My new favorite Pinata filler! Knobby Balls!

This year, my nanny was able to head down to Tijuana and pick up this HUGE, and I mean, HUGE pinata for only $13. It looked amazing, but then I thought… crap. what am I going to fill it up with!?!?

I always high up the after Easter sale at Target to pick up the candy for my kids’ parties (stock up for May and July no prob). But I thought this year, it would be good to do a larger filler for the pinata. I saw these balls filled up with a pinata before at a local store…. so I went on eBay and found a listing for 50 of these 4.5 inch “knobby” balls for $19.99! Had to pay $10 shipping… but still!

Got a foot pump at our local Ace Hardware store for $10. Which I could probably use in long run for other things anyways.

It was total success! For a bunch of kids 6 and under… they were totally happy with all the balls that came bouncing out of the pinata unexpectedly.

Definitely going to do that one again!

Check out pix of my lil guy helping to fill the pinata. Heehee.

DIY: Tweedle-Dee & Tweedle-Dum Costumes (and Toy Story Woody)

For my daughter’s “Disney” themed birthday party, I had to conjure up some costumes for my mom and aunt. I was trying to think of cool BFF costumes… and decided it would be fun for them to go as Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum (I ended up dressing up as Alice anyways, so it worked out!)

I headed to Michael’s and purchased the following:

2 Yellow Gilden T-shirts

1 blue 8×10 felt

1 white 8×10 felt

1 sheet of Yellow foam

Then I headed to Walmart and picked up some white fleece material about a yard and a half – got extra because I was making a Woody Vest for my dad as well (more on that at bottom!)

So for the lowdown on the homemade costumes…

The hats: I used fabric “puffy paint” to write in the character’s names after I cut out small rectangle pieces. While that was drying, I sewed a straw to the top of each hat. I opted to sew it because I couldn’t imagine any type of adhesive or glue being able to keep a stick straight on top of the hat. It actually held it up pretty good and was easy to fix if it got moved at all. After I sewed on the straw, then I hot glue gun the yellow “flag” piece at the top and the names on the front.

The shirts: I visually saw what shape I was going for for the collars of the outfits… so I actually kind of free-handed the cutting. Lucky for me they turned out pretty good. But you can see the shape and where the cuts were made. Once it was cut, we sewed the back part of the collar and the top shoulders, and the center to the shirt. Just those key spots – not the whole perimeter of the collar. For the bow, I folded it into a pleat and sewed the center. then let it fan out before we sewed it to the shirt.

So for the Woody vest. I basically folded my fleece in half and cut out a neck hole first. Then plopped it over my dad and drew out the lines for where I wanted to cut off the shoulders and down the sides. Then free-handed where the cut down the front would be. For the cow spots, I cut out random shaped oblongs onto card stock and spray painted them onto the fleece. Once that was done, we sewed up the sides of the vest, added a red bandana ($1.50 at Walmart) and a cowboy hat and we were good to go. Simple but still in the spirit of the party.

Free Custom Disney Stick Figure Decal

http://buildyourdisneyside.com/

This is sooooo cool! Create your own stick figure family, decked out on Disney gear. You can download your image and also have them create a FREE decal!

Schedule Series: 10 Months and ONE nap! (and a 3-yr-old)

Let me first start by saying that my son went down to one nap a few months earlier than my daughter did… and I’ll be honest when I say that I moved in that direction on purpose because I was trying to get them on the same schedule for my own sanity. It worked fine for him, he had no problem because it was something he was going to eventually be doing anyways. But as for me? Hallelujah! 12-3 is my favorite time of the day! Don’t bother me!

My daughter surprisingly has maintained the midday nap for years! At 3 years old, it was usually about 2-3 hours still. Then by 4 years old, it varied, some days longer (depending on how active she was in the morning), and some days shorter. Between 4-5yrs old, she started going to bed a little later (not by my choice!!!!) at night so that made her want/need that midday nap still. I wasn’t complaining though because it was no secret that I LOVE that midday break for myself. Besides, once she starts Kindergarten this fall… I’ll be saying goodbye to that break with her. UGH. I’ll have to say hello to some forced “quiet time” for her… but its not a full release of my mommy-duties, if you know what I mean.

Look who’s FIVE!!

Well, there you have it… Today is my daughter’s 5th birthday. Which means that I have survived 5 years of motherhood. Most importantly, I survived the “feisty fours”!!!! Hallelujah!

I’ve been trying to take the time today to reflect on a lot of things…. how much she’s grown… and how much I’ve grown. It’s a milestone for both of us. There are days when I think, “damn, its gone by fast!” and of course, days where I feel like its not going fast enough. When it comes down to it, we are both certainly still learning… and there’s a lot to learn.

