Monster Birthday Bash!

How to throw a monster themed childrens birthday party on a budget!

Hey all! Last weekend my twin sons turned 3 years old. Wow! Having 5 kids, we do not throw them all a big birthday party every single year, more like every other. It gets to be too much, especially since my kids are 5 of 13 grand kids. I don't want to do that to my extended family. But, this was their year and it couldn't have gone better. They are at an age now where the build up to their monster party was pretty adorable. They watched the party prep progress all week long and got so very excited with each step of the way. Love it!

As a family of 7 on one income, it is important not to go overboard when creating a party. I was able to throw this whole party for about $75. I invited 32 people (including us) and ended up with 23 total. If you break that down...that is only $3.30 per person. Nice! Included in that cost was invitations, decorations, a game, a craft, food and punch, party favors and a photo booth. Keep in mind that I will always try and use items that I already have on hand or that I can find for free, which helps keep the cost down quite nicely.

Why monsters? You mean besides the fact that my crazy twin boys are sweet little monsters? Well, a couple that I am friends with had a monster party for their nephew a while back and had hand made these awesome decorations out of scrapbook and craft paper. They put so much work into them and did not want to just throw them away so they asked me if I was interested in them. Um..YES! Please and thank you! That is where this all began.

Aren't they cute?!

There were 13 large monsters, 10 small ones and some monster mouths and eyes of different sizes. Perfect. I rolled with it.

After seeing these I went straight to Pinterest and created a board that you can peek at HERE. Pinterest is a wonderful (and free!) resource for basically any project you can think of. This is where I found almost all of my ideas for this party. There are also some pins that I didn't end up using but they are just too cute not to keep. Check it out!

Evite.com is my favorite (free!) resource for sending invitations via email. They have tons of fun free templates to choose from. They also have premium options that you can use for a fee but I have yet to need that service. I love free! You can also send messages to guests as needed and keep track of your rsvps. Here is the template I chose:

Image from www.evite.com

Unrelated to the party cost, I ordered my twins Monster's Inc. themed t-shirts to wear at their party. A birthday present, of course. There is currently a 2 pack for only $16.99 on Amazon.com (free shipping for Prime members). You can check them out HERE.

Image from www.Amazon.com

During the week leading up to the party, I slowly worked on my party projects while the kids were playing nicely during the day or after they went to bed at night. I started out with the party hats and the photo booth props.

The hats were plain and I just glued on googly eyes and taped teeth into each one. I cut the teeth out of white construction paper. So easy!

For the photo booth props, I cut out the desired shapes from a piece of foam board using an exacto knife and covered them with construction paper using Elmers glue. I also purchased 4 wooden 1/4" dowels that I had my hubby cut in half for me with the Dremel so there would be 8 sticks total. These I hot glued onto the back of each prop. I also made a frame for people to hold using another piece of foam board.

The morning of the party I made a monster back-drop on my living room wall using 2 rolls of wrapping paper and a pack of border from the dollar store. Here is a picture of the finished product:

The box I used to hold the props was an old potato chip box we had lying around that I wrapped and poked holes in the top of. Total project cost was just under $10 and it was a hit at the party. We captured so many great pictures. Here are just a few...

The birthday boys!

Me & my daughter

My oldest son and sweet little nephew

I decorated the front door very simply using 2 paper plates and construction paper, making a big monster smile to greet our guests.

When guests first arrived I sent their kids straight to the craft table. This gave the grown-ups a chance to settle in and say hello to everyone. Basically, I covered the train table in the toy room with a plastic dollar store tablecloth and set up there. I put out a stack of plain paper plates, a bowl of tissue paper squares, Elmers glue, a handful of crayons, white paper triangles I had cut out in random sizes and a pack of googly eyes. The only thing I had to purchase for this project were the eyes. $7.99 for the big pack. Total splurge. Ha! Everything else I already had around the house. With these they were able to make "furry" monster faces. It kept them nice and busy for a little while.

