Been busy painting...

I can't just let things "be" in my house. I feel like I am always working on something or redoing something. The last project I worked on was a big one, so I took some time off and we had a busy wedding filled/traveling TONS summer. Once we got settled back in, I got an itch! Pinterest is my guilty pleasure and I had seen a couple of different painted "statement" walls that caught my eye SO I decided to give it a try in our guest room.

While I was pregnant with Tyler I painted our guest bedroom and I LOVED the color! I would have loved to have painted our guest room that same color but our new guest room is MUCH smaller than our last one and I was worried that the gray would make the room look even smaller. So an accent wall was the answer!!


FIRST... I painted the wall gray (Behr Ultra Elephant Skin)

SECOND...my Pinterest inspiration

Source: rosenberryrooms.com via Erica on Pinterest

Source: littlenannygoat.blogspot.com via Erica on Pinterest

Source: jonesdesigncompany.com via Erica on Pinterest

I used the the above link to get a template to draw on the walls. I ended up increasing the size of the one they used on this link. I wanted mine to be a bit bigger and I figured if I did bigger I would have less work to do (not as much tracing or painting).

THIRD... I made a template with a piece of cardboard then I traded it on the wall, 150 TIMES!  Hopefully you can see the pencil marks next to the ones I had already painted. Once I had all the symbols traced on the wall I used a 1/2 inch flat brush to paint around pencil marks. I used the same color to paint around the pencil marks that is on the other three walls.

All done!! I just love how it turned out!! I think it makes the room really pop without making it look too dark!!

A din-o-mite party

Phew! I am tired!! We had Carson's BIG fourth birthday party here this weekend. When all was said and done we had around 23 kids and their parents here. (Some were siblings) We invited pretty much everyone we know here in Orlando. Our neighbors, some friends from swim, and then his classmates from last year and this year.

This was the first year we didn't have family in town for a child's birthday party. Not only did I (we) miss our family for obvious reasons but I missed them helping out with all the extra prep work! Our party started at 10 am and I was still running around at 9:55!! I was not able to take pictures of all the finished stations or food or the house!! Ha! Oh well!!

I think the party was a big success. We had a great turn out and the kids seemed to have fun. Other than having a rain storm in the middle of our egg hunt, everything went as planned.

We had the food in the dining room and I split the table into different dinosaur categories. (Herbivores, Sweetosaurs, Carnivores, Fruitosaurs, Snackosaurs.) Inside I had a couple of stations (decorate a dinosaur and pin the plate on the stegosaurus). Outside we rented some tables so we could have some more setting and other places to do some activities. We did the "dinosaur egg" hunt, dig for T-rex bones (int he sandbox), hit the pinata, and excavate a dinosaur out of a cupcake.

The Food: 

Fruit skewers, Strawberry Spanish Salad, Pirates Booty

 

Orzo Greek Salad, Veggies and Hummus (and the fruit again) 

 

BBQ Pulled Chicken  and you can't see them that well 

but the famous Chick Fil A Chicken Nuggets 

  

The Sweets! 

Shortbread dinosaur cookies and cupcakes. 

 

 Shortbread cookies with royal icing: 

Stegosaurus Cookies (in the middle) and small Brachiosaurus

Carson REALLY wanted a T-Rex and a Triceratops cake. I cut out food dyes from Carson's diet nearly a year ago so I knew that I couldn't make a cake that the birthday boy wouldn't be able to fully enjoy. So I did the next best thing. I made two larger dinosaurs out of rice krispie treats and then covered them with fondant. 

The T-rex was about 5 inches tall and the triceratops was about 3.5.

The drink spread. We had tall and small water bottles (with custom labels) and juice "bags." I decided to go simple and give two choices. I did not want to mess with cups, ice, and different sodas left over that Jason and I don't drink (anything regular, we're a diet family).

 

The "play" stations: 

This one was inside. It was "decorate a dinosaur." I made little plaster (3 inch) dinosaurs using a large candy mold. The kids were able to use markers to decorate/color their dinosaur any way they wanted. The dinosaur options were: T-rex, triceratops, stegosaurus, and Brachiosaurus

 

The collection bags. Each guest had his/her own bag to 

collect different goodie through out the party.

When each child arrived we gave him/her the option to wear a triceratops hat.

Digging for T-Rex bones. I made 10 plaster T-rex bones and then hid them in the sand. The children were able to use paint brushes and shovels to find the bones.

Brachiosaurus pinata...I filled it with little plastic dinosaurs, dinosaur silly bands, dino stickers, dino stamps, organic suckers, and fruit snacks. I think the kids were a little disappointed that there wasn't more candy!! 

Excavate a dinosaur. I baked little plastic dinosaurs in chocolate cupcakes. The kids were able to use popsicle sticks and little paint brushes. The kids were able to keep the dinosaur they excavate.

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Pin the "plate" on the stegosaurus. Each child was given a red stegosaurus plate, blind folded, and then guided to the stegosaurus. I picked the stegosaurus because it has many plates on it's back so every child would be a winner!!

We also did a "dinosaur egg" hunt. I filled plastic eggs with little dinosaurs, dinosaur tattoos, dinosaur stamps, dinosaur stickers, and dinosaur rings. Unfortunately a HUGE rain cloud rolled in right before the egg hunt and it started to POUR right after they started looking for eggs. Most of the kids stayed out looking (I had 140 eggs or so) while it was lightly raining but as it poured they all came running back inside leaving the eggs behind. Oh well!! It was something to laugh about!!

More pictures of the sweets...

Now pictures from the party! Warning... there are a lot!!