Jul 27, 2011

Nearly Wordless Wednesday: Boxes Boxes Everywhere!

The kitchen is the most unpacked

We set up Sam's "new" big boy bed, we refinished it a while ago. I was worried he would have a hard time with the transition but he LOVES his big bed. 
Lastly we bought our first couch since being married! We got a great deal at RC Willey and it looks beautiful!!!!

Jul 25, 2011

Sharing Monday 17

Well we have moved, and things are a little crazy right now! I wont be doing any features this week, but I will be featuring from both this week and last week on the next party, so link up and have fun!!

Jul 21, 2011

The Very Hungry Caterpillar: The Fun

At the party there were lots of fun activities for the children to do.
As the children arrived they played at the park outside and had the chance to color at a table covered with butcher paper (so they can color the table too) where there we lots of crayons and fun coloring pages.
After eating we read the book while sitting on a big blanket.
Then the children had the choice of 3 different activities
Feed The Hungry Caterpillar, I painted the face on poster board and cut out a hole for them to throw beanbags in, this was one of the favorite games! The silly sound effects from my husband had them cracking up.
Stick the head on the caterpillar, the double sided sticky tape I used did not work very well, so next time I will have to try something else.
Lastly making antenna, luckily my sister volunteered to run this part.

When all the children had a chance to play the games we went on a caterpillar hunt. Each child was given a hunt list and a little magnifying glass, Party City was the cheapest place I could find for the magnifying glasses.
Here are three of the eight caterpillars we made, Sam loved helping me paint and name these ahead of time, all you need to make them are egg cartons, paint, googly eyes, and pipe cleaners!
Lastly we did a pinata, I used paper mache using 4 balloons for the forms, after it was dry I popped the balloons leaving the center hollow. Then I attached them together using hot glue and used paper mache to make it one solid pinata. Then I used tissue paper to cover the form, I way over guessed how much tissue paper I needed, I thought I needed 6 packages, but to cover the entire pinata I didn't even use one package of each color!

My pinata was a bit thick, but the kids liked that they each got two turns hitting it. I steered away from candy as much as possible, there was some, but there was also stickers, whistles, and slinky's.
I didn't get a good picture of it, but if you look close at the bags the children have I printed a caterpillar on each bag, just adjust your settings to 5.5 by 10 the size of the bag, and print on one bag at a time, super easy and super cute!

Jul 20, 2011

The Very Hungry Caterpillar: The Food

Like I said yesterday, I made a chocolate cake with chocolate fondant. For the filling I did butter cream with crushed cookies mixed in. I used rice krispies to form the caterpillar and covered it with fondant. I cut a piece of the small cake and punched a hole with a straw to make it look like he ate some! It turned out really cute, and Sam loved the caterpillar!
For the cupcakes I made cupcake balls, here is how you can make your own:

Ingredients:
Cake mix and ingredients listed on box (I used red velvet 1 box made around 50)
Cream cheese frosting
Chocolate Almond Bark
White Chocolate Almond Bark
M&M's
Mini cupcake pan and paper liners

Make your cake, let cool and break into crumbs, I used forks and then lost patience and used my hands!
Add about 1/2 can of store bought cream cheese frosting or enough to help the crumbs hold shape but not to much or it wont hold.
Taking heaping tablespoon scoops and roll into balls and place on cookie sheet. Place in freezer for 10 min.
Put liners in mini cupcake pan and fill half fun with melted chocolate Almond Bark, place cake ball into melted chocolate and press gently until the chocolate starts to rise. Once tray is full let sit until chocolate is firm.
Take liners and cake balls out of tray and dip the top half in melted white chocolate Almond Bark, letting excess drip off before flipping over and placing back on cookie sheet.
Add M&M before white chocolate has set.
After my all the candy coating had hardened I removed the wrapper but you can leave it on too.
For all the food we ate from the book I made little signs saying what day the caterpillar ate that food and a picture.
The food we ate:
Cut up
Apples
Pears
Plumbs
Strawberries
Oranges
Watermelon
We also had everything to make sandwiches including these from the book:
Sliced salami
Sliced Pickles
Swiss cheese
For sausage I took hot dogs and cut them up and cooked them in a yummy BBQ sauce
instead of cherry pie we had fresh cherries
And for the green leaf we had a big salad
For dessert we had
Ice cream cones
Chocolate cake
Cup cake balls
Suckers/lollipops

It was a lot of food and we ended up with lots of very yummy and healthy left overs which was great with me!

Jul 19, 2011

Party Fun!

We celebrated Sam's 3rd birthday and had a blast! Sam picked the theme of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, its one of his favorite books.
For the cake I made a chocolate cake with a fondant cherry on top like in the book and a rice crispy caterpillar, Stephen was such a big help with the cake, helping me cut out all the circles.
We ate the different foods from the book. After we ate we read the book, the kids loved that they ate all the same foods.
I loved that there was a small park right next to the club house so the little ones could play between activities and eating.
This week I will show you the foods we ate, the activities we did and the fun we had!

Jul 17, 2011

Sharing Monday 16

Its that time again!
There were lots of fun submissions, I didn't have time to comment on every post due to packing and getting ready for our big move back to Utah.
Here are a few of my favorites, check them out if you haven't yet!

This adorable Elephant Bag is by Iron Violet Designs

This cake looks so moist and yummy! Jam Hands shared how she makes her Carrot Pineapple Cake






Jul 11, 2011

Kayaking Adventure

Stephen and I went on a fun date a few weeks ago, we went kayaking on the Willamette river.
 I have driven by this river so many times but it was an amazing experience seeing it in a new way.

The falls were so beautiful





We used a disposable camera so sorry for the funky pictures


We went with a group of 6 people, luckily we weren't the only beginners at kayaking, and we all caught on pretty quickly.




Stephen showing off, he was almost as fast as the guide.
 I took him on this date but he was way better at kayaking than me!









It was a great trip and I can't wait to do something like this again!