Banana Cake

I did this one for Mikey's 1st birthday.  The theme was Curious George.  I did the big banana for guests and the red hat for his personal cake.

Airplane Cake

I've done a few cakes now and thought i'd put some of them up here.

  

 

  

Pirate Ship and Party

I had a hard time finding pictures of an easy pirate ship made out of cardboard boxes, so I'm posting my little project in hopes of helping someone else in the future.

two boxes

 I cut on end of the box down the middle, including top and bottom flaps, then opened it up until the flaps came together.  i trimmed the flaps to make the triangle shape.  Then i took another piece of cardboard, folded it in half and created the point of the bow.  Then used A LOT of tape!

 

I attached the smaller box upside down on the back and attached with tape.  The smaller box was slightly wider, so i had to work with the remaining flaps on the large box to create a shelf of sorts.  I also cut windows, one on each side, leaving the flap for a window cover and then an diamond on the back.

 

I covered the whole thing in brown packing paper and used, again, a LOT of tape.  Clear packing tape.

For the back window, i used a page protector with a sheet of tissue paper in it.  I would have used colored cellophane if i had any.

I added the wood look with a sharpie.  The sail is part of a bed sheet handing on a dowel rod.  I printed out a picture of a ship and then raced it onto the fabric with fabric pen.  The flag is a piece of dowel road with a picture i cut from a party bag i found at target.

I have decided to update this post with more ideas from our pirate party.

Invitations: we ended up with two types.  The first was the message in a bottle ones from Oriental Trading.  Cute, but messy!  Then we did treasure maps using packing paper cut into 8x11 pieces, i printed the information, then we burned the edges and rolled with a piece of garden twine.

Food:  Hot dog boats (hot dogs with tiny pirate flags), seaweed salad (pasta pasta salad), goldfish crackers, and a make your fruit kabob platter using those little cocktail swords.

Cake:  Made a treasure chest.  Pretty much followed the video found here: http://familyfun.go.com/how-to-videos/familyfun-treasure-chest-cake-813992-v/

Games/Activities:  There was a plank to walk to get into the house which was just a board, then i had pirate bandannas for each kid and offered face painting.  Then they got to make a telescope from paper towel tubes with colored saran wrap rubber-banded to the end and they colored the sides.  Then we went outside for fishing, freeze dance to pirate music and a treasure hunt.  Once again we used the packing paper to make clues.  They found a treasure chest full of mardi gra necklaces and plastic coins from Oriental Trading and jewels.  You can find the jewels at walmart or any pet store.  they are the planter fillers or aquarium rocks in jewel shapes.  We also used the jewels as prizes during the games.

Decorations:  the ship, of course, which was a hit.  the kids played on it a lot and it worked really well to get pictures of each kid for thank you notes.  Everything else we kept simple and in red and black.

Here are some pictures to give you ideas!

 Hope this helps any other Pirate moms out there!

Emma M Nut Day

Today is Emma M Nut Day.  For those who, for some strange reason, did not study all about Miss Nut in school (who didn't, though, right?)  Please see below:

Emma Mills Nutt (1860–1915) became the world's first female telephone operator on 1 September 1878 when she started working for the Edwin Holmes Telephone Dispatch Company (or the Boston Telephone Dispatch company) in Boston, Massachusetts.

There you have it, so, ummm....go play telephone or something!

Toasted Marshmallow Day and National Trail Mix Day

Yesterday was Toasted Marshmallow Day.  Can't say that we partook in the season.  Today is National Trail Mix Day.  I did pick up some of those hand-packs of 3 different trail mixes...but it's getting late.  Maybe we can look at it real quick, talk about what trail mix and taste test......yeah, that'll work.  Kids love anything different.  If you think it's cool, they will too (if they're young enough, anyway).  Here goes!

What's your favorite ingredient in a trail mix?

National Herb, Less Salt Day!

Today is National Herb, Less Salt Day!   Remember all those small jars sitting up in the cabinet?  You probably got a few collections of them over the years for Christmas, House-warming, etc.  They're called herbs!  So, put down the salt, and use something you wouldn't normally think of.  I personally adore a cucumber and cream cheese sandwich with a light sprinkling of Dill.  Try it!  Share what you come up with!  YUM!

Re-design!

Sometimes you just need a do-over and I think i'm ready for it with my blog.  I've had this for a while, i told approximately 4 people that it existed and i have 2 followers.....lame.  So, i was upset and didn't really want to go live, but i think i'm ready to have fun now!  The new concept.....a bit more Jenna-like.  I've always wanted to write children's books, i love how everyday of the year has a National Day, I like learning quirky things.  So, here it is, new, re-designed, and bit more fun.  Maybe i'll have 3 followers!