Our other passion!

My first passion is my boys and making them happy, the second passion is the Decorative Painting Business my husband and I have been working endlessly to make a success (www.candecorativepaint.com) , in our down time (really, down time??) my husband's passion is his chickens! He loves these birds. One is Flitter, a Plymouth Rock Barred hen and the other is Brownie, a Rhode Island Red both named by our boys.
Here they are in all their glory!

He has just finished his garden and is hoping to add another chicken or two. Which is fine with me with only one condition, I want an Araucana, a hen that lays blue to greenish eggs. Stay tuned to see if my "wish" comes true.
In all honestly I hated the idea at first, coming from downtown to Toronto to Chapel Hill, NC the idea of chickens was outrageous. But I must admit I love the fresh eggs and my children love to have them as pets which makes me especially happy.

Number 2 and Art

Since I've been working backwards this whole time it's now onto birthdays 2 and 6 for my boys.
This time we had 2 separate parties, which was exhausting and led me to the point of celebrating both at the same time. As long as that is ok with them that is how it will stay.

Rui's second birthday was pretty simple. We celebrated the Number 2.
Since his birthday is in Oct. I had the "brilliant" idea of using pumpkins for the loot at the end of the party. But nothing is ever simple with me so I wanted to clean them out and paint them. I used just average acrylic paint for the pumpkins in colors to coordinate with the balloons I was using.
They were super cute but I will admit a little work.


The cupcakes were super easy with a number 2 cookie on top. Chocolate and white cupcakes with butter cream frosting. Yum.



He is just the cutest thing and I love him like crazy.




Some good food and good friends was all his party was about. That and the fact that he turned 2 of course.



But one week later.........
Nuno turned 6. So we had an art party. He is in love with art and drawing so I wanted this party to be fun. I sent out an invitation (which reminds me, I am going to do a separate post with all of the invitations that go with these parties, they are every bit as important) that said Dress for Mess and as you will see in some of these photos there was a reason.

Nuno's cake was a giant artists paint pallet and loot bags were white lunch bags with a splash of paint. (Thanks again Kat!)





Nuno doesn't like icing and I'm obsessed with fondant so we make a great team.
For the tablecloth I took a plain white paper cloth and spattered paint all over, Jackson Pollock style. I also hung prints of famous artwork from my kitchen lighting.

I found some really great ideas on line for art activities and here are a few I modified a bit.
I bought enough 11x14 canvases for each child (cheap at Michael's) and put their names on the back. I then formed them into a giant sized canvas. I mixed some powdered poster paint into squeeze bottles in several colors. The powdered paints created such an amazing vibrant finish, I LOVED them.
Each child was invited throughout the party to come and add some paint to the giant canvas. Once it was dry I pulled it apart and each child took a piece of art home. It was really great. So great in fact that this Thanksgiving I did the same thing for my family so that we could remember this Thanksgiving in NC.



We have a zip line in our yard so I hung a plain white sheet from the line and had spray bottles with watered down paint so that they could create some "graffiti" in the yard as well.


When I said dress for mess I meant it........

They were in heaven!

And last but not least , blowing out the candles, make a wish!

Mad Scientist Party

I don't really like to have double birthday parties for my boys.My brother and I have very close birthdays, only 3 days apart (of course they are also 7 years apart) and my mom always made sure we each had a choice for our party. I guess being 7 years apart had something to do with that but I always told myself that I would make sure each of my children would have their own parties. Then reality sets in and the logistics of having 2 separate parties in 2 weeks seems like too much.
And the truth is they really love having the same party.
Last year for Nuno's 7th birthday and Rui's 3rd birthday we had a Mad Scientist Party.
What follows are some of the great ideas I found either on line or in my own crazy head.
Enjoy!

The Cakes!
I made the Frankenstein for Nuno and the Brain for Rui.
The brain was sooo easy and fun to make. One of my favorites.






The decorations.
Again my friend Kat helped with some labels for things but I had such a great time researching all of this and finding all of the jars and "specimens" for he party. The wine bottles were awesome. Just to be clear although it was a party for my kids it's also a time when my husband and I like to have some fun with the parents. We all get to have a great time.




Blowing out the candles.



Get dressed!
We hoped that everyone would have joined in the fun and some did. These great friends of ours Julie and Bill and some of the kids, Jackson and Fletcher along with Nuno did such a great job dressing up as Mad Scientists.



The Fun!
We planned several experiments for the kids. From exploding baking soda and vinegar to making goop (which is super easy as well. water, glue and borox make such a great concoction). Everyone had a good time getting dirty.




The Games!
Next we moved onto a slime race. Pans of the slimy goop we made were put at one end of the yard then a relay race was held to see who could fill up the empty pan on the other side of the yard with the goop. I believe it was girls against boys and the girls won!



And Finally.......
We ended the night with a little marshmallow roasting. Always a crowd favorite.



Another successful birthday party!