Super hero games

 When I started planning this party I knew that we could have quite a few kids there and I wanted to make sure we had plenty to keep them busy and try to run off all the sugar they would be consuming! :) I had seen online a few different ideas for a "Super Hero Training Obstacle Course" and I knew it would be super easy to create and the kids would love it! I was right. I only had to purchase a couple of things to fill the course out, the rest was either easy to print off or I already had on hand.

We started the course with our Little Tykes slide. Admittedly it most of the kids had outgrown this model, but they still seemed to enjoy it.

From the slide, they moved on to the "balance beam" which was just a two by four we had in the garage. 

Most of the courses I saw online had hula hoops for the kids to run through, but I wasn't able to find any.  I did, however, find swimming noodles on clearance for just over a dollar. I bought two, cut them in half and created "hurdles". Again not terribly challenging for some of the kids, but we had some really young ones and I wanted to make sure they could all participate.

Here is the birthday boy with his Grandma helping him through the course.

Then I set up a few cones for them to run through

From there they went into the tunnel. We had received two of these as gifts at some point so I tied them both together to make an extra long tunnel!

The final part was to take out the villains!:) I had printed pictures of a few of the well known villains and tacked them to our trees. The kids got to use Silly String to "web" the bad guys.

Overall, it was a big hit. The kiddos ended up running through it over and over again before they got tired of it!

Tomorrow I'll have just a couple more activities from the party to share and then I will shut up about the party already! (Promise)

Super Hero Party!!!

This weekend my little destructor turned three! Everything in our house right now is all about super heros! My boys love them all! With their ages now (41/2 and 3) I thought it would be a great year to do a big party for my younger son. Our older son's birthday is in December and it is very difficult to do parties at that time of year for obvious reasons!:) But with their ages now the party was just as much if not more fun for the older one and the younger is too little to be selfish about his big day! :) 

Anyway, we did a Super Hero theme and I tried to make it as fun and imaginative for the kids as possible. I will share some of the party decor today and will share some of the games and other activities throughout the week.

A sign printed off of Pinterest hung on the front door.

We have a chalkboard door next to the kitchen and I added a simple cityscape with Superman's catch phrase.

Comic book bunting made with old comics found a vintage stock and ribbon went above the gift table.

A 3 decoupaged with more pages from the comic books.

Also taken from Pinterest balloons hung from the ceiling so I didn't have to use helium! Big cost saver!

I printed off some fun pictures of my little guy and framed them with inexpensive frames throughout.  I also framed the front pages of the comic books to add to the decor.  This trio was on the gift table.

My mom helped me wrap old boxes with plain black wrapping paper from Target and we made windows out of cut up cardstock. I had kept mine simple, but Mom took it up a notch and added the framing and an awning with Spiderman vinyl decals. 

We filled in areas with some of our Super hero toys to look like a little scene!

More toys, pictures and comic book covers.

I found the cutest cookie cutters at William Sonoma that cut the  Hulk, Spiderman, Iron Man and Captain America. I got the idea to color the dough so we wouldn't have to do a lot of decorating. My genius mom had the idea to mix the red and yellow dough together to make Iron Man!

This is a simple metal tray that I usually keep my coffee supplies on. I  ran some red ribbon through it and covered the bottom with yet more comic book pages and had a piece of glass cut o fit on top at Hobby Lobby. 

I designed the cupcake toppers using Word and yet again my mom came to the rescue by cutting them all out! We stacked them with circles cut from card stack and craft sticks to top the cupcakes. They say Zap Boom and Pow!

A bowl filled with ring pops and pop rocks surrounded by little Batman board books.  We also used some extra cupcake toppers to add some "zap". :)


I'll be back tomorrow with some fun game ideas!

Linking up to:

Blue Cricket Design Show and Tell Party

Superhero pillows

I have been in Superhero mode almost nonstop as I am planning little Destructor's 3rd birthday. I have a few projects to show you as I go along. You already saw the batmobile. Today I have a "Super" simple superhero pillow to show you. A few weeks ago while browsing through Hobby Lobby I stumbled across their aisle of handkerchiefs. They had a Spider-man and Iron Man each for $1.99 I think. And I thought, I can do something with those. So... when I got home I realized I had some plain red fabric that I had purchased a while back for a different project. I used it as the backing and stitched up some simple square pillows and stuffed them up!

