Graham's Polar Express Party

Graham had his 2 year old birthday party last week.  Since, I still have say over what his birthday party theme will be, I really wanted to keep it Christmas-related so the decoration would coordinate with my house :-) (I know I'm crazy like that. I'm I the only one that thinks like that?  Please say, I'm not!).  

But as luck would have it, he loves trains, so the Polar Express was the perfect theme for both of us!  And come on, how much fun would this party be to plan?  I'll tell you right now, it was so much fun!

Here is the tablescape and central theme of the party.  Since, the Polar Express' story occurs mostly in the snow and the North Pole (well besides on a train).  I wanted to use snowflakes and snow as my theme (besides the train itself).  I made the 3D snowflakes.  Seriously so easy and such a great decoration.  I might use them every year… they are so cute.  Here is a tutorial if you are interested.

Then I made the BELIEVE banner, because isn't that the message of the whole story :-)

You can't real tell, but I used fake snow and snow covering as my tablecloth.  The train tracks were placed on the snow to add to the whole north pole feel.

Then for the food.  I saw the cutest party on Pinterest and had to copy it to some degree.  So, I made all the food tags be from "The Figgy Pudding Company".  So, cute huh?  And all the food was centered around different reindeer.  

The food was as follows:

Comet's Crazy Bread (monkey bread)

Rudolph's Red-Nosed Muffins (cranberry/orange muffins)

Prancer's Petit Pancakes

Vixen's Vanilla Yogurt

Blitzen's Buttermilk Syrup

Dasher's Delicious Quiche

Donner's Dusted Donuts

Dancer's Delightful Drinks (milk and OJ)

For the cake, it decided to do a cupcake train.  I found this idea on Pinterest too.  I just used graham crackers, mini oreos and vanilla wafers under the graham crackers for support (axels).  You can use frosting or melting chocolate to attach the "wheels" to the "bed".  I love the way it turned out, since I am not very good at cake decorating, the thought of making a train cake, scared me to death.  This was so much better in presentation and ease!

These are all over Pinterest too.  And they fit perfectly with the theme, so I had to do them!

And what's a Polar Express Party without the Hot Chocolate.  I made the best Hot Chocolate!  They aren't kidding when they say this is the best Hot Chocolate you will have.  it really is!  here is the recipe.  Here are just some of the goodies in the Hot Chocolate Bar.  But I also had marshmallows, a bunch of different flavored creamers and Peppermint Syrup (which is the only way to do Peppermint hot chocolate by the way).

You can't see the cups, but they say Comet and Cupid's Brewing Company.

Okay, now for the other non-food related details.  Here are the invitations.  Of course, it looks like a train ticket.  Each family got a ticket and they were to bring them to the party.  

 And when they walked through the door, the train conductor punched their ticket and let them on board.  The kids were told to come in the PJ (it was optional for the parents :-)

We started with a craft.  I didn't take a picture of the end product, but hopefully you can see it.  I had train pieces out on the table and the kids assembled and glue their own Polar Express Train.

Then each kid got a letter to santa.  They filled them out and put them in an envelope to mail to Santa.  My kids have already got their letter back from Santa.  Love that!

The Mailing Label says "For the immediate delivery via Registered Mail"  One Reindeer Lane, North Pole.

Then we ate some cupcakes and ice cream.  I think this little guy liked with party, that is one happy boy!

and we opened some presents.  He loved all the trains he got :-)

Then we had a Reindeer Food Bar.  All the kids got their own jar and got to feel it with all sorts of goodies for the reindeer.  And of course a tag with instructions on how to use the reindeer food.

You can't read the food tags, so here is what they said.

Bread Crumbs - a staple item for any reindeer diet

Cocoa - Something sweet to keep the reindeer's energy up all night long

Flying Powder - a secret ingredient that helps the reindeer fly

Glitter - something to shine and help the reindeer find  your home

Oats - a hearty bite to fuel the flight

Potato Chips - Prancer's favorite snack food and Santa doesn't give it to him at Christmas time

(he needs to stay in shape)

Red Sprinkles - these sprinkles help re-charge Rudolph's nose so he can light the way for Santa

The instructions said  "reindeer food bar because reindeer need food too.

step 1 - grab a jar

step 2 - fill it with your favorite foods

Step 3 - sprinkle the mix on your lawn on christmas eve

step 4 - go to sleep and wait for santa

*reindeer food is only for the reindeer, no people or pets!

