Something Special Coming February 2017!

I don't know why the pic won't load all the way... I tried twice.

Paw Patrol Birthday Party!

"Paw Patrol, Paw Patrol, we'll be there on the double!"

Mr. A has really been into paw patrol these days so naturally for his birthday he wanted a paw patrol party!

His favorite color also happens to be red so naturally his favorite pup is Marshall, the fire dog!

We started with Fire hats & Puppy ears!

Then of course we put out the fire at someone's house by popping the balloon flames!

(Tutorial found HERE)

We colored pups and glued googly eyes!

And what is a Birthday Party without cake!  Paw-print-Marshall-cup cakes!

White with black (chocolate chip) spots, with a red hat!  Just like Marshall!

And snacks!  Grape-balls, Puppy chow (Reeces puffs cereal), and cheese-fetch-sticks!  and of course, don't forget the water bowl (or pitcher any way!  I didn't trust 4yr olds with a punch bowl...)

And of course, LOTS of red balloons and streamers!  and a few extra fireman hats on the wall!

The kids had so much fun!  The building on fire was especially enjoyable!

Mr. C & Mr. A playing with sticker books (gift from a friend) after everyone went home.

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How to: Vibrant Cake Colors!

My son's favorite color right now is RED.

It's also his birthday...

Which naturally means he wants a red cake...

I don't know if you've every tried to make a cake mix red (without using red velvet of course), but most of the time it just comes out.... pink.

In fact, most red velvet recipes call for an ENTIRE BOTTLE of red food coloring!  Not just one of those cute little squeezy guys, a full 2 tablespoons, 1 oz bottle of food coloring!

Heaven forbid you need green or orange or yellow... oh yellow!  I've never tried, but I'm pretty sure to get a vibrant yellow you would need more than 1 bottle!

I just really don't like eating a cupcake that will turn your mouth and insides un-natural colors!

So with this in mind we were shopping for cake mix (because for all my craftiness, I'm a cake-mix gal!) and we passed the jello mixes - Eureka! - Vibrant colors and extra flavor to boot!

It was really simple really, just follow the directions on the box and then dump the jello mix in! (the small size box.  I used the off-brand variety)

Boom!  Red cake that doesn't turn your insides funny colors, and bonus points, it tasted oh-so good!

Yum!!!

They had a slight raspberry taste and were absolutely delicious!

I used Raspberry, Strawberry or Cherry probably would've been even more red, but I prefer raspberry. (had a bad experience with cherry jello one time, some sugar free jello varieties taste like benadryl *shiver*)

Show me your creations! 

Fire Hat & Dog Ears!

So Mr. A wants a Paw-Patrol-Marshall themed party!  So we decided to make totally awesome fireman hats with doggy ears! 

We started at Firehouse Subs where they very kindly gave us 10 of their hats, no questions asked, for free!  THANKS Firehouse Subs!!!

Next I gave the boys some scissors and black felt and told them to cut spots for the ears!  Now we started with safety scissors, but they just didn't cut it (haha, that was unintentional, but really!)  So once I was done cutting out the ears I closely monitored while they used my sewing scissors to cut the spots!

I was going to figure out how to make a template for the ear but just didn't get it done, so if you want to use my ear shape, just print the picture below and cut it out.  You can probably size it on your computer to any size you want.  I cut them out of white felt.

I have a big bag of felt scraps, mostly from by-the-yard projects that I pulled this felt from!  I think this is leftovers from snowman-stockings one year in college!

The boys struggled with curvy edges, so after we had enough spots cut I had them arrange them on the ears and I rounded out the edges and glued them on with my trusty hot glue gun!

Boom, ears done!  I seem to have lost the picture, but after the glue had cooled I put a tiny-thin bead of glue just underneath the rim of the hats and stuck on the ears (make sure the spots face out!  If you can turn down the temp on your glue gun, do, the glue will melt the hats if you apply too much or it's too hot!  Or, if not, just unplug and let the glue gun cool down, then plug it back in and use it as soon as you can squeeze glue out, not necessarily when it's 'hot'

Hats, done!  They looked soooo cute on all the kiddos, I can't wait to hand them out at the party to all of their friends!

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