Just Deanna

Room Fit For a Tween

2012-12-03T18:09:00.002-08:00

We have a 4 bedroom house.
Up til a week ago, the girls shared a room and boys shared a room.
Well you know how girls mature faster than boys?
My 9 yr old girl has all the makings of a tween.
And sharing a room with a messy, invasive 5 yr old about had her in hives.
(Boys, 11 and 7 have no interest in splitting up.)
So once our house listing expired (bummer) we decided to finally mix things up around here.

Kalla got the 'extra' room.
The one we used sort of as office (not really), guest room (rarely) and storage (mostly).
So it got a clean coat of white paint and some fun accessories.

Quilt was found at our local Goodwill, but is Target brand and I've seen them there.
SMILE pennant was made by the 2 of us over Thanksgiving break.

Curtains made by me.
Fabric from Hobby Lobby--hard to see here, but it's a pink and white geometric design.

Biggest wish was a space to set up a permanent doll bedroom.
Don't you adore the poster doll bed made for me as a girl by my paw paw and patch quilt made by my great grandmother.
To be honest, I've had to convince Kalla how much more awesome they are than the sparkly trendy doll beds in AG catalog.

Desk is a cheapy piece from Goodwill.
I painted it's veneer wood a bright white.
Chair is just a stand in til I can figure out how to get the vintage metal one I thrifted's cushion off so I can paint and reupholster it.

Decorated the white desk a bit with some washi tape.
Orange silverware holder holds all her little notebooks, mp3 player and cutsie erasers and pens.
Clear chevron box from Target holds her craft stuff.

Mirror is cheap plastic thrift find painted orange.
Blue lamp thrifted.
Painted blue plaque keeps her bowl of bracelets and sunglasses organized.
Replaced glass of cheap frame with cork board to hang necklaces on.
Far Beautiful printable from Joys Hope here.

Giant bulletin boards to hang anything she likes from Hobby Lobby.
Framed out with some washi tape.

Bed was hubby's old bed with storage underneath...SO NICE.
Don't look too close and you'll see I haven't finished painting it yet. :)

Boys got moved to the girls' old room since it was the largest and biggest closet.
Maressa now has the bunk beds to herself and is enjoying the top bunk.
Her room will get a coat of white and some special things eventually.

But for now I'm sick.
Hence the time to post as I can't work on projects feeling like this!

Lunches for the Queen of Picky

2012-11-08T15:15:00.000-08:00

Ok, so she's not exactly picky in the traditional sense.
She's actually a good eater for a 5 yr old, but unlike my other kiddos, a sandwich for lunch will just not do.

She's not a huge bread eater (weird I know!) Unless it's sweet cornbread or muffins or the like.
So coming up with lunch to send to school has been a challenge.

I've tried variations of the cold cut lunch with ham and cheese tortilla wraps or homemade lunchables.
But they come home mostly uneaten.

So we've moved to hot in a thermos type lunches.
She doesn't really do soup, so I've had to be creative.

So thought I'm surely not alone in this dilemma and would share our current hot lunch list:

Maressa's Thermos Lunches

*Mac n cheese (an obvious choice, but not my fav since she will only eat the neon powdered cheese kind which on occasion is fine, but don't like her to eat it daily)
with a side of bite sized ham to eat with it

*Whole wheat egg noodles and chicken (current fav--directions on how I prepare it at bottom of post)

*chili (bean-and-chunky-anything-less) served with side of shredded cheese to sprinkle on top and sweet cornbread and crackers

*taco meat served again with cheese and tortilla chips

*scrambled eggs and cheese

*grilled chicken pieces with side of bbq sauce for dipping (I don't send breaded chicken nuggets or anything like that due to the fact it gets soggy)

*spaghetti and mini meatballs

So there you have it. Husband says she's spoiled with these gourmet lunches, but it's often leftover dinner stuff. Or I make a weeks worth of chicken and noodles at one time to just heat up in the mornings...actually quicker and easier than making a sandwich. And her thermos is always completely empty when she gets home. And she doesn't have the I'm still hungry crankiness after school. ;)

****************************************************************************
Easy & Quick Chicken and Noodles

Cook wheat egg noodles in water according to directions.
Drain.
Stir in some butter and sprinkling of garlic powder and black pepper.
Cut up chicken into bite sized pieces (I use a rotisserie chicken from grocery store deli)
Toss and serve. :)

How to throw a super simple birthday party for an 11 year old boy.