These were the favors we gave to the kids.  A conductor's hat, a train whistle, a candy cane, a bell and a tag that says "the bell still rings for those who truly BELIEVE"

There you have it. Last party of the year!  Now, time to focus on Christmas.  it was a super fun party for my super fun boy!

Fall Photo Shoot

There are two times of the year that our little city is pretty.  I am not trying to dump on my little city.  But I do come from Utah, Colorado and the East and it is hard to beat the mountains and lushness of the east when it comes to beauty!)  But here the beauty shines during the spring when the blossoms come out and during the fall when the orchard's leaves start to turn pretty fall colors.  I love the orchards and their pretty leaves and blossoms and so each year I try and sneak in a photo shoot with the kids to capture the beauty around us.

Here are some pictures of my kids and the pretty fall colors.  Always so much fun!

There is just something about capturing my kids on camera.  Pictures really do capture the moment and freeze time.  Maybe that is why I love them so much!  I wish I could stop time now!

Playing Catch up

I don't know what it is (well really I do) it is having 4 kids.  My poor blog has taken a back seat.  I have done so much, but I don't have the time to blog about it.  So, sad… but I am going to try to be better and hopefully after the holidays, that will happen.

Here are a few things to catch up on.

Our back to school trip as a family consisted of going to Hanford on the train!  We took Amtrak and the kids loved it.  They loved looking out the window at all the was passing them by.  Even Graham did very well, as long as he was by the window :-)  In fact, they all did well, if they were by the window.

Once we got to Hanford, we headed straight for Superior Dairy.  The whole reason for the trip was to get a "little" serving of ice cream.  As you can see, those mountainous dishes of ice cream were smalls.

That is why everyone loves this place.  The kids of course got their sherbets.  They love sherbet!

Then we had to hit the town's carousel.  Our kids also love carousels.  So, we went on a few rides and of course, they could have ridden the thing all day :-)

It was a fun little day trip and I am glad we finally did it after living her for 9 years.  It was way overdue!

Also, in October, Hannah was a part of her first (I am sure of many) school drama productions.  She was in the chorus.   The musical was called WIPEOUT.  For 2 months, we heard the singing of a cute little girl singing and saying all the parts of the play.  She could have definitely been an understudy and ready to take on anyone's part if there was a last minute need.   It was a big time commitment in the early mornings, but she loved it and it was fun to have her be a part of it all.  I have a sneaky supsicion she will be involved in more of these things for years and years to come.

Halloween 2013

This year, the kids decided we were going to be characters from Peter Pan.  Jake for sure wanted to be Peter Pan.  Hannah for sure wanted to be Wendy.  I thought Ella would have picked Tinker Bell, but she really wanted to be Tiger Lily, so that left me with Tinker Bell.  I would have never guessed that is how it would have turned out :-)

Overall, it was a pretty easy year from costumes.  I have to admit I am starting to love this family costume thing!  And how cute is that crocodile?  :-)

Tiger Lily

The Crocodile

Wendy

And our little Peter Pan.  

We had another great year this Halloween.  The kids love everything about it and after several years of thinking the holiday is so-so,  I am starting to really have fun with it all :-)

Halloween Countdown

One week until Halloween, and believe me we know.  I saw this adorable Halloween Countdown on Pinterest and decided it would be the perfect outdoor decoration.  My kids keep begging me to decorate the outside of our house for Halloween.  I decorate the inside (which is big for me), but the outside is asking a bit too much from me.  But this.. I can get behind.

My kids love to change the numbers and see how many days left we have until Halloween. It has been such a fun thing to have especially with my kids and their excitement for it all.  I love it so much I am going to be making one for Christmas too!

Here is the link to the instructions on how to make this bad boy.   It really was very simple and worth the big statement it makes at our front door!

PS - I decided to add a paper pennant flag banner to mine instead of paint it on.  I liked being able to use glitter and polkadots and have it not be permanent  (same with the spider :-)

Silhouette America "Super" Bundle Deals

I have to say as far as crafting goes, the best investment I ever made was in my Silhouette Machine.  I upgraded from the Cricut to the Silhouette and I am so glad I did :-)

In the past year or so, Silhouette America has been coming out with the greatest products.  Tons of creative things that make crafting so much fun and so much easier.

Here are just some of the fun products I have been using and why they are so great.

The first fun product is their Printable Magnet Paper.  I use this to make reminder of things that I need to remember on a daily or weekly basis.  I just stick them on my fridge where I can refer to them whenever I need to.

