DIY Death Star Pinata

Even though Thanksgiving is next week, my mind has been rather occupied elsewhere.

I have a certain amazing little guy in my life who just turned 5 last week.

The first two weeks of November were spent planning his awesome birthday bash.

I have discovered that I LOVE to plan birthday parties, and now that my son is older it's so fun to bounce ideas back and forth and give him something he really loves.

Last year for his 4th birthday bash we had the infamous Avengers themed party.

We made a Captain America Shield Pinata from cardboard. That pinata didn't cost me a penny to make, and it was awesome.
For this year's party my son requested a Lego Star Wars theme. As soon as he said that we both knew we had to make a Death Star pinata.

Now this pinata did cost me $2.50 because I bought a ball.
I didn't have a ball on hand that was the right size...I realized later that a beach ball would have worked perfectly though...oh well.

DIY Seashell Picture Frame

Have you ever taken a trip to the beach and taken a cute sand photo and collected some shells?
Well, I have a small project for you!
About two days before we moved from California back to Utah we decided to go to the beach one more time. It was 'our beach' because we went to the same spot every time.

We knew it was our last trip to there for a while...maybe a couple of years...so we wanted to somehow remember it.

We did the classic footprints in the sand of each member of our little family. (Yes, we had our then 2 month old do a little chubby footprint as well :) )

While we lived in California we went to the beach MANY times and my son loved collecting seashells.

Over time a bunch of the shells broke or got lost, so I wanted a way to keep the shells intact and also display our cute picture.

This is what I came up with.

An Easy Halloween Breakfast

I know Halloween was already almost a whole week ago, but I am finally just getting around to this post...that might tell you how crazy my week has been!
Holidays are so much more fun with kids!
My son was so super excited for Halloween, and the night before (yeah procrastinator I know...) I decided I wanted to make his breakfast a little special to start the day off right.
Since my decision was so last minute, I didn't have a lot of prep time.
This is what I came up with.

So first thing in the morning I whipped up a batch of pancakes from an old recipe I've used forever.
My husband once made chocolate chip pancakes for my son, and he loved them, so I decided to make a pumpkin face out of chocolate chips.
It doesn't look as glamorous as it did in my head, but it still worked!
For the 'ghost milk' I just grabbed a glass cup and painted on a face with black acrylic craft paint.
*Let the paint dry completely so little fingers don't get dirty!
(And don't worry folks, the paint was super easy to clean off. I just ran it under water for a second and wiped it off with my fingers.)
The most important note is my son's reaction.
He LOVED it!
He loved it so much, the next day he asked for 'pumpkin orange juice', and even though Halloween was technically over, I had to give in :)

This was such a hit that I think we'll have to do it again next year!

Easy Halloween Crafts

Last year for Halloween I had my son help me make some decor for our apartment.
We made a Halloween paper plate craft.
Since we just moved a few weeks ago we figured the plates would not survive, so I decided to let my son make some more Halloween crafts.
I first had it in my mind to do all hand-print crafts, but after the first one my son said he didn't want to have to keep washing his hands, and I wanted him to kind of take full reign of what and how we were to do the crafts, so these were all him.

To make the spider just paint your child's palm and 4 fingers.

Then have them place their hand down facing one way, and then overlap the palm of the hand with the fingers pointing the other way.

(My son's favorite color is green, and he really wanted a green spider :) )

Glazed Muffins

I first made these muffins a couple of weeks ago and they were delicious, but now that we are back in Utah and the air is crisp I'm dying to make them again. They have the perfect flavor for these fall days.

I found this recipe through Pinterest, of course, and I made 1 or 2 minor changes.

Spinach & Parmesan Quinoa

I don't really ever remember eating spinach growing up.

I do remember people always hated it in the cartoons and kids shows though.

I honestly don't know why that is.

I happen to love it.

I make this recipe probably once every other week. It's great to throw in the mix for a meatless meal that's still packed with protein, and it's super easy to throw together!

DIY Big Brother T-shirt

Way back when I was first pregnant I decided I wanted my son to have a 'Big Brother' shirt to wear when he was at the hospital with us. I knew it would make him feel special so everyone knew who he was.

About a week before the baby came we finally got around to making the shirt.

We actually made it for Family Home Evening, so of course I had my son help me out with this project, it was to be his shirt after all!

I know it's not perfect, there are some smudges here and there, but it was perfect for what we needed and my son was very proud of the finished product.

So here's what we used