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!

He's a big boy now

My little man went off to preschool on Tuesday.

I wasn't sure he was going to go. He had been wishy washy about it for several days.

At times he was really excited and then there were times he would say he didn't want to go.

Tuesday morning came and he was SO excited. He got to take his teddy bear with him for a teddy bear picnic.

Here he is so big and handsome getting ready to go.

He walked right in, found his basket and put his stuff in it.

He took off into the classroom with no time to hug his momma.

His teacher caught him and had him go wash his hands. (A requirement for all students when they enter the class)

I was able to snag him for a quick hug, but he didn't really have time.

Then he was off to find his spot with his new friends.

When we picked him up that afternoon he was wore slap out. Finally someone wore that boy out!

 He is your typical male. He didn't want to share a whole lot of details about his day at first. I think he needed time to decompress.

 As the day went on he began to share details of his first day. He had a great time. He loved music class; which was no surprise. He told us they took their bears with them and sang "We're going on a bear hunt"

We are so blessed to have Mrs. H as his teacher. Sissy had her last year as well. She was a Kindergarten teacher for 25 years at a local school. She retired two years ago and is now teaching preK. Funny thing is she was my cousin's 2nd grade teacher back in the day.

Goin' Huntin' and Drive bys

Little man got up the other morning and came out of his room like this...

He then announced..."Mom, I'm goin' huntin', I'll be back.

I said "Oh really, what are you huntin' for?

He said, "see my hat (John Deere hat), it has a deer, that means I am going deer huntin' "

I said "OHHHHH, I see"

Wow, now that he explained it, it all makes sense. Now, if only all the other hunters all over the world knew that when they are hunting for deer they are supposed to be wearing their John Deere hat. Should I tell him now, or wait and let him figure it out on his own?

I'll wait. Cause he's just too stinkin' cute.

In the picture with him would be Winchester. That is his gun, it's not real. But he talks about Winchester as if he is a person. Winchester has to sleep by his bed at night. Winchester makes noise like a real gun and smokes like a real gun. This was a Christmas present from Poppy.

He just can't understand why I won't let him take it inside places when we go like say to, church, the store etc. I try to explain to him that Winchester might scare some people.

Then the other day we are driving down the road and he had brought Winchester along for the ride. When I suddenly realize that he has his window rolled down and is pointing Winchester out the window and "shooting" it.

I freaked.

I started hollering at him, "get that gun in the window", "roll your window up."

I was waiting for police to start coming from all over and pull me over. I could just hear them telling me that people were calling 911 reporting my vehicle with a gun hanging out the window. Can you just see the headline in the newspaper, "Local Mom has 4 year old handling gun in drive bys."

Gotta love that boy!

Friends

I took little man to the Dr. for his four year old check up last week.

Yeah, I am a little behind, don't bust my chops.

Dr. T is going through all the questions with little man.

Can you dress yourself? Check.

Can you hop? Check.

Can you hop on one foot? Check.

Do you have any friends you like to play with?

Little Man looks at him and says, "Yeah, Woody, Buzz, and Jesse"

Ok, so he is a little obsessed with the Toy Story characters.

Ok, so he has a bag of these characters he takes to bed with him every night.

I immediately try to explain the situation. I say to Ethan, "No he means your friends like...like....."

I can't think of anyone that is Ethan's friend. I can't help that all our friends have little girls, or boys who are older.

I mean he has friends, friends we go to church with, but don't play with on a regular basis. Friends that are his sisters friends, so they are his friends by default.

So I guess I am on the look out for some new friends with a boy child in the four year old range.

Marriage Proposal

Today I got a marriage proposal.

Yes, I am already married.

No it wasn't my husband asking for a renewal of vows or anything.

It was my four year old little man who melted my heart.

He climbed up in my lap, grabbed my face with his hands and said....

"Momma, when I grow up; will you marry me?"

(Everybody all together now say.....awwwwww)

I explained I was already married to daddy; and that I was his mommy so I couldn't be his wife. That someday when he got older he would meet someone for him to marry.

Oh, how I pray for that women. I pray that I can lower my standards. I want the very best for him, as well all do for our children. I pray that I love and accept her the same way my mother in law loved and accepted me.

Yeah, I should probably go start that prayer right now, it just might take that long to for me to accept another woman in his life.

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!