Thursday, October 27, 2011

Con-Man's Halloween Birthday Party

I mentioned before that Con-Man decided to have a Halloween themed birthday party.
I thought this would make my month a little easier - only decorating once, and all.
When the RSVPs started coming in, though I realized I probably bit off more than I could chew.
Anyone else do that?

We never do big, extravagant parties like you see on other sites.
You know - the beautifully displayed tables and decor, pony rides, live entertainment, any hint of pre-planning and organization.
It's not that I don't want to - it's just that I'm a bit of a slacker, a procrastinator, and a poor planner.
Just keepin it real, folks.

Since Halloween is almost here, I thought I'd better quit putting it off any longer and show you guys some pictures of Con-Man's 7th Birthday Party!

NONE of these ideas were original.  In fact, I got most of them from Pinterest - on my Holiday Stuff board.  Head over if you need some last minute Halloween ideas!

(Please excuse the crappy cell phone pics - I never once picked up the real camera!)

These are the costumes my boys chose for the day:

Birthday Boy chose a swamp monster.
Which he wore for all of 30 minutes.

The Chief was a zombie football player.
Because he didn't feel like changing out of his football pants.

Monkey Man was a skeleton.
{cheapo sweats, freezer paper, white fabric paint, and Halloween makeup kit}
He wiped off the makeup 10 minutes later.

This is what I fed everyone.
And by everyone, I mean 20 kids and 15 adults.  
All in my house.
All hungry and screaming and running crazy.








This was our simple entertainment.
It's a bean bag toss game I cut out and painted.
With homemade beanbags that were QUICKLY destroyed.
I have not vacuumed the beans up yet.
The kids also played outside quite a bit - trampoline, running around in circles, etc.  
How is that fun, by the way - running in circles, screaming??  



And here is the Birthday Boy, all excited to blow out the candle and get his spankings.
Errr presents!


All in all, I think it was a success.  
The kids seemed to have a good time.
I worked hard enough that the next day I could barely walk.
Never again will I host that many people at my home for any reason while I'm THIS pregnant!
But, it was fun while it lasted, and that smiling little face makes it all worth the effort!

Monday, October 17, 2011

Uh Oh, A New Hobby

My hubby has resigned to just rolling his eyes when I come up with yet another project or hobby.
I can't blame him, really.  I do try a LOT of things.
But most of them can just be lumped into "creating." So that makes it ok, right?

I'm now 34 weeks pregnant, with HUGE swollen feet, painful braxton hicks contractions, and exhaustion.
Everyone is always telling me to rest and put my feet up, but that's impossible - I need to be doing something all the time - Nesting, for sure!

I decided this would be a good time to start crocheting!
My grandma taught me to do a basic chain and I think a double crochet stitch when I was 10 years old.
It never went beyond a pot holder that she helped me make.
I remembered back to all the afghans and things she had around her home and thought maybe I could work on a little one for Baby to use when he gets here.
Surely that would take at least a month, right?  Since I'm just learning?
Um, no.  It took 4 days.  FOUR days.
No, it's not perfect, but it's handmade - with love - for my new little guy.

Here is my first attempt at crocheting - 
Bright Granny Square Baby Blanket!

Well, during that four days, I got the bug.
I discovered amazing, cute projects on Pinterest.
Oh no.  Now I can't stop!

I went on to create a few basic hats for my husband and older boys. (sorry no pics - they wore them to school!)
Then I moved on to more detailed hats for my boys and a few friends' kids.
This pattern came from Blue J Crochet.  Her Etsy shop has lots of cute patterns at great prices AND she gives you the right to sell your finished products!  Love that!

 This pattern came from The Boy Trifecta.  Very easy to follow pattern - and Monkey man was THRILLED to wear it!

Well, that monster hat inspired this guy.  
And now I've got LOTS of ideas for more monster hats and accessories!
I'm so excited to list this guy in my shop today!

I'm linked up here:



Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Up to Our Eyeballs {Printable Invite}

Con-Man's 7th birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks.
I've mentioned that he wants a sort of spooky costume party.
SUPER convenient for me, since I only have to decorate once!
But there is still a ton of prep work behind the scenes, of course.

My first task to finish was the invitations.
I found some cute invites yesterday at the store, and almost thought about going that route.
Until I saw the price.  $5 per pack of 10.  I needed 4 packs.
No, I know $20 isn't a lot to spend on invitations.
But come on - I know I can make my own a lot cheaper than that!

You've seen our Eerie Eyeball Wreath, right?

That was my inspiration.
I just opened up Picnik and started playing around until I got the look I wanted.
I printed up 40 4x6" invites in no time and hot glued a billion googly eyes!
This is the end result (blurred for privacy, of course!)


Con-Man loves them.  He said they were so creepy!
Yay, score one for mom!

So, just in case you have your own creepy event to invite people to, I made you guys a blank version!
Download it here.
After downloading, you can upload it to picnik if you'd like to add text on the right hand side.
(Or you can just write it in.)
Play with your print settings and print these out.
Glue on your eyes and you are done!