#they’re not wings of fire dragons but still gotta love ‘em

[carnotaurvs]

you guys seemed to eat up the last art so here’s some more

[gwenbrightly]

Ninjago Christmas Fic #1 - Decorations

Ahhh, it’s that time of year when I speed write Christmas fics because it’s fun! Crossposted from ffnet. Takes place after MOTO.

“Let’s see what everyone was able to snag for the monastery,” Lloyd suggested enthusiastically. Having never celebrated Christmas in the monastery of spinjitzu before, the ninja had been horrified to discover that Wu hadn’t thought to invest in decorations for the holiday season. Not prone to giving up easily, they had spent several days searching high and low for trees, wreaths, lights, and anything else they could get their hands on.

“Ma and pa sent some lights they swear still work properly. Left most of em outside. There’s also a bunch of garlands that look like they’re in pretty decent shape. Perks of living in a junkyard, I guess. And uh, I think this used to be an angel?” Jay stated, holding up a sparkly hunk of metal with appendages shaped vaguely like wings. He glanced sideways at it, trying to decide if it was worth keeping.  

“I… can try to fix it later, if you want?” offered Kai, “I got a lot of practice with metalworking while Nya and I were visiting mom and dad yesterday. And the whole remaking the Golden Weapons thing probably helps too, heheh.”

His sister rolled her eyes at his self satisfied smirk. Jay nodded, handing Kai the mangled decoration.  

“If you think she’s savable, go for it!”

“Speaking of mom and dad, they gave us a box of Christmas ornaments and some other stuff, too.” Nya added holding up the blue orb with swirly designs she’d just grabbed from the uppermost layer of the cardboard box she was kneeling next to.  

“We couldda brought some tinsel, too, but we decided it wouldn’t be a good idea after last year…” she continued. They all shuddered.  

“Dad convinced the tree farm that sponsors the Royal Blacksmiths to sell him a tree for super cheap. He said he’d drop it off in a little bit.” Cole informed them, not wanting to dwell on the incident.

“Dude! That’s awesome!” Exclaimed Lloyd, his eyes lighting up. The others smiled. They’d never been able to have a live tree before. Zane nodded in agreement.  

“Indeed. I’m sure it will look lovely in the living room. I managed to locate a wreath my father built. It’s made mostly from old gears, and I know that’s not very traditional, but I’d like to put it up somewhere. If you don’t mind?”

“Of course, Zane. I’m sure we can find a good place for it.” Cole assured his friend. He understood what it was like to miss a family member during this time of year.  

“Yeah. I mean this place is huge. We need all the decorations we can get!” Kai reminded them.

“We had better get started, then.” Pixal interjected, eager to finally be celebrating the holidays without being confined to a screen (or her wonderful soulmate’s head) this year.

“Heck yeah! So where should we start?” asked Nya. They glanced around at the heaps of miscellaneous decorations, considering their options.  

“Maybe we should tackle the lights outside first? I’d rather do that before it gets too cold out.” proposed Jay. Although it had not yet snowed, the weather had been growing increasingly colder.

“I vote yes to that idea. It’s usually better to test anything the Walkers give us as soon as possible to avoid unnecessary explosions. No offense, Jay.” Cole said, giving the master of lightning an apologetic grin. Jay punched his shoulder lightly.

“None taken. We do tend to end up with... Surprises pretty often when ma and pa gift us stuff.”

“Okay, then. Outside it is. Just… try to keep the dangerous hijinks to a minimum? I don’t wanna worry Uncle Wu.” Lloyd told them, heading for the front door.  

The next hour was spent watching Jay zap each strand of lights or light up decoration with his powers as he tested them to see if they worked, waiting for the inevitable explosion. Surprisingly, they made it through 5 whole strands, two light up snowman, and a reindeer before coming across their first exploding decoration. No one could be sure if the shattering of every single bulb on the rainbow strand of lights was due to Jay’s parents tampering with the wires, or the master of lightning himself sending too much electricity into it, but the display of rainbow colored shards flying through the air was impressive to say the least. After cleaning up their mess and testing the remaining decorations, the group began the actual decorating part of the process. Pixal and Zane wrapped lights around the columns that lined the entrance to the monastery, creating elaborate patterns. Cole and Jay worked together to lift an ornate sleigh complete with reindeer onto the roof via airjitzu. Meanwhile, Nya simply tried to keep Lloyd and Kai from killing each other with additional decorations. Seeing her brother wrap the green ninja in lights, she cried, “Kai no!” in exasperation.  

“Cmon, sis! You’ve gotta admit he’d make a great Christmas tree!” He defended, before launching into singing oh Lloydie tree, oh Lloydie tree, how lovely are your branches! And receiving dirty looks from his victim.  

“Listen to Nya, Kai.” Cole shouted from above them. The master of fire relented, muttering about how no one appreciated his brilliance as he unwound his brother. Their hard work was interrupted by the sounds of a (much less irritating) Christmas carol floating into the courtyard from just beyond the gate.

“We wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year!” Sang Lou and his quartet as they lugged a ginormous tree inside.

“Hey, pop!” Cole greeted. He left the lofty heights of the roof, followed by Jay.

“Hello, son! You’re doing a lovely job with this place!”

“Thanks!” Jay said, “You just missed the explosion!”

“… The what?” Lou started.

“So, how was your drive?” Cole inquired, cutting him off. His father gave him a strange look, but didn’t push the topic further.

“It was fine. Building that driveway was a wonderful idea. I can’t imagine how much of a hassle it would’ve been to carry this thing up so many steps.” he answered.

“It really has made life easier for all of us.” Zane agreed.  

“This tree is beautiful! Thank you so much for hooking us up!” Added Lloyd, staring admiringly at their  

“It was no trouble, Lloyd.” Lou told him, smiling warmly.  

“Wanna come inside for some hot cocoa? We were about ready to take a break anyway.” offered Cole.

“I would love to, but unfortunately we need to get going. We have a concert at the hospital to attend. Can’t disappoint the kids, you know.” the older man replied regretfully. The master of earth shrugged. Christmas was always a busy time for the Royal Blacksmiths.  

“Okay. Next time, then. Break a leg, and thanks again!”

“Goodbye son!” Lou called as his companions burst into sing again.  

“Now bring us some figgy pudding, now bring us some figgy pudding, now bring us some figgy pudding and bring some right here!”

“What even is figgy pudding?” Lloyd wondered aloud.  

“No clue.” Kai shrugged.  

“Let’s get this bad boy inside.” Prompted Jay, rubbing his hands together and grinning in a way that was only a little bit maniacal. It took a fair amount of maneuvering, but they eventually managed to get the tree situated in the living room.  

“Wow, I hope we have enough ornaments for this thing.” Nya commented. The tree looked even bigger now that it was upright.  

“We’ll think of something if we don’t. Maybe we can just put Jay to work making paper snowflakes again.” Lloyd plotted.

“I’m down for that. I don’t get why you guys think I’m the only one who’s deserving of this honor, though.” said Jay. He had never quite understood why the others were so fascinated by his ability to make paper snowflakes with such ease.

“Because you’re better at it than we are and we like the way they look.” Nya stated simply, hanging the ornament she’d discovered earlier on the tree. Jay leaned over and kissed her cheek.

“Thanks, sweetie.”

Kai rolled his eyes at them and set about digging through the boxes looking for more ornaments. He pulled out anything that looked like it was still functional, tossing a few broken ones into the garbage.  

“This one is neat!”

