My "cool" SWAT guy and Man Eating Shark

I hope you all had a fun, safe, healthy Halloween! Back to our regularly scheduled posts tomorrow.

Man Eating Shark purchased HERE

Happy Birthday and Halloween!

Happy Halloween today! If you're celebrating what are you/your kiddos dressing up as? Mine are a SWAT guy and a man-eating shark - will definitely be updating with pictures once I get them! We did spend yesterday carving their pumpkins.

Let me tell you the (quick) story about all the dots in the pumpkins. The boys wanted to do stencils. They picked out Kermit and Perry the Platypus. We cleaned out the pumpkins

"Mom I like cleaning out pumpkins because it's gross, but cool!"

and then taped on the stencil and they started punching. When that got old after 4-5 punches I offered to help. A few minutes later I looked around and realized I was alone with 2 pumpkins. So I reverted back to the drawings they had made earlier of Jack - O - Lantern faces and quickly carved them into the pumpkins. I was not going to sit outside for an hour carving a perfect stencil if no one was going to do it with me! I guess these things can't always go as planned.

(Our obligatory pumpkin head shot)

The day before my oldest turned NINE years old! I still can't believe it. We did a very, very simple family BBQ to celebrate. I did let him choose a party printable for a few simple decorations and he chose the Monster Mash printable set from Spaceships and Laserbeams. Unfortunately since it was Friday and I worked all day before I didn't get a ton of pictures but here's what I did capture from our celebration.

(they were trick candles)

and my favorite part (the family really enjoyed it as well)

The collage of pictures in the shape of his birthday year! I did this in the 5 minutes before everyone arrived which is why it's not perfectly lined up, but it is definitely a fun collage and something I want to do again!

Happy birthday to my handsome, smart, funny, amazing little man!

Clothes Hanger Spider Web And Spider

The other night my 7 year old wanted something to do while we were preparing dinner. He loves playing with fuzzy sticks (pipe cleaners) so I thought I'd give him a little direction and ask if he wanted to make a spider web and a spider. He was all for it!

I just grabbed a few things and let him have at it. A wire hanger, a spool of string, and the Ultimate Fuzzy Kit from Craftprojectideas (from the package they sent us to play with).

I helped bend the hanger to a circular shape and he asked for a little help getting the string to stay put (it need to be held taut as you string it around. 

But other than that it was all done by him. I find that my boys like craft projects that:

they do by themselves, that they came up with, that are quick, and/or that DO something (they prefer projects that have a purpose) 

Since this one was quick, and he did himself he really enjoyed doing it. 

The spider he wrapped 2 of the fuzzy sticks around each other until they formed a circular shape and then stuck in and bent some legs. Glue on some googly eyes and it was done and he was off.

I think he's pretty cute, but I get the feeling that he's watching me.

Maybe he's staring at me because he's missing 2 legs?

Halloween Craft Roundup

Even if Halloween isn't your thing, these crafts would be fun to do! (click on image or links below for link to the tutorials)

1. Pasta Skeletons from Martha Stewart

2. Ribbon Snakes from Martha Stewart

3. Little Monsters from Alisa Burke

4. Monster in a Bottle from Blissfully Domestic

5. Movable Mummies from Family Chic

6. Mummy Lights by Hi Sugarplum!

7. Q-Tip Skeleton by Busy Bee Kids Crafts

8. Spider Sacks by Modern Parents Messy Kids

9. Frankenstein Noisemaker by Parents

Fort kit - gift idea

I know you don't want to think about it but the holidays ARE coming and they'll be here before you know it. It's time to think about gifts especially if you want to save money or make your own gifts.

It's no secret that we love forts here at All for the Boys so this handmade gift idea is VERY fitting.

It's a fort kit from Saltwater Kids

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Advent Calendars and Science Fun

How's that title for random?
Since I shared a pumpkin Fall craft yesterday it's not a stretch to tell you about an advent calendar right?!

This is a "must have" for my boys this holiday season. These are SO fun.

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HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

I hope you all are having an awesome weekend celebrating our independence and freedom. Yesterday we spent the afternoon swimming with my mom and on the way home decided to head up to the lake to check out the fireworks since they were doing them a day early. We were just going to park on the side of the road but there wasn't too many places to go so we thought we'd check it out inside next to the lake (where the actual event was taking place). I am SO glad we did! It was busy on the lawn but we went out onto the little desert trail and found ourselves the perfect little rock on the edge to sit.

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