2012-11-07T11:44:00.000-08:00

Back in September my oldest turned 11 years old. Ugh.
He is 5 foot tall now ( a mere 7" shorter than me) and in his last year of elementary school.

I threw him a small, simple party this year.

He invited a handful of friends to come celebrate.
I filled the kitchen table with junk food, koolaide and labeled plates and cups.

Party favors in paper cups I got at Target dollar spot.
I put googly eyes on and filled with a few party favors from Party City and gum.

Outside a bowl of styrofoam airplanes, glow sticks and silly string.

They came to hang out for 3 hours and just ate and played as they pleased.

Kickball and football in the front yard.

Silly string in the back yard.

Foam light saber whacking and wrestling on the trampoline.

Dinner was Z's favs...chicken tacos and watermelon.

Cookie cake (decked out in Clemson colors) and sparklers to end the night. :)

Luke, Susan, Alice and a Storm Trooper

2012-11-06T09:13:00.001-08:00

Hello there!
Just popping by to share my characters. :)

Meet Susan Pevensie of Narnia

Alice in Wonderland (had a bit of injury during the fall down the rabbit hole).

Luke Skywalker

And of course a Storm Trooper

Sorry for the absence. I guess you guys are used to the fact I come and go. :)
Life and laziness get in the way.

Been busy painting the house up a storm. Living room and kitchen getting a bit of a redo.
The kids and I are crafting our way through Christmas gifts.
And I've had some luck thrifting.
So will be sharing all that hopefully soon.

And oh, I am over an Instagram now.
Due to my love of anything visual, I take lots of pics.
So if you are so inclined to keep up with me and my kidsand projects between my blog posts you can follow me at: dmbender73

Oh and happy Election Day!
Today I did 2 very important things....had my first mammogram and voted.
One was more painful than the other! ;)

the playroom: white is the new color

2012-09-12T13:17:00.000-07:00

Back in the day in my first house (14 yrs ago) I had lots and lots of color.
I had no fear and painted all the walls in deep colors.
Well, I’m over it.
I’m in love with the white and gray.
My next home will defintely be painted white and gray.
Then I can add all the color in accessories.
That and an accent wall in my bedroom of giant yellow and white stripes...to go with my gray quilt.

Anyway, upon getting the house ready for it to go on the market, I painted the playroom (that used to be bright yellow) this soft white.

LOVE it! And now my maps lining the back of the shelves really pops.

One day we’re going to add pretty paper to the backs of the dollhouse shelves.

Oh and I made new pillows for our comfy denim couch.
The middle pillow is a Goodwill find (Target ‘reject’).

I really loved some of Targets new sheets.
No need for sheets, I just bought some pillow cases and cut them in half or so and made pillows for the couch.

So that's the current look of our playroom. :)

Oh the Hair Ties

2012-09-11T11:12:00.000-07:00

A while back I got some really cool hair ties online.
I thought from the picture I knew what they were made of and confirmed upon arrival.

FOE otherwise know as fold over elastic.
Back in my children’s boutique designing and selling days on eBay FOE became a trendy item to add colorful and stretchy elastic in clothes.
Most commonly FOE is used in trim in panties.
Comes in a wide array of colors and is soft and stretchy.

One day I was wearing my new pony holder and a friend asked about it.
Apparently I was trendy and didn’t even know it. :)
A local day spa were selling them (for like $3 a piece!!) And the local high school girls all wear them.
So went to eBay and found 17 colors and 70 yds for about $20.
They take seconds to make.
Nine inches and tie in knot. Melt ends with lighter.
I made me a big batch (though honestly brown is my fav since it’s the color of my hair.)
And I have so much I make them for friends and their kids.

My girls wanted some of their own as well. Pink please. And lime green.

Fun fun!

My Big Frame

2012-09-10T08:03:00.000-07:00

I’ve had this big empty frame for some time now.
It’s actually the inner part of another frame I got at a thrift store.
This past weekend I decided to do something with it.

