Angry Birds Birthday Party

Lincoln celebrated his birthday with an Angry Birds-themed party.  For weeks I asked friends and neighbors to save large boxes so we could build this beauty - a live action version of Angry Birds. 

Behold boxes and pigs.  We modified a water balloon launcher to fit playground balls, a.k.a. the angry birds.

We bought rubber playground balls and painted them to look like angry birds.  More accurately, Ben painted.  I wish I could take credit, but I just bought the balls.  I sprayed two coats of sealant over the painted area, but I don't think the sealant did much good.  After a few days of playing with the balls, the bird paintings are pretty well chipped off.  At least they looked great for the party.

The red bird.

Sorry for the awkward crop.  Almost all of my party photos have other people's children in them, so no go for the blog-o. You'll have to trust me that this super cute kid has gorgeous eyes, because he does.

We used green balloons for the pigs.  Ben filled each balloon with a scoop of sand to weigh it down before inflating it.  Artistic credit again goes to Ben.

I bought the long, thin boxes at the Container Store.

 The kids loved knocking down the pigs and rebuilding with the boxes.

The kids had enough fun playing Angry Birds outside that the indoor portion of the party was pretty minimal.

We had a golden egg hunt.  Think Easter egg hunt.  I bought a pack of gift bags at Target and added tags with pictures of Angry Birds.  The children used these bags to hold their eggs during the hunt.

If you look to the right of the gift bags, you'll also see a pile of small rubber balls.  I bought balls for each child at the dollar store.  We started the party by building small versions of the Angry Birds game indoors.  We had stations of things the children could use to build towers - wooden building blocks, Jenga, Lincoln Logs, Solo cups, you name it.  Then we had a variety of small balls - Nerf balls, small rubber bouncy balls, etc. that the kids could roll - ROLL - at their towers.  No, I did not allow 12 kids to throw balls in my house.  Though of course a few had to try it anyway.

I bought a pack of Angry Birds mylar balloons on Amazon and had them filled at my local grocery store.

Lincoln wanted cupcakes instead of a traditional cake.  Gotta love easy.  Find the printables from Sherry K Designs HERE.

I printed each Angry Bird large enough to fill an 8.5x11 piece of paper, then cut out the birds and strung them together to make a banner.

Angry Birds t-shirt tutorial

And of course the birthday boy wore his new Angry Birds t-shirt.  Find my DIY tutorial HERE.

Kiss Me I'm AWESOME

It's the St. Patrick's Day shirt for the {super cute} non-Irish folk.

"Stand here, Lincoln. I want to take a picture of your shirt."

"Put your hands up so I can see the writing...oh wait, that looks awkward." 

"How about you jump up and down waving your arms?  Then you'll have fun."

"Whoa, wide eyes!  How about looking down?"

"Love it.  You're too cute.  Now I just wanna take your picture."

I saw the phrase "Kiss Me I'm Awesome" on a t-shirt at Crazy 8.  We're not Irish, but I sure think my kids are awesome, so it was perfect.  I used my Silhouette to make a stencil for the lettering out of freezer paper.  The shamrock and yellow strip of fabric are adhered with Wonder Under, then stitched around the edges. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Dinosaur Party Invitations

Lincoln's celebrating his fourth birthday with a dinosaur-themed birthday party.  Two years ago my older son, Brighton, also asked for a dinosaur birthday party.  That made planning this year's bash super easy.  Same games and activities.  Same invitations.  Same food.  Different kids.  Score!

Instead of a card-type invitation, each child received a box with instructions to "dig up the details inside."  (I even had the patterned paper left over from two years ago - it was just too easy.)

For instructions on how to fold an origami box, click here.

What's inside the box, you ask?  A mini dino dig!  I printed the party details on little tags, tied them to small dinosaur (dog) bones, and buried the bones in sand.  Yes, I warned the moms that these would be messy and that kids should open their invitations outside.  But seriously, how much more fun is this than a boring ol' card!?

Speaking of boring ol' cards...  Actually, I like this one.  This was my first shot at making invitations until I decided to do the mini dino dig.  I ended up using this card as a thank you note.

Wish me luck on the party!  Enjoy your day.

Patterned papers from the Archaic collection by Basic Grey.

Photography Tips for Newbies?

Look what Cupid-hubby brought me!  He started planning weeks ago, getting advice from our talented photographer friend Bekah.  Though I have the camera pictured above, I have two different lenses.  Neither of which I know how to use - really use - yet.

Anyone have tips for me? Websites on photography for beginners? I have no idea where to get started. Heck, I don't even know what the little f means.  For now, thank Heaven for auto settings!

Today I played with my telephoto lens (the long range one).  Lincoln and I had a wonderful five-minute photo session until he had to go potty.

Not bad for five minutes on Day 1, eh?  It helps that I have a stinkin' cute subject.

TUTORIAL: Toad from Mario Bros

Does every momma look at her child and think he's even cuter than the original? :) My entire family is dressing a characters from the Super Mario Brothers games this Halloween and this lucky three-year-old gets to be Toad.


