The Twins are HERE!

It happened. About two weeks ago! I was scheduled to have my C-section TODAY. BUT things happened and they came about 2 weeks ago. It has been quite an adjustment to have to take care of two babies. Two babies is a lot more work than one.So if I don't get back here for a while, you will know why.

I have quite the story to tell about their birth- as it was a true miracle that they came when they did. Right now besides doctor appts, and feeding babies, and trying to recover, I'm also trying to figure out how on earth I can be a good mother to SIX boys!

Thanks for reading for all your sweet comments and support!
oxoxo

Disney's Cars Birthday Party Ideas for DIY

Oh the crazy days of summer- and having 4 active boys with birthdays- while being pregnant with twins! Time is getting away from me! Here is the CARS Birthday I did about a month ago....

I've seen many awesome Disney Car's parties on Pinterest- some where you just buy a kit and it has everything you need- you just pull it out and put it up. If you are looking for that sort of thing, this is not it. I did pull together many ideas I found online, along with some of my own. This is my version of a Disney Car's Party for a four-year-old.

 Most Disney items have a very strict copyright on them. However, there are many free images you can get online for your own personal use. For the invitation, I used a photo I took in Disneyland.
Using Photoshop I printed on it.

 

When the children arrived, I had them choose a coloring sheet from CARS to color. I had brown paper bags (that had CARS on them with their names) to put all their items from the party in. After they colored their picture, we put them in their bag for safe keeping.

Free printable Disney coloring pages are here.

When they finished coloring, we had a road made with painter's tape in the hallway, along with a bucket of CARS from the movie, for them to play with, while everyone finished their coloring page.

 GAMES: I had more ideas than time or energy to get ready. The first one we played, was "Bean Bag Tire Toss". If you look at Target right now, you can find these blow up tires for $3. I ordered mine online from Amazon.

 My almost 2 year old, decided he would sit inside one of the tires, leaving us two to play with instead of three. For older kids, you could have points for each tire if you wanted. I made some CARS beanbags, from scraps I had on hand.

 Another game we played, was "Guess which Cone the Car is Under." I found these colorful cones at ROSS. But you can pick up some at Walmart, or Target. I liked these, because they were better quality, and a better price. Everyone got a prize for these games. I bought a large package of cheap cars at Toys-R-Us, and they all got to choose a car.

Another game, was a "CARS RELAY." I bought cheap water noodles, and taped them into tires. We also had some cones from them to run around. This was a little bit of a challenge with four year olds- some of them got it and some of them did not. But they still had fun.

DECORATIONS:
For DIY decorations, I used pictures I found online of scenes from CARS. I put a border on them, and printed them out  in mostly  5 by 7 prints, and attached them to cones, with balloons. That is about the extent of the ideas. If you are interested in copies, please leave a comment, and I may post them to share. I tried to keep it simple- I did sew a CARS runner out of scrap fabric I had. But there are piles of dirty dishes in the sink, and clutter on the counter that I cropped out of the photo-- yep I picked decorating over cleaning....

The Happy Birthday Banner -below- came from Target- I found it on clearance. The cones- I found at Ross.

CAKE/FOOD:

I have seen these parties with seven courses of treats. You will not find that at my parties. I'm not going to kill myself making themed food, and personally, if the party is for small children, I think cake and ice cream are enough. I usually do cupcakes for the kids, and make a cake, for us as a family to share later. That is what I did. I found an easy way to make a Tow Mater Cake- I will share in another post- since mine is different from what I found online, and made cupcakes. We had ice cream and water to go with it.- Simple.

FAVORS: I bought Hot Wheels cars, Disney Cars fruit snacks, and  some clearance Disney Cars sticker pages I found at Target. I put them in clear bags, and used a Cars sticker to seal the bag. The Disney Cars stickers I used for the cupcake toppers, and to seal the favor bags, I found at Oriental Trading. Note:After the party, I did find some Disney Cars on clearance at the Disney Store that would have been perfect for favors. I'm always keeping an eye out for a good deal.

