Friday, July 31, 2009

Super Fun "Black Light" Party

Ok, I think I have created a monster…“a scary party” monster! When my mom was here last weekend, Brayden was begging to go outside and use his glow sticks. Already having several mosquito bites, I wasn’t a fan of him getting any more. Being the lil problem solver he is, he came up with the idea that we could just: “turn off all the lights downstairs and the tv and computers and then it will work.” So as he turned off all the lights and twirled his sticks around, it reminded me of my college days and going to black light parties. I remembered laundry detergent everywhere, so off to google in search of “detergent and black lights.” I found this great website that had several ideas of what glows under black lights and of course my mind started racing. We could create our own lil black light party in our own hosue. After a trip to the Dollar Store and Walmart we got our supplies and were ready for around $35.

We purchased from Walmart:
• 2- 24inch Black Lights $22 (definitely recommend at least 2)
• 1 black twin flat sheet $3 (plan on going to get a couple more)
• 10 Black large trash bags $1
• Glow in the Dark Pony Beads and white ribbon $3 (I made a necklace for myself, but since “boys don’t wear necklaces” Brayden made a snake.

From the Dollar Tree:
• Neon orange large sunglasses
• white crepe paper
• black vinyl tablecloth
• 3 pack of yellow highlighters (These worked wonderful!)
• Laundry detergent (This didn’t quite work out as well as I had hoped, not sure if its because I got one that only cost $1 or not.)
• Petroleum Jelly (This didn’t quite work out as well either.)
(We also used my black bath mat and a black towel that I had to help cover the floor. We had purchased a “glow in the dark” mask the other day at Hobby Lobby that Brayden got to paint on his own.)
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I had Brayden stay downstairs creating his glow in the dark snake, as I set everything up.
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For the setup, I used our hallway.
To cover the floor: I used the twin sheet, bath mat, towel, and a couple of trashbags.
For the wall and door: I used the vinyl tablecloth and I opened up the trashbags…these made a great canvas so he could write on them.
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When he was finished, I was closer to being done so I let him make his way up 3/4 of the stairs. Here he is patiently waiting in anticipation. ( I was so PROUD of him...there was no peeking!)
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He was sooooooo excited for it to FINALLY be "party time"!!
A few things that we thought were really fun: We added white copy paper to the vinyl tablecloth for him to draw on with the highlighters. We also discovered you can use highlighter on clothes and it washes out. We just tried it on his cheap undershirt, but after I washed and dried it all the highlighting was gone. =) And of course, you've got have fun music so can you dance around. =)


Believe it or not, the clean up was actually really easy! All I did was roll up the sheet, bath mat, towel and Brayden's clothes and put them straight in the washing machine (since we had used the detergent). He of course went straight to the shower. =) For the trash bags and crepe paper I just used scotch tape so they all came down easily. Since I'm cheap, I also folded them up and put them in a big ziploc bag so we could reuse them again. The tablecloth was hung up using just 2 pushpins so it will be easy to take down also. (We actually still have it hung because he is wanting to have more fun with it.)

I would highly recommend trying it yourself. We had an ABSOLUTE BLAST!! The first thing he asked when he woke up the next morning “Can we have another scary party?”

We still have a few little tweaks I want to work out...the laundry detergent (I'll try some of my Tide) and I bought Tonic Water but didn't have time to try it out. I also had bought some cheap glow in the dark paint from Hobby Lobby that I I'm trying to figure out a way we can use it. If anyone has any suggestions/ideas feel free to share them. =)
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Mod Podge Mania and Giveaway

One of my favorite things about blogging is finding all new blogs with great ideas to inspire my creativity. I recently came across a blog that I love This is the Year. She host a monthly party called Mod Podge Mania. (Mod Podge is one of my favorite crafting tools this summer...the possibilities are absolutely endless with it!!) You link up a mod podge project that you have created with step by step instructions. Since I just found this blog a couple of days ago I didn't quite have enough time to post a new project, so instead for this month I submitted Brayden's surfboard.

Go check out her site, and link up if you have a project of your own. Plus, she is giving away her project that she created to one lucky blogger!!!


Be sure to head on over and check it out!!


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Thursday, July 30, 2009

Our Not-So "Jammin in July" Thursday


If you have read through my blog, you might remember a post "Jamnin in July." Thursday nights the month of July McKinney has music at the park. Since this is the last Thursday of the month and we didn't get to make it the last two I was excited to take Brayden tonight. I was dying to use use our cute, new picnic basket and matching blanket. I just had 2 problems with this plan: 1) I had a midterm and assignment that were both due by midnight. (Being the procrastinator I am, the assignment had not been started and typically I work on them up until 11:55.) 2) This morning I woke up to a HORRIBLE thunderstorm, so I instantly thought: I wonder if they'll cancel it tonight? I thought surely they would, we had TORRENTIAL rain for goodness sakes. Well as the day progressed, the sun became more and more visible. We went on with our day and I completly forgot about my thoughts of it possibly be cancelled. In fact, I did my best to schedule everything so it would be possible for us to go. Thanks to my wonderful friend Lacy, Brayden had a fun lil playdate with his best girlfriend Katey while I took my midterm. I planned it perfectly so that we would come home, Brayden would take about an hour nap before we left for the park. As he was napping, my game plan was to get my ideas ready for my assignment so I could take it with me to the park and jot down notes on what I would want to write. This part of the plan went exactly as planned..as you can see Brayden is SOUND asleep on our way home from Katey's.

