Our Cute Baby Room Turned Into Our Guest Room

Once upon a time there was a mom and a dad with 6 fantastic kids.  And then they found out that number 7 was on the way!  It was pretty exciting all the way around. The older girls (11-15ish) were thrilled to know there would be a baby they could play.  The older boy's weren't so super excited about a baby, but they were cool about it and looking forward to a new sibling.  It didn't help that the older boys each had their own room, but to make room for the new baby the boys would be sharing a room. If you know who Felix and Oscar are... you're old like me - and you'll understand that my boys are quite similar to this famous Odd Couple.
Mom started cleaning up the new babies room, painting each wall a different pastel - green, yellow, pink and purple.

She stenciled little butterflies around the whole room.  The ceiling was painted light blue, with puffy white clouds - with one special cloud shaped like a heart.  That heart would be right above the babies crib.

Little butterflies hung from the ceiling by little wires and thumb tacks.  The most adorable fan was hung from the ceiling.  Anyone who saw the room was in awe of how cute and fresh it was.  It was genuinely the perfect fairytale room for our new baby girl.  I may have shed some tears when it came time to paint over this heart.  Okay, I cried.  I tried to get Austin to do it for me but he declined.

You may remember this picture from the previous post - but I wanted to share it with you again so you can see how her cute dresser matched the whole color scheme of the bedroom.

And here we are - eleven years later.  And our perfect little room had been through a lot of living. (as you can see in this picture).  With our older kids moving out, and the littles moving upstairs (and ready for big kid rooms) it was time to turn this beautiful (and by now beat up) baby room into a more sophisticated guest bedroom.

 I chose to go simple and paint the walls a very light grey and keep the trim a crisp white.

 Here you can see the painted walls (we haven't switched out the ceiling fan yet...) And, because this happened over summer break, I had LOADS of help from the littles.  And Sophie... She decided to paint the wall with her rear end.  Silly puppy.  Now if you've been keeping up with my posts, you will know that it is impossible for me to do anything without getting hurt.  This time is ridiculous.  You see, my left side is still numb - and it's super funky.  So one day I stood up and took a few steps and BAM!  The worst pain started throbbing in my foot.  Apparently I was ready to move, but no one told the muscles in my foot that we were getting up and moving.  After a day or two of dealing with the throbbing pain I decided to go to urgent care and get an x-ray.  Of course I had to take the littles with me, but they're super good kids and are pretty well behaved. Check out my awesome parenting in this picture.  They say a picture says a thousand words - well, this one speaks volumes... of minecraft...

Here they are, my handsome boys waiting so patiently while I get my foot checked out.  They were like that the entire time.  I could have left for hours and they would still be like that - not even knowing I was gone.  Oh wait - that's not true because they'd need to charge their phones... and then despair would set in and their worlds would end tragically.  Stupid game.  But first - my foot wasn't broken, but I was sent home with this horrible shoe... 

Honestly - first the nurse tried to give me one that was GINORMOUS.  So I asked for a smaller shoe.  She came back with the smaller size, which was a child size and she told me it wouldn't fit properly.  Well, I tried it on and it's too big as well.  But whatever - this is what I got.  Just think - Me, the tripper onner of all things I could possibly trip on in a funky square toed shoe... Folks - this shoe was NOT a good idea.  I'll just leave it at that. And tell you that I wore it for approximately 2 hours total.  I just kept my foot elevated as much as I could (you know, between painting the guest room and doing mom stuff) and sucked up the pain.  Eye roll. 

Okay - back to the guest room!  While painting the doors white, I got bored and decided to jazz it up a bit.  I taped off the rectangles in the middle of the doors and painted them grey like the walls and the rest of the door white.  First I painted the actual bedroom door because it's open most of the time, and if it came out horrible it wouldn't really show much... 

 At the same time, Roo was kitty sitting Darth Claudious - my grandkittybaby for her older brother and his wife.  They gave a big high five on how the guest room turned out!  Kitty also loved to watch me paint.  That roller was highly entertaining for this little cutie!
As you can see, the door turned out fantastic - so fantastic that I went ahead and did the closet doors to match.

