Wednesday, January 29, 2014

A roaring good time INSPIRATION!


Pinterest has obviously made planning parties both AWESOME and HORRIBLE.  Awesome because you find way more ideas than you could ever use.  Horrible because you find way more ideas than you could every use!  I (as you know) always procrastinate.  So I never, ever actually throw the party I plan to because I always run out of time.

In any case, here are some adorable ideas I pinned when looking for inspiration for my monster party!  Use as you wish.

Monster Food:
Monsters U Pushpop Cupcakes - The Country Chic Cottage

Fruit Monsters - (can't find original post, pinned here)

Monster Decor:
Birthday Boy Monster Frame - Amanda's Parties To Go!

Monster Banner - (can't find original post, pinned here)

Monster Utensil Holders from Tissue Boxes - A Day With Little Mama Stuart

Monster Wreath - She's Freaking Crafty

Monster Cups and Napkins - Pickles and Paisleys

Monster Favors:
5 Mix and Match Felt Monsters - It's Always Autumn

Monster Rocks - Cocoa Bean


WHOLE PARTY:
Little Monster Birthday Party - Hostess With the Mostess

Have fun planning your little monster's party!




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Tuesday, January 28, 2014

A roaring good time. Part 2.


Welcome to part 2 of bug's monster party!  Which actually wasn't his most recent party, but was from a year ago... whoops.

Today:

As I related yesterday, I always procrastinate too much to do everything I'd like for the party, so the decorations were pretty simple.  

We used red and white striped table cloths all over, like the ones you see in the pictures below.

Other than that, the only real decoration was the front door:
I folded a green plastic tablecloth in half and cut it to the width of the door.  Then I cut strips in the folded side and taped it up on top for hair.
I colored the center of a white paper plate with a black circle for a pupil and taped it up.
I taped a long strip of red duct tape across the door, and stuck in a piece of normal 8.5x11 card stock in it, so it was sticking up out of the duct tape mouth like a tooth.
bug laughed and laughed when he saw it.

We played pin the eye on the monster, which I don't have any pictures of.  I printed out this monster, which I found on picmonkey:
I whited out the inside of his eye.  That way, there was a general area to get the eye into, but nothing SUPER specific so it wasn't TOO hard.
I glued it to poster board, taped it up on the closet door, gave every kid a big self-adhesive googly eye, blindfolded them, twirled them, and let them have at it.

For the big activity, we made:

Here's the craft station I set up:
Ahead of time, I cut:
Several strips of fake fur.  I had scraps in my stash and I just cut them long and thick enough to be a cuff bracelet.
Lots of shapes from red and white self-adhesive felt.  These were for eyeballs, teeth, mouths, noses, etc.
The craft station consisted of: 
a very low-temp, kid-friendly glue gun
glue sticks for said glue gun
self adhesive velcro squares in tan and white
scissors
little cups of the precut self adhesive felt pieces
self-adhesive jewels
goggly eyes in an array of sizes (some with lashes!)
fake fur strips

The kids lined up and went by the craft station to pick the main pieces they wanted.  Then they sat at the dining table to put their bracelets together.  I had adults helping cut the fur strips to the right size, glue things on if needed, put the velcro where it needed to be, etc.  The adhesive pieces were really a good idea because otherwise kids would have been impatiently waiting for adults and hot glue guns.
I think they were a hit, because several kids made more than one.

The bracelets were part of the favors, but here're the rest:

For the play dough favors, I simply hot glued on googly eyes, drew the mouths and x's with a black sharpie, and used white address stickers which I cut out for the teeth.  Super simple and cute.

bug was excited to help me stick these self-adhesive googly eyes all over the suckers.  He'd been begging for these colorful suckers from Walmart for forever, so I gave in for the party.  He picked out each flavor with a cousin or friend in mind.

For the sucker stand, I just turned a shoe box upside down, wrapped the top and edges with tissue paper like I would a present, stabbed some holes in the top with a knife, and plopped them in.  Then I put the whole thing in a low basket.  Ta da!

