So You Athletes Think You Can Dance? Yes, We Can!

Haka face paint

When friends and family think of my sons, the first words that come to mind are probably: IdenticalTwins. Soccer. Tough. Solid. Maybe Cello and Videogames and Drawing and Athletic. Maybe Dark Haired. I would add Handsome and Brilliant and Imaginative and Loving and a million other complimentary adjectives that make it obvious I'm their parent.

The Pea goes to Japantown

Japantown, SF
I'm proud to introduce my new guest blogger: The Pea!  She went to Japantown with her friend last week, and I bribed asked her to do a write up of her day trip because it has been years since I've been there. After reading her post, I can't wait to go back for sushi and stickers...

Hi! It’s the pea, bonggamom’s daughter, and today I’m going to be doing a guest review/travel document on Japantown, San Francisco. I went with my friend to Japan Center Mall in Japantown, and we had a really great time!

Show your DisneySide with a Mickey Paintball Party

Mickey Paintball party

The boys have wanted to try paintball for some time now.  They've always loved Nerf and laser tag, so I guess paintball is just the next step.  But I've always been hesitant because I've heard lots of stories about paintball being painful.  I've seen photos of bruises from paintball pellets and I've read stories of little boys sitting out birthday parties because they got hurt.

Fortunately, our local paintball place has a gentler option: Splatmaster, which features guns that release the paintball pellets at half the speed of regular paintball guns.  Since 3Po wanted to celebrate his 11th birthday with a paintball party, I figured Splatmaster would give everyone a good first experience while minimizing the bruises.  And since I had recently been selected to host a DisneySide party, I figured I'd combine the two and throw a Mickey Paintball party!  I was a bit nervous that the boys would think Mickey was a bit babyish, but 3Po was delighted with the idea. How could I have doubted?  The party was a big hit.  You're never too old for Mickey Mouse!

How to Decorate Mickey Paintball Rice Krispy Treats with Royal Icing Transfers

Mickey Mouse rice krispy treats

Any time there's a party in our household, there's a good chance that it's going to include rice krispy treats.  They're easy to make, they don't cost much, and we could eat them all day.  I knew I wanted to serve rice krispy treats at 3Po's paintball party/DisneySide party, but I didn't want to make another set of Mickey head rice krispy treats like I did at last year's DisneySide party. Fellow DisneySide blogger Dawn recently posted about how she uses waxed paper, buttercream, and an image printout to create amazing buttercream designs, and I decided to use that technique to create some royal icing designs to decorate my rice krispy squares. Here's how I did it: