Panama City Beach Goofy Golf

 This week was PB's spring break and we did our best to fill it with as much fun as possible.  One place we went was to the Panama City Goofy Golf.  Not the best of ideas to go to PCB during Spring Break. But luckily for us,  those young drunken fools are not into Goofy Golf and we had the place to ourselves!  PB bought himself a putter from a thrift a few months back and has been practicing up for this adventure.

 He took it all very serious.  Even wore his "golfer's hat"...and threw a few tantrums, turning some of the holes from par 2 to par 10.

Some of our favorite things there....

 the giant monkey with red glowing eyes...some one had left an offering of real bananas in his upturned palm.

 Walk like an Egyptian!

The big purple dinosaur, was getting a new do. Here he is all primed up.  You can go inside him too! 

 Mr. Goofus McGolf (not sure if that is his real name...just made one up) 

He looks like he has a rusty nose ring. He is hard core.

 The last hole of Course 2. Behind the bars about 3 feet back is a concrete frog with his mouth open that sits a foot or so off the ground...very dark inside so no picture.  But the "catch" here is that if you golf your ball right into the frog's mouth...a loud celebratory bell rings out and...

FREE GAME!

Guess what!?

For more of my Panama City Goofy Golf  adventures click here.  You can see the inside of the purple dinosaur if you do!

and here is a post from us going to Adventure Golf in Pigeon Forge a few years back...it is very Goofy Golf-esque.

Etch-a-Sketch Portraits

I picked up an Etch-a-Sketch that wasn't in the best of working capabilities recently at a thrift on purpose.
In my picasa picture program there is a feature where it can transform any photo to a "drawing".  I thought the effect looked alot like an Etch-a-Sketch....so eyeballs peeled for months to find an old E-a-S at a thrift....to turn it into a picture frame!
I used a photo of us from our summer trip last year to South of the Border. We are riding on concrete burros in front of the fireworks megastore and PB is wearing his newly bought fez from SOB's World of Hats Store....certainly Etch-a-Sketch worthy.

Other possibilities crossed my mind that could work well with the Etch-a-sketch effect and frame....

 Mona Lisa...(like from the movie Elf)

 Star Wars

 My sweet Severus Snape

I didn't take the Etch-a-Sketch apart to put the photo inside it.  I just simply cut the photo to size and slipped it under the plastic frame edges in the front. It has fooled a few people into thinking it was a real Etch-a-Sketch drawing...I just thought it looked neat.

(BTW, this would be a great April Fool's Trick to pull!)

Nut Toasties

"The Cookie Book" by Culinary Arts Institute 1941"

"It's a clever cook who can turn bread into cookies, but it is simple enough when you know how."

Hey!  I want to be a clever cook! I read this statement in "The Cookie Book" booklet under an image of something that seemed to have coconut on it...I love coconut, and clever, and simple.  

The cookie is called Nut Toasties, however the term "cookie" is a bit misleading.  If by "cookie" they mean french toast sticks then yes, cookie it is.  Cookies for breakfast! I was so excited (doesn't take much if making cookies from bread does it for me) to try out this recipe.  I didn't make the french toast connection until about 3 cookies-dipped-into-egg-batter into it. I felt like I had just been hoodwinked. But I got over it because "Coconut French Toast Sticks" are a pretty cool twist and not too bad tasting. Also, I have to give the Culinary Arts Institute a break because I am sure they were starting to run a bit thin on ideas. Having to come up with 250 simple, new, exciting and clever ideas must be a challenge. I am surprised they didn't have sauerkraut snaps and cauliflower cookies.  The recipe is in the right bottom corner in the image below. It called for either nut meats or shredded coconut.

I can now claim cleverness and hope to be receiving some sort of certificate, ribbon or commemorative coin  from The Culinary Arts Institute in the mail any day now. 

And I have renamed these....(Coco)Nut (French)Toasties!

Extra credit for ramped up cleverness!

Lord of The Rings Party Part III

Part III and the final installment in Pumpkinbutt's Lord of The Rings 9th Birthday Bash.

On to the Prancing Pony for food and cake!

 PB had 2 cakes.  The first cake was topped with his shire lego set accompanied by sparkler candles.  The other cake was of The Ring.  I had planned on having someone dress up as a Ringwraith and try to steal the ring (cake) but decided against it because these hobbitses are wild...and they were equipped with plastic swords.... and they may have hurt the poor Ringwraith.  I made the ring cake by baking a cake in a ring form and then covering it in fondant that I tinted goldenrod yellow, orange-brownish icing for the elvish markings, and then sprayed the whole thing in gold metallic aerosol food coloring (great for covering flaws!).

For the Prancing Pony Buffet, I had several hobbit sized foods along with ones inspired from the movies/books.

  

"What's taters (tots) Precious?"

Frodo Fingers (Cocktail Sausages) 

Remember when Gollum bit Frodo's finger off?! There's some ketchup around here somewhere...

(They also ate with little mini bamboo picks that I called Hobbit forks.)

Dead Marshes Dip

(blue corn tortilla chips and guacamole) 

Council of Elrond

(E.L.Fudge cookies..get it? Elf cookies?)

They also had strawberries and cream ("Do you remember the taste of strawberries?"),  hobbit sized chicken legs, mini pinwheel sandwiches, grapes, baby carrots and bugles (Dwarf horns).

For libations, the hobbitses had a choice of Orc Brew (root beer) or Hobbit Ale (ginger ale).

PB drank out of his collector Lord of the Rings glass seen to the left.

As part of the conclusion to the celebration we erupted a miniature Mount Doom volcano...

 Then for the finale, we set off Galdolf inspired Fireworks! 

