Homemade Word Girl and Captain Huggy Face Costume

Halloween is fast approaching and I always seems to forget to share these costumes I made a few years ago. My oldest son was obsessed with Spider-man (still is!) and my oldest daughter wanted to be Word Girl with her younger brother dressed up as Captain Huggy Face.  I decided that we would just go with it and have a Super Hero themed Halloween. Getting a Spider-man costume was easy but Word Girl and Captain Huggy Face ended up being a challenge.

Here are the results.  (Note: I am not a professional photographer and my kids only pose for cute pictures when I DON'T want them too!!)

 

I didn't capture pictures along the way for a tutorial but I will try to run through how I created the costumes...

I used these two images as the inspiration for my costumes. 

Word Girl & Captain Huggy Face Image

Captain Huggy Face - Homemade Costume from Flickr 

Word Girl Costume Instructions: 

I dyed a set of white thermal long john's using red dye.  I got that idea from one of the few blog posts I did find from someone who had made a custom. My daughter wanted a yellow cape out of satin and wanted it sewn directly onto the shirt.  It is a double layer of fabric, I sewed a large rectangle, leaving a small area undone so I could turn, turned it, sewed the unfinished section then gathered it, pinned it along the shoulder line and used a double zig zag stitch to secure. The belt and star emblem are made out of felt that I Steam a Seam to adhere (carefully with a towel on top) and then sewed for durability.  The hat was purchased at Wal-mart and we simply removed a tassel that it had at the top. (shown in picture at the bottom) 

Captain Huggy Face Costume Instructions: 

I lucked out with Captain Huggy Face and found the blue shirt, thermal leggings and red shorts at a thrift store in town.  The colors were perfect.  The shirt actually has an Old Navy logo on it but I covered it with the lightening bolt (also out of felt, fused with Steam a Seam and then sewn). The leggings are thermals, I'm not sure of the brand.  The shorts are from a Superman PJ set and even have a little Superman logo at the waist but that is covered by the belt so they worked.  The Captain Huggy Face Cape is made from a simple single layer rectangle of fleece fabric.  I gathered it and sewed along the shoulder line in the same manner as the Word Girl costume. The belt is also made in the same manner as Word Girl, I cut pieces from felt, fused and sewed.  The belts are secured with Velcro at the center. 

Huggy's hat was the hardest part of the costume to figure out.  I used an adult size knitted bennie type hat from Wal-Mart.  It was very cheap maybe $2-3.  I cut out brown ears from felt using the same method as the belts (fuse together, sew) but I hand sewed them onto the hat.  A friend helped me with the idea for his little antenna.  It is a bundle or 3-5 (I can't remember exactly) pipe cleaners twisted together.  I poked a hole through the hat and pulled the ends of the pipe cleaners out like spokes on a wheel.  I then cut a circle of red felt and hand sewed that over the ends of the pipe cleaners inside the hat and put another circle (that I had made a small cut so that it would easily wrap around the pipe cleaner antenna) on the exterior of the hat.  I wrapped the pipe cleaner "pole" in a

scrap of grey felt and secured with hot glue.  I glued on a large gold pop pop for the top.  It was hard to figure out but in the end was my favorite part of the costume because it is quite close to the actual hat!

Captain Huggy Face collecting candy on Halloween!

These two siblings share a special bond and now two years later still refer to each other as Word Girl and Huggy!  My little guy has worn this costume (the top and pants only) at least 2-3 days a week for 2 years! {notice the holes in the sleeve??} 

Recently big sissy went off to college; they worn their costumes on the last day before for she left and had a Word Girl marathon. 

Cinnamon Caramel Popcorn Chex Mix - Kid Friendly Recipe

Chex mix is always a crowd pleaser and works great as a quick gift as well! It is also easy to involve the kids by having them measure the cereal, popcorn and mix it up (with supervision of course!). This blend is easy to mix up and always gets rave reviews. 

Cinnamon Caramel Popcorn Chex Mix

1 stick of butter

1 cup of packed brown sugar

1/2 cup of dark corn syrup

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 teaspoon cinnamon

6-8 cups of popped buttered popcorn

4-6 cups of rice Chex

1 cup of cinnamon Life (optional - you use all Chex) 

Combine the popcorn and cereal in a large bowl or pan.  Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, add sugar and corn syrup until well combined.  Make sure to stir frequently so it does not burn. Remove from heat and stir in the cinnamon and vanilla.  Drizzle the syrup mixture over the popcorn mixture and stir gently to incorporate.  If you want to add sprinkles (a kid favorite)... make sure to do it while the syrup is still slightly warm so they stick but not too hot or they will disolve.  Store in an plastic bag or air tight container. 

