Nerf War Birthday

Adam knew exactly what he wanted for his birthday...A Nerf War party!  I2 boys for 4 hours was INSANITY for me & Mark...but so much fun for the boys.  The weather was CRAZY beautiful.  It is usually snowing every year for Adam's birthday and we would have never been able to have a party outside like this.  But it was in the high 60's, sunny and perfect for a outside party this year.

A blurry picture of the invitation.

I collected FREE pallets and then Mark secured them together to make barricades and we scattered them all over the yard for hiding out during the war.

 I made the targets out of pizza pans from the dollar store painted with cheap craft paint.

I really didn't know what to do for a Nerf cake.  I am not talented enough to make a cake in the shape of a Nerf gun and I was surprised that I could not find any grocery stores that make Nerf cakes.  Bummer!  So went with the simple round cake with a target theme.

I used another dollar store pizza pan for the cake plate and glued it to a orange candlestick.  I just printed out the Nerf logo for the cake topper.

 Gift bags - I went back to the dollar store, where I got the aluminum water bottle and put each boys name and target design on with vinyl (I love my silhouette)

I also found some small "fake nerf" guns at the dollar store to add to the goody bags.

Adam racked up on guns so Mark hung this peg board in the garage so we can have a place to organize and store them.  I LOVE it!

Happy Birthday Adam - It was a FUN one!

Valentines for the boys

Valentines for boys can always be tricky.  I found some ideas on Pinterest and I decided to give them a try with a little twist.

Original idea for Grenade Valentine - Jacolyn Murphy

Original idea for Wheelie Valentine - Thirty Handmade Days

I made 2 versions of these.  One for Adam (Grenade) & One for Colton (Wheelie)

1.  I started with these tin boxes.  They were on clearance for 10 cents at Michaels and I bought all they had.  I had no idea what I would do with them at the time, but this just happened to be the perfect project.

2.  Designed and printed my valentines to fit the top of the boxes.  

LINK TO PRINT YOUR OWN AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST.

3.  Cut them out and then used my corner rounder because it makes the cards look so much better.

4.  Use double sided take to stick the cards to the top of each box

I found these army men at Target and Wal Mart.  They are in the party favor section and come in a bag of 6.  I think they are cheaper at Wal Mart ($2) and the exact same thing as Target.  They are larger than the regular little army men and have a fun little parachute.

You can find the cars anywhere, obviously.  But the dollar store has them in packages of 3.  3 for $1...not bad.  They are also in happy meals right now.  So if you are like me and go to Mc D's more than you want to admit, you can start collecting your cars.

6.  Gather your cars or army men

7.  Fill tin with paper shreds and insert the toy of your choice...you might want to add some candy too. :)

If the tins are too hard to find or too expensive, you could also use a little muslin bag.

Or pillow boxes that can be found in the cake/candy section of any craft store.

Ok...I have never done this before, so I have no idea if this will actually work or if I loaded and saved everything right.  But if you want the printable for either of these try the links below.  Fingers crossed on this one, but no promises. :)  I left a blank space so you can hand write the name.

Grenade Valentine

Wheelie Valentines

Random, Random, Random & Embarrassing

I made garlic bread on Hot Dog buns last night.  I needed a bread option and I had left over buns that needed to be used up.   My mom used to do this all the time when we were little and it would drive me CRAZY, not sure why...it just bothered me.  I swore I would never do it to my kids.  OH Well, add it to the list of things I swore I would never do!

Here is my DEEP, DARK secret.  I own a pair of Pajama Jeans!  Thats right...I said it...it is out in the open.  I will not tell you how I obtained these as that is even more embarrassing than owning them.  But I will tell you that I actually like them.  Seriously.  They are so comfortable.  I mean, I would probably not wear them out with friends or when trying to make a fashion statement, but for lounging around the house and trips to the grocery store...they are pretty fabulous.  Go ahead...insert laughing now.

I just got these beautiful frames at Michaels.  I have no idea what I am going to do with them.  But they were too pretty and cheap to pass up.  They are very large (20 inches)!  They were only $6.99 each and after using the 40% coupon they were a steal.  I am thinking some spray paint and a $10 Wal Mart Faux Canvas print (click link for coupon)...maybe buy some more to do a gallery wall...I will keep you posted.

And a sweet...not so little boy is turning 10 this week!  10!!!!!!   CRAZY!  Since it is a major milestone, we are letting him have a real party and invite friends from school.  I know...a really big deal for us.  HA!  He begged us to have a Nerf War party and I hope we don't live to regret it.  I have been collecting lots of Orange & Yellow and It is starting to look like Halloween around here.

Thats about all I got for this week.  I will try to do better next time. :)

To Blog...or not to blog

Well, I am at a crossroads.  I think it might be time to say goodbye to my sweet blog.  I have tried to keep it going but I think I have lost my motivation and steam.  I am so thankful for all the things I have documented for our family over the past few years...things that would probably had otherwise been forgotten.  I have met so many new friends and been able to keep up with old friends through my blog and it has been so fun.  It has also provided a creative outlet for me that I have really enjoyed.

I will wait a few weeks to decide if I am in fact going to really say goodbye forever...or there might just be occasional updates that will probably only interest family that we don't get to see often.  

Stay tuned...

Christmas Wrap Up

We had a great Christmas.  As usual, I got so busy with enjoying everything that I kept forgetting to take pictures...

 Adam asked for a guitar for Christmas.  Mark and I decided to get Colton a mini one to hopefully help keep his little hands from destroying Adam's real one.  Colton and Adam were both so excited.

This little block set has been Colton's absolute FAVORITE present for the past 3 days.  The funny thing is that Mark & I got in a slight fight discussion over this little toy.  I sent Mark and Adam in Wal Mart to get a present for Adam to give to Colton and they came out with this block set for babies.  It said 12 months on the package and I proceeded to express my opinon on how this was NOT a good gift for Colton seeing as he is almost 3!  Well low and behold HE LOVED IT and has been playing with it non stop...you can imagine how happy that made Mark!

 We all met at my parents house later in the afternoon.  My food contribution was the Red Velvet Cake.  This thing nearly killed me.  I had to make it 2 times because I messed up the first time (forgot salt & baking soda UGH!)  I may never make this cake again!

 Colton and Levi admiring the Mickey Mouse Bike.

 The big moment of the day was when Adam & Bentley got BB Guns from my parents.  Not just any BB Gun...but a Daisy Red Ryder.  You can see that Adam was in complete shock and SO EXCITED.

We had a very Merry Christmas and have been enjoying a few days of rest and relaxation ever since.

Merry Christmas

2011 Ornament

Every year I make a personalized ornament for each of the boys. Well, yesterday I realized that I had completely forgot this years ornament.  YIKES!  So, 2 days before Christmas I was frantically digging through my craft room (actually it is a craft closet that I pretend is a room) to see what I could come up with.  I also got a lot of inspiration from tons of embroidery hoop ornaments on pinterest.  Here is the last minute 2011 ornament...

I took some of my leftover canvas fabric from the Christmas bags and hooped it on an little embroidery hoop.   

 I ironed heat & bond to some brown dot scrap fabric and cut out the reindeer shapes out on my Cameo.  Iron the cute shapes on the canvas and embellished with ribbon and embroidery thread.  I cut the names and date out with t shirt vinyl, but I plan on going back and embroidering their names when I have more time.  Yeah, lets be honest...that will never happen...

Grady got an ornament too.  I love how it turned out and it looks just like him.

Merry Christmas Adam, Colton & Grady!