Welcome to Cyndi's page a LeapMom here to help!

Cyndi's Q&A section will prove to be quite helpful and if you have a question please write to her. Your question and
answer will be posted here on this page. You will get a personal email back of Cyndi answering your questions or
giving tips on party planning, and it will end up here.

Read some of the things she's doing for her Leap Day Baby, Brady, and email her if you have any questions. Email Cyndi here.
 
Dear Cyndi,
Our daughter is turning four (1) and she doesn't have many friends her age. We have three other kids aged 5, 9 and
almost 11. Do you have any ideas that would make everyone feel included but not too eye-rolling for the older boys?
I saw the booth idea and we may do 3 or so. The other issue is money. It sounds, from the website examples that
a lot of leap year parties used a large budget. This is a concern for us. Any suggestions? Thanks for your time and
I hope to hear from you today.

Rhonda
  
Dear Rhonda,
There are so may activities (or booths) you can do for little or no money and in my opinion cover many ages. I have
toddlers-through-teenagers coming to our party and while some booths are too young, most are good for all ages.

How about playing Leap Frog for a game booth?
Fill 1 liter bottles half-full of water and tie a string to a wooden spoon with a hoop or shower hook that can fit around
the end of the bottle. Lay the bottle down and the kids try to hook the top and stand it up.
 
You can also use the bottles filled with water to play ring toss.
You could have a scavenger hunt, search for items based on your theme (or not).
 
Make sure kids do not enter houses. An adult should accompany the kids on the hunt.
 
You could have an obstacle course, using things you have around your house &yard. You can pick up gunny sacks
really cheap if you have a flour mill in town and they can have gunny sack races and 3 legged races, or use the gunny
sacks in the obstacle course. (or you can make sacks out of remnants or old sheets or pillow cases.)

Some of the games I listed for Brady's First Leap Day Party are inexpensive and cover many ages, as well, such as
the candy tasting game and face painting. I hope some of these ideas appeal to you. Please let me know if you need
more ideas. There is an additional note added below Cyndi's signature.
 
Happy Leap Day Birthday to your little Leaper!!!!
Cyndi

Additional Note:

Another great way to include many ages at a party is to ask older kids to help. They are usually very happy
to help with decorating, supervising games, face painting , serving food, etc. My older boys have already
volunteered for jobs and when I asked my girlfriend if her older girls would help, they suddenly got excited
to attend the party, whereas they weren't so keen on the idea before I asked for their help.

A great source for inexpensive party favors & supplies is Oriental Trading. You can type in your theme.
http://www.orientaltrading.com
 
Dear Cyndi,
Thank you so much for your quick return on my questions and I now have some new inexpensive ideas. Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hope you and your Leap Day Child have a great birthday too.
Rhonda
Brady is sooooo into being
a Leaper!
I told him that Leap Year lasts all year, that all of 2004
is Leap Year...he got so excited! He has been shopping
online for frog stuff for his Leap Day Party since last July!

He collects frogs and thinks he is related to frogs! He
wants every frog item we see.

When he graduated preschool, this is what they wrote
about him (show & tell was a guessing game of clues at
his preschool) He brought 1 of his toy frogs every single
time and always explained that he is a Leap Frog born
on Leap Day!
If you're looking for Brady
he's the freckle-faced kid
who keeps his show & tell
carefully hid.

But whatever you do
please, oh please don't guess frog
guess turtle, or scorpion, or even guess dog.
When the bag is pulled away
all tattered and torn
we will amazed
as yet another frog is born.

The children wide-eyed
will delight at the sight
and wish and wish and wish as they might.
"If only I'd guessed frog
not scorpion, not dog.
This time I'd be right
If I'd only guessed frog"

So they plan and they plan and they plan all night
"Next time Brady shares
I'll guess frog and I'll be right."

 

(Don't know the authors name.)

Invitation Poetry
Below is my adaptation of the poem at Museum page >
Then click on Games > then click on The Book of Games
& Parties. Anyone can change the names, etc to fit their
needs. I thought of 1 more rhyme after I had it all printed
out, so I could not add it, so I put it on the return address
labels above our address, others could add it into the poem:

( Will He Be Two or Will He Be Eight?
Please Join Us To Celebrate! )
...or you could say Will She Be Four or Will She Be One?
Please Join Us For Lots Of Fun!

