Harry Potter Party!!!!

This year... I think it's safe to say that Brayden is a bit obsessed with Harry Potter. So it was not surprising at all that he wanted to have a Harry Potter birthday party. I am not at all a "party planner" kinda mom. I do not enjoy planning parties for my kids. It stresses me out. BIG time. And having tons of kids in my house running around and being crazy loud... well not really my idea of fun. But it's all for my kids, so I gotta do it... right. 

A while ago, my neighbor threw her son a birthday party and only spent $10 on it, and it was awesome!! I was pretty sure I was unable to be THAT good and figure out how to only spend $10 on it, but I was pretty impressed how many things I came up with that I already had supplies for. Food storage and my craft supply came in pretty handy!!! 

So first... I asked a friend of mine how to make some cute invitations like she has made for her kids parties. With her suggestions, I came up with these that I made on Picasa, and had them printed up for super cheap at Wal-Mart.

Next was to make our house a little Hogwarts-like.

I mostly used balloons and streamers I had left over from past birthday's. Even though my kids don't get a friend's party every year, we always decorate a little for them. So I had a good stash to get stuff from.

"Forbidden Forrest    A Warning: Peril Await all who enter!!!"

I hung up this sign I made just for fun and because I didn't want kids running up and down the stairs. I wanted to contain the craziness if you will. But I soon found this was just as good as an invitation to the kids to try and sneak into the "Forbidden Forrest".  They tried every chance they could.

 The kitchen/dining room turned into the "Great Hall" The kids were served "Pumpkin Juice" (aka Orange Soda), Pizza, and Cake!!

Each guest got one of these badges. I made them up on my computer and had these badge covers in my craft box. Brayden was "Head Boy", Patrick and I were "Headmasters", and all the rest of the kids were Hogwarts "Honorary Guests".

The boys were so excited to get to use their Halloween costumes again.

We were ready to PARTY!!!!

First up, everyone knows that a proper wizard needs a wand. So first was Wand Making class. Every one got a dowel to paint and decorate. This got messy. I'm glad I made sure it was washable paint, because it was all over clothes, my table, chairs, and the floors. But they made some fun looking wands.

Next up was Quidditch Practice where we made our own Golden Snitch's. I made some salt dough balls ahead of time and they all painted their Snitch's with gold paint and glued feathers on the side. 

Next was Levitation Class. 

The kids sat in a circle and had to keep the balloons off the ground for as long as they could using the spell "wingardium leviosa". This gave us time to set up for the next class....

Potions class! This was a favorite! It was kinda fun to see the kids try to guess what was really in the cups. We had green jello for "lizard slime",  gummy worms were "bloodworms", brown sugar was "fairy soil", "Unicorn Nectar" was apple juice,  "Basilisk Venom" was red jello, "bat liver" was chopped up olives, "Goblin Nails" were chocolate sprinkles, then the last ingredients we added were baking soda as "Essence of Newt" and vinegar as "Stink Pond Water" so it would fizzle and bubble up.

 Each child got a cup to mix their "potions" in and a straw to stir it with. They all loved watching it change colors, fizz, stink, and bubble up.  They had successfully made Polyjuice Potion!

 Next was Dueling Class. We had each child duel off in a "tournament"  and the winner won a Golden Coin from Gringotts Bank. 

 Then it was back to the Great Hall for Pizza and Pumpkin Juice. Then we all sang to the Head Boy and he blew out his candle and opened presents.

 This was the best shot I got of all the kids together. Don't mind the dead looking child... I promise there were no children harmed in the making of this party!

When each child left, they took home a bag filled with their wand and snitch's they made, a Gringotts Golden Coin (they were chocolate coin candy things) and these home made goodies:

 (aka Muddy Buddy Chex Mix)

(aka Monster Munch Popcorn which is pretty much just popcorn, peanuts, Rice Krispies covered in Peanut Butter and white chocolate)

It was a fun party. There were a total of 15 kids (including my 2 boys... Landon just sat back and watched the craziness). My voice was almost gone by the end from trying to talk over everyone and I was exhausted!!! It was so much work, and lots of internet searching to find ideas, but all in all I think it turned out really well, and Brayden had a great time. 

Which that was the whole point, so I guess my mission was accomplished!!!

SANTA!!!!

After our super annoying experience of waiting 2 hours in line to see Santa at the mall last year, I had several friends suggest that we go and see the Santa at the Bass Pro Shop where there is a great Santa, no lines, and a FREE photo with him. It was worth the drive to the other side of town, I must say. We have never even been to a Bass Pro Shop... since we are more of what one might call "indoor" kinda people, but they had lots of fun stuff to look at there and the boys just loved it. I mean, you would think that we'd never let these kids outta the house before the way they were running around looking at things, playing with the toys to try out, and looking at the displays of animals every where. 

We first went to see Santa. I knew that Landon would most likely NOT sit on his lap for a picture. And I was right. But he did surprise me and walk right up to him all on his own. And even sat there on Brayden's lap for a few seconds before screaming. He didn't start getting mad until they wanted to take the picture. So this picture just makes me laugh. Maybe that makes me a mean mom, but I'm ok with that. 