“Oooh shiny!” Lloyd noted. He snatched the ornament from Kai before he could protest. The master of fire decided it wasn’t worth fighting and returned to his rummaging. Kai managed to protect a few of the ornaments from Lloyd’s watchful eye, sneaking them onto the tree when he wasn’t looking.  

“Wait… how did that get there?” Lloyd asked, finally noticing one of the extra sparkly ornaments Kai had hidden from him.  

“I swear Lloyd, you’re as bad as a cat when you get like this.” Nya told him, stifling a smile.  

“Like what?” he replied innocently. Cole watched Lloyd stare longingly at another ornament.  

“All oooh shiny every time you see something cool.”  

“Nah, I’m pretty sure that stems from having a dragon for a grandmother.” Lloyd reminded them.

“Hmmm that’s a good point.” Confirmed Zane.

“Kai, I am almost completely certain that Santa was not intended to be a part of this nativity!” Pixal scolded, frantically trying to prevent the master of fire from ruining the decoration he was currently setting out on the mantle.

“Well, he is now!” Kai retorted, not caring about historical accuracy. Pixal sighed loudly.

“Can we at least discuss fixing the sheep so they don’t look like they’re fighting to the death?”

“Gee, Pix! It’s not like they’re real,” he reminded her indignantly before smiling a devious smile, “Hmmm I should add one of Lloyd’s dragon figurines...”

“Kai no! That is the most horrible idea ever.” she protested, horrified.  

“What you call horrible I call brilliant!”

“Okaaay maybe it’s time for a break before Uncle Wu comes in here and questions our collective sanity again.” Lloyd said awkwardly pushing between the irate ninja and samurai.  

“There’s hot cocoa in the kitchen, remember?” added Nya.  

“Hmmm okay, sure. Hot cocoa does sound good.” Kai admitted (totally not planning on sneaking back later to mess with the nativity some more).  

“Yeah! Let’s go eat way too much whipped cream and marshmallows!” agreed Jay.  

“Looks like we’re off to another chaotic Christmas.” Lloyd commented to Nya as they headed for refreshments.  

“Yeah, but you know you love it.” She told him with a laugh. The blonde shrugged, saying,  

“I do. Somehow this never gets old.”

“That’s the magic of Christmas for you. Or… something like that, anyway. Now cmon, let’s get some hot coco before the others drink it all.”

[inikavulpixelreviews]

Let’s Talk About Pokemon - The Dragon Type

You would think a type with the prestige-type status it once had would be one of the rarer in the game. And indeed there was a time where Dragons once made a very tiny percentage of the Pokedex. Heck, the type was even rarer if you discount Legendaries and Pseudo-legendaries, with there once only being four of those despite being on the fourth generation. Then Gen 5 happened, which had an aim to make sure all 17 types were more or less equal in population. This meant bumping up Dragon's numbers quite substantially. The more the series went on, the more Dragon has more or less become a much more regular type. One with still special treatment enough to usually be reserved for Legendaries and Legendaries of the Psuedo variety, but a much more regular type nonetheless. By now, its population is about the same as Electric or Fire.

Dragon's aesthetic has also changed tremendously over the years. Back in the day, and all the way up to Gen 5, the only real outlier weirdos in the dragon club were Vibrava and Altaria. These days?

NOW look at em! Something weird happened. Like overnight, the Dragon type had very suddenly became a lot more varied and considerably more weird and willing to stretch the definition of what counts as a “dragon.” And y'know what? I'm all for it.

Of course, back in my late kid and throughout my teenage years, Dragon was one of my favorite types because what's cooler than a really big lizard??? (Might I add, back in my “Yu-Gi-Oh replaced Pokemon for a couple years” phase, I of course thought Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon was the single coolest monster design in the entire damn world.) These days I'm somewhat more indifferent to them. If I loved it before, I probably still at least like it now, but my enthusiasm for the type has petered out a bit.

Almost like on cue, as I got a bit older and god a bit more tasteful as I started taking character design more seriously as a form of art I was interested in, the Dragon type started getting more interesting as well. Suddenly we have a gross seahorse that's a dragon, a gross snail that's a dragon! Even a BAT and a WEIRD...TAPEWORM THING... that was a dragon! Maybe with the inception of the Fairy type introduced to nerf Dragon's dominance over most of the other types, they also felt the need to make Dragon just. Another one of the gang. But it'd get boring to have this type of almost exclusively lizards suddenly start inhabiting large chunks of the Pokedex, right? What if we made other animals with SLIGHTLY more dragon-esque features to diverse the type?!

Well, I'm digging it. Maybe not enough to have Dragon back on as one of my favorite types, but I'm certainly more enthusiastic to see new Dragons pop up again. Especially if they're willing to call a tall three-headed tree of all things a DRAGON, too.

Besides, back in the day, dragons looked quite a bit weirder as well. More like lizardy rats that... had wings, I suppose. The concept of a dragon being an exceptionally large winged lizard (often with elemental powers for good measure) was a more recent cultural development, relatively speaking. Either way, if Dragons continue to be neat, I'll continue to call em neat. Sounds like a fine deal to me!

Top 10 Favorite Dragon Types:

Of course early Pokemon didn't have much to like, but at the same time, a loooot of them were very traditional dragon designs.

Bottom 10 Least Favorites:

Eh. The only ones I dislike to any capacity is Dragonite and the two (three) Megas. The rest are kinda just. Cool, if rather generic Dragons. It's often the mid-evos of the Pseudos that I forget about.

The Cutest:

The Coolest:

The Prettiest:

...I only got so many to work with here, alright? Actually let's have that as an extremely broad entry on my Wishlist. More “Pretty” dragons, please. That's a pretty underutilized aesthetic in Pokemon, so far.

Weirdest/Most Unique:

Most Inventive Use of the Type:

...Is pretty much the same as the “Weirdest/Most Unique” section. I'm sure as later generations come out and I'll inevitably come back to these to update them, I'll have more Dragon types to mess around with.

DRAGON TYPE WISHLIST:

NOTE: These Type Wishlists were written out before any news on new Pokemon from Sword and Shield. The Pokemon revealed over time will not affect these wishlists. Just to present them unaltered despite spoilers and in the interest of getting the wishlist out there, and to see which items on said wishlists get fulfilled by Sword and Shield!

A Hoarding Dragon:

Having hoards of treasure is like, one of THE defining personality quirks of at least European dragons, so I'm just surprised we've not gotten something along those lines just yet. Gems, gold, metals. Hell, I'd even take one that hoards in-Universe Pokemon merch. Or a dragon that, in one way or another, IS its own hoard.

A Star-Dragon:

That's pretty specific, I know. Especially since we've got actually a couple of Dragons that fell from some form of outer space in both Kyurem and Guzzlord. But neither of those are really space-THEMED. I'm talking a stellar-themed Dragon. This goes with my wishes for more “pretty” dragons from earlier, minding how much beautiful imagery there's to draw from in space.

A Cockatrice:

These chicken-lizard hybrids are ripe for the Unorthodox Dragon crowd. And even with myths about them going on about their gaze either being able to kill or turn whatever they look at to stone. You could PROBABLY form a neat unique move around that.

A Qilin:

I just can't quit with the deer-creatures, man. I don’t know if I’ve brought it up here before, but I’m currently in an extremely early stage of making my own catch-all-the-monsters-type game of my own. And boy howdy it is AWFUL having five or so good ideas for deer monsters but within reasonability, I gotta narrow it down to just one. BAH.

Anyway, qirin are the specific term for the Chinese dragons you see with the more antler-like horns. Some interpretations of which go one step further until they are outright just deer-shaped dragons. Which I would be entirely down with seeing in Pokemon.