I simply wrapped it with strips of fabric then stapled bakers twine to each side.

Then I used small clothespins to pin up some of my favorite photos.

I really love how it turned out.

I needed something large for over the couch but something that can’t be broken.

This is our front room that we keep pretty open and free of breakables as this is the one room the kids are allowed to throw balls, wrestle and have light saber fights. :)

I'm kinda over the red though.
But our house is on the market so I'm not looking to start painting anything now.

I did paint one room before it went on...the playroom.
I don't think I ever showed you...maybe tomorrow.:)

Kids Art: Magazine Collages and gift

2012-09-04T17:50:00.001-07:00

Over summer break the kids and I did this art project.
I was inspired by a picture my nephew did for my mom that hung in her guest room while I was there recently.
Actually I was there to pick up my nephews and niece to come visit us for a week.
We did this project while they were here.
I love many things about this project.
I loved that even the 5 yr old could do it all by herself.
I loved that it kept them busy for a long time…some of them a few days even.
I loved that it involved lots of cutting and pasting…not too messy, but messy enough for the kids to enjoy.

We used my old magazines, old kids magazines and catalogs.
They poured over all of them finding just the right things that interested them.
It took Micah the Perfectionist a while to really get into it.
I even tried helping him and making suggestions when I came across a picture.
I even found a big green bean (family joke…he didn’t think it was funny).
After they glued down all their pictures onto a canvas with mod podge, we glued down letters to spell their name.
They love their new artwork and they are all hanging in their rooms.

And it was the daddy’s bday. So we collaborated and made him his own.
I’m thinking this will make great grandma and grandpa gifts as well.
We’ll be doing some more for sure!

Simple Large DIY Outdoor Tent

2012-09-03T14:20:00.001-07:00

The tent I made for Kalla’s latest bday bash was quick n easy.
Just like I like.

This particular one needs to hang from something.
I did not make supports to hold it up.
I hung it from a tree limb that hangs over our patio.
Here’s what I used:
Three 10ft pvc pipe
2 cheap queen sized flat sheets
Assorted ribbons
String of Christmas lights

I first sewed a bunch of colorful ribbons across the bottom seams of each of the flat sheets.
Then I hung one pvc pipe with twine to limb.
I wrapped the Christmas lights around the pipe hanging and then tied the sheets together at the top on each side.

At the top of each queen sheet was a wide hem that was open on one end and I inserted another pipe into each.
The pipes were a bit longer than the width of the sheets and I simply cut the extra off with large tree pruning cutters.
I used bricks to hold each side open as wide as it would go.

And inside I used a large quilt (king sized) inside for the girls to sit on.
I hope to get some more pipe to try to figure out how to make it free standing one day. If I do, I’ll be sure to share!

Hello Weekend

2012-08-31T09:28:00.000-07:00

Well, we sent this one off to kindergarten last week.
I was able to avoid the tears because she goes to her same preschool for kindergarten…it feels the same and she gets out early just like before. So I’m in denial.
She has mixed feelings about kindergarten.
She was anxious to learn to spell immediately and catch up to her siblings.

I’m still a bit in my back-to-school funk.
Hopefully this 3 day weekend will help some.

Apparently the new schedule, affected Rex too.
He was half in and half out his rock for most of the day. :)

Meanwhile, baseball is up and running strong.
This guy, 10 yrs, hit his first over the fence home run in his last tournament.
He’s been floating on air all week.

At another tournament, their first of the season, they won the championship.
Love this pic of the team running for their trophy.

Micah is playing fall ball too.
SO CUTE in the catcher’s gear!

This is how Kalla likes to spend her time at the ball field.

So summer is done and we’ve traded in our swim suits for the scooters.

I can’t get over this crazy adorable princess helmet I found for M at Target!

This weekend, we have one last swimming party tonight.
Back to school Luau at our neighborhood pool.
Tomorrow, baseball practice for the big guy.
After that, just the park, picnics and lots more scooter time.

Mom’s No-Nag Morning Lists

2012-08-20T11:34:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day back to school for the oldest 3.

