Merry Christmas!

A couple more chipboard albums

I was so pleased with the way my other album came out, I decided I'd make these for my Son's preschool teacher's! Really happy with the way they came out! Now they can insert pictures of their friends! Since none of them are married with kids, I decided FRIEND was a good one for each of them.

Chipboard Photo albums

Found this cute photo album on Etsy & decided it would be a fun gift to make up for my Mom for Christmas. I thought I'd put pictures of my late Grandmother in there, going back to when my Mom was a little girl.

I was so pleased with the final product & CAN NOT wait to give this to my Mother! I think the paper choices were perfect too & am really happy with the colors I chose to go with. All I had to do was glue them onto the letters & then I used my exacto to cut out around the letters. I then cut & tied my ribbons onto the metal rings I bought.

SO motivated today after finding some great new blogs!

OK, so I've just come across a couple of amazingly (is that even a word)? creative women! I'm not even clicking on the blogs that they like to go to yet as I'm afraid I will just keep finding more great ideas! SO cute & now I want to go home, lock myself away from the husband & son and create away... I was at Hobby Lobby yesterday & already found a project that I wanted to make. This is in addition to the teacher's gifts I've decided today that I would be making, the project I'm finishing for my mother & the project I was just about to start that I bought paper for yesterday! Anyways, check out these two blogs to find some really fun ideas!

http://poppypaperie.typepad.com/

http://nicholeheady.typepad.com/

You want Change?

This lady is right on with her ideas!

Tanner's visit to Santa

So much fun! Tanner was so excited he could hardly contain it! He couldn't wait to tell Santa that he wanted a Batcave for Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!

So much to be thankful for! * that we live in this great country where we have so many freedoms! * for the health of my family * for our stable jobs that provide us with the opportunity to work and provide for our family. * for such loving and supportive family.

Tanner is thankful playing with my cars all day with my daddy. That's what his reply was when they asked at School!

I hope dinner comes out OK today as I'm hosting! First time cooking for my family or Chad's on Thanksgiving!

Batman party ideas

On the internet again & found some fun ideas for a Batman themed party!

Party games:
Facing Mr Freeze: Children must carry an ice cube on a spoon and race to the finish line without dropping the ice cube.
Target Practice: Print out pictures of Batman villains (Catwoman, the Riddler, the Penguin, Joker) and tape them to empty plastic 2-liter bottles. Set them on a table and have the kids stand behind a line and throw foam Bat-a Rangs (Batman party favor boomerangs) at the "villains".
You could do a batman bowling too. Use empty pop cans or empty plastic 2-liter bottles that you wrap in black paper & put Batman villiain pictures on. Use a small batman themed ball from party supply store.

Batman The Dark Knight Birthday Party Game:
http://www.allaboardtoys.com/batman-the-dark-knight-birthday-party-game.aspx?cmpid=gopsXPE-1GAM2436

SOLVE THE CRIME COMMITTED BY PENGUIN - Reintroduced The Penguin. Pertinent info to bring out: 1) Gentleman of Crime 2) Loved birds and used birds in his crimes. The Penguin had kidnapped someone and they had to figure out who. I bought 6 little red birds from the floral dept. of the arts and craft store 5 were hidden around the facility w/a clue attached. The kids had to find the 5 birds/clues and solve the crime (I used the 6th bird just to show them what they were looking for). The clues were things like victim is someone you see on TV., yellow, lives on Sesame Street,loves to sing the alphabet song. You guessed it - Big Bird (remember, Penguin loves birds). I had a stuffed big bird toy that I took out and said that they'd saved him.
We had a BAT craft, Black foam paper precut into bat shape, the boys glued on google eyes and a popsicle stick (they dried during party).

"MR. Freeze Dance". I played Batman music and when I paused the music they had to Freeze.
"Stomp the bad guys" I put a few pieces of candy in Blue, Yellow, and Black Balloons, then I blew them up and tied them. I also put names and drew pictures of the bad guys on the balloons with a paint pen. They stomp the bad guy balloons and got the candy out.
The last game was "Pin the bat on the Riddler". I used my Riddler poster and cut out bats from black construction paper.
"Mr.Freeze tag" (pretty obvious)
"musical bats". I taped a bat with a number onto each chair. When the music stopped, I called out a number and whoever was sitting in that chair got a sticker. We played until everyone got a sticker.

Campfire or Camping party theme

I love finding ideas for parties & a cousin was looking to fo something for her little girl turning 5 in a capfire theme as they were going to their cabin to celebrate. Here are some of the ideas that I found:

Family Fun has a bunch of ideas & this is where I found the cake http://familyfun.go.com/parties/birthday/feature/famf58birthday/famf58birthday6.html

Another website with what looked to be some fun ideas…

http://www.boardmanweb.com/party/camp_out.htm

Games and Activities:Daylight~Nature Scavenger Hunt:Make a list of natural things that you can find around the 'camp site' and make a list for each individual or team. See how many they can find. Freaky Nature Hunt:Doctor up different plants, trees, make your own freaks of nature. i.e.: An orange growing on a oak, flowers out of tree trunks, etc. Keep a list and see who can find them all within a time limit.

Some fun favor bag items?
http://www.orientaltrading.com/ui/search/processRequest.do?Ntt=camping&requestURI=searchMain&Ntk=all&Ntx=mode%2Bmatchallpartial&N=0

Party FavorsFind some green canvas or other fabric and cut into about 15 inch square or round place items like toy binoculars, whistles, compasses, flash lights, candy, and stickers. Bring the corners together and you can tie it up with a piece of twine or rope. You can find most of these items at Camping Out with Oriental Trading Co.
(found this on the website below – childavenue)

More fun ideas…
http://www.childavenue.com/pages/birthdays_pages/birthday_campout.html

This might be pretty cute! I just found on the website above:

Fishing Snack : Place goldfish crackers on a blue napkin (as a lake or pond). Have the children dip pretzel sticks (fishing pole) into peanut butter (bait) and then touch the peanut butter to the goldfish.... HEY I caught one:)sent in by Erika www.1Party2Go.com

Check this out – another 5 year old having the camp out party theme:
http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/html/camping_parties_16.html

Thinking about party wear…
You could use regular plates & for their cup get a solid colored thermos & put camping stickers and their names on them. Or I’m seeing fun bug party wear too! Could be fun to do with a green thermos if you want to go that route.

Other website’s with stuff and/or ideas…
http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&q=camping+party+supplies&safe=active&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title

http://www.kidspartyfun.com/pages/themes/campout.html

http://www.kids-partycabin.com/camping_party.html

http://www.allthatstuff.net/campoutparty.htm

Found an old friend...

So our old friend Jordan Newhouse is in fact alive and well and living over in Sweden! Funny thing, rumors had flown around that he had died in a boating accident. No one was ever able to tell you anything other than that...Well, while planning this reunion with friends from Elementary school, I got word that someone had talked to a guy that said he played in a band with a Jordan Newhouse htat would have been about our age within the last 5 years or so. So, I started searching and low and behold - I found a picture of him looking back at me on the Internet! he was in a band called Birdman Ray over in London. I got in touch this week with him through email in which he said something very funny! "Reports of my demise are greatly exaggerated. The only boating accident I've encountered since '91 is when my 10 month old son decides to throw the plastic one out of the bath tub at me. His name is Rufus and he rocks".

So glad to hear that our old friend is alive and well!