And that was pretty much the whole party.  It wasn't a huge deal, but it was right after Christmas, so let's face it.  This kid gets the shaft.



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Monday, January 27, 2014

A roaring good time. Part 1.


Long, long ago... like just over a year ago now... my son had his 5th birthday.  And I never blogged about it.  Because I fail.  The end.

Just kidding.  Not the end.  That would be a short post, and I don't do short posts.  Anyway, he turned 5 and we threw him a party (just for family and some close friends) and I snapped some pics.  I figured it's about time to show it to you since he's now 6.

Every year, I let the kids pick what kind of party they want.  And with much throwing around of ideas, bug finally landed on: MONSTER PARTY!  And I quickly set to work pinning my heart out on my party til you drop pinboard.

Since today is yummy Monday,
yummy monday title button photo c41588db-8f15-4de5-90e0-d0ada37b9cd6_zpsf029cce8.jpg
I'll be sharing:

We let bug decide what the main course would be.  He picked pizza, which we did NOT make ourselves.  

Now that I think about it though, how cute would THAT be??  Little individual pizzas with toppings to make them look like monsters... awesome.
But ours was just lame and cheap.  But the kids liked it.

I got some apple juice boxes and decked them out for the occasion:
Nothing difficult here.  I wrapped red and turquoise duct tape around the boxes, each box took 3 pieces.  I just overlapped them a little.
Then I glued google eyes in different sizes and amount to the front.
I cut some white sticker address labels into teeth, fangs, crossed out eyes, etc. and stuck them on.
Also, do you know the little trick where you pull up the top side triangle pieces for the kids to hold onto?  That way they don't accidentally squeeze juice everywhere.  I pulled them up and they kind of look like little horns.

I also made cupcakes.
I used yellow cake mix because the birthday cake was chocolate and I wanted variety.  I used cream cheese frosting from a can.  And this is KEY, I think.  I bough NEON food coloring.  That's why the frosting is so vibrant, and I really think it makes the monsters awesome.
I used mini oreos, mini m&m's, mini marshmallows, and mini chocolate chips for the eyes.  I layered them differently for each and stuck them together with frosting.
I used twizzlers pull and peel in green apple and cherry to make the mouths, tongues, eyebrows, some hair and a few crossed out eyes.
I used mini marshmallows for teeth and fangs. 
bug LOVED them.


Now, we all know my cake skills are... well, pretty sad.  You know about this super ridiculous failure.  And then this sad attempt.  And then the cakes I finally got my sister in law to make: mini's, mr's, and el's.  
I decided I should give her a break, so attempted another cake on my own.
And it turned out great!

I made a two layer chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.  
I used those little edible candy eyes and poked them all over.  I made a mouth with cherry pull and peels for lips and giant marshmallows for teeth.  I pulled the curve off some candy canes and stuck them around the top for spikes.  Then I layered a bunch of green apple pull and peels all around the bottom of the cake over the cake plate to look like slimy tentacles.

bug thought it was incredible, and that's all that mattered to me!


And suddenly my little bug was a great big, HUGE 5 year old.  Which was weird.

(more monster party tomorrow!)


*Be sure to check the right sidebar for all the fun parties I link to!

Sunday, January 26, 2014

This Week on bugaboo blog... monsters. Lots of monsters.


this week on bugabooblog title button photo bf759471-0909-4463-aeda-18359cee29e5_zps2bd7a8e1.jpg

...you can expect to see this boy's birthday!  No, not the one he just had.  Sillies.  I haven't even shown you the one from last year yet.

There are monster cupcakes.  You'll want to stick around for that...

And this dude, who, if you can't tell, is the centerpiece from a game of "Pin the eye on the monster."  Free for the downloading!

And in the real life bugaboo blog household, there will probably be lots of silliness from these two monsters:

And this is more of a "last week on bugaboo blog", but who's keeping track, really?  mini is in love with both El and her ikea dollhouse furniture from El.  I'm going to have to use that for inspiration...

Also, this monster is eating food already.  When did that happen?  Wasn't he just born?  Also, he has a mustache in that last photo.