Tip:  This mix is not overly sweet and the coating is meant to add a light glaze, rather than completely coat every piece of popcorn and cereal. If you want it fully glazed, you can double the syrup mixture.  

This is great to put in a mason jar or bag up for a quick treat for a friend or teacher!

Summer Game Plan... or my attempt to not go crazy with small children in the Vegas Heat!

June has arrived, we are counting down the final days of school and I've been busy pinning all the amazing Summer Bucket lists popping up on Pinterest.   This year my three youngest kids are 5, 4 and 2 and I've decided it's time to create a plan of attack for our summer.

I don't like to schedule everything but I find that if I just "hope" we will do things and have fun, we end up spending hours doing nothing. {Correction, I spend time trying to figure something out while the kids go crazy or fight - not all the time of course but that is generally how it feels}.  Another problem with not having a plan is that we live in Vegas. If we want to go out and do some activities we need to start early before its 1,000 degrees outside.  Let's just say I'm not a morning person so hoping I get moving early without something scheduled just doesn't work so well. I decided it I needed to take all these great ideas I'm pinning and come up with the Garcia Game Plan for Summer.

First, I love the bucket list concept but I knew that wouldn't quite work for us.  My oldest son who just finished Kindergarten, loves check lists, but he also due to ADHD loves to hyperfocus.  He will see one thing on that list and I will hear about it non-stop until we do it, and quite frankly my sanity can't handle hearing about something twenty times a day that I know we can't do until August!

I knew both my ADHD self and my son needed something that enough structure to keep us on track and therefore having fun but also flexibility since life happens!  When I saw this idea, I fell in love! The idea comes from a Power of Moms post, a site that always has great support for Moms. I love the idea of having a "theme" for each day that I can plan for and my kids can look forward to but it also gives me flexibility to change it up easily.

Make Something Mondays - craft, bake, paint, build
Take a Trip Tuesdays - try a new park, museum, hike or activity
Wet and Wild Wednesdays - anything water related, pool, splash pads etc.
Thinking Thursdays - library, learning. experiments, practicing
Fabulous Fun Fridays - open day to pick anything fun to do together

After deciding on our schedule I made a big list of things to do including activities I know my kids like and choices from the summer buckets lists I'd pinned as inspiration. Almost all of our activities will be free or very low cost even our "trips".  Once that was done I started dividing the list into our "schedule".  This is my planning list, to keep us on track, not for the kids to see.

I also created another sheet that has a list of bonus activities - extra ideas to fill our days if needed, weekend activities - both scheduled and optional, and finally a list of "bored" activities I can suggest to the kids when they inevitably tell me they there is absolutely nothing to do! The bonus activities involve my participation while the "bored" list can be done individually with siblings.

I'm still deciding how to visually display our plan for the kids (it's not like school is over in two more days or anything - nothing like the last minute!). I thought about a take on an advent type calendar like we do for Christmas but I'm leaning towards just doing just one week at a time and using a card for each day that they can turn over and see what the activity for the day will be each morning. Once I actually create it I will try and remember to post it! My goal is to plan our week using my planning pages each Sunday when I do our family meal plan.  We will see how it goes.

I'm also still coming up with how to introduce this to the kids.  I'm thinking some type of celebration on the first day of our summer.  Any ideas?  Again, I've got lots of time to decide - you know a whole two days! 

Did you create a summer plan? bucket list? What's on your list? 

Happy Summer!  

Rebecca

One more Valentine Idea - Teacher Appreciation Treat Printable

As part of our Random Acts of Kindness activities I wanted to give a Valentine's treat to all of the teachers and aides that work with my kids, not just their classroom teachers.  I had a hard time deciding something, that was simple and inexpensive.

I finally decided to do just a little bag of candy - Dove Hearts and Hershey Gold Nuggets and created a little topper that said, "For a teachers with a special heart, you are a treasure".  Cheesy I know, but hopefully it made them smile and even if it didn't the chocolate was good!  I'm sharing the image I created below. I used it as a treat bag topper and printed my kids names on the back fold over portion. This is just the graphic that could be used as a card or treat topper or any other number of ways.

To all the amazing teachers out there - Thank you for all you do!  I am sincere when I say I don't think I could do it.

