Superhero party!

The summer around here has been very busy. We've unpacked from the house move; worked on the garden; prepared for new starts at school and preschool as well as working hard at our jobs.

September has brought all new kinds of routines in our house to which we are still adjusting.

To start, this bundle of loveliness turned 5! I really can't believe it! Given his birthday is so early on in the month we knew that we'd need to organise and invite people early as we might not see them too much over the holidays. J kept changing his mind over his party theme choosing Ben10, Spiderman, Batman etc so we talked it over and decided to roll it all into one theme: Superheroes!

I spent ages looking at ideas on Pinterest and thinking about what we could do. I knew I really wanted it to be based outdoors; 17 children running loose in my house is not my idea of fun! Luckily, we've always been really lucky with the weather around his birthday and we chose the final really sunny weekend of the year. If anything it was probably too hot as after a while all the children had to strip off their Superhero costumes for fear of melting!

We hung decorations that K designed at work around the garden: off the trees, fences and our wooden gazebo area. I added some streamers too for the party effect.

 Kev found this red, white and blue bunting reduced to £1.50 in the ELC so he snagged up 2 packets which was easily enough to do one long side of fence and around the front of the house. Again, it really added to the party atmosphere.

 We turned the gazebo area into a superhero den with more superhero words hanging from the ceiling and paper streamers attached. Underneath and out of the way of the sun, we had a couple of tables with Superhero colouring sheets I'd printed out and a craft table with some paper Superhero masks and things to stick on them as decorations. The kids really loved this! It kept them entertained as they were arriving and meant that parents didn't need to worry about their child missing out if they weren't dressed up.

Once all the children were here we played a few games including Musical Superhero statues (Chn ran aorund like Superheroes until the music stopped and then had to stand like a Superhero) and Pass the Parcel. I'd chosen some Superhero themed prizes from places like Poundland and The Works, which were a big hit!

Once lunchtime came (we held the party from 11-1 to coincide with lunch) we had hotdogs and potato wedges which went down well and were really easy to do.

The cakes are always the bit of a birthday I tend to plan first. They're pretty much the only thing I insist on doing every year. This year we had cupcakes with Superhero cake toppers that I found on Ebay. These were easy to give away at the end of the party rather than having to worry about cutting into the main cake when I really wanted to be outside with J and his friends.

 For his main cake, he wanted a chocolate sponge, so using a pattern guide from an old family friend, I cut a circle and loaf cake into the shape of a number 5 and then iced it with blue ready roll icing before decorating with an icing pen and some Spiderman figures from the toyshop.

All his friends came dressed as Superheroes which was really cute! I was so pleased that all his friends (and their parents!) made that effort as it really added to the day. We had Spiderman, Batman, Supergirl, Buzz Lightyear, Superhero Minnie mouses... They all looked great!

As an additional surprise the REAL Spiderman also paid a visit to play with the children. My nephew, C, was SO pleased to see him! I've since heard other children are now asking for Spidey to make a visit at their parties!!

 As Spiderman came towards the end of the party, I used this point to take a group photo of all the children with Spidey so that I could print it out and attach it to J's thank you cards as a reminder of the day.

 Before the children  went home, I had again made some party bags for each child filled with Superhero themed gifts such as some Avengers Candy sticks from the local shop; Superhero Chupa Chups; Spiderman stickers etc. I personalised each bag with a Superhero character cut out using my Cricut and made to look like each child with their own inital on the front. These type of touches seemed to make the day even more special.

 



At the end of the day, J told me that he'd really enjoyed his party and tiredly said, 'I love my Spiderman cake' so I know all the effort was really worth it.

I have 2 months to recover now before I have to think about E's party!

Liebster Blog

Wow! Hello new style blogger- lets see how we get on...

Firstly, I should say that my Project Life album is still under work but has had to take a back burner this week and next as we gear up for the BIG MOVE part 1. Yes, this is our last week in our own home before I have to move my family back in with my parents ready for the BIG MOVE part 2. At the moment, I'm spending most of my spare time sorting, packing, cleaning and generally trying to keep sane. I shall return with the more recent weeks as soon as possible though.

Secondly, I'd like to say thanks to Suz for nominating me for the Liebster Blog Award.

The Liebster Blog Award is awarded to show appreciation of smaller blogs (under 200 followers) and to help with readership. As part of the tradition, the award is to be passed along to five other blogs that have motivated and inspired me.


To accept the Award you must:


1. Thank your Leibster Award sender on your Blog;


2. Link back to your sender on your Blog;


3. Copy and paste your Leibster onto your Blog;


4. Present the Leibster Award to 5 other Blogs with 200 or less Followers that you feel deserves some attention and recognition for awesome stuff


5. Let them know they have been chosen by leaving them a comment on their Blog.


So, tag! I'm it to share the love of 5 blogs that bring me joy, creativity and inspiration!

Here's my selection of places I go to regularly:
1. Suz Mannecke- back at ya girl! All things inspiring. One day my dear....

2. Laura Buckingham/Lazy Dynammics- Love everything she creates.

3. Beksy Normz- full of lovely teaching talk/ chatter/ craft/ crochet/ costa coffee loving... I think we might have been separated at birth!

4. Lexi Bridges- Im sure she must have over 200 followers and if not, I want to know why not, but again, I think her work is fantastic! Check her out!

