Wordless Wednesday–DMNS

For our annual get-together, my childhood friend and I (and our 5 kids combined) met at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science this week. The kids had a great time, and it’s good to see Eileen and her kids.

~S

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Wordless Wednesday - Drive In!

We're currently waiting for Monsters University to start at the drive in theater, which is conveniently located 1/2 a mile from our house. In fact, Tim finished up cleaning the kitchen and walked over to join us.  This counts as our date night this week because our babysitter is watching Shane :)

Wordless Wednesday–Kool Aid Soda Pop

This is on our Summer Fun! board of activities to do this summer. I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out, since I changed the recipe a bit. Instead of adding these to Sprite, which is already so sweet, I poured club soda over them in a pitcher. The kids *loved* them! Granted, my kids are limited in the amount of sugar they have, so this worked great for us :) I’m guessing by the time they’re 10, I’ll have to use Sprite instead.

I made five 1/2 batches of kool aid and froze them. I couldn’t find any green kool aid, which frustrated my daughter, lol. A 1/2 batch made just over two ice cube trays, which is more than enough for us. I then just layered them in freezer bags and stored them for use later. I’ll be making more after I remember to buy more club soda, since we still have a ton of ice cubes. I might even use them for our lemonade stand that we’ll get to at some point!

~S

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Happy 4th Birthday, Nathanael!

In honor of my middle child’s fourth birthday, we had a Fire Truck birthday party for him last weekend. His actual birthday was yesterday, but Mondays are no good for holding parties :)

Thanks to Pinterest, I may have gone a bit overboard with the party decorations. now I have to think of how to top this one for Kahlen’s next birthday!

It started with the invitation:

I used the Cricut Cartridge Everyday Paper Dolls for the fire truck, axe, fire hydrant, and hat. I used the Create a Critter cartridge for the flames. It was actually my husband’s idea to make an aperture out of the fire truck window so we could see Nate from the front and inside. It’s on a 8 1/2” x 4” blank so that it will fit inside a regular mailing envelope.

After that, I found a YouTube video on how to make the cake simply yet perfect for what I wanted:

Fire Truck Cake courtesy of Family Fun Video

Then I went looking for some game or activity ideas and found this great tutorial on how to make a pull string piñata.

Also, a ton of the fire truck / fire fighter themed parties that I saw were held actually AT a fire station. I didn’t think this would work, until I just called them to ask. We were planning on having it at a park that is right next to a fire station anyway, so it wouldn’t hurt to ask, right? Well, they said YES (as long as they weren’t out on a call, of course). Turns out, they were on a call when we first tried to go over there, but we were flexible about it and just came back after we saw them pull back into the station:

Nate said this was the best part!

I also found some great decoration ideas for a banner, food and cute signs, and cupcake designs. Naturally, me being me, I had to make all of those things. By hand. *sigh* sometimes my crafty side gets the better of my practical side.

The banner as it's hung up at my house. I didn't get a good picture of it at the party :(

"Matches" - Pretzels dipped in red melting chocolate. "Fire Truck Wheels" - Oreos. "Fire Hoses" - Licorice, both black and red. I also had some gluten free candies because one of his friends has a bad reaction to gluten.

The cupcakes. The red rope ones were lemon flavored and the flame ones were chocolate flavored. I also made the cupcake wrappers by cutting them out with a template first, then using decorative scissors to cut the tops. I then stuck on the little decoration on the front, which I also made, since I couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for.

I am so grateful for good friends. I tried to do the flames, but I’m just not that skilled at decorating cakes. So I called in one of my best friends and she did them for me. Thanks, Melissa!

So, how did everything turn out? GREAT!! I think that Nate will never forget this one :)

 

Happy 4th Birthday, Nathanael!

~S