Valentine, you deserve a High 5! Sticky hand non-candy Valentine

Last minute as always, but we are finishing up our Valentine's tonight.  Between my boys I have to do over 50 Valentine's for their classes, so I like to find something inexpensive as little costs can add up quick.  I also like something unique and non-candy if possible.  Finding something that fits all of those can be difficult.

I'm pretty happy with how these turned out.  I grabbed a big bag of 72 Sticky Hands on Oriental Trading when they were having a free shipping special so paid less than $8.00 total.  My son has a February birthday so I am going to put the extras in his party bags.  

I love the photo Valentine's we did last year but wanted to do something really simple this year so just created a quick black and white card.  It took me less than ten minutes to do the little card and you know what - my kids still loved them.

The boys wrote their names on the back, I left the sticky hands in their individual wrapping and stapled them onto the card.  I wish you could see the hand a little better but this way they don't loose their stickiness (is that a word?). 

*The sticky hands I linked to are a little different then the ones I bought last month, but I couldn't find the exact ones I purchased. 

Celebrating Random Acts of Kindness Week with Kids

This year our women's group at church has been encouraging us to plan for and celebrate Random Acts of Kindness Week.  I love Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) because it helps me remember to be better. I'd love to say that I naturally think of others all the time but honestly I let life get in the way too much.  I've found that planning to do Random Acts of Kindness, especially around holidays, is a great way to help not only myself, but also my kids focus on being better.  Even the best of us can be kinder, more caring and considerate in our daily lives. The best part about kindness, it's contagious!  As we are kind to others it helps others pass that along in their lives.

Random Acts of Kindness Weeks is celebrated the week Valentine's Day. In 2013 that means it starts tomorrow, February 11th.  Today at church we were given cute little cards and heart stickers to track doing a RAK each day this week.

In the past we have incorporated RAK activities into our Christmas Activity Advent.  This past Christmas, we put on our best elf garb and put candy canes on people's cars and taped microwave popcorn to the redbox machines.  It was my teenage stepdaughter's idea to dress up and the little kid had so much fun with it (or course the photo below at the redbox my son doesn't look so happy!).

There are so many great ideas about how to do RAK activities out there.  A quick search on pinterest led to tons of great ideas.  The official website also has great ideas and even printables.  If you are an educator they have school based ideas you can implement.  I know my boys elementary school participates in the Be Kind program.


A few of the things we will be doing to celebrate Random Acts of Kindness Week -

Makes cards & a treat for the kids teachers - We are going to include the "specials" teachers like the Art, Music & PE teachers & aides in addition to the classroom teachers.  My sister is a Elementary Art Teacher so I try to remember to thank the specials teachers.  I know my kids love these other classes and the efforts of those teachers make a difference for my kids.  In addition to a card from the kids, I will also write a note.  Teachers often say that their favorite gifts are handwritten thank you notes.

Individual Kindness - I will be working with each of the kids to pick something they can do for another member of the family.  It will be their choice so I will have to report back on what they choose!

Microwave Popcorn on redbox - This is a repeat from Christmas but it is fast, easy and we are a redbox loving family so my kids think this is extra fun.

Trash Clean Up - Unfortunately we live in a neighborhood with lots of trash around.  We are going to go out and pick up trash and help make our neighborhood a little cleaner.

Bubbles on the Playground - A great pinterest find, we will be buying some bubbles at the dollar store, attaching a quick tag and leaving at the playground for kids to enjoy. Don't all kids love bubbles? Plus it's easy to do while also spending some time at the park.

Bring flowers to a friend - Surprise a friend or two with flowers.

Recognize Good Work - One other idea I love, although not necessarily child related, is to find a way to recognize people through their employers. This could be your child's teacher, a co-worker or even a favorite employee at the grocery store or gas station. As a former HR Manager, I know how much employees and volunteers love it when they are recognized for their efforts.  My kids school district has a Recognize a Valued Employee Award program and anyone including parents can submit an online recognition for a staff members efforts.  I did this for my son's wonderful preK teachers last year and they were so touched by it. Many companies have ways to submit recognition online, you can also post a compliment on Facebook or twitter.  I know one I am doing this week is submitting a compliment for an amazing manager at Target who helped me one day when my toddler was throwing the mother of all fits in his store.  I've needed to do it for weeks and will be submitting this week!


A few of my favorite ideas I found from other blogs include - 

Make them Wonder has a great free printable and lots creative RAK ideas. I found the bubble idea on pinterest and started exploring her site.  I love how she incorporates Random Acts of Kindness year round with her kids!

