Walk through the American Revolution Costume

So, I looked all over for homemade costume ideas for the California Weekly Walk Through the Revolution program for 5th graders.
By the way, it is a fun San amazing program, and if you get a chance to go ( as a spectator- parent), I highly encourage it.  Don’t let the 2.5 hours deter you.   It goes fast and is very entertaining (and educational).
My daughter did it and was a colonist.  I can’t remember her character, but I ended up buying a wig from Amazon and borrowing a costume from a friend.  BTW- her left arm is behind her back.  It’s funny if you know what I do at my job.

My son did the program this year, and was a British Redcoat.
I’ll be honest, between work and sports, our family schedule is kicking my butt.  I forgot about his costume until Wednesday night and it was too late to even get a one day delivery from Amazon.

So- Homemade it was.
JC Penney for a men’s crimson shirt.  Of course, all the ones on clearance were the wrong red colors. I know it shouldn’t have mattered, but it did.  I got the shirt as a set with a tie for 50% off.  Not bad.
My son liked the shirt so much that he was not on board with me cutting it up.  Enter double sided carpet tape.
I hot glued pennies on the buttons and the button holes and angled the front of the shirt back with the tape.  I also flipped the collar and taped it with the Capet tape.  Then, a belt across the chest.
He should have been in white pants but I wasn’t spending more and I couldn’t borrow any baseball pants or sweats.  Black pants worked fine.
I made the tricorn hat, embellished it with gold sharpie and adjusted it too fit.

Not bad for a last minute job.

Polar Express Party

With both kids having winter birthdays, it seems that their birthday themes inevitably garner a Christmas or snowy flavor.  We jumped in an embraced it fully this year, mainly due to the budget.  Connor wanted to invite all his friends, and since that is 30ish (popular little dude), that knocked out BounceU, his first choice.

We went with a Polar Express movie night, as we were doing it the Saturday before Christmas.
I got really cute invitations from etsy -  PartiesR4Fun.

I also got their Believe sticker to use for the favor bags.

 I had hot cocoa cookies in the striped bag.  I also included a candy cane, Christmas colored Sixlets, and a sleigh bell.  I got the bells from Dollar Tree, but honestly, I wish I would have sprung for the Pier 1 bells when they were on sale for $1.  They were so much better quality.  The DT ones bent if you looked at them funny.  That said.  The kids didn't care, and pretty much ate the snacks and left the rest.  Cuteness can be wasted on 5--6 year olds.  Their mom's appreciated them though.  

We decorated the patio with cedar swag that I got at the Home Depot Black Friday sale. $5 for 10 feet.  I had a chalk banner with Believe written on it, and lots of white bulb lights.

I love doing table-scapes.  This was fun with the lights.  

Lots of peppermint cookies, peppermints, mini york peppermint patties, and large candy canes.

We also had popcorn since it was a movie night.

Hot chocolate bar with mix-ins and some flavorings for the adults.

I got all the peppermint sticks from Dollar Tree - 12 for $1.

I did try some of the "peppermint stir sticks" from Cost Plus and Target, but they stuck together and since the were thinner, many of them broke.  Plus, they were 3-4 dollars more per package.

The cupcakes that you have seen all over Pinterest.

I made chocolate and vanilla to keep all the kids happy.

I downloaded the free printable from Pinterest.

C and friends blowing out his candle. 

Watching the movie.  As usual, very few kids watched after the first 10 minutes.  It's just too much fun playing in the back yard.

It was a fun night, and a great idea.  I would love to do this every year for Christmas (not his birthday)

Halloween 2014

 I always like doing something fun for Halloween.  Of course, our house is completely decorated with lights and tombstones, fake limbs, etc., but food has to be involved somehow.

Ta Da...

This made me laugh, and the kids loved it.  

Speaking of kids...

Mavis and her skeleton brother.  His costume had LEDs all over the chest piece.  It was great.

So, after the kids went TOTing, we decided to have a movie night.

Nightmare Before Christmas.

Mother nature had other plans.

The kids actually sat out under umbrellas for a while, but alas, we pulled the plug (literally).

Next year....

As we were then sorting through candy at the end of the night, we found this.

SERIOUSLY!!!!

At least cover or scratch out the name so we can't see that you did this.

Ha Ha Ha!

My husband wanted to hand out leftover candy from Easter and such.

I said" No! Who does that?"

Apparently, Kade does. 

Beach Camping Trip 2014 - The Food

Kebable Lunch for the kids.  Cheese and Salami.

Campfire grilled pizza.

Kebab for the boy with olives.

Italian pressed sandwich.

Steak, potatoes, and onions.

Campfire Cupcake

breakfast of champions

My happy eaters

Chicken bacon paste kebobs.

Beach Camping Trip 2014 Menus

So, this year, K brought a dry erase board with her that I took over.  Mom's perogative.

Doing a menu for each meal started as a lark, but quickly became expected as the trip went on.  Creativity also went downhill, but what do you want.  I have to plan, prep and cook every meal.  I don't always have extra brain cells to write up a witty decription.

Fancy table

Ha Ha.  Yes, I'm know I massacred the French.

The kids loved the Kabables which may be TM'd.  Sorry.

Fancy scrambled eggs

Options.  The hummus plates were for the kids.

Getting less fancy.

Tired of doing this.

Getting some energy back.

K did this one.  Wishful thinking on her part.

Starting to repeat.

So that's enough of those. 

More to come on the rest of the trip.

So, I have been a slacker in many ways.  No blog posts.  Only one movie night this summer.  Yep, sad but true."

However....

the one we did have...

AWESOME!!!

Without further ado, I give you

SUPERHERO Movie Night!

Clearly, the feature presentation was "The Incredibles".  The funny thing was that by the end of the movie, only one kid was actually watching the film.

We had a face painter.  Thanks to my talented friend Kristen.

Group shot.  Sorry it's fuzzy.

I have more pictures somewhere, but here is a teaser of how things looked.

  Action words were everywhere.

Good times!

Bermuda Part 2

Because of the rain, we did a lot more signseeing than would normally happen on a tropical getaway.  We hit up the Crystal and Fantasy caves which were amazing.  Story goes that some kids lost a ball down a hole.  The adventuresome two then decended into the hole with a flashlight, and this was what they found.

It is very drippy down below.

One of my favorite shots.

From the caves, we walked to the Swizzle Inn made famous by its drink, the Rum Swizzle Punch.  We ordered a half pitcher, and they "accidentally" gave us a full one.  Oh no...would it go to waste?

  Umm, NO!!  Yes, I drank almost all of it.  Jason got A glass.  That stuff was GOOD!!

Spent the rest of the day wandering around a rainy town.