For the game I kept it very simple. I used 1 piece of foam board and a bag of 12 plastic ping pong sized eyeballs (Halloween section), both from the dollar store. I colored a big monster on the foam board and cut out a hole for the mouth. This was similar to a bean bag toss game. The kids took turns throwing eyeballs into the monster's mouth and whoever made the most in won a bag of sour gummy worms. The little ones stood up close and the older the kids were, the farther back they had to stand. My nephew Austin won with a whopping 6 eyeballs!

Usually, I like to make a ton of food or a big meal but since having my twins I have been better with knowing my limits of what I can/should do. I decided to relieve some possible stress and host the party from 2-5 PM (between meal times) so that munchies and treats would suffice. This also helps keep costs down. The menu was cheese balls, Asian snack mix, trail mix, baby carrots and dip, Rice Krispie treats, sherbet punch, cupcakes and cakepops. My mother-in-law also brought over a yummy tray of little ham and cheese sliders, one of my all time favorite party foods! You can find a great recipe for them HERE.

Monster party food!

I love candy eyeballs. So easy to turn sweet treats into little monsters. I couldn't help but make the cakepops into little Mike Wazowskis!

And my favorite project I saved for last! The favors for our kiddo guests. Instead of buying candy and little plastic toys that break and handing out baggies or the like, I decided to do the Adopt-A-Monster idea I found on Pinterest. Now, you can just order a 12 pack of plush monsters on Amazon.com for only $14 currently so please know that there is a way to do this without hours and hours of work (HERE)...but, I do soooo love a good crafty night...or 2. I enjoyed this one very much.

Every kid at the party got to take home a cute and unique little monster plush or puppet and then my twins got to keep the rest. Total cost to me was just under $10. (Not to mention 2 nights in front of my sewing machine...Yay!) I used 2 packs of 12 count felt rectangles and one bag of polyfil fiber. For their eyes I just used old buttons from my craft supplies. Here are some photos of the process, an Adopt-A-Monster tutorial.

Pin 2 pieces of felt together.

Draw desired monster shape onto one panel of felt using a marker.

Cut out monster shape.

Layout desired face designs using felt scraps and old buttons.

I worked in batches of 4 monsters at a time.

I was running out of ideas for different monster shapes so I used Google images to help with inspiration.

Sew on your buttons and scraps, being sure to do so on the right side of the felt fabric. Then, sew around the edges of the monster, leaving enough open area to turn the monster inside-out for stuffing. If you are making it a puppet, sew all but the bottom of the monster closed and then turn it inside-out.

Voila! 12 spectacular monsters to be adopted.

So, there it is. One of my best kiddo parties to date in my humble opinion. Lol!. I hope you enjoyed reading about it. Thanks for stopping by!

If you liked this post, you may also like:

The Sweetest Thing

My Twins & Their First Year: A Celebration

Book Nook Fort

Happy New Year's everyone. Seems every year around the holiday season my life gets so darn busy that I don't get time to write. So many things to say and share but today we are just going to stick to a fun DIY project I did yesterday for my kiddos to brighten up an eyesore from our playroom. A Book Nook Fort!

So, I love the playroom in our new house. It is wonderful to finally have a place where all of their toys belong and that they can play for long stretches of time safely. It has truly changed our daily routine for the better.

That being said, there was one corner that I wasn't happy with and yesterday I fixed it up nice. In the corner I have an old hand-me-down dining room table with the center leaf removed. We no longer needed this table but it didn't sell at my garage sale before we moved last Summer so I decided to hang onto it just in case. It worked pretty well to keep our little TV/VCR combo up high and out of reach of the littles while they watch movies but underneath the table was the one electrical outlet that we use in that room and the twins recently discovered that they could unplug things and it worried me. Here is a before picture of the table in the room.

Lots of fun toys. Lots of bright colors. Ugly brown and black crap in the corner. My solution was to turn that wasted, unattractive and slightly dangerous space into a fun and useful play area. Here is how I did it:

 I moved and repurposed 2 shelves I was already using for their toys in there. I flipped them onto their sides, duct taped them together around the back so that the kids can't pull them down and hurt themselves and then slid the unit under the table and up against the wall. This also helped block the kids' access to the exposed electrical outlet.

I purchased one 16 foot LED Ropelight in white and secured it up under the table top. Cost $12.47.