The Good Long Road shared ten ideas that are both free and kids friendly!

Loved this idea to make homemade coloring books and leave with crayons in hospital waiting rooms.

Toddler Approved's 100 Acts of Kindness series is a great resources with dozens of participating blogs that can help inspire you with ideas.  I wish I had discovered this earlier to participate for the whole four week project.  I hope to do it next year!

You have to check out the same sites 25 Acts of Kindness as a Mom.  This list is fabulous and I hope to incorporate more of these things daily.


Finally, some tips for celebrating Random Acts of Kindness with kids -

Plan - As someone with ADHD, sometimes planning is my nemesis and it does sound a little odd to plan a Random Act of Kindness but I find with busy family schedules that is the only way it will get done.

Be Flexible - Although planning is important you also have to be flexible. All mom's know there is a last minute appointment, a sick kids, an extra errand that needs to be done that can throw off your day.  When I make schedules of things like this I try to allow myself the ability to easily switch things out if I need to based on how the day is progressing.  I also avoid things that are time sensitive for the reasons I already listed!

Involve the Kids - Depending on the age of your kids you can include them in making cards or crafts, choosing what to do or who to do it for (you would be amazed at the ideas that even my 3 year old has come up with).  Kids will get more out of participating if they are involved in multiple parts of the process. My kids are also more excited about doing giving away something they help create, even if its as simple as helping cut out a printable you found on the internet.

Make it Personal - Although I think its good to include opportunities to RAK strangers for kids, especially small ones, including service to people you know can often make it more meaningful.  You could do a RAK week that was entirely limited to your family!

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Do you do RAK activities with your kids?  Have ideas or a post? I would love to hear or see. 

Teacher Appreciation Apple Inspirational Words Printable

Next week is Teacher Appreciation Week.  I love all the fabulous creative bloggers that share free printables and ideas that I can use as inspiration!  As part of the PTA I have been gathering ideas for awhile on pinterest but hadn't really found the right fit for the individual gifts for my kids teachers.  I finally had to come up with what I was going to give my son's teachers.  I found this great idea at Happy-Go-Lucky and decided to create my own.

I started with the basic image from tagxedo with a combination of the words I saw at Happy Go Lucky and new ones I choose.  Changed themes, fonts and other options to get the look I wanted.

I then visited picmonkey to personalize it for each teacher.

I'm printing them off and putting them in a simple frame = a quick, easy and custom teacher appreciation gift just in time for 2012 Teacher Appreciate Week.

Don't forget to acknowledge the other support staff that help at your child's school and classroom. From the office staff, specials teachers and aide they all play a part in the success of our kids!  Once I come up with their gifts I will try to remember to share as well!  What are you doing for Teacher Appreciation Week?

Fill your mind printable

This is a slightly edited version of a quote I have always loved. I saw the original quote again on pinterest tonight and realized I needed a more visual, regular reminder of it!  I'm getting ready to make a photo ledge in my dining area and plan to include in the display.

Sized 8 1/2 x 11 with a white border. 

Up, up and away: 3 year old boy Airplane Themed Birthday Party

My little guy turns three in just a few days and it was time for a party.  For a number of reasons this was his first real party.  Dad, an airplane nut, who has been indoctrinating him suggested airplanes and little guy thought that was a great idea.

His requests were simple - airplanes, cupcakes and balloons.  

I designed the invitation and created a Garcia Airlines logo that I used  on all the printables. 

The party was at a local park.  I was surprised to find there weren't a lot of good ideas for me to steal be inspired by on pinterest and other sites. I decided to have the food match the theme and did "in flight snacks", "meal service", "beverage service". For the snacks I made up small cellophane bags of goldfish (one of my son's favorites), pretzels and found prepackaged small mixed nuts.  I added little toppers to the bags that used the Garcia Airlines logo.  I added some small tangerines, again a favorite of my son and small pb&j sandwiches cut with an airplane cookie cutter.  For the adults I made hoagie sandwiches, cut and wrapped them reminiscent of food you used to get on the airplane. We had cloud cupcakes decorated with marshmallow fluff (do not use... trust me on this one) and cotton candy.  The biggest hit of the menu was the cloud jello cups made with layered blue jello and cool whip. 

 

The party favor also doubled as the activity, a small inexpensive kite for each child. I picked them up for about $1 each and they were a huge hit.  We had about 30 people from 1-50 and almost everyone took part in the kite flying.  I would highly recommend and might use again for another child.  It was a very windy day which helped.  The park also overlooks the local Air Force base flight line which added to the "plane" atmosphere.    

