Lego party: food

We had some tasty food for our Lego birthday party!

We set up the island in our kitchen to hold the main “feast,” where we tried to do a little bit of theming to go along with the party’s theme.  Husband made a napkin holder and a utensil holder from Duplos, and we had fruit kabobs skewered on sword toothpicks.

However, one of our favorite food ideas was these ninja cheeses–made from partially opened Babybels!  (We found this idea on Pinterest and LOVED it!) . The eyes are edible cake decorations.

The dessert table displayed some more Lego mold prowess on the part of Husband: we made a bunch of Lego Jello– some with basic brick molds (affiliate link), and some– and this is the really awesome part– from an awesome Jello kit that molds interlocking blocks (affiliate link)!  They actually work, and it was so cool!  (these blocks form the cars in the photo below).

We made cupcakes: B requested strawberry cake with chocolate frosting.  He also wanted the Ninjago golden weapons on them, which were going to be beyond my capabilities, especially that week… so we compromised and used edible gold stars from a cake dec mix.  Each cupcake was topped with a brick that we molded from another silicone mold–that makes smaller bricks– that I bought at Michaels.

The birthday boy’s cupcake was at the top of the cupcake stand, and his cupcake had 5 gold stars and a “5” candle, of course!

B really wanted to be involved in the party prep, and so he helped Husband do some of the candy melt molding!  Husband was amazing– he did so much molding (Jello, candy, and crayons) for this party, and he always worked out the best method.

 

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Lego party: games

For a fifth birthday party, you gotta have games!  Since B loves both Lego Nexo Knights and Lego Ninjago, we created a little storyline that involved both of them throughout the activity part of the party.

As the kids came in, they used Lego-shaped crayons with some coloring pages that I printed — there were Nexo Knights and Ninjago pages available!

Once all the guests had arrived, we moved onto the first official “activity”– a craft to create their own Nexo shield.  Each kid got a white cardstock shield background and chose a colored digital border to glue onto it.  They used the Lego crayons to draw a Nexo power onto their shield, and when they were finished, I used a glue gun to attach the cardstock to a cardboard base, into which I had threaded an elastic wristband.

We got a cool group photo at the party, but these are just the shields that my own kids made…

Now that the knights were prepared for battle, we told them that globlins had invaded our backyards, and we needed them to use their Nexo powers to defeat them!

Husband (and I helped, just a little) blew up 60(!!) red balloons and added globlin grumpy faces to each one!

When it was time for the game, he released them onto the grass in the backyard, and the kids “CHAAAAAARRRRRRRRGE”d around the corner of the house to do battle!  It was amazing and hilarious.

And it lasted for about 30 seconds! Haha.  After their victory, the kids made quick work of picking up all the balloon bits from the yard… Now that they were victorious Nexo Knights, it was time for the next phase– Ninja training!

I made each guest a personalized “ninja headband:” I used the font called “Shanghai” and cut the names out of vinyl using my Cameo.  I simply used blue painter’s tape to transfer the letters to 1.5″ wide white satin ribbon.  It was my first vinyl project, and now I’m hooked!

 

Look at those awesome ninja moves!

Husband found some suction cup throwing stars on Amazon, and he printed pictures of eight Ninjago villains, which he then mounted inside a poster frame.  The kids took turns “fighting” the villains!

Finally, we sent the kids on a “ninja hunt” around the ground level of our house.  We printed tiny (about 1.5″ square) pictures of each of the six Ninjago ninja so that each kid had to find a complete set!

All in all, I think the kids had a good time with all of the games… and then we ate!

At the end of the party, the kids got to take home a goody bag that included their personalized ninja headband, their Nexo shield, a little set of Lego crayons, and a small Lego kit (the kind that come in the little packets).

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Lego party: crayons

For his fifth birthday, my son requested a Lego-themed birthday party!  And, as is our wont, Husband and I went all-out!

The party was a combination of general Lego goodness plus Nexo Knights and Ninjago theming.  As we browsed Pinterest for ideas, we quickly decided that Lego brick molds were going to be an important factor!

One of the first projects we did was to make Lego crayons.  The kids used some of these to color and work on a little craft at the party, and we also gave each kid a set of eight as a party favor.

I didn’t realize until we started working on this project just how many crayons I had stashed away!  We used almost exclusively Crayola crayons, and we spent a good long while one Saturday morning peeling off wrappers to prepare them for re-melting.

V was particularly helpful with the peeling and sorting, and once we’d finished that step, we used an old cutting board to chop each color into tiny bits in preparation for the melting and molding.

We got our molds from Amazon (affiliate link), and the blocks were a great size for crayons.  We liked the rectangles the best, but it was fun to have other shapes, too.

We baked the crayon bits at about 300 degrees Farenheit until they were smooth and melted… it took a different amount of time for different colors!

