This past weekend we did not celebrate one child’s birthday, no we celebrated the twins’ birthdays. It most certainly did not catch me by surprise.

Our Saturday morning did not start with an invitation to a movie night with our girl cousins, and if it had, I certainly would NOT have asked my husband to “sell” the idea to the twins in lieu of a friend birthday party, simply for my own convenience. I certainly would not have forgotten to bake the requested carrot cake on Saturday morning for Sunday’s post-church family dinner and party. That’s just not my style.

I absolutely did not throw myself out of bed early Sunday morning to bake the cakes before my workout. I would NEVER dream of yelling at my husband in bursts of breath in the most excruciating part of the workout “Cupcakes. Out. OVEN.” We never yell at one another at our house.

Even if our morning had started that way, we would not have had ZERO presents wrapped to present to the twins at the family party. That would be wrong. We certainly would not attempt to make it up to them by taking them on a shopping trip to Toys R Us and buying them the toys they wanted, sale or no.

That’s just not how this organized mom of four does it. < rolls eyes >

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Father’s Day handkerchiefs

Originally uploaded by wistfulwrists

Are you running out on time for a crafty Father’s Day gift? These are some handmade handkerchiefs I created last year for my father. Since these were made when I was just beginning to embroider, I had limited resources. These were both made from basic clip art you probably already have sitting on your computer.

You can use plain pre-made handkerchiefs, new or vintage. No, I’m not being disgusting, I’ve seen many brand new packages of plain handkerchiefs on thrift store shelves. With very basic sewing skills, you can make your own from 100% cotton fabric. Feeling especially green & thrifty? Upcycle one of dad’s old cotton dress shirts.

Embroidery floss is cheap, about 3 skeins for $1, less if you catch a sale. This whole project could be done for $5 or less. Depending on your sewing and embroidery skills, the project should take 1-3 hours per handkerchief.

Print the images you want onto plain paper. The fortune cookie was a single file. For the bowling one, I used 2 different clip art pieces together, only tracing the parts I wanted with my transfer pencil. You can use tracing pencil or tracing papers, whatever you have on hand.

I made an entire set of handkerchiefs using images that were significant to my memories of my father. My parents participated in a bowling league when I was a child, so I have great memories of evenings spent at the bowling alley with them. My father has perfected his own recipe for “Springfield style” cashew chicken. I can’t tell you how many weekends he spent cooking it for the whole family.

There were a few other images in the set, but you get the idea. Take your favorite memories, find an image that evokes that memory or inside joke, and stitch away!

Day 1 Cast & Crew - I'm one of the gray shirts on the side.

Things have been a bit slow here on the blog because I’ve been recovering from an amazing JUMP 2010. If you are new to the blog, check out last year’s post. While JUMP only lasted 4 days for the kids, it consumed about 16 days of my life. This year I dove even deeper into JUMPmania by leading the props acquisition team. I’ve learned a bit about ancient farming tools, man cave decor, and how to find an oversized baby pacifier. Truly things everyone should learn. It was amazing as expected. The lessons learned, new friends made and amazing songs continue to knock around in my head while I try to catch up on all the lost sleep.

JUMP 2010 - Kids, Volunteers & Cast

We served 3,243 kids in 4 days.

To get an idea of what happened beyond the photo, here are the JUMP 2010 Fun Facts:

• 987 volunteers
• 158 watermelons
• 485 gallons of Gatorade
• 5,700 bags of cotton candy
• 260 pounds and 8,350 bags of popcorn
• 6,928 pounds of ice
• 167 gallons of syrup
• 18,200 sno-cones

This was the first year of JUMP for my husband, Mr. T. He was a snow cone man. The few times I saw him, he was always manning an ice machine, shaving ice for those thousands of sno-cones. He has the guns now to prove it too.

I can’t imagine how JUMP will change for next year as we adapt to allow more kids to join in the fun. If you are in the St. Louis area and want to get updates on next year’s event, check out the website or follow @jumpkids on Twitter.

For the final part of this series, I’ll show you some of the crafts and activities the kids enjoyed at our Mario themed birthday party.

As guests arrived, we invited them to sit and make a craft. I found this helped to direct their excitement and give them something to do as people trickled in.

I was inspired in early February by this Groundhog’s Day activity. I considered the classic green pipes in the Mario games, and together with my 7 year old, adapted it to suit our party. We used green paper cups from the party store (easy to find near St. Patrick’s day); colored popsicle/craft sticks and craft foam from the dollar store; and adhesive backed white craft foam and a white paint pen from the craft store.

Each guest made their own piranha plant and attached it to the green popsicle stick. We used a craft knife to cut a small hole in the bottom of the paper cup and inserted the piranha plant inside. The boys really loved this activity. Each guest had their own take on exactly how the teeth should go.

For games we played egg and spoon races, inspired by Yoshi’s eggs. We also had PVC marshmallow shooters for some wild fun. I considered painting the PVC green, but decided since they would be close to the children’s mouths, it was best to just skip that step rather than worry about what type of paint to use. The boys didn’t mind at all. We chose a simple T shaped design rather than the more intricate designs you find on the internet. They worked pretty well, there were a few stuck mini marshmallows, but nothing the boys couldn’t resolve. We’d hoped to play this outside, but the weather was not in our favor that weekend. We played inside in the unfinished basement, and I sat out bowls of mini marshmallows in two spots on opposite sides of the room for the boys to reload. It worked fairly well. The downside of playing inside was that my husband had to vacuum up all those marshmallows when we were finished. I love that man!

