Blake's 8!

Blake turned 8 yesterday! Where did the time go?! I can't believe it's been 8 years since his chunky little 9 lb 14 oz butt became part of our family. We love you big guy!

We had some difficulty deciding on a theme this year. First it was Star Wars, then Backyard Adventures, then the movies... But we ended up with Lunar Mini Golf. It's putt-putt played in the dark. There is a bunch of black lights & everything is lit up with neon tape or paint. So instead of t-shirts, I ended up going with visors. We got $1 foam visors & some neon puff paint from Michaels, and wrote everyone's names on them. It turned out great since you couldnt really see who was who!

Layla....

Morgan...


Trey (cousin) & Blake. (I found that shirt at Walmart & thought it would be perfect to wear!)



Some of the art on the wall...

The whole gang in the dark...

And with flash!

The cake... It's a moon with an alien playing golf! (a Ben 10 alien, who thought finding a little alien guy at the store would be so hard? I ended up raiding Blake's toys).

That's a lot of candles!

I think today I'm going to get the house straightened back up and maybe try & finish a project. Hope you have a great day!!

Don't forget about my paint party coming up! Have you done anything with your free Glidden paint? Or any paint for that matter? If so, I want to see it! Come back here on September 28 to share what you've done! Please, spread the word, this is my first party!

Luau Time!

Yesterday was Layla's Luau party. She was SO excited all morning and kept asking how much longer. Finally, it was time. :)

Daddy built a limbo, complete with bamboo that had been growing in our yard when we moved in.

Of course, we had to have leis...

The kitchen table:

Here is how I did the chocolate flowers I made:



And our Hula Girl cake! I think she turned out okay. I was a little lazy though, and borrowed a bikini top from Barbie & used Prima flowers (paper!) for those flowers around her waist! I just taped some flowers I found at the party store around my cake plate.


Nonnie made cupcakes & we added some paper umbrellas.

Check out this outfit!!

We dont have a pool and decided not to rent a bounce house, so I tried to come up with ideas from things we had. I found this sidewalk chalk paint recipe and figured they could use this giant easel she got last year.

Dirty boy...

Time for some limbo!

Which later turned into the boys raising the bar and trying to see who could jump over it. Blake thought it would be better just to plow through it, lol. No pictures though... I was recording it.

Time for cake!

Make a wish sweetie!

Got to have presents! (I scored that Didj for $9.97!)

And since Morgan didnt really have anything to tropical looking to wear for the occasion, I made her a little headband to wear. Sorry it's a little blurry!

Layla's actual birthday is today. It's to hard to believe it's been 5 years. Time sure does fly. I love you baby, I mean, BIG GIRL! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Party Prep

Layla's party is in 2 days! I'm trying to get as much ready beforehand as I can. I'm getting the cake baked today and plan on spending tomorrow cleaning the house and decorating the cake. We're going to attempt a hula girl using one of those pans that come with the barbie-type doll. I am hoping it turns out okay! I took a couple classes, but am still an ameatur when it comes to cakes! You can see the one I did for Layla's Hannah Montana party here and Blake's Totally Gross Party here.

Since we're going with the Luau theme, I wanted to make some Hibiscus flower lollipops. I've never done the molded candies before, but they were pretty easy! I just used the Wilton Candy Melts.

Here they are packaged up for the goody buckets. I'm putting some in there, and some in a bucket on display.

I also made some little flip-flops to put in little bowls on the table.

Instead of goody bags, we're doing goody buckets.

And here are our soapsicles all packaged up!

My next post will be after the party, have a great weekend!

Why I Rarely Scrapbook... & Some Free Fun

No, not because of Possum up there, I just thought he was adorable all stretched out. But THIS is why:

Looks like any other scrapper, right? Or crafter even? It would be great if when I was done I could just walk away and leave that sitting on the desk... except it's my living room! I never thought we would ever need 5 bedrooms, but now that there are 5 of us in a tiny, 1200+ square foot, 3 bedroom house, 5 rooms would be FANTASTIC! But since that isnt happening, I scrap in the living room. So all this has to be picked up every time I drag it all out. Sometimes it just isnt worth all the trouble.

To my right:

To my left:

But I'm pretty happy with the end result:

For the weekend fun... this morning we ran to the party store to get supplies for Layla's Luau. I had a coupon for 30% off your purchase that I didnt want to let go to waste. We ended up saving almost $40! But when we stopped at the bank, we noticed that the shopping plaza they just built next door was having a Grand Opening. Funny, because there is only one tenant right now. But they were celebrating anyway. They had a sign that said something about holding a live alligator. So after the party store, we decided to stop by. Layla was all gung-ho until it came down to it. She chickened out, but Blake decided to go ahead.

He was so excited to call Daddy and tell him!

So how was your Saturday?