Furniture Lust

Oh, I want this for my boys so much, but am not about to drop $1k on a chair for a wee one.

Available at Restoration Hardware, found via Ohdeedoh

But isn't it lovely??

New toys at Ikea!

Attention all pint-sized workpeople! Cruising Ikea last week, I saw these two new toys...

 Cute felt toolbelt and tools $4.99 Totally going to stockpile some of these for birthday parties!

And workbench $79.99

Hank's party is finally here!

Hank turned 3 last week and his party finally arrived! Here are some details:

Theme: Lego guys
# of small guests: 3 + my 2 boys (5 kids, and 1 baby)
To snack on: cups of cheese and crackers, grapes and blueberries and m&ms and raisins and of course cupcakes!
To drink: Lemonade, limeade, lavender lemondade and water
Colors: all sorts of yellows, golds and oranges- sort of lego guy head colors
Activity: Build your own guy
Favors: Their guys, bubbles, play clay

Sources: boxes for take-home treats and striped favor cups for the guys bought at Packaging Specialties in Seattle
Striped and polka dot treat cups at Sweet Lulu
Plain treat cups at local party store
Lego parts, pick-a-brick at lego.com
Cupcakes from Trophy cupcake in Wallingford
Fringe streamers- handmade using crepe paper, idea from Oh Happy Day. Super easy and super cheap! $6.50 for all my streamers!

Celebrate the Boy!

I totally forgot about the wonderful Celebrate the Boy series from made and made by rae (found this year via Say Yes to Hoboken). I've loved it in past years! There aren't enough craft projects for boys, but my guys really love them. Here are my favorite ideas this time around. It's going to be a busy crafting spring!

Superhero Cape and Powercuff from Southern Institute for Domestic Arts and Crafts. So easy! This would take about 5 minutes to make.

Monster tooth pillow from the Long Thread. Atticus is five. I've got at least a year to make this, right?

I think this cool boys' wallet would be cool for grown up boys, too!

Wouldn't this money cuff from A Lemon Squeezy Home be perfect for Hank to carry around his beloved lego guys?

Perfect for our spring clothes refresh! Spring jacket from I Am Momma Hear Me Roar. (And if you want to feel like you're completely depriving your children of a well-designed playroom, check her's out here. What lucky kids!)

And, I think my favorite. Retro duffel bag from SaltwaterKids. Um, look at the fort kit on the bottom of that post. We're totally making this for a friend's birthday next weekend!

And from the past, the absolutely best, most comprehensive Star Wars roundup.

Hank's Party Details

My baby (baby!!) is turning 3 in March. He loves Lego guys. The teeny ones. He carries them around by the handful or in his (brother's) Star Wars lunchbox or puts them in his pockets. So, I thought a guy party would be perfect. Here are my initial ideas:

Refreshments

• Polka Dot Candy Cups  In yellow, of course. Will fill some with fruit and some with snack mix
• Cupcakes will come from Trophy. Yum! And yay Groupon for having the perfect deal at the right time! I'd rather know that the dessert will be superb rather than worry about making it myself.
• I'm going to try to go easy on the drinks- this is where it gets expensive! Lemonade and water are what I'm thinking. Although alcohol for the adults braving the party isn't a horrible idea...

Guy Station

• Lots of legs, heads, hats and bodies to build your own guy (from Lego)
• BrickStix to decorate the guys
• Cute little boxes to carry them home in (from Packaging Specialties, not pictured)

Invites
Invites from Pear Tree Greetings These turned out great. They were about $1 each and are really good quality. I also bought some stickers for the goody boxes and some return address labels with Hank's name on them (it's so confusing having different last names, can't just write from the Smith Family).

Decorations
I'm contemplating using some yellow paper lanterns I already have so as to evoke the round guy heads. I'm sure the 3 year olds will totally get it. No other grand ideas yet. Probably some balloons.

Other Ideas
I'm also looking for a Craigslist Train Table I can turn in to a Lego table for Hank's present and an activity at the party.
Invites to family and family friends have gone out, but I have no clue which "friends" to invite! Poor second child has never had a play date set up solely for him (he tags along on all of Atticus's). He loves his big brother so much that I've never looked further than the top bunk for a playmate! I don't want to invite the whole class (19), so I think I'll pick 5 or so kids he talks about the most.

Party is March 20. Look for details soon after! Hopefully, my brand new camera will function perfectly after last year's infamous photo failure. Hank's 2nd Birthday.

Tangled Party!

It's no secret that my boys are all-boy. There's no way I can talk Hank in to this party. BUT. It is lovely, adorable and perfect for a little girl. I love it when moms actually plan a party that their kids love. I always ask my kids what party they'd like and then build around that. It's actually very easy to throw a classy Disney-themed party without a licensed item in sight! (Hank got Nemo last year and it was really adorable.)

This Tangled theme party is very inventive, not too matchy, matchy and really lovely to look at. Will someone throw me one? Details here, here and invite here. The invite was recently featured on Martha Stewart!

