Monster Bash

My little guy turned 5 this January. I can't believe he is already 5. We found some great loot bag items in the dollar bins at Target back in September; and that's how we decided to have a Monster bash.

We made up a invite calling all monsters to Ethan's 5th Birthday Monster bash.

We found plates and napkins with cute little monsters playing instruments through Oriental Trading. That so fits Ethan because he loves music.

www.orientaltrading.com

For decorations we took these same monsters; printed them out and made a transparency out of them. We did this by sliding the picture into a clear page protector and tracing with a black permanent marker. We then placed them on an overhead and blew up to about 3-4 feet tall. We taped white paper onto the wall; and using the overhead traced first with a pencil. We then painted them with Tempera paint. Then after they dried we then took a black permanent marker and outlined them to give them a finished look. Here's how they turned out.

 

  

Ethan absolutely loved them! We thought they were pretty great too!

Here is Ethan with a couple of his friends. Notice their monster headbands. A friend of mine made these headbands for everyone. We used thin wire headbands and craft foam to make these. Everyone wore these and loved them; even the adults.

We danced to some great music like; Monster Mash, the Purple Peopleater, Thriller, Addams Family theme and many more great monster themed songs.

Then we moved to the kitchen table and everyone got to make there own monster. These little craft kits were part of the great items we found in the dollar bin at Target. Here's the birthday boy and a few of his friends with their monsters they made:

 

We then played the mummy wrap game. I split the group of kids up into 3 groups of three. One would be the mummy getting wrapped, the other two would be wrapping. We gave the two wrappers a roll of toilet paper and yelled go. Here's a few pics of the game:

And last, but not least...the cake. Here is the monster I created. I baked 2 8 inch round cakes and then baked a third cake in an 8 inch round pyrex bowl. I stacked the three cakes together with bowl cake on top to give it the rounded top. I then iced it with a large star tip, by pulling straight out. I made my butter cream stiff so it would stick out.  We used ping pong balls for the eyes. Mouth, tongue and the blue balls on the antennae are all fondant. The arms, my husband cut out of a styrofoam plate. Ethan absolutely loved it!

 

Unfortunately I did not get a picture of our loot bags that we got from the dollar bin. They had these cute little bags made out of the recycled plastic with handles; that had pictures of the monsters on them. In them we put monster theme notepads, pencils, sticker books, capsules that you soak in water and out pops a monster sponge.

A great time was had by all and memories were made!

Rodeo roundup

My little man turned 4 this past weekend.

He is about all things cowboy. So, we decided to have a Rodeo for his birthday.

It was a gamble...January in Texas is a toss up for weather. We really needed to be able to do this outside. How, pray tell, could we herd pigs inside?

So, I did what any good mother would do...I pleaded and begged with my heavenly Father, to please send some beautiful sunny weather my way.

He totally came through! He loves me...and I don't deserve it! But that's another story.

We had beautiful weather in Texas on what could have been a cold January day.
Here's a picture of our cowboys and cowgirls. I had a stick horse for everyone. I had borrowed them from a friend. They all received a cowboy hat, and bandana before we started the rodeo. Which I got from Oriental Trading, really cheap.

Decorations:
As you can see from the picture, I used red white and blue bandannas tied together and draped along the fence. Also used Wanted pictures that I ordered from Ziggos Western. We had bales of hay sitting around the yard as well.

Unfortunately I did not get pictures of inside. I had bought a barn scene setter and put up in our entryway, along with a horse and cowboy cut out. I also made wanted posters for each child who attended the party. So I had those posted all over the place. The kids had a lot of fun looking for their picture. My son's poster said "Ethan THE KID" WANTED for Turning a year older. My daughter's said..."Emma BOSSY BRITCHES" WANTED for trying to run this place.

Food:
We had fixin's for frito pie. I also made pulled pork sandwiches. You just take a pork butt and put in your crock pot and cook over night. It will be falling apart. With a fork, pull apart and then pour in a bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce. Serve with buns. It turned out so yummy.We also had nachos; which are the birthday boys' favorite.

Games:
We played some great games. The first thing we did was a modified version of barrel racing. They rode their stick ponies around bales of hay instead of barrels.

