#3 turned 3

Today my baby boy turned 3. We celebrated this event last night with a big party. Unfortunately, I had it all planned for the backyard. Sandboxes, bouncy, ball pit, misc riding toys on the back patio. Tables with cute table cloths.....all made nice outside. Then came the torrential rainfall. UGH! So the 40 people over (24 of them 7 years and younger!) were in my house. It did stop long enough to get the kids out for a 'hay ride' in the little red wagon pulled by Zachary's Jeep. So it was an interesting night. I still need to clean the mysterious sticky spot on my living room floor. It's lucky that is all was left with so many little ones eating on my floor!

Anyway, here are some pics of the details. We had a farm themed party mostly centered around one of Micah's fav animals...cows! Here are the cow cupcakes...boxed devil's food cake with homemade buttercream frosting and marshmallow noses. Not a great pic angle to see the actual cow faces, but maybe you get the idea.
Party favors...the tiny barn sets for the other 3 yr olds, bobble headed animals for the older kids and board books for the littlest attendants.

**11/15/10 Edited to add:  The barn favors were bought at Target dollar spot.  I have seen them carry them or something similar again in the spring time.**

The menu was pig n blankets on a stick, apple slices and grapes, veggies n dip, goldfish, tiny boxes of raisins, Moo cow cheese slices and homemade popcorn balls made into (sort of) shapes of corn cobs.

The pig n blankets were super easy and easy for a bunch of 3 year olds to handle being on stick (not to mention Micah's fav way to eat dogs). I simply stuck the hot dogs on popsicle sticks and wrapped them in pillsbury breadstick in a can dough. They were a hit with everyone.

Here are my tablecloths between the rainfall. Little damp and wrinkled from being pulled inside and then back out again. It stopped raining long enough to start eating outside (where there were tables to eat at, once dried off), then it started to raining again half way into eating and everyone brought their plate in to finish eating sitting on the floor...lol

All in all, Micah still had a blast. Hot dogs, cupcakes, presents and friends...what more does one need? ;)

Oh and one last pic of my littlest cutie sporting her oldest brother's John Deere hat that afternoon (when it was still beautiful outside).

Sometimes I go a little crazy

With my party themes. I have this mad tendency to make coordinating theme outfits for the kids. I made Micah's cow shirt and just finished up these farm sets for the girls. I did already have the plaid shorts made up for Kalla still in my sewing room. When I went to make up the farm shirt and was looking for a coordinating fabric, I decided that that would work well enough and coordinate it into the shirt and I wouldn't have to make bottoms to match.
Then I whipped up these bloomers for Maressa and added applique to a hand me down tank already in her closet. :)

Now Z has asked where his farm shirt is. So I'm looking for a cool farm clipart to iron on to a tee for him. They are so spoiled........

Moo cow tee

Finally finished this tee for Micah's party on Sat. He's turning 3 on Sun, but having a farm themed party on Sat with his friends. This shirt seemed straightforward, however I think this is the 4th cow I did. I wanted a 3-D effect and did the cow on a piece of white fabric (I used various clipart/coloring pages on line and paintshop to make the party cow and then printed on iron on paper). Since the picture is iron on it is a delicate thing to iron on the applique! First I learned that I had to wash the fabric with the iron on first to not ruin it when ironing (by ruining first cow). Then I decided to add the barn and washed them before applying cow pic to shirt and the red barn faded on the cow. Finally got them all ironed on and washed up, then added interfacing to the cow applique and then lite heat n bond to back (both iron on interfacing and heat n bond were ironed on with a piece of scrap fabric in between iron and picture. Finally had cow ready to applique, but when ironing the cow onto the barn pic, I was a tad careless and managed to messed up the barn a little with the iron...ugh! But 3 yr old won't notice (bugs me though!). Then applied with a straight stitch all the way around. Whew! Done! And he'll love it.

Oh and the shirt I found clearance at Target. It had a pocket, but I carefully removed that first.

And I found the cutest party favors in the Target $ section. Little barns, little tractors that pulled a cart and tube of tiny farm animals (stuffed cart and animals in barn before bagging them so they'd fit.) The toys and individual package of fruit chews and they are ready to go. :)

Mama's magic closet

My kids have great imaginations. And I am admitted craft pack rat. But at least lately it's come in handy.
It's not just enough for Zachary to have built a 4 bedroom house with a yard and pool on Webkinz for his Woof Woof, but he feels the need to have a luxury condo for him as well in real life.
With my help, his little husky now has his own terry cloth dog bed (made from scraps in my sewing room) a blanket, dog bowl complete with kibble (pom poms) and bones (cut from foam sheets).
Zachary has decorated the whole outside and inside there is a loft which is Woof Woof's bedroom. he even has a mailbox made from the bottom half of a crayon box. Of course Z send hims letters and pictures all the time.
The latest is he commissioned me to help him make a back yard oasis. Trees with a hammock (red duct tape) and gold fish pond. And yesterday I finally complied with his request (after much harassment from my 6 year old) for Woof Woof his own cape complete with snaps (he requested snaps so he could take it on and off himself, unlike the previous stuffed animals capes that have been tied on.)