My antique sewing machine lives in the guest room so I shined it up and put a lace runner on top to help protect it from anything being put on top of it.  Then I found this vase in a cupboard, the flowers at walmart and I filled up the bottom of the vase with some clear bead/gem/pebble things I had just waiting for a project.  The mirror we got years ago for free.  It used to have a dark wood finish on it (and it used to hang in the bathroom of my costume shop!).  I painted it white and it matches great!  

 We chose to put the kids old dresser in the room so our guests could have somewhere to put their things.  I also set up the old costume shop computer so guests could have Internet access. I moved framed pictures from other places in the house onto the shelves and I used the candles that previously lived in the living room as decor.  At this point there wasn't any art on the walls.  And this room needed some more color pronto!
Below is the art I chose to put in this spot. It looks a little squished right now because we had to move the dresser over a bit when Austin and I moved into the guest room after our bedroom was flooded... a whole nother blog post...

Even squished, it's still cute. 

  The beautiful peacock I just felt attached to when I saw it at the store.  I was looking for something with more red in it - but I kept going back to this pretty bird.  So I brought it home.  I haven't named it yet - feel free to leave suggestions.  ;)  The star and the heart are above the head of the bed.   They're super cute and have a nice message on them.  I hope the crisp new paint and the warm messages on the walls help our guests feel comfy and welcome in our home.  I'm happy with the way this room looks.  I love the butterflies and clouds from the past, but that's why we take pictures - right?
Another room done - get ready for the next because it's SO AMAZING I think you're gonna flip.  Meanwhile, feel free to come visit and stay in our pretty new guest room!  See for yourself how comfy it is!
If you enjoy this blog, please share it with your friends.  I'd love to hear your comments as well!

I'll be back soon with the twins bedroom!  You'll love it.  I promise!  TTFN!
Reb

Roo's Bedroom Renovation Project

Like everything in my life - this is way late in being turned from a bunch of photo's on my computer to an actual blog post. This project happened in March 2014.  But hey - it's FINALLY HERE!  The beginning of my nutty home improvement DIY projects.  After countless hours watching HGTV, surfing the Houzz website, pinning on Pinterest and perusing countless magazines, I decided to jump in and actually start updating our house.  Logically, I started with the smallest non-bathroom in the house.  My little Rayroo's bedroom!  It was overdue - painted for another child a few years back and not really set up for my little artist.  Here's how we transformed a small boy's bedroom into this:

But first!  A little (or a lot... possibly way too much...) history of this bedroom.  When we first moved in, this room was my sewing/craft room.  As I said above, it's the smallest non-bedroom in the house.  In all honesty, this room was actually built to be a bathroom.  The original builder had it plumbed to be a bathroom - though it has never been one.  The homeowners before us used the room as a walk in closet - as it has an adjoining door to the next bedroom as well as a door to the loft.  Now, before anyone gets all Harry Potter on me - the room measures approximately 10X12, which is plenty big enough for a bedroom.  After the older kids started moving out, I moved my sewing room into the adjoining room and turned this one into a guest bedroom.  When our oldest son was moving home after his mission, I painted it bright turquoise with black accents and tried to make it a comfortable space for him.  (Heaven forbid I move my sewing stuff back in here and give him his old actual bedroom back, right?)  Yup.  just add another gold star to my Worlds Worst Mom award.  ;).  Okay - back to the bedroom history - when our son moved out this room went back to being a guest bedroom.  When we moved my sewing room downstairs (because the stairs aren't always the easiest for me), our twins moved upstairs into the bedroom adjoining this room.  (more on that project to come!!) I must say that ALL of the littles BEGGED to have this little room.  Honestly and truly begged us to let them have it for their bedroom.  With the older kids all on their own we have plenty of space for each of the littles to have their own healthy size bedroom - but they wanted the small room.  Since the twins were in the bigger room, it only made sense to put Rayroo into this room.  By now this room wasn't as cool and awesome as it was when it was first painted - making it kind of sad looking.  I forgot to take an official "before" picture - but here's one shortly after I took the bed out of the room:

The bedroom was overstuffed with furniture, toys never again to be played with and loads of arts and crafts projects and supplies.  With the smaller space, storage solutions was the only option to keeping this space even remotely usable for this artistic genus.  But first - taking almost everything out of the room was a must do in order to get to the walls.  Clearing out toys from days gone by, missing socks hiding in the corners and all things bizarre along the way, we loaded up the loft with the contents of Roo's life.  And then, amid the upstairs/downstairs, cleaning up, sorting and priming the walls for paint I stubbed my toe on this nice stack of really hard stuff from her room... 

