Every Child is an Artist

     My sweet baby girl is 6 years old now.  She turned 6 on Thursday, and we celebrated with family and friends yesterday.  She had a Rainbow/Art Party this year, although for a while there I thought we'd end up doing a Frozen shindig.  She changed her mind at the last second when she realized an Art Party would involve actual paint.  We had fun stocking up on goodies at Michael's for the event.  They had canvases on sale, so I grabbed a few packages.  I also bought a pair of easels, and the kids took turns using them to paint their masterpieces.

While a couple of kids were working on their paintings, I'd take another aside to paint his or her face.  I found this awesome face paint kit on Amazon (you can also find it at Michael's).  It comes with a book of instructions, but they're pretty ornate, so I just found some simple designs on Pinterest.  I did balloons for the boys and rainbows for the girls.  It was fun for me to have something to do other than play hostess.

     As far as decorating went this year, I really phoned it in a bit.  My sister made the adorable banner that hung over the gift table.

I printed a couple of pretty images and framed them to decorate the same table.

I threw up a few streamers in basic colors by the food table, and called it a day.

     The food was much more fun.  First I made sugar cookies using this recipe, and I cut them out to look like little painter's palettes (I used an Easter egg shape to cut out the main shape, and then a small circle to cut out the hole).

Next I used cookie icing to dab little blots of "paint" onto each palette.  After that, I made "paintbrushes" out of pretzels rods dipped into white chocolate that I had tinted different colors.  Then I popped popcorn and had Monkey help me assemble little cones out of construction paper and labeled them "Pop Art".

Then I put together a fruit tray, making sure to include every color of the rainbow.  I used red apples, oranges, pineapple, green apples, blueberries, and red/purple grapes.  I loved this because you could interchange so many fruit for the colors.  You could do green grapes or kiwi for green.  You could substitute strawberries or raspberries for red, and so on.

I kept it simple with "Van Gogh's Veggies" by simply purchasing a vegetable tray.

I meant to have "Paint Chips and Dip", but I forgot to put them out :-/  Oh well.  Finally, for the punch, I froze Koolaid into ice cubes in every color of the Rainbow.  I placed the ice cubes in my big drink dispenser, and I poured Sprite over the top of it.  It looked pretty cool, but I was worried as it melted it would make an ugly brown or blackish color, but I actually got more of a purple, which wasn't too bad.

I found these cute rainbow swirl lollipops at Walmart and used them as party favors.

Lastly, I went the easy route and bought a cake at Walmart.  Although there are some really cute ideas  on my Pinterest board.

    All in all this birthday felt a tad simpler, but it was very pleasant.  Monkey seemed to enjoy herself immensely!  She has been playing with all of her new toys and crafts.  In fact, as I'm typing she's making clay figures with a clay craft pack she received from one of our guests.  I can't believe she's six.  I know I go through this every year, but 6 is just older.  She's a little girl; she's in school.  She wants to play at the park with her friends more than hang out with me and her daddy.  She's got her own personality and opinions, and they're not always in line with mine.  She's so confident and vivacious.  She's her own person, and she's not ashamed to be herself.  I admire and love that about her.  I hope as the years pass she doesn't lose that ability to be herself, 100%!

Best Birthday Present Ever

      I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I am a huge fan of The Bloggess!  She's hilarious, and awesome.  Not to mention about a year ago she wrote a book, and it was one of those rare books that had me laughing and crying.  Anyway, in the book she devoted one whole chapter to my favorite blog post of hers entitled "And that's why you should learn to pick your battles".  You should go check it out.  But a brief overview (seriously, go read the whole thing, this summary is a pale shadow of the awesome humor you'll be missing out on.  Still here?  Fine!)  so in the post she talks about how her husband sent her to the store with a warning to not come home with any more towels.  Well, she obeyed that particular order, and instead came home with a $100 giant metal chicken.  At least it wasn't towels.

