mermaid crowns

My dear friend, Wendy, dropped off a bag of fabulous green tulle a few weeks ago and my heart went all aflutter. My first thought was to use this wonderful green material as seaweed decorations for Miss Divine's Under the Sea party. (and I'm sure I will have enough to do so) But I spied around the internet a cute way to make mermaid crowns. I embellished the thought a little bit. Here is what I did:

I cut strips of the green tulle and tied them around a thin girl's headband. (Found six packs at Target for 2 dollars::Goody brand)

Then I hot glued on some shells. I have a variety of shells so no two crowns will be the same, but wanted to give an idea of the basic crown.

They are super easy and very quick to do. Add cute mermaid model and these will make a great party favor.

make a splash

Miss Divine and I have been playing around with her under the sea birthday party for a while now. She decided she was fascinated with the idea of mermaids and asked if she could have a mermaid party when she turned seven. Since I like to generalize the theme and go hog wild, we agreed upon "Under the Sea" with mermaids, seashells and the color blue. I sort of love it. I am always on the hunt for anything involving the ocean.

Last month I thought a message in a bottle would be a cute way to send out the invitations. Last year for El Fuego's science party, we stuffed the invitations into a test tube. Mailing things like this is a little more spendy but the kids think it's fun. When I mailed the science party invites, the lady behind counter just could not, for the life of her, see my vision and kept telling me it would be cheaper to just hand them out. "Yes, I know that, but this is more fun!!" I repeated myself.

Anyway, I found these six packs of bottles at Michael's. They do have them at Oriental Trading Company however it was actually cheaper to buy two of these at Michael's than ordering the set of a dozen from OTC. I also picked up these cute starfish ornaments too.

I printed out the invitations on regular paper this time and ripped the edges to give them that 'been out at sea' look. If you rip the paper towards you, it will give you the white edges. Ripping away from you will not.

We rolled the messages (invites) and tied with with twine.

We added a seashell and some sand.

Then I replaced the string with twine and tied the starfish onto the bottles.

Ta-Da! Turned out pretty cute.

Now I have to figure out how to mail them.

sparkle, sparkle

This weekend I was MIA. Gone to a little town called Forks Washington. If you are a Twihard you will know exactly where I was and you are green with envy at this very moment. Although the town is nothing to write home about, the experience was a total riot. It was a town we knew no one but yet managed to see everyone we met around every corner. I loved it. We drove to Port Angeles on Friday and spent the day stopping here and there. Rounding the evening off with dinner at Bella Italia. After the mushroom ravioli, we drove into Forks.
Because the March 20th was the release date of New Moon on DVD, we happened to fall into a midnight release party at the Twilight Lounge with women and kids of all ages dressed in prom dresses and odd get-ups. It was fascinating to people watch. We happened to be the last three on the list to get a copy of the movie. After which, we retreated to our hotel room.
On Saturday, we ate at the coffee shop Stephanie Meyer ate at before heading off to our tour. We sat beside the Mitch Hansen band that played at the Vampire Ball the night before. Then we boarded a small bus and embarked on the Volturi Tour. Stopping off at Forks High School, Bella's truck, The Cullen's house, Bella's house, the Police Station, the Forks hospital, the vampire/ware wolf treaty line, La Push (first beach) and Jacob's house.






La Push Washington.

First Beach

After the tour and falling into a fundraiser/auction for the high school and shopping and grabbing dinner, we hit up Karaoke night at the Twilight lounge. Running into all the people we had met along the way. It was a blast!

It also rained on us of course...it wouldn't be Forks if it didn't.

this is what I live with

Our first scottie dog, Angus, was a 27 pound lump of dead weight. He couldn't go up and down the stairs until he was a year old. His jumping off the couch sounded like a tree fell over and landed in the living room. He was low to the ground and quicker than lightening, but heights was not his thing. At all.

Now we have Franklin and Mavis. I thought we were safe as far as upstairs go, because they wouldn't even attempt to climb up until they were older. Boy was I wrong. When I would find miscellaneous socks lying around I knew a couple of puppies were getting themselves into trouble. The baby gates curved that. Mavis is light and springy and also a girl, so I already attribute many fabulous attributes to her. Nothing surprises me with my little Mavie-girl. She's got herself a mean streak though and barks that anything that moves. Drives me insane!

