Felt Fish

I made these felt fish for Serenity's party.

I got the patterns from the Purl Bee.  She made the fish into a magnetic aquarium.  I blew up her patterns, stuffed them with cotton balls and added metal washers to them so we could use them for a fishing game.  We also used them for an Under the Sea game involving a sheet (used like a parachute) that was the hit of the party!

Here's the thing though.  After I finished, I let the girls start fishing but not all the fish would allow themselves to be caught.  Whaaaaat?  That's right, not all metal is magnetic!  Half of my washers (that I had sewn in) weren't magnetic so I had to take the fish apart and start all over!  ACK!

This got me thinking about other "common sense" things I haven't known about over the years.

1.  How the heck to get my "blinky" Christmas lights to blink?  Turns out, that extra crappy bulb that had half the paint chipped off was actually the bulb that breaks the circuit and allows the light strand to blink!

2.  That there is a night vision part of your rear view mirror.  You just tip the lever up and Voila, no glare!  I just pushed my rear view mirror up to the ceiling whenever someone's headlights got too bright.....for YEARS!  LOL

Now, I don't feel too bad about this because I had a friend who was soooo disappointed that she couldn't figure out how to read a sundial for the time..................at night! HA!  What common sense things have stumped you?

Sparks and a Mess

Lately, it's been alllll about Sparks.  Check it out  Cookie Selling - even in the rain!

Rayna took great joy in ringing the doorbell..............and ringing the doorbell.............and ringing the doorbell.  LOL!  Gotta love her enthusiasm, she ran from house to house!  As you can see, Serenity was getting tired.

Just bought sleeping bags for Serenity and I to go to camp in a few weeks.  Then I had to go back and get one for Rayna too.  Tons of static-y fun in these bags!

I was all proud of myself for making the camp blankets (aka: poncho's) for the girls.  I even included pockets on the inside for flashlights and hands. 

Happy Earth Day everyone!!! In honor of the occassion, I am taking the Sparks to a fish Hatchery tomorrow.  These are the traders I made for them (they trade these pins with other Sparks and we had no meeting time to create them so I stepped up).  I used branches from our friend's blueberry farm.

And here is the mess maker!  I should have named Lucius Victor (Vomitting Victor)!  Man, he upchucks at least 5 times a day!  Sooooo disgusting.  And yesssss, I have gone out of the house with vomit on me and not known!

Skyler is a wild woman - she even has crazy hair!

She can't even eat a muffin without making an enormous mess!

I've been a bit frazzled lately and on my way out the door I said to Snuffy, "Man, I need a vacation!"

He laughed and said, "Why, they'd just come with you!"  Do you need a vaca?  Why?

The Party is Over!

The party is OVER and it was a big hit! We played loads of games, had 11 giggling girlies and ate tons of ice cream cake! The kids loved the hot dog octopus's (but don't bake em, they just get hard and "crusty" according to Serenity). You just cut em and boil em (or wait till after b/c you forgot and burn your fingers LOL).  Here is my 6 year old in her new outfit from Auntie Sarah and her crown!

Guess how many rolls of streamers I used to do this?

We had balloon issues - we ran out of helium, so we had to thumb tack them to the ceiling (way cheaper to do this in the first place I guess) and the ones we did fill were like mini grenades (let them go and wait for the scary POP!) Overall, we did get the effect we wanted though.

 There was fishing for felt fish (more on that later)

Had some crab races - masssssive giggling as they stumbled over their skirts!

My sweet Serenity closed her eyes and really wished hard before she blew out the candle - love her!

1/2 hour before the party was scheduled to be over we ran out of stuff to do ACK!  Brilliantly, I decided to let them watch Serenity's new Barbie "A Fairy Secret" movie which most of them hadn't seen.  They were so worn out that you could have heard a pin drop!

The party was a great success and Serenity said that she had "the BEST time EVER!"  I had one parent tell me that her daughter now wants a great party at home, just like Serenity!  Very cool!

What was your fave birthday party theme from when you were a kid?

PS - I used 26 rolls of streamers!  Good thing they were cheap!