The wind did kill a few of my decorations.  Although I bought helium balloons at the little guys request most did not survive very long nor could they be on the tables as planned.  Also my banner backdrop for the table became airborne! That will teach me to ever bring glass anything to a park no matter how much weight I put in the jar.  All and all it was a very fun birthday.  When I asked sweet little Sam for his favorite parts he said cupcakes, balloons, airplanes and fishes.  A success!

One of my goals for the year is to complete things.  In that light I actually did thank you notes!  If you know me, you know that is a big thing for me... I know baby steps.

Sharing over at:

The time for love and Valentines! Kids Valentine Photo Idea

I have a confession... not a huge fan of Valentine's Day. I guess you could say I have a independent streak but I'm not a fan of days I'm supposed to feel or do something purely because it is a "special" day... That being said the mass amounts of cool ideas related to Valentine's Day have made me much more excited about the holiday this year.

I thought I would share with you the Valentines my boys will be bringing to an upcoming party.  I created these with recent photos and edited in picnik.  Side note: aren't you sad picnik is closing... sniff... sniff... 

Sam will be giving a small bag of popcorn with his Valentine. I found prepackaged for kids popcorn at Fresh and Easy.  I like to give something other than candy to help balance out all the sugar.

Noah's going to be giving Kool Aid drinks with his Valentine.  I know, not really healthy, but at least something different than candy.

Walgreen's is offering a deal through Feb. 11th that you can get 25 free prints when you order 25 prints. (CODE: share25)  So for 50 prints it was less than $6 bucks!  Better than a lot of store bought Valentine's and much more unique.

For Noah's preK class next week he is doing a bouncy ball valentine using this great printable I found via pinterest.  The Crafting Chicks have some wonderful designs and love that they share for those of us not nearly as talented.

And for my hubby (sshhh... don't tell) I'm doing this idea.  Since we live and met in Vegas I love the playing card tie in!

Halloween Cakes - Cake Pop Eyeballs and Spiderwebs

I really can't Halloween is just around the corner. And then it always seems like it is down hill from there with Thanksgiving and Christmas so close after!

I have a confession...

I don't really like Halloween. Yep, I said it.

I know it is a lot of people's favorite holiday but for me I've never quite liked all creepy, crawly, freaky stuff.  Just never understood the draw of fake blood, spider, snakes, vampires and the like.  Don't get me wrong, I love Autumn with pumpkins, leaves and apples but Halloween, not so much.

Well I had to change my view a little when I was recently asked to do a Halloween themed birthday cake.  It was for 18 year old twins (girl and boy).  Thanks to pinterest (yep, definitely my current addiction) I found some fabulous ideas.

This is what I ended up with...

And I happen to have a dear friend who also had a birthday and LOVES Halloween so decided to make a little arrangement of the eyeballs for her birthday. 

 

My favorite part by far was the eyeballs on forks. I made red velvet with cream cheese frosting cake balls covered in white chocolate melted candy.  I used gummy lifesavers for the eyes with green gel for the centers and then red to make the blood shot effect. 

All the little eyeballs lined up in rows.... 

Monday Messages {free printable} - Seeds you plant

So I often struggle with Mondays, back to real life after a little weekend break!  I find that quotes give me some motivation and inspiration to start my week off right so I will try to share a new quote and printable each Monday.  Hope you enjoy!

To print the image, just click on the picture, save as a image and then choose your print options. It is set up for a full size sheet (8 1/2 x 11). 

Home ReDo: Alphabet Wall Art

So I think I have mentioned that my home is in need of a major redo.... well one of the places that needs some serious attention is my kids room.  It is currently shared by my 2 and 4 year old and in the next few months the baby will be joining them.

There are many things that need to be addressed in their room but one of the biggest challenges is that there is lots of stuff that needs to go in the room and that leaves not much room for decorating.


Except this one big empty wall...

I had grand plans to decorate the room in a sports theme (not original I know but my boys love sports) but then I discovered I was having a girl and re-evaluated.  In the end I decided to go with an alphabet theme but due to a difficult pregnancy didn't get anything done before she arrived.

So back to the wall... I have this big wall that I need to fill (oh... and not spend a lot of money).  Pinterest to the rescue. I found some cute ideas to use flash cards as wall hangings and thought that would be perfect.