DJ was so excited and underfoot but it was adorable. I at least waited until the twins were napping to start this project. The Candyland rug she is sitting on was a $2 garage sale find I just couldn't pass up last Summer. It fit perfectly.

I purchased 4 yards of fabric but only ended up needing 3 yards so the cost for fabric used was about $16.00. I had taken the 3 littles along to buy the fabric and we were leaning towards Dinosaurs until we saw this fabric and the twins were so excited because it was just like Nemo. Of course.

I measured underneath the 2 sides of the table and the front section. I left the back of the table facing the wall open for safety and access to the outlet. For the 2 sides I sewed 2 rectangle panels and secured them up under the table with the staple gun. For the front section I sewed 2 panels and purchased a tension rod for $3.47. This way the front panels slide open like curtains.

I think this looks so much better. I also placed a power strip behind the little TV so I do not have to keep crawling under the table anymore whenever I have to switch out plugs for the TV, DVD player, their Lite Brite, and so on. Much more user friendly for me as well.

Total project cost was around $32.50. I could have done it a little cheaper by sticking to a clearance fabric but these fish were too perfect to pass up. I didn't even intend this, but when it is lit up and the curtains are closed, it almost looks like a cute little aquarium too. Bonus!

And then the twins woke up from their nap. I had to take some pictures of them enjoying their new spot.

They realized immediately that they could shut me out. Lol!

A couple old throw pillows and a sippy cup of milk. What more could they want? All in all, a success in my book. Pun intended! Have a wonderful rest of your weekend and happy reading!

My 16 Year Old's Room is Done!

Finally! Ha. Life got a little busy after I started this first bedroom project and it got pushed onto the back burner for a bit. But, today I finished...well mostly. I still have to paint an old desk we have white but no biggie. Soon.

We decided after moving into our new house three months ago that we would do each of the kids' bedrooms in order of age, oldest to youngest. It only seems fair since the oldest would typically be the first to move out and should get plenty of time to enjoy their new space.

I asked my oldest son what color he wanted his new bedroom to be and he said he didn't care and that I could just surprise him. Oh darn! I sure do hate picking out paint colors...NOT! This was very fun for me to do actually. I know his favorite color is red so I started from there. I also took into consideration things I already had to work with lying around. I am pretty thrifty and like to reuse and re-purpose whenever I can. There is never a huge budget to work with.

The room was pretty plain when we moved in. I love a fresh palette. Here are some before pictures:

Hey, there is that desk that I still need to paint white! 

Like I said, pretty plain.

I found this next picture of a cool kid bedroom online and used it as my inspiration for this project. It did not have links to any information on their own color choices and such so I had to wing it.

Image from: http://decorativebedroom.com/stylish-and-modern-bedroom-ideas-for-teen-boys/

As for the new paint colors, I purchased a gallon of Behr California Poppy for the red color and I still had some leftover Behr Broadway for the black color from when I painted the Music Room so I only needed to purchase a quart more of that. As for the white, I just used some old white paint that the previous owners of our house had left for us. How's that for thrifty?

I really liked the metallic touches in the inspirational picture so I went to Amazon.com and found a pretty inexpensive Diamond Plate stick on wall border.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007TN9T0S/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I pulled out all of the old nails and screws and then filled and sanded all of the blemishes on the walls. I painted like crazy and got a little help putting on the sticky wall border. I used a comforter and pillow set I already had that wasn't in use anymore. I repainted an old book shelf and chair (and the desk soon). I recovered the seat cushion of the old chair. I also covered the Papsan chair cushion with an old duvet cover we had until I find a new perfect cushion in my price range. I am very patient and the right thing will present itself, eventually. I also had a set of six small black picture frames that I had never used before just collecting dust in my craft closet and four antique looking wall plates with pictures of coffee cups on them. My son loves coffee so I figured, why not?

After all that, I ended up with a pretty cool room for my oldest son, if I do say so myself. What do you think?

So, there it is folks. I will keep my eyes open for cool decorative things, like maybe a hubcap clock, neon sign, Papasan cushion, etc. All in all I am very proud of this finished room. I hope he loves it, too!