5. Shimelle- Again, another with more than 200 followers but for a mojo lift, you can't go wrong.

Project life week 9-12

Hello March...
Week 9:
Some more small snapshots of our daily life including childrens bedtime routine, favourite games and the cost of our shopping! You'll also notice that this is where the album changes slightly as I started printing my pictures at home hence they're smaller (I usually use instagram as my camera so this is actually easier for me than using professional printers although I'm thinking of changing this up again soon- more on that later!) and my Project Life official kit came so the page protectors change look again (so far I'd been using WRMK and American Crafts). I also included a quote I'd seen on twitter which seemed appropriate for this time in my life.

Week 10:

Some spring pictures, some photos from preschool and some really old pictures that my friend found of us from years ago and emailled me. :) Also silly photos from my work trip to Birmingham with a friend along with our daft, pre trip texts. I've also included other small details from our daily lives including my children reading together.

Week 11:

A surprise! My H bought me a new bike! Also some other small details of our life such as alphabet dinners, being waved off to work from the window, LEGO minifigures, texts between myself and my mum, another self portrait plus my nephews 1st birthday. Phew!

Week 12:

The sun came out and so did we! I cut the grass which was so satisfying plus we had trips to the park and an afternoon stroll with the grandparents.

Almost caught up. Just a few more weeks to go...

Project Life weeks 5-8

And into February we go..
Week 5:
Snow, snow and a bit more snow! Some playgroup shots, a few favourites from myself and some writing from Jack. I did an insert for the snow day alongside a page showing the story of how the snow came down following our afternoon tobagganing.

Week 6:

A few 'looking up' & 'looking down' shots to show the difference in the weather plus some photos to show the thermometer showing negative readings. A work photo, a funny story about my two superheroes and some writing taken from an envelope my son wrote on as well as my nephews birthday insert.

Week 7:

More superhero behaviour as well as another half term cold (any other teachers always get poorly at holiday time?), some photos of my crocheting progress, my little cook in the kitchen plus his first (not very successful) trip to the cinema (both on inserts). In hindsight, I should have done these as one 12x12 insert (a side per topic) rather than two 6x12s. I would change it now but I've been thrifty and scrapped on both sides of the paper so it won't work. :( There's also the story of us buying our house alongside a few smaller details of our life plus our first envelope page with artwork and valentines cards inside.

Week 8:
Some lovenotes from my H and my bestie plus a self portrait and a sunset shot I took on my walk home from work. I've also included the story of what happened with our landlord as I don't want this album to be completely 'glass always full'. Another insert of our daily life with Em plus her horrible illness which went on for over a week. :(

And onwards to March....

Project Life weeks 1-4

So here goes! A series of posts detailing my Project Life album so far...
Front cover:
Being completely unorganised I didn't take a beautiful self portrait or family shot at the start of the year, unlike most other project lifers. In fact, in the end all I had were some instagram shots of my trainers documenting my new resolve to pull them on a bit more in 2012!

Week one:

A birthday party, a new top and a date night were most of what I captured in this single sided week.

Week 2:

Another birthday party, some fabric crafting and 'a sick note' all appeared in week 2.

Week 3:

I was starting to think more like a Project Lifer by now and really think about what I wanted to document hence the first of the two page weeks. I really like these pages because of the mixture of journalling (some facts, some quotes, not just a diary of what we did). I typed most of the journalling for these pages using a typewriter font. This was part of my catching up process initially as I'd decide which photos I was using and then do the journalling in bulk. Print, cut and add to the photo pages before embellishing.

Week 4:

More fabric crafting and my first insert pages to document Jacks first football match experience- via the executive box! I also included the first pieces of artwork from the children both as an insert and as an inclusion within the page protector.

And onwards to Feb. Pop by tomorrow to see the album evolve...

Engagement shoot

My brother and his fiancee got engaged last October and as part of their wedding photo package had the opportunity to do an engagement shoot in Cambridge in February. These photos were lying in my crop bag on Friday night and seemed just perfect for the challenge that Shimelle set out in the online crop. I took inspiration from the colours, the placement and the scattered embellishments to make this.

Long Distance Friend

Wow! 2 months since my last post! We have been very busy though:

• Our biggest news is that we've finally bought a house- yay! Although the downside to this is having to move back in with my mum after 10 years away, as our landlord won't extend our contract. Lots of packing going on here and decisions as to what can go into storage and what is going to mums. The upside is that it should only be for a month and not paying rent means more money to spend on the new place. Plus Kev and I see this as 2 live in babysitters.... (Just joking mum!)




• I increased my hours on a temporary basis from Feb- April to 80% which was just something else to re-timetable into our week childcare wise etc. However, the money was much appreciated especially with the imminent house move.




• Kev also accepted a new job offer and a promotion so he's feeling really positive workwise too.




• As a trade off to being so busy though my project life took a bit of a back burner. I've spent much of Easter holidays catching up with this so I can share it on here soon. Keep checking back.

Doing so much PL though meant that I haven't done any traditional scrapping for ages so at our crop this week I sat and did two LO's, one of which I'll post today as it's my favourite.

I just love all the monochrome neutrals together using different papers from some old Studio Calico kits. The design was from a Sarahs Cards Retreat class created by Jen Nualls (find her blog here or over at the Sarahs cards blog). I didn't go on the retreat but someone else did and showed me how to recreate the look. Really, really love it and will be doing a similar technique soon I'm sure.

This LO is all about how I met my friend Suz who is part of my Creative Army (if you get the Ali Edwards newsletters you should get what I mean by that!). Her blog is here. Drop by and leave her a message, I'm sure she'll love it!