I came up with this genius-ness Sunday afternoon.

In the years past, every school morning was semi-chaotic. Trying to get all 4 out the door early.
The children are all early risers, but I’m not a morning person. So they get up before me and they don’t see me til I’ve had a shower, I need them to get started getting ready before I come out.
The temptation of course is getting right down to playing.
So this was my game plan. I placed each kids cards in their spot at the kitchen table.
I decided to make separate cards instead of a chart, because I could foresee fighting over access to it.
Let me tell you I’ve never seen 4 kids happily busy getting ready on the first day of school.

Here’s Zachary’s list.
Silly as it is, we used to fight over him combing his hair in the mornings and yes, he did whine when he saw it on his list last night, but it was checked off before school today without mom nagging.

Maressa can’t read yet, but insisted she needed her own list.
So I drew a few pictures to help her know what to do.

I used large notecards to make these that I already had on hand.
Then blinged them out a little with some washi tape.
Once I had them like I wanted I used peel and stick laminate paper to cover them.
They use dry erase markers to mark off their list.

This is my 5th grader. He heads to school earlier than the others.

2nd and 3rd graders.
Apparently it is orange day. lol

This is why Z man is early to school every day.
As a 5th grader he has one of the coveted safety patrol positions.
Pretty light day as every one walks their kids in on the first day.

Tomorrow my baby starts kindergarten…someone pass the tissues will ya?

Make it: Easy and Simple Doll Chairs

2012-08-16T09:28:00.001-07:00

If any of you own an American Girl doll or the like, you quickly realize the thing cannot sit on it's own.
It needs to lean against something to get it to sit proper.
So we were having a Doll and Camping birthday party and I really needed to have all these dolls sitting around a campfire.
But where was I going to find a dozen chairs for them to sit in?
An idea came to me....I had some left over pieces from a cub scout book end project in the garage.

I realized putting 2 pieces together made a primal type chair that sits on the floor, perfect size for Kalla's dolls.

So to make some chairs like these here's what you need.
Don't be scared...I'm no carpenter.
I've never tried an Ana White project, nor do I have a saw.
I can use a hammer though.
So I went to Home Depot and got some lumber, a 10ft section of 1/2" thick piece that is about 5.5" wide.
I had the guy cut it down for me to 8" pieces. For a dozen chairs (2 pieces each), this took 2 10ft sections.
So I ended up with 2 pieces of wood .5"x5.5"x8" per chair.

Other than the wood, you need wood glue and some finishing nails (these nails are thin, won't split the wood and sinks down into the wood.
First you need to sand the edges well. I do happen to have an electric sander which rocked my project way fast.
Then, I used wood glue to adhere the pieces together.
Little glue goes a long way.
Let it dry completely.

Once dry, nail together across bottom with 3 nails.

Then of course I had to have plenty of color.
Spray paint all sides.

They are a little plain. I thought about letting Kalla stencil or personalize hers.
i think they would be cute with the doll's initials.

Here they are in party action.

And I let the party guests all take one home for their doll.
Kalla plays with her chairs all the time.
Now I should figure out a way to make a simple table. :)

Make it: Foam board/duct tape accordion frame

2012-08-14T07:27:00.003-07:00

It was hubby’s bday.
I had current, cute pics of kids, but no frames.
He has moved into a new office and cleaned out all old stuff and wanted new pics.
Enter my idea to make an accordion style frame with materials I had on hand.

Started with 4x6 photos printed off computer.
And a white foam board.

I used a sharp blade and ruler to cut four pieces of 5x7 pieces of foam board.

Added black duct tape to put all the pieces together.
I started by cutting a piece of tape and placing the long side of a piece of foam board not quite to the middle of the tape.

Apparently I missed a picture, but to add the next board, I stacked it on top of the board with the tape and folded the tape along the top of the next foam board.
This is important to get the pieces to be able to bend.
When you open it, there should be bare tape in the middle like above.

I folded the edges of the ends over the foam board.
Then I placed another piece of duct tape on top.
As you can see I had pieces not matching up very well.

Easily remedied by another piece of tape matching up all the sides to look neat.
That’s the best thing about duct tape. It’s so flexible in projects.