 

For the last few minutes of the party, we watched some of the Tow Mater Disney Shorts while waiting for parents to come pick up the kids.

 

 I am happy to share my printable decorations and invitation...just leave a comment. I hope you find this post useful...I sure had fun throwing a little Cars party for my 4 year old.

 

Thanks for Reading....

 

 

Star Wars Bunting and R2D2 Quilt and Ornaments

This awesome girl...made this incredible Star Wars Bunting/Banner on her blog. Check it out here! It is amazing!

She also made this super cute R2D2 quilt. Clever clever... now I might have to make up my own version. My boys would LOVE it.

 Afterall, they are a little obsessed with Star Wars. We decorated our memory tree, and they only were concerned about finding these ornaments I made last year....Made them up..and now need to make 4 sets- one for each of them. I hope the force is with me. You can see this post here.

Happy Holidays!

Crafting with Kids: Printed Tape Pictures

Have you seen the new Kid Made Modern Art Supply line from Target? They have a lot of fun creative things for kids. We bought the Printed Tapes and the Solid Tapes. You get quite a lot of tape for 6.99 considering the price of washi tape. This tape is fun, bright, and perfect for kids! After seeing this on  the Chocolate Muffin Tree Blog, we had to get some. And we really had some fun making our first "tape pictures".

 First I made one for them- while they watched- so they would know what to do. I had to help the little ones with ripping off a piece of tape-mostly because there would be less waste that way. :)

 I also had them draw with pencils first- sort of like an outline of what they wanted to do. Some of them did not really get that, and that was O.K. This kid got it- and look what he made: He used crayons and stuff while making his picture with tape.

 Don't be jealous cause I'm such an artist and make such good tape cactus and stuff.....ha ha.

This was really fun! We have so much tape left, we could do this many many times. If you haven't seen the Kid Made Modern line at Target- check it out- --as always Target does it again! I think I could live there.

Happy Summer!

Kid's Craft: Star Wars Valentine's Box {R2D2}

You probably think I am just going to skip Valentine's Day blogging altogether right? WELL... I have a few little things to share. We had to make a little Valentine's Box for first grade. I remember when I made mine in first grade. We had a contest. I REALLY wanted to win. I worked so hard on decorating that silly box. Sure enough I won...and I was one little happy 6 year old.

SO...here I am with my kids- who are not girls- trying to turn a very "girly" holiday into a boy one. Enter Star Wars. If you saw our Halloween, and our Christmas ornaments, then you are probably not surprised.

Here is what we made from a shoe box.

 We just had a little R2D2 toy, so I googled, for images so I could get all the shapes right. Instead I found this design for a t-shirt, from Serial Moms. It fit perfectly onto the lid of the shoe box! So we just used that. I had my child trace and color all the shapes on it. I also had him cut out blue construction paper shapes that I had drawn for the head part. We attached the head-which is cardboard coverd in duct tape- to the lid of the shoebox, and then used popsicle sticks on the back to brace it so it won't flop all over the place. And since it was for Valentine's...we added a heart sticker where the red button should be.

We cut a hold in one of the biggest rectangles, and it is just right for dropping in those sweet little grade school cards. My son is so excited about his box, and I think I "boy-i-fied" the holiday. At least for this year!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Thanks for reading!

Handmade Star Wars Ornaments {DIY}

 I love Christmas Traditions. We have "the one" where you give your child an ornament, that  reminds you of some events of the past year. This is the year my boys really took an interest in Star Wars. We had Star Wars costumes for Halloween this year. We are also having a little bit of a Star Wars Christmas (sshhh don't tell) this year. I looked and looked for some cute ornaments, and could not find any I really liked. SO, after a long late night last night, I made up these. I had to do 4, since I have 4 boys...and these took long enough, so I think I'll stop at 4 for now...although with Star Wars...I'm sure they will want more.