If you liked this post, you may also like: Music Room Makeover

And, if you would like to keep up with my home decorationg projects, you can find me on Pinterest!

Pick Your Switch

Image from: http://vanriggins.wordpress.com/2012/05/22/discipline-in-kids-ministry/

Pick your switch. My siblings and I heard this line quite a few times when we were growing up. "Pick your switch" meant that we were in serious trouble. We were to head straight out to the back yard and choose which switch (stick of appropriate size) we were to be spanked with. We were to bring it to our parent right away and they would methodically remove the stems and leaves while we watched and waited for our inevitable punishment. Other times it was a belt, a wooden spoon or a ping pong paddle. It wasn't just our parents, it was many kids' parents. It was the daycare provider. A school teacher might even have tried similar at times. That was just the way it was. We're talking late seventies, early eighties and maybe a little longer.

Not all parents chose to discipline in this way back then but I do believe it was a little more of the norm at that time. And before that, when my parents were children, it was a whole lot worse. The discipline that my siblings and I received as children was a toned down version of the discipline that our parents received at the hands of our grandparents and their communities. I believe my parents held back a bit. Trying not to hurt us in the same ways that their parents may have hurt them because they loved us and were making an effort to parent differently. A conscious effort. I believe that our generation is trying to do the same.

I do not spank my kids. I never break out the belt or the spoon or anything like that. I hold no ill will towards my parents for spanking me any which way when I was a child. That being said, I also do not feel that my parents ever crossed a dangerous invisible line. There was no blood or broken skin. They spanked hard enough to sting, to make us cry and be sore for a little while. All in the hopes that we would think hard about what we had done wrong and hopefully get the point and never do the same action again. In my humble opinion, it didn't really work in that way. We very much disliked being spanked but we didn't think about being spanked the next time we were tempted by something naughty. Spanking was futile.

When my oldest two children were very young I attempted to spank a couple of times. It did not work.  I was only using my hand and their cute little butts were covered in clothes or a pull up or whatever. My heart wasn't in it and they probably felt close to nothing. I  actually think they found it more interesting than deterring. It also dawned on me that what I was attempting to accomplish was silly. Just plain silly in a common sensical kind of way. I spend my days teaching my children to be kind and thoughtful, that hitting someone is never the solution and that hurting someone is wrong. And yet I tried to show them right from wrong by hitting them? So stupid when I really got to thinking about it.

When I need to discipline any of my five children now, and for the last maybe fourteen years or so after I wised up, I use different forms of punishment depending on age and the severity of their infraction. We use timeouts, redirection, grounding from different things and for different lengths of time, strongly worded conversations in a very firm tone, reflection on situations and every once in a while a slap to the back of the hand. The hand slap is saved only for those times in which they are about to cause serious harm to themselves or others. If one tries to stick a fork in the electrical socket, they are probably going to get a slap to the hand, one time and not hard enough to do any physical damage. Our choices of discipline seem to be working and I have pretty well behaved children. I understand that not all children, and parents for that matter, are alike. We need to choose what is right for our own family dynamic. At the same time we need to take into consideration the standards of the society in which we choose to live too.

The world is so different now. I am not just talking about how parents discipline their children. We can look at all kinds of things that used to be done differently back in the day. Car seats and seat belt safety. Work place safety regulations. Equal opportunity employment. Government operations. Prescription drug studies and distribution. The list literally goes on and on. What am I getting at? The blatant truth here is that we as people and as a society are constantly evolving and learning from our mistakes. Just because something was done a certain way say fifty years ago does not mean that it was the right way. We learn and we change and we move forward more educated and most times safer.

That being said, I am also aware that we are not all born with common sense. We are not all born with a self awareness and will power or even the ability to see things within ourselves that we would like to change and then to follow through with it. If we could all do that then the world would be a much different place. And this right here is why we have ever changing rules, regulations and laws. Someone needs to step in at times to help those who do not see the damage that they do. Kind of like the whole somebody-ruined-it-for-everybody thing. Silly example but long ago I worked for a popular restaurant chain and we, the employees, were allowed to stay after work and have a couple cocktails if we wished. That is until somewhere, in some other state, an employee had his couple cocktails, went home, decided climbing a ladder for whatever reason was a good idea and then fell off said ladder causing serious injury to himself. After that, nation wide, we were no longer allowed to stay and have a drink after work. The restaurants way of protecting us from ourselves and probably themselves from a big lawsuit. Right or wrong, this is just how the world works.