Then we played Pig Herding. I split them up in to two teams. Again they had to be on their stick horse. I gave them each a fly swatter. Then I released about 30 pigs, which were pink balloons blown up, into the middle of the yard. Each team had to try and get as many pigs to there side of the yard as they could using the fly swatter. They had a blast.
One little girl misunderstood what I said, when I said we were going to herd some pigs. So when I told them to go, she said "okay let's HURT some pigs." All the adults started rolling. I had to stop the game and explain to her that I had said HERD not HURT. All I need is her to go to church and tell people I abuse animals.

Then we played the "Blindfold branding game". We took a large piece of brown kraft paper and traced with an overhead projector the picture of a cow. We posted this up on the fence at the kids level. Then we made a "brand" out of a large dowel rod and a sponge. Since my sons name starts with an E; thats what we made the brand. I took a clean household sponge and cut the letter E out of it. Then we backed it with a piece of heavy duty plastic. I actually had an old storage tub that was broke and we were about to throw away. My husband cut a square out of that larger than the E. We glued the E to the plastic; then stapled the plastic to the end of a large dowel rod. I had a plate of tempera paint out there. I explained to the kids about branding, the why and where the brand is put on the cow. Each kid came up one at a time, got blindfolded. I would dip the brand in paint for them and then let them go. The birthday boy won this game. I only wound up with one green E on my fence.


The last activity for them was "Needle in a haystack game." I bought some harmonicas and parachute men and hid them in a pile of hay. They had to dig through and find their loot. They also had a cowboy boot cup with a small pack of crayons and activity book and sheriffs badge to take home with them. As well as the cowboy hat and bandana I gave each one before we started the rodeo.


Cake:
I love this cake. I have been wanting to make a cake like this for some time. When I asked little man what kind of cake he wanted me to make, he told me he wanted me to make a cake with cowboy on a horse roping a calf. I told him I would see what I could do about a cowboy on a horse...but the roping a calf part...probably not. My hubby was a huge help. I am totally thrilled with the way it turned out.
All in all it was a wonderful day. Little man had a blast. Mommy can't believe her baby is four!

Carnival Party

Our princess turned 5 a couple of weeks ago. We had a carnival themed birthday party. Oh the fun we had, not just at the party, but also in planning and preparing. We love to take a theme and run with it.

The invitations were made to look like tickets, which we made on our computer and then cut in the shape of a ticket. We put the following wording on them...

See the amazing Emma as she attempts outrageous stunts such as...
turning a year older, consuming impossible amounts of junk food,
and of course, the fiery, death defying birthday candle blow!!

I have a good friend who is the most resourceful person I know. I give her an idea or show her something in a magazine and she can take it and figure out how to make it with everyday supplies and for a very low price. Take this red and white carnival banner for example (originally seen in the Pottery Barn catalog)…

This is nothing more than some red and white card stock paper and 36 yards of scotch tape. The scotch tape was picked up for a penny a roll at the back to school sale. The card stock I had on hand for scrap booking. Then we took it to the local bookstore and had it laminated. Gotta love it!

I bought some pennants and attached one end to the fence and the other end to a stake in the ground to create the "booths." I borrowed some games from my church that we use for our Fall Festival. The rest of the games we made ourselves.

We took our lemonade stand and turned it into the ticket booth.

Our kitchen windows open up into the backyard, so we turned that window into the concession stand. One of our friends hung in the kitchen and served nachos, hot dogs, and popcorn.

The kids received a small paper gift sack when they arrived and were directed to decorate it, or at least put their name on it. Then they used this as they played games and won prizes to carry their prizes. They took those home as their loot bags.

We also had a photo op. This too was homemade. Here's the birthday girl giving us her best strong man face.

My best friend and I also made the cake for the party...

Daddy was in charge of face painting. But one brave soul, cousin T, allowed the birthday girl to paint her face. That's a rainbow, just in case you were wondering.

And what's a carnival without a clown?? There's one in every family I hear. Or maybe it's just the birthday girl's lil' brother.

All in all it was a wonderful day. A great time was had by all.