Potty Training Riley

So I decided to go for it and see how it went! I am sooo proud to say that she is potty trained fully both pee and number 2! It took about 3 days total! She just turned two in September so I am very proud of her! I did a lot of reading and asking for advice. I must say I did my own thing took little bits from each thing and combined them all!! Day One NO MORE PULLUPS! I hid them.. Just in case she was not ready I did not want to throw them away....... I set the alarm for every 15mins and took her in the bathroom and had her sit even if she did not have to go I still had her sit on it to get in the routine. Seems crazy right??? But it worked..... Other people gave snacks or candy to their child for going on the potty... as much as I love rewarding positive behavior.... I DID NOT want to do this because I do not want her thinking that she gets a candy EVERY TIME she goes on the potty.... and this is something my daughter would try to do!!!! So day two undies all day and had just 2 accidents.... day three and four....... NO ACCIDENTS!!!!!!!! I know there will be some along the way but right now.... I am sooooo happy I am down to just buying diapers for LuLu.... is it just me or is it soooooo cute to see your baby's booty in panties..... It is just the cutest thing ever!!!!! Such a big girl now!!!!!

Sushi and Soy Sauce

I thought it would be funny to dress up this year as something matching for the kids Halloween party that my cousin and I always have! I am soo happy that David was such a great sport when it came to my crazy idea this year! With David being Asian and LOVING Sushi so much... I thought it would be cute to go as sushi and a bottle of soy Sauce! Here is the finished product!!!!!

Riley and LuLu's Owl Costumes

I decided to dress the girls the same this year but make them a little different! This is probably my last year to pick out Riley's costume for her!!! I got the idea for Riley's owl costume on pinterest and made it with my own colors! Lulu's I did on my own but copied the hat from the picture on pinterest!

 I made Alexis' out of a bigger shirt and cut the sleeves off! I cut and cut and cut out felt feathers and glued them on starting at the bottom and over lapping to the top. I made the hat out of felt and hot glued the whole thing! I bought a long sleeve purple shirt and tights to go under it and finished it with some look a like ugg boots!!!

 I cut out a felt cape and did the same as the other one just cut lots of felt feathers and glued them on! I attached a ribbon to keep the cape closed. I found after the 1st time of wearing it that it kept turning when she moved....so to fix this I hot glued the cape to the undershirt right on her shoulders and it worked GREAT!!! Also she kept taking her hat off so I added ribbon to that as well to tie under her chin :) Silly RiRi!!

Our Baby LuLu

School Costume

Noah was allowed to dress up at school but there were some restrictions! No face paints, no hair coloring, and it HAD to be a storybook character. Since we had a blast at the Dr Seuss Birthday party... we decided he would be the Cat in the Hat!

I bought...(from walmart....seeing the trend there lol)..... black hanes sweat pants and sweatshirt! Cut out a big piece of white felt and hot glued it to the sweatshirt! I made a big red bow and glued that as well too!!! We used a leftover hat from the party and waallaa..... a costume for school for about $10!!!

Well...... I wanted the real "cat in the hat" hat so with the left over felt I decided to make a stovepipe hat out of it..... Noah was SUPER tired lol and I had him try on this hat before he went to bed.... Yes its ok to laugh at this picture because I did too!!!!!!

Ok so that hat was like REALLY tall!!! I guess I got a little tooo excited about it! I used hot glue for all of this as well!!! I did NOT feel like using my sewing machine this year haha!!! So in order to stand it up and keep it up... I carefully hot glued wooden rods on the inside just enough to make it stand up! 

Noah had a blast at his school party and his costume was a hit!!!!

PUMPKINS!!!!!

We wanted to paint pumpkins this year..... or as Riley calls them.... PUNKAS!!!! LOL.... My kids do not like the innards of the pumpkin......maybe we can try next year! Miss Riley LOVES Hello Kitty right now so that is what we went with for her! Noah could  not make up his mind so we decided to do a Ninja Turtle. We did not do one for Alexis but she still had a pumpkin!  So here are the finished products!

Riley's Hello Kitty

We painted her pumpkin white.... we used acrylic craft paint but the bottle said for outdoor! She was white from head to toe!!!! I had to go back and put a second coat on for her! Then I used my best friend felt for all the accessories! I hot glued the whiskers, eyes, and nose straight onto the pumpkin! For the hat I pre made that with felt and some leftover ribbon I had from another project! Placed that right over the stem of the pumpkin! I then cut out ears and glued them to bbq skewers LOL!!! They stuck right into the pumpkin and worked great!!!!

Noah's Ninja Turtle

Noah painted his whole pumpkin green even the stem using the same type of paint we used on Riley's! He did a great job and I only touch up the bottom parts! I traced a mask out of red felt and let him cut it out....same with the eyes!!!! While he was doing that I painted the mouth on! When he was finished i hot glued the mask to the pumpkin and BAM... his ninja turtle was finished!!!! 

They turned out adorable didn't they???

Much better than cleaning out the guts and not to mention the mess!!! I will give it a go next year about actually carving them but I think I will continue to paint as well because they are just oohh sooo cute and fun!!!!

Noah The Joker

Noah wanted to be the joker this year! I wanted to hand make all of my kids' costumes this year so I looked and looked for a white suit that I could dye purple...with no luck..... I decided to to make one! I made the NO SEW...yes is said no sew.....costume with felt and a hot glue gun!!!!!  Here are the supplies I used

2yards of purple felt
1/2 yard of green felt
purple gloves(from walmart)
Orange undershirt (already had at home)
Black dress shoes ($11 at walmart)
4 purple buttons
3 green buttons
Green hair dye (washable in a spraycan)
White, black, and red face paint

I took an old pair of pajama pants and cut them to use as a pattern for the pants. Made them a little wider because felt does not have any stretch to it! I hot glued them together to make the pants!

