Cowgirl Birthday Party

This is from Adele's back in June.
The summer has gone by like a flash!  My kids go back to school next week!  We are frantically trying to do all the thing we have not done this summer that makes summer fun.  We started a Summer Bucket List.  It is a bucket with strips of paper with ideas of fun things when the kids want something to do or somewhere to visit.  We have only pulled out a few because sadly we have been so busy that we have not had any time to be bored.

 The cake I made Marshmallow fondant.  Then I use gum paste for the decorations (Tyler said the gum paste was kinda gross) I used my friends Cake Cricket to cut out the shapes with.  To change the color of the gum paste I used gel coloring.  To give the brown a leather look I brushed on a cocoa and oil mixture then wiped off the excess.

 Some decorations in the house and the barn.  The weather was unpredictable that day there were scattered rain showers and wind, so we deiced the day before the outside party needed to be inside.  It donned on me the barns were fairly clean at the moment and could be cleaned a little better (with the help of my family).  It ended up being a great place for a Cowgirl Birthday Party.

 Horse Fly Smash  The last one to still have there "FLY" at the end is the winner.  It was Adele's little brother who won

Pin the saddle on the horse.

 This game was a relay race.  The first thing they did was put on the way to big cowboy gear then threw horses until they got a ringer then grabbed the rope and tried to rope the the dummy.  Then run back and take off the big cowboy gear for the next person in line.

 Barrel Stick Horse Races

 We cut out bulls with a cricket then hid them in the barn for a Round Up game.

 Opening Presents

 Blowing out the candles

 Horse Rides for everyone.  While they waited for there turn they played with the new toys, played chase, played in the sandbox and tree house.  It rained a little while playing games in the barn, but as soon as the party was over it rained really hard.

Frame Overhaul

 When my older sister was in town I got her to help me with the over hauling of this frame I bought.

The frame originally had three black and white photos of (the actress on Breakfast at Tiffiany's) with a black background.  When I saw it a Ross I thought it was the perfect size to fit all of my kids pictures in.  (frames with places for four pictures are hard to come by probably because three looks better then four, but when you have four kids the design aspect is irrelevant.)

The background is a piece of eyelet fabric.
My sister cut the foam board to fit an 1" around each photo.
Then we hot glued the fabric to the foam board and mounted the kids' pictures on it with glue dots.
Putting the frame back together was the hard part.  ( I don't think the frame was not really meant to be taken apart.)

One more Easter project

Cam went snow machining with friends, so there wives came over and made a craft with me and the kids. (we would normally all jump at the chance to go, but it was raining and blowing, and we would rather save the babysitters for a beautiful day). any way here is the project.

Adele made these two, it's one eye is missing in action.

I made a few with patterned paper, but they went somewhere else.

 We made these with 81/2 x 11 paper we tried 12x12 paper on others, but is makes the cones really big!  We also found it is easier to forget the pattern and just roll up the paper to make a cone, staple, and cut off the extra on the top and side.  I used a hot glue gun to glue the eyes, ears, mouth, and nose.  Others chose to use the Elmer's Glue.

I plan to fill them with grass and candy for this weekend.

Recycled Easter basket project

The kids have been using them as mailboxes (for left our toys)

I saw a picture of an Easter basket made out of a #10 can.  I decided to try it when another niece came to visit.  The kids liked to pick out there paper and paint the Mode Podge on the can.  (except for my oldest he wanted to try the hot glue gun, it did not work as well because the glue dried to fast I was unable to smooth it down).  All in all a fun  easy project

April Fools

On March 31 my niece was babysitting for us.  When we got back Harper and I found these April fools tricks on the internet.  We decided to try a few out on some of the unsuspecting kids and "others".


We made Meatloaf Cupcakes with Mash potato Frosting

Harper added a lot of neon blue food coloring to the "frosting"  so they looked very believable!

As you can see we got mixed reactions.  Some smiles, some not, laughter and anger (from the let down of not having a sweet snack).

The other trick was JELL-O THAT LOOKS LIKE A refreshing fruit drink

Great Blueberry muffins

 

I Got this Recipe from Our Best Bites.

