A Robot Party!

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, boy.  Birthday party #3 in the past six weeks.  Whose idea was it to have all of theses babies in the Fall, anyways?  ;-)

Evander wanted a robot party for his sixth birthday.  This year, he got to invite *several* friends...and they all R.S.V.P.'d as a yes!  So, even though by this time I was a little tired of doing birthdays, I had to try to make this cool for my boy.

So, I tried.  :-/  I didn't get very many pictures because I was so busy with all of the children...but here is a peek!

I made Evander his birthday shirt to look like the robot on his party invitations.

I'm SIX!!!!

I used the Robotz Cricut Cartridge for the invitations.  Lots of pieces and layers.  You'll notice I didn't do any more Cricut robots for party decor.

Speaking of invitation!  I forgot to include Emory's in his party blog post.  You can look at that cuteness here!

We ate robot sandwiches:

And other robot goodies.  Robot Liquid Fuel (they went fast!  Thirsty kids!), Nuts & Bolts (pretzel rods and cheerios drizzled in chocolate) and Computer Chips (Evander's favorite Doritos).

I'm pretty sure that for the next party I'm just going to serve Doritos.

Note, they are under the kitchen table with the big bowl.

We ate robot cake.  Thanks to my mom for making it!  I don't like to make cakes.

We played robot games including "Guess how many robot pieces are in the vase" (there were 167 by the way!), Robot freeze dance--the kids LOVED this!, and a find the robot part whilst blind folded game.  These games need better names!

The children each made a can-bot, too!  FUN!

And this is how much the boy loves robots:

Evander, I love you!!!  I cannot believe you are six years old.  Time is going so quickly.  I pray I am doing the best for you and your siblings.  :-)

A Toy Story Birthday Party!

Emory has wanted a Toy Story birthday party since....his Super Why! birthday party was over last year.  Ha.  It seems the kiddies start talking about their next party wellllllllllllllll in advance.  

We ate pizza, salad, alien cupcakes and cheese puffs (reference to Al from Toy Story 2 when he falls asleep on the couch with the TV on).



Don't forget your pizza spices.  ;-)


The invitation made with the Toy Story Cricut cartridge:

We played pin the pieces on Mr. Potato Head...




The girls hung out together...

As usual...Mommy was ready to look at the camera.  Everyone else was...eh... Grandma Cinder made the Woody outfits for the boys and the Ham shirt for Marin.



The boys were so helpful today with picking up the house and decorating for the party (every day should be a party day!).  They got all of their Toy Story toys and displayed them on the piano to make Andy's room and clothes pinned Andy's drawings on the wall.

Evander drew a sweet picture for Emory as a surprise.  Emory of course was relentless with the peeking.  He actually discovered his presents from us in the van last night.  So much for secrets.

Emory was so excited!

My parents painted this chest for Emory and filled it with his favorite snacks.  He told me he found this treasure in the rain forest! 

Happy birthday baby boy!  I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Can I always call you my baby boy? 

Book Pumpkin

Saw this stinking cute little pumpkin here: Book Pumpkin

And here's how mine turned out!  I purposely made mine as large as the book I had would let me...although I really really love how cute and tiny the example is from the tutorial.  Super easy and fun!

I certainly won't leave it outside...but just liked the natural light errrrr the sun (!) we saw today!

The victim was a Reader's Digest condensed book from 1988.  Anyone read that one back in the day?  ;-) Couldn't bring myself to cut up the ones my parents have from the 1960s...although, I'm sure they're not worth anything!

All of this book cutting reminds me of this from Shawshank Redemption:

And this:

Yup!  That's my engagement ring (and wedding ring now) tucked into the carved out pages of a pocket Bible...and the prettiest handwriting I've ever seen from Nick.

What fall crafts and cooking are on your agenda?  After birthdays (which includes treats to preschool and treats to kindergarten) and birthday parties, I have Halloween costume sewing coming up (gasp!)...I'm sewing with a real tissue pattern for the first time EVER!  Ack!  October is getting away from me!  Oh wait...it hasn't even started, yet...

Map Quilts

Ohhhhhhhh...new obsession.  I saw this: Leah Evans map quilt in Country Living magazine a few months ago and began to drool.  I definitely wanted to try one of my own...so I did!

Not quite as intricate as Leah Evans'...BUT it did take a lot of effort to satin stitch around the Massachusetts coast line!  Oh, and that brown and tan striped upholstery fabric you see there...yeah, I'm never sewing with that again.  :-P

So, I'm trying to decide if I really like the way this looks, or not.  Ha!  I was going for blues and browns and this is what I ended up with from the remnant piles at Jo-Ann's.  I made it for my sister who lived in Massachussets for seven years and dearly misses it.  Soooo...SHE can decide whether it becomes a cat bed or hung in some hidden closet or something.  ;-)

I used Heat-n-Bond to adhere each county on the map, and then satin stitched around the edges.  I free-motioned the outlines of the other New England states and the lines in the water.

