It's Time for Some Magic! Here are my party planning ideas!

My boys are turning 5 and 7! Can you believe that!! My son Jacob is huge into magic right now, so we decided to do a magician party for him. So in case your wondering why I don't blog these days... well its cause I have been photographing all the other adorable kids in Boise Idaho and not my own kids! In fact I accidentally erased a memory card of my son's 7th birthday, and some other pictures of my kids :( I cannot believe that.

So you all know I am a huge party planner and I spend way to much time putting together my children's birthday parties (Remember the Mario and Luigi Party here). I guess I have nothing better to do... that or I enjoy staying up til 3 in the morning decorating dollar store buckets and making fondant cakes... In case you ever wonder what kind of weird party planner I am... I will admit to you that I have already planned and purchased the materials needed for my daughters 3 year party and that isn't till the end of December... and yes I am also the kind of person that has bought about half my Christmas presents already. But in my defense... I am also a "frugal" person and cannot pass up a good bargain... so if it is a price I can't resist then it usually ends up in my shopping cart.

So here are some of my party ideas that I wanted to share.

Here is the cake I am making. It is actually already pre-done for the event and it turned out ADORABLE. This was my inspiration Only my cake will say Ryan (5) and Jacob (7)

Here is my cake that I will complete the day of the party

Invitations already sent and the boys helped make these

So for game ideas to entertain about 20 - 25 kids we are going to do a carnival set up. We will have ring toss, a row of 7 buckets with bean bags and the kids have to try and get them into the buckets (which were purchased from the dollar store and then converted into top hats... they are sooo cute!) All I did was take black cardboard paper for the top and used masking tape to tape on. And for the areas around the bucket just red cardboard paper taped on and since it didn't completely stretch around the buckets I made a black circle center piece and then taped on a yellow felt star. Since there are 7 buckets each star is labeled 1-7 except for the ones #5 which will be Ryan's name since he is 5 and then #7 will have Jacob's bucket instead!

We will also do a jar of black jelly beans and the kids will have to guess how many are in there. They will win the jar of beans if they guess correctly. And another game is bowling. Since it is a carnival set up I hired on my older nephews to run the booths and each kid will win tickets for the games. So if they play ring toss and get 4 out of the 6 rings around the sticks they will win 4 tickets. They will then put there names into a hat and I will draw for prizes at the end of the party for a chance to win these. I found these amazing boxes of magic tricks brand new never opened at Goodwill for .99 each! Can you believe that!

and of course goody bags filled with a magic wand (must have) silly glasses, chinese finger traps, bubbles and a noisy toy (because I know how much parents enjoy these things). I think I will add some candy too.

But the highlight of the event will be the real live magician from Furry Tales Magic Company. We are ecstatic about that! What we will do is set up a stage and then chairs for the kids with some popcorn bags and each kid will have a home made top hat, magic wand and cape. It will be so cute! I am going to make my own hats too. I found a way to make them online. Take a black paper plate and cut out the middle. Then glue on black cardboard around the middle that you cut out and wa-la instant hat. I should have just bought some... but they are a dollar each which gets expensive if you have 20-25 kids!

Oh my gosh am I so excited for the party! We have made other decorations like cut out stars and banners. I am thinking of setting up my backdrop stand that I use for my photography and putting it in an entry way and hanging a bunch of strands of stars from it like a curtain and the kids will walk through it.

So if you are in need of a magic party idea here you go! It was so fun to plan and the boys are extremely excited for the magic show. It was kind of expensive cause the magician was a hefty price... but you can't put a price tag on your kids happiness right!?!

I am also entering my bucket craft idea into Trendy Crafter Contest this week. You must use tape... and I used masking tape since I wanted to be able to re-use these buckets after the party for toys.

Easter Weekend - Part Two- I Heart Faces Stories in Dessert

So this is actually going to be mainly all the delicious foods and desserts from Easter. We made so many fun desserts for Easter. I organized crafts and Easter desserts with my nieces and nephews over Spring Break. It was so fun.... a little chaotic with all the kids.... but we all had fun doing it! So here is the end result. Our last Easter post will be tomorrow!