Our son also chose a piñata, a tradition for our family. Instead of finding or making a piñata to fit our theme, he chose the more traditional donkey shape. I was really hoping he’d go with the theme, because I found this great idea for a Chomp piñata, adapted from a store bought ball shaped piñata. Oh well, it’s was his party, and they all enjoyed the piñata. Let’s face it, kids don’t really care what it looks like as long as candy falls out of it.

If you are looking to plan a Mario birthday party yourself, don’t forget to check out these two great blog posts which really inspired me: Super Mario 1st Birthday Party Theme and Super Mario Birthday Party.

First up, the hats. What began as the bartering chip for an “at home” party became the centerpiece of the whole theme. Last October, I created Mario and Luigi hats for Halloween costumes. I told the birthday boy I would make a hat for each of his friends IF he agreed to a party in our home. He countered that the girls invited should have Princess Peach style crowns. I agreed, on the condition that we only invite a few children, 1 for each year of his age, and his brothers were automatically invited as well. The terms were accepted by all parties and I began crocheting hats in February.

I used the same pattern I used last fall, Mary Jane Hall’s Purple Newsboy Cap. This time I chose the Caron One Pound yarn in the scarlet color. I caught it on sale for about $5 a skein (pound) and I was able to make 4-5 hats out of each skein. Quite the deal! Also helpful is the fact the Caron One Pounds are dye lot free. That way if you run out, it’s easier to pick up a new skein without having to worry about the colors being ‘off’.

For the badge, I used acrylic felt. I grabbed a drinking glass from my kitchen cupboard that matched the size I wanted. Tracing around the edge of the glass helped to keep my circles uniform. I folded the red felt in half using the same technique you would to cut out a heart, and I free handed the letter M. On my original hats, I hand stitched the badges to the hat, but since we were making so many, I opted for hot glue as a quick solution. They turned out just fine. One tip: if you use hot glue, make sure to place some newspaper inside the hat so the hot glue doesn’t accidentally drip onto the back portion of the hat. It’s possible that it might render the hat unwearable if you miss this step.

For the Princess Peach crowns, I found a lovely tutorial from Juicy Bits and just adapted it to mimic Peach’s design.

The birthday boy chose a “Fire Mario” design for his hat, it was made with Red Heart Super Saver in white and the badge is the inverse of the others, a white letter on a field of red.

The hats were a huge hit and all the guests were thrilled to have a special hat to take home with them!

Join me later this week for details on the food and party activities.

I’m carefully & prayerfully considering how our family will approach the holidays this year. First, we’re trying homemade items. I should have started long ago, but I’m working on it.

Photo by Steve Rhodes

I’m also considering alternative methods, especially those that might be green. When it’s acceptable by the person (and for my kids), I’ll try to gift used, but still in great condition items like books & DVDs. Seriously, why does everything have to be new? There’s no need for us to cut down more forests so that everyone can have their own personal copy of Harry Potter or Twilight to sit on a shelf forever, never to be read again. Swaptree is your friend.

Lastly, I’m thinking about people. This means I’m really considering how & where my money is spent. Sure, I can save a couple of bucks if I go to the big box, but where does that money really go? Does it go to corporate greed or worse yet, China or other countries where children may or may not be stitching everything together in poor conditions? Or can I spend a few more minutes and a few more dollars and purchase from an artist or a crafty stay-at-home mom who understands the value of hard work, who is passionate about what they do, and most importantly supports charities or other artists with their well-earned dollars? Take a moment and think about it. Will your child even recall in 5 years what piece of plastic they are begging for this week? Will it be a treasured item that they’ll remember their whole life? Let’s get back to what’s important.

Now I’ll step off my soap box and put my money where my mouth is. As a continuance of the Handmade Holidays theme, I’m going to share with you some of my favorite people I stalk online and share with you their sales. If you have an Etsy shop or other online presence and are planning a sale, drop me a line at wistfulwrists@gmail.com. Tell me a bit about yourself, what you are passionate about; link me up to your shop, blog, Twitter & don’t forget to share the details of your sale (especially start & end dates). I’ll share them at the appropriate time.

Remember, each of us has the ability to make a difference. Small changes can have big impact. You can make someone else’s holiday brighter and create memories for your own family at the same time.

Pink Princess

Originally uploaded by wistfulwrists

We have our own little (nearly) firecracker. In lieu of goody bags at her pink party, we opted for a craft of foam can hugs (cozies). Just make sure you don’t make my mistake if you plan activity, make sure the foam letters and shapes you choose are stickers, with the adhesive backing. At 3 years old, glue, even in stick form, could be quite a big mess. I had to run to the store before the party to exchange them for the correct ones. Had a good laugh with the cashier about it though. I wonder what one would use the foam letters without adhesive for? Why do they even sell them anymore?