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