If you would like would like a tutorial click HERE

Streusel-Topped Blueberry Muffins

Recipe from Our Best Bites 1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
2 3/4 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. table salt
1/2 c. sugar
2 tsp. grated orange or lemon peel
1 large egg
3/4 c. buttermilk
1/3 c. canola oil
1 c. fresh or frozen blueberries
1 Tbsp. flour
1 Tbsp. sugar
Streusel Topping
1/4 c. sugar
2 1/2 Tbsp. flour
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 Tbsp. butter
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly spoon the flour into measuring cups and level with with a knife and combine it in a large bowl with the baking powder, salt, sugar, and citrus peel. Make a well in the center of the mixture. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk, and oil. Add to the dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened.
In a small bowl, combine the remaining flour and sugar and then toss the blueberries in this mixture until they are well-coated. Gently fold the blueberry mixture into the batter. Spoon the batter into lined muffin tins, filling 2/3 full.
To make the streusel topping, combine the 1/4 c. sugar, 2 1/2 Tbsp. flour, and cinnamon. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or two butter knives until the mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle over the batter and bake for 18 minutes or until the tops are golden and a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the muffins comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack. Makes 12 muffins.

(rinse your blueberries whether they are fresh or frozen, When I used frozen blueberries they ended up very blue because I did not rinse them.  This can also happen if you stir the blueberries in the batter rather then "gently folding the blueberries".)  
Very yummy I might even make them for supper tonight!

Mod Podge+fabric=Easter Eggs

 To make this bright festive Easter Eggs.  My sister and I tore strips of fabric into strips of about and inch wide we experimented with different widths and decided the smaller looked cuter.   The wider strips were easier because you only had to go around the egg four times to cover it.  Anyway.  I  painted and pulled the strips through the Mod Podge and then brushed the excess or painted more on if it did not coat well.  My sister wadded her strips up and dipped it into a bowl of Mod podge then squeegeed (probably not a word)(spell check picked it up so maybe if is a word!) off the large excess.  Both ways work and both are messy!  (I had memories of kids in school covering there hands with glue and letting it dry then pulling it off!  Still creeps me out!)  Then we wrapped the fabric strips around the plastic egg.  Then press down any fabric that is not laying down. (you could make them bunchy if you wanted, that would be cute)  We almost stopped with the first one, but once your are all gooey you might as well keep going.  Have Fun!  Let me know if you try it!

I bought the egg garland at The Mini Bazaar in Blackfoot.  It is also were my sister has a booth with her crafty stuff.  Very cute place if you are in Blackfoot.

  (One of the Lady's there gave us the idea for the eggs, Thanks Shela!)

These ones we gave to my Mom for letting us invade her house with craft and kids!

  Thanks Mom!

I decorated a basket my Mom has with some of the left over fabric strips.

Teacher

The older kids has a snow day today!  We only had a little snow last night when I went to bed, and I woke to a Winter Wonderland.   I'm not sure how much snow we got because the wind blew all night and made drifts!

So all the kids made snow forts to have a snowball fight.  When they finished Tyler was the only one interested in throwing snowballs.  Adele wanted to expanded by adding  rooms to her “to small” fort. 

Tate and Colton had a lesson in snow eating.  Tate turned to me with his sparkly eyes, and a big smile and said, “I’m teaching him how to eat snow!’

Leprechaun Trap

 I wanted to share with you
an older post from March 2009, but I could not re-post it (not sure it possible either)
It was a fun video of a Leprechaun Trap we did.  The kids still talk about it!  They have
grown so much since then!
Check it out for those of you who never saw it of those who would like to see it again
Look at my blog history close to the bottom of the page.

2009

Leprechaun Trap

St. Paddy's Wreath

When I am laying in bed awake, but don't want to get out of bed yet.  I think about things I need to do and things I want to make.  That is where this idea came to me.  I'm sure it is not an original ideas because everything seems to have already been done before.
Supplies:

• foam wreath (found in basement)
• #? torn strips of green fabric, I used cotton and flannel (found in scrap drawer)
• batting and embellishments (from scrapbook and floral supplies)

Directions:

1. Terr green fabric into 1 to 2 inch strips then sew the strip end to make a very long strip 
2.  Then rap the fabric strip around the foam wreath (i didn't even glue it)
3. (just had an hour brake helping  drive the tractor, chase some cows and pulling a calf)
4. With the extra fabric I twisted it and rapped it around the wreath (my hands are cold and I'm having a hard time typing)
5. Cut out a clover with the two pieces of fabric with wrong sides together and the batting in the middle.  (interfacing would work just as well or better)
6. Then sew around the edges and clip the outsides to make them fray.

Let me know if you try it!