Cardmaking

I have not been making very many cards lately. Here are the few that I have remembered to photograph in the past several months.

I love the Pocket Fun stamp set from Stampin Up. We are going to a birthday party for another 7-year-old in Boogs' class today.

I can't remember where this chip board flower came from. I used a sponge and Rose Red ink pad to get the color I wanted on it. Instead of ribbon, I used twill tape.

I saw a tutorial for a pop-up card using small strips of transparency sheets. My Stamp Lady's directions in the video were very easy to follow. I decided to try it with the Stampin Up Hedgehog Happiness set. This is one of the first stamp sets I bought over a decade ago.

I covered up the greeting for this pic.

Boogs and I had fun making these shaving cream thank you cards for his Christmas presents. We put shaving cream in a big bowl, added a few drops of food coloring, and swirled the color around. Then we laid paper flat on top of the color and lifted it off. Once you scape off the excess shaving cream, you can see the cool patterns of color left on the paper.

I love this Extreme Skateboard Stamp from Stampin Up. It is perfect for making boy cards.

 

 This is just a simple card using the Stampin Up Bird Builder Punch. I love how clean and simple this card looks.

 

Birthday card using the Stampin Up Toy Box set. Boogs helped pick out which stamps to include. 

Boogs made his own thank you cards for his Minecraft birthday party.

Lunches April 22nd - 26th

Boogs' lunches are inspired by the books we read at bedtime the previous evening. Each night, Boogs reads one book to me and I read a book or a chapter of a book to him. I usually post his lunches once a week. Click on the "lunches" label at the end of this post to see lunches from previous weeks.

A Porc in New York by Catherine Stock

Monsieur Monmouton's farm animals have left the farm in France and traveled on an airplane to New York City. It is up to Monsieru Monmouton and his dog, Cabot, to find them and bring them home. Luckily, they found a list of things the animals wanted to do on their vacation: Blooming Dells, boat trip, Central Park, Mooam Museum, Empire State Building, eat in Chinatown, and go to the Kool Kat Klub. They have quite an adventure. Boogs really enjoyed the fun colors and detailed illustrations. I had a hard time pronouncing the French words in the story. Luckily, Boogs' dad is French Canadian, French was his first language. He came in and snuggled with us for this bedtime story. He pronounced the French words for us. In the Laptop lunchbox: CutetZcute pig & sheep almond butter & jelly sandwiches, Pringles, grapes, broccoli, and carrots with hummus. There are also farm animal cupcake picks in the lunchbox. Cookie cutters make it very easy to fix a lunch fast. This lunch took less than 15 minutes to make. I am linking it to Bentos on the Bayou: 15 Minute Friday Linky Party. 

Owl At Home by Arnold Lobel

Owl is such a silly creature. He invites winter inside and starts to freeze. He wears himself out trying to run fast enough to be upstairs and downstairs at the same time. Boogs favorite short story in the book is the one where Owl has to sleep downstairs in a chair because he is worried about the two bumps moving in his bed (his feet under the cover). Boogs really enjoyed reading this book to me. In the ELB lunchbox: pb&j owl with cheese eyes, turkey, Mini Triscuits, cheese stick, fruit, and carrots with hummus.


This is our "throw some food in an ELB and run out the door" lunch for the week. It has Babybel cheese, dried apricots, salami, roll, tomatoes, carrots, broccoli, and pineapple.

Gertrude McFuzz by Dr. Seuss

Gertrude McFuzz is very upset with her one small tail feather. She finds out that she can eat a certain plant to make herself grow more tail feathers. Pretty soon she eats so many tail-growing berries that she is unable to fly. Gertrude has to go through the painful process of having all of the extra tail feathers removed. Boogs told me the lesson of this story is to be happy with who you are and not to change yourself to try and be like other birds. In the ELB lunchbox: grapes, carrots, broccoli, ham & cheese sandwich with Gertrude McFuzz drawn on a piece of cheese.