We even had one called the "White Wizard" with illustrations of "Gandulf, Frodu, and Legulos"....

We got sparklers for the kids...but decided these wild hobbitses would have burned the neighborhood down so those stayed hidden away.

I scavenged thrift stores for 2 months collecting fabrics and items to use as decor.  The main table cloth was a brown bed skirt with brown and gold tapestry bottom panels and gold tassels and fringe.  The food containers were various thrifted baskets with bits of ivy leaves attached (from dollar tree). I printed out covers of vintage LOTR books which I attached to green construction paper and hung up everywhere.  I made several fabric buntings (inspire by Bilbo's b-day party decor) that hung on the Prancing Pony deck. Also made a few extra Orc faces with party hats on that filled out the railing of the deck.

Breaking the party details down into smaller posts made writing it manageable. May consider posting about his other parties.    

Wheww... it's done. What will next year be?

Lord of the Rings Party II: Mission...Quest...Thing

Part II of the One Party To Rule Them All!

The hobbitses journeyed through Middle Earth next.  

They crossed the tricksy dead marshes...

"I found it, I did.  A way through the marshes. Orcs don't use it.  Orcs don't know it.  They go round for miles and miles."  

"Come hobbitses, soft and quick as shadows we must be!"

We made the Dead Marshes from several black trash bags stapled together, scavenged moss and tree branches, little plastic skeletons, bricks, and cardboard stepping "stones" and sprayed water on top.  The hobbitses were given 3 stepping stones that they had to use to get across the marshes.  A bit harder than it sounds.  We had a few slip below the surfaces with the dead things but pulled them back up. Don't follow the lights!

~~~

They went to war against a group of nasty Orcses...

Bow and arrows were from dollar tree.  Made the targets from images printed of orcses taped to water bottles.  To help the orcses get in the party mode I made them little festive hats.

~~~

They caught raw and wrrriggling fish...

"The Rock and Pool, is nice and cool, so juicy sweet!

Our only wish, to catch a fish, so juicy sweet!"

Items for this game were a metal washtub, plastic fish, water and bamboo poles.  All items we already had. Off to the left you can see a glimpse of the brown craft paper satchels with a leaf image on the corner. 

The hobbitses each got a little bag of Gollum's Goodies (swedish fish) after fishing.  It was about time for one of the five meals hobbitses eat after all!

~~~

They risked life going through Shelob's cave...

"She's always hungry.  She always needs to feed.  All she gets is nasty orcses.

And they doesn't taste very nice does they, Precious?

No.  Not very nice at all, my love."

As they went through the cave they had to collect one spider egg each that was inside.  They had to be very quiet and careful as to not awaken Shelob.  I made a Phial of Galadriel (clear glass bottle with a couple of glow sticks inside and water) for them to use as protection and "May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out."  

The cave was made from black trash bags stapled together and attached to 4 metal sign poles.  Inside and out we put spider webs, moss and fake skulls of her past victims...

Come Hobbitses, come!

On the other side of the cave, the hobbitses were allowed to open their spider eggs.  Inside would be either a bit of web or a spider.  If they got a spider it meant they had been bitten by Shelob and the ones with the bit of webbing would be wrapping the victims in a web cocoon (of toilet paper).
Pumpkinbutt was bitten!

~~~

Lastly, on to Mount Doom!

At Mount Doom the hobbitses had to cast the one ring into the opening on the volcano all while the Eye of Sauron was watching!

This game is basically a version of "washers".  I made the volcano from cardboard, newspaper, a grey sheet, red christmas lights, red fabric napkins and a fog machine.  For the washers, I bought ring-looking wood napkin rings from a thrift and painted them gold.  The Eye of Sauron was made from cardboard and a red mylar balloon.

Next up is the hobbit feast at The Prancing Pony!

Lord of the Rings Party

 Come hobbitses, come! Pumpkinbutt invites us to his Lord of the Rings birthday party!

 This year's party theme for Pumkinbutt's 9th birthday was Lord of the Rings! For the invitations I downloaded several LOTR fonts and printed the text on parchment paper.  Some wording included :

You are invited to a Party of Special Magnificence!

To Join the Fellowship of the Ring in Celebration of his 9th birthday

with a Noble Hobbit Mission...Quest...Thing across Middle Earth!

Join us at his Shire.

I also included a gold ring on a string.

Hobbitses must be attired appropriately .  Here is Pumpkinbutt all Hobbited out: cloak, vest, Sting, and of course hairy feet!

 Entrance sign at the front gate

Doorway entrance 

(somewhat seen in the reflection was my costume...I was going for Eowyn because she is totally bad ass!)

All hobbitses were given a cloak, an Elven Leaf Brooch, fuzzy feet, a pipe and a map of Middle Earth.
The cloaks were made from tan fabric I had bought several years ago for a another project (stash buster!). The brooches were leaves printed on card stock with a pin back attached. The fuzzy feet tops were made from fuzzy brown fabric and black elastic.   The pipes were from dollar tree (pack of 2 for 1 buck) that you blow through and "magically" float a ball.  I spray painted the pipes brown and the balls white ( smoke). Great to keep Hobbitses busy in between activities.

Lembas bread for the journey.  

(Pizza crust wrapped in green napkins with a leaf pattern drawn on them.)

The Hobbitses also got a satchel to place all of their items needed for the mission in. I made them from a tan fabric strip and a small brown gift bag with the handles removed. Don't have a specific photo but in later photos there will be a glimpse.


While waiting for all to arrive, they decorated shields with markers.  I made the shields from cardboard (free from Lowe's) and grey duct tape. 

This will be one of several posts to cover the entire party.  I generally don't post PB's parties because it's a bit overwhelming to do it in one sitting.  Breaking it up should help!