An Uroboros:

Man, I actually had quite a few more requests for Dragon type than I thought I would've.

My last entry on this wishlist is an Uroboros. A cross-culture icon you may recognize as the serpentine creature that eats itself, representing different things depending on which culture you ask. In some, it's about the cycle of life and death. To others, the passage of time. Whether you take these cultural relevancies to heart or not, there's still plenty of cool things you could do with an Uroboros and its weirdly wheel-shaped body.

That and it’s a symbol relevant to alchemy too. And for whatever reason, Pokemon is laying it on thick with the alchemy symbolism lately. So uroboros is perfect!

[Archive]

[starlight-starwings]

The Adventure Zone Season 2 quotes.

Unfortunately the quotes I saved between seasons 1 and 2 were lost because I got a new phone, so this is starting with episode 6 of Amnesty. If anyone has good quotes from the first arc, experimental arcs, ans the live shows during the experimental arcs, feel free to add or send them.

• - listen... ok, we could... agdgsbjsbuhah. how they eat and breathe... its just a show, just relax

- technically the .. waste water systems and the regular water systems of a city or not connected, and so like theres a lot of.. a lot of ways to figure it out. But yea, maybe you get the idea that this thing doesn't.. it can.. it.. is weird man...

• hey there adventure zone lovers. I dont know if that means you love adventure zone, or you... heh heh heh, ya know.

• - can you feel it?

- the idea of feeling is kinda weird-

- close your eyes and tell me if Im doing it

- well you already did- ok.

- close your eyes. Did I do it?

- you did it

- aaahh, I didnt

- ok. This is not a fun game for me

• - its our first day here!

- yeaa. Like... Let me ask you about the fucking... cast of Friends

- youre talking about Matt Leblanc and Matthew-

- Ah fuck.

- ah shit

- damn

- son of a b- he's good, he's real good

• - Don't I have to roll?

- we have not played dungeons and dragons in so fucking long!

- Here

- what are you rolling to do?!

• - tell me, is patience one of your more valued v-

- yes!

• Hey. No ideas bad. It just wasn't good.

• - I got eleven? You got any cash on you?

- uhh yea I happen to have nine bucks right here. Griffin cant prove otherwise.

• listen Pidgeon, here's the thing: I... love... to... practice fishing. But... the running water... frightens me. Its called hydrophobia. And I would love to practice my cast in a real water environment, where I can get in a large body of water, where I can guarantee that running water wont be a factor. And I would just love to practice my casting in a guaranteed still body. But here's the other thing! Sometimes if you do it in a lake, thats what youre thinking, a fish will bite it. And normally thats ideal but Im just trying to practice casting. If like.. when you dont want to catch em. Thats when they're biting. Ya know what I mean? I need a still body of water, that I can guarentee won't move, to practice my fishing casting.

• - Noooo

- are you sure?

- yeaaaaa

- Beause its our podcast!

- noooo

- we're actually doing our own podcast

• - Make uhhh.... check. You're gonna need to make a check for this one

- I got the gum. But I have the gum

- It's good gum; you'll have advantage on it.

• Cause I mean a 4 legged octopus is a horse.

• - What does control water do?

- Merle can- well gee wiz. It makes spaghetti! What do you think control water does?

- whats the fucking card say?

• Good you know my sister Jane was doing missionary work in Honduras and normally I would spend the uh, holidays with her. But uhh I had some friends come in from uhh out of town. And uhh... I wanted to communicare this to anybody who might be listening somehow, and I thought this might be a more organic way of uh, doing it.

• um... nah so ok right... so... the pizza hut sign... started to fall, cause of the weather. And he ran up there on a... fire escape, and tried to... push it? With a bat? Dammit. Nah. He just pushed it. And it fell. But then he fell. Cause he got shocked. I bet. Mmmm. I didn't see. I was in- Ah shit. Alright. Hey folk- hey guys. Rewind. I- hey guys rewind a second. Aahh fuck. I was inside I didn't see. Anything. I don't know. This man. I do know this man. His name- fuck. Alright. I'm met.. high net... here... Mmmm, alright. So, This man's is name is Ned. And he's uh.. friend of mine. And I dont know what the hell happened to him. But you know this guy. He's always getting into something. I don't know. I was in the building. I almost got killed by a pizza hut sign. I might be in shock.

• Write the fucking story with me! We are New York Times bestselling authors!

• - Ok. Go ahead. Uhh where are your wings? Obviously you can't see them right now because I'm wearing my disguise. Would you like to see my wings?

- Yes.

- I don't know you very well, so no, not- not quite yet.

• Aw Juno this is so embarrassing. Um last week, uhh, my truck got beat up, and I... I had to take it over to Whistle's. And he wa- while he was fixing it up I had to borrow yours to run out uh... to- to do a check on... a body of water. In... the... tree... zone... forest. Fuck. It was a body of water in the tree zone. And I had to check on it in your car. And when I- I drove your car, without asking, and... I think I left my... pants? No. Wallet? Money. I left my wallet in your truck and I was wondering if you could go look for it real quick.

• - a goat..

-well. No its.. i mean you look at the legs you can kinda see... yea...

- its pan!

- no were not crossing over

- there no crossover here sir. No.

• - oh thats easy. All you have to do is press that red button right there.

- and what will that do?

- itll give you the key sphere

- well hold on....

- merle casts zone of truth!

- so what happens when I press that button?

- the red button? Itll give you the key sphere

- what will the blue button do?

- it'll kill ya

- what would the other frankenstein tell us?

- well my companion over there always lies. He'll tell ya to hit the blue button.

- oh okay. Its kinda one of those- ya know what Im gonna check his flavor real quick

- ok.

- I flip the lever

- No that'll kill me!

- the other Frankenstein sits up and says oh hey! Im Frankenstein. A lot of people say Im Frankenstein's monster but-

- yea yea yea. Ok we get it. Uh is this Frankenstein in the zone as well?

- uh yea.

- These buttons over here what will the red one do?

- oh the red one? Its the key sphere one. I would've told you its the blue one.

- ok I slam-

- No listen. Listen. No listen. Listen listen listen. Hey. Stop wait! Im the liar Frankenstein.

- I hit the red button.

• - Merle casts shield of faith

- ok. On whom?

-um.. it surrounds a creature of my choice

- yeap. So..

- time to make that choice

- that is kinda the question I asked

• - are you a grief counselor?

- yea you a grief counselor?

- I do have some counseling experience, um, but right now think of me more as your friend.

- I could really use a grief counselor I think more than a friend at the moment. I got-

- ok then Im a grief counselor, yes.

• - and Im gonna roll 2 d6... god almighty... hatchy matchy...

- howd you do, Justin?

- Well I got a 4 on that one, Trav. Which is, what we call in the biz, we call that bad. That is less than ideal.

• A charisma check. Okay. Hahahaha! That's a threeee.

• I know how you young people talk: It was rad.

• hey! Hey man fucking bigfoots behind you dude, drive! Jesus Christ! Hey Ive been skitching this whole time brother, Im really sorry but you gotta fucking drive right now dude, come on! Im vulnerable as hell! Come on! Dont make me fight bigfoot, I want thinking through this shit, go! Im not gonna fucking fight bigfoot.

• No, you know what- I'm gon- ya know what? It's fine. Ya know what? Its fine. Its fine. Im gonna- it- thisll be fine. Thisll actually be fine. Uhhh Im gonna cast lightning bolt on the tank. I thought about it, thisll be fine.