I swear I have never stubbed my toe that hard in my LIFE.  Thankfully it was on my left foot - which is mostly numb anyway.  Basically it added a little extra painful oomph in my limp. Ha ha.

Okay!  Back to the bedroom!  Geesh - I keep getting side tracked.  I promise I don't have ADHD.  I think. 

AAGGHHH! Side tracked again!!  Back to the bedroom now...

After priming and painting the walls - which is way more work than it sounds.  That means paint the room once with primer, and three times with "one coat" paint.  (eye roll)  I say "whatever" to whoever tested this paint and actually called it one coat.  Either that or their standards of actually painting a wall and looking good aren't mine.  (It wasn't even the cheap stuff - it's the nicest paint in the store.) Okay... end rant... After all of that painting we had fresh, crisp looking walls!

Honestly - there's not much that makes me happier than fresh, crisp, clean walls.  I LOVE clean!  It's a curse.  Or a blessing.  I'm not sure.

Anyway, between coats of wall painting, Roo and I went to work painting her dresser.  We purchased this dresser when she was an infant from an unfinished furniture shop.  I painted it white, and each drawer was a different pastel color - matching her then bedroom.  (teaser - more on THAT bedroom in an up and coming blog post!!).  Well, something had to happen to that dresser to turn it into something a tween would love.  We painted it white - the whole thing.  And it's beautiful! 

Before moving everything back in, I shampooed the carpet with our trusty Rug Doctor. Then I painted the black shelves white, and started putting the room back together again.  This time with less furniture, less toys, and little cubbies to hold Roo's treasures. 

Aaahhh!  So fresh and clean!!!  It just makes my heart happy.  Ha ha.  

We used some of the grid wall we kept from the shop and used it as a place where she could hang up her bags, hats, belts and bow ties.  (the door to the right in the picture is the door that leads to the adjoining bedroom.  The open door to the left is the door to the loft).  

Because part of the bedroom is like a little cubby, Roo and I decided it would be the perfect art studio area.  I used the writing desk I had in a different room as her new art desk.  I thrift shop hopped to find mason jars in different shapes as well as baskets and crates to paint and hang on the wall to store supplies.  

Here's a little better shot of the desk and wall.  (the desk opens up for storage - with cubbies to hold things like glue, scissors, pens, chalk, paper, etc.)  We purchased a roll of butcher paper for the kids (Roo) to paint on - so I found a hanger-upper thing and hung it up on the little side wall for her to paint on.  It fits PERFECTLY! 

The marks on the wall are from painting previous masterpieces.  Roo can pull down the paper, tack or tape it to the wall and paint or draw whatever she wants to.  Then tear it off and start again!  And then I needed a chair to go with her cute little desk.  And I found this little gem on the front patio...

Gross, yes?  Yes.  But not for long!  I took the seat off, cut a new wooden base using the existing nasty one as a pattern.  I spray painted the frame yellow and picked out some fabric to cover the new seat.  Voila! Or however that's spelt. A brand new chair! 

Whooo Hoo!!!  Can you say BEAUTIFUL?!?  Love it!

I used coordinating fabric to make a custom roman style shade for her window, and another coordinating fabric that we made a "pouf" chair out of.  It was so much fun we made 2 of them!  We stuffed them with bean bag foam balls (that go every-freakin-where!!) that I found at Walmart and cut up foam left over from other projects. Just FYI - cutting up foam is one of the suckiest jobs ever...  it's worse than cleaning out the vacuum after sucking up little bean bag foam balls... Back to the room! One of the poufs she keeps at the end of her bed, and one she keeps on her bed behind her pillows.  You can kind of see them in the pictures. We found a throw rug on clearance at Target ($35! Done!) because she hates the plain carpet.

Now my baby girl has a super cute and stylish bedroom designed just for her.  She loves it, her friends love it, and the planets are again aligned in her world.  AND it's the end of my first DIY project...  It was a lot of work, it was a lot of fun, and it wasn't too overwhelming.  Perhaps one of my favorite parts of the whole thing is this little weird cubby I found.  It was some icky color with chipped paint and everything yucky when I bought it - but I cleaned it up and painted it and we found these cute little potion bottles to put in it.  There's glitter in the bottles - multi purpose as craft storage and super cuteness! 