And we have to happy little boys hugging their pillows!!

chair update

Remember this chair? Well, while she was functional, she was a little bland for me. I have had some free time as my boys have been on vacation with their grandparents for a week. My main focus has been cleaning out my basement, but I've tried to squeeze in some other little projects here and there as well.

So I saw this interesting chair on Anthropologie's website and I loved the colorful piping and the stripes.

So I made some double welting tape with some fabric I had leftover from pillows.  I had a tutorial on how to make it, but..... that method failed. So I came up with my own way and it worked out better for me. I made enough to cover all the edges of my chair and hot glued it in place. 

Then I mixed a couple of colors of green craft paint with a little water and taped off to paint a couple of stripes going down the middle of the chair. 

I LOVE  the final result. 

One more before and after shot

Before

After

I'm so happy that I took the risk to give the chair a little more pep. It went from blah to Blam!!! Yeah, I said Blam!!! 

Linking up to 

Under the Table and Dreaming

Just a Girl

Copy-cat batmobile

Let me start this post by saying if you are a mother of boys (or girls) and you have not yet checked out Cheri's blog you are missing out! She is incredibly creative and talented and the BEST blog I have found for craft ideas for my boys! The project I am about to show you was totally hers and I just followed her awesome detailed instructions to make my own version.

For my younger son's 3rd birthday we are having a superhero themed birthday and I wanted to make stuff that I could then move down to a playroom in our unfinished basement for the boys. His birthday is still a month away, but I have a bunch of projects floating around in my head that need to be accomplished in this time so I figured I should get started early.

Anyway, if you like this and want to make one of your own go here, to get the step by step directions. The only difference for mine was that I wanted to make it wider so Batman and Robin could fit in it together. ;) The only money I spent on this project was for glue sticks, paint and duct tape. I had all the cardboard and other things I tried to get creative with!

Anyway, here is the final project.

I found those little stick on LED lights in one of our closets. They weren't strong enough for the closet, but make awesome working headlights!!

For the symbol I used Duct tape sheets. I found them at Hobby Lobby right next to the rolls of duct tape. They are 8x10 sheets and come in all kinds of colors. They happened to have yellow and black. I just cut out the shapes and stuck them right on!

The "grill" is just a rectangle of foam core board that I sprayed with Chrome spray paint.

Can you guess what the tires are????

Yep, the edge of those workout mats. We had a small section of those in our workout area, but just replaced it with a large carpet remnant. I thought they would make great looking tires because of the texture.

I love how it turned out and can't wait for the photo ops at the birthday party with superheroes riding in it!

faux zinc

I have seen a few of the faux zinc letters around the blogosphere and decided to try the technique out on some bookends I have had for a few years. A few years back I got a set of ? and ! bookends. They were originally just black and the paint was chipping off of them anyway so I thought I would try to give them a little more oomph. In true impatient crafter fashion I forgot to take a before picture. If you look really closely at the office pictures you can see them on the desk there. Anyway I spray painted them both with the rustoleum hammered aluminum spray paint and then did a little glaze on them. I did remember to take a picture of the ? before it got glazed.

I just mixed up some black acrylic paint with some water for the glaze.

Paint it on.

You can see how careful you need to be with this step ;).

Then wipe it off.

I just layered on the glaze until I had the look I wanted.

Here is the finished product back on my desk. Not a major change, but I like them. They have that slightly "found" industrial look to them. It was a really easy little afternoon project too!

Happy Friday everyone. I am hoping to get around to a couple more projects this weekend! We will see what gets done!

I had my first canning experience last weekend! My husbands grandparents have an amazing garden (just realizing that I didn't take any pictures of that part). They grow all kinds of things in it every year, corn, green beans, egg plant, zucchini, onions, potatoes!! My mouth is watering just thinking about it all!!! They have always been kind enough to share, not only the fresh produce, but that which his grandmother has worked very hard to preserve as well. So when I was asked if I would like to help with the canning process this year, I was more than happy to try to repay, even ever so slightly, the benefits we have received from them! It was actually kind of fun, but time consuming, hard work. After just one half day of it I am amazed and somewhat humbled to think of the number of hours both Nana and my mother in law have spent over the years snapping, washing and canning those delicious veggies we have a tendency to take for granted! Thank you Nana and Mama for all you have done and shared with us over the years! You are both amazing women and wonderful examples of hard work and generosity!

Here are just a few snap shots of the process.

And here is my little destructor putting his talents to use devouring ear after ear of corn at lunch that day!