• - dont worry, the rest of us will take care of this. I think the best plan is if the three of you go up the spire to face the final confrontation alone

- why is that the best plan??

- cause theres exactly enough people outside- robots outside, that we'll need all of the army...

- but then why dont we wait and help you kill all of the robots?

- we'll kill them and then we'll all go up together

- theres no time!

- what are you talking about were just fighting a bat- theres plenty of time

- we got a whole other act!

- huurrryy

- okay we'll hurry, yes fine, yes.

- good luck

- well now dont say that! You said to go on ahead!

- I'll remember you

- this passive aggressive stuff...

- youre sending mixed signals. Should we stay and-

- the doors that ive just invented shut behind you.

• Okay uh, Hollis. Let me ask you something: Okay, on the other side of this portal- im gonna lay it out for you. Alright. Are you ready? One hundred percent honesty. On the other side of this portal is another world. Just like, the same scope and size of ours, with a population of people, and... just like us. People just like us. Right? And... think about this. In... lets say West Virginia alone, not even the whole world, the whole earth, west Virginia alone, right. How many people do you think there is, a per capita ratio, thats murderers to just regular people? Right? So what if somebody said "there are murderers in west Virginia, so we're gonna march into west Virginia and kill everyone there, cause they might be murderers." Right so what if the only thing you knew about west Virginia is that some murderers came from here? And you said "so let's just go in and wipe everone out"? You would come in and wipe out the whole state, and murder innocent people, just in case they might be murderers. What does that make you, Hollis?

• - Aubrey what... what are you?

- Oh I'm bisexual.

- Do all of bisexuals have this power?

- Yes.

• - uh lets jump right in

- im in. Already. I actually got in before you did. Just to make sure the water was okay.

- oh how is it? Hows the scene doing?

- the scene is good. Im already in it, but because the narrator has not joined us we are locked in... stasis. We are characters in search of an author as it were, in the pernella play.

- so theyve been there for 2 weeks? Or whats up?

- theyve been there for 2 weeks. Locked in perfect stasis, until time itself should turn its gaze upon us and let us resume our merry roles in this play called existence.

• - did you get the part where we're gonna find the quail and just crush its heart or whatever?

- its uh- its- it- its quell

- yea thats what I said, quail

- you said quail like a big ol bird

- wait what are you saying?

- yea quail

- no quell

- quell?

- quell

- quail?

- quell

- kwäil?

- listen- listen kwaiell

- quail!

- you said quail. Its quell

- the mothman uh, grabs your wrist duck and looks at the watch on it and says 'boy howdy I sure hope that those arent several minutes that we will need to uh prevent the apocalypse. Because they are gone now.

• - Ju- Ju- wait a minute. Juno? Juno Devine?

- yes shes-

- Juno Devine is- shes in the forest service? (Switches to character voice) Ahh-ha! Well that makes a lot of sense! She- she loved the forest. That- ahh...

- that is... did you just do a player to character cross-fade?

- that was so fucking wild Ive never seen anything like that on this podcast

- that melted my brain

- it was like Clint started the sentence, and then Thacker ended the sentence

• I can roleplay a gay elf with magical powers. I dont think I could roleplay someone who likes beef jerky

• We've all been trying to help people right? And sometimes you fuck up. Sometimes people get hurt, sometimes you can't- sometimes you act and you do things, and you're wrong. And if you let the fact that you fucked up stop you from trying to help again, thats... thats the real mistake. Ive fucked up so many times. You cant be afraid to help. Because yea, you might hurt. But you also might help. You just have to keep helping. Dont be afraid. Im not.

• - query: are the extraterrestrial invaders engaging in deception? 89.84% affirm

- now listen. You all don't know Duck like I do. Believe me, he can not engage in deception to save his life.

- he's also an employee of the federal government!

- it skyrockets up to 98.64%

• It makes sense right? Great power; great responsibility. But you know what people forget? Is that the green goblin dosen't swing up to your door everyday and blow your whole life away and in one moment you have to figure out what to do, ya know? The responsibility is every day. Its every moment, and it's- every time I pick one of those saplings up and I put it in the ground, and pat the ground around it, and I pour water on it, and I think about our childrens childrens childrens children will breathe the air that this thing makes, and Minerva, thats power. Thats my responsibility. I dont have to fight no more. I did it. And now Im gonna grow.

[krokonoko]

It’s been a while since I completed this meme for all the other regions, and I felt it finally was time to add Alola!

Again, these are just my opinions, and if you find some of your favs among my least favs, remember than I would probably find some of my favs among your least favs too and that’s ok ^^

As you can see, a lot of Alola forms made it on this list, both on the positive and the negative side.

This gen had heaps of Pokemon I liked or even loved, but Alolan!Ninetales and ESPECIALLY Alolan!Vulpix kinda have a special place in my heart. When I was a kid, Vulpix and Ninetales used to be my fav Pokemon for a while, but my weird penchant for rarely liking Pokemon that are red or orange in color kinda made my love for them wane a bit over time. Most of my favourite Pokemon are either blue, green, or grey, sometimes yellow and even more rarely brown. What a coincidence that GF would release the EXACT same Pokemon with a blue color swap, as if made specifically for me! With their elegance, cuteness and A!Ninetales’ unique typing, these two quickly made it to my list of absolute favorite Pokemon of all time.

Decidueye is a complicated case. I'm a grass starter kinda guy, and not only was Rowlet adorable, but Decidueye was EXACTLY my kind of Pokemon for several personal reasons. Everything from its huge wings to its fluffy, long legs to the facial design and hood are perfect! My only problem with it is its Ghost typing. It feels like EVERY Pokemon knows some Dark attack move and so many Alolan forms are Dark types. Decidueye is also incredibly slow. All that made it very unreliable, when I think your starter Pokemon should always be your most reliable ally.

Salazzle is another complicated case. I loved Salandit from the moment I first saw it and heard its evil little cackling cry. Finally, we got a cool Fire type Pokemon!! And while I absolutely ADORE Salazzle's design, the way it is framed by the game, the way its model is posed and everything just really rubs me the wrong way. BUT I refuse to let this weird... sexualization-of-a-Pokemon thing... ruin my love for the first cool fully evolved Fire type we got in YEARS!

Still a bit on the fence about Alolan!Raichu, but ultimately, who can resist this adorable critter. Its design in Pokemon Ami are the cutest thing ever, the way its surfing on its own tail is SUCH an amazing idea, and the Psychic type is SUPER interesting. I'm just generally a fan of unique typings, and I was super happy that Raichu got a bit more attention this gen!

Who. Could not. Love Jangmo-o. Even when I'd only seen its silhouette, I already loved it to bits and pieces. The cute little grumpy face, that quadrupedal body-form that I actually miss a lot about many Pokemon nowadays... It's just the most cuddly dragon ever! ...Unfortunately, things happened. More on that later.

I really like elegant, feminine-lookin Pokemon. Lopunny, Gardevoir, Salazzle, they're all awesome. Frickin hate what the internet is doing to them, but as I said before, I'm not gonna let that ruin my love for these cool Pokemon. Tsareena is another one of those cases. It looks so cool and pretty, with the long leaf-like hair and Idk, what are those, boots?? It kicks people to death with those! How much more badass can you get? Can't wait to have one on my team.

Mudsdale, the obligatory awesome Ground type. It's a 2,5m tall horse, what's not to love???

LOVE the spikes on Alolan!Sandslash! They look all translucent and icy, it's great!

