more whoopsie

whoopsie showing some bloomers.

whoopsie also had a sign so the kids could pick what they wanted painted on them. it was a bad idea to use face paint for the sign because it smudged a lot and the sign was hanging where the kids could reach it. the model for the tiger face is lane and danielle is the model for the butterfly face. i had a tough time painting those little things on little moving faces.. i'll definitely need more practice if i'm going to do this again. the tiger and butterfly were actually easier for me to do because they were bigger.

this is aaron's cousin brooklyn. she was such a sweetheart! it's a good thing she had to leave for church, otherwise she might have ended up covered head to toe in face paint!

aaron's cousin breanna and his nana ruby both got butterflies. nana ruby was the only adult brave enough to ask for something. breanna also got the unicorn on one hand and the heart on the other.

more oopsie

resting his balloon making fingers.

oopsie with the birthday boy.

i made oopsie a sign with things that he could make for the kids. he was a mostly silent clown. he said that at some point he forgot to stay in character and scolded lane for squirting someone with water.

he made whoopsie a bracelet to match her outfit. isnt he the sweetest?

oopsie and whoopsie

the creation of oopsie and whoopsie was the most time consuming part of the party planning. jeremy did a lot of work on his costume (sewing buttons, adding elastic, picking a face design, sewing up his leggings). we purchased a few clown essentials from lucky's clown supplies. the service was FANTASTIC. i recommend them for all your clowning needs. (though i dont know of anyone reading this that HAS clowning needs) so along with that and our clown loot from the thrift store, we bought a couple yards of fabric, some trim and some yarn and buttons and that was about it. oh, and a wig for jeremy.

the makeup was a first attempt at clown grease paint makeup for me. i was so happy with the outcome of my eyes and mouth that i almost forgot the red nose! i did both of our faces and by the time we finished we had to run around like mad to get dressed and get to the party on time. when we got home there were clothes everywhere and baby powder all over the bathroom.

a lot of oopsie's clothes were almost straight off the rack. a few buttons here, some elastic there, a bow tie.. tada! we found his hat in the bin and glued a belt around it. he also has suspenders made of miss-match belts, but they dont show much in these pictures. and of course he has his balloon apron for holding all of his ballooning accessories. a pocket for his pump, two pockets for balloons and one pocket for little toys to give to the kids. he sure is a handsome clown!

whoopsie's costume required a bit more construction. the hat was made and the wig made out of yarn was attached to the inside. the shirt was made of various other articles of clothing. the pink polka dot skirt was made, along with part of the fluffy under layers. the red ruffly skirt was in the clown loot and only needed the waistband removed and some elastic (it was for a small girl). my bloomers were made out of a costume dress of belle from beauty and the beast with some trim around the legs. i also added some ruffles to a pair of socks. then i made some flowers and sewed them on top.

we had so much fun that we've been talking about doing some clowning for other events. jeremy's mom already requested us to come to her sunday school class. i was surprised by how much fun jeremy had and how quickly he agreed to do it again.

yummy yummy in my tummy

the birthday cake making was a late night event, as usual. we were getting a bit silly by the time 3am rolled around. i found the idea for the cake and directions here. we used food dye to color white chocolate for the ears, stars and tail. i made a mold for the ears by folding strips of foil and hot gluing them to a piece of wax paper. for the stars i glued my star shaped cookie cutter to the wax paper. the cake was two 9" x 13" cakes stacked, cut in half and rounded with a serrated knife. sculpting the cake was lots of fun.. i think danielle was worried that i would get carried away and there wouldnt be any cake left. we thought the elephant should be laying in hay, but by the time we got to that step we were REALLY silly. we decided that it looked nothing like hay.. but more like spaghetti, mustard, ramen or cat poo. so if you look closely, you can see where danielle wrote 'cat poo' and 'ramen' in the hay. also, danielle's mom found those clown figurines at the thrift store, isnt that perfect?

we had some yummy circus foods for the party. hot dogs, nachos, circus peanuts, popcorn and fruit with fruit dip. danielle made the fruit tray into a clown's face.

and of course we need a picture of the birthday boy enjoying his cake! he thought it was delicious.

the ice cream, on the other hand, was a bit too cold and the cake eating ended very abruptly.

aaron is sporting a spaghettio bib by the awesomest mom ever. (that would be my mom)

party time!

i think i'll do this in a few different posts.. this first one will be decorations. most of my contribution to the party decorations took place before the day of the party.. the last few hours of decorating time had to be spent decorating myself instead. also, i didnt get any nice looking photos.. i got there about 40 minutes early, but was already getting a line for face paintings..