     

     My big sister was the first to introduce me to The Bloggess, so when I bought the book I was quick to ensure that she was the first to borrow it (after I had read it, of course).  Next I spread the awesome around to my mom.  She loved it too.  In fact they both appreciated it so much that they hatched a brilliant scheme.  Not long after my birthday, I managed to escape to Louisiana for a day, my first trip home in a few months, and so my sister promised to have my belated birthday present waiting for me.  She had prefaced this gift with a few hints of, "I'm so excited to give you this", "Mom and I went in on something awesome", and "You're gonna love it".  I had no clue what to expect, so when I opened my mom's front door I was in utter shock.

     Around my chicken's neck was a sign that said, "Knock, Knock....." and a birthday card that introduced this chicken as being Beyonce's less expensive little sister, my very own Star-Spangled Solange.  The laughs alone were worth the price my mom and sister paid for this present, and I was excited to bring it home and put it in my garden.  The problem was, Solange wouldn't fit in my tiny Saturn Ion, so we had to leave her with my sister.   This Saturday we went to Louisiana again for my godson's birthday party, and we were finally able to bring Solange home in my husband's car.  It was a tight fit, and Monkey was given many warnings not to touch the tetanus chicken on the ride home, but we made it back without event.

     This morning J was sweet enough to give me a day off by waking up and bringing Monkey and her friend we carpool with to school.  I didn't get out of bed until around 8:00 this morning, and after I brushed my teeth and opened my door to go downstairs in search of food, I was greeted, yet again, by this familiar face:

     I was really worried that the chicken joke would wear off after a while, but after about five minutes of giggling this morning, I have to say it's still funny.  And I have to give J props for lugging Solange all the way up the stairs this morning.

     So there was point a to this post, other than showing you how awesome my family can be when it comes to carrying out an epic joke, but whatever the other reason was is gone now.  I'm actually just hiding out here in blog-world to avoid studying again.  I have my final exam in Gero/Psych Nursing Friday, and as usual, "I don't wanna!!!"  Instead, how about I show you some more of my Halloween decor?

     No, J is not part of the decor, but this awesome mummy is:

   
     I found these giant glow-in-the-dark eyes at the Dollar Tree, and I decided to use them to mummify our back door.  J and I used white crepe party streamers for the bandages and taped them to the door until is was mostly covered.  We only had to do the top portion of the door, because the screen door blocks the bottom part from view.  Not to mention we were getting tired of tape.  And streamers.  And each other.  ;-)

     This next decoration is a spin off of one of my favorite garden decorations.

     I took an old pallet and had J bust it up.  I used the various broken pieces to make the different signs by painting them all black.  For "Pet Sematary" and "'Salem's Lot" I used a copy of Stephen King's novels as a guide to get the handwriting the same.

     After designing the different signs, I screwed them to a post I had also painted black, and voila!

     The final bit of Halloween decor was something so simple, yet it may just be my favorite.  I made a spooky sort of set up by my front door with a vase, a skull, and a pumpkin.  The plan was to have my cauldron set out there filled with candy for trick-or-treaters, but I have something else in mind for that now.

     This vase is my favorite part of the set up.  It's just a bunch of sticks Monkey, J,  and I gathered after one of our family runs.  I painted the sticks black, and I put them in this old vase.  I added a bit of the cheesy "spooky cloth" you can buy at any dollar store at Halloween time to the inside of the vase, so you wouldn't see the ends of the sticks.  Next I propped a black raven from Michael's on one of the sticks.  Finally I used some leftover ribbon from my new wreath to finish it off with a pretty bow.

     I really like it.  Now all that's left is to set up my cauldron for trick-or-treaters and carve the pumpkins we got yesterday at our local pumpkin patch.  Have I mentioned how much I love this time of year?

And for Dessert: Diabetes!

     It's no secret that my husband drives me insane.  I mean, I've given y'all several examples on this blog alone of how much he makes me question the reason I agreed to let him annoy me for the rest of my life.  But I think it's also fair to say that I would do anything for that crazy, slightly annoying husband of mine.  And apparently that's a fact he's not only discovered but has decided to exploit.  For example, today is his birthday.  A few weeks ago while I was writing up my grocery list, I asked him and Monkey to flip through my "Taste of Home: Fun Food" magazine to come up with ideas for her school lunches.  While flipping through the pages, she and J came across a rather elaborate picture of a cake decorated to look like the classic game, CandyLand.  J excitedly pointed the picture out to me and requested that I make it for him for his birthday.  I laughed, thinking he was joking, and said something witty that amounted to "no".  But then something happened.  He kept bringing up the cool CandyLand cake, and mentioning how much he liked it, and he'd throw in the fact that his birthday was coming up after all.  So what did I do?

