Happy Angry Bird-day!

My son Benjamin recently turned SIX! I know, that's crazy! And each year when I ask what type of party the boys want...lately their answer is always STAR WARS! I don't quite understand what the appeal is with Star Wars, so I was very happy when Ben suggested having an "Angry Birds" party! He loves playing "Angry Birds" on my husband's phone, and I have to admit I like playing it too!

I found many ideas on Pinterest. And since Angry Birds is fairly new, there isn't any type of party decorations (unless you have a ton of money to spend on Etsy). So I had to come up with ideas on my own or should I say with the help of the internet! ;)

I LOVED this balloon idea! It can be found HERE.

 The party stores in the neighborhood wouldn't fill latex balloons with helium, so I bought a small helium tank from Walmart and filled my own. Or should I say my hubby filled them for me! I know that latex doesn't hold helium long, but my balloons started falling about a half hour after we filled them! :( So that was a bust! But they sure were cute while they lasted!

What was neat about making these little characters was that the paper weighed down the balloons a little, so we left them hang from the ceiling and it looked like the little angry birds were looking down on us! ;)

 I think the little blue one is my favorite!

 I found these little plush pigs and angry birds at Toys R Us...so I bought them and we set up our own little lifesized Angry Bird Game.

 We were going to use a real slingshot, but it was too hard for the boys to work, so they just threw the angry birds! They had a blast!

 As for the cake, I ordered it at Walmart. I could have baked a cake like this, but I try to eliminate as much added stress as possible lately, so we had the party catered, and I ordered the cake. I did however decorate the cake myself. I was going to make little angry birds out of clay or fondant, but again I wanted no stress, so I ordered the Angry Bird Game off of Amazon.com and just used the game pieces. I think it made the cake look fun!

I was a little upset with the fact that the cake decorator inscribed the cake wrong. I specifically gave her what to write in writing, but she still managed to screw it up. It was supposed to say: "Happy Angry Bird-day Ben!" But she wrote: "Happy Angry Bird Birthday Ben!" But oh well, it's just minor and bothered me just a little! ;)

 But in the end Ben loved his cake and that's all that mattered! :)

Here is the invitation that I made him. I think it's horrible, and I could have done a much better job had I hand drawn it, but I digitally drew it on the computer which is hard!

And finally here we are in our Angry Bird shirts that I waited to the last minute to buy. In the end I traveled about an hour to find our shirts in our sizes! Alex is going through this stage where he makes faces everytime we take a photo! It's exhausting! lol

So that was our simple Angry Bird party! Do you play Angry Birds?

Inspiration

I have been soo busy over the last week! Friday was my 33rd birthday (YIKES) and I spent Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with a wonderful bunch of friends at a Scrapbook Retreat!

I was supposed to play hockey last night, but didn't feel well when I got home. We planned on seeing Gnomeo and Juliet yesterday afternoon, but it was sold out! The boys were soo excited and couldn't wait until I got home from the retreat to see the movie. I ended up going home and going to bed so Chris took the boys to see the movie without me! :(  It came out on my birthday, and the movie is meant for me (since I'm a gnome lover) and THEY LEFT ME AT HOME!

So I'm planning on seeing the movie soon...and probably alone! lol

So anyhow I am into my second week in an online sketchbook class called: "Sketchbook Delight" taught by the wonderful artist Alisa Burke!

This weeks class was about finding your inspiration! I have always thought that I was artistically challenged! I seemed to never come up with my own inspiration...I always got inspired by other's artwork! Let me clarify, I never copied anyone's work, but I looked for things in it that inspired me. And I always wished to find my own "style."

Over the years and especially this last year I have walked through life blindly...unable to see the beauty that is around me!

Well look out...I have finally opened my eyes and I see all the beauty that surrounds me! And it feels soo good to create, and do it on my own! Remember the bird nest I blogged about this past Spring? You can read about it here.

This is what I came up with! I have played with watercolors before, but haven't done any real paintings. This is my first attempt at a sketchbook page! I really love how it turned out! I first sketched it in pencil in the waiting room at my son's pediatricians. Yes, he's sick again and actually ruptured his eardrum! He's finally feeling a little better today, thankfully!

Here's a closeup.

Another closeup.

Another.

Another....you get the idea! ;)

And speaking of art...look what Alex made me on my birthday? A pink playdoh cake! He's my little artist...he loves to paint and just create anything! Wonder who he takes after? ;)

It's almost midnight and I have a ton of ideas that I can't wait to get into my sketchbook! I have been working at it non-stop and I just can't quit! It feels soooo good! I'll share more of my sketchbook in the next couple of days! Have a wonderful week!

Living a chaotic life!

Wow, it has been such a long time since I last blogged! I apologize, and I probably lost many readers, but December is one of the most chaotic months for me!

