Disney Scrapbook Layout

While the kids and I have been on Spring Break, I have found some time for scrapbooking! I finally scrapbooked our trip to Disneyland from last summer! In previous years I have made mini albums for our Disney trips. But since we go every year, I was getting bored coming up with new layouts. So I decided that 1 layout that is full of pictures is better than just not scrapping it at all. I think that sometimes we scrappers get too focused on trying to scrap ALL our pictures and EVERY event- that we get overwhelmed and quit. That is why I have started doing Year in Review albums like this. (I'll post my 2011 one soon!)

Here is my Disneyland 2011 2 page layout...

Since there are 18 pictures on this layout, I was careful not to add many elements. Here is a close up of page 1...
And page 2....
If you want to see more of our Disney pictures and read more about our trip, you can check out these posts. Every time I ever post Disney pics, I get emails asking where I got the cute outfits and matching family shirts. I have them made by sellers on Etsy.

If you want to see more Disney scrapbook layouts please check out this post and this post. Happy scrapping!

Are you ready for some football?!

I will let you in on a little secret. Don't tell, but I am really not a football fan. I would much rather spend my Sunday afternoons at the mall then at home watching football! But I am a a HUGE fan of parties! Theme parties! Since Scott had off on Superbowl Sunday this year, I decided that it was a MUST to have a party! Yay! Here is a look at the football themed food that I made.

One of our main entrees was football pizza!

All we did was get our favorite frozen cheese pizza. We added pepperonis in the shape of a football. Then we used American cheese to make the football laces. Simple and cute!

Scott's favorite snack is a 7 layer dip. So I made him this one to look like a football field!

Just make bean dip any way you like. But make the top layer guacamole. Then you can put sour cream in a Ziploc. Snip the end and pipe it on to make some yard lines and end zones. I added toothpicks for goal posts just for the fun of it! I wanted the chips to look like the stadium. Not sure if you get that but that was my vision!

Another snack we served were these cute football meat, cheese and crackers...

I bought oval shaped crackers and then we cut the cheese and meat into a football shape. That was a bit tedious! To make the laces, I piped Ranch dressing on top.

I think the snack that was gone first were these football deviled eggs...

All I did was make deviled eggs and use fresh chives to make the laces. Easy!

I couldn't decide on just one dessert so we ended up having 3! My favorite were these football shaped Brownies...

I made brownies and then used a cookie cutter to cut them out. I couldn't find a football shaped one, so I just took a circle cutter and bent it a little. Voila! Football shaped! Then I piped a little white chocolate on top for the laces. (I sure did do a lot of piping, huh?)

The next dessert was actually store bought. I don't buy many store bought dessert but this one is SO worth it! It is a snicker ice cream cake in the shape of a football!

It was delicious!

The last dessert that I made was chocolate covered strawberries.

All I did was pipe some white chocolate laces on to them. Easy!

We also made some delicious meatballs and a friend brought potato skins (You could make potato skins look like footballs by piping sour cream on top!) so we had tons of food!

I got lots of these ideas from this site.

Enjoy!

8th Birthday...Angry Bird Style!

There is no way that I will ever be able to get my blog all caught up! But I thought I would try and do a few posts about some of my parties and holiday themes. I get requests and questions about them all the time, so I am going to do my best to include links to tutorials too.

For Kyler's 8th birthday, he requested an Angry Birds party. I was NOT too excited! Angry birds is too new. You couldn't just go to the party store and buy stuff! But he insisted and so I agreed. (The crazy things we will do those cute kids!) I did lots of research and managed to put together a really cute and fun party! (Last week I was at the party store and they now have a whole display of angry bird plates and things! Of course!)

I got things started with this fun party invitation..

I bought the invites from this seller on etsy. I see that she doesn't have an etsy store anymore but th link has an email address for placing orders. I just told her the name and other info and she sent me a digital image of the invite. I sent the image to Costco and had 5x7 prints made. Turned out perfect!

Now my next big project was the game for the party. I wanted the kids to get to actually play Angry Birds! I found this great site here and decided to make a similar game!

I went to tons of stores looking for the plastic balls she used but couldn't find them. I settled for these red playground balls for $4 each from Wal-Mart. (A week after I painted the balls, I found the plastic ones at Wal-Mart. That is the kind of luck I have!) The playground balls worked fine and are still a favorite backyard toy.

Since I didn't have the green plastic balls, I used cans for the pigs. Now the game can double as an Angry Birds bowling game! I used this tutorial for painting the cans and the ball. I even used the same pain colors! I think it turned out great!

Then we just collected some boxes from neighbors and added a few extra cheap ones from Wal-Mart. Voila! We had an Angry Birds party game. All the guests loved it!

Now it was time to get to work on party favors. I saw all kinds of cute treat bags online but I really wanted to keep the costs of the goodies down. I hate taking my kids to parties and coming home with a bunch of candy, bubbles, tatoos and other junk. So I decided to make each girl an angry birds hair bow!