 They took the picture and I took Landon off Santa's lap while the other boys told them what they wanted for Christmas. Brayden said that he wanted some Harry Potter Lego's and a Tech Deck half pipe with skateboards. Conner told him he wanted a Lego set and some Tech Decks... and a 4 wheeler!!!! (They had just seen "kid" sized 4 wheelers and sat on them, and now apparently it is on his list!! I will have to talk to him about that one.....)

Landon decided Santa was ok to approach again once Santa was handing him a candy cane, and then he was off again. He found this cute little chair and tent that he just loved and kept running back to every time we took him out of it. 

He never let go of that candy cane either!

The older boys (including Patrick) all played with a big remote controlled monster truck, shooting elk with darts, racing Nascars on a race track, controlling a train, and  shooting deer with a toy rifle.

Just look at that concentration!!

They also had an huge aquarium that all the kids loved. Landon was so intrigued with it. He kept trying to grab at the glass to catch the fish as they swam past him. 

We had a fun time, and really, you can't beat a free family outing to see Santa. Now... let's just wait to se if Santa can bring what they asked for. 

Except for the 4 wheeler.... he can keep that!  :)

Are You Ready For Some Football????

On Monday, Novebmer 29th, it was Patrick's birthday!!! Patrick for whatever reason really hates to celebrate birthdays.... especially his own. So this past summer, I found out that the AZ Cardinals were playing a Monday Night Football game on his birthday in AZ. So I HAD to get him tickets. He would think that is the PERFECT way to spend his birthday! He has always been a huge Cards fan... no matter if they are horrible or in the Super Bowl, he is a fan! It wasn't easy to get tickets... they sold out really fast, but I finally found him some on eBay and bought them. So he has known what his present was for several months now, but we finally were able to go to a Cards game in their new Stadium in Glendale. 

 The Stadium is really cool. It's so big, we didn't even see the majority of it, but it was still so fun. 

Here are the ESPN Monday Night Football guys. Patrick says the one on the far right is Steve Young, but I have no idea if it really is. But still, it was kinda fun being at a game that was on TV for MNF!

 After looking around for a while, we finally made the hike... and I do mean HIKE... up to our seats. We were literally 5 rows away from the top. The very VERY top. Gotta love "cheap seats" This is our view from our seats. Still not bad at all for how high up they were!

 As lame as it is, this may have been my favorite part of the night??? A bunch of Marines carried out this huge flag as one sang the National Anthem, they ran it across the field.....

 Look how huge it is??? The size of the entire football field! Notice all the Marines it takes to hold it up?? If you look really close, you can see that they had to lean backwards in order to keep the flag up and to not touch the ground. When they got to the part of the song where is says "... long may she wave..." they made the flag wave up and down and it looked so cool! It gave me chills over my whole body and made me tear up a little. I am just a softy with Patriotic stuff I guess. I loved it!! 

 The Cards Cheerleaders doing their little dance just before the team ran out to start the game.

 Here are Patrick's Cards running out. 

 The halftime show was Lifehouse. It was pretty good, at least it was a band that I know and like.

I have never gone to a NFL game before. I'm not really a huge fan of football, but it is SO MUCH more fun to watch it in person then on TV.  And when you are there, you get the added bonus of watching all the crazy drunk fans, which is almost as entertaining as watching the game itself! By the 4th quarter, that was pretty much all I was doing... watching all the 49er fans trash talking the Cards fans and people yelling at one another about plays, calls, etc. It was getting pretty funny!

*Final score: Cards- 6   49ers- 27

*4 fights witnessed among fans (just where we could see, I'm sure there were more!)

*2 people escorted out of the stadium by Sheriff Deputies

*1/2 bottle of beer spilled on us my the guys behind us. He didn't mean to, but got upset at some bad call in the game or something and had a bottle of beer in his hands and it spilled out as he stood up, and it landed on us. Awesome. Just what I wanted.... to smell like nasty beer the rest of the night! He apologize several times. Stupid drunk fans.

It was a fun night and a PERFECT way to spend Patrick's birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PATRICK!

Temple lights!!!

While in AZ, we decided that we wanted to take the boys to see the temple lights. I remember going every year when I was younger and loving it. So we were sure the boys would too. We went and saw them with my brother and his family. It was fun, the lights were awesome, and the kids loved spending one last evening with their cousins. Most of the family left the next day to drive home. We were staying a few extra days though... more to come on that later!

 The cousins we went with. With this many kids+ so much to see+ the excitement of everything, this was the best picture we got. But you get the idea... cute kids... fun outing.

 My boy in front of the wisemen traveling to find the newborn Savior.

The whole fam! I love these people!!!

The temple grounds are set up so different parts of the Nativity are set up in different areas. Here is the best picture I could get of Mary, Joseph, and the Baby Jesus. The star is what was so awesome! Look how bright that thing is! 

And then there are the Wisemen walking with their camels across the huge front lawn of the temple. I have always remembered seeing these Wisemen on the big front lawn, they look so cool in real life. The pictures do not do them justice!