My photography business is finally picking up, Alex's birthday is on December 12th, and then there is Christmas! There's just a ton of stuff packed into one month! I know I'm behind, but I'd still like to share some photos from December! Here are some photos from Alex's 4th birthday party! As you can see it was "Lego" themed. I was so excited when I found this t-shirt, I thought it would be perfect for him to wear for his party!

 He's very excited that he is now 4!

 I haven't made a themed birthday cake in a few years, but this year I thought I'd try to tackle a Lego Brick cake.

 I made this yellow brick cake and the blue one that you can see behind it. I wasn't super happy with how it turned out, but the kids seemed to love it! I even used one of his little Lego characters to hold one of the candles!

 Here is the table centerpiece. I used a Lego gameboard that I found at a thrift store and a vase that I filled with Lego Bricks. The little boxes were filled with treats and I stamped each child's name on the box. I wish I would have gotten a photo with all the little Lego Man boxes, but the kids snatched them up pretty quickly! lol

 I made these gift bags for each child that were made to look like Lego Bricks. I purchased solid color gift bags and used a hole punch to punch out circles from cardstock and used dimensional stickers to add them to the front. Very inexpensive and very easy.

So that was basically his fourth birthday! He had a great time and got tons and tons of what else...LEGOS! :)

I plan to start updating my blog on a regular basis, just please stick with me. I've gone through a tough time in the last month and I'll share that with you soon. Hope you are staying warm in whatever part of the world you are in! Have a great week!

My Baby is FIVE!

My oldest Ben turned five-years-old a week and a half ago! It's hard to believe that he will be starting Kindergarten in a few weeks! Here are some photos from the last five years! Wow, time flies when you're having fun! :)

Here we are in the hosptial shortly after he was born. He was sooo tiny!
This next photo I took about two weeks after he was born. This has always been one of my favorites! It's Ben and his daddy's hands! We compared their hands again tonight and Ben's nearly covers his daddy's hand! He is growing up soo quickly!

Here is a photo of Ben at two months old. This was his first trip to the local Fall Festival!

Here he is as a cute little Santa for his first Christmas!

And his first Easter with Allie!

This is his second Halloween!

He was sick and missed his school photos at daycare, so I took this one at home when he was better! Here he is this past Spring at his soccer game.

And here is the birthday boy this year as he turned five! Happy Birthday Ben we love you sooo much!

My little Ben turns 4 today!

4 years ago today I became a mother! Today Benjamin is 4-years-old! Motherhood has been the most rewarding and yet most stressful experience of my entire life! But I wouldn't change it for the world! I have the most amazing little boy! He is so intelligent and funny and I cannot imagine my life without him! Here's a look back at how far we have come! Here are some of my favorites of literally THOUSANDS! I took every photo except the first one! Enjoy!

Here we are after his birth:

Here he is at a couple weeks old:

His first Christmas:

Having fun in the daisies:

His second Halloween:

His eyes are amazing aren't they?

This is my favorite photo that was taken near his second birthday. It's one of my favorites! Everyone says that it reminds them of the "Wizard of Oz!"

Playing in the corn for his second year photos!

His third year photos was a farm theme. Here he is close to his third birthday:

Here's Ben today at four! He's grown up soo fast! Next thing I know, he'll be graduating from college!

Hope you enjoyed my favorite photos of Ben! Have a great night!

-Ruth Ann

Birthday Fun!

Today was my birthday! I had a great time with my family! I was up with the dog at 7 am...which was around the time my husband got home from work. I wanted to go back to sleep really badly, figuring I would sleep in until Ben got up. Well I woke up and looked at the clock and it was 11:30! We slept all morning! By the way it was soo beautiful here today in Western Pa...67 degrees! I actually had my air on in the car! The weather added to my fantastic day!

Today in the mail I received my birthday present from my husband...it's a cute little PINK digital camera! I have a huge digital SLR camera with the big lenses..and it's just too big to carry around! It involves a separate camera bag and that's too much to handle with two toddlers. I wanted something that I could carry with me everyday in my purse! Isn't it the cutest?
I wanted to scan in the birthday card that my husband got me, but I'm having scanning issues so I'll just fill you in with what it said.

Usually my husband buys me the sweetest cards, and as I was reading it...it seemed beautiful! It nearly brought me to tears! This is what is on the card: "From the moment I first saw you, I said to myself, There's the woman I'm going to marry, raise a family with and share the dreams of a thousand tomrrows."
The inside says: "Well, actually it was "nice buns," but you hadn't turned around yet!"

That was so not typical of something my husband would buy me, but oh well it made me laugh! Later in the evening I went to Best Buy and bought a memory card for my new camera, a Richard Gere movie as well (big surprise), and I bought the kids a Vtech V-Motion that I plan to give them for Valentine's Day.

When I got home my husband took me and the boys out to dinner! We had a really great evening! So after the kids go to sleep we'll stay up and watch my new movie! I can't wait! It's called "The Hunting Party." It's an action film which is not my kind of film, but if Richard Gere's in it, I'll watch it anyhow!

Hugs, Ruth Ann