Month: September 2015

Make Your Own “Minion” Party Hats!

~ Kaitlyn @ Doing Dishes Making Wishes ~ Leave a comment

When Emmy told me she wanted a “Despicable Me” birthday party, I immediately hopped on Pinterest to get ideas. Scrolling through my happy place, I stumbled across this pin from Tidbits and Twine. I obviously freaked out inside, and decided then and there that I would have minion hats at this party. This party would not even happen without these hats. I literally envisioned every future party moment with kids wearing these hats. It was happening. The crazy-craft-lady-train had left the station and wasn’t returning until it was chock-full of minion hats.

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It took a few hours of my life, some yellow construction party hats  and a few craft supplies – but it was sooooo worth it to make these! The kids (And even some of the grown-ups!) went crazy for these hats. Many of our party guests still have them two months later. My own girls still have their two hats in dress-up rotation, and I have to admit, I am shocked how well they actually held up!

I definitely think you should consider making a few of these if a minion party is in your future!  Here’s how:

How To Make Your Own “Minion” Party Hats

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Step 1:  Gather your supplies! You will need:

  • Plastic yellow construction party hats
  • Mason jar lids
  • Black pipe cleaners
  • Black electrical tape
  • White poster board
  • Black construction paper
  • Craft glue or Elmer’s glue
  • Hot glue gun/hot glue sticks
  • Scissors
  • 1 quarter
  • Pencil

Step 2: Prep your eyeballs. 🙂

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To make the pupils of the eyes, trace a quarter as many times as needed (You need 1 black circle per hat.) onto the black construction paper. Cut out the circles with some scissors. (You can fold the paper in half to get it done in half the time!)

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Trace your mason jar lid as many times as needed (You need 1 white circle per hat.) onto the white poster board. Cut out the circles with some scissors.

Step 3: Assemble the eyeballs!

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Get your white circles, black circles and mason jar lids together.

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Use the craft glue to glue the white poster board circles onto the mason jar lids.

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Then glue on the black construction paper circles.

Step 4: Put on the Minion goggles.

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Plug in the hot glue gun, then get your mason jar rings back from the over-excited children that stole them.

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Put a thin bead of hot glue around the inner lip of the ring and push the mason-jar-lid-turned-eyeball into it. Presto minion goggle eyes!

Step 5: Give your minions hair.

I decided to do Stuart’s hair and Kevin’s hair. We will start with Kevin.Kait phone 73115 067

For Kevin, use a sharp knife to cut 2 holes into the raised, center part on the top of the construction hat.

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Feed 4 pipe cleaners into one hole and back out the other, so that the hair is sticking out the top of the hat.

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The inside of the hat will look like the above picture, with the hair poking out the top of the hat.

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Trim the pipe cleaners to the desired length, and arrange into Kevin’s style!

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For Stuart, use a sharp knife to cut 2 holes on the top center of the hat, parallel to the raised, center part of the hat. Feed the pipe cleaners in one side and back out the other side.

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Cut to the desired length and bend into the Stuart style.

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Look how cute they are already! Eeee!

Step 6: Finish them up!

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Grab the eyeball goggles we made earlier, black electric tape, scissors and your hats with hair.

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Start by adhering your electric tape really well to one the side of the mason jar ring.

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Apply the tape around the side of the hat. This makes the band for the minion goggles, while also holding the eyeball in place.

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Run the tape around the whole hat. You don’t need to hold the eyeball in place while you tape around the whole hat.

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Cut the tape once it is wrapped around the whole hat, leaving enough extra to attach to the other side of the mason jar lid.

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Once you have attached the eyeball in place with the other side of tape, trim any excess tape off the ends and smooth it down.

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Put a thin line of hot glue on the top and bottom of the mason jar lid, right where it sits on the hat. This will help hold your eyeball in place, in addition to the tape.

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There you go! Minion hats. Boom. Done.

Now all you have to do is throw your party, and watch the kids go nuts!Kait phone 73115 239 Party time!

🙂 Kaitlyn

 

Jonamac Orchard

~ Kaitlyn @ Doing Dishes Making Wishes ~ Leave a comment

This is my family’s new favorite apple orchard!

Look at those cute little apple pickers! :-)
Look at those cute little apple pickers!

 

*** #basicwhitegirl alert!!!! ***

IT’S FREAKING FALL, YA’LL!!!!

Do you even know what that means!? No?!

Well…..Good thing you have me here to tell you….

It means apple and pumpkin EVERYTHING. (It also means football season. Which consequently means buffalo sauce and chili everything. In fall I tend to gain a few pounds to help me hibernate through the winter. Don’t tell anyone, but leggings have an elastic waist band and coordinate perfectly with flowy tops that hide said pounds. Shhh. Our secret.)

But back to my APPLE EVERYTHING state of mind…

I have a love for apple season that goes deep. Every fall, my mom and Grammy would make homemade applesauce with freshly-picked apples. In case you live under a rock, or perhaps were not as fortunate as I was growing up, that equals the BEST damn applesauce you have ever tasted. I will post the recipe for you. I promise. I just can’t post it yet, because that would be putting the cart before the horse. Before you make awesome applesauce you need some freshly-picked apples!

