My daughter Bug wanted to have a Minecraft sleepover birthday party this year.  As of this writing, there are no licensed Minecraft items for birthday parties - no plates, napkins, treat bags, balloons, cake toppers - nothing.  So, I scoured pinterest and the web, found some ideas and came up with a few easy projects of my own, too.  

Bug decided to make the invitations herself.  She used paper blocks that I cut to create a creeper face.  I used clip art and created the detailed inside.




I purchased a six pack of small green fabric bags with handles at Hobby Lobby.  I used scrabble tiles and fabric paint to stamp the face of the creeper onto the bags.







We put the Creeper Peeps in the treat bags along with a square puzzle eraser and two Rainbow Loom Minecraft bracelets that Bug created - a creeper one she designed on her own and a Steve bracelet (see below) she made using this youtube tutorial.




...but we also played pin the tail on the pig, using a block pig I made using multiple colors of pink and a square punch.  


Lastly, Bug wanted some kind of Minecraft cake.  I took inspiration from this cake and came up with a similar design that used dairy-free chocolate cake, homemade rice krispie treat blocks, and blue finger jello.  Making a dairy-free frosting that was the right consistancy and flavor for my taste was a challenge (and one I didn't expect), but it turned out pretty tasty.  For the topper, I used a fold-able paper cut out from Cyberdrone at DeviantArt which I altered slightly before printing by putting her face (pixelated, of course) over Steve's.  








We had tacos for dinner and then served Twizzler bites and "window" pretzels to keep with the square Minecraft theme for late night snack. 

 Sweet.  As the holidays approach, it seems that sugar fairies are everywhere, leaving frosting smears and sprinkles in random, hard to clean locations.  Bug managed to cover every last part of the top of her cookie with frosting and sprinkles during the cookie decorating portion of our Christmas "Advent"ure.


On a different sugar-high note, Boo attends a monthly event for 4th and 5th graders at our church called YUC (Youth Under Construction).  This past week was their Christmas celebration and they got to create a gingerbread house to bring home.


It lasted about 30 minutes at home before pieces just fell right off into her mouth!  Amazing!  Now, less than a week later, all that remains are the crumbled ruins of a delicious treat.

Continuing on our sweet theme, our church staff Christmas luncheon is next week and I volunteered to make some centerpieces for the tables.  I coerced... volun-told... asked my friend Jenni to help me make up some candy bouquets.  Here are two of our creations.




So we had plenty of sweetness in my house this week.  (If only it would have rubbed off on my children...)  My sweet tooth is starting to ache already but if you are a glutton for punishment, stop by I Should Be Folding Laundry and check out other You Capture - Sweet moments.

There were two themes for this week's You Capture - Halloween and Silence.  Since silence is just not in the vocabulary of my household, you're going to get an overdose of Halloween.

We usually have a family theme but this year, everyone decided to go with their own ideas.  From youngest to oldest...

Here's Strawberry Shortcake.  Yes.  She has wings.  We were at the dollar store the day before and she found some pretty cool wings that were "perfect" for her costume.  Why not?!  So she became the Strawberry Shortcake fairy.




Ebabe's jack-o-lantern all lit up.  She drew the face by herself and helped me cut it out, although she wasn't overly fond of getting her hands too gooey at first.

Bug decided in the Spring that she wanted to be Jessie from Toy Story.  About a month ago, when I was getting ready for a Children's clothing resale, she picked up the costume her sister had worn a few years ago and decided she just had to be a dragonfly.







 Boo has just finished reading the Harry Potter series.  She and her friends play Harry Potter at recess.  It was only natural that she would want to be Hermione Granger, a character from Harry Potter for Halloween.



We were lucky enough to borrow the robe and scarf from some friends and pieced the rest of the outfit together from Goodwill purchases and broken tree limbs.


 Of course her jack-o-lantern had to be Harry Potter themed as well.  I mean, it isn't as if the 7th movie is coming out in a little under 14 days or anything...  Chip did most of the work but Boo did help a little bit.


This is my pumpkin.  I made it using Chip's drill.  It was very therapeutic drilling multiple holes into the pumpkin.  I would totally recommend trying it!  It turned out pretty fun too, in a disco-ball sort of way.


And finally, we get together every Halloween (just for a few minutes) with some close friends of ours.  This year, they headed over to trick-or-treat at our house and I managed to capture their costumes and personalities all together... not an easy feat!

I hope you had an enjoyable Halloween!  To check out other Halloween shots and maybe some silence, check out I Should Be Folding Laundry.

This weeks You Capture assignment was orange - my favorite color and perfect for my favorite time of year!

Last weekend we went hiking over at Starved Rock and Matthiessen State Parks (along with what seemed to be half of the Chicagoland area). 


Orange, yellow, red and brown leaves were in abundance!  It was marvelous.  The only thing that would have made the views better was if the waterfalls had actually had water flowing.  Maybe next year...

On Sunday, we headed over to Goebbert's Pumpkin Patch in Hampshire, IL.  I knew I should have changed the batteries in the camera before we left but I forgot.  Therefore, this is the only shot I got before the batteries ran out.


For more orange images, check out Beth's You Capture challenge.

No excuses.  I took the pictures but kept putting off blogging about them.  Since the pictures were already on the computer, just waiting for me to do something with them, I figured I'd play catch up and get them posted.  Better late than never, right?

YOU CAPTURE - FACES
Almost two weeks ago, the You Capture topic was Faces.



This is my sick puppy... well, not so much a puppy (he's 12 1/2) anymore.  At the time of this photo, he had a nasty cough and just wasn't himself.  I am happy to report that he is feeling better and continues to recover from his cough.

YOU CAPTURE  - ANIMALS
Yep, the picture of Mozie would have been appropriate for the Animals You Capture challenge but since he was still not feeling himself, I chose to let him rest. 

 This past weekend we had some family "togetherness" time.  On Saturday, we went to the Harvest Pow Wow at the Naper Settlement.


 
 These gentlemen were the epitome of togetherness as they played the drum and chanted in perfect unison.


My girls wanted to participate in the all tribe dancing, but wouldn't do it without doing it together.


This may be my favorite shot.  It's a perfect portrayal of how they pretend together.  This wagon proved a great prop for an imaginary scenario of the wagon about to tip over. Boo was pretending to scream while Bug attempted a look of horror.  Ebabe just looked bored.


The next day after church, we ventured over to the Jonamac Orchard in Malta to pick some apples.  Ebabe enjoyed picking and gathering up the apples with Bug's help.


It was Apple Festival weekend which meant live music.  These musicians sounded incredible together!  


Finally, our group of apple pickers enjoyed sitting in the gigantic rocking chair at the front of the orchard.

For more shots of togetherness, visit the You Capture Challenge.