Turning 7...Skylanders

Shane is into ALL things Skylanders, so that was his theme this year. I also found his things on Etsy. Here is a link to the company I used.  I got the digital invitation, designs for the cupcake toppers, and the candy bar wrappers for his favors.  (As I just went on Etsy, there were many more choices than I had 2 weeks ago when planning all this.)

My mom and mother-in-law did a great job at changing everything over from pink to blue in the short time between the parties.  THANK YOU!!!

Shane's friends were singing a funny version of "Happy Birthday" and he was so tickled.

 

That boy loves his brownie. (Just like his Daddy.)

Here are most of the Skylanders in case you are not lucky enough to know them.  Sadly, I know their names and powers.  We have the Wii version of the game.  When you place the critter on the portal, the thing appears on the screen and it is your character in the game.  You can change the characters based on what is going on.  He got many of the critters for Christmas, but having a Jan 16th birthday, made it hard to find them once the craze caught on.  I put many of miles on my van running around town looking for the new ones.  (We found a brand new set in Utah at a Best Buy!)

Here is the colossal bounce house that we had.  We rented from K&B rentals, which had a really good price.   It had an obstacle course, a bounce room, and a slide.  In order to get the bouncy, my kids had to agree to have their parties on the SAME day (different times).  It was a crazy, busy day, but once it was over, I was really glad we did it this way.  Now I have 11 months off before planning next year's parties. ;)

Turning 10...Minute to Win It

Sarah turned 10 this past week.  She wanted a carnival themed party, but I didn't want to find enough adults to run the booths, so I talked her into a Minute to Win It theme,  instead.  A few of the 4th grade teachers at our school used this theme for their Christmas party and it sounded fun.  It was!!! To get ideas I just googled "Minute to Win It" birthday party ideas.  I tried to pick games that 10 year olds could do successfully.   I will give more details in another post.

 

 I ordered the invitation and cupcake circles for toppers and cookie pops from a lady on etsy.  She was able to customize the colors for my girly-girl.  Click the link to see her stuff. MTipsy.etsy.com

 

Love, love, love Wilton food coloring for vibrant icing colors!  If I were buying a new color, however, I would go with AmeriColors because their lids have a flip top and you can squeeze the drops out.  Would be less messy!

I made these cookie pops as her party favors, using Wilton cookie pop pans .  As shown here.  I then decorated them using Royal Icing.  My friend Autum suggested using the University of Cookie website for how-tos on using royal icing.  You can see that website here.  The blog Bake at 350 had some great video tutorials.   

Man, I did a  lot of baking.  My feet and back were sore the next day.  Maybe I need some of those rubber mats that are used in commercial kitchens.  Not only did I make the cupcakes and the cookie pops, but I also made a brownie "cake" for the candles to go on.  Best parts were 1) I got white cake in January, 2) Shane got a brownie instead of cake, and 3) there were a few cookie pops leftover. :)

Snow Writing

Here was mine...

Here was Shane's... (I <3 him)

Piggy

Look at this cute hat we got Sarah from "The Store."  Her favorite animal is a pig and she still loves all things PINK.  Love it!  She often wears this hat selling Girl Scout cookies at stores; she gets a lot of compliments.

Snow Buddies

We recently went to Salt Lake City, Utah for a ski trip.  On the last day, we rented snowmobiles in Park City and went for a guided tour.  There was so little snow, we had to travel a ways up to drive smoothly.  The metal skis on the bottom do not make a pretty sound when driving over dirt.  The guide said that they had about 18" low compared to most years.  Along our way to the top of this mountain, there was this cliff that the guide took our pictures on.  It really was safe, but the pictures look like we were falling over. 

 

Here you can really see how little snow there was.  This should have been fully white and beautiful.

 Shane's choice of activity was to simply play in the snow.  This is as much powder as we ever saw.  He and Sarah enjoyed going up and steam-rolling down.  Ski bibs are so great for keeping you warm and dry.  Glad we sprung for them this year for the kids.

Oh yes it is...

This is not what one expects to find in their sink, unless you have a Shane of your own.  He decided to see what would happen if he put poo in the sink and left it for a period of time.  He wondered if it would dissolve.  Now, I love his questioning mind, but not in MY sink.  I told him, we could have just left it in the toilet and made a sign, "please do not flush, science experiment."   He later used gloves and did clean out my sink for me.  Whew!  The fun of parenting never ends!

Ghost Lantern

Fun at a Cub Scout campout.  They decorated ghost lanterns instead of carving pumpkins.  Love it!  We put colored glow stick in them on Halloween and they were too cute.