Where do you get those?

Ummmm…..Apple picking farms. Silly.

Going off the success of my “Good Cheap Fun” post I wrote at the beginning of the summer, I decided throwing some good cheap FALL fun your way was a good idea too. My first post of fall 2015 is below! 🙂

 

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JONAMAC ORCHARD

19412 Shabbona Road, Malta, IL

We went there this afternoon, and I have to tell you how much we loved it RIGHT NOW. This just can’t wait. We had so much fun. I’m serious.

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20150914_155656It is adorable. Everything is so darn cute and clean. There literally was not a piece of hay out of place here. Right off the bat they have cute photo-ops set up just waiting for you to snap your daily Instagram photo! (Feel free to #jonamacorchard #applepicking #ilovefall to your little social media heart’s content!)

It really is good cheap fun here, because admission on weekdays is FREE. No joke. FREE. You just walk right on in, no questions asked. This includes all kinds of activities like:

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rubber ducky racing,

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tractor bike racing,

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pretend tractor driving,

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playhouse exploring,

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rope climbing and mini-maze maneuvering,

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sliding,

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old-school gaming,

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corn silo swimming,

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and hay bale mountain climbing! Recap – all of that is FREE on weekdays.

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On weekday afternoons, you can add this awesome jumpy pillow and animal barn to all the free activities I already listed for $4.00 per child and $2.00 per adult. Children 2 and under are free with paid adult. I promise you will want to participate in the jumpy pillow because you are cool parents like us. Soooo $2.00 of fun is coming your way! Read more about the weekday after school special here.

If you visit on the weekend, you will have to pay admission. Don’t worry though – there is good news! The corn maze and tractor rides are only open on weekends and admission prices are actually pretty affordable. Jonamac even offers a family pass – $32.00 for a family of 4. Not bad considering what you pay at some other orchards and fall farms! Click here for more information about activities and admission prices.

There is also a pumpkin patch that was not open when we were there – It opens this weekend 9/26! Click here to find out more.

So now that you have had a crap-ton of fall fun on the farm, you need to get to work doing what you came to do: Go pick some apples!

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Before you venture into the orchard, stop by The Country Store or The Apple Hut to purchase your picking bags. There are no admission fees to the orchard, but you can only use the purchased bags to hold your apples. Don’t waste your time bringing your own sacks. Click here to find out more pricing and picking information.

I recommend checking the apple chart before heading out for the day to see what varieties are available for picking. You can also use the chart to decide which apple variety would be best for you, especially if you are unfamiliar with apple varieties. (Some are better for baking, some are better for snacking.) Check their Facebook page for updates as well.

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Once you are in the orchard, get picking! There are crates that the kids can stand on so that they can reach the tree branches. My girls loved it! You can have a freshly-picked apple for a snack while you pick. Clearly, my Emmy took full advantage of this offer. Yum.

A few other tidbits you might want to know….

This place is stroller friendly! (There are so many fall farms and festivals that aren’t, so when you find one that is, you hold that precious gem close to your heart until your kids can log their own Fitbit miles.) The farm grounds have well-maintained gravel paths connecting the attractions.

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The paths even run into the orchard! You can definitely feel confident bringing your stroller or wagon here. If you have a young family like me, it is worth noting that the bathroom situation is waaaaay better than other seasonal fall farms. You have a couple of options. They have  plenty of port-a-potties, complete with a hand washing station and hand sanitizer. There are also real, working bathrooms inside The Country Store. There are only a couple stalls, but if you just can’t handle port-a-potties with your kiddos then head over there!

20150914_160047While you are in The Country Store, check this cute board for upcoming events and browse the adorable fall decor, apple butter, apple donuts, apple pies, apple cider and APPLE WINE for sale. (I had you at wine, right?) Buy some. I have tasted it. DELICIOUS. Then go ahead and impulse buy lots of fall crap! I promise you won’t regret it. (You really did need a bunch of distressed signs and mason jars filled with cinnamon. Your house rocks now. I know. I just get you.)

20150914_15100320150914_155615 Stop by The Apple Cart, Kettle Corn Barn or The Country Store if you get hungry on the weekends, but head to The Country Store if it is a weekday. There is also a nice pavilion full of picnic tables, and plenty of grassy areas to spread out a blanket if you brought your own food. Even if you packed a picnic, you should still grab their apple donuts for dessert. Feel free to thank me for telling you to do that – because they are freaking amazing.

Give the drive a chance! Jonamac Orchard might look farther away on a map, but it was way more convenient for us to visit then some of the comparable orchards over the Indiana border. It is 10 minutes from DeKalb (GO HUSKIES!), and basically in the opposite direction of all the crappy traffic and road construction surrounding the city, burbs and Indiana border. It took an hour for us to get there, but I promise you that we didn’t see a break light the entire drive! So worth it!

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Jonamac’s husky! NIUUUUU!

Now go visit Jonamac Orchard and tell me how much you loved it in the comments. We already have plans to go back, so see you all there!

Happy apple picking!

