Last Minute Birthday Party

Going out of the country for month, right around Spud's birthday, hindered party preparations quite a bit. So there really weren't many. We booked our favourite kids' art studio, thankfully they had room for us with very little notice (see also our Egyptian themed party and Paint Splatter party).

The kids learned about masking and got to do some paint splatter.

Next they made polymer clay, yoda-like creatures.

These are ready for baking ...

Once they are baked, they will get attached to the painting! Voila! Mixed media space project.

 Hubs and Spud also made some mighty fine cupcakes ... with black icing!

And Hubs practiced his balloon making skills ...

Happy 7th Birthday Spud. We are very proud of you.

Party Car

I can't say exactly why this cracks me up so much. I stumbled across it after dropping Spud off at school one day and it simply struck my funny bone. His auntie bought him the Hogwarts Express for his birthday and it came with the flying car. He didn't used to play with people figurines at all; he used to "talk cars" (have two or more cars engage in 'conversation') but the play people were always left in the drawer. So this is new for him and I love where it's going ... hop on ... this is going to be the ride of your life.

Photo Friday #36

TEXTURES, MOROCCO | TRAVELS WITH KID

Literally at every turn, we were in awe of stunning patterns and textures, many of which are painstakingly done by hand! And REALLY old (although the above is a detail of Marrakech's gorgeous, modern train station). We stopped photographing them after awhile; they are so plentiful that we almost stopped 'seeing' them. I regret that I didn't take at least 100 more shots of just textures!

Throughout our trip we handed the camera over to Spud and even he found textures he thought were interesting ... below isn't an example of handmade but it's pretty snazzy for a sidewalk.

Check out other posts about our travels in Morocco.

Thanks to Delicious Baby for hosting Photo Friday each week. Share your travel pics there or check out what other people have been up to.

New Skewer Pack: Umbrella

Today's lunch is brought to you by the UMBRELLA. Red pepper skewered umbrella that is.

Other fun skewers: Flowers, Rings, and Balloons.

New Skewer Pack: Balloons

These new balloon string skewers are turning yellow cherry tomatoes into a couple of seriously cute balloons that I'm sure are Spud's kryptonite. He's been off the little tomatoes lately but he won't be able to resist eating these at today's lunch. Sorry buddy. Sometimes a mama's got get tricky about getting vitamins into her little guy.

New Skewer Pack: Rings

Just like that ... a grape turns into a precious jeweled ring. Who wouldn't be charmed to find that in their snack pack? Which is cuter ... flowers? Or rings?

New Skewer Pack: Flowers

Found an adorable assortment of skewers at Daiso yesterday. Here are the flower stem ones in action. I'll post the others as I use them. Can't wait!

From Left to Right:
· Chicken sandwich
· Sunflower seeds
· Cucumber star flowers!
· Yellow pepper strips

Photo Friday #35

CASABLANCA, MOROCCO   |   TRAVELS WITH KID

After spending an entire month travelling in Morocco, when asked, Spud's first highlight of the entire trip is visiting the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca. An incredible structure, somewhere between the second and the fifth largest mosque in the world (depending on who you ask), it boasts an incredible amount of detailed craftsmanship at a mind-boggling scale.

Look how tiny we look in front of this doorway ...

And in front of this fountain ...

Just one part of the outside courtyard ... nice tile work!

A great place to take a midday break ...

Spud took this shot of the minaret, the tallest structure in Morocco.

A part of the ablutions room ...

Check out other posts about our travels in Morocco.

Thanks to Delicious Baby for hosting Photo Friday each week. Share your travel pics there or check out what other people have been up to.

Todays Bento Brought to You By the Colour: Red

Completely by accident. It wasn't until I went to photograph it that I realized how red it really was.

Clockwise from the top:
· Strawberries
· Turkey Pastrami sandwich
· Red grapes
· Apple
· Baby Gouda

Kiddie Yogurt Drink

One of Spud's favourite treats are those sugary yogurt drinks. We usually find an excuse to buy him one about once a month. I've always known that their sugary nature is the real appeal but I've avoided actually looking at the ingredients until very recently. Sugar IS the second ingredient (and probably in other forms down the list too). But I stopped scanning when I saw corn starch. Eww. Maybe it was our recent experiment with Magic Mud but the thought of drinking that stuff made me want to gag. So I bought yogurt, canned pears packed in their own juice with no sugar added, and fresh strawberries instead.

He gave it a taste test this morning before school and it passed with flying colours. It took less than 5 minutes and now I have two containers to add to his lunches this week. Here's what I did ...

Puree the following in blender until smooth:
· Large handful fresh strawberries, chopped (frozen could work too)
· Half canned pear to sweeten the strawberries
· Pear juice from the can, enough to get a smooth drinkable consistency
· Sweeten to taste with sugar, the amount will depend largely on how sweet your strawberries are. Today I used 1 Tablespoon.

Finally add one cup of good quality yogurt (no starches or gums needed) and liquify.

Chocolate Pudding Powder and Muscle Memory

This little trick came from Spud's teacher. In order to give Spud some extra practice with his letters and numbers, she suggested we bring some jello powder with us on our trip. And that's what we did!

We used this tray from our hotel room but any plate would do. The idea is to simply lick your finger and draw your letters and numbers. Not normally one for rote-like activities nor for copious quantities of sugar and chemicals, Spud was pretty surprised by this suggestion but as you can imagine, he embraced it whole-heartedly.

Eventually numbers led to trailers. But that was to be expected.

This is definitely a once-in-awhile activity we'll try again.

Making our Own Travel Journals PART 2

In my quest to create our own family travel journal, I've decided to make up the signatures ahead of time, lots of them (10 in total) to fill out along the way and to be bound together when we get home. Hopefully the cover will be made of something cool we find on our travels. Fingers crossed.

First I printed and trimmed all the paper, on acid free stock, for each signature. I made the lines farther apart on Spud's to accommodate his charming and larger than life printing. Each book has alternating blank pages as well — for glueing in keepsakes or for drawings. Not sure what we are going to do with the grid signature but hopefully games and mazes and other creative fun. We'll see.

I punched 4 small holes in each spine and sewed them with embroidery floss. I used a template for the holes so they should line up with other each when all is done. Should!

Spud chose yellow for his cover, his favourite colour.

Mine are magenta and Hubs' are purple.

A creatin' we will go!

Check out the book we are using for inspiration!

UPDATE: See the finished product here.

First Crack at Book Binding

It's really just so super easy. And fun. I made these for one of Spenser's little friends who was celebrating a birthday on the weekend. 

One is made of sketch paper for drawing. The other of alternating lined and blank paper for story writing/illustrating. I wrapped the card stock covers with Tyvek (repurposed from envelopes) and added an "L" to each of the fronts to personalize them a bit. She's said to be a blossoming 'creative type' so I hope she gets some use out of these.