort Boonesborough to set me straight. At least on Daniel Boone.

Fort Boonesborough is a reconstruction of Daniel Boone's 1775 settlement along the Kentucky River. At that time it was part of Virginia, but on the other side of the mountains from the settled areas. Despite resistance from American Indians, Boone blazed his Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap in the Appalachian Mountains from North Carolina and Tennessee into Kentucky. His frontier at Fort Boonesborough was one of the first American settlements west of the Appalachians. And by the end of the 18th century, more than 200,000 European people would migrate to Kentucky/Virginia by following Boone's marked route.

The fort's walls offered protection from savages, but Boone ended up being captured and kept by Shawnee Indians for years. Although they adopted him into their tribe, he ultimately, returned to defend his settlement.

Inside the walls of Fort Boonesborough. Each of the first few cabins show different stages of settlement. The first cabins are very rough with floor mats for beds and travel crates for furniture. But they gradually evolve to include tables, lofts, and fireplaces.

The rest of the cabins depict the life of crafters and tradesmen, with interactive demonstrations. This one is obviously a furtrader's home. Hands-on learning makes for fun exploration of many local hides and furs.

A whitesmith's house. I didn't even know there was such a thing as a whitesmith! (They work with metals like tin and pewter.)

A blacksmith teaches his apprentice.

DT showing his most solemn face at the Fort Boonesborough plackard. He recognizes the grave truth of the end of the Native Americans' livelihood and eventual conquer.

We rounded out our day here, off the well-beaten path at the the Kentucky River Museum. Literally, just off a well-beaten path. The museum (in the background) sits on top of a hill, accessible only by following this little footpath. It's a small, but educational stop that would interest the avid river history buff.

Renfro Valley Entertainment Center

Day 4: Jackson County and Renfro Valley, Kentucky

My parents worked in the back hills of Jackson County, Kentucky for a short time after graduating from college. In fact, my brother was born there (rumor has it, incurring a hospital bill of a whopping $12). My dad worked for the US government and my mom as a rural school teacher. They were idealists with integrity. They stirred the pot and ultimately chose an early exit from the ugly politics of this depressed area.

Now that you've got our little connection to this place, I'll bring you back to 2012. On Thursday of our vacation with my mom and dad, we continued our travels by Huber van through the winding roads of Jackson County and McKee, Kentucky. Up and down narrow tree-lined mountain highways. Following unmarked, gravel "roads" through standing water and forgotten cemeteries. At the mercy of our GPS navigator, whose roadless floating arrow clearly couldn't identify that we were on a path at all. My parents could find very little along the way that had changed over the past 40 years.

By evening, we rejoined civilization. Well, a small touristy town called Renfro Valley. We promptly picked up tickets for dinner and a show at the Renfro Valley Entertainment Center. And we enjoyed a musical 1950's-style show called "Malt Shop Memories" with busloads of octogenarians from various seniors' groups. DT and I could have easily been spotted as the only audience members not eligible for the senior discount.

This is the barn where the thespian magic happens in Renfro Valley.

The next morning we walked through the town shopping district, which clearly didn't cater to early morning visitors, but didn't seem to bother us much.

We just about had the town to ourselves as crafters began opening their doors.

Who wouldn't want to take a ride in this stage coach?!

We fed the night-starved fish from the wooden bridge by this old mill. And then it was off for another Kentucky adventure in the Huber van.

Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill

Day 3: Shaker Village

On Wednesday, we toured Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill in Kentucky. This was the first of three interactive history stops we would make on our trip.

This historically-accurate restored town was inhabited by simple Shakers until 1910. Mistakenly compared to the conservative Amish due to their handmade garments, Shakers were actually a very progress-thinking community which used the most current technology of the times (including canning jars, commercial looms, sewing machines, and industrial ovens). We took a self-guided tour of the dwellings, and were able to participate in one of their spirited church services which dubbed them "Shaking Quakers" or Shakers.

Loved the interactive aspect of the town with it's weavers, spinners, farmers, etc.

This lady was quite a dynamic singer. She performed some of her favorite Shaker songs in the restored church which was full of visitors. I hadn't known that the song "Simple Gifts" was a Shaker song. And, yes. There were black Shakers. A few. She assured us.

This spiral staircase in the Deacon's house is an architectural wonder that climbs 4 stories high. And it has a twin that mirrors it across the hall. Gorgeous!

Shaker furniture is considered simple, but I fancy it for is's strong straight lines.

Shaker pegs lined the walls of every room of every building in town. How resourceful! And tidy!

You've probably heard of Shaker boxes...

We ended our visit on the Dixie Belle, a riverboat cruise through the limestone cliffs of the Kentucky River pallisades where we enjoyed the peaceful sights and sounds of hidden life.