🙂 Kaitlyn

A Cheerleader’s Soapbox

~ Kaitlyn @ Doing Dishes Making Wishes ~ 1 Comment

“Ugh! I will never allow my daughter to be a cheerleader!”

Those words were said directly to my face, during a normal, innocent conversation with a fellow mom friend. We had somehow started talking about our past high school activities, and it just so happened that I was a cheerleader in high school. Never mind that I graduated with honors and also did time on the track team, madrigals, choir, and school musicals – It was the cheerleader in me that she was determined to be pissed about. She spat out that sentence, with her eyes narrowed in disgust, and then immediately followed it up with a half-assed apology:

“I mean, no offense. But you can’t tell me that you would want one of your daughters to be a cheerleader!? Over my dead body will my daughter be a cheerleader.”

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Some good old high school cheer days! #sorrynotsorry #2003wasnotmyyear

Well then. Offense taken, lady. I wouldn’t mind if one of my daughters was a cheerleader. In fact, I also wouldn’t mind if she was in theater, football, band, science club, tennis, student council, softball, chess club, soccer, mathletes or any one of the hundreds of clubs and athletic programs offered by their school. Extracurricular activities are a huge part of the whole “growing up” experience. Each extracurricular activity I participated in helped prepare me in a different way for the big, bad world – including my participation on the dreaded cheerleading squad. I actually learned some really great life lessons there!

We all wonder where on Earth kids learn how to be so mean to each other, and the answer is:

THE GROWN-UPS!

It breaks my heart to hear parents talk about children, and their participation in activities, in such a negative way. Examples of REAL QUOTES that have come out of the mouths of people I know:

“Ugh. Their poor kid. (eyeroll) They signed him up for band!”

“They keep letting her try out for the traveling team, but she never makes the cut. Why would they encourage her to keep getting let down every year?”

“Over my dead body will my daughter be a cheerleader.”

 

Do you know who overhears this nonsense?

Our children. And frankly, this makes me mad.

We need to encourage them to participate and excel at the things THEY love, not the things we love. If one of my daughters shows interest in music, then of course I will sign her up for band and choir. Why wouldn’t I want to foster a genuine interest and talent in my child? Why would I hold her back from the possibility of something great because of some old-school, played-out social hierarchy that says participation in music isn’t “cool”? The choir and band could be life-changing for her. She would be surrounded by people with a shared interest in music. She would learn life lessons, responsibility and teamwork, all in addition to nurturing her talent.

It is our job to encourage our children to participate, even if that means they might fail. They might not be good enough, and that’s just fine. If one of my daughters loves to play soccer, but isn’t the best one on the team, you better believe I will be cheering for her just as much as her talented teammates. If she wants to try out for the traveling team, then HELL YES she will try out with my support. It doesn’t matter if she makes it or not, because she went out there, did her best and TRIED. She might not make it. I might have to wipe her tears off her cheeks. But that’s life. She can’t win everything. She won’t learn how to be successful in life without taking risks, believing in herself and putting in hard work. Watching her try will make me nothing but proud, and she damn well WILL have the support of her Mom through it all – no matter what!

Saying your children will be allowed to participate in a chosen activity “over your dead body” might seem innocent enough now, but do you even know what you are doing? You are imposing your own negative opinions on your child. You are saying that their interest in said activity is not up to your standards. You are hindering them by not even giving them the chance to try something new. Just because you had a bad experience growing up doesn’t mean your child will have a bad experience. The last thing I want to do is let my own negativity and preconceived notions rub off on my kids. So far, they don’t have a clue about the stereotypes that go along with participating in certain activities, and I am praying it will remain that way for a long time. I sincerely hope they have the chance to experience as many sports and extracurricular activities as they want to – and consequently form their own opinions of what they think is fun. I want my girls to participate because their heart is in it, not because somebody else’s heart is.

So now that those words are said, I will get down off my soapbox and leave you with some life lessons I learned on that terrible, unthinkable cheerleading squad:

  1. Respect
  2. Time management
  3. Multitasking skills
  4. Personal responsibility
  5. Leadership
  6. How to preform under pressure
  7. How to be a member of a team
  8. How to work with small groups
  9. That it only takes one person’s mistake to lower an entire team’s score
  10. That no matter how bad that person’s mistake hurt our score, I still needed to support them because they were my teammate
  11. That you can’t please everybody
  12. How to work well with people I love, as well as people I don’t love
  13. That practice makes perfect, even if practice is early Saturday morning
  14. That if one person didn’t hold their own weight, the entire stunt came down
  15. How to feign enthusiasm
  16. How to be eternally optimistic

That’s right. I left high school cheerleading and entered college with all of that knowledge.

Being a cheerleader sounds like a horrible life experience, doesn’t it?

That's me, just showing my kids how to straddle jump on a jumpy pillow. You can take the girl out of cheerleading, but you can't take the cheerleader out of the girl! #stillgotit #kinda #ish
That’s me, showing my kids how to straddle jump. You can take the girl out of cheerleading, but you can’t take the cheerleader out of the girl! #stillgotit #kinda #almostthirtysocutmesomeslack