Birthday Party Help!

Hello friends!

My Branson will be turning 3 in two months!! I can't believe how time flies by! For his birthday party this year, he wants a "Buzz Lightyearl" theme.
As most of you know, I tend to go overboard on the party part....BUT, I am trying to stick more to a budget this year and not buy so much "pre-made" stuff.
I also will be loosing two weeks of prep-time because of our Disneyland trip! (YAY!)

So this is where I need your help! Please comment with your ideas and thoughts for his upcoming party. Specifically, I need some cake ideas!

To give you an idea of what I have done for "themed" parties in the past, here is a picture of my Aiden's 4th birthday cake. Notice that I don't do my own characters! :o)

SO, if you have any ideas for a Buzz Themed cake that wouldn't be just green frosting and a plastic figurine on top, (because that is all I have come up with,) shoot 'em my way!

Thanks SO much!!! I can't wait to see your ideas.

Toy Story DVD Packs

Hello! How was everyone's weekend? Mine went WAY to fast! We found out that the mother board on my laptop is FRIED and needs to be replaced....thus loosing all of my photo-editing software, word processing software, etc. :oP The good news is that I still have our desktop computer, thanks to my amazing Uncle Jon!! I also had photography appointments, yard work, house work and the like. Sometimes I wish the weekends started on Friday mornings! LOL.

SO....if any of you are planning on purchasing the new Blu-Ray/DVD combo packs of Toy Story and Toy Story 2, be sure to print out your $5 off coupon here.
If you purchase both DVD's at Toys R Us for $21.99 each, you will get an additional $10 off plus the two $5 off coupons....making BOTH DVD's only $23.98 plus tax!! Excellent deal! (If you aren't up to driving out to Layton for Toys R Us, the DVD's are $22.99 at Target--PLUS you get a CD-ROM game and free movie ticket to Toy Story 3! This is what we are going to be doing first thing Tuesday morning.)

We are planning on purchasing them for our Disneyland trip as "reward prizes." I will post later in the week about our incentive program for the drive.

Well, this was a quick post for today....I am going to attempt to get some pictures loaded for posts later this week. Have a fantastic Monday everyone!!

P.S. Don't forget to look back at my St. Patrick's Day post for pictures! (Finally!)

Weekend Break

Hello! Like before, I am going to be taking weekends off from blogging...BUT will be back in full swing on Monday! I am hoping to have my laptop back by then to start downloading some fun pictures. Hope to see you back on Monday!

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!!!

Project Disneyland

As most of you know, we are planning our first-ever Disneyland trip this coming April. We are so excited and can hardly wait!

First up on our "adventure" list is an art-board for the car. My boys LOVE to color and draw, and this was the perfect, inexpensive solution, to help them stay organized during the drive.

Supplies Needed:

Clipboards (I found mine at the Dollar Store!)

12x12 sheet of paper

Mod Podge

Paint Brush

(2) sheets of felt

Velcro

Elastic

Tacky Glue

Sewing Machine

1. Cut your scrapbook paper to fit the front of the clipboard. Simply trace the outline of the clipboard after laying on top of the paper. Cut out a notch for the "clip" part.

2. Using the paint brush, apply the mod podge to the board evenly. Place the paper on the board and smooth down until no bubbles appear. Let sit 10-15 minutes.

3. Now, apply mod podge to the top of the paper. I used a hard coat Mod Podge so it would be waterproof and I could clean the board if needed, but any type will do.

4. Set wet board aside to dry. (You can apply a second coat in 15-20 minutes if desired.)

NOW....

5. Using your felt, decide how you want to design the back of your clipboard. I made a larger pocket on the bottom for colored pencils, a smaller pocket for the pencil sharpener and the elastic for their markers. You can choose to do yours however you'd like!

Here are the the pieces before I sewed them all together.

6. Sew the pockets and elastic in place. (I put a small pleat in each pocket to allow expansion room for the contents. This makes it easier to fit the items inside.)

7. Using tacky glue (or another type of glue,) apply the felt to the back of your clipboard once it is dry. Let sit overnight before "messing" with the pockets.

THAT'S IT! Easy, right?

Hope you enjoy it!!

St. Patrick's Day: Part Two

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

I love any excuse to celebrate the fun, simple things in life. Today is the perfect example of one of those days!

We started our adventures yesterday with the Leprechaun Trap post. Prior to this week, my kids were unaware of that St. Patrick's Day even existed. We started the week by telling stories about leprechauns, rainbows, pots of gold and wearing green things. The light and magic I saw in the eyes of my children will always be remembered.

Today, we made green jello-jigglers to enjoy as a family. I used a family recipe from Nick's grandma (G.G.) It is super simple and fun. Here is it...

(1) box, Knox unflavored gelatin. (each box has 4 packets inside)

(3) small boxes of flavored jello

4 cups boiling water

9x13 pan

Mix gelatin and jello together. Add 2 cups of boiling water and stir for 3-5 minutes. Slowly add the remaining boiling water. Pour into a 9x13 pan. Refrigerate overnight. Cut into squares and enjoy!!

When the kids woke up, they ran to their leprechaun traps. They were thrilled to find REAL Leprechaun gold coins in their traps. We figured that the leprechauns were too smart for us this time and they must have spilled some of their gold while running away.

For dinner, we had "Pot-O-Gold" Pockets (Chicken Pockets,) Irish Hay (rice-a-roni,) gold nuggets (corn,) and green jigglers. For dessert, I made green cinnamon rolls. YUM!
I hope your St. Patrick's day was a fantastic, fun one! I hope to have the pictures up and loaded as soon as my computer gets back from the shop. :o)

I'm Back!

As life has proved itself to be, once again, somewhat manageable, I have decided to respond to the numerous, weekly emails to start up my blog again. :o)

To help keep this thing under control, my blog will be a little different format than in months past. I will blog about our daily activities (with or without pictures,) as well as provide tutorials for the projects that we make. I hope you find it enjoyable and invite your friends to take a look too! Comments are encouraged and most welcome!!

NOW...let's get started on a fun St. Patrick's Day project!

St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day is the perfect opportunity to have some fun with the kiddos. This year, we decided to make Leprechaun Traps!

Aiden made a "rainbow ladder" for the leprechaun to climb up. In Aiden's words, "The leprechaun will like my rainbow colors and climb in to see what's inside. Then he can't climb out because the ladder is on the outside!" That is one smart kid if you ask me!

While helping Aiden cut some felt for his trap, Branson decided that the jumbo ink pads were just the right size for his hands to fit on....This is the result.

Notice the perfect hand prints on his cheeks. Too cute!

Now, back to the traps.... When we were finished with our traps, we put chocolate gold coins inside the trap to lure the leprechauns to the trap. We are hoping that we can catch one of the little buggers overnight! Check back to see our results....