Alrighty, here's how to make your own super cute Toad. First let's start with the easy stuff - vest and pants.

Supplies for Toad's Vest

Blue fabric. 

Gold trim.

Vest pattern. I used Simplicity #9854.

thread, sewing machine, fray check (or similar)

(optional) paper, tape, ruler - in case you need to lengthen the pattern

I'm all for originality, but when you can buy a pattern for $0.99, why reinvent the wheel? I used Simplicity #9854. Don't be fooled by the girls pictured on the package - when it comes to children's sizes, a vest is a vest. All of the vests on the "boy" patterns looked like the type men wear with three-piece suits, which is not the cut that matches Toad's vest.

TIP: Children's sewing patterns tend to be cut short and wide. My son is tall and thin, so I used scrap paper to lengthen the pattern by 4". There's a line marked on the pattern just for this purpose - to lengthen or shorten as necessary.

I made the vest following instructions for View F, minus the side slits. Rather than lining the vest in a contrasting fabric, I used the same blue satin.

Time to prep the trim. I used Fray Block on the ends, then tucked them under before stitching.


Sew on the trim. I chose this trim because I really liked the pattern, but it had zero give going around curves. Rather than fight with it going around the back of the neckline, I stopped the trim at each shoulder seam.


Ta-da! What a royal looking vest!

If you're lucky enough to find white pants in October, bless you! I couldn't even find sweatpants, so I made my own pants for Toad.

Supplies for Toad's Pants

• White fleece (or other white fabric).
• Pant pattern. I used Simplicity #9854, the same pattern that I used for the vest.
• thread, sewing machine, ruler to measure hem
• (optional) paper, tape - in case you need to lengthen pattern

I bought Simplicity #9854 for the vest pattern, but after weeks of unsuccessfully searching for white pants and finding fleece on sale for $3/yd, I realized how lucky I was that the pattern also included instructions for pair of pull-on pants. Score! (Again, ignore the girls in the picture. The cut of the pants is gender-neutral.)


Again, I lengthened the pattern by 4", though I ended up cutting off so much of the hem that it probably wasn't necessary.


I followed the instructions on the pattern to make this warm, fuzzy beauties. Fleece in October in Oregon is a good thing. :)

Moving on to Toad's signature topper - the mushroom hat. I owe a big, huge thank you to Kris at Summer at Grandma's House for helping me understand the structure of the hat.

Supplies for Toad's Mushroom Hat

White hat.

White fabric.

Red fabric, preferable one that doesn't fray.

Circle template. I used a round take-out container.

Batting/stuffing.

Narrow elastic for chin strap.

thread, sewing machine, scissors, fabric marker/chalk

I found a white sailor's hat in the costume section at Target. Lincoln wanted sparkly red fabric for the hat. Disco Toad?

1. Cut white fabric into a circle.

A 30" circle fit my three-year-old perfectly. For an adult, I'd probably try 36"-40".

2. Fold circle into sections for darts.

Fold in half...


...and in half...


...half again...


...one last time.


If you can finger press creases, great. I used my iron to make creases while my fabric was still folded. When you unfold your circle, you should see sections like this.

3. Sew darts.

I intended to make a dart ever other section, but goofed along the way. It's okay - I was still able to make it work.

To make your darts, measure along a crease approximately 6" from the outer edge. Make a dot using fabric chalk. Draw a line from the dot to the next crease on the edge of your fabric. (see photos above and below)


If you're holding one crease up in the air, the creases to the immediate right and left are touching. Pin those together.


Sew a straight stitch from the dot to the edge of the fabric, following the line you drew.


Cut away the fabric on the side of the line where the fabric formed a fold.

Repeat making darts all the way around the circle.


When you turn your fabric right side out, it should have the same shape as the head of a jelly fish. That's what you see, too, right? ;-)

4. Attach white fabric to hat.

Gather the edge of your jelly fish - er, fabric.


Pin to hat. TIP: Be sure to leave a hole for stuffing.

In hindsight, had I been able to find a beanie or other hat without a brim, I would have been able to finish the edges more neatly. However, the sailor hat worked. Plus it's a Halloween costume - I don't really mind unfinished edges that the rest of the world will probably never see.


Sew fabric to hat.


Stuff with batting.


My first attempt at making the Toad hat was waaay too big for my little three-year-old. I let Lincoln stuff the too-big-hat while I worked on the smaller version along side him.


Sew the hole closed.

5. Embellish hat with red circles.

Cut five red circles.


Pin to hat and sew by hand one at a time.

6. Add chin strap, if necessary.

You won't see the chin strap in the photo below. The photo shoot proved that my wiggly, squiggly three-year-old likes to wobble his head way too much for the hat to stay on by itself. I added the elastic later, then my camera battery died. But trust me - the chin strap works great!

Give your Toad a hug and have a happy Halloween!






Thanks for visiting my tutorial! If you make a costume based off of these instructions, please leave a comment and let me know. I'd love to see your good work!

If you'd like to see my other Mario Bros costumes, please click here for my Goomba tutorial and here for Princess Peach. Happy Halloween!