::how to train your dragon birthday party::

First - let me thank my Emma for taking all the pictures and my Josh for not grinding up Xanax and drugging me.  I get so nervous before a party and it kind of blows his mind.  

The treat table came together perfectly.  

Emma had the great idea of cutting out an animal hide from the extra brown fur left from the hiccup costume.

Josh threw in the two deer hides he had made last season to help set the stage.  

Josh also has access to a large format printer and printed out the two dragons on the backdrop.  

My usual cake lady made the amazing cake again.  She is so talented and her pricing is really reasonable.  

The treat table has dragon poop (more on this latter), dragon teeth (Hershey kisses), dragon claws (bugles), and dragon eggs (grapes).  We also had gold fish crackers and Swedish fish to feed the dragons.    

Dragon poop was a big hit.

You melt a whole bag of green candy melt then toss in marshmallows.

I used two forks to get out about eight marshmallows at a time and put them in little piles.

Then I covered them with green sprinkles.

(This idea is 100% off my pintrest board, it is not my idea at all.  I totally copied it from here.)

Our local donut shop has decorated donut holes that I try to get the kids for every holiday.   Those puppies were gone in minutes!

Sheep pops looked really cute. 

These were so easy to make!

Brown M&M's cut in half for ears.  

The cake decorating aisle has the sheep eyes.

Then I just melted some chocolate for the sheep heads.  

Dragon eggs.  

Emma's idea!

She is so clever.

Josh's deer hides.

Some inexpensive dragons stood guard.  

Oh the cake...

Usually when I dream up a cake I want to combine pieces of several other cakes.

On this one I gave my cake lady one picture and told her it was exactly what I wanted.  

Link here for cake design credit.

Link here to be sent to my cake ladies page.  

When the little ones arrived the picked a Viking hat and decorated their own viking shields (12 cake rounds with duct table arm hooks)

This book is book one in the Dragon series.  

Each party guest got one as a take home present.

We will donate our extras to the free the library in our town. 

Please remember I can't sew.  

Judge me lightly.  

I made the boys costumes with hot glue.  

Oh this Max...

I tear up, he melts me.  

The kids made catapults from spoons and corks and had a blast shooting them.  

And Mr Max loved it all.  

Link here for pintrest board with ideas.  

::augustus - an update::

 This dog is the best dog ever!

Seriously.  

I am in love.

He just gets it. 

Don't eat kids.

Protect chickens.

Stay home. 

Don't act like a nut.

He loves the cold.  

The colder it gets the happier he is.  

 Alberta has done a great job precepting him to farm life.  

Proof that he is gentle with the right animals.  

And he tolerates kid annoyances.  

Like dog spa day.   

I love that face. 

::fall gardening::

 This pretty little garden is my sanctuary.  

It was extra crazy this year, as we had a really good season here in zone five.  

I had planted really early in spring and had a bunch of blank dirt come August. 

 I let these lovely helpers work over the blank spots a bit, but they are such strawberry hogs and we do not share those well. 

  Once my powdery mildew had really killed off all my cucumbers (left side) I let the ladies work soil and then planted some winter wheat (behind the chickens).  I didn't want to lock up the girls but they are not really interested in letting wheat grow.   I covered the wheat with chicken wire and the girls let it grow.  This is a good cover crop to improve soil, but I wanted something to actually eat.  

I found every piece of chicken wire on the entire farm and tons of mowed grass clippings and created rows that had good protection from weeds and chickens.  

The tall cilantro on the end is cilantro that was finishing up from summer rotations. 

The little starts are kale and swiss chard.

 

What looks like baby grass is the spinach babies coming up.  

 We had just enough time before the really heavy frosts that it wall went crazy. 

It's the closest beds. 

 The rig job worked and the crazy chickens left it alone.  

We were harvesting kale, swiss chard, spinach, and the last of the cilantro well into November. 

 

::around the funny farm::

Emma made a lovely new sign for our post some time ago and I finally remembered to ask Josh to hang it.  Notice the little bit of blue on the edges?  So pretty.  

This is one of my favorite little personal touches about our farm.  

Max keeps sitting in containers to watch the iPad.  Such a nut.  

 We brought Gus Gus in for a bath.  It was cold outside so we had to blow dry him.  

Then Max and Quinn covered him with blankets, made him a pillow, gave his goldfish, and found him a Youtube station called "Relaxing Music for Dogs".  

 

 Lily is obsessed right now with making melted crayons.  

She talked Max into helping her.  She is making some pretty cool looking stuff. 

Josh got a free frame for this Go Cart and found a cheap engine to put in it.  

The kids drove it the first day till it ran through two tanks of gas.

All of them love it.  It scares me to death, but they love it.  I see some serious helmets in their future. 

::barn quilt::

           

Oh do I love this new project!

A barn quilt.

 

 It all started out with some serious computer play time and some pintrest research.

 This was my original plan, but I knew it was going to be modified once it was actually painted.

I had a 4ft by 4ft piece of cabinet grade plywood that my father gave me from his stock pile of wood.

I primed four coats on all surfaces and drew my grid in pencil.  

The sample sizes of paint from Lowes worked perfectly for this project. 

I used a whole roll of painters tape to mark out my shapes one color at a time.  

This was my first point when I thought I was done, but the white didn't look right to me.  

 More orange saved the day.  

An oddly warm January day gave us time to seal it and hang it.  

Trim and sealing done by Josh.  

 

I climbed up there too!  Scared me to death.  But Josh did all the real work.  

I just couldn't love it more.  

It has been awhile since I really had the time or drive to make an awesome project and I am so happy with this one. 

The goats like it too.  

When they are not in a head lock.  

I feel so thankful for this Joshy that spends his days off doing crazy things like hanging up a barn quilt.