DIY Ninja Turtle Party

I absolutely love doing a DIY birthday party.  Those that have been to one of kids' parties at my house knows I never purchase a birthday sign and I always have a theme.  I love taking a theme and running with it.  A friend of mine asked if I could help give her soon to be 6 year old an awesome ninja turtle birthday party and I was totally in.  I searched pinterest and came up with some stuff on my own.  This is what we came up with! It was a great party and all the kids and parents loved it! The best part though was I think the entire party food and all cost around $150.

This was the initial invite the front is pictured. The back I will try to get a picture of I don't want to put her personal information on the internet, but it was all the turtles with quote bubbles discussing the party.  It is amazing what you can make on Microsoft Word.

My cupcake cake! I love making these, my first experience was with Sophie's Sophia the first one but that one wasn't very challenging.  This one was a bit harder but it turned out awesome!

 Sewage water aka: green lemonade

We did a few different games this one was toss the Frisbee in the pizza box!

We did a punch box.  This took the place of a piñata and it was loved by all.  Each child gets to punch a hole and they get everything inside. I will definitely be doing this again.

If you have been to one of my parties you have seen my homemade banners so a party wouldn't be a party without one.  I love making them I never spend more than $5 on one and they look so much nicer than a store bought one.

 The last game we did was Pin the Pepperoni on the Pizza.  All the kids loved it

We decorated the goodie bags with ninja turtles and filled it with ninja turtle objects: diy nunchucks made with pipe insulation, pipe cleaners, yarn and duck tape, ninja turtle apples, ninja turtle fruit snacks, green playdough (homemade of course) and last but not least a blue ninja mask that was cut from felt.

Ninja balloons

We of course had to have pizza for lunch too since it was a ninja turtle party.  It turned out so cute. Can't wait to get working on my next themed party for Jameson. Still can't believe he is almost 1.  I hope you enjoy!

Karen

Milestones

It's funny that as a Mom when your child is meeting developmental milestones it is such a happy moment and a sad one all at the same time. It is a time when you realize your baby is getting bigger and all you want to do is hit pause. I think with your second child this is even more true esecially when they are as close in age as mine are. You spend the majority of your day trying to keep your head above water juggling keeping everyone happy, maintaing a working household, and lets be honest  trying to keep some sanity  in for yourself (it rarely happens but hey we are Mom's).

Somewhere in this time your kids seem to just grow up over night. This week literally in under 7 days Jameson went from doing "the worm" across the floor to lagitimately crawling to pulling himself up on everything.  He also went from eating pureed traditional babyfood to wanting nothing to do with it and only eating what we are. Today he literally at 3/4 of a grill cheese! Last mile marker for the week he got his first tooth. It makes me so hapy to see him experiencing these things for the first time and so grateful that I get to be home to do so but also sad at the same time. My baby is no longer a baby, he doesnt need me to carry him from room to room or feed him he can do it all by himself. I somehow managed to blink and 9 months have gone by. 

Jameson isn't the only one Sophie is going potty on the big girl potty pretty much every time I put her on it and she sometimes asks to use it. She is so smart that she never fails to amaze me. I often forget she just turned two she too is still a baby. I could just watch her all day explore the world, sadly though life gets in the way.

This week I wish I could just hit pause myself, and just slow it all down. It goes by so fast I can't believe we have a 2 year old and a 9 month old already when did that happen? 

A little advise to those new mom's who think that they have to do everything. YOU DON'T!  It is really that simple the clothes that are pilling up can wait till tomorrow.  You don't need to wash dishes 3 times a day or bottles for that matter buy enough for the entire day so you don't have to. Dinner doesn't have to be an extensive production either sometimes simple can be better.   Most importantly though savor every moment you can because you too will blink and wish you had maybe slowed down a little more.

Most importantly take pictures of those moments here are  just a couple of my moments from this week

Karen

Breakfast made easy

As I mentioned in the oatmeal post I love to make my mornings as easy as possible for as little cost as possible. Most of the easy breakfast options that you can find in the grocery store are super expensive like frozen Waffles.  I decided there had to be a cheaper way.