Marley and the Runaway Pumpkin by John Grogan

Boogs has a storybook treasury of Marley stories. Boogs likes to read seasonal/holiday books all year round. In this story, the family has grown a prize worthy pumpkin. Unfortunately, Marley's mischievous ways cause the pumpkin to roll down the street and smash into a bunch of pieces. Marley's owners are pretty upset until they realize they can still win a prize at the fair by making pies with their smashed up pumpkin. In the ELB lunchbox: almond butter & jelly Marley breaking out of his red licorice string leash, rice cake pumpkin pie with a cheese 1st place ribbon, orange pumpkin, grapes, and veggies.



Be sure to check out the wonderful sites I link to on my sidebar! If you want to see more book inspired lunches, click on the "lunches" label at the end of this post or go to My Story Themed Lunches board on Pinterest. I would love for you to leave a comment to let me know you stopped by.

Lunches April 15th - 19th

Boogs' lunches are inspired by the books we read at bedtime the previous evening. Each night, Boogs reads one book to me and I read a book or a chapter of a book to him. I usually post his lunches once a week. Click on the "lunches" label at the end of this post to see lunches from previous weeks.


The Dumpster Diver by Janet S. Wong

The kids in the apartment complex get very excited when Steve puts on his dumpster diving gear. Steve finds treasure in trash. Steve turns this trash into one-of-a kind pieces of art and furniture. This story encourages the reusing and repurposing of items. Luckily, Boogs was not ready to dive into a dumpster after reading this book. We frequently use items headed for the recycling bin as material for our own craft projects. In the ELB lunchbox: pb&j Steve sandwich with snorkel mask, Goldfish crackers, raisins, veggies, kiwi, and blueberries.

Dino-Baseball by Lisa Wheeler
The Green Sox battle against the Rib-eye Reds at Jurassic Park in this cute baseball story. Boogs' baseball season began a couple of weeks ago. We have been reading many baseball stories since then. Boogs checked this one out from his school library. He really liked reading all of the dinosaur names in the story. In the ELB lunchbox: ham & cheese dinosaur and home plate sandwiches, peanuts, sesame stick bats, marshmallow baseball, Cutie orange balls, and salad.

Face to Face with The Hamster by Paul Starosta, Hamsters by Susan Merideth, and My Pet Hamster by Anne Rockwell
Boogs is now a pet owner. For his 7th birthday, he received a Winter White Dwarf Hamster (Winter) and three fish (Sticker, Bluey, Caty). We have been doing a lot of research on our new pets so that we can be responsible pet owners. Boogs asked me to copy a couple of pages from some of these books so he would know what kinds of fruits and vegetables were safe to give to Winter. Winter is a very bite-y hamster. Boogs response to me calling Winter bite-y was, "Winter is not really a biter. I think she sometimes gets a little frantic and sometimes she is a mouth explorer. She might miss being at the pet store. We have not had her long enough for her to know we want to be true friends. Besides, her bite does not hurt us as much as our fear of her bite." He makes me smile every day. In the ELB lunchbox are some of Winter's favorite treats: cashews, broccoli, apples, and blueberries. Boogs also has a pb&j Winter sandwich ball, Mini Triscuits and cheese.

State Shapes: Texas by Erick Bruun
This book is chock full of interesting facts about Texas. Samuel Austin Cartwright (aka Tex), Merideth, and their dog, Rufus, take the reader on a tour through the great state of Texas. They cover topics ranging from geography to history to heroes of the Lone Star State. You have to read thru this book a bit at a time. Boogs did enjoy singing our Texas song from his preschool days after we read some of this book. The song is sung to the tune of B-I-N-G-O: There is a state that's big and great and Texas is its name-o. T-E-X-A-S, T-E-X-A-S, T-E-X-A-S, and Texas is its name-o. In the Laptop lunchbox: almond butter & jelly Texas sandwich, "burnt orange" fruit leather letters, cheese sun, bluebonnets drawn on cheese, strawberris, frozen yogurt Texas, and salad.