And this is completely unrelated in every single way, except that I find this set up: 
completely MONSTROUS.
WTH, Walmart??




*Be sure to check the right sidebar for all the fun parties I link to!

Friday, January 24, 2014

I'm no expert, but...


The day has come!  It's my first ever post on Hi!  It's Jilly.

I'm her new photography contributor (though I'm no expert...)  BUT.  Today, you can pop over and read all about:

Yea!  See you there!



*Be sure to check the right sidebar for all the fun parties I link to!

Thursday, January 23, 2014

On Christmas, Utah, Sledding, Jumping and Traveling With Kids.

(Warning.  You are about to be inundated with photos.)

Is Christmas your busiest time of year? I'm always very ambitious about what we'll accomplish as a family around Christmas.  There are traditions to forge, charitable giving to volunteer, teaching and learning to accomplish!  There must be caroling, toy drives, deep discussions and scripture reading, visits to Santa, ice skating, cookie making, sledding, tree decorating, porch festooning, advent calendaring, quality family time enjoying MARVELOUSNESS!  Go, go, go!!! 
And of course, December rolls around and I realized how many gifts I have yet to make, how many concerts, parties, programs, etc, to attend and obviously, there's still work and school.  So many things fall by the wayside.  Inevitably, once the hubbub is over, the presents ripped into, the food consumed and the games played I feel as deflated as a week old helium balloon.  I suffer from what we term around here "PPD" - Post Party Depression.
I came to what seemed as if it should have been VERY OBVIOUS realization this Christmastime.  I let myself down.  I procrastinate, and fill my plate to heaping messes of overflowing.  And then I can't seem to understand why I don't feel "Christmasy."  
Well, not anymore.  I've vowed that next year will be different.  I'll be spending the majority of the holiday season making memories, not gifts.  Not plans.  
Christmas morning started with a note from Santa, read by bug (who is excited to be reading on his own now, thank you very much).

There were, of course stockings to unpack.  Pip was completely nonplussed.

I managed to do one handmade gift for each kid this year.  mini was pretty excited by her dr. kit (to be shown at a later date):

And bug got a Spy kit (also shown at a later date) which Santa must have known about, since he gave bug these awesome spy glasses.

pip was particular thrilled with the incredible amount of bow ties I created and overwhelmed with the thought of how debonair he is going to look.

We had games, food and fun at my brother and sister IL's house with my whole family.  We do a family game exchange where everyone buys a game and wraps it up without labeling it in any way; we draw numbers and pick the packages numerically.  Then each family has a new game and we get to try them all out on Christmas!  There was an epic Jenga Tetris battle that came down to my sister and me... but my old lady dexterity caused my ultimate demise.

bug was an adorable shepherd for the live nativity the Primary put on at our church.  It's pretty hard to tell, but he's not the only actor in the family - pip got to be baby Jesus!

After all of that fun and craziness, we packed in a hurry and set off for Utah to visit mr's family.  pip was a trouper on his first plane ride.  Very little tears and quite a bit more sleeping than is normal for him.

(The kids found the light tunnel in the Detroit airport great fun for everyone.)


When we got to grandma and grandpa's, there was even MORE fun.  Including baby meeting:

mr's sister had a baby girl just a few weeks after pip was born.  It's fun because her older daughter is just a few months older than mini, too.

Thanks to grandparents for watching kids at random times and mr's siblings, we had a ton of fun things planned (both for the kids and us too!  mr and I got to go see Catching Fire!  Yea!)

There was mini bowling.  Which is cool, since bug loves bowling.

He's such a pro.



(I've been inducted into the world of baby-wearing, since this baby is 100% refusing to be set down at all costs.)






While we were in Utah, we decided to take a "quick jaunt" (hahaha!) up to Idaho to visit some of mr's extended family.  We haven't seen them in... well, I honestly don't know, but for most of them it's been years and years.
So there was family seeing:

Aunts, uncles, cousins, 

Great uncles, 

First cousins (once removed),

and it was particularly fun for mr to introduce pip to his grandparents.  How fun that our kids know their great-grandparents - even if from a distance most of the time.



and friend seeing!  Great, wonderful friends we never see often enough.  Such as this girl who was my best friend in the world back here in Wisco who now lives in Idaho.  Hadn't seen her for about 9 years.