Never fear - I have many more projects to tell you all about!  Next up: The Guest Room... Stay tuned for more creative awesomeness!!! 

~Reb

Where Are You Christmas?!?

I've been thinking about writing this for a while now.  I've been hesitant because it is very personal, and not something people just go talking about.  And please, though I love you all, and appreciate that you care, I am not looking for pity and I'm not interested in discussing if I've tried this or that.  Please don't be offended, I just get overwhelmed when my well meaning friends and acquaintances want me to try different things.

So no more mystery!  Here it goes.  I have depression.  I've had it for a long time, and I am under the care of medical professionals and I am on medication.  Most people with depression are ashamed to say it because it's embarrassing.  We're broken.  We're over emotional.  There is something mentally wrong with us.  News flash - there is something mentally wrong with EVERYONE!  I realized years ago that everyone has something - a bad habit, a personal struggle, a skeleton in the closet, etc.  Some people (like me) have more than one something - and it is OK.  We all struggle with our own personal challenges. Some are evident on the outside like a scar or being in a wheel chair. Some are unknown and kept hidden on the inside.  This describes me.  Between my illness and my depression - everything is on the inside.  You can't tell unless I tell you or you happen to be lucky enough to be around while I'm having an anxiety attack or a break down.

Thankfully, I was raised with brothers who teased me when I did "girl things" like cry at a movie or when I got hurt.  I learned to suck it up and keep it in.  Well, there's only so much sucking it up anyone can do before it starts to manifest in physical ways, or just starts leaking out the eye balls and brings a body to the fetal position for an undetermined period of time.  Most of the time I can suck it up and not break down or freak out.  Many thanks to my doctor for the Xanax!  And many thanks to my brothers for the suck it up and stop crying training.  :)

Why am I writing about this now???  Just before Christmas??? When everyone is merry, excited and just full of holiday cheer???  I mean, this should be the one time of year when I am super happy go lucky, right???  Yes.  Yes, I should be feeling cheery, excited and full of everything whimsical and exciting about Christmas...

Really- I LOVE Christmas! This is the fun stuff I used to do!!

But I'm not.  Last year I had the same problem - for whatever reason, I simply cannot get into the Christmas spirit.  I've tried.  I've baked goodies.  I've purchased gifts.  I've watched all the feel good video's of Christ's birth and the generosity of others this time of year.  I've listened to Christmas music.  Because our house has been under renovations I hadn't gotten the decorations out - there was too much mess everywhere.  I was (am) frustrated with myself because I cannot get as much done as I used to each day.  In fact, I can't even get half as much done as I used to in one day.  That is frustrating to me.  So I've been pushing myself to finish my part of the renovations (a topic that's been dying to be blogged about!!), and despite my efforts I am still not finished with any of it. I've been pushing myself to take care of the regular day-to-day chores that require my attention - but I'm falling short. My kitchen sink is constantly over flowing with dirty dishes that need to be washed and my kitchen table is constantly covered with piles of laundry waiting to be folded, ironed and put away.  There is dust - EVERYWHERE (renovations = dusty house).  The kids are bringing obnoxious piles of papers and crafts home from school and though I'm on them about picking it all up, they're filled to the brim with visions of sugar plums that blind their eyes from the mess and plug their ears to my voice.  My sweet little girl has her sewing machine set up on the kitchen table because my sewing room is off limits due to it being the storage place for things from the rooms being renovated and all presents waiting to be wrapped.  I am so excited for her developing talents and want to encourage her in any way I can so I try to over look the fabric all over the family room and the pins/scissors all over the floors, etc.  She is a lot like me - and I don't want to squash her when she's doing so well.  Though she is great about picking up when I ask her to, things are quickly in disarray again.

 
 Do you know what??? All of this is ok!  Messy is the sign of a good day, right?  Though I love a good day - I HATE mess. It drives me nutty.

