Ghosts Are Ready For a Party

Made these fun ghost cupcakes for Aidan's classroom Halloween party. I got this idea from this months Food Network Magazine. Super cute and super easy... Chocolate cupcake with a lollipop and a circle of white fondant draped over it, dab on a couple of eyes and your done! Hope the kids love them tomorrow.

Superhero Cakes for my Super Heroes

Miles and Liam asked for Spiderman and Batman cakes for their 5th birthday party. This is what I made. That Wilton ball cake pan sure has come in handy...no I haven't made a soccer ball or basketball but I've made an angry bird and now Spiderman. As for Batman can you see where I got my inspiration from? Yup! Liam's shirt. They sure were thrilled!

Angry Birds Face Paint

Since we've been on the topic of angry birds for awhile (surprised this phase or shall I say craze has stuck around for sometime now) I thought I'd share this photo. We went to a birthday party awhile back that had a face painter and of course Miles asked for an angry bird. He was just thrilled with it. I'm surprised he let us wash it off. I have to admit it was pretty cute and simple.

Angry Bird Hell

I'm in angry bird hell! If I had only ordered those costumes back in September, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing now....that is making angry bird costumes. Thankfully a kind friend (who was smart thinking and ordered in September) had an extra green piggy to pass on to us, that means I only have to make two. Here's one down, the green bird. We're having some technical difficulties with it, specifically a droopy beak and droopy feather top. We used a bit of fishing line to hold it in place, let's just hope this holds up. Oh and it is a bit big for Aidan but we'll just have to make do. Now I'm on to bird two, a black bird. Will let you know when it's finished, let's hope before Halloween or Liam just might end up being Batman.

Mr. Sparkles

Every year we add a new item to the Halloween decor. In the past I've let the kids pick it out but this year was different. In late September the boys and I were taking a walk past a newly decorated store window, all ready for the Halloween season, when Liam gasped and had to show us all the cool skeleton in the window. He especially liked how it sparkled. That's my boy, if it sparkles and shimmers or thumps to the beat of club music he so loves it. So we all stopped and admired it, everyone agreed it was really "cool" (Aidan's latest attempt at using slang). We continued on to our destination ( which was donut holes at the donut shop, shhhh!) and all was forgotten. I went back later that day to buy this beloved skeleton, brought him home and safely hid him. When it was time to decorate our home for Halloween, I pulled out that skeleton and Liam once again gasped, announcing "Sparkles!" So this years addition is now, "Mr. Sparkles"....so hauntingly adorable.

They Play Well

I never thought the day would come when my 3 boys would play well together, a time when they could play a good hour and a half without me needing to step in to referee some form of disagreement. But, it's true, my boys do play well together now. They can spend time building, all in agreement with what they want their ( yes I said their meaning all 1,2,3 of them) final outcome to be. Its so nice to hear them work out their plans, resolve a disagreement, and to finally agree together. And when they do that, little forts of army men like this are built. If only it could be like this all the time.

I Think I've Managed to Overcome our Homework Struggle

It's been a long time since I've posted I've been trying to figure out how to manage school and the homework struggle. We've been in school for a couple of months now and I think I've finally found the answer to this trick....thank goodness! By week 2 of school I felt like I was walking a tightrope when it came time for homework. If I didn't get it balanced out soon, I was doomed for misery the rest of the school year. I just didn't know what the best way to manage it was. Aidan now in 2nd grade has a significant amount of homework. Despite the fact that it's really extremely easy, more a test of patience for Aidan since he's been doing this stuff since he was 4 yrs old, he still has difficulty getting it done because of the mere fact that it's totally boring. I tried to explain to him how he could get it done in 5 minutes if he would just focus. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to matter to him. The added struggle has been his brothers' distraction. Trying to send them to their room until Aidan is done with his homework proved unsuccessful. Boys get rowdy and Aidan wants to know what they're doing. So, I've started assigning homework (preschool worksheets and art projects) to Miles and Liam so they are doing homework along side Aidan. In the beginning there were a few objections from Liam " Homework, why do I have to do homework!?" Most recently, they've fallen into the groove and know the drill now. They sit together and do their homework. Aidan gets to focus and get his work done, with a little bit of struggle, giggling and joking, as well as correcting his brothers homework (have to remind him that's not his responsibility). With a bit of redirecting homework gets done, not as quickly as I would hope but it's coming along. The only problem now, is homework for three just means I'm getting pulled in 3 directions at once "Mommy how do you this? Mommy Is this right? Mom why do I have to do this?". Which clearly I know this is what my future holds once they're all in school but I'm just not ready for it now. Or maybe I will never be, so I need to figure out how to balance this out so I can make it across that tightrope in one piece, with my sanity.