Graduation Party 2013

Graduation...it's an exciting moment in one's life. Freedom, relief, fear, joy and satisfaction are some feelings that graduates experience. For a few others it's also a scary and confusing time because so many life-altering decisions are expected to be made when they have barely experienced or lived a full life. I think Adam Kotsko summed it up perfectly when he tweeted,

"We ask 18-year-olds to make huge decisions about their career and financial future, 

when a month ago they had to ask to go to the bathroom."  

Graduation is also a time for celebration and to cut loose from all the stress school has caused both the child and parents. So naturally we had a party. Due to conflicting schedules my son's graduation party was scheduled the day before Father's Day and a couple of weeks after his 18th birthday. In order to make things easy, my family decided to combine all 3 celebrations (graduation, birthday, Father's Day) into one party. 

I'm a frugal person at heart and to avoid the cost of stamps on 2 separate invitations I decided to make these tags to be mailed along with the graduation invites. I know I could have really saved money by sending an electronic invite but I am old school and I still love paper. I shudder at the thought of electronic wedding invitations. I am sure companies like Josten's and paper companies are happy that people still mail graduation announcements too.

Note: I'm not being rude asking others to bring a side dish. We have a huge family and our gatherings are always potluck. For outisde-of-the-the-family friends I made a different tag that did not ask to bring food.

My son's name is Alec. I made a play on words "Such a Smart Alec" for a sign I placed above the dessert table where I also displayed mini copies of his certificates and awards. To be honest we were not even aware of some certifications.

As always we had so many desserts.

  

I made custom bingo cards using school references. In order to avoid having double winners in the same game I made 20 cards to have a good variety. While trying to make the cards my eyes started to get googly scrolling through 20 tables and I started to get confused. I noticed some of the cards had the same word on them. So I erased the words and started over. This time I made a list of words and then I scrolled through and randomly placed the words one at a time. This way I didn't have the same words on one card and had a complete list of words to call out during the game. For the game piece to cover the words I used mini stamp cut outs. I bought small prizes such as $5 Starbucks gift cards for the winners.  It was such a pain in the booty to make these so if you're interested I can email the Word file for these cards. Just leave a comment below or send a private message. When I figure out how to post docs on google docs I'll put the cards there but until then it will have to be email.

 

playing bingo

To highlight moments of Alec's progress in school, graduation and our family life I hung pictures around the house. I used twine and miniature clothes pins to hang the photos. When the party was over family members were allowed to take whatever photos they wanted for their own photo albums.

Note:  I actually left the twine up and used it to hang up Christmas cards later in the year.

Minecraft Birthday Party, Pt. 2

As I mentioned in Minecraft Party Part 1 there is not much Minecraft supplies out on the market.  It's not like I could run to Party City and buy party supplies or order a cake from the bakery with a Minecraft theme.  Luckily I found a seller who supports cancer research and sells edible cake toppers on ebay. It was so easy. I ordered a plain cake with only borders from the bakery and carefully added the cake topper. The topper was brightly colored and exactly like the Minecraft image.  It really does not have a taste to it just like gum paste. I'm so glad I found it because my son asked me to make a cake that is in the Minecraft game and I did not have time to do it.  Here's the seller on ebay if you're interested.

http://myworld.ebay.com/cakesforcures2003  I am a mother of a cancer survivor who is 9. I wanted to figure out a way to help cancer research fund raising and I also have been interested in selling on ebay. I combined these two interests and donate a portion of all proceeds to cancer research.  (http://myworld.ebay.com/cakesforcures2003?_trksid=p2047675.l2559)  

You can also find Minecraft toys and T-shirts on Amazon.  Below is the sword in the game.  I don't have a picture of the shirt.  We ordered a large adult shirt and it acutally fit our 12 yr old boy.

Everyone knew the end of the world was not really going to take place on Dec. 21 just because the Mayan calendar suddenly stopped but there was such hoopla about it that it became a joke.  My son's birthday is December 22 so I thought it would be fun to add a music CD with  "end times" and other relateable songs in the goodie bag for the party. We did songs such as "It's the End of the World," "Sugar, We're Going Down," and "Stayin' Alive".

Comic is cd cover.

goodie bag stuff

We had a great time at Amazing Jake's.  The kids are all old enough to run around on their own while we adults sat at the tables and talked for 3 hours. Amazing Jake's has a buffet that we can continue to get food from thoughout the day.  It's not the greatest food but it will do. The kids really enjoy the endless amounts of pizza.  The kids were given cards that they scanned to play video games, ride go karts, rock climbing, and play laser tag and putt putt.  The only drawback is the kids run out of credits for video games quickly on their cards if they're not too careful.