As for my opinion on the whole Adrian Peterson Fiasco? What he did was probably wrong. I say "probably" only because I do not know the whole story. I only know the bits and pieces that I have read about here and there in the media. And of course the swarms of comments by regular folk with their ten cents. Honestly, I do believe in the whole innocent-until-proven-guilty thing. So, I am going to sit back and let the authorities do what they need to do to solve this situation. I have to have faith in them because I choose to be an American and live in this country. If we ever feel they are doing wrong by us, venting on Facebook and the like is no way to make a change. Just sayin'.

While we are on the subject of Adrian Peterson and his lapse of judgement when spanking his young son with a stick and causing physical harm, allow me to add some perspective of my own. The only reason this is such a big deal is because he is famous. He is famous and got caught. Therefore, huge shit storm amongst the masses. Seriously? Take a moment and sit back from your screen. Think about your family, your coworkers, your neighbors, your fellow church goers. Adrian is not alone here. This kind of discipline still happens all of the time, all around us every day and usually behind closed doors. Not always closed. I have come across my fair share of parents out in public who seem not to have a care about who sees them doing this that and the other to their children for the whole world to see. But most of the time they don't talk about it. They don't sit at their desk at work and announce to their fellow office workers that they gave it to their kid real good the previous evening. They tone their story down or they keep the nitty gritty details to themselves and don't share at all. Why? Because deep down inside they know that many of us don't want to hear that and would probably disagree with their choice of discipline. Yet, like so many, they don't have it in themselves to change their ways. Sad but true.

So, yes, what Adrian supposedly did, like so many others still do all around us every single day, is wrong. We can sit at our screens and judge them until the cows come home and our faces turn blue. It won't solve anything. We need to leave the judging up to the judges. That is their job to define where the dangerous invisible line is drawn. And if we do not agree with how he/they are judged than we, as people and as a society, can get up off of our collective asses and make a difference where it really counts. We can lead by example. We can write letters to our government agencies. We can find or create support networks where citizens could get the education and the resources they may need to make a change in themselves. We can do all sorts of things. But judging ain't one.

Bulk Breakfasts for Your Back-to-School Kids

School is back in session, full swing. We, as parents, are crazy busy and anything that makes the mornings run smoothly is a win-win situation. I would like to share with you something I tried out last year that went very well. Today I decided to do it again.

Now, in my home I will admit that most mornings we do cold cereal and milk. You know, the good ones, the sugary ones, the ones in the bright colored boxes and bags. My kids love them. I know I aspire to be a super mom so please don't judge. Ha! I cook for my kids all of the time. Healthy balanced meals and all that jazz. I can be quite strict about it actually. But for breakfast, most of the time, I let them have a little fun. Sometimes they want a little something more, though. With five kids all getting up and eating at different times throughout the morning, dragging my tired butt outta bed to make a big fat breakfast for the whole fam damily just isn't in the cards for me. So, here we are.

A couple hours tops and you can make home cooked breakfast foods that are super fast and very easy. You can serve your little ones within minutes or the bigger kids can get it for themselves. Who doesn't want that?!

Today I decided to make French Toast and Egg-A-Muffins. I will probably get to a couple batches of banana pancakes later today also. I did not invent these recipes, obviously, but I did name the egg one for myself because I have no idea which website my dear hubby got the original recipe from in the first place. He found it back when he was on a P90X kick a couple of years ago and I thought these were down right genius.

For the French Toast you will need eggs, bread, a splash of milk, a dash of salt and some cinnamon. You will need approximately one egg for every two slices of bread. Today I used a dozen eggs and was able to make twenty five slices of French Toast.

Beat together all of the ingredients, except for the slices of bread, in a shallow container. Dip each slice of bread, coating both sides of the slice with the egg mixture and place on a greased or non-stick pan (I prefer to use my electric skillet for these). Heat until cooked through flipping them each once.