In the end, we had red, yellow, orange, green, blue, purple, black, peach, white, gray, and brown crayons, and because we didn’t separate out the different hues in each color family, we had lovely marbled crayons as a result.  I thought the pink and the green were especially beautiful.

They’re so pretty… let’s look at some more photos!

 

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Everybody loves the camel…jammies

After I had so much fun with family Christmas pajamas last year, I decided to go for them again this year!  I decided to continue the “tradition” (if it’s only 2 years, is it a tradition yet??) of choosing a fabric that has images to relate to something our family has enjoyed in that year.  When I was browsing flannels, I found this great camel print, which of course made me think of the Slugs and Bugs’ Camel Song! Our whole family loves this song, and even though we’ve been listening to this album on repeat at Christmas for years now, the camel song makes me laugh every time.  So, I bought the camel flannel (which is also fun to say five times fast…).

The pajama pants for Husband and I were made from Simplicity 1504 (lengthened for him, modified for me), and I brought out my beloved Blank Slate Patterns Snuggle PJs pattern for the kids’ pants and shirts.  I bought (at a very good price) 3 matching long-sleeved T-shirts from Old Navy, and after putting one aside intact for Husband to wear, I cut up the other two to make matching shirts for the kids.  I wanted to use a fourth to make a Texana Tank for myself, but I completely ran out of time!  Thankfully, I had a RTW royal blue t-shirt on hand that coordinated!

Merry Christmas from our family!

 

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Christmas 2014: pocket inserts (part 2)

In my last post, I shared the “at home” part of Christmas 2014, and that section of the inserts ended on the front side of a Design G page.  We went to visit my parents for a few days, and this section documents that time, starting on the back side of the Design G page.

I was on a mission to use my Christmas embellishments, so I added border stickers (Crate Paper Peppermint), Christmas ribbon (My Mind’s Eye??), and brads (BasicGrey Nordic Holiday) along with some cute little holly stickers.

The visit continues onto another Design G page, where I added more of the same embellishments to tie everything together.

This card was made using a One Little Bird cut file (and digital kit) I’d purchased a long time ago– I was excited to finally put it to good use!

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Christmas 2014: pocket inserts (part 1)

Baby’s first Christmas is kind of a big deal!  Of course, it took me several inserts to document B’s first Christmas, and I’ll share the first part in this post: our Christmas celebration at home.

I used the front side of this Design I page protector to highlight photos from Christmas Eve.

[For most, if not all, of the other pocket inserts I’ve shared here, I’ve taken the photos out of the pockets and laid them on top of the page protector to minimize glare.  However, on this insert, I used Heidi Swapp gold Color Shine to sprinkle some splatters, and I guess I didn’t let them dry long enough before putting them in the pockets– those pieces are solidly glued inside with that gold!  Sorry about the glare on the top pocket here and on the next side…]

I don’t have a huge amount of Christmas-themed product, so most of my Christmassy paper projects use similar lines: here, there’s a little bit of Crate Paper’s Peppermint collection mixed with little other bits and pieces.

On the back of this insert, we begin Christmas morning at our house.  On each “title” card, the word “Christmas” is a rub on from an old Lily Bee collection (Christmas Town)–this continuity was accidental at first, but I like how it all ties together.  The other alpha stickers are BasicGrey Nordic Holiday (originally purchased for my daughter’s baby album/December Daily project)

I also embellished this top card with some vellum snowflakes I’d cut with my Silhouette (a long time ago!) and some clear rhinestones.  These plus the gold Color Shine (which is keeping this card firmly in its pocket!) make for a sparkly, fresh-morning feeling, I think.

I added some punched circles, brads, and labels to decorate the two photos on this side.

The next insert is a Design G, and it is all about opening gifts at our house.  Our little man was so intent on getting that wrapping paper into his mouth!

I had one more photo than would fit on this side, so I made a little flap with patterned paper.  Underneath, I added a bit more of the story.

The other side of this page is about our time at my parents’ for Christmas, so that will be in the next post!

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Green Bookworm Button-up

It’s rather fitting, I think, that I would make a Blank Slate Bookworm Button-Up for our little book character this Halloween.  Our little man is quite the bookworm, too!  I anticipate that this shirt will get a lot of use this fall/winter after he wore it for the costume.

The pattern is very straightforward, and it has a ton of options.  I decided to make view A, but I did change the pockets to simple rectangular slip pockets, rather than pleated pockets with a flap.

I think the button tabs to hold the rolled-up sleeves are such a cute feature.

I think this is a really versatile pattern, and wouldn’t it look cute sewn up with a novelty print for a fun twist?  (and…I have plans to try out the girls’ crossover back option with bow sleeves and pocket in the future!)