We were walking through Target one day and with a big clearance sticker on it was a waffle maker so I had to buy it.  Did you know you can freeze homemade Waffles so  you have them for a quick warm breakfasts? Well you can which brings me to my favorite breakfast tip.  Make your own Waffles and freeze them. When I make mine I typically will make the entire box of mix at once.  This morning I got 18 waffles out of the box mix I had and these aren't those tiny ego ones I bet these are 1 1/2 times the size of those.  The best part is I think I paid $1.20 for the boxof mix. 

A few tips I have learned freeze them on a lined cookie sheet placing sheets of waxed paper or foil between layers . Put the entire cookie sheet in the freezer until you are sure they are frozen then transfer to freezer bags.  When heating them up, because they are so thick,  I have found it helps to heat then in the microwave first to de-thaw them then use the toaster to crisp them up.

You could also put fruit in the batter if you wanted blueberry waffles or other flavor. This process also works for pancakes I just heat them in the microwave no need to toast.  I have both in my freezer at all times!

Hopefully this makes the hustle and bustle of mornings a little easier.

Karen

Refrigerator Calendar

Sorry it has been a while since I posted, I had wisdom teeth pulled and then the holidays so it has been a crazy few weeks at my house.  With the new year upon us I thought I might post about my refrigerator calendar system, might as well start the new year being organized.

Chris gets his work schedule a month at time and we have 4 sets of people that watch the kids for my 2 serving shifts a week so I needed some way of organizing all of that information.  For a long time I would just print two blank calendars on my computer and keep changing them. Every time we hit a new month I would replace them.  I need two because although Chris gets his schedule it is more like 4 weeks at a time so it may cross two months. Anyway I wanted something that looked a little nicer and didn't involve printing it every month.

If you are on Pinterest you may have seen the paint chip calendars And this is a spin on that. I used cardstock instead.

I just cut my cardstock in 1 1/4 in. Squares and layed it out on a background sheet of cardstock cut so it would fit in an 8x10 frame.  On a side note if you are interested in doing this I recommend using a bigger frame than 8x10 there is very little room to write but since I needed 2 on my fridge I was forced to use 8x10. If you go with a larger frame your squares would increase. in size. Why a frame you ask?  The glass turns this into a dry erase board so you can just wipe it off when the next month comes!

Now if you are anything like me when using a dry erase calendar you frequently accidently erase things with your hand I have a solution,  use wet erase markers.  Do you remember those dinosaur overhead projectors that teachers used with transparencies? The markers they use to write on those are wet erase.  I didn't look to see if I could get them at my local store but if there is a teacher supply shop by you they definitely have them there. They don't wipe off until you get them wet so you just get a paper towel wet wipe it off, dry it,  and it is ready to reuse.

I also used this concept to make a running grocery list. When I wait until I go to the store to make my list I always forget stuff so this way as I realize I need it I put  it on the list.  I used a 5x7 frame and just cut a piece of notebook paper to fit and done. This would make a cute gift too, just add a ribbon and a marker and presto! Don't worry about copying it to paper just take a pic with your phone! What did we do without smartphones?

I hung all of this with command strips on my fridge, magnetic strips would work too but I didn't have any.  I also used velcrow to attach my pack of markets to a heavy magnet so they could hang too.

You could make multiple calendars for every family member or make one poster sizedand color code each person,  the possibilities are endless!  Hopefully this post helps get you a little organized.

Karen

Oatmeal Packs

Eating my morning breakfast I realized it has been a while since I posted anything so in my hunt for a topic I thought what better than to write about than my breakfast. I actually have a few breakfast tips but today let's cover oatmeal.

Do you hate spending tons of money on instant oatmeal.  I know I personally hate buying instant oatmeal,  I love oatmeal but I have a lot of trouble justifying the high cost and let's be honest who really only eats one pack for breakfast? I would like to meet the adult that gets full and isn't hungry 10 minutes after eating just one serving. 