     I made the darn cake for him!  I'll get to how to make your own in a minute, but in the mean time let me tell you what my sweet, but oh-so-chokable husband tells me as I'm buying the last bit of candy to make his dearest birthday wish complete.

Me:  "Hey baby, do you see any rock candy?"
J:  "No; you don't need that"
Me: "It's for your cake.  I wanted to include the Ice Palace, so I was going to use blue rock candy"
J:  "I don't know why you're even doing this"
Me:  "What do you mean?  This is the cake you've been asking for."
J:  "Yeah, I was just messing with you.  Then you ran with it, so I figured I'd let you."
Me: .......................................You can't strangle him in Walmart.  You can't strangle him in Walmart.  You can't strangle him in Walmart!

    Well, regardless of how he finagled me into making the cake, it's made now, so I might as well share a quick how-to with y'all.  Here's what you'll need:

Cake mix (can be any flavor; I used a recipe from Better Homes and Gardens for a White cake)
White icing
Green food coloring
Starbursts
Peppermints
Mini marshmallows
Rock candy (or Jolly Ranchers, crushed)
Lollipops
Chocolate cupcake, iced
2 mini snickers
4 ice cream cones (cut the tops off of 2 of them)
Blue cookie icing
Purple cookie icing
Black cookie icing
Multicolored sprinkles
Chocolate sprinkles
Cinnamon sprinkles
Sour Patch Kids (I used 4, one in each color as the "players")

    Bake your cake mix according to directions on back of the box for a 9x13 cake.  Let cool completely before icing.  Mix white icing and green food coloring in a medium sized bowl, use this to ice the cake.  Top cake with Starbursts, making sure to keep a pattern so no two colors are next to each other.  For "Mr. Mint"'s corner, arrange peppermints (or peppermint candy canes, if they're in season) in a cute pattern, and sprinkle cinnamon sprinkles around them.  Add an area for "Princess Lolly" by using a few crushed Jolly Ranchers to mark the spot.  Next add the lollipops or various sizes (I used 2 Dumdums, and 1 Blow Pop).  Next I added the chocolate cupcake (complete with chocolate fudge frosting and chocolate sprinkles) for "Chocolate Mountain".  I set a pair of mini Snickers next to the cupcake, one on each side, and sprinkled a few extra chocolate sprinkles around the base of the "Mountain".  Next I added a mini-marshmallow "bridge" between two of the rows of Starbursts.  Finally I erected the "CandyLand Castle" by inverting the 2 whole ice cream cones side-by-side, and then I placed one of the halved ones in front and one in the back, upside-down.  Next I added the windows and doors by using purple cookie icing.  Then I topped the castle off with blue cookie icing roofs.  I spread a rainbow of various-colored crushed Jolly Ranchers around the base of the "castle". Next I piped out the "Happy Birthday" on the Starbursts using black cookie icing.  Finally I sprinkled the entire cake with multi-colored sprinkles for good measure.

    There were two big bonuses for this cake: 1)  There really isn't a "right way" to decorate it.  If you look at the way CandyLand has changed over the years, you can really throw any type of candy on a cake and call it good.  2) Monkey was able to help, and we both enjoyed that. :-)

   
     To top it all off, J really enjoyed his Diabetes-inducing CandyLand Cake.  And I discovered that my husband turns into a Disney Princess when he makes his birthday wish before blowing out the candles.

     Anyone else see it?  Anyone?  No?  It's just me?  Fine!  Keep wishing, Babe.  Maybe one day your prince will come (but he probably won't make you awesome cakes).

A "Super" Birthday

      My daughter will be 5 years old in an hour and five minutes.  The school-age years are upon me, and I don't know what I'm going to do.  My little girl is getting so big, and there's nothing I can do about it but enjoy it.  To celebrate, Monkey requested a superhero party.  Okay, that's not entirely true.  She wanted a Captain America party.  Then she wanted a Hulk party.  Next it was a Spiderman party.  Finally I said that we were having a superhero party, and that was that.  I'm not going to lie, I phoned it in a bit this year.  I had someone else made the cake.  *gasp*  I know!  What can I say?  Nursing school is time-consuming, but I did manage to make a few odds and ends to fit the theme.