'Tis Leap Year, as you doubtless know
The calendar has told you so.
'Tis this one year and this alone
The Leapers call their very own.
Below you'll see the hour and date
So come and help us celebrate.
One year in four we must adore ~
'Tis Leap Year, as you know.
So be our guest
To laugh and jest.
Upon the date below ~
The twenty-ninth is almost here
The extra day that makes Leap Year.
On this day things are turned askew
And so a Leaper will frolic with you.
Brady invites you to this party of his dreams
With festivities and games, cake and ice creams.
'Till One O`clock's chime doth end the day ~
Then you must take your prizes home
For Leap-Day Frogs no longer roam.
Sunday, February 29th
10:oo am to 1:oopm
Party Address Goes Here
Please RSVP by February 19th
Phone Number Goes Here
email address can go here
Hope you can join us!

(the original poem says "for Leap-Day Sprites no longer roam."
We changed it to frogs to fit our theme,
but others may prefer sprites or fairies)

Leap back up ^

FROG CAKE 

I am going to try to make this cake for Brady's party! Only I will make the frog smiling & the lilly pad green...you
use a bear pan and where the bear's ears are, you make the frog's eyes!  Thought I would share this if you want
to put it on the site. All the directions are here!

Create this frog cake using the mini bear cake pan.
DIRECTIONS:
Cake is one 9-inch two-layer and the
aluminum mini bear pan
  1. Ice the cake white, dab blue in several spots
    and smooth it around so that it is streaked.
  2. SIDE: Pipe tip 104 "lily pad."
  3. Pipe tip 2 green stems and tip 4 brown cat tails
  4. Pipe tip 349 long leaves
  5. Pipe tip 3 writing
  6. Pipe tip 233 grass
  7. Bottom border is tip
  8. Tip 3 black frowning mouth.
FROG: Decorate as star fill-in The eyes are where
the ears usually are. Pipe white, then black over top.
TIP: If you smooth the eyes with a dab of water on your
finger, the eyes will be shiny. Don't use too much water,
or your colors may run.
Here is a paper bag frog puppet that can be made at parties AND the adorable & easy
frog cupcakes! (I would use green frosting and add a mouth.)

Start with a batch of cupcakes frosted a watery blue (or green). For each one, slice a
large green gumdrop in half. Press the tip of a white chocolate chip into the cut surface
of each half, centering it near the bottom edge. Squirt a dab of black decorators' icing
onto each chip. Then press the frog eyes into the frosting.

(I will send pics of the cake & cupcakes we make for Brady's party...but that will be
after Leap Day, of course...)

Leap back up ^

Leap Day Festival

Brady will be 2/8 this year!! The plans are in the works. We are going to use some of the same ideas we
used for his First Leap Day Birthday Party. The theme was Leap Day Festival. Feel free to use any of our
ideas...it made for such a fun party!

The invitation had some Leap Year trivia on it, I would share it but it was about Leap Year's ending in 0,
such as 2000, but not 2004. Other Leap Year trivia you find (on this site) might be fun on the invitation.

We had several "festival booths" that stayed open. So we did not play 1 game at a time, the kids wandered
around to each booth as they pleased, just like a festival!

Kids really like tickets, so I had a roll, and each booth required tickets, but of course the tickets were free!

I had a vinyl pennant made saying, "Brady's First Leap Day Birthday 2000" I had permanent markers for
each guest to sign it...after they signed, they got a bunch of tickets. (For the pennant, look in the yellow
pages under "banners" and they should be able to make one for you. It's a nice keepsake for the Leaper.

For each game, they got a prize, win or not (I don't believe in games where kids lose at this tender age).
They had lunch bags to put their prizes in...have them put their names on the bags or do it for them. They
could decorate the bags, too.

We had a bounce house, which we called a Leap House, 1 ticket please.

We had a snack bar with popcorn, cotton candy, soda & pizza ~ 1 ticket per item please.

We had a teenaged girl paint faces.