But because I'm having so much trouble keeping up with the regular stuff, plus the reno stuff, plus trying to pull off Christmas I'm feeling quite overwhelmed and unmotivated.  Everyone needs a gift exchange gift of $5 or less for this or that.  Wrap the gifts.  Wrap the teacher gifts.  Bake the goodies.  Get the family gifts in the mail so they can open them on Christmas.  Feel sad because 3 of the 9 kids won't be with us for Christmas.  Hear the littles ask a zillion times a day, "when are we going to put the Christmas tree up?"  Pressure, little people, pressure!!!  But last year I didn't have the renovations going on, and I was able to get more Christmasy things going on and I still felt like this.
My conclusion is it is the depression.  It's blocking my heart from the joy of Christmas.  Instead of the fun Christmas songs I have this verse going through my head most of the time:

Where are you Christmas

Why can't I find you

Why have you gone away

Where is the laughter

You used to bring me

Why can't I hear music play

My world is changing

I'm rearranging

Does that mean Christmas changes too

And I don't even like the grinch.  He's creepy - and the movies make me uncomfortable.  But Cindi LooWho (spelling? and I think she's the one who sang this?) she sang the words that I'm feeling inside.  

Yesterday we set up the Christmas tree.  I got the laundry delivered and put away - today (as I type) I'm supposed to be ironing my clothes and putting them away...  but I'm not.  My head is muddled with questions like, "why can't what I'm doing be enough?",  "Why don't I feel the Christmas spirit?", "Why can't my kids come home for Christmas?"  "Why can't my missionary skype with us?" (she will call - no skype tho).  "How will we deal with the sadness and breakdowns when the kids realize that they won't get #1 on their list of wants?"  (they want a puppy...).  and then there's the usual stuff I ask myself: "what do I make for dinner?", "why am I the only one who cares if the house is clean?"  "How do I help everyone to be happy and feel Christmasy?"  

I used to make us all matching Christmas jammies every single year. 

I've been told to simplify and to let some things go.  So I have been.  I've let some things go, and I've simplified quite a bit.  But with that I've also put way too much on my plate.  I should have let the construction guys paint our bedroom.  I shouldn't have attempted the cute stencil painting in my room and the boys room.  But I don't like lowering my expectations.  I don't like to.  I decided a couple months ago that we needed new Christmas stockings.  Our old ones are great - but they're looking tattered and a couple have been chewed on by a dog.  I cut out fabric to make them - and then decided while at Target to buy the stockings and embroider the names onto them.

  I have 3 more names to embroider, then attach them all to the stockings.  Perhaps I can finish that today... ha ha.  Because I need so much rest, I spend time reading these creative blogs, checking pinterest and watching HGTV for ideas on how to make my house super cute for the holidays.  I should NOT have done that.  For example - an advent calendar someone made in an evening took me almost a week!!! Things just take me longer.  I need to get used to that.  And then there are the little blessings that keep me from the fetal position.  After an exhausting afternoon/evening painting, Austin brought home dinner for the family.  Twice in one week!  He doesn't complain when I pull out leftovers or order pizza either.  My little ones can microwave their own frozen pizza any time they want.  They are loving, helpful and so encouraging little kids!!! Well, they're big kids now but still my littles.  Austin took over a project I wanted done for the boys room and it turned out awesome!  I found many online sales and deals and was able to do 95% of my Christmas shopping online.  Yes, each day I count my blessings and focus on these little miracles that make my life better.  And then I look around and see everything that hasn't been done - and get frustrated with myself again.  I always played a game with myself to get things done.  I would think of what needed to be done and would right away get up and just do it.  It often takes longer to think about doing something than actually doing it.  I still play that game with myself - but it's near impossible to accomplish anything when I am light headed and about to pass out.  Or way too shaky and jumpy.  AND if I do too much I will be in much more pain and feel even worse - so I have to do the balancing act.  And my brain is foggy.  I have memory problems and speaking problems and just get all jumbled sometimes.  Living with these things and the rest of my sickness adds to my depression.   It's not that I have a low self esteem - I think I'm ok there - but knowing that I cannot do what I could do before and that it will never change is discouraging.  You see, depression is something uncontrollable.  Even under medication, with depression one can feel lost, alone, exhausted, melancholy, and without motivation.  It's made worse when things are full of stress and imaginary expectations.  