Due to the size of the wall I did an Internet search and found these great large {free} printable alphabet flash cards.  I printed them on card stock on a laser color printer and they turned out great.  I cut off the excess paper, hole punched, strung onto some inexpensive ribbon and for under $5 have a great piece of wall art that adds color to the space and is educational!

I had to hang it higher than I would like to ensure little hands don't rip it down (my boys have bunk beds) so I think I am going to get some vinyl that says, "Now I know my ABC's..." for just above the glider.

Now it makes me want to tackle the rest of the room!

Here is a close up, I used over-sized push pins and tied on extra pieces of ribbon to give it some extra interest.

And my son admiring the new "letters wall". He just started preK so I think it was extra cool to him!

PRINTABLE - Person to be Loved

A friend shared this quote on facebook and I decided I needed a more regular reminder!  Picked my new favorite color combination - yellow and gray. 

Download

Toys, toys, toys everywhere toys!

Look familiar???

 

Of course I want it to look like....

and this... 

Land of Nod 

and this... 

Pottery Barn Kids

 BUT....

Please tell me I'm not the only one with an unorganized gathering of toys... actually what's scary is this is it "clean"... it's even worse when my little ones are awake and playing.

As part of my brave new world I have decided that my house needs some serious reorganization and redecoration.  My house isn't big (1600 sq feet), there are 6 of us and my ADD combine to make me feel like everywhere I look is clutter!

One of my greatest challenges is that 1/2 of the family under the age of 4 which equals way too many TOYS!  I keep telling everyone to not buy my children anymore toys but their wonderful Aunties and Uncle just can't say no to my adorable little ones.  Thanks to wonderful pinterest I have found some great idea for organizing toys!

Check out my kids organizing board for some fabulous ideas!  Once I actually get some projects done I will start posting before and after pics.

Spiderman 4th Birthday

So my little guy (well... I guess not so little) turned 4 on Saturday.  He is OBSESSED with Spiderman. He actually introduces himself to people as Spiderman.  He has also convinced his 2 year old brother that he is Spiderman, ahh the joys of being an older sibling...

No surprisingly we did a Spiderman theme.  I think it turned out pretty good.  My camera skills (and camera) are no fabulous so you will have to bear with on that aspect of the post. 

the cake... Spiderman of course...

I used a 9" round and then carved it into the shape of spiderman's face/mask.  Once you place the white eyes and your first line down the center of the cake the rest is relatively simple.  I did have to learn that linking lines between the webs were like upside down c - straight lines look very silly.

TIP: If you need to carve a cake to get a unique shape (like spidey's face) bake the cake ahead and freeze.  It's much easier to carve a frozen cake, you get a cleaner cut and far fewer crumbs.

the rest of the menu...



One of my son's favorite things in life is the good old orange, straight from the box, mac and cheese.  I saw a cute picture of a hot dog cut like an octopus on top of mac and cheese and thought it would be perfect to fit the spiderman theme... for those of you that do not have a son obsessed, Doc Oc is one of the main villains. This was so simple.  Just microwave the hot dogs and then about make a cut in half about 2/3 of the length of the hot dog and then make a 2nd cut so that you get 4 "legs".  Prop up and for greater impact add some eyes. I used the red gel icing I had left over from the cupcakes but you could easily use ketchup.

Peter Parker Pizza (thanks to little Caesars), Green Goblin Salad, popcorn and a veggie tray rounded out the menu.  I somehow didn't get photos of the Green Goblin Salad but it was very easy to make. 

Green Goblin Salad
serves 10-12
2 small boxes of lime gelatin
3 cans of mixed fruit or fruit cocktail
2 cups of mini marshmallows
Recipe: Prepare the lime gelatin according to package instructions.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes and then stir in fruit drained canned fruit and marshmallows. Refrigerate until chilled. 

This was great because I easily made the night before so all I had to make the morning of the party was the mac and cheese. 

activities...

Popcorn... get your popcorn... I borrowed a cute popcorn maker from a friend that is a table top replica of an old fashion popcorn machine. I found red and white small bags at the craft store (by the gift wrapping supplies) and attached these little labels to match the spidey theme. The popcorn was perfect as both a snack before the main food since the party started at 10:30 and a little activity to watch it be popped. Plus my son loves popcorn. 

It was a pool party and most of the kids in attendance were either 2 and under or over 10 so I didn't plan a lot of games. We did play "Pin the Spider on the Spiderweb". My fabulously talented stepdaughter went above and beyond and created this great poster board. I was planning to just do a 2 minute spiderweb but she got all into and free hand drew spiderman's hand slinging the web.  My son thought it was awesome!