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Octonauts Cupcakes for Preschool - Because who doesn't love a cupcake at 9am!

I've been away so long I had to rename the blog, since diapers are *mostly* a thing of my past.

So the twins turned 4 last week - GASP - and they wanted an Octonauts theme party.  I love a good theme, it makes all the party planning and prep so much easier.  It helps me narrow down how everything will look, the invites, the favors, the crafts, the decorations, the cake, and if I'm feeling extra crazy, the food.

Well this post is just going to be about the party after the party, the school party.  It seems nowadays (That makes me sound like such an old fart) having one party with your family and friends isn't enough, you need to have a party at school too.  So since I like a good theme, and I like to drive myself crazy, and one set of Octonauts baked goods wasn't enough....

Captain Barnacles

Peso

I'm pretty proud of myself for winging these in the grocery story aisle.  Oh that's right, that's how I used to make things before Pinterest - I used to use my brain!

JP wanted "white" cupcakes so for him I bought a box of vanilla cake mix, because I admit, I'm not the right kind of crazy to make these guys from scratch!  JR, wanted Chocolate, but a different brand then I got for JP, God forbid they make this easy...

For Captain Barnacles I used mini-marshmallows for the ears, and upside down chocolate chips for the eyes.  The "hat" is a blue pretzel m&m.  I bought 2 medium size bags and picked out all the blue ones, then gave my husband strict instructions to hide the remaining m&ms on me.  The rest of the blue details on the Captain is writing icing and a black writing icing nose.  I just wish I had blue baking cups to make him in, I think it would have really put the whole thing over the top.

For Peso, I picked a few yellow juju candies from the self-serve bins in the candy aisle and cut them up to make his nose.  His eyes and hat are the same as Captain Barnacles and his black fur is writing icing.  I had baking cups covered in Penguins that I just had to use here! 

Peso's #PenguinePerfect Baking Cups

I'm really happy with how they came out and my boys were also super impressed with Mommy when they saw the cupcakes this morning.  I think they liked these better then the cakes I made for their real birthday party - which I will try to actually blog about now that J&J are in school all day for 3 days a week - Woo-Hoo!!

The kids at J&J's Preschool had a hard time deciding which to take, but they all ate most of their cupcake, and what 3 and 4 year old doesn't need a cupcake at 9:15 in the morning?

=)

It's okay, I can reach it now

It seems JR knows how to think outside of the box.  He wanted to get a closer look at what was on top of the TV cabinet, and TJ happened to be in the right place at the right time.  And what did his champion parents do as TJ was yelling, "He's standing on me!  He's heavy!" We ran around looking for my camera.  Don't worry, we found it, actually, that was one of the things JR was reaching for on the cabinet.  

Let's not ignore JP climbing the tower of toys off to the side.  Apparently he didn't learn his lesson after falling off this same tower yesterday and giving himself quite the nasty knot on his forehead.  

Ah, evening chaos.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I love to celebrate holidays, but I don't like to buy a ton of crap just for the sake of having something to open.  I also have a small stuffed animal addiction.  My Mom still has more than one garbage bag full of them in her attic.  TJ's bed is inhabited by more then a few stuffed animals.  I also think I have high standards in animals.  They have to be cute and they can't be made out of that crappy fur that falls apart when you touch it.  So one day I decided to make my own. 

For Valentine's Day, I wanted to make something that would involve a heart, but not be too girly.  So I sketched a heart and just stared at it for a little while.  Something made me turn it upside-down, and I knew they just had to be little monsters, because what little boy doesn't like monsters?! I've made enough of these that I knew what I was doing and what little extras I wanted to add, like arms and spikes, plus I've got some new fabric paint that I wanted to give a whirl - since my machine free-hand embroidery isn't the best and I wanted these to look great and go together pretty easily.

