Mario and Luigi Showed Up Today...

to celebrate the boys' half birthday!

 

The boys' birthday is January 4.  Their technical half birthday is July 4.  We celebrated on the Saturday after the end of school-June 12. So, we were a few weeks early, but close enough.

We have a few "rules" about friends birthday parties 'round these parts.  Mainly, mommy will go insane if there is a friends' birthday party every year, so they get a friends birthday party every other year, starting in first grade.  They can invite whomever they choose.  They get to choose the theme and mommy goes to town.

I was desperately hoping the boys would choose superheros for their theme.  While doing a quick google search, I found tonnes of ideas for that theme.  It was not to be, though.  The boys quickly decided that superheros was simply no longer cool for rising second graders!  Geez, mom...what do we look like?  Babies?  I don't think so! 

Apparently, the 'cool' thing this year is Super Mario Bros.  Uh...hmmmm...what?  I remember Super Mario Bros. vaguely from my youth playing on the old school Nintendo video game system.  I sorta remembered flowers, crazy turtles and question mark boxes; but other than the two main characters, I knew nothing about this game.  Fabulous. 

So...off to google!  Google is my friend.  I bow to the creators of google in my undying thanks because if it weren't for this nifty little search engine, this birthday party would have been a major bust. 

Apparently my boys weren't the first kids on the planet to want a Super Mario Bros. party, so I was able to gleen a few good ideas on what to do for decor, games, food etc.

The food was actually the easiest because we'd 'won' the use of school/church's parish hall at the school's gala event in February.  Included in that was a gift certificate for pizza.  YAY!  I ended up getting Capri Sun sip-ups to make my life easier than having to pour drinks.  Easy peasey and the kids were in heaven.

The table decorations I kept really simple.  I got red plastic tablecloths at the party store and set the table with green paper products: cutlery, plates and napkins.  I lucked out and found some pinwheels that were shaped like flowers in red and I thought they looked a lot like the flowers in the Mario game. I put them in clay flower pots that I filled with stones and set them in the center of the table with some gold 'coins' strewn across the table.  

Each place setting also had a Mario or Luigi foam visor, a Mario or Luigi blow-pop


(I went to her website many times and never could find the templates, so I experimented and came up with my own.  I made sure each character had the correct mustache.  These were finicky,a little bit of a pain to make, but the look of sheer joy from the boys when they saw them, make it totally worth it!) and a Mario or Luigi style stick on mustache I found on Amazon.  Oh, the kids were so cute with those on!

I made the happy birthday banner using multicolored cardstock cut into triangles to create a pennant style banner.  I printed off color pictures of the main characters of the game, hole-punched some holes in the two corners and wove some solid blue ribbon to attache them all together.  I used my cricut to cut out the letters for the banner in black.  I think it turned out really well!


Other than that, we bought some streamers and hung them from the windows in the hall to diffuse the direct sunlight a bit and add some fun color to the room. 

For activities we did a few things.  First up was "Pin the Moustache on Mario".  Many thanks to the Tip Junkie for her pdf for the game.  I got it printed at Costco at the biggest poster size they offer for this game.  It went really well.  One thing I did, though, was I cut out mustache's printed on white cardstock and wrote all the kids' names on them.  This made it a bunch easier to see who still needed to play and who "won" the game at the end.  It was fun!



After our first game, we got the kids to sit down and have some pizza and drinks and then we sang Happy Birthday to each boy individually.  William wanted Mario on his cake and thankfully, John wanted Luigi.  I made their cakes and all I can say is colored buttercream hides a multitude of mistakes!  They all seemed happy with the cake and the boys were totally thrilled with them, so I guess that's really all that counts!


After eating cake, the kids went outside for our two final games.  The first was a Mario and Luigi obstacle course!  It just kinda came to me one night when I was stressing about what the heck I was going to do with 20ish kids at the party (I am so not a party person, which is another reason we have the 'every other year' rule for friend birthday parties!).  I bought two hula hoops, took along the boys' scooters, borrowed some jump ropes from school, found a couple of old ice cream gallon sized ice cream buckets and a green and an red ball, and the plastic eggs and Easter baskets from Easter and VOILA! obstacle course!
The kids were to run to the jump ropes, and jump 10 time total.  Then they needed to move on to the buckets and toss the ball in (I would have used squoosy balls or bean bags next time.  These kept bouncing out! Poor kids!), go to the hula hoops and hula hoop 5 times, move to the eggs and put one on a spoon and race to the scooters so they could scoot back to the start and high-five the next person on their team to go.  It was really fun!  We divided the kids based on the hats they were wearing when they chose their seats so there was no one getting upset at wanting to be on the Luigi Team, but ending up on the Mario team instead or vice versa.  I wish I had pictures to share of this, but I was busy making sure the kids were doing what they needed to do and not getting frustrated with some of the tasks (the ball kept popping out of the bucket, so we changed the rule that they had 3 tries; if the ball went in and popped out, they could go on and they could go on after 3 tries at tossing the ball in).