Little helper looks like a big girl in this pic!

Check out other map quilts by Leah Evans: Leah Evans Textiles Wow! 

     

    

Very Hungry Caterpillar Party

Yesterday we celebrated baby Marin's 2nd birthday!  Most other girls who turned two this year had a Dora party...but since Marin's really only watched boy TV so far, Momma got to pick the theme this year!  :-)  (Even though we haven't watched a lot of Dora, Marin definitely loves Dora and gets soooooo excited when we see Dora in the stores).

The invitations

We can hardly believe a year has passed.  Our little caterpillar has grown so fast!  For food and fun, we want you.  Marin Sophia is turning two!

The decor

I wanted to do a lot more with decorations, but (surprise) ran out of time.  I was happy with the way the balloons looked hanging from the ceiling.  Marin loves balloons, so I was also happy with just balloons as the decor.  :-)  When she woke up yesterday morning and I took her into the kitchen, she lit up and shouted, "Bamoons!!!!!!!!"

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

More balloons.  :-)  The boys had fun when I blew all of these up...I had to stick my head between my knees for a while.  Whew!  I was light headed.  Polka dot confetti was done quickly with the Auto Fill button on my Cricut Machine. 




Favors

 
Butterflies filled with Skittles.  Idea from Family Fun magazine: Butterfly Favor

And the baby birthday girl!

The birthday dress

I started with plain T-shirt and appliquéd the caterpillar and butterfly on the front and back, eyeballing everything.  My mother-in-law sent me a whole bunch of scrap fabric, and these pretty batik fabrics were included.  I love that they look so much like the Eric Carle style of painting.  Anyhoo...I sewed the strips together, attached the skirt, and added a bow to make the dress extra girly.  :-)

The food is always so much fun to plan for parties.  The Hungry Caterpillar theme gave me the foundation for the menu.  You might remember the story...On Monday he ate through an apple but he was still hungry.  Tuesday through Friday he eats through some pears, plums, strawberries and oranges.  On Saturday, he goes crazy and eats through a piece of chocolate cake, an ice cream cone, a pickle, a slice of swiss cheese, a slice of salami, a lollipop, a piece of cherry pie, some sausage, a cupcake and slice of watermelon.  Phew!



The spread with happy birthday wishes from Scooby Doo.  :-)


Here are some of the more unique food items:



Cherry pie (Pop Tarts) on a stick



Fruit salad with a fruit caterpillar on top!



Salami sandwiches and a Swiss cheese/Cream cheese & almond spread



Watermelon lemonade




The cake



Excited girl!

She will always have help opening her presents.  :-)

Little two-year-old.  :-)






Kindergarten Here We Come!

I grabbed this from a friend of a friend's blog (not sure she wants a link to her blog, so I won't.  Credit to Jamie).  It is not my own, but it reflects how I am feeling today:

To my little peanut:

I wonder what you are doing right now.

 And if everyone is treating you kind.

I hope there is a special person,

 A nice one that you find.

 I wonder if the teacher knows

 Just how special you are to me.

 And if the brightness of your heart

 is something she can see.

  I wonder if you are thinking about me.

 And if you need a hug.

 I already miss the sound of your voice

 and how you give my leg a tug.

  

 I wonder if you could possibly understand

 How hard it is for me to let you grow.

 On this day know that my heart breaks.

 For this is the first step in letting my little man go.

  I LOVE YOU SOOOOOOO!!!

Are you crying now?  Because I am (again). 

He woke up early because he was too excited to sleep!  The only time he ever really did this was when he was thinking about drawing arrows on paper and taping them around the house...

Watching for the bus, about a half an hour from the time it's supposed to come. :-)

Picture by the tree we always take pictures by.  :-P

Ready to board!

Hi desk---as far away from the teacher's desk as you can get. :-)  Hope that means she thinks she won't have to worry about Evander!

Ready to move into his classroom!  He was soooooooo excited about the room.  Couldn't wait to go back to learn and play.

Look who's in kindergarten!



And look who wants to go to school, too. :-)

And so it begins.  I am so happy for Evander, yet so sad for myself.  Ha.  These early years go by soooooo fast.  Phew.  Incredible.  I am so proud of him.  But, now I feel even more burdened to pray for him and my children. 

As Nick said...so starts Evander working for the rest of his life.  Ha!  Kindergarten is still full of fun and play!...right?  ;-)