Gone Fishing Party

It seems like this weekend has flown by in a flash.  We packed up on Friday and headed up to the lake where we rented a house for the weekend.  My boys have fallen in love with fishing this summer so I thought it would be neat rather than paying some place an hourly rate and per person fee for hosting the party that I would just rent a lake house and have a little family party where the kids could fish until they dropped.  Mission success.  They are completely worn out now.  Haha.

Dad and the boys checked out the dock Friday night and tested out the fishing and on Saturday afternoon family came up for hot dogs and cake, and of course the fishing fun.  I didn't get nearly the most elegant photos I had envisioned, but it was a whirlwind of a weekend.  I did a cute little banner that went right along with our fishing theme and I strung it on fishing line with Christmas ornament hooks.  This was my favorite banner I have made to date!

I made these Pinterest inspired cupcakes only I substituted coffee stirrers and Swedish fish.  You will find my pinspiration here.



I also put blue food coloring in the Sprite and made what we call the Chocolate Pudding Field of Worms and labeled it as bait.  I unfortunately did not get a picture of them :(    Here is how you make the bait buckets, though.

Chocolate Pudding Field of Worms

Ingredients

• Roughly 30 Oreos, crushed
• gummy worms
• 2 (5 oz) Cook-N-Serve Jell-O chocolate pudding
• 3 cups of milk

Basically I used 3 small plastic sand pails that were on clearance from the summer.  Fill the bottom of each of your buckets with some of the Oreos.  Then prepare your pudding according to package directions.  When the pudding is done pour it on top of the Oreos.  Next, cover with aluminum foil and refrigerated for a couple of hours.  Remove from the refrigerator and put the rest of the Oreos on top.  Then you will take gummy worms and arrange them on the top to look like they are crawling around in the dirt.  Easy peasy.

The party was a hit and the boys both agreed it was one of the best birthdays ever!

Boys' Birthday Invites - Sneak Peak

My boys have birthdays that are one month apart.  Sometimes we decide to combine their parties into one shindig and meet in the middle.  This year is one of those years.  School starts back this week (on my oldest son's birthday as a matter of fact,) and my boys have been hugely fascinated with going fishing this summer, so in order to change it up this year we are renting a lake house somewhat locally and having family up for a little birthday dinner.  The boys have been allowed 2 friends a piece to come fishing with them for the day.

Today I sat down with my Silhouette to finally get the invites finished since the party is next week.  I am seriously not into waiting to the last minute like this, but there were a few issues getting the reservations nailed down, so everyone was given a tentative date for the party and now that it is confirmed the invites will be delivered (some by hand.) 

This is a little sneak peak at what you might expect from their party.  I'll post pics sometime next week of some of the other details. 

I hate wasting paper, especially cardstock, so I mixed up the invites and used the cut outs, and the negatives of the design for the cards.

The back of the envelopes.  Every invite has a different fish (and what is fun is they are all fish that my kids can identify as fish they have caught or have seen someone catch.)

The good, the bad, and the ugly

Sometimes motherhood feels that way don't you think?  Don't get me wrong, I have wanted children since I was a child myself.  I love my kids more than I love my own life, and they are the best things I have ever done, but some days are exhausting and you fall into bed at night completely drained.  Anyone who has spent hours and hours rocking a sick baby knows what I am talking about.  Anyone who has spent all day refereeing fighting siblings knows what I am talking about.  It's part of the "job," and we do it willingly, lovingly, with no regret.

Today was one of those days around here.  One of those days when you don't get your own hair washed or the laundry done or the floor vacuumed. 

The day started off with appointments at the eye doctor for the boys with the baby in tow.  The baby who has not been feeling that well for a couple of days.  We come to learn that our oldest will probably be in glasses in the next year or two.  Not exactly what we wanted to hear, but not altogether surprised by it considering his genes.

Now, baby J-bird has had swollen gums and all the tell tale signs of teething and this is what we attributed all her fussiness and fever to, but now the fever has been going on for three days.  The tooth has still not surfaced, and she seems to be feeling worse.  It looks like the pediatrician is on the agenda for tomorrow.  I hate it when my babies feel bad!!

Despite her wanting to be held most of the day I did get to get some sewing done, though.  Daddy to the rescue.  I had to finish my niece's birthday present, because her party is this Saturday.  I hope that they like it.

I started off by cutting out the #2 with my Silhouette Cameo and applying it with a warm iron.  Then I stitched it down.  Then I made the Twirly Girl Skirt from the book Little Girls Big Style, but any tiered skirt pattern would have worked.  I really love the way it turned out!

Now to get J-bird feeling well before Saturday!