After connecting all four boards, I taped up the ends with a few pieces.

When done your boards should be able to fold up like this.

And will look like this standing up.
Once I had this done I used double sided tape to attach the pictures.
Then I used a few pieces of washi tape or printed masking tape on the corners of the pictures to jazz it up a little.

I want to make one of these for the girls room with pretty printed duct tape. Will share a girlie version soon!

Thankful and a yummy blueberry dessert

2012-08-13T07:35:00.001-07:00

Birthdays are kinda a big deal in our house.
Everybody gets their special day.

This past weekend we celebrated the biggest guy’s bday.

We did our traditional bday banner.
I print it up and the kids color it and we ‘surprise’ him with it on his special day.
Along with homemade cards.
I love how creative the kids are with their drawings for him.
We also made him a collage and photo frame of the kids to take to work…more on those later this week.
He’s not big on gifts, however one of my love languages is gifts, so we always manage to make him something.

Maressa wanted to make him spicy chocolate and this had nothing to do with the fact she wants him to share. *wink wink*

We cooked a rad meal of his fav things…meat (chicken) and veggies and salad.

And we made this blueberry buckle that is raved about so much on one of my fav blogs.
*Warning, Do NOT take this fresh out of the oven and insert traditional bday candles...they will melt inside the cake, then you have to pick blue wax out of your slice before you eat it.

Yes, it was awesome.

We are blessed to celebrate with this incredible hubby and father every year and every day in between.
After all he does the best at silly voices when reading books and of course embellishing the story to make it even more silly to which the girls giggle and say ‘no daddy, that’s not right!’
They love it.

Doll and Camping Party

2012-07-26T13:04:00.002-07:00

This past weekend we celebrated Kalla’s big 9th birthday with a bash in our backyard.
A giant homemade tent (tutorial to come), lots of yummy food and crafts.

For the table (our picnic table) I covered it in white paper table cloth and pink printed wrapping paper (found at Target on clearance).
White tin votives down the middle of the table.
Tin pie plates from the Dollar Tree in place of paper plates.
Glass jars and straws.
Trinkets at each place setting: banana, mini colorful flashlight and glow stick bracelets.

The girls all brought their favorite doll (or stuffed animal).
The dolls all enjoyed their own mini bandanas, campfire and roasted marshmallows.
I made the chairs with simple pieces of wood and paint. Will share my how to this week.

Marshmallows on a stick is simply bamboo skewers and folded sheets of copy paper.
We used elastic hair bands to help the dolls hold their sticks.

Food for the party goers per request of bday girl: chicken tacos, fresh salsa and chips, buttered corn on the cob and fruit kabobs.

Campfire cupcakes.

Crafts: glitter votive candle holders.

To make we simply poured and coated the inside of mason jars with mod podge, then sprinkled glitter inside.

In the big tent, their were supplies to make bracelets and necklaces.
The girls made some for themselves and for their dolls.

Aside from taking home their doll chairs, marshmallows, trinkets and crafts, we set up a trail mix station for party favors.

They all had a really great time.
Even though the rain didn’t hold out for the whole party and the smores got nixed.

To see the invitation go here. :)

Vacation Memory Books

2012-07-19T12:33:00.000-07:00

Before our vacation to the beach last week, I whipped up these little blank books for the kids.
Every year on our trip to the beach, they like to record the trip in a book.
I ran out of Bare Books so this is how I improvised.

I took 5 pieces of white cardstock and one piece of colored cardstock and folded them in half.
I find using a pencil helps create a nice crisp crease.
Then lay the white sheets on top of colored sheet and sew down the middle of the crease.

I used stickers from my stash to decorate the front.
And a bit of washi tape and labels that came with a set of canning jars.

I love looking at them at the end of the trip.
Maressa drew picture of her sand angel, some castles and waves.
Zachary filled up his whole book with diary style entries and lots of pictures.
One day I’m sure they will enjoy looking back and remembering.

Recipe Review: Crockpot Chicken Soft Tacos

2012-07-18T14:01:00.000-07:00

Our family’s new fav meal.
Found this idea/recipe on Pinterest.
My only changes was to use homemade taco seasoning (my sister gave us this as a Christmas present) and Rotel with cilantro instead of salsa.