Easter Breakfast for the kids was pastel colored waffles with strawberry syrup and whip cream



I also made 3 different kind of quiches and surprisingly they were actually edible! LOL! Jack actually ate my food and he is the chef in our family... in fact, he went back for seconds... which means he really liked my food. Normally Jack won't eat! It made my morning! I spent a lot of time putting this together because Jack would be my biggest critic and I wanted to impress him! :D He and Laury are always so gracious to our family I wanted to do something special for him. He asked me to make quiche and I happily complied... even though I had never really made one before.



These were called Humming Bird Nests. They were so easy to make. Melted chocolate and then mix in coconut. Drip a heaping spoonful on wax paper and then push down the center and place in Robin Eggs! And they are delicious!!!


The kids all made sugar cookies and got to cut them out of the dough and then icing them. They had so much fun!!


The good ol Easter Basket Cupcakes! I love these. They are so pretty when they are done!


This may not be dessert... but it was dessert for me!! Here is my 27lb turkey I made! So excited for leftover turkey sandwiches!


All the Easter Eggs there Aunt Jenny helped the kids make! She is such a good Auntie for putting this together!


Last but not least here are the Easter Eggs I am bringing over to Jenny's house for our Egg Hunt. We decorated all of the plastic eggs into Egg-imals! We had owls, skunks, mice, dogs, cats and pigs. This was a long process... cause someone (me) had to cut out all the stupid little shapes out of the felt.... so it was 4 hours out of my life gone.... but the laughter from the kids when they got to create these things was priceless!

Right when I snapped this photo my son Ryan thought it would be funny to blow bubbles into our basket of goodies! LOL! Made for a good photo... but hopefully the candy doesn't taste like soap too much... oh well there just kids, right!?! :D


And here is an Easter Craft the kids did. I found all these craft and food ideas at Family Disney online. These were just socks filled with beans. The kids absolutely loved this craft!! It was so much fun!

Christmas Crafts

Last weekend the Chief Joseph Elementary had a Breakfast with Santa in their gym. I volunteered for the craft station and this is what all the kids got to make! Aren't they adorable! They had so much fun and were so proud to hang them on the tree!

This was Ryan's ornament

This one is Jacob's

And here was Mommies... I mean Madi's (no really she did the whole thing... I swear!)

They look so beautiful hanging on our tree!

Tis the Season of Sharing!

Tis the season of giving right! And well since I am not rich enough to give everyone a vacation or a present I will share some recipes!

I hate to cook... actually I take it back... I like to cook but cannot seem to find the time to make healthy homemade meals. But what I do love to do is during the winter when there is no time for playing in the park and more time to play indoors... I enjoy taking a few days and cooking in bulk and then freezing for later. SOUP, CHILI's, ROAST! All great freezer meals.

I LOVE this website for recipes called http://www.allrecipes.com/. What is great about them is you can list your ingredients that you have or dont have and what you want to make and it will find you a recipe. SO WONDERFUL! And since I am not a very organized person I find recipe keeping way to inconvenient. I figure that is what the internet does for me already! And I enjoy trying new things so I always seem to try different recipes anyways!
So this is a family recipe on the Roper's side! Of all people... Josh's brother Matt showed me how to make this! He is a wonderful cook believe it or not! I miss him living with us!

VERY SIMPLE, QUICK, HEALTHY AND CHEAP!

Bag Red Potatoes
Fresh Green Beans
Onions
Ham Hocks or Pork Hocks
Water
Salt and Pepper

I don't follow any amounts of the above... but all I do is add these ingredients to a pot of boiling water, turn down the heat to low and then cook for the day. SO EASY! And so good! And even Adda loves this recipe because she gets to chew on the bone after!

Who doesn't have a turkey carcass left over during the holidays! The other day I made a HUGE pot of Turkey Soup.

Here is the recipe. http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/After-Thanksgiving-Turkey-Soup/Detail.aspx Oh my gosh it was sooooo good! Extremely healthy (I have weight to lose this winter... so healthy is important to me right now!) And it is so nice to have soup in the freezer when you are sick.... and Cambell's just isn't good enough! Nothing beats homemade!

And while we are talking about food. Jacob for school had to make a gingerbread man out of any items other then crayons and markers with the family. So we used food! :D The kids enjoyed eating the craft more then they did making it! But it was so much fun doing this with the family.