Alolan!Marowak is almost too cool to be true. A Ghost type as a nod to the Marowak mom of Lavender Town? But its also a Fire type and its bone can be used as a fire-staff?? I wish GF just followed through with these kinda trains of thought more often.

honorable mentions go to Primarina, cuz it’s super pretty, and Minior, cuz I love the idea and the different colored versions!

-

Now on to the negatives.

I’m sure I don’t have to explain the “every single UB and legendary” part anymore. Always hated them, always will hate them. Some less than others (Celesteela is kinda cool and UB Adhesive looks cute), and the sheer amount of UB hasn't really helped my attitude towards legendary Pokemon (cuz lbr, UBs are just that.)

Ah. Yes. Incineroar. From the moment the Dark typing and the whole “wrestler” deal was confirmed, it somehow became forbidden to criticize it. Cuz that's apparently such a cool, new and unique idea. Not like Emboar and especially Pignite are already based on wrestlers. Not like wrestlers are effectively the same thing as fighters. Not like Incineroar's Z-move literally conjures up a fighting rink. Not like Incineroar learns p much the same amount of Dark and Fighting moves. ...All in all: Not like this Pokemon is a Fighting type in all but name, right? If you like it, cool. But you gotta agree that the ppl disappointed by it were lead to believe Litten would evolve into a quadrupedal tiger that would be something ELSE than a frickin Fighting type for once. I know I'm constantly bemoaning the state of the Fire type and how they just don't make 'em like they used to, but honestly. Imho, this is a HUGE missed chance, and one we aren’t gonna get again any time soon.

Gumshoos... I don't understand why we needed a Trump Pokemon.

I've heard Araquanid has a LOT of fans, actually? And I'm not trying to criticize its design, I'm sure many people like it! It's just that personally, I'm a bit freaked out by it ^^°°

Okay these three Alola forms really baffle me?? Because I mean. Five out of my ten fav Pokemon are Alolan forms, which shows they CAN be cool. Why did GF have to troll so much with them? That kinda includes A!Persian and A!Exeggutor, tho I don't really dislike these two. I just wish GF hadn't wasted so much time with dumb jokes and given us more badass and interesting Alolan Pokemon like Marowak instead.

Last but not least, Kommo-o. Oh Kommo-o, I was so disappointed with you. It's not like it's a bad Pokemon design, it's just that again, I expected something completely different. Which is kinda my own fault I admit, but still. I really wanted Jangmo-o to stay all stout and. Well. QUADRUPEDAL. But considering GF's vendetta against fully evolved quadrupedal Pokemon, Kommo-o really shouldn't have come as a surprise. The other thing tho is that it really disappointed me on my team. For a semi-legendary Dragon/Fighting Pokemon, it kinda kept letting me down again and again. Alas, this was just not meant to be...

-

And that’s it! All in all, I was pretty satisfied with the Alolan roster, though it's the first gen in a long time that also made me think: This could've gone a lot better. And again, if you find your fav among my least favs, remember that I’m just some dumb person on the internet posting their opinions on their unimportant blog for their own personal entertainment, nothing more ;D

[tomstavern]

Take One

Alright! Welcome to the book, so glad you could make it! Tonight's show is entitled The Tested Love of Lorena and Bartholomew, or something less ridiculous. I'm sure we'll figure it out in the second draft. So! Without any further ado, let's get this show on the road!

LIGHTS!!

The sun shines on a quaint little hamlet. See the thatched roofs and the ox-drawn cart? Adorable.

CAMERA!!

We zoom in on the little town, closer and closer. Focus on a simple wooden barn, down through a hole in the ceiling and onto a young, bare-footed man. He gazes up at the lazily moving clouds through the slits in the ceiling. This is Bartholomew, one of the titular characters of this piece and I assure a remarkable performer.

 ACTION!!

"Ay me! How cruel are the gods to torment me thus! For what sin am I facing such fierce vengeance? My truest love, betrothed against her will, and in mere hours she will be wed to that barbarous dog, Earl Rochester!"

CUT!!

I'm sorry, that was… just awful. Alright, alright, don't stop reading yet! Let me think for a sec., we can fix this. 

Okay! I think I got it!

LIGHTS!!

The sun begins to set on the castle of Earl Worcestershire, an invincible fortress of solid stone surrounded by a moat. Completely inaccessible except by taking the heavily guarded drawbridge across.

CAMERA!!

We zoom down to a lone figure crossing the drawbridge and approaching the guards; a young, armor-clad man, with a sword and the kind of walk that means business. This is Bartholomew, you remember him.

ACTION!!

The guards rush out to meet him, but he makes short work of them. He thanks the gods for his lady love and his strong right arm. 

CUT!!

I'm pretty sure I read that book already. Don't close the book! Come on, buddy, have a little faith will ya? We're gonna make this work, alright? Maybe we should change the focus a bit. Let's take it from the top!

LIGHTS!!

The sun shines on a castle of stone and pretension. Surrounded by a moat to overcompensate. This is the castle of Earl Rottweiler.

CAMERA!!

Interior of the castle. Looking wistfully out the window is a pretty, young woman wearing a pretty, pink dress. This is Lorena, a titular character, Bartholomew's ‘truest love,' and a remarkable actress.

ACTION!!

"Ay, me!" Ho-

CUT!!

No! I just… please...

Okay. Let's try this again. Earl Rockefeller's castle, interior. Lorena leans against a wall, wearing a red dress. She calls for help. Okay? Okay.

Lights, Camera, Action…

The door opens and a guard enters. Lorena hits him on the back of the head, knocking him out, and takes his sword. Yeah! Get ‘em! She ties back her long, dark hair, gives the sword a practice swing and heads out into the hall. Look out, more guards! Oh… Looks like they're no match for the great Lorena! The finest sword- 

Oh, that's gross. It seems she isn't really okay with the whole ‘forced betrothal' thing. Look, I know that I'm supposed to tell you what's going on, but trust me, some things just aren't meant to be seen. Here's what you need to know: Swords are dangerous. Lorena is a master with a sword. Lorena is very dangerous, and she is pissed. Violently so. The earl's once richly decorated halls are now a nightmare that I will never be able to forget. 

Lorena runs through the castle, cutting down anyone even close to being in her way. Out the front doors and there's young Barty. Walking slowly across the drawbridge in armor too heavy for him, and holding a sword he can barely keep from dragging on the ground. Most warriors, and even many regular folks, would have laughed in his face, maybe even knocked him over on his back. Watch him turtle a little bit. But love is a funny thing. Covered in gore from her single-handed escape and massacre of the earl's guards, Lorena just smiled, and all the rage in her heart melted away.

Before she can speak, she hears footsteps behind her and the sound of crossbow bolts locking in place. She rushes forward, knocks Bartholomew to the ground, and tries to deflect the incoming bolts with her sword, but one slips past and into her stomach.

There is Earl Rockefeller, flanked by four crossbowmen. He smiles at Lorena, "What's wrong, baby, cold feet?"

CUT!!

What was that? That wasn't cool. Look, Earl, your betrothed just tried to run away on your wedding day, just before the wedding, killing dozens of your guards in the process, completely destroying your house, by the way. Trust me, you'll never get the place clean again, and you come out with a stupid line? Put some emotion into it! Really feel it! Alright, where were we? 

L,C,A.

There is Earl Rhododendron flanked by four crossbowmen. He looks at his bride to be and says, "Ay me! H-"`

CUT!!!

You're messing with me, right? You know what doesn't matter. The title doesn't mention an Earl or a villain of any kind.  So you're cut! You're finished! You'll never work in this book again! Not while I'm writing it  JACK!!