Simple things like what I am going to pack the kids for lunch each week and our carpool schedule.  I print a schedule out at the beginning of each school year and give them to everyone in the carpool.  The moms (and dads) appreciate it so much!  At least until it is memorized and becomes second nature :-)

Another fun project was using their Printable Foil Paper.  This might be one of my favorites!   Even though you can print on this cool paper, I decided to use it like I would vinyl.  I made these teacher gifts  for Halloween.  I decided to cut out their names using the foil paper and adhered them to the glass containers.  I loved the silver look, because it coordinated with the silver kisses.  Perfect!

I thought this paper would be super thin, but it is actually thicker than vinyl.  It is a sturdy and very nice paper.  Also, notice the cute rhinestone spiders inside the jars.  I got them at Target and LOVE them.  So, girly and cute :-)

My next project uses Silhouette's Printable Clear Sticker Paper.  I have started to try to remember to collect sand from different places we have visited.  (I wish I had done this decades ago, I would have a huge collection by now.)  So to label my sand containers, I used their clear sticker paper.  I just printed the name of our vacation spot and date and then cut them out in circles that fit the top of the jars.  And wa-laa!

Have you noticed that my projects are fairly simple, yet practical and add a little fun to everything :-)  That is the way I roll :-)

My last project uses their Double-sided Adhesive Paper.  I made this wall canvas for a craft night I am participating in.  I used a 16X20 canvas board.  I modge podged pages from a  Dr. Suess book that I had.  And then I cut out the letter "A" using their double-sided adhesive paper and sprinkled black glitter onto the paper.    I used to paint glue onto cardstock using a paintbrush and then sprinkle the glitter, but now all I have to do is cut, peel and glitter.  So much easier!

You may or may not know this about me by now, but i love glitter and add it anything whenever I can :-)

So, there you have it.  A lot of little crafts I have had so much fun making and working on.   All the products I used can be found here if you want to learn more about them.  

Okay, so here is the great thing:  Silhouette America is offering my readers bundles of these products (and more) at great prices.    In fact, there are three bundles to choose from!  Take a look at them.  They are available from now until October 24th!

Here are the details of each bundle, so you can see what is all included.  Really so many great things to play with!  And here is where you can go to take advantage of all these goodies!  CLICK HERE!  Be sure to enter promo code ANGELA to get the special pricing.

(1)  The following speciality media plus a Silhouette CAMEO® for $269.99 (savings over $120 from retail cost $383.90)

·         1 cardstock essentials pack (new product)

·         1 pack printable adhesive kraft paper (new product)

·         1 pack printable clear sticker paper

·         1 pack temporary tattoo paper

·         1 pack printable cotton canvas (new product)

·         1 pack chipboard

·         1 pack printable silver foil

·         1 pack printable magnet paper

·         1 pack double-sided adhesive

(2)  The following specialty media plus a Silhouette Portrait™ for $129.99 (savings over $110 from retail cost $263.90)

·         1 cardstock essentials pack (new product)

·         1 pack printable adhesive kraft paper (new product)

·         1 pack printable clear sticker paper

·         1 pack temporary tattoo paper

·         1 pack printable cotton canvas (new product)

·         1 pack chipboard

·         1 pack printable silver foil

·         1 pack printable magnet paper

·         1 pack double-sided adhesive

(3)  Or 30% off on all specialty media

There you have it... to be honest with you, i have never seen these much stuff being offered all at once.  So, if you don't have a Silhouette Machine by now... now is the time to get it with all these additional super products to really have some fun.  Enjoy!!!!

Kings Canyon National Park Day Trip

Chris has been wanting to go to the mountains for quite some time, so the weekend before soccer season started, we headed to King Canyon National Park.  It was such a fun day.  The ranger station gave the kids a Ranger for a Day booklet, that they were all about finishing.  He went on several different little hikes, but the best one was by for the hike around the stream.  We could have stayed there all day.  It was so nice and pleasant and just plain beautiful!  

I had to take a picture of each kid.  But look at that water.. so crystal clear and refreshing to play in.  The kids LOVED it!

One of the hikes took us to this nice waterfall.  

And look at this meadow.  So, so, so pretty.  I love God's beautiful creations!

And I love taking little day trips with our kids.  Family fun time is always good and even better in places like this.

P.S.  The kids had worked so hard to get their booklets done so they could get a ranger pin and by the time we got to the ranger station to turn it in... they had closed.  The kids were so sad and I felt so bad for them... they worked at it soo hard.  I told them their reward was learning all about their environment... not the same things as a pin :-)