For Kalla’s camping party this weekend, she asked for this.
Not really campy, but when you do it in the back yard, you can have anything you want right?
Find recipe post here.

Oh and sorry for weird one photo. I made these for a large 40+ person group a couple of weeks ago and used most of my taco seasoning. Never got a pic of the tacos. But if you follow the link, she's got lots of great yummy pics. :)

Next Party

2012-07-17T14:33:00.002-07:00

Our summer birthdays are 3 weeks apart.
So it’s party time again.
For Kalla’s 9th she wanted an American Girl doll party.
We put a camping twist on it.
I am not a fan of slumber parties (I know I’m a party pooper) so our compromise is a party later in the evening up to bed time so we can enjoy the twinkly lights and campfire.

Check back next week for details and lots of pics. :)

Beachy

2012-07-12T05:00:00.000-07:00

Vacation is over.Time to go home.
We had a blast.
Induldge me in a few pics.
There are many more, but here are my favs.

Gotta unpack.
Do the laundry.
Pack up again.
Next stop, church camp. :)

Sew it: Satin Pillowcases

2012-07-11T12:15:00.003-07:00

My oldest daughter has long hair.
She inherited her mother’s wavy fine hair.
It tangles quickly and easily.
Especially in bed.
So I thought of a way to try to help the morning, brushing-the-hair tears.
Satin pillowcases.

For ours we decided to make a pretty and decorative on one side with quilters cotton and the other side the smooth satin for sleeping.
Both girls of course wanted one of these special pillow cases.
I let them pick a print from my sewing room to match their solid satin side.

To make pillowcases, I always start by using another pillowcase in the house to get my measurements.
Normally I use the fabric twice as wide as a standard pillowcase and just have 2 seams to sew up, but since we are using 2 different fabrics I cut two rectangles.
Then because I was working with satin that ravels terribly, I decided to use french seams.
To start place both sides wrong sides together and sew along both long sides and one short side (be sure to leave one side open).

Then cut very carefully and closely to the seam.

Now flip inside out and I iron all the seams flat.

Now sew a generous sized seam along the three sewn edges.
The raw edge should now be encased inside the new seam.
Flip back right side out and check along the seams.
If you have a spot sticking out, just go sew along the seam in that area to make sure to cover the raw seam.

Now you will make the open side with a large hem.
I didn’t measure the exact size of this as I was using an old pillow case as a guide. If you want exact measurements just ask and I’ll measure it when we get home.

The girls love their new special pillowcases!

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy Lemonade Cupcakes

2012-07-10T07:20:00.000-07:00

I made 40+ cupcakes the other day for some campers at Summer Camp that is held through many people that go to my church.
It was my turn to feed them lunch.
I wanted something easy and fun and yummy for dessert.

I started with a box of lemon cake that I made cupcakes with.
Then I made my standard buttercream frosting and added some Country Time lemonade mix to it.

Lemonade Buttercream Frosting
1 C shortening
4 C powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
4 tbsp milk
1/8 C instant lemonade mix
Mix til well blended.

I have a love/hate relationship with frosting.
I like it thick, but hate spreading it on cupcakes.
Sometimes I do the frosting tip in a big ziplock bag trick.
But when I made the last batch of cupcakes (star wars party) I ripped a hole somewhere in the bag and frosting escaped all over the place.
I was tired and on the verge of tears over silly frosting.
So on this day I just messily piled it on top.
Who cares what it looks like once its in your tummy right?
And the sour gummy worms hide the mess that is the frosting anyway. ;)

These cupcakes had the right bit of sour and sweet.
Even my not-so-big-on-cupcakes kid liked them. :)

Star Wars: Episode VII The Party

2012-07-09T07:25:00.000-07:00

Ok here’s the pics I took of Micah’s Star Wars birthday bash.
We used the boys lego Star Wars collections to decorate.
Plastic silver table cloths and black gift wrap on the tables.

I used silver pie pans from the Dollar Tree for the plates.
I really loved this idea. I love finding something interesting, cheap and reusable for party ware.
Will be using them again for the next birthday coming up!

