Mommy's Minions

Monday, February 6, 2017

Pokemon Party!!

And then, after all the Halloween and the Thanksgiving and Christmas and Hannukah and New Year's, it was time to throw a birthday party. My darling twins had turned 11. ELEVEN! Happily, I was still able to get them to agree on a party theme. (I know my days are numbered for this.)

Happily, there were lots of ideas on Pinterest for me to use (my board is here). I started with these cute DIY Pokeballs. They turned out well and were a big hit, but they did NOT take 10 minutes, as promised.

For prizes, I got this huge lot of 144 Pokemon figures, these Pokemon bracelets, and some packs of cards that kids could draw from a bag.

Next up were Pokeball cupcakes,Pikachu pops (the kids helped with those), and other snacks.

Then it was time to decorate. I found the printable birthday banner here. The kids added some homemade artwork, which was a cute touch.

Once our guests arrived (18 of them! in our tiny house on a rainy day! ack!), we started playing some games. First up, a Pokemon Race to see whose floating Pokemon could cross the finish line first.

Then, it was time for a neat STEM activity to Hatch Your Own Pokemon Egg.

We also played Pass the Pokemon (this year's Hot Potato, thanks to a stuffed Drillbur).

Time for cupcakes and birthday singing!

Sadly, we never got to use these very cute Pokemon Bingo cards. I also had Pokemon Billiards at the ready, but we honestly didn't have the space, and by this time the kids were all hopped up on cupcakes and were having Nerf battles and a snowball fight, not to mention all the Pokemon trading. And Beanboozled -- what a game that was. (I regret trying to be one of the cool kids.)

Happy birthday, my sweeties. May this be the year that you catch them all.

Love, Mommy

Angry Birds - Office Halloween Decorations

I realized I never came back and posted an update to the great paper mache project of 2016. I learned that Modge Podge is nice, but that old school flour and water pinata paste is the way to go for large-scale projects (and much cheaper!). And while I didn't get to hang my birds so they appeared to fly, they did turn out pretty well.

Here you have it, my team's Angry Birds office decorations:

DIY Angry Bird Masks for our group costume

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Phases of paper mache

First, you get enormous balloons and blow one up. Rest.

Then, you figure out how to make it stay still.

An upended stool is a good start, but any air movement whatsoever will make it drift away. So you tether it with a makeshift clip twist tied to the stool. And you get to work.

After hours of effort, you will be halfway done.

And then, just as you feel like you are making good progress, the balloon will shift and suddenly be punctured by the twist tie. So your final product looks like this.