I think they came out great!  And so do they. =)

Library Bag

Here goes another Celebrate the BOY post.  I have a ton of those free advertising bags, and I've never had an inkling to actually carry them but I certainly won't throw them away, that would be wasteful.  My husband wishes I would be more "wasteful" but that's a whole nother post. I've seen those freezer paper stencils all over the blogosphere, and it's been filed away in the back of my head in my things-to-do list.

Then I saw another awesome made post on 1.19.2011 about book bags, and I was again motivated.  What better way to get rid of those pesky bags and try out some of that cool freezer paper stencils? Once I got my freezer paper TJ and I went through some coloring book line drawings and picked out the perfect one, one he liked and one I thought I'd be able to cut out with an exact-o knife without too much trouble.
Voila! What a great new use for a bag that's just been hanging out in the basement.  Now we have a great way to transport our mass amount of library books.
I am now addicted to freezer paper stencils.  I have a few witty t-shirts in the works for the twins, because really is anything cuter then a baby in a The Dude Abides t-shirt?  I have also made towel labels for everyone so I'm no longer trying to keep track of mine in our tiny bath room. I also plan on monogramming the boys' chenille blankets.  I wonder what else I can make?  I wish I had one of those Silhouette machines...

He's so proud =)

Celebrate the BOY

So over on Made By Rae and made, they are celebrating an awesome thing, BOYS! They are bringing an excellent point to light, there aren't a whole lot of sewing projects for boys...but there are!  You just have to think and their awesome site is putting out lots of fabolous ideas for things to make for BOYS!!  Seeing as how I now have three, I had to do my part of showing some fantastic things that you can make for BOYS!  I don't nearly have the artistic ability as many of these fine sewers, but I do manage to make some cute things just for my boys that they love, so I thought I'd start to share a few.

I follow a lot of fantastic crafting blogs.  They give me the inspiration I need to get out from in front of the TV and behind a sewing machine.  made is AMAZING!  I wish I had her creativity and her photography skills!!  On 11.30.2010 she posted a tutorial for a faux chenille baby blanket and it struck a chord with me.  I have always wanted to quilt, but there have been many things holding me back.  I cannot cut in a straight line, there's a lot of picking coordinating fabrics involved, I don't really have the space to lay it all out and I really can't even begin to look for someone to mail it out to "quilt" it for me.  But then I saw the made post and I knew that that was a quilt that I could make and it would rock!  I had yet to make anything for the twins - time and inspiration were holding me back. But I knew I wanted to make these for them ASAP.  Right after Christmas, Joann gift card in one hand, coupons in the other, off I went and bought everything I would need for two chenille blankets.  I had a lot of fun picking out boy-ish, and hopefully not to baby-ish, fabrics with the aim that I wanted them to get the long haul out of the blankets and since I bought 1 1/4 yard of fabric of each type I didn't have to worry about cutting straight lines!! 
JP and JR are color coded.  Any of you with twins probably understand, I needed something that didn't involve thought, that would allow me to tell them apart at 4am.  Since it worked so well when they were itty-bitties, I've just kept it going.  So JP uses the green clothes, bottles, toys, and now his new baby blanket.  JR is my blue boy and if you've every seen his eyes there really wasn't any question that blue is his color.  I figure it will work when they're older too, towels, backpacks, storage containers, they all can being in the assigned colors. 
They LOVE the blankets!  Sometimes I catch JR playing with the cut side like he holds on to the tags of everything.  I didn't think JP noticed it, until the other day I caught him stealing JRs too, I guess he likes it so much he wanted them both.  They both came out so beautifully I already have the fabric bought for two more special little boys' blankets.  I can't wait to get started!

Bottles

Why am I still holding bottles?  When TJ was 13-months old he was certainly holding his own bottle.  Neither, of the twins are even making an attempt to hold their own.  Remember, there are two of them and they no longer will wait patiently for the other to finish his bottle.  So there I stand, at every meal, stretched out to one and hunched over the other holding bottles.  The only way I was even able to get this shot was because JP didn't wake up when I came to get them for lunch.
Is hoping for just one of them to start holding a bottle really asking that much?!