Luke, I am your painter

Inspired by this mural, I decided to take the Star Wars plunge and paint Luke Skywalker on the boys' bedroom wall. I did this quite awhile ago, but hadn't yet put up the promised lightsaber. Last week, cruising the Target toy aisle I find this. On sale, 1/2 off. Perfect! My inner 5 year old boy is in love with this lightsaber. It can be on the wall or taken off for playing. It has 8 different colors and a REMOTE CONTROL! You can lay in bed and change Luke's lightsaber. So cool!

Here he is, Luke in all of his glory. I've promised to reprise the painting after we move (but on canvas next time, not the wall!).

       

A few of the colors (although my resident SW fan swears that Luke would never use a red lightsaber!

Purple is my favorite, of course.

And who wouldn't love vintage Star Wars curtains and these sheets!

I will have to clean, I mean style, the rest of the room and take some pictures. I found a pair of really cool dressers at Goodwill that are perfect. Although I tried not to make it too themey, it is tough when they have so much SW stuff to begin with! They love it, though and it is their room, not mine. Although I'm not sure I would mind Luke on my wall. I sort of have a crush on him now! (Sorry Han!)

Mustache mirror!!

My friend Jamie commented in this post that I should take these mustaches and make a little mirror for my kids. What a great idea! These rub-ons worked perfectly on mirrors! I got a few mirrors at the dollar store and let Atticus pick out which mustaches we should use. One of these is on it's way to Jamie for her little girl. Thanks for the idea! Would love a pic of Katie using her mirror!

It is hard to capture a great pic of Atticus in the mirror with a mustache, but he loves playing with it. Lots of giggles as he looks at his silly self. A tip if you try this... Tell the wee one to close one eye. Makes it much easier to see oneself properly!

 

Preview- Hanks' birthday party

My baby turns 2 today. Invites for his party next week are pictured above. I took an image of the famous clownfish from online, blew it up to the size I needed, cut off the head (sorry, Nemo!) and hand cut out the invites. Many pieces to this one... the card itself, the orange fish part, the two white stripe bits. I love that they are all a tiny bit different and very handmade.

Other plans: Giant vinyl nemo for a "pin the fin" game, balloon boat racing, light snacks, yummy cake. Voila! A party!!

Spontaneous Vday Brunch

I decided about a week ago to host a Vday playdate/brunch for my boys and couple of their friends. I didn't want to go out of control (who, me?), so I limited myself to only purchasing food. All the decorations had to be made from things I already had on hand. I did end up spending $2 on the hearts I hung from the ceiling. But I had all the other paper in my stash. I made these little mailboxes. So cute!! The kids were all excited to take them home and play with them. Now I need to remember to make some 'mail' to put in Hank and Atti's!

Valentines

Looking for some good ideas for Valentines for the boys' school exchange. Last year I bought a pdf on etsy and loved having something unique! The year before, I made these.

Here are some contenders for this year:

from BunnyCakesBlog on etsy

From tinyprints

Also from tinyprints

From Martha Stewart

Book you must buy: Kid Made Modern by Todd Oldham

As seen on Ohdeedoh, Kid Made Modern by Todd Oldham is a must buy! It looks amazing with projects inspired by Alexander Girard, Charles & Ray Eames and more! Definitely on my holiday wish list as of right now!!  Available at amazon for  $15.61.

Todd Oldham is amazing. He's the only thing tolerable about La-Z-Boy, has contributed to Target's design for the masses and, according to Amazon, is now a contributing editor to ReadyMade magazine. Brilliant!

Children's Party: Neverland Theme!

Image via mer mag

This lovely children's party at mer mag is just magical (as seen at ohdeedoh). How Atticus would've loved this for his birthday!! You must click through to see the images from this gorgeous party!

Party for a four year old

Image from alpha mom

I figure this is the last year I get to heavily influence my son's birthday party choice. I absolutely love celebrating my sons' birthdays. Planning, crafting, baking, staying up until the wee hours of the morning finishing up the little details. I love it all! I'm especially mindful about making Atticus's birthday very special and separate from the holidays. He was born December 14, pretty close to the big day!

This year we will have a construction/tool themed party. I've found inspiration for here (via ) and here (both via Party Perfect).

Party invites are these adorable mini toolboxes. (Which are almost done, but missing the darn handles that I can't find!)
I've purchased plastic hats for the kids from Oriental Trading Co.
I hope to have some great building activity.
I'm also hoping to make some really special cookies (you know, those really fancy decorated kind)

Stay tuned! Party is in early December!

Halloween Postmortem- The Kids

Atticus is 3 3/4, so I let him choose his costume. At first, he wanted to be a vampire. I was excited that he chose something so traditional! Then, he changed his mind and wanted to be Peter Pan. And he wanted to carry his shadow. I love this boy! We already had a Peter Pan-ish jacket. I added green tights, an appropriate hat, belt, mustard shoe covers, and, of course, his shadow.

For Henry (20 months), I chose bat. It went along perfectly with a vampire (sigh). I bought a black sweatsuit and added bat wings and ears to it. Thanks to mom for doing the sewing!

Here are some shots taken at a park nearby. (Photos taken by Jeff Benitz)