Mulan Themed Birthday

 The sun was my enemy today while taking pictures. 

 I used Chinese takeout boxes for the party favors. "Can you stay forever!"

 I printed pictures of Mulan and attached them to the takeout boxes.

 Contents of favor boxes :

Folding Fan

Stickers

Candy

Fortune Cookies

Chinese Finger Traps

 I wish I had the time and money and it would have been 

very cute to use teacups from a thrift store and a teapot/s! 

Someone else please use that idea.

 These are PB&J sushi rolls!

 We also served Chinese fried rice and egg rolls.

 In her Mulan costume hitting the Pinata. 

 She doesn't smile in pictures. 

 Photo booth with handmade props!

 Hanging pom poms and Chinese flags.

 Handmade props for the photo booth!

You can get your own props here! Click this link!

Leaving the LDS church

I'm going to try to keep this as simple and civil as possible. I was born and raised into the LDS religion, baptized at 8, and around 19 years old I became "inactive". This means that I still believed in the church and would defend it but also struggled with my testimony and participating in church or church related activities. I went through periods where I would go to church and then periods where I just stayed home because with children too young to go to the nursery, I spent the entire 3 hours in the hall and gained nothing from going. Also I hated to lose a rare Sunday with my husband. A couple years ago I finally decided I needed to renew my testimony and reconvert myself. Either commit or don't, basically. I never read any "anti - Mormon propaganda". My goal was to commit and give my life to the church. I really fact checked and made sure to follow links and information straight from LDS.org or released directly from the church. As I dove into the church's history, I found many things that didn't add up and that I could not defend or justify. Evil acts that took place in the early church that leaders and members of Jesus's true church could NEVER participate in. I looked at it from every angle and gave it a lot of thought. I had a moment of peace when I finally realized that it was not true. I was a little sad, but overall my life is happier and much more logical since I started studying the church in depth a couple years ago. My lifestyle hasn't changed much over the past 6 or 7 years. I'm the same person, just able to be myself without guilt and to live life the way I believe is right. I plan to remove my name from the church records soon. Anyway, that is a vague overview. If you would like more details I'd be happy to try and talk about it.

Frozen Themed Birthday Party

For her 5th Birthday party, my daughter wanted a Frozen theme. Here are the decorations and activities, and where you can find the recipes, tutorials, and decorations.

Melted Snowman drink labels : Some people are worth melting for. Found on Etsy.com.

Kristoff's Ice Blocks are just blue (Can also use white/clear) Jello Jigglers. 

Olaf's Noses can be carrots or cheetos.

I mean it's crazy...What? We finish each other's.... Sandwiches! That's what I was gonna say! Serve small sandwiches or rolled tortilla wraps.

I came up with this activity. Frozen tree decorating. Waffle cones covered with frosting and kids can decorate with blue sprinkles and candies and then eat them.

For the drink we used this recipe but eliminated the ice cream.

Elsa's Ice Painting

When it dries, it looks like ice crystals. Here is the tutorial. We used twice as much epsom salt as the recipe calls for, and let it cool for a while and it works better.

Happy Birthday, Bella Rose!

Frozen Makeovers. We had Frozen temporary tattoos (Walmart), Silver, blue, and purple nail polish, and handmade felt snowflake hair clips.

Frozen Sensory Snow table. I found the recipes here, here, and here.

 Cotton balls threaded on fishing line to look like falling snow.

It's difficult to see the cotton ball snow in pictures. It's easier to see on this blog, where I got the idea. 

For the photo booth, we had these fun props, found in this shop on  Etsy.com.

Click here for the tissue paper pom pom tutorial.

Click here for paper snowflakes. (or they can be easily made yourself, like I did)

Don't forget to take a coronation favor when you leave! These are just favor cups filled with Frozen themed candy and tied with tulle and ribbon. 

"Anna" and "Elsa" taking a nursie break after partying all day!

Only the best for our princesses!

Safe Mattress Cleaner

BEFORE

 Our mattress has two covers on it. One zips off. I assumed the zip-up one would protect the mattress pretty well. I discovered how wrong I was when I unzipped it and removed it for washing today. All the leaky diapers and leaky boob milk and greasy husband body nastiness.... GROSS. 

5 minutes after spraying

I decided to try a Pinterest recipe that was pretty successful on my daughter's mattress. I mixed the ingredients and sprayed it all over. WOW! I think I will start doing this once a month to avoid this happening again. 

AFTER

Roasty Toasty Care Package

It was very cold in Afghanistan in the winter so we decided to send some warmth from home!

Got these toe warmers on Costco.com without a membership for a really good price!

I painted some cheese on the box lol!

Bella did some artwork of our family camping.

A cozy blanket I ordered on walmart.com

Finished box.

Protein bars, sunflower seeds, trail mixes, ibuprofen for headaches etc.

A book, card, picture of our girls, travel size foosball, and a "naughty" book with coal.

Hand warmers from Costco.