Isn't it cute?! They were tedious but not hard. I used this tutorial. Then I just put the bows in clear cello bags and tied with red curling ribbon.

I don't have a picture for some reason (it gets so crazy when hosting a kid birthday party) of the boy favors. I decided to really make the boys' parents happy (he he he) and give them sling shots! I got these ones from Oriental Trading company. I put them in clear cello bags with blue curling ribbon. The boys were super excited!

I didn't really bother with a lot of decorations. I just got table clothes and paper products in primary colors very cheap at Wal-Mart. But I just HAD to have balloons! I got a couple dozen balloons from my grocery store and used these free templates to make them into the birds and the pig! Look how cute they are...

Now it's time to talk about the food! No party is complete without it! We served Angry Bird English Muffin Pizzas! They were a hit!

We found huge pepporonis and used those for the face. The eyes are olives and the nose is a piece of pineapple. And they were actually quite tasty too!

Another food that we served were these deviled egg Angry Birds.

The eyes are deviled eggs with olives in the center. The beak is a half a piece of American cheese. Then we just took a sharpie and drew in the eyebrows. I was surprised by how quickly the kids gobbled up the eggs!

We also served popcorn in fun cups, but of course I never got a picture!

Now on to the sweets!!! I am NOT a cake maker! My husband has gotten a good laugh out of a few of my cake attempts. I usually order my cakes from the grocery store. But they are so expensive! I really wanted a playable cake. I figured that if I kept it simple, I could make it myself.
It won't win any prizes, my I think it turned out ok and Kyler loved it so that is all that really matters. I made two cakes and then frosted them together with green frosting. The tower is made with fudge stick cookies. The slingshot and birds came from an Angry Bird board game that we got Kyler for Christmas. I added some rocks around the edges. They are just milk duds.

So instead of blowing out candles, Kyler got to try and knock the pigs down. He and his friends thought that was pretty cool.

I wasn't really sure how messed up the cake would be after the playing, so I decided to also make Angry Bird cake pops! I got a cake pop machine for Christmas and so this was my first chance to use it. I am SO glad I did because they turned out amazing!

I just made the cake pops in my machine. Then I dipped them in melted red candy melts. Before the candy set, I stuck candy eyes and beaks on. I found them at Michael's. Then I piped on a little chocolate for eyebrows. Cake pops are a lot of work! Cupcakes would be quicker. But these are so much more special! I received TONS of compliments on these!

All of the guests loved the party and Kyler was one very happy birthday boy! The only thing left to do is scrapbook the event! I bought this kit and digi scrapped using Photoshop Elements.

I hope you enjoyed reading about all of our angry bird fun!

Twins 6th birthday

So I am 6 weeks late- but I am finally posting some pics from the twins' 6th birthday. I really struggled with the birthday this year. It was only a couple days after school started. So I was still a sappy mess. In fact, the night before their birthday, I told the girls the entire story of being pregnant and getting to meet them and what they were like as babies. It all just made me even more sad!

The day before their birthday, the girls brought ice cream cone cupcakes to school. I made the cupcakes after I dropped them off on the 1st day. It took forever- but was the perfect distraction. I thought Mrs. Kyte was so funny. She did some pretend birthday spankings and the whole class was laughing hysterically.

On their bday we woke them up singing. We had blueberry pancakes and then got right to opening the presents. There were a bunch! We redid the girls bedroom as a gift!

They also got ipods!

During the afternoon we went to As You Wish and painted pottery! Super fun! Danika made a rock star jewlery box and Makenzie painted a puppy.

Dinner at Olive Garden as the girls requested!

Gosh I love those sweet and beautiful girls!!! But I really wish they would stop growing!

First Day of School

I am getting closer to being caught up! Just 3 birthdays left!

Today I have pictures of the first day of school. Kyler is a 2nd graders. The twins are 1st graders. And my "Baby Laynee" started Kindergarten. I had such a hard time this year. I am SUPER sappy and this was the first year that they were all in school. Three days before school started- it hit me. It hit me hard. I just laid there in bed balling. And sniffling. It was pathetic. I kept thinking about the day that each of the kids were born. I thought about holding their little bodies. And I thought of all the things I would have changed if I had a second chance. I would have kept them home with me every single darn day. I would have yelled less. I would have played more. But too late now....they spend their days with their teacher and not me. I warned you that I was sappy! I cried for about 4 days. The 1st day was hard!!! I did ok with the big kids. But Laynee....a whole other story. I remember leaving the school crying like a baby. Scott decided to take me to breakfast a s a distraction. The poor waitress must have thought I was crazy!!! But the good news....the kids love school. They love their teachers and are excited to see their school friends again. I will make it through the first week!

I was crying...but the kids sure weren't!

Here is Laynee with her teacher, Mrs. Williams.

Laynee was not very excited about starting school. She kept telling me that she didn't want to go because she would miss me. But there weren't any tear. (From Laynee.) And I know she is gonna love Kindergarten!

I made it through the first day. Now I have 3 birthdays to cry through!