And even the glue was edible! Can you believe this mommy of three kids had a bazillion markers in the game closet but not one ounce of glue. So we made homemade glue! Here is the recipe... FLOUR AND WATER! And as hard as that sounds.... it is very easy!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

AND I CHALLENGE EVERYONE TO SHARE ONE FAMILY RECIPE WITH US THIS WEEK ON THEIR BLOG!

Dinner and Dessert and a Little Creativity!

Yesterday for Josh's birthday I made fajitas! YUM! So good! And since cooking these days has become almost non existent I thought I should take a picture of the one item I have cooked this month so that you would think that I do this every night! :D Because everynight we eat a full course meal at the dinner table as a family... REALLY WE DO!!!

So while I was cooking all the food I remembered this absolutely adorable idea that my friend Amy had on her blog. I had to display these beautiful cookies I made for Josh on a proper serving dish. So in about 5 minutes I put two of these serving trays together. SOOOO EASY! With the holidays coming up who doesn't need cheap serving platters. I was just at Wal-Mart and these things cost from $15-20 each! I made two of these things for $3.00. The plates were 50 cents each and the candle holders were $1.00 each... and I know you are now wondering where I found such great bargains... well it is a little place called the dollar store... You should go there sometime!!! :D Slap on some super glue and Walla! A serving tray... so easy... yet so creative!

Would you consider this artwork? :D

I have always wanted to do this... and finally this "thing" is big enough to paint! You can't miss it... it can be called "Ginormica" Like on Monsters Vs. Aliens. :D

My kids had soooo much fun! This little 10 minute MESSY event was the highlight of there day.... and yes it was very, VERY messy...

Lesson # One... do it in the summer on the porch... not on your carpet in your living room with a 2 year old, a 4 year old, a 6 year old and a 8 year old...

BUT don't worry ALL THE PAINT CAME OFF THE CARPET, AND MY BELLY, AND MY CLOTHES... AND MY KIDS! :D

So only about 4 weeks left ... I don't think my belly could possibly get any bigger.... but it does.... and it won't stop! :D I have officially moved into my husband's closet... When you go from Size 3 jeans to Size Medium Maternity in less then a year... it is a little overwhelming!

Here we are getting started... The paint was cold! I should have warmed it up!
Oh they had no problem slapping on lots of colors!
I think they enjoyed this! What do you think?
Oh my... is that Madison painting my coffee table?

Ooops... I got paint on my arm!
They decided to get cup lids of paint and pour it on my belly... this is when it got really messy
now lets rub it in

LOL! This was just too funny


Madison got paint on her face... and her hair... and her belly
but not as much paint as I had all over me
Ryan gave me a belly massage with the paint
and last but not least... hand prints on my carpet from kids falling with paint on their hand. Thankfully I own a steam cleaner... because it was on my couches and my carpet by the time we were done!

Sneak Peek!

I have hundreds of photos to sort through. But for now I have some pre-party photos to share with you. It took most of the morning to get things set up. The kids blew up the balloons while I decorated. I am so glad it is over! No more parties to plan until December! :D

So for those who knew my story about the cake... I cannot believe how wonderfully delicious it still tasted! Who ever thought a freezer burned chocolate cake could still be sinfully delicious! If you are still a boxed cake kind of person you have to be corrupted into trying out this recipe. It is called HERSHEY'S "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" Chocolate Cake.

This recipe was tried out by accident a few years ago when I forgot to buy a boxed cake for a party. I was in a hurry and found this recipe and had all the ingredients. Since then it is the only chocolate cake I will ever make! It beats Sarah Lee and Duncan Hines cakes!


My little Mario and Luigi! And this also gets Halloween out of the way now! My plan is to find a princess peach costume for Madison and somehow dress our dog into Yoshi... Maybe Josh could be bowser... LOL!
Here is my little 4-year old ham! No more terrible horrible threes!

Ryan's present from us. (P.S. He got a razor scooter!)

Meet chain chomp. He is the barking ball on Mario.

These were slapped together in case the cake was gross. Of course these tasted worse then the cake because they were boxed...

This place was my lifesaver for Mario and Luigi plates, napkins, etc. I went to Zurchers and many other stores and nobody carried this theme. I ordered them online from www.birthdayexpress.com I was surprised at how affordable they were and the items were superior quality! It just made the party that much better!

My homemade dollarstore hats with felt glued M's on them!

So for now that is it. We are going to do some power cleaning and maybe take the kids swimming but I will try and post more pictures later!