One whole hand!

On Sunday, Little Bear turned 5 years old! To celebrate, he wanted to have a Transformers Rescue Bots party. So I got to craftin'!

First on the list was a "Pin the Autobot Symbol on Boulder" game.

I used a projector to trace the image of Boulder the Rescue Bot and then painted him with acrylics. Then I printed and cut out Autobot symbols for the kids to stick on him (the goal was his chest).

I also put together some simple party favors, including bubble wands decorated with Rescue Bot stickers I made using Avery Shipping Label stickers. Since the wands were orange and green, I went with Blades and Boulder characters to match. I also purchased a .pdf of some Rescue Bot bookmarks from So Happy Shop on Etsy and printed them out on cardstock. I finished them with some homemade tassels using a tutorial, "How to Make Your Own Tassels," from Sew4Home.

There was also an array of treats, including a cake. Rather than a fancy Rescue Bot-themed design, I was surprised when Little Bear decided he wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate icing and sprinkles.

I used Smittin Kitchen's "i want chocolate cake" cake. It turned out beautifully. This is the first time in recent memory that we actually finished off an entire cake! Sooooo good!

Bonus: I had a sous chef to help me with the baking!

Last, but definitely not least, Little Bear finally got his very own personalized name pillow.

Happy birthday, Little Bear! I love you!!!!

A Skylanders Birthday!

Big Bear turned 8 on Sunday! This year he wanted to celebrate with a Skylanders-themed party. So, of course, mama had to get her craft on!

His favorite Skylander character is Gill Grunt, so I made a poster. I started by tracing a coloring page image of Gill Grunt onto posterboard using my neighbor's nifty projector:

Then I used acrylic paints and filled him with color:

Here he is all painted up:

Finally, I finished him up by using a Sharpie to do the lettering and outline of the image:

While the paint alone looked okay, I think the outlining gives it a nice, finished look.

There had to be a Skylanders cake:

The symbols on the top represent the ten elements featured in the game. I mixed and piped 11 different colors of icing, which was time consuming, but the effect was worth it. I didn't have room to actually write "Happy Birthday" on the top after doing the elements, so I just put his name and the big "8".

We played two games-- Twister and Bingo. With my husband's help, we created a Skylanders-themed bingo game for the kids to play. I found a bunch of images, sized and edited them. Then he wrote a program to create 5x5 bingo cards that would all be unique. Here's a sample:

So cool!!! Then I went and had them printed out for the party.

The game was a hit!

Balloons, snacks, games, more snacks, cake, presents... it was a fun party.

Here's the birthday boy holding his Gill Grunt figure in front of his new poster.

I just love that smile!

Happy birthday, Big Bear!!!

Hammer Bot!

After painting the tanker cars with the Bears, I was in a painting kind of mood. So I broke out our copy of RoboRally. RoboRally is a fun board game-- a capture-the-flag, action-packed racing puzzle adventure. Woo! (And yes, it is totally as fun as it sounds!) Up to 8 people can play, and each player chooses a robot to control as their playing piece. The robots that came with the game were unpainted metal figurines. Many years ago, I started painting all of the playing pieces in the game. Because when your robot has a little but of personality, it adds to the fun! There are 8 robots total. I managed to paint 7 of them before Big Bear was born.

That last unpainted figure (the "Hammer Bot") has been taunting me since 2006.

Before (primed):

After:

It feels good to get him done! Anyone want to play? :)

Train painting fun!

Last week, my husband picked up some unpainted wooden train toys. We all worked together to get them ready for playtime.

Big Bear decided he wanted an apple-grape juice car, so he started by painting his tanker dark purple.

Little Bear is a chocoholic, so we decided to make his into a chocolate syrup car and he painted his tanker a light brown.

Then Mama and Papa took over and did some detail work. He finished up the apple-grape juice tanker, and I completed the chocolate syrup tanker.

And now there are some very unique tankers being shunted about on the train table as well as a pair of very happy boys.

Mom's night out!

Last night I went to a paint-your-own ceramics place, Color Me Mine, for a night out with some of the other preschool mamas. My husband's last words to me before I left: "Don't do anything too complicated." Ha!


I couldn't help myself. I like complicated. Mostly, I think, because I like to draw the process out. It has been sooo long since I've had the opportunity to do ceramics painting, that I just couldn't let this chance pass me by. The design is from a Dover clip art book, Geometric Designs CD-ROM and Book. I traced it into the bowl using carbon paper (the markings will disappear once it's fired in the kiln) and then painted the outline. I wish I hadn't traced it off-center, but I think it will still be pretty when done. Hopefully, I'll be able to squeeze in time over a few evenings or on a weekend (or two) to finish it (I want to add some color and do something pretty along the rim).

But really, the highlight of the evening was having a chance to get to know some of the other moms. We see each other every week at preschool, but with the majority of our attention focused on rampaging toddlers, we don't exactly get much time to chat. It was awesome just getting to hang out and relax. And paint! Everyone created some beautiful pieces-- there were bowls, mugs, platters, spoon rests, and lots and lots of beautiful colors and designs. It was really inspiring seeing everyone at work. (Note to self: remember to bring camera next time!)