Weekend fun

We had a fun but busy weekend...as usual. Looking forward to a quiet week now.

Turtle watching and Maressa-fly at the botanical gardens.


Camping on the deck.....we have one of those retractable clotheslines on our deck. Makes for fun to take old sheets, clothespins and bricks to make a tent and the kids played 'camping' for hours with their animals (topped off with real toasted marshmallows after dinner...I'm a cool mom...lol)

And rides, putt putt and food at hubby's company picnic. It took a while for Micah to get into it, but loved it when he did.
Bigger guys road the go karts.
The girls spent much time on this horse carriage kiddie ride...don't let the picture fool you...Maressa LOVED the rides and screamed when I took her off. And Kalla is sporting a new knit set made by mommy (tee dress and matching biker shorts)

Thinking ahead

Micah is starting preschool this fall and will need to carry his lunch. He is in love with dogs (and cows for that matter). I found this ultra cool lunchbox in the shape of a dog's head and bottle (the blue dog one and bonus that it's not icky plastic!). So I'm adding this to his birthday presents. Besides I have no idea what to get him as being third child and second boy he really has all the cars and trucks a 3 years boy could need!

Speaking of birthdays...OH MY WORD! This is one of the cutest party themes I've seen....robots:

I found this here, one of my fav blogs to visit. And I thought Martha had the corner on cutest kids parties ever! I've got a whole year to convince Micah that he loves robots! ;)

Metal bulletin board and princess dress up mirror

Made this cool metal bulletin board for the boy's room a while back. VERY easy to do. I didn't like the idea of push pins falling out of a cork one and the boys stepping on them. So we got this thin sheet of metal at Home Depot for under $10. I nailed into the studs in the wall to hang it (I left the 2 top nails halfway in so things could be hung from them. Zachary and I glued heavy magnets to the back of these smooth stones to use to hang up his pictures. Other cute ideas are my sister glued magnets to plastic dinosaurs and to the underside of matchbox cars. This metal board saves tape and the paint on the wall. ;)

This is Kalla's princess dress up mirror. It cost nothing to do, but takes a little work. Fortunately for me I had this large empty wooden frame that held posters in a mall retail store I worked in college (I'm one of those who takes most anything that seems somewhat useful that is about to be thrown away...however this mirror was not made for many years later). So in our first home I called up a local glass place and had this mirror cut to fit. Then hubby bought some simple hardware joints to make the frame sturdier and we used picture frame wire to hang it originally in a kitchen. Since moving and had no use for a large mirror in our home I decided to paint it white and had it screwed into the studs in Kalla's room. Little tulle and Christmas lights and voila! Princess dress up mirror.

Now just to finish her room. A corner still needs paint and she needs some blinds and a few other details like a painted princess crown above her mirror and pink rosettes on her dresser and some fabric wall embellishes using this technique. There is now a big bookshelf by her bed housing all her ponyville stuff.

XO Pillows

I made these pillows for my kids before we left for our trip. These little pillows are made out my old [college] tees. Then I stitched on X's and O's (for "hugs" and "kisses") with fun jersey knits I have in the sewing room. I gave them to the kids and told them when they went to bed they would now still have a hug and kiss from Mommy. They seemed to be pretty into it. Then we came home and they have been tossed aside as Grandma took them to Build a Bear while we were gone. ;) lol Ah well. Made me feel better anyway.

So I'm still trying to get in the groove these days. They are filled with VBS, this and that playdates, basketball camp and runs (with all FOUR) to the store. I've been in a sewing mode. But all I've finished so far are more I Spy Bags and baby towels. Almost finished a dress for Kalla.

Back

Just a quick hi! We got home from San Diego Friday night. Been super busy since!! Going to actually try to sew some stuff today (mostly gifts). But here are some of photos from our trip:

Cool cave in La Jolla.
Wild seals in La Jolla.
My man on the beach in Coronado.
Freaky scrawny beach squirrl...there were a ton!
Happy 10th Anniversary to us! :) *Pardon the big hair and crazy sunburn....that's what happens to me at the beach!