 My brother and his family!

 The boys trying to act "so cool"!

Me and my 3 favorite boys ever!!!! 

I love the Mesa Temple! Especially when the Christmas lights are out and it's the wonderful Christmas season!

One Big Shumate Family Thanksgiving!

Like I said in my last post, we went to Arizona for Thanksgiving with my family this year. It was so fun. We were all there... cousins, aunts, uncles, siblings, grandparents, great-grandparents. There were about 40 of us in all for the big turkey dinner. We were able to spend a week down in Mesa, and here is the first installment of our trip!

We packed up and hit the road on Wednesday. We made it across the new bridge that goes over Hoover Dam. I thought it would be super scary to cross, being as it is so freaking high up above where you usually cross the Dam, but they built walls up just high enough you can't even tell that you are on the bridge. Thank you designers/engineers of that bridge! I really hate heights! 

Just outside of Kingman, I was trying to put a blanket in the window for the boys so the sun wouldn't be on them as they were watching a movie. Patrick was in charge of the window rolling up and down, and I was holding the blanket and told him to roll it up... so he did when I told him it was ready... and my finger was in the way and I didn't realize it. OUCH!!! That really hurts to get your finger rolled up into the window. I screamed and started crying and the next thing I know, Patrick has pulled off the road and is freaking out that he had just cut off my finger or something. He was sure that with how it was bleeding that we would need to turn around and go back to Kingman to the hospital to get stitches. Once I was able to stop myself from screaming and crying... the First Aid Instructor in me kicked in and we examined my smashed bleeding finger and found that the cut wasn't at all in need of stitches (it wasn't deep at all) so we just took some ice from Patrick's drink he had just finished and wrapped it in some napkins and put in on my finger until we got the the next town and stopped for Band-Aids and some Neosporin. All was well,  my finger was just smashed a bit and pretty sore for a few days, but nothing too bad. 

We got to Mesa and enjoyed our traditional Family Lasagna dinner that we have the night before Thanksgiving. After dinner some of my cousins started talking about food challenges, and soon money was thrown down on the table, and my 17 year old nephew had accepted the challenge to eat 1 dozen Krispy Kreme donuts in 2 minutes and then KEEP them down for an additional 15 minutes after that. It was a valiant effort on his part!! He actually came really close! It was so funny to watch him. We still let him have the money for his "mission fund".

Thanksgiving Day was just a bunch of hanging out and catching up with family that we haven't seen in forever. It was fun, and the boys had a blast playing with all their cousins they had there. I hardly saw them at all that day! They had fun playing outside, watching movies, and playing on my sister in laws iPad. Super yummy food was consumed in mass quantities, pies were devoured later in the evening, and it was an all around great day with my family!

Me and my sister

I just thought this was freaking hilarious!! This is one of our 2 or 3 turkey's cooking on the front porch. How redneck is that!?!? So funny!! It was a dang tasty turkey though! 

The boys and 2 of their cousins playing on the iPad that my Sister-in-law brought. It was a big hit. Bradyen now thinks he needs one. I'm pretty sure that won't happen... Daddy gets one first out of any of us!

My sister brought these funny hats so I of course had to get a picture of the boys in them. How festive!

My little niece Bailey was DYING to hold her Baby Landon all day. Landon wasn't having any of that, so we finally had Bailey sit on my lap, and Landon on hers, then all was good. She is a dang cute little girl... always wanting to hug and kiss her Baby Landon!

Then late on Thursday night, the Black Friday adventures began!! My nice Sister-in-Law came and stayed in our hotel room with the boys so Patrick and I could go out shopping all night. We first went to Toys-R-Us, and the line was wrapped around the building 2 times, and wove through the parking lot. We were in line at about the halfway point of the 2nd line around the store, and we got there at 8:30 pm (it opened at 10pm). We started to wonder if the few things we wanted on sale was going to be worth all the waiting and the craziness that we were sure to encounter. Being the smart man Patrick is, he got on his phone, got on toysrus.com and found that the things we wanted the most were already on sale on their webpage and he ordered them (most even with free shipping) right there on his phone as we stood in line. It was awesome!! Gotta love technology! So we left there just before they opened at 10 and headed over to Wal-Mart where we ended up spending the rest of the night. Seriously! We were there from about 10 pm to just after 5am. It was crazy! Most of the things we wanted to buy went on sale at their midnight sale, but a few items didn't go on sale until 5 am. And we had to stand in line for them from midnight on... with a ticket verifying that we were getting what we were in line for... and one of us had to stay in line the WHOLE time. So one of us stood in that dang line all. night. long.  We had gotten all our items that we could, and just took shifts standing in the line. It was a long night, and we totally paid for it the next day because we were so tired, but we got the boys almost all their christmas presents and all of Brayden's birthday presents during our night of shopping. There was just 2 things that we couldn't find... and we saved a bunch of money... which was really a good thing this year!  :) We got back to our hotel room and got about an hour of sleep before the boys woke up and we were going again for the day. 

It was a fun holiday. We were surrounded by so many that we love and we really had so much to be thankful for that day!