We had a blind-fold candy tasting game (there were a few types of candy to taste and guess the kinds).

We had a frog fishing game. Use light weight plastic frogs. Our pond was a Hoola Hoop. I made fishing
poles out of dowels with string, with masking tape on the end so the tape was the hook to catch the frogs,
it was fun for 4 year olds. This year, we may try to take it up a notch somehow.

We made Leap Day Commemorative Plates. Each child got to make & keep a plate. The design is up to
each child. We wrote the special date around the edge. The plate kits are available through http://makit.com
It is something they do with markers, then you send them to the company to be made into plates, so you
have to deliver them to each guest at a later date. But they are wonderful & last forever and are dishwasher
safe. The web site has other items to choose from as well.

I bought inexpensive packages of white T-shirts and printed iron-on transfers with my PC. Each guest got a
shirt that said, "Where were you Leap Day 2000? I was at Brady's Leap Day Festival!" The guest of honor's
shirt was red, his favorite color.

Some booths could only be done once, such as the plate making booth, others can be done over & over,
even if you run out of prizes, they can still play the games.

After they did booths for about an hour and a half, we had cake (decorated with toy frogs the birthday boy got
to keep) and opened presents. If time is left, there's always the Leap House & games to return to!

Saylor, whose party plans are above, is our little friend! She was born during Brady's First Leap Day Festival!
We were going to have a joint party for them this year but decided it would be way too big with all of their
combined friends & family. So we are having Brady's in the morning then Saylor's in the afternoon...some
guests will attend both parties!
Leap back up ^

A LETTER TO RAENELL
(This is so cute I just had to share! -- Raenell)

Hi Raenell, I was just on the site reading about how your 2nd grade teacher
made you feel bad about being born on Leap Day ~ that is awful!
 
I have to share this with you, it was because of Brady having that special
birthday that made first grade exciting & special for him and an instant bond
was formed with his teacher! Also thanks to your T-shirt, he happened to
wear on a pivotal day for him!
 
We had requested a certain first grade teacher we heard was the best & Brady
was confident he would get that teacher. Then the class lists were posted...all
his brothers got the teachers we requested for them, except Brady and he was
devastated! He broke into tears. We didn't even know who this Mrs. Sass was.
The ladies in the office gave us her classroom number and told us to pop in and
introduce ourselves to ease the tension before the first day of school...so we did.

Brady just happened to be wearing his Leap Day Baby T-shirt, the original one
with the yellow burst design. After a brief, uncomfortable, tearful introduction,
Mrs. Sass, noticing Brady's shirt, exclaimed, "Were you born on Leap Day?!"
"yes" "well so was my daughter, she is in high school and will be 4 on her next
birthday!" Brady's tears disappeared and a big grin replaced them! This and the
fact that Mrs. Sass wears Brady's same hairstyle, very short on the sides and
spiked on top really made Brady feel much more comfortable and we had the
best year!

Mrs. Sass was the best first grade teacher! She copied the info from Brady's
shirt to give her daughter, but I don't know if she has ever joined the Honor
Society or not.

 
And then we requested his 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Randolph, whom I worked
with last year. When she found out Brady was a Leaper and his Leap Day
Birthday would occur while he was her 2nd grade student, she got excited!
There will be special classroom festivities for Leap Year Day with special
attention for Brady, I'm sure! I will send treats, of course!
 
And they have a READ NATURALLY program I volunteer to help with once
a week in Brady's classroom; and one day the subject they read about was
"Leap Year"!!! Brady & I were excited!
 
Very few people have ever made negative comments to Brady about being a
Leaper. A couple have told him he doesn't get a party every year and he assures
them that he does. (and we know plenty of non-Leapers who don't get parties
every year and some, never). What hurts him more is the rude comments about
frogs! People will tell him frogs are yucky & they hate frogs...you might as well
stick a dagger through his heart!
 
We are getting him a LIVE frog for his birthday this year!
  
Note from Raenell: That is awesome! I'm so happy for him! I have a live frog in
my 125 gallon fish tank!

Cyndi Olsen, a LeapMom to Brady, can be reached at: email@cyndi.biz

Leap back up ^

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This site was last updated January, 2009