Chewbacca cut out from Amazon.
I meant to get pics of the boys with him, but totally forgot.

Sorry for the poor lighting on some of these pics.
I was in and out and forgot to change the setting on my camera some of the time.
What a difference to fix your white balance it can be!

We served Padawan Pizza, Vader Veggies, Boba Fett berries, Chewy chips and Yoda Soda (lemon lime kool aid).

I am SO NOT a cake decorator.
I was tempted to make Micah the 3-tier black fondant cake with lava, etc to put his lego guys battling on top, but thought better of it.
We agreed that setting up battles of lego guys for me to take pics of and then use as cupcake toppers was a better idea.
I did have some cool star shaped silver glitter sprinkles from Hobby Lobby.

It was the weekend of 106F temps so it was SUPER hot.
I usually plan all our summer bdays on our deck, patio, play area outside, but decided I better not. Though the boys did want to play outside a bunch too.
So I put food stuff inside, and outside on the deck filled a cooler of ice pops and waters.
Big hit.

Made the pool noodle light sabers.
Super easy.
Just cut them in half and tape up the bottoms with duct tape and black electrical tape to look like light saber hilts.
You can find lots of these on Pinterest if you need more info.

Z man was Darth Vader.

He braved the wrath of all the seven year old padawans.

Inside we had lunch and cupcakes.
I got one of those sparkler numbers.
The look on Micah’s face when it was lit was priceless.

Then we took down the Death Star.
I just got a soccer ball pinata and painted it gray also a la Pinterest.

Party favors included the take home light saber noodles, coloring book packets I found earlier in the year at Target dollar spot (not pictured), pinata goodies and these solid chocolate Millenium Falcons.

I found the molds for these on Amazon.
Super easy to make and impressive looking.
It was a trade up between these or the Han Solo in carbonite molds.
I just used white melting chocolate and a bit of black gel food coloring to make them gray.

And lastly here were our invitations.
We decided to copy the top of the Staw Wars dvds look for them and then added a Micah looking jedi minifigure.
Made that on this website I’ve talked about in the past.

SEVEN

2012-07-04T13:45:00.001-07:00

This guy turned seven last week. Seven. Ack.
My not-so-little Micah is a complex kinda fella.
Most know him as the silent type. Boy of few words. Soft spoken.
Not behind closed doors. He’s the funniest kid I know.
Will do most anything for a laugh.
He loves to dance…especially in his underwear.
He also often holds my heart in his hands.
Cuddliest 54 lbs you’ll ever meet.
And has the biggest soft spot for his Mama.
All I have to do is ask in a soft voice with a smile and I think he’d hang the moon for me.
I’m holding onto this as long as I can. Before I know it he’ll be a teenager.
**********
Anyhoo, we had a big ole Star Wars type party this past weekend.
Will share that soon!

Tomorrow we are off to the beach.
White sands and blue water...and cooler temps!

I'm going to try to catch ya'll back up while there. :)

Little League baseball cupcakes

2012-06-21T19:54:00.000-07:00

One of my fav things to bring to those end of season Little League parties is baseball cupcakes.

I go a little overboard with them and make them for the team we represented that year.
The kids always get a kick out of it.
To make I simply find the logo of our current team online and copy and paste the picture in a publishing program.
Then resize to fit in my bigger hole punches.
I punch a coordinating color with my biggest punch and tape a lollipop stick in between the two and insert on top of baseball cupcakes.

These are from Z's coach pitch team party 2 years ago.

Micah really enjoyed his season of baseball and his coach pitch team did pretty good!

Look Who Came To Visit My Craft Room

2012-06-20T11:36:00.004-07:00

Can you guess what kind of birthday party is coming up?

My little boy will be seven next week. Star Wars party was an obvious choice.

We had Chewy hanging out near our chalkboard wall when he came, but he got banished to the craft room because it kinda freaked out the kids (and me) coming around the corner and seeing this big guy in a dark corner. lol

Today is fortunately a low key day.
Field trip to Hobby Lobby and Target with the kids.
Nothing else all day unless we have a showing.
So I'm hoping to spend a few high quality hours in my craft room. :)

First day of summer....how are you spending it??