Does anyone have a problem with the way that just went down? No? Good. Let's see here, shouldn't be too difficult to replace that guy. Ah, yes, perfect. Let me just back up a bit.

L, C, A!

Lorena just smiled, and all the rage in her heart melted away. Before she could say anything, she heard the sound of crumbling stone and the unfurling of great wings. She ran forward to put herself in front of her love and turned to face her betrothed. Earl Rockback, a giant fire-breathing dragon. 

That's right, the king was crazy enough to make this literal monster an earl. AND it wants to get married. Which I think is admirable, I mean love has tamed many a fire breathing dragon. I don't agree with forcing said love onto someone who isn't into it, however. That's not okay.

So here we are, the moment we all wanted to see, as soon as I said the word ‘dragon' 71 words ago. The showdown. In this corner we have Lorena, a fierce warrior, master swordswoman, and reunited with his true love; who is NONE of those things, except the reunited with true love part. And 50 or 60 feet above this corner is Earl Rockback, a ferocious, fearsome, fire-breathing dragon who is just gonna destroy all of that. No question.

Fire erupts from Rockback's maw, but Lorena throws Bartholomew and herself off the bridge and into the moat. That bridge is incinerated! Lorena resurfaces and sees the Earl circling his castle as ash and bits of flaming wood rain down on her. Bartholomew is still at the bottom of the moat, drowning. Man, he's useless.

To be fair, he's trying not to drown, but that armor is just too heavy! Fortunately, Lorena sees this and hurries down to save him. She pulls him to the surface and the edge of the moat. He's unconscious and the Earl is on a full-blown rampage! The dragon flies behind the castle and she quickly pushes him onto the ground. To her surprise she is helped by a woman from the village. By the time they both are out on dry land the earl is tearing towards them. He opens his jaw, another blast of flame in his lungs, but he freezes as he hears,

"What are ye doin!? People live here, ye can't just burn everything down! You’re the Earl fer cryin' out loud!" It's the woman who helped the lovers out of the water, her red hair flowing in the breeze. When the Earl's red eyes met hers, his heart grew th-

CUT!!

What are you doing here!? Give me that! You got a lot of nerve, you know that? Very well. It seems our old friend the Earl is friends with my publisher who is demanding he gets put back into the story. So, my dear friend, let me show you how to compromise.

LIGHTS! CAMERA! ACTION!

Lorena pulls Bartholomew onto dry land and lifts herself out of the water in time to see Earl Rumplestiltskin soaring overhead and, for reasons no one can explain, turns into a human and falls sixty feet onto a cart of hay, which is not even close to soft enough to cushion a fall from that height.

A woman with red hair hurries over to help him. She drags him out of the cart, which isn't a good idea. You shouldn't move someone with a back injury unless it's an emergency. You also should pay close attention to your surroundings when you go from dragon to human, so overall this is the Earl's fault. 

I'm glad he'll never walk again, but love is a funny thing. Despite his body being shattered and weaker than ever, when he looked into that woman's eyes, his heart seemed stronger than ever. At dawn, one week later, there was a double wedding. Which is more than a little tacky, in my opinion, but you know how budgets are. One moment you have all the money you need, then you hire a dragon and you're stuck with a tacky double-wedding.

And they all lived happily ever after. The great hero, Lorena and her doting husband Bartholomew settled down in a cottage by the sea. Earl Rumplestiltskin (who lived decidedly less happily ever after) married the redheaded mystery woman, named Vidalia. She was more than happy to take care of her paralyzed husband and living in a castle. She wished she had a nicer wedding, but them's the brakes.

And so the sun sets on a quaint little hamlet with thatched roofs and ox-drawn carts set in the shadow of a castle that may or may not have been slightly used by a dragon. 

The camera zooms out farther and farther until the hamlet is swallowed up by the surrounding forest.

Roll credits.

The End.

Oh boy. We're all gonna get fired. Oh! Wait, you can save my job. Look, there'll be a sequel! Eh? How does that sound? It's going to be incredibly exciting, filled with action and the forces of good overcoming evil with true love's kiss! It's going to be epic, and the special effects will blow you away! I guarantee it!!

So, if you want to see that, and save our jobs, you just gotta buy several copies of this book and tell your friends about it. Make them buy more copies than you did. 

Yeah, this could work.

[truereviewpage]

Two Easy Kids Birthday Parties: Into The Woods & Under The Sea

We’ve had so much fun putting together kids birthday parties with random themes like worms and dragons (complete with a fire-breathing kid photo session). Shortly after our last party post back in 2014 (remember the “Pink & Gold Everything Party“?), we took a step back from the blog for a full year, and in that time we were both curious: would our enthusiasm for going “all out” wane in the absence of an active blog? I mean, “all out” is probably a relative term. It wasn’t My Super Sweet Sixteen and there wasn’t a petting zoo, but we did our fair share of decorating and having fun with a theme and cupcake toppers and favors and all that stuff.

The answer ended up being – sorta yes, and sorta no. When our kids requested a joint party in 2015 (their birthdays are just 4 weeks apart) we thought it would be an interesting test. We definitely went easier on ourselves and worried less about busting out the camera and taking ten million photos, but we had just as much fun taking a quirky theme and running with it.

Since this was our first time hosting a joint birthday party, we looked for the intersection of our kids interests (does a 12-month old have interests?) to guide the decorations. Our little lady was going through a big fairy phase (hence the fairy garden we made for her that year) and bears are always a safe bet for our boy, so the theme mash-up landed somewhere in the “Woodland/Forest” zone – complete with toadstool & bear cupcakes, faux butterflies sitting on various items, and even some fairy poop, but we’ll get there in a minute.

The gist of the party was the same as all of our previous ones: just a low-key outdoor hangout with friends and family, much like our pink and gold party the year before. We ordered pizza, set out some sprinklers for the kids, and even busted out a piñata at one point. The whole woodland/forest theme mostly came to life in the food… or at least our interpretation of the food, which we set out on a couple of floral tablecloths that we got at HomeGoods years ago (gotta love that they’re colorful and washable – here’s something similar for anyone looking).

From chips that got labeled “fairy wings” to pretzels turned “twigs” we basically took party standards and gave them woodsy names (written on folded card stock right before guests arrived). Was it a stretch? Maybe a little. Did it keep life simple, make the kids smile, and bypass any the-printer-isn’t-working-and-guests-get-here-in-four-minutes meltdowns? Totally.

And when your guests are primarily preschoolers, anything labeled “poop” – especially when they’re Skittles or brownie bites – is sure to be a big hit. Trust me on this.

I probably had the most fun with the cupcakes, making two sets – one for the fairy crowd, and another set for the bear-lovers. My favorite party trick in general involves already-made food. So it’s not really cooking or baking as much as “hacking” or “tweaking” what you can grab at the store (remember the dragon spikes I made with AirHeads?). The base of both the bear and the fairy toadstool cupcakes were just plain white/vanilla grocery-store cupcakes, and I converted one tray-full into bear faces using some mini Chips Ahoy cookies and a couple of chocolate chips for the eyes. Literally took five minutes and the kids loved ’em.

The fairy toadstools just got dipped top-down into a plateful of red sugar sprinkles (the fine kind that looks like glitter), and then got a few white spots thanks to some candies I found at the store (they were “York Piece’s Peppermint Candies” that came in blue and white – I just picked out the white ones). A wood slice “plate” I already had added some extra flair, along with some fake butterflies and a little plastic fairy.

