Minecraft Birthday Party for the 8 year old boy

It was bound to happen...my disappearance that is from my very own blog! 4 years of my life undocumented... lol There are worst happenings in life BUT I have randomly returned.  The baby guy that I last posted about is now 4 years old.  Things worked out as they should, the husband returned and we moved not one but two more times when he did!  Fun times. 
            Moving right along is Minecraft.  It's what my oldest boy is raving about these days.  So his birthday came along as it does every year :) and I asked what he would like to do in celebration and he decided on a themed Minecraft party.  If you haven't heard of Minecraft, feel blessed!  It's okay, it's either on the cpu or on video games..ours is on the XBOX and it's building and rearranging a land where everything is square.  Square animals, square people, square music even plays while they play it...lol  The best thing is there is no real violence, or nay harsh language.  I had some big ideas for the party but resorted to my last minute makings due to lack of time :) So Enjoy!

                                                  Step 1 : Inviting Guests!

Well since I am always running behind our invites tend to be homemade from randoms around the house.
This year it was 2 pieces of cardstock holepunched and glue gunned together on the binding.  Inside was just a fun print out of minecraft deco and the info for the party!

                                            Step 2 : Think up Activities!
I'm blessed to have a creative oldest daughter who thought of all the games for me.  She came up with a  bean bag toss called "the Feed the Wolf ".  She said in this game they play you often have to feed the wolf meat to calm him and then he gets some red collar and stays friendly.  If you don't his eyes turn red and he's mean... Sounded simple enough.  She also decided on a nerf gun game, shoot the creeper, which I changed to "Stop the creeper". 
I thought of the last 3 games which were " Knock down monsters" , a toy bow and arrow game to knock over zombies and skeletons from the game.  Lastly was TNT slingshot, using a slingshot with water balls ro hit the homemade box labeled TNT. (In the game hey have TNT )   Lastly was my miniature golf of the square animals called "Herd the animals" ( In the minecraft game the animals are often roaming free and my kids always build them cages soo)  Get started creating !

1. Feed the Wolf creation:I used the biggest piece of cardboard I could find in my garage.  Lucky for me my hubby is always ordering car parts and randoms so theres always an abundance of scraps around .  Top R is my start, I sketched a minecraft wolf.  Then R bottom 

 

I needed it to stand on its own without blocking the middle for bean bags to go through so I attached it to a clothes rack I had. I made the bean bags, by just hand stitching some fabric together, turned inside out and filled with beans and sealed.

2.Stop the Creeper creation: Found the largest cardboard boxes I could find.  I weighed down the longer one with one 5 lb handweight and sealed it shut.  I put the smaller square box on the top and painted it

 green .  I painted a creeper face on it. Later I would tape a target to the outside of it.

 

 3. Miniature golf, Herd the Animals: Yes you guessed it! More cardboard!

Glue gun together to make some kind of entry way and place for the ball to go.  Paint , paint  it! Add some scenery. I added some plain pieces to look like some blocks, and some boxes painted to look like the animals. I cut out some space for the ball to flow through.

 4. Knock down monsters: I used empty toilet paper rolls, and scraps of cardboard to paint little decos from the game on.  I weighed them down with various change taped to the backsides. I taped to string so they'd never completely fall to the ground after being hit for easier set up between guests' turns.  And displayed to be hit .

5. Slingshot TNT:  This was a last minute game setup.  I bought a slingshot that came with 4 balls from dollar store.  I set up our mini pool to catch them, and painted a box to look like TNT.  All they had to do is land it in the pool.

Added Activities:  face painting by my daughter, and she even made her own sign real quick of some designs they could choose from the game.

 

Also added was "guess the creeps inside the creeper"

I had 3 containers filled with green m&ms and they had to guess to win the filled container. I just taped a creeper face on them.

 

 

I also made a game form to move things along easier for myself

 

and all that was left was party bags. Of course I couldn't find any so I bought some dollar ones that were Easter themed and tore off the deco to have just plain green bags.  Then again put the creeper face on them with a sharpie.

Of course cake was left, and I kept it real simple, one chocolate cake with green vanilla frosting and fruit roll up creeper face.  Another was vanilla cake with color mist green creeper face, made a quick stencil and sprayed the face on.

and some random decor, changed up a cupcake stand to be creeper themed and changed up cups with a sharpie again

my daughter assembled some "Steves" from the papercraft plan we found online from Paper Pezzy

 

Happy crafting for your Parties!!!

everyone was pooped after ours..even the dog

 

 

 

Going from 5 to 6

Nathan newborn!

and Nathan now, at 3 weeks old, after bath time




A lot has happened since our move from Las Vegas, finding a home in Ca, and welcoming my hubby aka daddy home for a "teaser" visit. We added Nathan to our bunch and our family is now super complete! Two boys and two girls makes us in for the long haul! Nathan was a healthy 7lb 10 oz newborn and is already packing on the chubs! Friday the 5th of November a very sad Mommy , Noah, Nyah and unaware Nathan dropped Adam off to the airport.

Nyah celebrating a Happy 2nd Birthday Dec. 1st!


and
Nyah today as a very burnt out 2 year old!



Also things accomplished during Adam's stay besides having a baby and him organizing our garage with a new set of shelves was his purchase of a very family oriented classic




This is our first week alone since he left to finish up his last 3 months and although the kids seem fine, Mommy is having baby blues ;0( Seems like a Bah-humbug this year!

On brighter news! Nevaeh was in her first parade ever as a Daisy Girl Scout for the Christmas mach downtown Marysville. Here is a very proud Nevaeh sportin that blue Daisy apron!