Soooooo…how did you do? I think when I came up with this idea I had forgotten how CRAZY BlogHer is and how quickly phones die and how hard it is to remember my own name let alone specific things to photograph. I barely remembered to complete most day (and missed one photo entirely). So what I’m saying is- it is FINE if you missed some (or most) and want to link up.

Here’s a reminder of the list:

And here are my days

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Friday:

Saturday:

I forgot number 14. Shoes (I’m pretty sure I almost forgot my ACTUAL shoes after Sparklecorn too) so I filled that last collage with Mandy vs. Miranda’s Baby. It might be the best picture I’ve ever taken.

I’ve been staring at this blank page for ten minutes now, wondering how to write a BlogHer12 recap post and I’ve just decided I don’t actually want to. It’s only been a few days since I got home but the posts, tweets, threads and private gossip is coming fast and furious. Who was rude, who got pushed, who snubbed who, what super top secret parties I didn’t get invited to, whether or not bloggers who don’t use all the words count as bloggers at all… It’s amazing how other people’s experience can completely change how I view my own. I don’t want to be responsible for doing that to anyone else. If we met, I thought you were LOVELY. Truly, every single person I met was kind and welcoming, from people I’ve admired for years to brand new faces.  If we didn’t meet, I’m so so sorry and I hope we can get together soon. That’s my entire opinion of the conference besides these photos and captions…done as haiku. Please enjoy.

Wednesday:

Walked to Central Park
With Miranda in the rain
No dead bodies found

Went to find some food
The sunset was amazing
But there was no pie

Thursday:

Blographer and more
I met Ree for the third time
She did not know me

Friday:

Sessions and Martha
The meat of the whole big thing
With fun for dessert

Bright lights and good friends
Toys and swag and all the things
Can’t even compare

Saturday:

Disney made me cry
Katie and Serenity
Too many highlights to count

My friends may be weird
But that’s why they understand
I treasure them all

I can’t take credit for this super-cute robot birthday party. My friend Erin did 99% of the work, but she had some great ideas I wanted to share. Her 3 year old is totally obsessed with robots, especially Wall-E and the Iron Giant, so this really was a perfect theme for him (and basically every other 3 year old). Who doesn’t like robots?! It was simple and very DIY, but still full of fun.

 Erin had the party at her mom’s, because she has this gorgeous patio and a big yard for the robots kids to run around.

My contribution to the party: A Happy Birthday banner. I downloaded free robot fonts from dafont.com and printed the letters on scrapbooking paper (it comes in that size).

For activities, Erin had a Robot Work Station with balls, tubs and those grabby robot arms from Target:

Fun fact: those robots across the bottom actually say “Reid” in one of the fonts I downloaded

The grabbers were a HUGE hit with the kids.

She also had a bean bag toss to “feed” the robots energy:

But my favorite activity was the make your own robot station:

Those are just paper bags spray painted silver with a paper plate glued to the front (for a “dial”) and holes cut for head and arms. The kids decorated with peel and stick foam shapes and robot shaped crayons.

And here are the robots in action:

Besides the very active robots, we had some robots guarding everything from the front door to the food:

Erin says she got these at Michael’s

Erin didn’t really have a theme for the food besides “stuff kids and grown ups will eat”, but I made her a few signs to tie it together with the party:

That’s beef, chicken and beans & rice for a burrito assembly line

All the toppings

That’s Reid’s “say cheese!” face

And all the kids went home with goodie bags that contained robot crayons, robot painting pages, robot stickers and a robot eraser.

Thank you Erin, Mitch and Reid for sharing your special day with us!

Robots, sunflowers and running – oh my! This feels like the last week of summer to me. Not because it’s going to suddenly get cold but because this week I have BlogHer (THIS WEEK) and then adjusting to a new life with E on shift work (7 days a week, 12 hours a day, no days off). So there won’t be very many more boat trips or family zoo days or…well jeez, now I’m depressed. I guess I’ll have to just spend as much time at the lake as possible before the gorgeous New England fall hits. (And you know I’ve had a pretty good summer if I’m thinking about fall in a pleasant way.)

Sunday:

Robot Evan is fueled by milk and hummus

Caroline didn’t really understand the concept of all the presents being for someone else

The pink ones were the best, but the salted caramel weren’t bath either

Monday:

New favorite way to get 15 minutes of silence

Scoping out the frozen desserts at BJ’s

Still recovering from the weekend

Tuesday:

Library play time

Sunflowers

The track has lights but isn’t lit. I don’t know where I’m going to run once it gets dark at 5 pm.

Wednesday:

Too cool for school

Improvised dinner ended up being a hit

Turns out Caroline is perfectly happy to look at her OWN face on my phone, she doesn’t need to see other babies

Thursday:

We discovered Imagination Movers and she is obsesssssed

For today’s episode of musical beds, Caroline chose Evan’s

I dropped my kids off at a friend’s house which meant she was babysitting SIX KIDS all afternoon (ONE was hers). I owe her a bottle of wine.

Friday:

Zoo navigator

Pretending to be a penguin at the penguin exhibit

Evening run

Saturday:

Buckets are so hot right now

She’s so fashionable she wears my heels to bed

Couch naps for everyone!

Tomorrow we’re going out on the boat, Monday is packing and cleaning, Tuesday I pick up my mother-in-law and then Wenesday is NYC! I’m sorry sorry sorry that I can’t stop talking about it. I realize almost no one cares, unless they are going too. I also realize BlogHer is not the be-all end-all of blogging, or conferences, or anything at all, but it’s hard not to get caught up in the excitement and hype. Bear with me one more week and I promise it will be all gingers all the time.

Did you take any camera phone photos this week? Link up with one or lots using the linky below and grab the code (so it shows on your blog too!) over at Amy’s . It’s really fun!

This is an easy tutorial for robot shaped crayons only because we were having a robot-themed birthday. It’s really for any kind of shaped crayons – the possibilities are endless. All you need is a few boxes of regular crayons, a silicone mold and an oven.

Step 1: Peel all the wrappers off the crayons. It’s tedious, but put on a movie, grab a glass of wine and get to work.

Step 2: Break the crayons into pieces. For the 1 inch molds we broke each crayon into 3 or 4 pieces.

Step 3: Put broken pieces directly into the silicone mold.

Step 4: Put the mold in an oven or toaster oven set at 350 degrees for approximately 5-7 minutes, or until the wax has melted.

Step 5: Carefully transfer the mold to a shallow dish filled with ice water. Once the wax cools and hardens, pop out the crayons and repeat!

Lots of colors! Erin made a whole rainbow – each kid got at least 8 crayons.

Tips:

• We were looking for a way to melt the wax to pour into the molds when I suggested just melting the wax IN the mold. It worked perfectly, and all the details on the crayons showed up really well.
• This is the silicone robot mold we used for the crayons. It’s technically for chocolate, but any silicone mold would work for crayons.
• Wax DOES burn, so keep an eye on your crayons and don’t try to rush them by turning the oven up too high.
• If you set your mold on a piece of tin foil (see below) the foil cools almost instantly and it’s easy to transfer to the cold water without tipping or sloshing the wax.
• We only filled the molds about half way – it kept the crayons easy for little hands to grab.

Crayons in action!

Robot birthday post coming soon!