Make Up Call

When Mitchell was in K-2nd grade, he always made a Valentine's sack at school to put all his valentines in. I thought it was kind of a cop-out. What happened to decorating a shoe box or constructing something hugely creative, like my brother's poster board size Pacman? He came to me last year, the night before the party at school, and said he was supposed to take a shoe box (nothing bigger) for his loot. I had not seen a note about this (I guess they figure 3rd graders are responsible enough to relay messages home), so I didn't know exactly what he was supposed to do. I asked him if he was supposed to decorate it and his reply was "eh, we can if we want". I asked him if he wanted to and his reply was "nah, I'll be okay" (whose kid is this??). Now, we don't buy a lot of shoes in the box (I'm more of a find-a-great-deal-at-TJ Maxx kind of gal), so the chances of me finding a box around the house were pretty slim. I remembered that I had bought a pair of shoes for Addison to grow into (thank you Famous Footwear cousin discount) and they were still in the box up in her closet. I gave the tiny size shoe box to him to take. As I waited for him after school, I watched all the kids exit with their extravagantly-decorated-bigger-than-shoe-boxes-box. I felt like the worst.mom.ever. I managed a craft store for 2 years for crying out loud, and I sent my kid to school with a girl's Esprit box for his valentines? Right then, I vowed to make it up next year. I am usually one of those moms who doesn't do their kid's school stuff (poster's, oral presentation cue cards, etc.) for them. I help them, but I really think it's important that they do it themselves. But I needed a make up call.

I present this year's make up call.

I know, it doesn't have a cord. I'd appreciate you getting off my back about it.


Thank goodness for Pepsi products being on sale last week.



To be fair, he did help, I let him think up the tin foil and cover it.

Halloween Apothecary

My new blog friend turned me on to this great Halloween apothecary. I downloaded the labels here and printed them on card stock. I scoured the D.I. (which wasn't easy as they are remodeling and everything was on wheeled carts on the sidewalk outside) and Goodwill (I'm always disappointed that they don''t offer better prices. They have better quality stuff, but not much better than shopping at TJ Maxx or the like) for the jars. After mod podging the labels to the jars, the real fun began with rifling through my cupboards to see what I could fill each jar with.

If you look closely you'll see:
Toadstool Essence = Craisins
Mummy Mold = Oreo crumbs
Werewolf Howls = Cotton balls
Tincture of Skull = Salt (both kosher and table)
Corpse Dust = Butterscotch pudding powder (the instant variety because I accidentally bought it instead of the cook and serve for sticky buns)
Deadly Nightshade = Dried Cloves
Poison = Water with red food coloring
Eye of Newt = Wrapped caramel filled chocolates (which I steal one from every now and then)

A fun little project and my kids enjoyed seeing what was going in the next jar. Now if only I could finish my "BOO" blocks and skeleton board (pics pending). Oh, and get out those fall decorations that were supposed to be up before the baby was born. Guess it's time to put up all the rest of the Halloween decor anyway.

The Force is Strong With This One

Archer is all about Star Wars these days. Naturally, he wanted a Star Wars birthday party. I have a bone to pick with George Lucas. The lack of Star Wars party supplies around here was very limited. Nothing at Fred Meyer, Target, Shopko, K-Mart and I even resorted to Wal Mart (where I don't shop) and all they had was wrapping paper. From the local party store we grabbed a pack of plates and napkins (because Matt thought the Yoda on the napkins looked cool, not because 6 year olds would actually use them). We also found a Darth Vader helmet pinata. Very cool. When I was informed that my total was $30 and change, I almost lost consciousness. The pinata was $22.99! For something a bunch of kids were going to smack open in less than 5 minutes.

I put my crafty mind to work, and decided to make one. What I won't show you is my feeble first attempt (because no documentation exists). I bombed. Second attempt involved buying a baseball pinata, removing the stitches, spray painting (by dad), adding some electrical tape and voila, the Death Star.The cupcakes Archer wanted had Storm Trooper and Darth Vader helmet rings and were $18 at Fred Meyer. However, they were gone and the bakery wouldn't have sold me the rings even if they had more. Instead, I traced an image of a Clone Trooper helmet onto wax paper 40 times. Then I melted chocolate candy melts, tried to dye it black and piped the outlines.
When those hardened I filled them in with white candy melts.
I peeled them off and this is the final product on the cupcakes. Pretty ingenious if I do say so myself. The kids loved the fact that they were edible!
The arsenal of light sabers waiting for the party to start (pool noodles cut in half, duct tape and electrical tape). Of course, the princess of the house had to have a pink one. Archer said to just pretend it was purple because Mace Windu has a purple light saber. Of course.
And of course, what kid doesn't dream of attacking the Death Star with their own light saber? I don't think I needed to have planned any other games (Lego Star Wars bingo, pin the light saber on Anakin, pass the Thermal Detonator aka hot potato), they were totally content running around outside. I'm sure one or two moms were less than thrilled that I sent their kid home with a weapon.