Fast-forward a year to 2016 and we found ourselves hankering to simplify our annual birthday party even more. The kids both still wanted a joint one and we all thought it would be fun to have it at one of their favorite playgrounds this time around, so we reserved a few tables under their big canopy. It wasn’t a free venue like past years, but at $50 it was still cheaper than a lot of kids birthday party spots. And this year, thanks to the impending release of Finding Dory, both of our kids were going through a big ocean phase, so we brought a singular theme (“Under The Sea”) to life in a few simple ways. Why hello there, dolphin balloon.

Apart from the blue tablecloths and the fish-y balloons (we also grabbed this colorful one), the theme was represented once again mostly in the food. We made it a morning party, so things were a bit more breakfast-y. Think fruit, bagels, croissants, donuts, and coffee for the grown ups. Plus I threw together a few simple sea-inspired snacks that the little ones enjoyed playing with and eventually eating (that’s high praise when it comes to young kids).

Our daughter still talks about the croissant crabs and the banana dolphins. She looked at me like I was a magician when I made these, even thought I just used some tooth picks and eyes cut out of card stock to make the croissants into crustaceans (I didn’t have any googly eyes, but drawing them looking in different directions and adding lashes to some of them was fun). And it just took slicing the top of the banana, slipping a grape in, and adding two pen dots for eyes to make the banana dolphins (despite our bananas getting a little bruised in transport, they were still the biggest hit).

The goodie bags, which you can see there in the background, were also nice and simple (what’s a kids’ birthday party without a little sugar rush on the way out?) and these couldn’t have been easier to make. Just a handful of blue Jelly Bellys and some Goldfish crackers “swimming” on top. The clear plastic party bags are $3 for 20 at Target by the way, and I just used string I had in my craft room to tie them closed.

Now back to the aforementioned donuts. Since it was before noon when our kids blew out their candles, we thought these made more sense than cupcakes. They were just a few plates stacked with always-popular Krispy Kreme donuts that we picked up on the way and adorned with a few plastic sharks. I’m not sure exactly what story we were telling here: are sharks attacking the donuts? Are the donuts life preservers thrown in vain to the swimmers caught in the fray? Whatever it was, the kids were into it.

And that brings us to this year… which we actually didn’t photograph at all except for snapping a few candid shots of the kids running around and spinning so fast they might barf on the tire swing. I said at the start of this post that the last few years have been sort of an experiment in how “all out” we’d go for these parties, and I think we’ve seen a slow deceleration in how much effort and money are needed to ensure that our kids have a good time and feel celebrated (and a huge deceleration in how much time we spend documenting it).

I actually don’t think it has anything to do with whether or not we’re blogging – but as our kids have gotten older (they’re 7 and 3 now) we’ve realized they love a quirky snack or a random theme (we landed on “Bugs” this year) but they could care less about whether the tablecloth is consistent with the favors or whatever. They generally just want to be around their friends, to be sung to, and to stuff some icing in their cake holes.

So this year we sent an Evite out to a bunch of their friends for a meet-up at a neighborhood playground (no table reservation – it was free) and we rolled up with pizzas, drinks, cupcakes, a plethora of gummy worms, and some bright balloons. The weather was great, the kids exhausted themselves playing on every piece of equipment there was, and heck – even us adults had a nice chill time hanging out, not even thinking twice about the fact that the “good camera” stayed at home.

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[amplepower]

Two Easy Kids Birthday Parties: Into The Woods & Under The Sea

We’ve had so much fun putting together kids birthday parties with random themes like worms and dragons (complete with a fire-breathing kid photo session). Shortly after our last party post back in 2014 (remember the “Pink & Gold Everything Party“?), we took a step back from the blog for a full year, and in that time we were both curious: would our enthusiasm for going “all out” wane in the absence of an active blog? I mean, “all out” is probably a relative term. It wasn’t My Super Sweet Sixteen and there wasn’t a petting zoo, but we did our fair share of decorating and having fun with a theme and cupcake toppers and favors and all that stuff.

The answer ended up being – sorta yes, and sorta no. When our kids requested a joint party in 2015 (their birthdays are just 4 weeks apart) we thought it would be an interesting test. We definitely went easier on ourselves and worried less about busting out the camera and taking ten million photos, but we had just as much fun taking a quirky theme and running with it.

Since this was our first time hosting a joint birthday party, we looked for the intersection of our kids interests (does a 12-month old have interests?) to guide the decorations. Our little lady was going through a big fairy phase (hence the fairy garden we made for her that year) and bears are always a safe bet for our boy, so the theme mash-up landed somewhere in the “Woodland/Forest” zone – complete with toadstool & bear cupcakes, faux butterflies sitting on various items, and even some fairy poop, but we’ll get there in a minute.

The gist of the party was the same as all of our previous ones: just a low-key outdoor hangout with friends and family, much like our pink and gold party the year before. We ordered pizza, set out some sprinklers for the kids, and even busted out a piñata at one point. The whole woodland/forest theme mostly came to life in the food… or at least our interpretation of the food, which we set out on a couple of floral tablecloths that we got at HomeGoods years ago (gotta love that they’re colorful and washable – here’s something similar for anyone looking).

From chips that got labeled “fairy wings” to pretzels turned “twigs” we basically took party standards and gave them woodsy names (written on folded card stock right before guests arrived). Was it a stretch? Maybe a little. Did it keep life simple, make the kids smile, and bypass any the-printer-isn’t-working-and-guests-get-here-in-four-minutes meltdowns? Totally.

And when your guests are primarily preschoolers, anything labeled “poop” – especially when they’re Skittles or brownie bites – is sure to be a big hit. Trust me on this.

I probably had the most fun with the cupcakes, making two sets – one for the fairy crowd, and another set for the bear-lovers. My favorite party trick in general involves already-made food. So it’s not really cooking or baking as much as “hacking” or “tweaking” what you can grab at the store (remember the dragon spikes I made with AirHeads?). The base of both the bear and the fairy toadstool cupcakes were just plain white/vanilla grocery-store cupcakes, and I converted one tray-full into bear faces using some mini Chips Ahoy cookies and a couple of chocolate chips for the eyes. Literally took five minutes and the kids loved ’em.

The fairy toadstools just got dipped top-down into a plateful of red sugar sprinkles (the fine kind that looks like glitter), and then got a few white spots thanks to some candies I found at the store (they were “York Piece’s Peppermint Candies” that came in blue and white – I just picked out the white ones). A wood slice “plate” I already had added some extra flair, along with some fake butterflies and a little plastic fairy.

Fast-forward a year to 2016 and we found ourselves hankering to simplify our annual birthday party even more. The kids both still wanted a joint one and we all thought it would be fun to have it at one of their favorite playgrounds this time around, so we reserved a few tables under their big canopy. It wasn’t a free venue like past years, but at $50 it was still cheaper than a lot of kids birthday party spots. And this year, thanks to the impending release of Finding Dory, both of our kids were going through a big ocean phase, so we brought a singular theme (“Under The Sea”) to life in a few simple ways. Why hello there, dolphin balloon.

Apart from the blue tablecloths and the fish-y balloons (we also grabbed this colorful one), the theme was represented once again mostly in the food. We made it a morning party, so things were a bit more breakfast-y. Think fruit, bagels, croissants, donuts, and coffee for the grown ups. Plus I threw together a few simple sea-inspired snacks that the little ones enjoyed playing with and eventually eating (that’s high praise when it comes to young kids).

