Olympic Fever!

I have a sports nut.  He loves pretty much every sport.  He loves to compete.  He races home from the bus every day, he just doesn't know that no one is racing with him.  :)  My son is also extremely patriotic.  He asks for the Star Spangled Banner as one of his nightly bedtime songs.  I knew the Olympics would be a huge hit with him, and a great way to show American pride and learn more about other countries around the world.

To celebrate the the Olympic event I hung a huge world map in our hallway.  And then I spiced up our experience with some vinyl.  I cut colored rings to recreate the Olympic rings on my wall.  Next I cut two large circles out of dry erase vinyl.  On those I added lettering so that we could keep track of the USA medal count (gold, silver, and bronze) and the list of the top five medalling countries.

 

Pokemon Party!

 So my latest vinyl adventure was a birthday celebration for my awesome son.  His newest passion is the Pokemon empire.  I'm talking about a complete, total obsession with the cartoons, books, figurines, and playing cards.  When deciding on a theme for his party at home, it was an easy choice.  But I couldn't find anything in the stores!  After a lucky paper plates find, I was completely stuck.  I hit the wall so I turned on my creative juices and my Cricut!

I purchased a bright yellow tablecloth.  I hunted online for free Pikachu coloring pages, and turned those pages in to cutting files.  I cut a black outline of the creature and some red facial highlights, then applied them to the tablecloth.  It wasn't easy, the tablecloth was a bit slippery.  But the end product totally rocked!  And my son absolutely loved it!!

I also decided to create a simple game of pin the tail on Pikachu.  I spent less than a dollar for a sheet of white poster board.  This time I cut a black under layer, a yellow body, and red facial highlights.  I applied all pieces except for Pikachu's tail.  I cut several yellow tails out of vinyl to use for the game.

The game was hilarious fun!  We loved blindfolding the boys and making them insanely dizzy.  In the end both of the older boys did get fairly close, but we also had some stray tails end up on the stairs and a neighboring chest.

Now I am excited to start working on an adorable two year old's Mickey Mouse birthday!!!