Allow the slices to cool completely and place them in a freezer safe zip lock baggie or airtight container of your choice.

The kids can take out a couple slices in the mornings and put them right into the toaster. So easy. My kids like syrup on theirs. But, when my kids were little I didn't allow them to have syrup yet so I would spread a thin layer of applesauce or any of their fruit jarred baby foods. They all loved it.

I used white bread today because that is what I happened to have in the cabinet. If you are looking for a slightly healthier option, use wheat bread instead. If you want it to be an extra special savory treat, use cinnamon raisin bread. It is so tasty. I pick up a loaf whenever they are on sale at the bakery of my local grocery store.

And now the Egg-A-Muffins! Yummy! You have your protein and possibly dairy and vegetable groups covered with this one. I find it easiest to do at least a dozen at a time. For this you will need a dozen large eggs, a splash of milk, a little salt and pepper and then any meats, veggies and/or cheeses of your choosing. Today I used diced ham, onion and shredded mozzarella.

Beat together the eggs, milk, salt and pepper. Add the diced meat and vegetables if you are using any. Using a 1/2 cup measuring cup, scoop and pour the egg mixture into a greased muffin pan (do not use paper liners). Be sure to scoop some of the meats and vegetables into each one as they can sometimes sink to the bottom of the bowl.

Sprinkle one or two tablespoons of shredded cheese onto the top of each one. I highly recommend placing your muffin pan onto a cookie sheet just in case any egg batter dribbles over the edges. I really hate cleaning out my oven. Bake at 350° for 40 minutes. The tops will be nice and round and golden delicious.

When they are done, allow them to cool completely and then place them into a freezer safe zip lock baggie, same as the French Toast.

When you are ready to enjoy one (or two or ten), just microwave one for 45 - 90 seconds, depending on if they have been thawed out or are still frozen. Again, so easy!

What I especially love about this recipe is that the filling choices and combinations are endless. Sausage, crumbled bacon, ham, peppers, onions, all the different kinds of cheese. Have fun with this one and make what you like.

So, now I am off to do the same with banana pancakes. My kids can pop them right into the toaster too. I hope you found this helpful and that your kids enjoy some hearty home cooked breakfast foods every once in a while! Love all around!

Toddlers & Soup

I enjoy making different kinds of homemade soups and stews. With Fall right around the corner I already find myself making them more often. But when it comes to feeding my twin toddlers soups and stews it can get quite messy. I do not enjoy messy all that much. So, I have a new system now and I thought I would share.

From Scratch Chicken Noodle Soup

It's all about the butts. Bread butts that is. Often times, when I make soups, I make a loaf of bread to go along with it. Sometimes it's cheater loaves (frozen and baked), sometimes it's homemade bread and other times it is just butts from the loaf of bread in the cabinet. Any way you slice it, save those butts for the toddlers if you can.

Cheater loaf of White Bread

Ladle the soup, stew, chili or what have you onto a bread butt (or thick slice of bread). The broth will soak right into the bread and the noodles, veggies and meats will all be on top. This is a very easy way to get the little ones to eat their soups. Much less mess and no need to make them an alternative dinner...in case that's what you do. Hee hee. My boys like this kind of meal very much.

Hope you have found this tip useful! Have a Happy Monday!

Some Days...

Some days...they really try my patience. I try not to loose my cool. I take deep breathes. I step away for a moment. I redirect their energy. I talk in a sing-song happy voice. I do it all. Sometimes I snap.

I raise my voice. I might slap a hand if there is danger. I put on my angry face. Sometimes they persist. Sometimes it feels like there is nothing more I can do...to make them happy. To make them get along. To make them stop the high pitched incessant screaming. Timeouts be damned.

So, I take them to their room. Mommy needs a break. They need a break. My brain needs a break.

Suddenly, I begin to bake cookies. It will make them happy. It will make me happy. And if they aren't...then I'll know it's not me. 'Cuz what kid doesn't like some freshly baked cookies?! At that point, what more could I possibly do? And at least then there will be cookies.

Image from: http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/04/chewy-low-fat-banana-nut-oatmeal.html