Everything was falling exactly into place. I packed up my assignment, stuffed our picnic basket with Brayden approved food and drinks, grabbed the blanket and we hustled out the door. As we got a little closer to the park, I thought to myself it probably wasn't the smartest move to bring a blanket for us to sit on after all that rain this morning...probably should have brought our chairs instead. Then I noticed the parking lot where we usually park was pretty empty. As we got even closer, I noticed it was COMPLETELY empty in exception to a couple of cars. Of course my initial thought: maybe everyone just forgot about it tonight. I looked for the stage...no stage. Sadly, I came to the obvious conclusion it was cancelled for the evening. I headed on home with Brayden taking another lil cat nap in the back. Then I got to thinking, he is going to be so disappointed that we aren't going on a picnic. I probably won't be able to work on my assignment with deep concentration because he will ask me every 5 minutes when we're going to go on a picnic. To prevent that, I decided we would could go to the park by our house. We would still be able to have our picnic with our cute basket and blanket, and then he could play on the playground afterwards...problem solved. =)


P.S. I promise we wouldn't really be at the park when it is as dark as it appears in his swinging pictures. I didn't use the nightflash so I could use the action setting instead. =)

A mommy portrait, courtesy of Brayden:




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Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Summer Wednesdays

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During the summer Brayden's FAVORITE day of the week is Wednesday. Why Wednesday? Wednesday is our trash day. I know, it sounds disgusting, but this is the one day of the week he gets to be within 10 feet of a big huge truck that makes loud beeping noises . It's gotta be a boy thing. =)
I think from the moment he wakes up he is listening for the "beeping" noise with supersonic ears. Anytime he thinks it is remotely close to us, we have to rush outside "just to check". More times than not when we check, its not even close to our street. Sadly, we come back inside after waiting a few minutes and then every 10 minutes I get to hear "When is the trashman going to get here?" After a few more false alarms and waiting....




He finally arrives and Brayden couldn't be any happier!! Sometimes it's the simple things in life that are so satisifying... especially to a 4 year old. =)

Lucky for us, we get to experience this 2 times every Wednesday during summer break; we have both trash and recycle. (I know, so exciting!?!) The funny thing about it, every Wednesday, I still have to explain to him why the truck only gets 1 of the traschans. He is always so worried about the "forgotten" trashcan. Once I remind him that the other guy will come later, the excitment starts all over again. =)

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Fortunately for us we have two sweet guys that come get our trash/recycle that always willingly lend several waves to Brayden as he watches in excitement.
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After each one leaves...it's chore time. =)
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"So Stinky!!!"
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Sneak Peak at Tomorrow's Post:
HINT: Supplies purchased for a "Blacklight Party".



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Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Easy to Make Hoop Bulletin Board

I found a really cute project idea over on Sweet Jessie that she called "Put a Cork in it". I thought it was just too cute not to try, since I already had most of the supplies at my house. The only thing I had to get were the embroidery hoops at Hobby Lobby (Wal-Mart doesn't sell them anymore) and material.

Supplies:
*Cork board (I already had cork squares from a previous project that I no longer use.
*Paint and sponge brush
* material of your choice (I used small hoops so I only needed 7/8 yd.)
* Scissors and glue gun


1. Separate your hoops. Then I painted the larger hoop to match the style I was looking for, instead of having the wood look.
2. While the paint is drying, cut the cork to fit the "inside" embroidery hoop.


3. Cut your material in a circle, larger than your hoop. You'll need to tuck it behind the larger hoop.

4. Then place your larger hoop on top and tighten it.

5. Turn it over to the back and tuck the material down using hot glue to secure. I used hot glue because I knew I would not want to interchange my fabric, if you would like to interchange fabric you could always choose to staple instead.



6. That's it! Your all finished....total project time about 10 minutes including paint and drying time.


I did this project to take to school to display pictures of Brayden behind my desk. I had some cheap little quote books that I had picked up at Wal-Mart one time on clearance. I matted them on some paper and added them also.

(I still plan on adding a couple more pictures, but I need to wait until I get a few printed from this summer.)
Close up:

Total Project Cost: less than $5 for hoops and material

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Monday, July 27, 2009

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Normally, I wouldn't let Brayden play out in the rain in fear of him getting sick, but who couldn't say no to this sweet little face:



We were downstairs listening to the rain and playing Webkinz on his computer, when he claimed "I've got an idea!". So he went upstairs for a few minutes and when I heard him open the coat closet I knew exactly what he is was going for...his raincoat. He also thought he needed a pair of pants on, so he grabbed a pair of those to and put them on all by himself along with his raincoat. At that point, I just couldn't say no. =)








He had such a blast playing in the rain! Of course, everyone he heard thunder he came running to me, but that only lasted a couple of seconds before he was right out there again.






Eventually he had to loose the pants, because they were to big and kept falling down. (I then discovered they were a brand new pair I had already gotten for Fall, so the elastic was cinched up.)


Then, he came up with a creative addition to his play...his water shooter we just got this weekend. =) On his own, he knew he needed to put it in a puddle to get the water. In my mind, I was thinking it wouldn't really work out for him, but first shot he proved me wrong. Right all over me (just standing in the doorway)! I think we were both a little in shock that it actually worked.








"Gotcha Mommy!!"









I think we might just have to play in the rain again some day. =)

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