Be sure to check out the wonderful sites I link to on my sidebar! If you want to see more book inspired lunches, click on the "lunches" label at the end of this post or go to My Story Themed Lunches board on Pinterest. I would love for you to leave a comment to let me know you stopped by. 

Lunches April 8th - 12th

Usually I start my weekly lunch post by mentioning that Boogs' lunches are inspired by the bedtime stories we read. This week, my lunch-making skills have mostly deserted me. But I figured I would post them anyway. I think Boogs' Minecraft party deleted my creativity/craftiness for a bit.

I asked Boogs almost every day this week if he wanted to buy a school lunch. He told me the school food is gross most of the time and he would rather have a Momma-made lunch.

I will start with the best lunch of the week:

Mary and Her Little Lamb by Will Moses 

By chance, Will Moses, discovered the actual school house that Mary and her lamb went to. He looked into the song/poem further to find out more about its origins. Mary Had A Little Lamb is based upon a real girl who was born in 1806 in Sterling, Massachusetts. This book, tells what might have been the events that led up to the creation of the song. Boogs was very interested in determining how to classify this story - fiction or non-fiction - since it had some true facts but also a made-up story. I love having these kinds of discussions with Boogs. It gives me a peek at his thought  and reasoning process. In the lunchbox: salami & cheese Little Lamb, fruit leather, cheese schoolhouse, marshmallow with Mary drawn on it, Cutie oranges, salad, and yogurt.

The Wolf Who Cried Boy by Bob Hartman

Yeah... some mornings my ability to make Boogs' lunch look decent disappears. This was one of those mornings. Usually, I give myself a 20 minute window in the morning to make lunches. During that time, I am eating breakfast, listening to Boogs read, helping Boogs with homework, finding lost things for school, and other things while making our lunches . As horrible as that wolf looks, I actually spent way too much time on it. Then I gave up and told Boogs, "This lunch may look horrible but it is tasty and nutritious, just take it and eat it." He took it to school and ate everything but the wolf(ish) sandwich. He said it looked "too creepy" to eat. I linked this lunch up to BentOnBetterLunches "When Bentos Go Bad" linky. Sadly, the majority of lunches posted there are mine.


So, the next morning, I sent him to school with this:

No theme, no story... just lunch. It took all of five minutes to throw in my Laptop Lunchbox. I plan to link it to Bentos on the Bayou: 15 Minute Friday linky party. Veggies, hummus, ham, Cutie, and cottage cheese. He ate all of it.


Today's lunch was not that bad.
Subway Sparrow by Leyla Torres

A little sparrow flew through the subway train doors just as they were closing. A little girl and others on the train tried to capture the sparrow to release it at the next stop. The little girl spoke English, the man on the train spoke Spanish, the boy on the train spoke English, and the woman on the train spoke Polish. They all worked together and saved the bird. The illustrations carry the reader through the story. Boogs thought it was pretty amusing when I was trying to read the Polish dialog in the book. I told him what I thought the woman's words meant by using context clues. Boogs thought I was probably pretty close with my translation, but he wanted a word-for-word translation. So we got online and figured it out and even had each word pronounced correctly for us. In the ELB lunchbox: kiwi, carrots, Cutie, pita chips, hummus, and almond butter & jelly sparrow.

They are having pizza at school tomorrow, so Boogs is going to buy that for lunch. Maybe I will get my Bento mojo back next week. :-)

Be sure to check out the wonderful sites I link to on my sidebar! If you want to see more book inspired lunches, click on the "lunches" label at the end of this post or go to My Story Themed Lunches board on Pinterest. I would love for you to leave a comment to let me know you stopped by. 

Baseball

Boogs wanted to play baseball this year. We signed him up on a YMCA team. He had his first game this past weekend. The weather was fantastic. Boogs did really well. He has not played on a baseball team since t-ball when he was 4. He is excited about next week's game.