P.S. Every year on her birthday, I have a list of 20 questions that I ask her… same questions every year. Its like an annual “Birthday Interview.” The last question is “what do you want to be when you grow up?” This year she says teacher. What an upgrade! Considering last year she said she wanted to sell hotdogs. PUAHAHAHAh

P.P.S. For her birthday photos this year, we used Old Poway Park as the backdrop, a beautiful dress (with matching sash and headpiece) from HappyBOWtique and glitter number photo prop from Tara’s Alphabet.

 

 

Annual Birthday Interview – 20 Questions

Found this on Pinterest and started doing this with my daughter at age 3. The answers are pretty funny and interesting to see as they change throughout the years. Looking forward to starting my son’s interviews this year!

Here’s my pin and the original blog (this momma made a birthday album/book out of it).

and here’s the list of questions (customize your own of if you wish of course!)

1. What is your favorite color?

2. What is your favorite toy?

3. What is your favorite fruit?

4. What is your favorite tv show?

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?

6. What is your favorite outfit?

7. What is your favorite game?

8. What is your favorite snack?

9. What is your favorite animal?

10. What is your favorite song?

11. What is your favorite book?

12. Who is your best friend?

13. What is your favorite cereal?

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside?

15. What is your favorite drink?

16. What is your favorite holiday?

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night?

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?

19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday?

20. What do you want to be when you grow up?

Mommy, I love you.

In honor of Mother’s Day and the instrumental women who are in our lives.

DIY/Upcycle Kid’s Vanity

A friend of mine had posted on FB about this project she just completed. I thought she did such an amazing job! Told her it had to be blogged about and then unleashed into the Pinterest world! Thanks so much for sharing this Rosella!

Here’s how she completed this beautifully crafted vanity for her daughter:

I got the vanity from my  sister-in-law who was kind enough to offer it to me because she thought my daughter would like to play with it.

It’s vintage style and the white color was fading. I liked it immediately, It’s real wood too! I was so excited to give the vanity some new life- with paint!  My newest hobby has been upcyclng beautiful furniture. It’s so exciting to see old furniture look like new and more personalized than anything you will find in a store!

I used some paint I had leftover for when I painted my baby girl’s nursery.  I’ve been painting the house and working on some pieces for our backyard. This piece has been my favorite so far!

Here are the steps I followed for painting this piece:

1. Clean the furniture- I used some wet wipes that are made for wood surfaces that I got from Target.

2. Set down a drop cloth and place furniture on top- you don’t want to get paint all over the place.

3. Tape/remove anything that doesn’t need to be painted.   In this case I removed the mirror and the hardware. The handles are too small and intricate to be taped.

3. Sand furniture if needed.  I usually sand rough spots, even out dents and sanding also can remove old chipping paint.

3. Prep paints and paint brushes, put them in a place you can reach while working.

4. Then I painted the vanity in light pink. I used a glidden paint, semi gloss.

5. I let it dry a night and  the next day checked on it. The paint had dried mostly,  it was dry to the touch but the paint can scrape off easily if you don’t handle it carefully.

6. I painted the pink flower on the top and let it dry for hours and then came back and added the turquoise center.

7. I let the finished vanity dresser dry for another night and voila! It was done!

Minnie Mouse Centerpiece

For this year’s Disney themed birthday party, I saw some really cool Minnie/Mickey Mouse Centerpieces on Pinterest that I could definitely recreate. Armed with my Michaels coupons, I loaded up on all the supplies and it turned out great! Not hard to compile at all. Here’s how it went:

I used 5″ Styrofoam balls for the head and 3″ for the ears. Stuck them on some skewers before I inhaled a ton of spray paint 🙂

For the Styrofoam holding the bottom I just loaded up on what they had at Dollar Tree. I also lucked out and picked up the yellow pails on sale at 40% from Michaels so they came out to $3.12 a piece.

These number 5 ‘ s  were from Michaels and basically unfinished chipboard pieces at $.79 a piece. I used some regular acrylic paint on the first coat followed by a glitter red coat.

Assembled the heads… I used a thicker dowel to hold up the head for the actual centerpiece. Had spray painted it black when I did the balls.

Got ribbon on sale. Made sure to get the wired kind so that it would be easier to shape into a nice bow. Glued them to toothpicks.

The yellow stars were also chipboard pieces from Michaels. They were already yellow so that was a bonus.  Glued the stars and the 5 ‘ s to skewers. Then bought a red paint pen to write my daughter’s name on the star. This totally could have been done with a thick sharpie or glitter glue.

For the final touches…. I got some tissue paper to hide the Styrofoam bottom. I actually put sand on the bottom as well to give it some weight.

There you have it!!!

P.s. I’m saving all these pieces (minus the star and bow) so I can reuse them in 2 years when my son has his 5th birthday party Disney themed.