Pattye Duffner's Blog

Ella turns 8! One sweet party

With 4 brothers you are truly the princess not only on your birthday but everyday.  Happy 8^th birthday princess Ella. 

    
 

You plan your own parties, make all the decisions and run the show.  I love that about you.  You wanted an all sweets party this year.  Paper invites attached to large lollipops hand delivered to your friends was the beginning of a sweet day.

 

I made small pink cakes frosted in white for all the girls to decorate, aprons with candy fabric and a table full of your favorite sweets.  Happy Birthday, I love the person you are.   

 

The Great Park

If you are local or plan on coming to Orange County anytime with children we found a new treasure… The Great Park is a must see.  Tips: go early (if the wind picks up they close the balloon ride).  Bring snacks and maybe even a board game (we had 1 ½ hour wait).  And do not forget your camera!  Everything is free and let me tell you it is worth the wait!

 

 

Braeden took a while to warm up to being 400 feet up in the air.  But the other 4 kiddos loved it.  Davis held onto Jerry and would not let go for anything.  Ella's face had an endless smile.  Quinn wanted to go higher.  And Holden woke up from a nap high in the sky!   
 
  
 

Pocket Pillow

Making a pillow case with a pocket on the front is fun for the kids to add some goodies… flashlight, batteries, book, journal, pen, slippers what ever!  This has been a birthday party gift for a few little ones.  Could not be easer!

Mario Party Birthday Party: Happy Birthday Braeden!

 

Kicking off the event with a postcard invite mailed out to his favorite friends. 

 

For Braeden’s 6^th birthday bash he wanted a Mario Party Party!  We had traditional birthday party games with a twist.  Ie: 

Hot potato with Mario music and using “bull dog”  pin the wii remote on braeden (painted an outline of him sitting with his hand out) kids made paper wii remotes and pined them on.

Gunny sack races with bags in the symbols of the Mario Bros characters hats… M  L  etc.   Simple cone hats and a bit of paper crafting turned them into themed hats. 

Braeden worked weeks ahead of time making all the decorations that we hung on the windows.  Hand made drawings off all happenings in the Mario Party world. 

Mustaches, Kettle Korn and Shave Ice topped off the party that would not be completed with out a fabulous cake!

Gift ideas

Getting ready for Christmas around here includes party planning, Santa’s lists, and crafting, shopping, card making along side the every day jobs.  Having a new baby in the mix too!  This year I am going to find 1 thing to make and hopefully it will work for a number of gifts.  Teachers, nieces, friends, sisters etc.  While I am searching I wanted to share some of  years past handmade holiday ideas…   Hopefully I will get on schedule soon, running behind this year!

 

handmade crayons

letter blocks

 

chalk board mat

personalized score cards

 
 

Classroom parties...

 

Squash Bowling How-To
First, make the pins: Attach vinyl sticker numbers to 10 butternut squashes. With painters' tape, cover portions of each squash to create stripes. Fill in stripes using acrylic craft paint, and let dry. Carefully peel off stickers and tape. Designate a lane, and set up the pins, placing lower numbers in front and higher ones in back. Have each player stand about 15 feet away, grip a small pumpkin by the stem, and bowl. (Should the stem fall off after a few tries, players can grab onto the whole pumpkin.) Give everyone two turns, and award each player the number of points on the pins knocked down.

splash zone = fun zone

Summer fun in our very own back yard… we have finished the splash zone and upper patio along with a fire ring.  The kids are using it just about every week (some times more).  Last night was Davis’ first fire along with s’mores.  As we sat there Jerry and I talked about how truly blessed we are with all of these babies in our lives.  Truth is our back yard is way bigger then our house so as we are sitting holding baby talking about our blessings the older ones are screaming running around being kids… Not very peaceful, but the chaos is a blessing to us.

New life to broken crayons

Recycling your old or broken crayons into new and fun shapes can make everyone’s HOT summer day a bit more exciting!  Here is how to do it!

1.   Unwrap all broken crayons

2.   Place unwrapped crayons into a plastic zip lock bag

3.   Hammer the pieces into chunks (the kids loved this part)

4.   Place pieces into desired combinations into mini muffin tins (here you can get creative by using different shapes, imagine stars, animals, numbers, letters etc.).

5.   Bake at 150degrees for 10 min (I used a toaster oven.  A larger oven may take more time to melt crayon pieces).

6.   Take out the melted crayons from tin after all is cooled.  You can even throw the entire thing into the freezer and they will just pop right out!

 

Chalkboard Mats

I finished the “ boredom buster” chalkboard mats for the kiddos. Some people use these to keep their kids occupied when eating out or Dr. offices.  We do not eat out much with the kids but we can bring these when we do.  They are easily cleaned off with wipes.   I made 3 of them so I can give them to Quinn, Ella and Braeden when I am in the hospital and they come to visit.  This was another simple project but I had never worked with chalkboard fabric or oilcloth so it took a bit to get use to.  Hopefully with these tips you will be successful! 

I was eager to make a few so I bought 3 yards of each the front and the back.  After making 3 I have a ton left over so if you plan to make 1 or 2 don’t buy too much like I did…  I cut the oilcloth and the chalkboard fabric 12”x17”, I wanted minimal waste.  I put the correct sides together and sewed around the edges leaving an unsown part to pull thru.  Then stitching again around the entire project to close the edge and finish the edge.  You cannot iron this fabric… well I did not even want to try! So I pushed the edges from the inside with one hand to make sure I would get a straight edge…  I did not want to use pins either, thinking that would make holes.  I used some binding to hold on the chalk.  I next punched a hole in the binding and added an eyelet for the ribbon which was the tie to close it.  I think ribbon could do that job as well!

The only thing I may try next time is to use some deckle scissors and sew the edge wrong sides together (one time around only would be quicker as well).  Pulling the project inside out was a bit challenging.  This fabric is not very forgiving. I would love to see yours if you try it… E-mail it to me J   

Monster Mash

I am so excited to plan the Halloween Party for my sons classroom.  From now and then I will post the ideas that I plan on using.  If you have any additional ideas please share them.  Today we found a fun site with Halloween games and activities that Quinn just loved!  I thought I would take the coloring sheets as a back up activities incase the original station activities run a bit short, or in case someone would rather color then to what I am going to plan.  You never know with little ones right?  I am planning the party to have four different stations where five kids at each will rotate.  Hoping that I can get four Moms to help, one at each station.

The craft station will be these Gauzy ghosts...

It takes practically nothing to make this family of mischievous sprites.

CRAFT MATERIALS:
	Different-size plastic milk jugs or juice bottles
	Laundry starch
	Aluminum foil
	Paper towels
	White gauze or cheesecloth
Time needed: Under 1 Hour

1. Top each jug or bottle with a ball of crumpled aluminum foil.

2. Cut white gauze or cheesecloth into 18-inch squares (one square for each ghost). Dip the gauze squares into a bowl filled with laundry starch. Pull them out one at a time and squeeze out the excess moisture. Drape a square over each bottle.

3. To shape the ghosts' shoulders and arms, loosely pile crumpled aluminum foil near the bottle and drape the gauze over it. Flare out the lower edges of the gauze and let dry overnight. (To make a dog, simply drape a small square of gauze over shaped foil.)

4. Once they've dried, carefully lift the ghosts from their bottles. They should stand freely on a flat surface.