Ok - so I know this whole post is all disconnected and randomly laid out.  It is straight from the heart and honest and true.  I don't think I'm the only person on the planet who is going through similar feelings and lifestyle.  I just wanted to share - in hopes that if you know someone with depression, or are feeling it yourself, you're not alone.  They're not alone.  It's not something that can be fixed - it is something out of any ones control and it just is.  We're not less than other people, we just have depression.  Like diabetes - we learn to live with it and how to cope with it.  Meanwhile, I'm going to keep a smile on my face for the family and outside world.  I'm going to stay cheery and uplifting on the outside.  I'll keep saying Merry Christmas and keep trying to do things to brighten other's days.  By nature I am a cheerful person - but I'm a cheerful person on the outside with depression on the inside.  Now I'm going to get some ironing done and get my hair colored today.  And I'm going to smile the whole time and I'm going to just do it.  I'm also going to do my best to find Christmas.  And by that I mean the REAL CHRISTmas - about the birth of Christ.  Of course I love Santa and all the fun stuff but I need to feel CHRISTmas first.   

At least we're doing the Elf on the Shelf...

I wish you all a very wonderful holiday season full of love, family, friends and joy!  

Hugs, 

Rebecca

IT'S ABOUT TIME!!

Yes, it's for sure about time I got to some blogging!  I've been busy doing this and that and taking pictures and having thoughts of things to blog about.  But nothing.  Nothing blogged.  BUT  I am going to catch up on everything (ok, not everything because most things are just boring) but I'll catch up on the fun stuff in the next few weeks!  What's important is that I'm taking the first step... getting back into the blog saddle.  And I'm going to talk about birthday parties.  In our family, we decided to do really big parties for the kids each year until they're 10.  (or their 10th birthday party is their last "big" one).  After 10, they can have a small party - a late night or a friend spending the night or we can take one or two friends to the movies, etc.  We have reasons for this and I'm not going to get into them here - but we're not being mean parents, just trying to keep things super fun when they're little and more "tight friends" when they're older.

Now we have 9 kids, so we've done birthday parties.  Lots of them.  We ask the kids what they want to do and we do it (mostly - within reason).  We've been to Chuck E Cheese, Amazing Jakes, Jungle Jim's, Bounce U, the park, Our house, Our house, Our house, many, many times our house.  And know what?  Tomorrow we will have another birthday party at our house.

I long ago I decided that having birthday parties at party establishments was much easier, more relaxing, and when we're done - we come home.  No mess, no lingering anything, just grab the kids and the gifts and come home.  Easy, the kids have a blast, everything is right with the universe.  There's even been a few parties that I was smart enough to buy a cake or some cupcakes from Costco or Sam's Club.  After today I'm going to say that buying the cake/cupcake is a most excellent idea.  One that all of you should remind me of when one of our birthday's is coming up!  ;)

You see, last year the twins had a party at home.  We hired a company to come with their laser tag stuff. They set up some small super cool tents all over our yard (front and back) and set the kids up with some majorly awesome laser tag equipment.  Including our 3 littles, we had 20 kids running around shooting each other and having a blast.  (get it - shooting, a blast - ha ha)  But they really did have so much fun.  Most of the kids left telling me they had more fun than at any other party they've been to.  The twins had a great time.  In fact, we had a hard time gathering the kids for cake and ice cream so they were still eating when the parents came to pick them up.

- Side note, we don't let the kids open their presents at the party.  They open them with the family, after the party is over and friends go home.  Some parents thing it's rude, and I really don't know if it's rude or not.  I should probably check with a manners website or something - but we have had some awkward moments I prefer to avoid.  Like our kids don't really like what someone gave them and they actually tell the kid they don't like their gift...  and a chaos of all of their friends wanting their present opened first, and then there's the party guests who want to play with the kids presents and something breaks or gets lost or something.  It's all happened, and it's not worth the drama to me.  So we don't open presents at the party.  Sorrynotsorry if it's rude. -

Back on topic.  You see, there's an easy way to have a birthday party and there's a hard way.  There are parents who are so amazing they have all of this cool stuff and decorations and put on amazing parties.  I've seen them done in person, and I've seen them on Pinterest when I look for ideas to steal for our at home parties.  I'm not that parent.  Not that I don't try, because I do.  I just have no idea how they do all of that stuff because though I try, I spend hours and hours and dollars and dollars but I'm still not that parent.  Perhaps it's because our kids are super creative and can't just have one theme to their party.  For example Rachel's party....