Minecraft Birthday Party, Pt. 1

Once again I have neglected my blog for months.  I thought having a blog would be much easier than writing in my journal. My hands ached before I could finish writing about the events in my family's lives so many entries in my journal abruptly end. I thought using a computer would be quicker and help keep me on track - but it looks like the problem lies with me and not really my achy hands. I do love to look back on my life through my journals and reflect. I love remembering the good times and seeing how Jesus has always brought me through the tough trials of my life. Sometimes I read what I wrote and I think "that was dumb or I miss those moments." Unfortunately, I usually write when I'm in angst so there are many more tales of woe than the happy-rainbow stories. For 2013 I am determined to keep up with my blog and be more productive.

This past December we had a Minecraft birthday party for my son. He is a total Minecraft geek. I do not know how to play this game so I had zero ideas on how to have a Minecraft b-day party. One day when he was at school I tried playing Minecraft to get some ideas and it was beyond me. The character just walked around and I didn't know what to do. I built a wall but I could not figure out the purpose of the game. The same thing happened when I tried to play Halo. I just walked along a beach and around the space ship.  There was no one to fight. I don't understand these games. I'll take Tetris, Pac Man or Diner Dash any day.  However, I did learn from playing Minecraft is that everything is in a cube form.

I searched the internet, Pinterest, and Tumblr and I didn't really find any great ideas on Minecraft parties. The game is little more obscure than Legos or Disney themed parties.  It seemed to me that many parents were also lacking ideas. So far the only idea I could come up with was making creeper party bags. It only required green bags and black construction paper. I was wracking my brain  Then one day I came across The Ultimate Guide to Minecraft Papercrafts.  There are downloads of the characters, tools, weapons, and items in the game. He has instructions also how to fold the paper and make the cubes which come out to be approximately between 1-3" inches.  All it requires is paper, printer, and adhesive. Because we were having the party at Amazing Jake's I knew the little paper boxes would not work well and get crushed. But an idea started to form in my head and I decided I could make Steve's head with the free download.

This requires a square box or cube and patience. I also made this using Word. At The Ultimate Guide to Minecraft Papercrafts I downloaded Steve.  This download has Steve's entire body so I cropped out everything but the head. You will need to keep the original of Steve's head because you will be cropping it several times. On Steve's head I took the front side (with the eyes) and cropped out the rest and sized it to match as close as possible to the size of the box on one side. It should be a square (see pic below). I proceeded to this with the left and right side of Steve's head. On the opposite side I decided to put the his face again instead of hair. By this time I was running out of ink so I decided to use brown paper for the top of the head instead of printing it out.  I also printed on cardstock paper because it is more durable and the glue will less likely bleed through.

Left side, face, and right side of Steve's head.

Score the sides before gluing to the box. 

Using Crayola Twistables I colored in the white edges before I glued the side pieces.

Luckily I had brown cardstock on hand and didn't have to run out to the craft store.

The cardstock wasn't a perfect match but no one noticed. 

For the Creeper I bought green bags from Michael's (using 40% discount coupon) and cut out squares from black construction paper.  Glue the squares to form the Creeper face.

This is a picture from the game.  This is what Steve actually looks like which is exactly the same as the download. The Creeper is in the background. 

A special thanks to BenBurge at The Ultimate Guide to Minecraft Papercraft!

Alice in Wonderland Party

Here is my niece's Alice in Wonderland themed party. Since I am trying to maintain a level of security I will call my niece Miss M.  My sister has been planning this party for a long time. I think my sister did a fantastic job! I'm so glad she did this because Miss M and my son are the youngest children in our immediate family and it's probably one of the last children's parties we'll have for a long time...that make me a bit melancholy. Some pictures are distorted just like the movie where the queen had a humongous head.

  

My sisters and niece to the right.

Mad Hatter was Winner of Best Costume

Miss M and my cutie.

The children had menus and they were served as if they were in a restaurant.

I have gorgeous nieces!

Dots

Camera effect is Vintage Cold.

The Queen of Hearts and Staind.

My sister drew the Cheshire Cat.

 

Down the rabbit hole.

Pin the Tail on the Cat

Not too happy with the girly prize he won for pin the tail game.

He gave the prize to the runner up.

 A trivia game on the knowledge of Alice in Wonderland.

 Let the fashion show begin.

The goody bag table.

Time for Gifts

 Miss M's older brother Mr. M also had a birthday.

Our Queen of Hearts' bracelet.

Miss M's older brothers, cousins, and their friends.

This pic cracked me up because it was taken at the right moment where it looks like Mr. M is biting his brother's knuckles.

Sparkly make up