My Happy Thoughts: Coming of Age

I'm feeling really awful today, so I'm glad I have this list to cheer me up and make me feel at least mentally better. 

Friday was my birthday. My father pointed out that 33 is a hobbit's coming of age, which made me feel happy and excited to turn 33. My sister and I got introduced to J.R.R. Tolkien at a young age, I have super fond memories of my father reading me The Hobbit when I was little. When I was pregnant with Munch, John would read it to me at night while I crocheted. There is something comforting and wonderful to me about all things Middle Earth. Even the bad and scary stuff. 

On Friday I ran 7.65 miles. My personal distance record. Pretty sure I injured my foot, but I am so proud of myself for doing it and it was exhausting, but so much fun.

Again on Friday we went out for my birthday dinner with my Mum, sister and brother in law. The food was awesome, the company wonderful, the kids behaved and it all ended with a lion dance. The whole night made me happy.

Munch pretty much stayed under the lions beard the entire time it was at our table. 

Saturday, John and I headed out to Fort Worth for the Funky Finds Spring Fling. The day was fantastic and I might do a post on it later...but in the meantime, I am so happy that this guy organized it:

not sure why he looks like he's scowling, but I love this picture.

Sunday ended my birthday festivities with a cake and mini birthday party with my 3 awesome guys. I'm so lucky to have them in my life.

I am linking up with Art @ Home

Halloween Birthday Party

Yesterday, my sweet Munchman turned FOUR. I've been having a little trouble dealing with my kiddos getting older this year. I love watching them grow and learn, but my heart breaks that they aren't babies anymore. Munch insists that he is a BIG kid.

A month or so ago, Munch decided he wanted a Halloween Party for his birthday. I was SUPER excited. Halloween is my favorite holiday.

First, Lyndon helped me put together an invite.

 We used a Celebrate Card Template from Scrapping with Liz and a mix of several different Halloween freebies I've collected over the years. I tried to list them all but it is quite a list so if you have any questions on them, PLEASE feel free to ask.

I stressed forever about the cupcakes at the party...and failed to get a single picture. Then when I was putting this post together I realized I really didn't get as many detail shots as I would have liked. But here they are.

 The monster cake pops were my favorite. I made red velvet - chocolate chip pops...so they had a fun red center...and did you know you can buy edible eyes? I didn't...so I was excited when I found them.

Instead of favors I set up the kitchen table with foam pumpkins and stickers.The kids had a blast decorating them. Papa stuck some on the kitchen window and Nox has been calling it our pumpkin patch all day.

For more ideas check out my Halloween Pinterest Board. I recommend the Scarecrow Crunch. My boys (including the hubby love it!)

I was an exploding ball of stress right before the party, but it really was so much fun.



My Boys Monday: Super Birthday

We recently celebrated Munch's 3rd birthday. The original plan was to do a Dr. Seuss party, but then Munch discovered Superman...AND then Batman, Iron Man...Spiderman....you name the superhero, he probably knows exactly who you are talking about.

So Dr. Seuss will be put on the back burner for Nox next year (cause I already bought stuff.)

Planning this party was lots of fun. Although be warned, if you decide on a Superman theme you will run into problems finding much. Poor Clark just isn't as popular as he used to be.

First we did the invites. Superman T-shirt + white collar shirt + 3-D glasses with the lenses popped out make the PERFECT Clark Kent  (or as Munch insists MARK Kent). We had a fantastic photo shoot and I had fun photoshopping my little guy onto a phone booth picture I found. Our Clark Kent is British...or at least his mother is....half anyway.   

 I wanted to have "our" photographer there, but we had a minor miscommunication and she double booked. I had a minor panic attack, cause my good(ish) camera got a scratch on it's lense and was nearing death anyway. Poor thing. Thankfully my father-in-law let me borrow his Nikon D50. He's letting me borrow it for a bit longer and I think I'm in love. I took over 300 pictures at the party...mostly just playing with the camera.

ANYWAY...here it is. We got the cupcake-cake at Target. I made three color ruffled streamers, which I think I'll be doing for every party from now on. They are just WAY more fun than regular streamers.  Then I found a tutorial for a Comic Book Banner and made a couple of those too. Those were really fantastic, but it was hard to find Superman comics that would work. The better of the two is actually Spiderman.

Finishing touches included red and blue kool-aid bottles and red, blue and yellow lollipops. I was really happy with how festive it ended up looking and I think everyone had a great time.

Munch changed into several different costumes during the course of the party and I didn't manage to get a decent picture of the boys in their fantastic capes that day. BUT here they are.

These capes are fantastic. Nox is a tad small for his yet, but he has plenty of room to grow. We got them through Gramma Allie on Etsy. They are double sided so if you feel like Superman go for it....or Batman maybe? No problem. Genius! We bought our capes ready made, but she also offers a pattern to make it. I was feeling lazy, so I went with the really well made-by-someone-else cape.

There were about four million other things I wanted to do, but didn't get around to. Check out my Pinteresting Super Hero Board: HERE.

4th of July Crafty Recap

Wow, this is my 200th post! Sadly, I have nothing exciting planned. Maybe for my 250th!

I hope everyone had an amazing holiday weekend! We started it off by making amazing firework shirts for the boys. I love it when I can get my hubby to willingly craft with me!

Who knew sharpies and rubbing alcohol could create such a fun effect? Aparently Butterfly Jungle cause she has an awesome tutorial to make them: HERE. I'm a little terrified of washing them, they are in the dryer to set again.
I also made myself a shirt, using a tutorial I found over at tatertots and jello: HERE. It was really amazing how fast all the shirts came together! We will totally be making the fireworks shirts for the boys again next year and I will be sporting my awesome new flag tank! We also decided to try out this Red, White and Blue Sangria recipe. It was SO good. Slightly deadly though, I suggest small glasses.And of course Munch had a paint one of his masterpieces. We had a wonderful weekend with family and relaxing and fun. I was sad to see it end!