It was Rachel's 10th birthday party last May.  She wanted a "Frozen/Minion" themed party.  Two awesome themes on their own.  Together?  Holy smokes I wondered how on Earth I'd put that together.  First off, Rachel wanted Anna to come to her party.  Fortunately for me I know an actual Princess and in exchange for an Anna dress, she came and helped with Rachel's party.

 
 
And, as you can see, I got some cute pictures with Princess Anna at the candy table and with the adorable grand kids.  I just didn't get a picture of Princess Anna with the birthday girl.  Another gold star for my worlds worst mom award.  Whatever.  Back to the party...
I was happy to make Princess Anna's dress, and I loved doing the embroidery and all - but I ran out of time and couldn't do the painting on the bottom of the skirt and the collar was way funky.  And the embroidered bodice (that I copied after extensive research online) came out looking like a Hawaiian Tiki man...

Ooga Booga Shaka Laka Boom Boom Tiki Man... that made me look like this when I looked at it after sewing it all together...

AARRRGGGGGHHHH!  and, of course, no time to change it.  

Then, I found these amazing printables on Pinterest so we could make our own Minions.  And I found some yellow paper plates and yellow lanterns at Hobby Lobby.  And then I spent hours cutting out these silly goggles and faces and making minions... 

   And, the birthday girl wanted a "candy bar" like she saw at someones wedding or baby shower or something...  So I went on a hunt for these cute little old fashioned candy jars and serving things to put the candy in.  Things in the Frozen colors and theme (like the rock candy on a stick).  The candy bar turned out rather pretty!

 

 I was able to plan the party ahead and ordered a bunch of matching candy and stuff from Oriental Trading Co.  There was lots left over, and know what?  We're so classy that I passed the extras out for Halloween this year and saved the actual Halloween candy for us...  greedy?  Tacky?  Whatever.  I don't have leftover party candy in my pantry and saved $$ by only buying a couple packages for the family (the good stuff, ya know?).

  

And then there's this adorable little cup I found in our cupboard... and this extra tiny but oh so cute scoop.  So adorable.  And on the left?  Store bought cookies.  Because I didn't have any more time/energy to bake the cookies.  Lame.  See?  I I'm not one of "those" moms.  The Martha Stewart moms.  I try, but... well...  I honestly do not know how these women do it.  If you're one of them, You're awesome (Honestly, awesome)- and thanks for raising the bar...  (sarcasm)...  because someone came up with the idea that Rachel found online.  The one with the blue jello in the ice trays?  Yah...

  They're weird, but hey - I made them, unlike the store bought cookies... AND THEN THE CAKE.  Who do I think I am?  I mean honestly.  What the heck is going on in my head sometimes?!?  Because I needed to make a Frozen/Minion cake.  And I chose to make fondant... and broke my precious Kitchen Aid mixer... then used the Bosch mixer and it didn't break so we had fondant.  All the time I really had a general idea of what I was doing but mostly I was making it up as I went along... and it took FOREVER.  And, because I'm cheap, I used the little toy Minion that sits on our Kitchen shelf with the chickens... that's another story... and then I used Anna and Elsa from our Disney Infinity Game... after covering the base with plastic wrap... and here you go.  The awkward finished cake...

Hours of work for something that is so weird. But it was yummy, Rachel was a very happy camper and everything was super fun.  Success.  Of course she pointed out everything that I had to take off the list because of time, ability and/or resource.  But whatever.  I did my best, which is why we should always buy a cake and have a party somewhere other than home...  

Which (finally) leads us to today.  Oh, and yesterday.  Because I figured I could still make the cake and just use regular homemade frosting and check out ideas to steal on Pinterest.  Um yah.  Eye roll because WHATWASITHINKING?!?  

