Comic Book Birthday

Ok, so it was really a Batman Birthday. 

My previous posts showed the games, which were a huge hit. I finished off the Bat Symbol Game with a sticky-backed foam cut out of the batman logo. We went into sudden death because it was just too close to say who won, so to decide an official winner they went to a water balloon toss. 

Larry has an egg allergy so I ended up making, Whoopie Pies, with toxic sludge colored filling, 

and white cake with classic Adam West Batman Purple frosting. 

I use an egg replacer which works wonderfully, you can also use apple sauce, which is always in our house. 

I lost all my round cake pans over the years, So I used a heart shape. This worked out well, as you can see. It gave me a rough outline for what I needed the wings. I also found on clearance at Target sugar Comic Book Shapes, hence the lightening bolts and the Boom. We worked those types of things throughout so it worked out perfectly. 

 By making the cake, the whoopie pies, the games and having most of the parents drop and go, I saved a ton of money.  Including Ingredients for the treats, the food for the party and the goody bags, I spent $61!!!! Normally a party would cost me upwards of $120! 

I cut my cost in half, and you would never have been able to tell! 

I also told larry he could only INVITE 8 friends, and of those 8, only four could make it, the other two who had said yes had an unexpected event happen. So I could have skipped the good bags and just have done prizes and it would have been just as fun!  

Party on a budget

We are having a Batman Themed 8th Birthday for Larry this sunday.

I'm unemployed and wanted games for the party.

Sitting quietly on the ride home from a day trip to Salem, it clicked.

I wanted to make a bean bag toss. I wanted to take some wood and have John drill some holes in it, and I'd paint it.

Well, that's not what happened. John wasn't exactly sure how much time it would take, if he could get it how I wanted it. I was sort of grumpy about it. Then we walked into the house.

Leaning against the bookcase, a 4 foot long box. It was pretty Sturdy considering it's cardboard. So I run up to John's mom's craft room. I found all the basic comic book colors, Ivory, Black, Yellow, Blue, Red, Green, Purple. I happened upon some special colors, NEONS!!!! Pink, Orange and Yellow.

I grabbed the embroidery hoop to trace the circles. Grabbed a knife and cut out the circles.

I Painted the base color, Ivory! it's almost a newpaper white. We did 2 coats of it.

We put numbers around each hole to give them some incentive, we started at 5 and went up to 80. We basically Doubled each one: 5, 10, 20, 40, 80!

We drew old school comic expressions, "Pow" "bang"  things like that. using every color we had we made the best game we could, FOR FREE!!!

 

So I tossed and turned all night wanting to have a second game. I wanted something simple, there's kids as young as 2.5 coming after all. 

Send up the Signal! 

I used a piece of the cardboard from the night before. 

I painted the background black. I used three coats to get a nice even all over color.

I mixed the regular Yellow and Neon yellow to get to the Batman Logo yellow! 

I got a little fancy, and decided that there was not enough excitement. I don't have the most experience drawing, but I know my Batman Villians. So in the corners I wanted to do something fun. Using

Again, a little imagination and about 4 hours worth of work I created TWO FREE GAMES! 

I have to make a few Bat Symbols for the pin the tail game. 

It's going to be a blast, and I'm excited for all the stuff I can buy because I saved a bunch of money by using my free time in a good way! It's all about thinking outside the box! and I did just that! 

Unemployed and trying to be a mom.

I worked at a flower shop for over a year, I was let go about 10 days ago. I have crocheted and went out with my grandmother. Enjoyed weekends with John and Larry.

I had time to think, I have an education in childcare and I should be using it to teach my own son. I am dedicating 3 maybe 4 days a week to a structured day, where we will be doing activities and trying to keep up with our school. I think that math and reading are two of the most important thing a child could have in their back pocket. At Larry's age I was reading 150+ page books, for fun. Larry will tell you that was because I didn't have friends. No, I didn't enjoy being made fun of because when I did talk to the friends I had I would discuss books I read. Nerd alert.

So I figured if we so about 1 hour of math a week, 1 hour of writing and maybe 2 hours of reading he won't lose anything he learned this year in 2nd grade.

We are working on a travel game for our trips to Maine, we go to Old Orchard  as often as possible, and we find if Larry isn't occupied he misses his grandpa and usually makes us turn around so he can stay home.

