Train Party **re-visit**

This is a re-blog (is that even a word?) from my family blog...thought I'd share my two year olds party from May since we're on a birthday theme.


So Caden's new obsession is TRAINS. Once that seed was planted, I started the search for ideas...Look what I found here and here...and then there was this! and THEN, my sister-in-law, Chelsea (who is one of my three regular reader "HI CHELS!") sent me this link, which uncovered my NEW Favorite Blog.

So, with all this wonderful inspiration, I put together Caden's bday party. The invites obviously came first, I simply searched google images for a free train silhouette and colored it in photoshop. The other labor intensive part were the favors. I decided to make Kool-aid scented playdough and included a train shaped cookie cutter in the bag. I think it came out super cute! The bag was simply a sandwich zip-lock and printed label double sticked on top. I also loved the train shaped PB&Js. My mom and I put those together in no time, assembly line style. And possibly my favorite was the train cake. I used a cake pan from William Sonoma. (coincidentally, a gift from Chelsea...THANKS again, Chels!) And with Trader Joes Vanilla Cake Mix, it was super easy and DELISH! Did you notice the ADORABLE handmade train pinata in the lower left corner? That will be in his bedroom for years to come. As for games and activites, since our guests ranged from 4 weeks to 7 years old, I needed to be creative and I'm not a big fan of competitive games at a bday party (Why should only one person win at a party?). We had the train table, which I found on Craigslist for $10 (I repainted the sides glossy cherry red and the top with Chalkboard paint). I also had Play-dough Station, Bubble Junction, Ball-pit Express, and Bookmark Stop. For games, I found "Pin the Smoke-Stack on the Engine" and we also played "Chugga Chugga Choo-Choo" a version of duck duck goose, which was fun for adults and kids both.

Of course, I had one additional obstacle...all this stuff had to be carted to the park...but that's where the train is, so off I went on Saturday morning at 7 am to ensure we'd have a prime park spot. Shawn and the boys showed up a little later to help finish setting up. Shawn went right to work blowing up a purple balloon...WHAT?!? He will probably tease me forever over my reaction when I saw that balloon :) OK,OK,OK...I was a bit stressed to finish up before the guests arrived, but come on....RED AND BLUE EVERYTHING! But I'm happy to say, one purple balloon really was the only hitch in our wonderful birthday celebration for our little man.

Now a few months off til September, our Birthday marathon month.

Lego Madness 2010

I can't take credit for most of these ideas...I stole most of them, you can find the inspirations here.

Here was the invite...I sent it out as an email this time, trying to go a little green : )

I like to set the scene at the front door...it ramps up the excitement and specialness of the day.

Since we were building legos, I used some construction caution tape and made a couple signs. One read "Lego Construction Zone Ahead" and the other "Brick Building Experience Recommended" using the Lego font that I found on line and using photoshop was able to give it a yellow glow, black outline and filled in with white, just like the LEGO logo. (say that 5 times fast!)

We played all sorts of games. I found lego shaped candy that actually clicks together, so they built then ate with those, we had a timed tower building contest, Lego Bingo and then did some lego racing, similar to the test track room at Legoland, where Logan and his buddies could spend the day. I found simple car sets on sale at TRU, so using that set along with another box of misc Legos, they built their own creations and ran them down the track over and over again. We made the track using 3 rain gutters and then I added the start and finish lines for fun.



I had a lot of fun with the snack table!

I made the signs using a minifig font, downloaded for free.
Those minifig paperdolls were probably the most difficult element. I'm not the best folder/cutter so they were rough at best, but you definitely get the idea. I spray painted bubble wrap to get the green stud background. Best to be done on a non-windy day...I was chasing that bubble wrap all over the yard the day I was trying to paint it.

The cheese studs were cut out using an apple corer. I had the guy at the deli slice the cheese super thick, so all I had to do was swivel the apple corer thru several slices at a time and then separate them onto the crackers. I had planned to used cream cheese to "glue" on the cheese, but time got the best of me. And that Lego bowl on the right is a one of these that we filled. Logan put a Lego Minifig on the bottom, so when the watermelon was all gone, you discovered the stuck guy.