Growing up we rarely had the instant stuff in our house my mom always made her own maple and Brown Sugar regular oatmeal whenever we had it.  Before I had kids whenever I wanted a warm yummy breakfast I would just make oatmeal the way my mom does. However once I had kids I found it harder juggling the time to cook the oatmeal in the morning not to mention the extra mess while taking care of the kids.  So I came up with a solution, my own "instant" oatmeal packs!

I just take my entire container of oatmeal and a bunch of ziplock bags. I measure out the oatmeal serving size I would like into each bag along with 1 tbs of brown sugar per 1/4 cup oats.  Seal the bag and whenever you are in the mood for oatmeal just add the required amount of water and microwave. No mess oatmeal in a minute and half!  The best part is I get about 22 single ADULT servings per oatmeal container so this is a ton cheaper and you only need 1 to fill you up!  You can also customize the portion size for mine I do the heart healthy portion since Sophie loves the oatmeal we split it but even then I still get 15 portions.

This is also completely customizable if you want to add different ingredients such as craisins or nuts you can do that as you make them.  Also if you like instant oatmeal for the texture you can run this through a food processor and it will mimic the texture of instant oatmeal.

Don't forget to save the bags to reuse next time! I also store as many of the pouches as I can in the empty oatmeal container with the directions on the lid.

Hope you enjoy
Karen

25 Books of Christmas

I love Christmas time and this year I was looking for a new family tradition to start. I was hunting on Pinterest and came upon this idea. I must say I am pretty excited about this one!

This year I started a christmas book advent calendar.  I bought 25 christmas/winter books and wrapped them. Everynight once Jameson goes down Sophie picks a book from the basket, opens it, and we read them.

So far we did this the past two nights and she seems to really like it. She loves books and I figured this also gives her a chance to practice  unwrapping presents :)

Now when I first decided to do this I knew there is no way I could purchase 25 brand new Christmas books it would cost a fortune so on a whim I decided to check eBay and scored on a lot of 23 Christmas/winter books for $32.99 so if you are interested in starting this in your house I definitely recommend starting there.  You could also check them out at a library just don't forget to renew!

I figure every year I will  incorporate a couple new books and since they are wrapped it is a surprise as to which ones are new. Wrapping also keeps the favorites from being chosen all at the beginning!

I still haven't decided whether after a book has been read if we should keep it out in case she wants to look at it again before Christmas or if they should be put up to avoid destruction.  With the age of my kids we will probably be putting away all books that are not the cardboard type, but with older kids it may be good to leave them out so they can be read all day not just at bedtime. 

Hopefully the kids continue to enjoy it as much as I do!

Happy reading!
Karen

Felt Christmas Tree

Let's start this blog off right with a crafty project that I am super excited about!

This Christmas I was very concerned about my almost two year old and our Christmas tree and I was on a mission  to find something to help keep those curious hands out of it. I stumbled upon some photos of felt christmas trees on Pinterest and thought I could definitely do that! It turned out great!  This was a super easy project that only took a few naps to complete and I actually made 4. Pictures at the end of post

Interested in making your own,  here is all you need:

- 1 yard of green felt

- various sheets of colored felt (hobby lobby sells felt 4 for $1)

-glue gun

-glue sticks

-storage container for ornaments when they aren't on the tree.

On a side note I spent under $10 on all the materials for each tree including the box.

Here is what I did:

1. Decide on a height for your tree.  I went with 48" I wanted them to grow into the tree.

2. Fold the tree in half lengthwise and draw the outline of one side of the tree.

3. Cut  along your outline leaving the felt folded this will make sure your tree is symmetrical.

4. Now decorate!  This doesn't have to be complicated literally just different circles would work.  Use hot glue for ornament  and present embellishments.  There is no need for velcro or anything since felt sticks to felt.

5. Hang it up ( I used command strips) and play till your hearts content.

Hopefully this makes life a little easier with the Christmas tree up!

Karen