But then there is Frank. His body style is much like our beloved Angus. Heavy and wide with a low center of gravity. However, I was very surprised to come around the corner this morning and find Mr. Frankie-boy sitting on the chair in the kitchen nook searching for crumbs left by kids. As you can tell from the photo, he was pretty pleased with himself. Yup, pretty darn pleased indeed.

hey cupcake

Above is the adorable cupcake kit I'm swooning over. Originally found by the Hostess with the Mostess. I've been searching mermaid and under the sea birthday ideas over the big worldwide web. So far, much is very babyish like first birthday things with light pastel colors, or The Little Mermaid as in the Disney cartoon character. Neither is the spin I'm going for. I want girly but grown up. Lovely but not cutesy. Let's see if I pull it off.

score

I found these little adorable plates for Miss Divine's under the sea birthday party. I was so excited!

a thrifting i will go

Yesterday was a rainy, windy Northwestern day. The big kids were at school until 3pm and Petite Artiste and I had the whole day without places to be at and appointments to keep. I had come across some fun Antique shops and wanted to check them out. Spending the day amongst old forgotten treasures people were trying to hock sounded delightful. So off we went. Little did I know I would come across a few fabulous finds for Miss Divine's birthday party. And cheap too! Who doesn't love cheap I ask?? My husband loves cheap so I knew he would be happy.

I've been secretly ogling over peeps who post pictures of their old typewriters. I wanted one for the kids to play with and explore in this computer/technology age. My children don't even really know what a typewriter is and what people did with them. They think little laptops, tiny music players and super flat phones you carry in your pocket is a way of life. They simple can't imagine anyone growing up without those objects.

As we browsed and walked and touch and explored, I spied this little light blue beauty over in the corner. It didn't have a price as it was left over from an auction. It's small and in really good shape. But as I let my fingers trace the tops of the keys, I kept on walking. However, I couldn't stop thinking about it. A sales clerk approached us asking if I needed any help and I inquired about the little blue typewriter.

She said: "make me an offer"

I said: "I don't know, what do you want for it"

She said the magic words: "Hmmmm, ten dollars??"

I said: "SOLD!"

under the sea

Miss Divine's seventh birthday is in June. The rate my offspring are growing is frightening. I love that they are getting older and more fun, but I miss the baby-ness and smell of innocence.

Miss D declared she wanted a mermaid party. How fun I thought. Images of sea shells and blue balloons filled up my head. I love to go with very basic general themes and let loose. Go crazy! So I am preparing a mermaid party but with a more general under the sea theme. In our new house we have a sunken living room and I'm eager to turn it into the deep blue sea.

While shopping for some gifts at the bookstore this morning I happened to come across this treasure. I feel like I've struck gold. The recipes and creations are fantastic and Miss Divine has already started planning her birthday menu.

tricky

Recently I've found myself with a surplus of plain-jane ice cream cones. Petite Artiste fancied herself one the other morning. At first, I wasn't going to let her have it telling her she needed to eat something healthy for breakfast. This statement did not please her in the slightest. She held onto that ice cream cone for dear life as we peered into the refrigerator. I spied some strawberry/carrot yogurt and left over cool whip. Voila! I scooped the yogurt into the cone and topped it with cool whip and sprinkles. She couldn't have been more delighted with her breakfast du jour than if I had sat her down for tea with the queen. Sometimes you have to be smarter than the average bear I tell ya.

she joined the club

When Miss Divine was three years old, we were at Disney Land for the first time. I had seen a few girls walk around with a sticker on their shirts about getting their ears pierced. An instant light bulb pop on over my head. I inquired. And that afternoon we found ourselves in downtown Disney getting a fresh pair of pierced ears. It was all very cute. Minnie Mouse gave Miss Divine special attention and gave her feel better kisses on each ear. At that very moment I declared we had to visit Disneyland when Petite Artiste was three and get her ears pierce just the same. I'm a memory maker at heart and making things special for my kids turns my world.

However.

Life happens and we haven't been back to Disneyland with the kids since. We want to, but we just haven't. With Petite Artiste turning four, I asked if she wanted her ears pierced like her big sister and she agreed she did. I tried to get them done on her birthday but the stars and planets did not align so plans were postponed.

This afternoon things seemed to work out and Petite Artiste crawled up into that chair and sat perfectly motionless. She didn't cry. And, seemed to be a little bit in shock when it was all said and done. She was very, very quiet. When got into the car she announced "that hurt" and that's all we've heard about it. She has been in fine spirits for the rest of the day and she looks cute to boot. Not that Disneyland experience I was hoping for, but just as good.

families that bike together...

Yesterday was a cold but nice day. Petite Artiste got a bike for her birthday, so the kids enjoyed getting out and riding.

derby

A month or so ago, El Fuego took his #17 pinewood derby car to the races. He had worked very hard designing it, putting it together, painting it and getting it into tip-top racing shape. Last year he was a big winner taking home 1st place for the Tigers and 1st place for the pack. We had this huge trophy in our house for a year until we gave it back to the next winner to my relief.

This year his second car did pretty well as well. He won 1st place for the wolves and 3rd place for the pack. Different from last year, the winning cars got go to districts and race their cars against other pack winners. El Fuego was thrilled. Although, he didn't take home a prize from the experience, it was fun to go. We checked out the winning cars and took notes for next year's pinewood derby.

El Fuego's car at districts.

circus party

The circus came to town this past weekend and we celebrated the newest four year old. The party was loads of fun. Deano the Clown was a big hit although it took Petite Artiste a bit to warm up to him.