Kids Beg For This

Ok so I really  have to give another shout out to my great friend Mindy for introducing my family to a fabulous fun family game!
I had never heard of the game Mexican Train Dominoes much less ever played the game.  After we played with a regular set of Dominoes (which is totaly doable) I did go buy us the actual game set that looks like this

We first played this game on Christmas Eve this past year with our GREAT friends Mindy, Glen, and Melaina!  We had made a southern friend chicken dinner together and sat down to play some family games.

This game is easy enough for small kids but so much fun for teens and adults! It took a couple of rounds to really learn the game and from experience it really seems there are different rules depending on where you learned to play - but nonetheless SO MUCH FUN!

 Stradegy Talk - they were cracking me up!

Oh Cody! You are always so animated!

We love the game so much when my parents visited at Christmas we took the game with us up to Scottsdale to play while at the resort!

Both kids were explaining (or trying) to my parents.

So if you have never played Mexican Train Dominoes you have got to try it out! If you don't have dominoes just grab any good family game and sit down with your kids!

My kids love playing games, having family movie night - bottom line even with tweens and teens won't admit it they do want and love family time!

Pulling off a Birthday Party for a Tween Boy

I guess it comes more naturally for me to plan Haley's birthday parties because I was once her age and I like the things girls like and it just more natural.

However, it just doesn't seem right for Cody to have a party any less than spectacular than his sister's. For the last two years I have really racked my brain and asked him for his ideas on what he wanted! When he turned 11 we through a 70's, 80's, 90's birthday party. I know we have 3 decades in there but it made for an awesome party!

Yes that is me all dressed up 80's style rocking it out with all of Cody's friends( and yes with super dark hair)! We had everyone dress up in their best 80's dress! Even the adults had the best time getting into theme of the party!

Cody and Haley's outfits were easy to make with some paint and paint brushes in the back yard. They laid the shirts on the ground and just splattered the pain all over them and then let them dry.

I ordered bead necklaces  in all sorts of different colors to give out to all the kids!  I also ordered shutter shades just like these  which were a huge hit with adults and kids alike!We bought some disco balls  turned the lights down low and danced all night long!

For Cody's 12th birthday he wanted a party that was all about playing video games especially XBOX 360! At first I thought this will be easy! Uh no I was totally wrong! It was much harder to put this party together than the last. But I was on a mission!

Cody doesn't like cakes like most kids, he will eat them but no icing and he would much rather have candy, brownies, or cookies.

So I have to say I am proud that I actually did make all of his food and cookies! I would say that by nature I am not a very crafty person but having 2 kids that I love more than anything and want to make so happy and make happy memories sure does test my creative limits!

Because it was going to be difficult going with just one game system we decided to make it a video gaming party! I made these cookies of controllers and characters from different video games.

I used sugar cookie dough and then made homemade buttercreme frosting to frost the cookies. I used jellybean like candies and cut them in half to make the decorations on the cookies.

Since Cody loves chocolate chip cookies we went with a giant cookie cake we made at home (FYI do not spread the cookie dough to the edge of the pans because it will expand trust me I ended up vaccuming burnt cookie out of my oven lol). I then took the buttercreme icing and put green food coloring to made the green symbol of the on/off switch of his XBOX.

At the drink center I made sprite with jello mixed in (Cody says this is awesome so I did it) and we also had individual drinks and I printed out labelsfor the drinks as well to just bring the theme together even more!  The kids are huge fans of Jones Soda so I bought some green ones to match his theme .

I wish the picture showed it better but we moved the couches and brought 2 T.V.s down stair with the big screen and had 3 different game systems going so all the kids could participate with the gaming fun!

The party seemed to be a big hit and I hope it created memories for years to come!