For our game we are going to use 1/2 a posterboard, magnets, crayons/markers and make a "road" and we will have a scavenger hunt list, which I have already typed up, of 99 items, which we will frame so we can use a dry erase marker and cross off the ones we've already found.

I bought a 25 pack of posterboard at BJs wholesale for 8.99, I have more crayons and such to make the images, I am going to the craft store to buy the magnets so I can sandwich the posterboard between them and keep the game pieces on the "road" I was tempted to make a Kerouac, On the road, theme but that would be lost on my child. I imagine that this isn't going to be the most expensive road trip game, and That's what is important!

I am a mom on a budget, not sure if I am going to get unemployment. I'm going to be adding my crochet creations to my etsy store this week, Mandalucrochet is the name of the shop.

I will post pictures of the process of the game creating and the use of them.

I want to hear about all of your ideas, what would you have on your scavenger hunt list?

here's Our List!

1.      Feet out window

2.      Hula Girl Dashboard dancer

3.      Airplane

4.      Ambulance

5.      American flag

6.      ATV

7.      Baseball diamond

8.      Blue Pick up truck

9.      Billboard with Kid

10.    Boat

11.    Bridge

12.    Bus

13.    Car pulling trailer

14.    Cat

15.    Cemetery

16.    Chicken

17.    Church

18.    Cow

19.    Crane

20.    Deer

21.    Detour sign

22.    Do Not Enter sign

23.    Dog

24.    Fast Food Restaurant

25.    Fire station

26.    Fire truck

27.    Flag without stripes

28.    Flashing red light

29.    Football Field

30.    Fuzzy Dice

31.    For Sale Sign

32.    Gas Station

33.    Green Light

34.    Grocery store

35.    Historical marker

36.    Horse

37.    Lawn mower

38.    License Plate with Z

39.    Light blue pick up truck

40.    Motor home

41.    Mountain

42.    Moving truck

43.    Person riding bike

44.    Person on Phone

45.    Picnic table

46.    Pine tree

47.    Playground

48.    Police car

49.    Pond

50.    Post office

51.    Police officer

52.    Railroad tracks

53.    Red Barn

54.    Red Wagon

55.    River

56.    School

57.    Semi-truck who honks!

58.    “Welcome” Sign

59.    Silo

60.    Snowman

61.    Snowmobile

62.    Somebody singing!

63.    Wearing a hat

64.    Statue

65.    Stop sign

66.    Sunflower

67.    Swimming pool

68.    Tennis court

69.    Tractor

70.    Vegetable garden

71.    Water tower

72.    White truck

73.    Yellow car

74.    Yield sign

75.    Cartoon character

76.    Stick figure family

77.    Stick figure pet

78.    A bad word

79.    Baby on board sign

80.    Honor role sticker

81.    Red Sox Fan

82.    Bruins Fan

83.    Motorcycle

84.    Road Kill

85.    Construction zone

86.    Orange barrels/cone

87.    Rotary

88.   Ice cream shop

89.    Rainbow

90.    Old person driving

91.    Broken down car

92.    Vintage car

93.    Car with duct tape

94.    One headlight

95.    Moose sign

96.    Beach chair

97.    Cooler

98.    Roof pack

99.    Punch bug(VW car)

 a photo from Last year's Old Orchard Beach, ME trip.

 Happy Almost Memorial Day! 

Be Safe, check twice save a life, click it or ticket, buckle up buttercup. 

Manda, Larry and John! 

It's been a while.

Well now, 

It's been some time since we posted on this. 

Updates:

Larry: 

He loves his 2nd grade teacher. 
He looks like a hockey player since he's loosing his teeth so fast! Larry Has decided he wants to play sports. 
He collects Skylander Giants now, which I hate, but he LOVES. 
His bunny is getting big, he's getting HUGE. He really is growing up so fast. He is now only truly allergic to Eggs, TREE nuts and some shellfish, not lobster though! He had an emergency trip to the ER a few months ago, Brunch for Lunch at school allowed Larry to know the EpiPen very well. Along with how boring a hospital is. 







Myself
 I've been working at the florist for almost a year, I am actively looking for something I can use my Degree on. I have been let go of my position at the Movie Company. 

John and I are still together, happily, not engaged, not expecting any baby, just happy and focusing on my health and being together. 

I had surgery earlier this month, it sucked. I was not expecting to wake up from surgery and feel like I was hit by a train, I've been out of work for over 3 weeks! I'm going crazy!

Feeling Better Everyday!