in these photos we have the big top streamers, the 'happy first birthday aaron' sign, a bit of bunting. i usually spend hours and hours cutting letters and gluing and whatnot for birthday signs, but decided to just print this one. i'm sure it could have been cuter, but not faster. we had hoped to do some sort of fabric for the tent, but streamers were a lot cheaper.

all i did for this one was find the plastic popcorn box at target and add ribbons. danielle used part of the tablecloth (which was way too big for the table) and covered the front of the microwave cart. she cut out the one from some red sticker paper. the tablecloth and plates/napkins/cups/stuff was all found at super discount prices at hudson's. we <3 class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">hudson's.

danielle added some more big top streamers over on the other side of the room. we put up balloon streamers that she already had to add more color to that side of the room.

i made a clown out of construction paper to go next to the door. it was up in my apartment for awhile before the party until oscar and aaron ripped it down. the damage wasnt too noticeable.. and there is the pin the nose on the clown. the magnets i glued on the noses werent strong enough, so the night before i had to glue more magnets on. i need to get those back, all my stuff is falling off my fridge!

side note - i thought it was funny that i was reading this post while writing this. another child's birthday party sunday with help from another sister-in-law also named melissa. maybe melissa and i are party planning soul mates?

pin the nose on the clown

i'm almost finished with the pin the nose on the clown game. i'm a big fan of pin the something on the something else games. they're easy to make and usually lots of fun. i even whipped up an impromptu pin the butterfly on the flower game for danielle's birthday. i've also done pin the pants on spongebob and pin the wheel on the tractor for a couple of lane's birthday parties. the doors here at the apartments are magnetic, so i can just glue a magnet on the back of each nose and i'll be done.

pin the butterfly on the flower

pin the wheel on the tractor

pin the pants on spongebob

a memory game

i found this memory game when i was looking for stickers to print out for the invitations. we thought it would be cute in the favor boxes for the kids. i cut out the cards and folded up the instructions and tied them together with some jute twine. i'm a big fan of the jute twine. possibly because i'm cheap.

circus invitations

my nephew aaron will be turning a year old on the 26th and is having a circus themed birthday party. i based the invitations on this circus ticket from oscar's first circus.

here is the finished product to be shipped out tomorrow. i'm really happy with how much i was able to do using paint and microsoft word. maybe someday i'll have something better to work with.

the front and back of the ticket

since there were only about 15 invitations to do, i put the name and addy on each one before printing. (not shown - i didnt want to give out any addresses, so i printed it blank - i should have made up an address so i could show off the cute circus fonts some more)

the inside of the flap is a circus tent and then there's the speed&rudd circus banner... i'm really hoping that the flap wont rip when people open up the envelope... there was no time for a test run

there is the ticket going in the envelope

and the ticket in the envelope.. i like how the edge w/ the stars is peaking out.

since i didnt want the flaps to rip when the envelope was opened i glued on these little sticker things to seal them.. the stickers were a free pdf from here. we didnt actually have sticker paper.. just used cardstock and tacky glue.

tada! hopefully danielle will remember to mail them.. or will mail them before crushing them in a diaper bag.. i wont hold my breath

clown loot

jeremy, oscar and i headed to the thrift store to find some fabric whatnots for our costumes and SURPRISE! it was 25cent day! yay! i can't believe our luck! we got tons of bright, horribly tacky stuff which will hopefully turn into clown costumes soon. there was even a bag of giant red pom pom puff things! i think they might have been expecting us.

here is one of the things that has been keeping me from posting..

my nephew, aaron, is turning 1 on oct. 26th, so jeremy and i decided to be clowns for his circus themed party. jeremy is going to make balloon animals and i'll be doing a bit of face painting. now, neither of us have much experience with aforementioned arts, so we'll be practicing a lot in the next few weeks, i'm sure. also, we're trying to create our clown personas (costumes, names, voices, personalities and all that). i think it'll be lots of fun if we can pull it off :) jeremy has already started working on his balloon skills, but i've only just ordered my face paint. here are a few things we'll be expecting in the mail...
i think the rest of our costumes will mostly be thrifted/hand made things...

also, oscar is going to be a clown for halloween.. so far the only costume idea i have for him is the red converse style high tops he has already for his shoes.. i dont think he should be too traditional looking or he wont fit in with whatever craziness jeremy and i come up with. we're planning on getting all dressed up to take him trick-or-treating.. one big happy clown family :)