An interview with Marco: Age 6

I thought for sure I'd have much more time to blog this summer.  Turns out that 4 kids keep you quite busy, especially now that they are older.
We just got done celebrating my youngest baby's birthday. My Marco turned 6!!  I decided it would be fun to do a little interview with him to remember some of his favorites!  I found this list (also had a free printable) at Layers of Learning.com.

Marco Age 6
1. Who is your favorite person in the whole world?
Papa (his grandfather)
2. What is your favorite color?
Green
3. What's your favorite television show?
Gravity Falls
4. What's your favorite outfit?
Mario Brothers T-Shirt and Blue Shorts
5. What sport do you like best?
Soccer
6. What is your favorite cereal?
Coco Puffs
7. Who is your best friend?
My Dad
8. What do you want to be when you grow up?
Alligator Catcher (cracks me up...he's been watching Swamp People)
9. What is your favorite book?
"Arthur's Underwear" by Marc Brown
10. What are you really good at?
Catching bugs and dance moves
11. Where do you wish you could go on vacation?
Cars Land at California Adventure
12. What song do you love?
Party Rock Anthem
13. What's your best memory?
A long time ago we went to Tio's beach (Crystal Cove) and we saw lots of rocks and I found a sea cucumber and I squeezed it.  It squirted me in the face!!
14. What would you buy if you had $1,000.00?
I would buy a DS (game system) and bunch of DS games
15. What vegetable do you hate the most?
Tomato
16. If you could have a wish, what would it be?
To have my own computer.
17. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?
Cotton Candy
18. Who is your biggest hero?
My Daddy because he is stronger than anyone.
19. What do you like to do best with your friends?
Play pirates and catching bugs.
20. What do you hope to do before your next birthday?
Learn how to shuffle dance. 

So, there you go! Some of his answers really made me laugh out loud.  I love his sweet, honest heart.  He loves to talk and had no problem answering any of these.
We had a Carnival Themed party for him with all kinds of DIY games.  Check it out at my craft blog: Altered to Perfection.

Creative friends...

I love being around creative, inspiring people.  My friend Angie is one of those people.  She recently had a little get together for her daughter Hannah who was celebrating her 21st birthday.  It was Marie Antoinette themed and even though I did not have my camera - I know, I couldn't believe it - I had to share some pictures from my phone.  This was one of those times I really wished I had an iPhone.
Angie made just about every thing by hand.  I loved the creativity and I loved even more that she didn't spend any extra money on the decorations.  She used papers and things she already had at home.

 This was the main table setting.  It was so beautiful!!  Do you see the book text banner in the background with the glittered clothespins?  

 This was a tiny bundt cake with white frosting.  The butterflies were hand-drawn and cut out by her daughter Abbie.  Then Angie printed a picture of Marie Antoinette eating cake, added a lace border and then wrote "Eat Cake" in glitter.  Perfect blues and pinks.

These amazing masquerade masks were all hand-made of course, but the thing that was cool was that each one was different from the other.  Blue feathers, flowers made out of book text, little pink and blue pearls... adorable!!

 Yummy open tea sandwiches made with turkey, avocado and a delectable cream cheese with a green onion dip mixed in it.  These went fast!  She also had cheese fondue.  She said it was called Cider fondue.  Apple cider, cheddar cheese and Swiss cheese.   She had chunks of bread and different veggies for us to dip in the cheese. Just wow.  ***Oh, notice the beaded fork?  She makes those for her etsy too!

 I believe this was inspired by a photo from Pinterest, but I love theirs even better.  It's a Christmas tree made of books!  Of course she has some flowers cut out of book text and added to the lights!

 The coffee/drink table...  I love the simple streamers and streamer made with scallop punches and ribbon!

 This was my absolute favorite thing there.  Look at this paper shoe.  Seriously?  If this doesn't scream Marie Antoinette, I don't know what does.  I'm trying to convince her to open a little etsy shop.  What do you think? Her daughter (who the party was for) has one already.  Let me know if you're interested in anything.

Here's another beaded item. It's a vintage spoon.  

All-in-all it was a beautiful party with an out of this world display.  Again, forgive me for the pictures, but it was just too great to not share here!

My girl Angie's got mad skills! Here's her daughter's Etsy shop in case you want to convo them.

Naomi's Art Party

 I bought two empty cans at Home Depot. I could not believe I had to pay $8 for two EMPTY cans. Anyway, I took plastic table cloth and taped one end inside.  I hung them upside down using fishing line and then tacked the line to the wall. I cascaded the table cloth over the table and hoped that it would look like spilled paint.  Saw this idea on Pinterest and you can get the link at the bottom of the post.  The original link doesn't say much about the photo, it was just from a party.

I tried to choose very colorful, fun foods.  Not pictured, but the main event was a baked pasta dish that had all kinds of pasta (bow tie, cork screw, etc) with a meat and maranara sauce. There were meatballs in a separate pot as well as dinner rolls.

This mini paint palette cake was made by my good friend Lorany. She is so talented and makes the cakes, cupcakes, cake pops and cookie pops for all of our kids' birthdays.  She is so creative!

Of course we had a piñata !

Here's Lorany with Naomi.  She made some super yummy cupcakes and then put them on a palette.

Blowing out the candles...with a little help from a special little boy. hehe

So colorful and more importantly... YUMMY!!

The birthday girl - my little artist - Naomi AGE 6

My girl...

Naomi and Hannah Joy...hard to believe that she went thru surgery just days earlier.

Marco and Naomi - best buddies

Naomi and Taryn - check out her Play Doh shirt

She is definitely "daddy's girl"

This was the set up.  Cake and candy party table to the left and art supply and project to the right.

I took brown paper lunch bags and punched the top of them with a Martha Stewart lace border punch. When the kids arrived, I had them go to the table and decorate their bag and put their name on it.  This bag was used to hold the supplies I gave them as well as candy from the candy bar.

I had a lot of these items already from my teaching and Sunday School supplies.  The rest was purchased at a dollar store.  There were little watercolor palettes, pencils with glitter gel, puffy pom poms, styrofoam shapes, glue sticks, packs of Crayola Crayons (Wal Mart for 40 cents a box!!), play doh, colored plastic clothespins and glitter.  

I bought some door hangers at the Dollar Tree and had them decorate them with styrofoam stickers.  We also  covered some notepads with scrapbook paper and decorated them.

Dipped marshmallows, Spree, gumballs, licorice, marshmallow twists...

Pixie sticks, rice krispy "paint brushes"... 

Colorful fruit kabobs...

As a special surprise, Lorany made some cookie pops! They were so cute and again, more importantly, very yummy! haha.  It was a great party and I am pleased to say - really did not cost that much.  Next up, Hannah's SWEET 16.  Yes, that is what I will be working on during the whole month of October.

Several of these ideas were found on PINTEREST.  It's one of my favorite "habits".  Click on the link to go to my ART PARTY board and there are different pictures with all the links to take you to the original ideas.  Some of the ideas have been copied so many times it's hard to give credit to the original person, but you should be able to follow them to their links.