For the Vest I used a vest from home and traced around it to get the pattern...( yes I did all this free hand and did not buy ANY patterns lol... just used stuff from home)..... hot glue the top and sides together... Also glue three buttons on the front and cut matching slits on the otherside to match the buttons so the vest would actually close. Sorry hard to follow??? I did not take pictures as I went along!

For the jacket.......well......haha...... I totally free handed this. I took the vest and somewhat used this as a pattern but made is wider and waaayy longer. Free handed the sleeves and attached with hot glue!!!! Added a collar to my liking and 4 buttons! No need to worry about button holes because this did not need to close!!!!

I even made the tie from felt!!!! Totally just cut a piece to look like a tie glue it to another piece and tied around his neck!

I am shocked to see that this costume actually turned out for me!!! He loved it and so did everyone else!!!!!!! He got soo many compliments from this!!!!

Wondering if this costume held up with just the glue??? That was my question too!!!! Well the answer is yes....... This costume lasted through a Halloween party, an indoor event on another night......AND....trick or treating! My son is very very active and it held through all of that and is still going strong!!!! I am so happy with the way it turned out not to mention it only cost about $22 for everything!

Dr. Seuss Birthday Party

Happy Birthday Noah and Riley. Since school was only in session for 2 weeks before Noah's birthday.. I was still able to pull off a double party since their birthdays are only 2 days apart! Noah's being September 12th and Riley's the 14th! We went with a Dr. Seuss theme for the party and I think I had more fun planning the party then the kids lol!!!! We had lots of yummy food and we rented a house a bounce!!! That was a HUGE hit with the kids! I even scored big and got all the stuff for the goody bags at the dollar spot in Target........well most of it...... I got more pencils, window clings, the hats, and some decorations at the United Arts and Education. I put a copy of the Lorax in each bag as well!!! Love that movie!!!!!! How could I forget.....almost did.... I had Noah and Riley dress as thing one and thing two for the party. I ordered the iron on transfers from ebay, and leg warmers, and made a tutu and hair bow for Riley to wear! Ohh it was soo fun!

Food Menu

• Happy Birthday To You Pulled Pork BBQ
• Green Eggs and Ham- Green deviled eggs but no ham lol!!!
• One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue fish- gold fish crackers
• Grinch Krispie Treats- Green rice krispies
• Poodles with Noodles- Pasta Salad

LAST but not Least.......MY FAVORITE...... Hop on Pop Cake Pops!!!!!

Found this House a Bounce with a slide for a GREAT price for an ALL day rental.....yah ok... shhhh.... On craigslist!!!!!!!!!!

Some of the food we had!!!! Yummm

As you can see the kids had a BLAST

Noah 6 & Riley 2

My 3 hour Cake Pop Cake!!!!!!

  My first time making cake pops! They turned out pretty good! I (with some help from my amazing brother) made the stand also!  Ok ready to see how I made these bad boys???

Styrofoam- ONE HUGE piece from Hobby Lobby and my brother used his saw to cut it in two pieces for me! I bought one additional fat piece to go on top! He was ever so kind and offered to spray it for me during his down time at the fire station so I gladly accepted the offer!!!! I bought red spray paint from Walmart that was made for styrofoam.....if you use regular spray paint it will melt it!!!!

BBQ skewers cut in thirds to connect each layer of foam in place......I forgot to buy toothpicks so this worked!

Ribbon- to go around the stryofoam for a border. Attached in back with glue gun.

Cookie sticks

1 box of a moist vanilla cake
1 box of chocolate moist cake
I can vanilla frosting
1 can chocolate frosting
Red Candy melts- Found in the wedding supplies
Hersheys Premier White chocolate chips- (Big bag at Sams club)

Ok here we go... I baked both cakes as directed and let them cool. Took one of the cakes and dumped it into a big mixing bowl. I then added 2 heaping scoops of the frosting and mixed by hand.....YES......this was very messy! I rolled into balls and placed in freezer for about 30 mins to harden. I melted down the white chocolate as directed on the package. I then put a cake ball on a stick and put a little chocolate where the stick and cake met to keep it from falling...... did not figure this step out right away......I had about 3 cake balls fall straight down the stick..... I repeated with each cake ball! I then covered the rest of the cake ball with the chocolate and stood straight up in a drying rack purchased at yet once again walmart in the cake section for about $4.  Once completely hardened... I melted the red candy melts as directed, and scooped into a ziploc bag! I cut a very very small hole at the end and "drizzled" the cake pops! I repeated this with the other cake! Feww.... just as much work to write it as it was to make it haha! It did get easier... remember this was my first time making them so it took me about three hours to do this! Plus bake time so all together almost 4!!! I placed each cake pop on my wonderful stand and thus created HOP ON POP CAKE POPS!!!!

2 boxes made appx 50 pops!

My DAREDEVIL!!! Grandma close your EYES!!!

Scared me too!!!! I told him to stop but he is six so that means he is an "adult" now... or so he thinks!

My Thing 1 and Thing 2

I got the hats from United Arts and Education for $13 for 36?? of them! I also saw them at Hobby Lobby!

The Iron on Transfers from an ebay store! Followed the directions to a T....well so I thought.... But the red showed through on them a little bit... Oh well... still were cute! I made a no sew tutu and got the leg warmers from an ebay store! I got the long sleeve red shirts from my fav.... you ready??.... Walmart LOL!

Over all....ALL the kids had a great time and Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate!