He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Halloween 2011

So, this summer, Nick shared a show on Netflix with the boys that he watched when he was a little boy--- He-Man and the Masters of the Universe!!!  I'm probably the only one who just said that in the voice of the show's intro.  :-P

Anyhoo...it became a little bit of an addiction.  The boys concocted a plan that Emory would be He-Man for Halloween, Evander would be Orko, and Marin would be Teela.  They had a character picked out for me...but if anyone's ever seen the series...they don't tend to wear too many clothes on that cartoon.  I really didn't want to run around in a leotard on Halloween.

Much to my delight...there certainly aren't any costumes in the stores of these 1980s cartoon characters.  It's alright...I like to sew.

Marin is obviously practicing her Teela, Captain of the Royal Guard of Eternia, athletic skills here.

Nick's suggestion for Emory was for him to just show his skin...but OF COURSE he'd be cold, and he couldn't wear his costume to school like that.  He needed some extra He-Man muscles, too, so I sewed some to a t-shirt for him following this tutorial:  Muscle Shirt  I had to dye his shirt skin-color as I couldn't find a shirt in the right color.

The boot covers turned out really cool, but you can't agree with that judging by the above picture.  I forgot to put the toes of the boot cover completely over the shoe.  When completely in place, they look super snazzy!

Orko is a Trollan from Trolla from another dimension.  :-)  He has special powers that somehow Orko mixes up into something comical.  He tends to get into trouble a lot.

For Evanders costume, I found a $1.99 pattern on eBay.  The fabric looks cool...but I HATED working with it because it is a tad stretchy and the edges curl.

And here's Teela, captain of the Royal Guard.  For being head of the guard, she sure isn't too smart.  Ha.  I say that only because she *never* figures out that Prince Adam turns into He-Man.  Foolish woman.  She also manages to get herself into troubled circumstances a lot...but I suppose that's just how old shows tend to portray a woman's character.

I was happily surprised that Marin so very desired to try her costume on and loved it!  She kept shouting, "I have the power!!!!" which is what He-Man says when he holds his sword aloft.  I started with a vest for her...then added a collar...the breast plates (ha...laughed the whole time I was making those), and the dangling knot thing.  I ended up duct taping the faux fur to her boots.  :-)

I feel like I need to end this blog post the way each He-Man episode ends----with a lesson.  Sooooo...here goes!

Be nice.  Don't do drugs.  Help those who are in need.  Clean your room.  Help your mother.  Love each other.

:-P

October Treats for the Non-Baker in You

Being the mom of TWO little guys who are in school and other activities now, I've noticed a couple things.

Fundraisers....fundraisers....FUNDRAISERS!  Whither shall I go from thy spirit?  Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?  Counting three Market Days...we are on number six fundraiser, I believe.

My second observation is that there seem to be LOTS of opportunities to help out and be involved at the schools.  I am taking full advantage of this not having a job outside the home at this time.

Anyhoo...here are a couple cute things I did for the boys.  Note...no baking is involved.  Yikes.  I get so frustrated when I attempt to frost things.


MONSTER CAKES

I guess they aren't really cakes...they're Ho Ho's!  But, I didn't know what else to call them.  Monster Ho Ho's?  Eh.  Box of Ho Ho's, some candy corn, M & M's, chewy lifesavers and decorator icing.  You could certainly go all out with these.  Thought about giving them feet...but then I thought of 12 little preschoolers who would probably pick the stuff off anyways.


CANDY CORN KRISPIES

Here are the instructions: Candy Corn Krispies

Basically, you make three small batches (yellow, orange and no dye), layer them in a bread pan, and cut, cut, cut!

I know a few of you are die-hard Rice Krispie Treat fans.  :-)

I think I will forever be on the look out for fun no-bake treats.

Commit, Train, Believe, Achieve

As many of you might know already, we were in Columbus last weekend so that Nick could run in The Columbus Marathon.  I seem to be saying, "THEEEEEE  Columbus Marathon," you know, like "THEEEE Ohio State University.  Pretty important stuff.  ;-)

My family had a good time staying with my cousin and his wife, and we all had a good time trying to chase Nick down in the city.  With the help of automatic updates from TweetMyTime, we were able to catch Nick on the course once, and see him finish.  I cried both times I saw him.  There's just something about seeing one you love work so hard for something and achieve their goal.

I'm pretty certain I still would have cried at the finish line even if Nick wasn't there.  Just a bunch (4,729 full marathon finishers!) of shiny, happy people holding hands.

The mantra of the race was equally as moving:  Commit, Train, Believe, Achieve

Obviously, it applies perfectly to preparing for a marathon, but I think it applies to all decisions we make in our lives, as well.


COMMIT

Oh, the easy step.  But, don't take making a decision lightly...and ESPECIALLY don't announce to everyone on Facebook that you are planning on doing something if you don't intend to follow through with it.  Ha.  ;-)

But, seriously...what is involved in making a commitment?  You must weigh your pain and your gain.  It's likely that it's not going to be easy.

Sometimes we make commitments that we don't keep.  Working towards the goal has either become to difficult, or something else has taken precedence over it.


TRAIN

A person just can't up and run for 26 miles straight.  It's likely a person may not be able to run a mile without first working up the lung and leg endurance.  Training, practicing or perfecting your skill takes time.  It takes repetition and it can get mundane.  If the preparing for the goal is something you love to do, then of course that makes this part easier.  :-)  If not...then, move to step three!


BELIEVE

Sounds simple enough, right?  Ohhhhhh...but then things of this world and life gets you down.  There are certain to be times when you will be down and you will be faced with doubt.  "I can't do this anymore."  This is a time when the help of others is so very much needed.

With 1/2 a mile to go in the 26.2 mile race, Nick's hamstring cramped up to the point that he couldn't move it.  "I can't," certainly came from Nick's mouth.  A random spectator saw Nick's need and came to his assistance to rub it out for him.  You may not be able to do it alone, but with the help of another, your belief can be renewed.


ACHIEVE

I'm sure nothing felt better for those marathon runners than crossing that finish line on Nationwide Boulevard.  It was over.


I've never been eloquent or able to express myself well with words, so I always feel silly posting blog posts that are more my thoughts and less explaining what I or we have done.  Oh well.  :-P  Facebook's changes have caused a drastic decline in my blog readership, so it's likely only ten of you will read this anyways.  :-P

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.  :-)