GM, here are a few pictures for you. I will try to get some better pictures next weekend.

Ready to get warm-up.

Boogs hit this one and made it to 1st base.

He was dancing on 2nd base. So cute!

Boogs listened when they told him to hold up at 3rd base.

Heading to home plate.

MineCraft Birthday Party

A couple of weeks ago, Boogs asked if he could have a MineCraft birthday party. I was kind of hoping to skip a big party and just do a family thing. We compromised, I let him have a party but he could only invite the same number of friends as his age - 7. 


Every year, I freezer paper stencil a special birthday shirt for Boogs. This year he wanted a Creeper shirt. I decided to use this green shirt that he already had. The Creeper face is slightly off-center because I covered a stain on the shirt with the black fabric paint.

 My printer got a real workout while preparing for the party. I could not find MineCraft party merchandise. Luckily, there are a lot of places to find free templates for downloading various images and papercrafts. Instructables site was very helpful.

"Treasure" party favor bags had Pop Rocks, Ring Pop, Bazooka gum, songs, Creeper mini notepad, spinning top wrapped in "coal" paper, and a little toy wrapped in "diamond" paper.

 I made a Steve head for Boogs. He really liked it!

 For the party craft, I set out fuse beads so the kids could make MineCraft items.

 Here is Steve.

 We had snacks and also ordered pizza.

I am horrible at icing cakes. Boogs really wanted a cake like the one in MineCraft. I tried my best. He said it was cool. Boogs ate some of the white cake while his guests ate the Creeper cupcakes. During the party, my sister asked Boogs if he made the cake all by himself because it looked like a 7-year-old had made it. :-)

 The kids spent quite a long time working on their fuse bead creations.

 We played Pin the Tail on the Ender Dragon.

My mom was being goofy during a card game. I don't know how they concentrated on the game with the noise of Boogs' party in the background.

 Boogs asked if I could make a Creeper pinata. I really could not figure out how to make it work. Instead, I put their treasure into a Ziplock bag and then buried it in sand. The kids had to follow the trail down into the mines to dig for their treasure. I told them to stay on the path or the Creepers (cactus) would get them.

 At the end of the trail, the kids had to knock down a wall to get to the mine. The mine was a large tub filled with sand.

I did not expect them to throw the sand around so much. It was fun watching them. Once they found a baggie, they moved away so someone else could get a turn.

 I thought this was a cool action shot.

 After everyone finished mining, we headed back to the house for cake.

 I still can't believe that Boogs is 7. He is growing up so quickly.

 Yum! Creeper cupcakes!

The kids wanted to see Boogs new pet hamster. I told them thet had to sit in a circle and be very calm. I put Winter in her exercise ball and let her run around inside the circle of friends. This was the quietest few moments of the party.

I think everyone had a good time. I really appreciated my friends and family helping me clean up after the party. Boogs told me he had a great time and thanked me for giving him a fun party.


My party planning was made so much easier with help from these blog posts and sites:

Sign and cupcake wrappers

http://www.thepartyanimal-blog.org/free-printable-minecraft-party-banner/

 http://www.thepartyanimal-blog.org/free-printable-minecraft-cupcake-toppers-wrappers/

Links to food signs, minecraft cd, and pin the tail on the Ender Dragon

http://ichooseawesome.wordpress.com/2012/12/03/epic-minecraft-party/

I also looked at several other Minecraft parties which I pinned on my Parties/Gifts board on pinterest
http://pinterest.com/keithas/parties-gifts/

Here are links to two other fun parties Boogs has had in the past:
Bug Party
http://keithaschaos.blogspot.com/2012/04/bug-party-flashback.html

Lego Party
http://keithaschaos.blogspot.com/2012/04/boogs-6th-birthday-party.html



This post was linked up to Country Kids from Coombe Mills linky party. Be sure to check out the wonderful sites I link to on my sidebar.