The last game we played was water balloon toss.  Oh, my!  It was FUN! and FUNNY to watch! The kids had a good time and some were happy not to get wet while others were quite disappointed when they didn't get wet! LOL! (we had told parents there was the possibility of the kids getting wet so no one would be surprised to find a wet child upon pickup!). 

We timed this last game so that it ended when the Italian Ice truck arrived.  It was perfect timing!  The kids were hot and thrilled to see Carmen's Italian Ice arrive on the scene.  The guy was great working with the kids and even pulled out the canopy and got in for a picture with the kids.  It was a great way to end the party!

We did really quick and simple goody bags for the kids.  I created a Mario and Luigi coloring book from coloring pages I found with a quick google search.  I included a set of crayons, a Mario and a Luigi blow pop, some coins and a chocolate lollipop mustache I made using this mold I found on Amazon.  They turned out so cute!  I put them all in a small handled gift bag I found at Michaels with a tag that read "Game Over!  Thanks for playing!".  It was cute!

So...all in all the boys were thrilled, the kids all seemed to enjoy themselves and I now get to rest for another couple of years before the birthday party madness happens all over again! :D 

My First 5K

and I think I'm hooked!

I found out about a 'learn to run' course offered by a local running store and I must have gotten a touch of the 'craycray' because I signed up, bought shoes, insoles and socks, took a deep breath and on March 28, I started running...kind of. 

The course culminated in a 5K run.

When I started training at the end of March and May 30 seemed very far away. Honestly, I just didn't think I'd actually make it to the end of the course, let alone actually participate in a 5K.

Ten weeks later, not only did I sign up for the 5K, I actually completed it! And most importantly, I didn't die! ;)

The running bug has bitten...I'm already thinking of which race I'll do next!  Heaven help us all! ;D

Turning 9!

I've been away from the blogging world for a while. Not so sure anyone noticed, but I'm semi-back!

Yesterday, my girly had her 9th birthday party with her friends. She invited 6 girls for a cupcake sleepover themed birthday party.

Parties are not what I do well. In fact, it's something I have massive anxiety doing. I couldn't, however, disappoint her though. So, I took a breath and jumped in with both feet.

I have to say, the internet is a fabulous resource for people like me...those who lack creativity or need a springboard to help unleash whatever minute amount of creativity may lurk within!
A quick google search helped me gather my thoughts and figure out what I wanted to do for the party.

I got the invites together; which I forgot to take a picture of. I used my fun cupcake stamps to make a "Hey Cupcake" invite to send out. They turned out really nice; I'm just sad I forgot to take a picture to share.

Then I got busy looking for anything cupcake. It seems anytime M chooses a theme, all the forces in the universe unite and I find everything I need for the theme! Yay! For the goody bags, I used small, clear paint cans I found at Jo-Anns. I used several 40-50% off coupons to get them for a reasonable price and then went on my merry way filling them up!



The first thing I found was this adorable cupcake mini-frame at Michaels. I managed to get it on sale for 40% off one week and went and bought the six I needed. I also found this cupcake container that feels like it was made of crêpe paper and this cupcake lipbalm for $1 each at Michaels' dollar bin. Score!

During my internet browsing, I came across this site and found these. So I figured they couldn't be that hard and made some for all the girls. I also picked up some smaller gumballs and made a braclet for them as well. For the bubblegum necklace, I used ribbon. It was a pain to string the giant gumballs on the ribbon. I think it was because the ribbon was too wide. If I were to do it again, I'd choose a smaller width ribbon to string through. The gumball braclets, I used elastic and it worked out so much easier.

Then, we went off to Target and found all these cool cupcake table stuff: plates, napkins, cups and a tablecloth. I also hit up Michaels and picked up some cupcake boxes to box up the cupcakes the girls ended up decorating. I seriously need to buy stock in Target and Michaels for all the money I spend there!

I also made these cute (I think) cupcake pillows. I was inspired by this party here. Now, the owls pictured in that party are adorable. I certainly don't have the same level of skill and thankfully I didn't have too many to make, but I think they turned out really well. M chose the colors for each girl. I found a cupcake clipart/coloring page, enlarged it and cut out my template. Traced each part on the felt, cut it out and stitched 'em up. I used the same blanket stitch as the lady did on her owl pillows. I found this youtube video helpful in figuring out how to do it. It's really not that hard, thankfully!

I made the decorations as well. There were minimal decorations, but they tied in well with the theme and colors of the party. I made this pompom after seeing several professional party planning blogs use them in their decor. To buy them premade was rather expensive. For about the cost of $2, I was able to make it with directions from Martha Stewart. Her's looks so much nicer than mine, but M was over the moon excited about it. I also used my cricut and scrap paper and ribbon to make her birthday banner. It turned out well, I think!

To round out the cupcake theme, I happened across a cupcake t-shirt at The Children's Place. I was on that like white on rice! I kept it a secret until yesterday. I laid it over her birthday chair at the table for her to find. She loved it!