The twin's have their birthday right after Halloween.  Each year I'm scurrying around getting everything together for Halloween.  Then it's like WAKE UP!  You've got to plan a party!  So last Saturday we asked the twins what they'd like to do for their birthday party.  Of course they wanted different things - and honestly they kinda get jipped a bit having to share their party, compromise on what to do, share a cake (because a couple years I made 2 separate cakes but seriously? Not any more...) and then I noticed that sometimes they get a gift to share instead of something for each of them (for the record - that's kinda lame... even if it's an amazingly huge gift).  And, in this I mean no offence and I'm really not greedy here - just talking like a momma bear - but because there's 2 kids I noticed that they often get cheaper or smaller gifts than the kids who have a party alone.  And I get it!  There's 2 in 1 and it's expensive!  But I think sometimes they get jipped, so I'm sharing the examples I've noticed.  Go ahead, hate me now - whatever.  I already told you I'm not a Martha Stewart mom.  

SO!  The twins decided to have another at home laser tag party.  I asked them what their theme was and I got two separate answers... and I decided I'd rather not ask what they wanted on their cake... and aside from cleaning up a bit I'm not really decorating... (yes, probably racked up a few gold stars for that award I told you about).  And, since I decided it would be super easy to just make their cake I made a trip to the Cake supply store in Phoenix (first time ever) and spend an HOUR, yes a whole hour slowly walking around and looking at everything.  Because I was thinking I was a Martha Stewart mom and all, I picked up some melting candy and some lego brick molds and some lego men molds.  Because the boys like legos.  And wow, I could make some candy for party favors and treats!  Yup.  I was still in that "of course I can do that" mode.  I'm like that.  With everything.  Always.  Until I get started.  Then I wonder what was I thinking??? Oh, and I printed out some cool laser tag invites for the kids to pass out to friends.  I was still in that Martha Stewart Mom mode so I gave them enough invites for their entire school class, their Cub pack, their Karate Class and some neighbors they play with.  They gave out over 30 invitations.  We usually don't get more than one or two people who RSVP.  This time I know, for sure, that 13 kids are coming. Because their parents RSVP'd.... we're thinking we will have close to 25 kids here tomorrow.  I'll let you know.  If I survive.  Last night, for the first time ever, I made candy lolly pops shaped like lego's, and candy lego men.  And there wasn't any good lego yellow at the store, so we have orange lego men.  Whatever.  And today I spent 6 hours - 6 HOURS - frosting and decorating their cake.  A Star Wars cake.  Because there's really no theme here - just stuff they like.  Another gold star?  Perhaps.  

 I decided it would be best to frost the cake with white before making the colored frosting and putting it on.  That way I could make sure I didn't get any cake mixed into the frosting when I was frosting it.  Um yah.  

That didn't work out so well, and I wasn't going for a purple cake.  So I grabbed the pastry paint brush and the food coloring and started painting.  Little by little, painting and painting. 

Here's the painted cake... 

And here's the painted cake after I sprayed the black edible spray paint on it.  I was going for a galactic outer space look.  I also made a half sheet cake with a round cake on it, to add levels and interest.  Yah - I thought up that when I was still thinking I was a MSM (Martha Stewart Mom)

Then I wrote on it.  FOUR TIMES.  Letters, seems easy, right?  well, I kept messing up and picking them off and starting again.  I finally left this writing on it.  Though it's far from perfect.  It says, "Happy Birthday Aaron & Benjamin".  With Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker fighting on the round cake, next to the weird looking death star.  Then there's the x-wing parked on the other side.  The kids added some amazing edible glitter in greens, purples, silvers and blues.

 


And then... then... a whole container of green glitter hit the floor.  And I actually looked around and saw the kitchen... and looked at the time... and realized I spent 6 hours on this bizarre cake and have a disaster of a kitchen that needs to be cleaned up... because I HATE messes, and yet no one else seems to realize so I'm always cleaning up after me, after the kids, after Sophie and her toys.  After all, if I can't train the kids to clean up their toys I guess I shouldn't think I can train the dog to clean up her toys, right?  Ok, mess rant over.

And here are some of our Lego suckers and orange lego men.  Oompa Loompa lego men.  They're hard to see here, but they're honestly really cute. And yummy!

And the moral of this ever long post?  Buy the cake.  Stop thinking I can do everything myself, and keep the xanax on hand because a zillion kids are coming over tomorrow.  And I have to go clean up the kitchen now.  Don't worry, I have more to catch you up on and I'll be blooging again soon!  Stay tuned because I've been fixing up the house!  DIY baby!