Logan wanted brownie cupcakes, so not lego cake (been there, done that) Instead, I used a Lego ice cube tray to mold candy melts for cupcake toppers.

The drink station may have been the biggest hit...these boys were THRILLED to serve themselves. By the end, there was some fun mixology going on.

I even put a little lego touch in the bathroom!

And finally, as party favors, they took home their lego candies, their custom race car and personalized key chain. I was lucky enough to find a kind Legoland store employee who didn't mind if I took 10 extra bags☺ Then I printed labels using sticker paper and the minifig font.

The keychains were really fun, I got a bunch of studs to give as prizes for each of our games, they just added them to their keychains.

It was a super fun party. The boys had a blast!

Slow Cooked Chili & Cornbread

I love chili on a cool evening. We had one cool day, so I jumped at the chance to cook up belly-warming deliciousness.

About 1 lb of ground beef, cooked up with some peppers and onions. I used the frozen fire-roasted peppers and onions from Trader Joes. Anytime I can avoid chopping onions, I'm in!


Add a can of beans, tomatoes along with a can of tomato paste, 1 tbsp of chili powder and 1 tsp of salt.

Dump it all in the crock pot, turn on low.

Bake up some cornbread

Wah-la...I let it cook for about 6 hours, I'm pretty sure you can leave it in for less time but the longer it stews, the better it tastes.

MMMMMmmmmmmm

Autumn footsies

I'm a flip flop girl who puts on a pair of UGGs when it gets chilly. I don't have many occasions these days to wear shoes like these...not conducive to sandboxes, bike riding, or grocery shopping, but when I see beautiful boots I just have to admire them for a bit.The ones on the right are just so dang adorable! No clue where I'd wear them but that's the point to window shopping, right? These are from Anthropologie, a store that makes me HAPPY!

Brownies make me happy!

And even happier, seeing what is left over after an evening with good friends!

This project SUCKS!

For Hubby's big bday, I wanted to have something festive to put on the table at the restaurant while celebrating with friends. I was busy making cute signs and labels, even found some clipart of some of his favorite things (retro video games, star wars, etc). I reserved naptime to assemble it all and guess what! Well first, naptime didn't go as planned, but that's another story. My major problem was that my computer stopped talking to my printer!! Did they have a fight I wasn't aware of? UGH!! So I spent about 3 hours of my life restarting my computer, turning the printer off and on, connecting and reconnecting...meanwhile, encouraging my 2 year old to keep playing trains/legos/ANYTHING, so I could get this done... As you can see, I was not successful, so I went old school...dusted off my scrapbook pens and I got to work.

Here's what I did...
First I found a container, this is the bucket that normally holds all our sidewalk chalk.Then I stuffed it with floral foam, from the dollar store.

For the suckers, I quickly cut out strips of paper and labeled them "40 Sucks!"...get it?!?

To put it all together, I covered the foam with a coordinating tissue paper and poked holes with my handy dandy ice pick (Love that thing!)






The suckers were a hit! Everyone enjoyed picking out their favorite flavor AND it kept the kids happy and occupied for a long time ... BONUS!!

Well it didn't go as planned, but it was fun none the less!

ssshhhhh...please

Just in the past week, we've had 3 LOUD visitors during nap time, one was a package delivery, one was trying to paint the house and the third was trying to save our souls. And for whatever reason, a simple ding dong or gentle knock just isn't enough. It's been more like a ding-dong ding-dong followed by a forceful pound to the door, so NOT necessary. So, I whipped up this sign to hang on the the doorbell. It works like a charm!!

I happened to have this paper mache sign, left over from some uncompleted project (did I just admit that?) Add some scrapbook paper and modge podge and you are good to go!

Add a ribbon and Tah Dah! It's now quiet ☺