 

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Costumes 2018: Peter Pan details

Our 4-year old son played the part of Peter Pan this year. (Find the group photos HERE)

We referenced the animated Disney character, the character description and illustrations in the book the kids read with Husband this summer, as well as the licensed costume I spotted at the Disney store one day when walking through the mall.

I loved the look of a leaf tunic over a green collared shirt, so the first thing I made was a button-up shirt– and since by itself, it’s just a nice cotton top, I’m excited that B will be able to wear it throughout the rest of the fall and winter.  In fact, I’m going to dedicate a separate blog post to that shirt!

I used the Blank Slate Snuggle PJs pants pattern as the basis for the green leggings– I simply narrowed the legs so that they appear more leggings-like, and I left off the bottom cuffs.

The pièce de résistance of the outfit, in my opinion, is the tunic.  Husband did an amazing job of developing the pattern for this garment, which is supposed to look as if it’s been made out of large leaves.  A couple of years ago, a friend gave me a roll of upholstery fabric that was absolutely perfect for this project– there are stitched embellishments that look like leaf veining!

I added a seam in the front so that the neck opening would be a bit wider and more comfortable, and I set some eyelets through which I threaded some fake leather thong as lacing.

Of course, we needed some accessories to go with the costume to complete the look!  Husband drafted up the patterns for each of these sewn accessories:

A jaunty cap– I used more of the upholstery fabric and lined it with some of the extra green cotton.  I added a flat loop in which to slip a red feather.

Elfin-looking shoe covers– these are kind of like spats: we slip them onto B’s ankles, and he wears his actual shoes underneath.  We found some vinyl “pleather” on clearance, and it was perfect for this!

We used more of that pleather to make a sword holster!  We looked at some LARPing inspiration on Pinterest and found this basic design to be managable–both to make and for B to use.

And of course, that leads us to the sword, which might be B’s favorite piece of the costume (although I think he really does love the whole outfit!).

Husband whittled the blade out of some scrap wood we had on hand, and B took great delight in helping Daddy paint it (they used several coats of metallic craft paint).  Husband wrapped the grip in black electrical tape both for looks and also for comfort.

B is so excited about this little wooden sword, and he is quite the fierce swordfighter in his imaginary duels!

When Captain Hook shows up, you fly!

just look at that cute, mischievous face! so very Peter Pan…

 

 

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Costumes 2018: Peter Pan and Wendy

This past summer, Husband read Peter Pan aloud to our children, and after they’d finished the book, they also watched the Disney animated film.  Somewhere along the way, B declared, “I want to be Peter Pan for Halloween!” and upon hearing this, V exclaimed, “And I could be Wendy!”

And thus our costume plan was born.  We had originally intended to make it a full-family affair, putting to use again Husband’s Captain Hook costume— and I was going to be Tinker Bell!!  But the lack of an event for adults (besides taking our kids trick-or-treating) led us to conclude that perhaps my time/money/energy would be better spent on other things.  However, I am so delighted that our family is still willing and able to do group costumes together.  (Here’s to many more years!)

In this post, I’ll share some costumes of our Peter Pan and Wendy together, and also with our Hook (who dressed up for the photo shoot!  yay!).  I’ll have a couple more posts coming up soon with the details of each of the new costumes!  HERE are the details about Peter Pan, and HERE are the details about Wendy!

I sewed the Wendy dress and hair bow, the tunic, shirt, hat, and pants for Peter Pan, as well as using vinyl “pleather” to make the shoe spats and sword holster.  Husband designed the pattern for the leaf tunic, sword holster, shoe spats, and hat!  I’ll share all those details soon!

Of course, we need some action shots!

about to take off!

And then Captain Hook showed up, and Peter Pan had to do a little sword fighting!

And then they had the idea to reenact the scene in which Wendy is tied to the mast of the Jolly Roger, and Peter Pan is fighting to rescue her– thanks to a convenient tree in our photo shoot location!

 

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Mall playground: pocket insert

Sometimes, simple is best.

That’s what I was thinking when I made this insert about a fun time my kids and I had at the mall playground.  I used to go to the mall quite a bit in the early mornings to walk with the kids in the stroller, and this was the first day that my son played in the little play area– and he was absolutely delighted with it.

I’d written a long daily card for the 365 album, but I had so many great photos and memories that I wanted to highlight this seemingly small event in an insert.  I took the journaling out of the daily slot and substituted a simple coordinating filler card with an arrow that ends up pointing right to this insert in the album.  The journaling is on a folded card that slips out of the insert to tell the whole story.

I hemmed and hawed over embellishments, and in the end, I kept them super simple.  I added tiny word stickers (I’ve been watching a lot of Inkie Quill!) and stapled on a few little stars punched from coordinating patterned paper.

Another sweet memory documented in my son’s 1-year album!

 

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