     First and foremost were the invitations.  I took a few shots of Monkey in her Spider-Man top (from Gap) and her homemade tutu (for a tutorial, click here) perched in the tree in our back yard.  Then I headed over to Shutterfly to do the rest, and this is what I came up with:

     Next I started off the decorations by keeping it simple.  I found out (through Pinterest, of course) that fake tattoos can be used on plastic or glass.  So I decided to use that idea to decorate the cups for the party.  All you have to do is follow the instructions like you would for skin, and the tattoos will stick to the plastic the same way.

     I'm a fan of simple these days, and what could be simpler than phoning a friend?  I called upon my wonderful big sister to make this awesome banner for Monkey, and she did a fantastic job!

     The most awesome thing I made were these adorable felt masks for the kids (and the adults) at the party.

     I even decided to go with the theme and don one that went with my dress.

Spider-Girl and Batmom

     If you'd like to make some for your own little one, click here.  They were super fun.  I was glad to have them on hand in case one of the guests missed the memo about the costumes.  My in-laws certainly got the message, though:

     I saw an awesome idea on Pinterest about turning regular bubbles into themed bubbles for a party by simply wrapping designer Duct tape over the regular label.  And they make Avengers Duct tape :-)

     We also played this awesome Hawkeye version of "Pin the Tail on the Donkey". (I don't know what the deal is, but when you view the link the title is at the bottom of the page, but if you download it, it looks right.)  Of course, this was supposed to be a kids game...

     I was so excited to find Silly String at Walmart, and I had intended to have the kids shoot their "Spidey Webs" at various villains around the back yard (I was drawing on my games from Monkey's Toy Story party), but the adults at the party had other plans.  It was pretty much a free-for-all after that.  Even I got roped into it somehow, and Monkey had Silly String in her hair for the rest of the party because she refused to let me get it out.

   And to top it all off, I found a Spider-Man piñata at Walmart and filled him with goodies before letting all the little ones take their aggression out on him.  I must say, Spidey's never been my favorite super hero, but he sure can take a beating!  Those kids were relentless.

  And now on to the fun part: the food!  My favorite appetizer was this awesome food-edition of Captain America's shield, which was made up of blueberries, two layers of sliced strawberries (you could do raspberries and strawberries, but raspberries are a tad more costly), and one layer of white cheddar cheese, and a prettily cut out white cheddar star.

Ta-Da!

     Next I enlisted my sister's (and her Cricut's) help in making these cute food labels:

   Meanwhile, in a crockpot I had Teriyaki Wings cooking under the label "Bat Wings", but I don't have a picture of that particular genius.  We also had Pizza Bites shaped into a giant 5 for the birthday girl, and if you'd like to see the tutorial for that, go here.  They were super easy to make, and the guests loved them.  Plus you can shape them to fit any theme, and I made them the night before and simply stuck them in the freezer until the next afternoon.  We also made "Hulk Cookies" which were simply Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies dyed green. Then, using this awesome sugar cookie recipe that I found for last year's party, I cut out and baked gingerbread men, and then (with the help of an awesome friend) we decorated them to look like a few of Monkey's favorite superheroes.  

Our poor superheroes need to put in some quality time at the gym.

      I had planned to let the kids decorate their own superhero cookie, so I left about a dozen cookies blank and had icing ready, but then the party got under way and I completely forgot, but I think that would have been fun to see what sort of super hero they would have made for themselves.  Oh well, we were too busy having fun to be creative ;-)

   Finally I sent the kids home with some Hulk-style goodie bags filled with Avengers-themed Play Paks, a Spider-Man glow stick, a pack of stickers, and one of the felt masks I had made.  

     I made the bag by buying green paper bags from the party section at Walmart, and then I came home and glued the purple "shorts" to the bottom of the bag, making sure the waistline was nice and jagged first, and then I used a Sharpie to freehand the rest.  