Oh, and MORE baby meeting!  Her little guy was born a few days after pip!  (and they matched!)

and these guys who have been friends with Justin since before there were wives and kids and houses and flying out to see them only once a year.




And we all agreed what a shame that was.

There was also a bit of appreciating the beauty.
I admitted I loved the view.  Though when I lived in Utah it made me claustrophobic.

There was a lot of jumping.  Literally.  We visited this fun new (to us) place with trampolines everywhere!  The kids were in heaven!



mr got in on the action.

And bug once again shocked me with his fearlessness.  

For someone who sometimes seems afraid of his own shadow, that kid has a bit of a daredevil streak no one would guess at.

Playing with cousins is fun.




Jumping on cousins is MORE fun.











mr attempted to kill himself.

Or at least cause himself serious harm.  Thankfully he failed at both.















mini was more cautious than normal.  Which made for some funny faces.











I do believe her favorite part was just being around tons of kids her own age. (or slightly smaller).




















By the end of the morning, she was helping random kids get ready to leave.










All in all, a successful outing.

There was some sledding, as well.  bug is a huge fan of sledding.  It's another activity which brings out the daredevil in him.

mr was the first to try the little jump on the hill:

Grandpa had baby duty until this little guy had a poonami you wouldn't believe and I had to leave to take him home and change him.  Right after this photo was taken, I think.

When we returned, he was happy as a clam to be worn around the hill.  Notice I have no coat.  We were astonished by how warm it was.  Back in Wisco, my family was experiencing an arctic freeze, the likes of which we hadn't experienced for years with record breaking lows.  So THIS:

was a nice change of pace.


bug tried the jump once with success:

But just about broke his neck the second time around.  Thank goodness there was a passing puppy to lift his spirits.  Until said puppy made off with his mitten...


mini is usually far too cold to enjoy sledding.  She tries to have fun, but is generally finished with the whole idea too soon for me and bug - and only the promise of hot cocoa will keep her on the hill.



It was fortunate for us, then, that the day we went was in the low 40's - plenty warm, even for her.


Though she preferred log-rolling down the hill to sledding.












We also took an afternoon to go play in an indoor playground nearby.









At which point I learned that it's really difficult to get quality photos of your kids when they're playing.

There was also plenty of lounging around.

Unfortunately, our trip home was a bit of a nightmare.  We made it to Detroit without incident, but discovered once there that almost all flights into Wisconsin were cancelled.  Not just that day.  The day before as well.  We got a flight for the next day and went to work getting a hotel for the night, which was insanity - most had no vacancies, which meant we had to stay in a hotel almost an hour from the airport.

THIS is what the line for the baggage department looked like.  And next to that was the completely asinine amount of luggage sitting around after two days of cancelled flights.  We were assured our luggage would be on our plane the next day.

We ended up waiting for the shuttle in the little loading area for over an hour.  I put the kids on the radiators finally so they wouldn't freeze.  That was were mini fell asleep.
The next morning, bright and early, we were at it again!


And I finally spotted home.


It had never looked so good to me.

Also, I should mention that mr closed his backpack strap in the hatchback of my car and got it completely stuck.  This was on our way into the airport TO utah.  So we had to borrow a scissors from someone who worked in the airport and cut his backpack out.  Which left our hatchback in this weird limbo, unable to close OR open.  Which meant that during that arctic freeze, my car was slightly ajar.  And also that we couldn't easily get our luggage into my car once we got home.

We can't figure out why something like this happens nearly every time we travel.  Freak thunderstorms that ground flights... lost car seats, the whole Mexico thing...


Of course, once we got home, we learned our bags were lost.  So we didn't have to worry about getting them into the car, anyway.

Happy hectic holidays!  




*Be sure to check the right sidebar for all the fun parties I link to!
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