I kept dinner super simple: pizza! But before I revealed we were having pizza, I told the girls that R had eaten the pizza I'd bought (by the way, Safeway makes the most awesome grocery store pizza I've ever had. Check 'em out! They're afforable--I got 'em on sale for $7 each--and they taste pretty good! Much better than Dominos or Pizza Hut in my opinion!). They were slightly bummed, but I told them I'd made spaghetti and meatballs, mashed potatoes and peas and carrots for dinner instead. They were very happy when they saw their "dinner":

The girls all seemed to have had a great time. M told me many times that she loved everything and that it was the best party ever! :D That made me so happy!

She doesn't officially turn 9 until Monday and I'm hanging on to that sweet 8-year-old until them; but I am glad I helped usher in her 9th year on a happy, sweet note.

OH.MY.GOODNESS!

Almost a month ago; January 2, 2010 to be precise, I joined Weight Watchers. I also started exercising on average 3 times per week for at least 30 minutes. I haven't been perfect. I have had slip-ups. I haven't always gotten on the treadmill whether it was because of a late day driving kids here and there or just not feeling well/up to it.


BUT....

As of today, I've lost 10.6 POUNDS! In.a.month!

HOLY MACCARONI!

TEN POUNDS?!!! TEN!!!????

YEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

I've Been Busy...

So I haven't really updated in about three weeks. Oooppppssss!

I had great intentions, but it just got crazy and I didn't.

Over the past three weeks there have been a number of fun and not so fun things happen.

Not so fun things:

1. Bathroom tiles need replacing. This turns into finding major mold behind the wall which leads to finding out how poorly Ryan Homes built our house. The assholes! Oh, and the other asshole who put in our gutters with no flashing...yeah, I hate him too. Our costs have about doubled at this point and I want to cry.

It's also taking 2.5 times longer to finish this wonderful project. The only upside is that when this is done, I should have a lovely bath area. No, not bathroom...just bath and shower area. We just don't have the funds right now to do the whole bathroom remodel. I'm hoping we can get that done before the year's out. We shall see. We've been hemorraging money for the past couple of weeks and I'm a little gun-shy about ripping stuff out now!

2. Robin is out of town at the beginning of this great remodel leaving me to haul kids to school and back, make decisions regarding the ridiculous bath situation and still work full-time. Can't wait 'til he's gone again in early February. My only consolation? He'll be missing the Superbowl as he leaves February 7th! Ha, Karma and all that. (OK, I'm not really happy he's missing the Superbowl; I'm just annoyed he has to travel again so soon).

3. Because of the great bathroom remodel fiasco, I was unable to exercise for a week and a half.

Good things:

1. My boys turned SIX on January 4! SIX! Where the heck did the time go? (I'll post pictures later...you know, when I get them off my camera!)

2. I'll have a nice bath area soon! Can't wait to soak in that beautiful jacuzzi tub we got! It looks sooooo nice. I'm just waiting for the area to be tiled and then I'm in and I'm not coming out!

3. Even though I couldn't really exercise, I've lost 7.8 pounds in three weeks! Whoot! I can't believe it! I'm working the Weight Watchers, though. I'm proud to say I declined a chocolate milkshake this afternoon and didn't even feel deprived! Now, that's some progress!

4. I walked for 40 minutes and 1.52 miles today for the first time EVER at a pretty good clip for a lady my weight! Yippee!

I'm going to try and be more consistent in updating. Even if it's just for myself. I like to see how far I've come!

4. After exercising I.FEEL.GREAT! Scarey, no? I actually MISSED it when I couldn't exercise.

Oh, Happy Day!

Ok, official workout day number 3 and I've done my treadmill again.

Here're the stats:

• treadmill
• 34:24 minutes
• 1.2 miles
• 175 calories
• 54.7 fat calories
• Fastest speed: 2.5 miles/hour

:D

A Journey Of A Thousand Miles...

begins with with a single step." ~Confucius

Today, I took the second step. Yesterday, I began the "exercise every day" goal. Today, I joined Weight Watchers. Yep. Again.

I think I like this group, though. From what I can gather, this is a pretty fun, talkative group. It'll be nice, I think to be able to listen to others, but also jump in and not feel like I'm the only one talking. The regualr leader wasn't there, but the substitute seemed nice; so that's good. I'm curious to see how it will go with the regular leader there next week. The reception staff/weighers were very nice. No flinching when I stepped on the scale at the number she saw. She was lovely when I told her I didn't want to know the number out loud.

It took me a bit to peek at it and maaaannnn...I'm not likin' it too much. More than I ever weighed...sigh...Oh well. It's a start.

Sooooo, right after the meeting, I went to Staples to pick up so I could pick up a binder that I'm going to decorate and organize to hold all the information I need and receive. That way, I have something I like that holds what I need and still be discrete about what I'm doing. I don't really need to keep it a secret, but I refuse to shout it from the rooftops just yet.

Anyway, I'm going to be sure to update daily with my exercise totals. So, without further ado...

• Treadmill
• Time: 33.17 minutes
• Distance: 1.15 miles
• Fastest speed: 2.4 miles/hour
• Fat calories: 52.4
• Total calories: 167