     I had a lot of fun this year planning, and putting all this together, and I think I like this minimalist attitude.  It's rather relaxing.  And Monkey didn't seem to think anything was missing.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

Happy Birthday, Monkey!

     Okay so I'm a slacker.  I was supposed to post this on Monkey's birthday, but then my computer died.  Thankfully my awesome brother-in-law is a computer genius, and he revived my sweet Mac.  He also changed my hard drive icon to a zombie in honor of it's reanimation.  Last Monday was my daughter's 4th birthday, and I am amazed at how quickly the time is flying by.  She will be starting school in a little over a year, and I don't know what I'm going to do with myself.  I get teary eyed at the thought of her in a cute little school uniform with her backpack on her back.  I'm probably going to be one of those moms who cries the first day of school.  Scratch that "probably", I cried just this weekend at the sight of her wearing a bit of eyeshadow for the first time.  My husband thinks it's funny to bring up all the ways she'll grow in the coming years, just to see if he can get me to go all weepy again.  Jerk!

     Thankfully, she's not too big for themed parties yet, because I get a kick out of planning them for her.  Last Saturday we celebrated her birthday with a Princess Party, and she had a blast.  Of course I want to share some of the goodies.  First, the invites.  I had my awesome sister take a few shots of Monkey at the local park back home, and then I used Shutterfly to upload them and turn them into cute invitations. I can't figure out how to load the link to the finished project, but here's the picture she took.

Getting ready for the party

     I also had fun thinking of princess-themed snacks this year, and of course Pinterest helped a ton.  First and foremost, there's the cake:

     It may not be professional-looking, but I'm proud of it.  I found a cool tutorial on how to use a coloring sheet to create a chocolate mold of whatever image you want, and I used it to make each of the princesses you see on the top of the cake.  Monkey enjoyed eating the rejects.

Next I made Snow White's Caramel Apples, and although they tasted great they were not photogenic.  They were simple and yummy, though, so here's what you'll need:

1 (14 oz) package caramel
2 TBS milk
Granny Smith apples, sliced in half and cored

Pour caramel and milk into a medium sized bowl, melt in the microwave for 1 minute.  Stir.  Microwave for another minute.  Stir and pour into cored apples.  Let set, then slice and serve.

     Next, representing my favorite princess, I made Belle's Roses:

You'll need:
strawberries
White chocolate
pink food coloring
red icing
kabob or lollipop sticks

Wash strawberries, and skewer them onto the kabob/lollipop sticks.  Melt the white chocolate in the microwave according to package directions, add a few drops of pink food coloring.  Dip strawberries into chocolate, covering up to the white portion, and let set.  Once the chocolate is set, using the red icing, draw outlines of the roses onto the layer of chocolate.  Let set then serve.

   Representing Cinderella, we had Fairy Godmother's Magic Wands:

You'll need:
White chocolate
Pretzel rods
Sprinkles

Melt white chocolate in microwave according to package directions.  Dip pretzels in chocolate.  Decorate with sprinkles and let dry.

   We even had an assortment of sugar cookies shaped into Enchanted Castles, Tiaras, and Cinderella's Glass Slippers.  These were topped with an almond powdered sugar icing dyed the various pastel colors.

For drink, we enjoyed refreshing Princess Punch and my homemade sweet tea:

For the punch you'll need:
2 qrts pink lemonade
2 qrts rasberry sherbet
2 L lemon-lime soda

Add all ingredients to bowl and serve.

For the Sweet Tea:
   Clip 3 large Community tea bags (or 6 small bags) to the side of a gallon-sized pitcher.  Boil water and add to the pitcher until the pitcher is nearly full.  Let it steep for about an hour.  Remove and discard bags.  Add 3 cups of sugar.  Stir and enjoy :-)

Even our chips and dip and various trays had a nod to a certain princess movie.

"Chip"s and Dip

"Tiana's Tempting Trays"

Ariel's "Dinglehoppers"

     All-in-all it was a very good party, and of course Monkey racked up on gifts.

     I'm thinking I'll be going through her toy box and purging next time she's not looking.  Now it's time to go clean out my Birthday Party board on Pinterest until Monkey picks the theme for next year.

*Thank you to my awesome sister for taking the pictures and helping set everything up for the party!*