Relay For Life 2014

Our Relay was at the end of June this year and while I'm relieved the festivities are over (due to the amount of preparation and work involved) I'm also sad because I thoroughly enjoy it.

We had some new team members this year so I spent the whole of one evening painting more team shirts using the freezer paper stencil method.  I think I ended up finishing about 15 shirts including a onesie for our youngest relayer.

We stepped it up this year with games at our campsite.  One of them was the fishbowl game.  A classic carnival game we all love to play but our parents dread because it comes with the possibility of owning a goldfish.  We didn't want to buy a bunch of goldfish, nor do we as parents want to put that on other parents so the solution was Swedish Fish and Goldfish crackers for our younger relayers as prizes.

 

I created a cute little tag for each of the prize baggies that said "Thank you for supporting Betty's Hope" so people would know where they won their prize and who we were.  I created them in Picmonkey and they were super easy and I think, a great little added touch.

Here are the games we had at our campsite, the fishbowl game and the Cancer Sucks game which was like a lollipop tree but in a flower pot instead.  We had a small bucket of trinkets if you picked a lollipop with a black tip you won a prize.  If you picked one without you still got to keep your lollipop.

We also had homemade cookies and a fleece blanket raffle.  For a few of the team members I busted out the good ol' Cricut and made team cups.  I purchased the clear tumblers from the Dollar Tree and used my breast cancer awareness cartridge to create the image and the calligraphy cartridge for the words.

We bought the trifold boards at the Dollar Tree and I used my cricut to cut out the letters.  We were really psyched with how good they looked.  Not to mention super easy to read as you walked by our campsite.

We like to take care of our overnight and early morning walkers so I whipped up some breakfast burritos filled with egg, sausage, green pepper and cheese.  I wrapped them in plastic wrap then in foil and around 3 am they go into the crockpot on warm and are hot and ready for everyone within an hour or so.

This is the second year I've made these and everyone really loves them.  They are easy to walk and eat at the same time which is perfect for any relayer.

We are already coming up with ideas for next year's relay and I'm excited at the possibility of new team members, and more money raised.  This year we have almost hit our goal of $1500.  Last year we raised just over $1000 and the year before (our first year) we raised $500.  We are steadily increasing and that's exciting for us.

If you want information on a Relay for Life event near you go to relayforlife.org for more information.

Peekaboo Bonnet for Eva

I saw the Peekaboo Bonnet pattern over at Made By Rae while I was pregnant with Eva and fell in love with it.  I told my husband if we had a girl I was buying that pattern and I would make her a dozen of those cute little bonnets.


Well, we had a girl and I promptly bought the pattern.  I let it sit on my kitchen table for a good week and a half completely intimidated.  I had never worked with piping and my ruffling and binding skills leave a lot to be desired.


I kept reading reviews for the pattern and of course everyone said how easy and quick the pattern was but I still didn't believe them so I let the pattern sit....stupid me.


Finally a couple days before my family reunion, which was to be held outside at the end of June can we say HOT.  I knew Eva needed that bonnet to protect her little head and keep the sun out of her eyes so I kicked my butt in gear and decided to just start sewing and see what I came up with.

Is this not the cutest little bonnet EVER!

I love it and I want to make 23 more.  My husband says it looks Amish and he's not a fan, I told him I don't care I'm making one in every color of the rainbow and a few extras after that.

And let me tell you this pattern was super easy.  After my pieces were cut out, because I did that on a separate day, it took me all of a naptime to finish it.  And if you have ever read my blog before you know naptimes in this house are never very long.  The only thing is I don't consider mine reversible because I machine stitched the center strip instead of hand stitching like Rae recommended, so the seam on the inside was very visible.  It doesn't look so bad that I couldn't reverse it if I wanted I just prefer to not see the seam. 

I've gotten so many compliments on it and Eva is the cutest little girl ever in it.  Sometimes I put it on her just so I can marvel at how adorable it is, and she is in it.

Hulk and Iron Man Freezer Paper Stencil Shirt

Hulk Smash!


That's what my 3 year old runs around our house saying...over, and over and over.  He loves the Avengers.  He loves superheroes.  He always notices the shirts in all the stores with these characters on them but lets face it, I'm not made of money, he has plenty of other shirts, and they are always upwards of $15 each.


And what does a DIY Mama do when she doesn't want to spend a small fortune on character shirts but really wants to give her little one what they want?


She makes it herself of course.


So I took a little trip to Hobby Lobby picked out a green shirt, they are less than $3 each after their "Always 30% off" discount.


I got online and googled, "Hulk freezer paper stencil", and somehow found an image of half a face that was supposed to be the Hulk.  I then went to Dafont.com and found a font that was more comic book-ish because I knew I didn't just want the face on there, there needed to be some kind of wording so anyone and everyone would know who it was supposed to be.


Of course the wording immediately came to me, it had to be, Hulk Smash!

Someone told me it's more of a Lego version of the Hulk and it probably is, but Grant knew exactly who it was as soon as he saw it and he loved it.  What did he say after he talked about how much he wanted to wear it, "right now!"?

Mommy where's my Iron Man shirt?

Another trip to Hobby Lobby later for a red shirt and a trip to Joann's for a small bottle of gold metallic fabric paint (because Hobby Lobby didn't have any) and he now has an Iron Man shirt as well.

To find the above image I simply googled, "Iron Man freezer paper stencil".  I now have 2 other shirts in the works for a Spiderman and one with the Avengers emblem on it.

There are dozens of freezer paper stencil tutorials out there which is why I didn't make one for this project.  I don't think I do anything different from anyone else.  Here is one I looked at before I did my first project last year.  If you've never done freezer paper stencils, go to the store and buy some freezer paper right this second!

You will quickly become addicted and coming up with your own shirt designs for you or your little ones.

Smore's Trail Mix

Since I'm keeping a 10 year old this summer I wanted to come up with some different snacks than I normally do.  I'm not one to have a lot of cookies and cakes for snack time.  I prefer cheese crackers, fruit, pretzels and graham crackers with Nutella.  I figured a 10 year old who's used to the more junk filled snacking would get bored with my versions pretty quickly so I started thinking up ideas for a happy medium.


Enter in trail mix, not just any trail mix....s'mores  trail mix.  Does trail mix get any better than that, and who doesn't love s'mores?


If you answered, "me" to that question you are either lying to yourself, or haven't tried one made to perfection.


Either way you will love this and so will your kids.


It's as simple as pouring some Golden Grahams cereal, mini marshmallows, and chocolate chips in a bowl, giving it a stir, and separating it into those cute little snack baggies.

Now toss one to each of your kids, try not to whack them in the eye when you toss them, and don't forget one for yourself because, yes, you will want some too.