If you are interested in my "sketches" or patterns, please let me know- I'm happy to share....mostly I just looked at pictures on my computer and cut up shapes. ha ha. But I did draw out the basic parts.

Hope you are having fun getting ready for Christmas. I have about 4 or 5 more projects to do!

It's going to be an "EPIC" Christmas...if I get it all done!

Happy Holidays!

Happy Halloween!

I am pooped out. I don't know how you all do it. It wears me out just getting these 4 into their costumes.

We have had a busy week full of Halloween activities in preschool, and on the homefront. And Halloween isn't until tomorrow! Hope everyone has a fun and safe time!

I'll be back later this week with 2 give-a-ways to gear us up for Christmas! yay!

Thanks for reading! oxoxo

Cardboard Tube Halloween Creature Crafts

I love Halloween. But I decided I don't like any of my current decorations. I also don't want to spend any money on Holiday Decor. This one was FREE!! Thanks to the cardboard TP tubes. This is a fun kid's craft or one you can do easily  using a paint brush.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Cut the tubes to the desired length.

PAINT them your base color. I used craft acrylic paints.

ADD details....I painted on faces, and added googley eyes, and used pieces of the tubes for the pumpkin stem, and the frankenstein nose and side pieces.

The mummy was made by modge podging a ripped up tissue on top of the paint. I also left little pieces of the TP on it before painting.

Anyhoo...my kids are going to make the Frank. (Ignore the hot glue on him...it just pretend it is like monster boogers...ha ha.)

If only I had better paintbrush skills....and mad hot glue gun skills. I don't know which one sucks worse- probably my glue gun skills...oh well...

Happy Halloween to all the monsters and moms out there!

Toy Story Birthday Ideas

Time is getting away from me! I did this b'day party back in August. oops... Keep in mind that I had a month old baby-- and I'm not one of those "kill myself over it and never sleep" people. In fact, I don't do fondant when it comes to the cake. I use the stuff from the store and in a jar.

Here are some of the things we did for a four-year old b'day party. I had the links...and since I have put this off for so long, I have to re-find them. oops. I will add to this post and update the links as I find them. If you have a question or need something right away- please feel free to email me or leave a comment and I'll get it for you.

Cute printable invite I found online...or you can buy a package from Target! (yep, that is what I did...)

As the children arrived, I had a Toy Story coloring table set up for them. Google Toy Story Coloring pages and you will find more than you want to count...

I already had a few Mr.Potato Sets, but I bought an extra, and we had two sets. Since these kids were 4, we raced the timer, to see how quickly they could put the guy together. They loved this!

This was a recycled game- as in we used this for an army party a year ago! Why not use it for Toy Story-- there are army guys.

The two above games consist of: get cardboard. Draw something on it. Make a hole or way to toss something into the picture.  Turn it into a game. That's it.

We had so many Toy Story character toys so we played "I Spy a Toy Story Guy". I hid them around the room and the kids found them.

The link is somewhere...but there are these cute printables - just like the ones Andy draws in the movie- and they made cute decorations without any work for me!

I did not even have to waste all my printer ink of these guys! The toppers are a pack of stickers from Walmart, that I stuck on card stock, and cut out. That is it and the kids loved them- only problem was that they were not all the same, so they had requests for certain characters.

This was also a hit! We bought dump trucks at the dollar store, and served Oreo Chocolate cupcakes. I had the kids dump it on their plate to eat, and then they got to take the truck home. Loved it!

I might be the only one still using cellophane baggies and curly ribbon for favors, but I like to see what is in the thing. I had leftover Lego candy from the Lego B'day the month before- since it went with the toy theme-I was able to use up the rest.

Centerpiece is called "Toy Story Toys from our house cleaned off and displayed..." I just forgot to get my wooden blocks and spell out Happy Birthday. The banner is an old one and the tablecloth I already had...

All-in-all it was a fun memorable party!

.