Our daughter still talks about the croissant crabs and the banana dolphins. She looked at me like I was a magician when I made these, even thought I just used some tooth picks and eyes cut out of card stock to make the croissants into crustaceans (I didn’t have any googly eyes, but drawing them looking in different directions and adding lashes to some of them was fun). And it just took slicing the top of the banana, slipping a grape in, and adding two pen dots for eyes to make the banana dolphins (despite our bananas getting a little bruised in transport, they were still the biggest hit).

The goodie bags, which you can see there in the background, were also nice and simple (what’s a kids’ birthday party without a little sugar rush on the way out?) and these couldn’t have been easier to make. Just a handful of blue Jelly Bellys and some Goldfish crackers “swimming” on top. The clear plastic party bags are $3 for 20 at Target by the way, and I just used string I had in my craft room to tie them closed.

Now back to the aforementioned donuts. Since it was before noon when our kids blew out their candles, we thought these made more sense than cupcakes. They were just a few plates stacked with always-popular Krispy Kreme donuts that we picked up on the way and adorned with a few plastic sharks. I’m not sure exactly what story we were telling here: are sharks attacking the donuts? Are the donuts life preservers thrown in vain to the swimmers caught in the fray? Whatever it was, the kids were into it.

And that brings us to this year… which we actually didn’t photograph at all except for snapping a few candid shots of the kids running around and spinning so fast they might barf on the tire swing. I said at the start of this post that the last few years have been sort of an experiment in how “all out” we’d go for these parties, and I think we’ve seen a slow deceleration in how much effort and money are needed to ensure that our kids have a good time and feel celebrated (and a huge deceleration in how much time we spend documenting it).

I actually don’t think it has anything to do with whether or not we’re blogging – but as our kids have gotten older (they’re 7 and 3 now) we’ve realized they love a quirky snack or a random theme (we landed on “Bugs” this year) but they could care less about whether the tablecloth is consistent with the favors or whatever. They generally just want to be around their friends, to be sung to, and to stuff some icing in their cake holes.

So this year we sent an Evite out to a bunch of their friends for a meet-up at a neighborhood playground (no table reservation – it was free) and we rolled up with pizzas, drinks, cupcakes, a plethora of gummy worms, and some bright balloons. The weather was great, the kids exhausted themselves playing on every piece of equipment there was, and heck – even us adults had a nice chill time hanging out, not even thinking twice about the fact that the “good camera” stayed at home.

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post Two Easy Kids Birthday Parties: Into The Woods & Under The Sea appeared first on Young House Love.

Two Easy Kids Birthday Parties: Into The Woods & Under The Sea posted first on your-t1-blog-url

[statusreview]

Two Easy Kids Birthday Parties: Into The Woods & Under The Sea

We’ve had so much fun putting together kids birthday parties with random themes like worms and dragons (complete with a fire-breathing kid photo session). Shortly after our last party post back in 2014 (remember the “Pink & Gold Everything Party“?), we took a step back from the blog for a full year, and in that time we were both curious: would our enthusiasm for going “all out” wane in the absence of an active blog? I mean, “all out” is probably a relative term. It wasn’t My Super Sweet Sixteen and there wasn’t a petting zoo, but we did our fair share of decorating and having fun with a theme and cupcake toppers and favors and all that stuff.

The answer ended up being – sorta yes, and sorta no. When our kids requested a joint party in 2015 (their birthdays are just 4 weeks apart) we thought it would be an interesting test. We definitely went easier on ourselves and worried less about busting out the camera and taking ten million photos, but we had just as much fun taking a quirky theme and running with it.

Since this was our first time hosting a joint birthday party, we looked for the intersection of our kids interests (does a 12-month old have interests?) to guide the decorations. Our little lady was going through a big fairy phase (hence the fairy garden we made for her that year) and bears are always a safe bet for our boy, so the theme mash-up landed somewhere in the “Woodland/Forest” zone – complete with toadstool & bear cupcakes, faux butterflies sitting on various items, and even some fairy poop, but we’ll get there in a minute.

The gist of the party was the same as all of our previous ones: just a low-key outdoor hangout with friends and family, much like our pink and gold party the year before. We ordered pizza, set out some sprinklers for the kids, and even busted out a piñata at one point. The whole woodland/forest theme mostly came to life in the food… or at least our interpretation of the food, which we set out on a couple of floral tablecloths that we got at HomeGoods years ago (gotta love that they’re colorful and washable – here’s something similar for anyone looking).

From chips that got labeled “fairy wings” to pretzels turned “twigs” we basically took party standards and gave them woodsy names (written on folded card stock right before guests arrived). Was it a stretch? Maybe a little. Did it keep life simple, make the kids smile, and bypass any the-printer-isn’t-working-and-guests-get-here-in-four-minutes meltdowns? Totally.

And when your guests are primarily preschoolers, anything labeled “poop” – especially when they’re Skittles or brownie bites – is sure to be a big hit. Trust me on this.

I probably had the most fun with the cupcakes, making two sets – one for the fairy crowd, and another set for the bear-lovers. My favorite party trick in general involves already-made food. So it’s not really cooking or baking as much as “hacking” or “tweaking” what you can grab at the store (remember the dragon spikes I made with AirHeads?). The base of both the bear and the fairy toadstool cupcakes were just plain white/vanilla grocery-store cupcakes, and I converted one tray-full into bear faces using some mini Chips Ahoy cookies and a couple of chocolate chips for the eyes. Literally took five minutes and the kids loved ’em.

The fairy toadstools just got dipped top-down into a plateful of red sugar sprinkles (the fine kind that looks like glitter), and then got a few white spots thanks to some candies I found at the store (they were “York Piece’s Peppermint Candies” that came in blue and white – I just picked out the white ones). A wood slice “plate” I already had added some extra flair, along with some fake butterflies��and a little plastic fairy.

Fast-forward a year to 2016 and we found ourselves hankering to simplify our annual birthday party even more. The kids both still wanted a joint one and we all thought it would be fun to have it at one of their favorite playgrounds this time around, so we reserved a few tables under their big canopy. It wasn’t a free venue like past years, but at $50 it was still cheaper than a lot of kids birthday party spots. And this year, thanks to the impending release of Finding Dory, both of our kids were going through a big ocean phase, so we brought a singular theme (“Under The Sea”) to life in a few simple ways. Why hello there, dolphin balloon.

Apart from the blue tablecloths and the fish-y balloons (we also grabbed this colorful one), the theme was represented once again mostly in the food. We made it a morning party, so things were a bit more breakfast-y. Think fruit, bagels, croissants, donuts, and coffee for the grown ups. Plus I threw together a few simple sea-inspired snacks that the little ones enjoyed playing with and eventually eating (that’s high praise when it comes to young kids).

Our daughter still talks about the croissant crabs and the banana dolphins. She looked at me like I was a magician when I made these, even thought I just used some tooth picks and eyes cut out of card stock to make the croissants into crustaceans (I didn’t have any googly eyes, but drawing them looking in different directions and adding lashes to some of them was fun). And it just took slicing the top of the banana, slipping a grape in, and adding two pen dots for eyes to make the banana dolphins (despite our bananas getting a little bruised in transport, they were still the biggest hit).

The goodie bags, which you can see there in the background, were also nice and simple (what’s a kids’ birthday party without a little sugar rush on the way out?) and these couldn’t have been easier to make. Just a handful of blue Jelly Bellys and some Goldfish crackers “swimming” on top. The clear plastic party bags are $3 for 20 at Target by the way, and I just used string I had in my craft room to tie them closed.

Now back to the aforementioned donuts. Since it was before noon when our kids blew out their candles, we thought these made more sense than cupcakes. They were just a few plates stacked with always-popular Krispy Kreme donuts that we picked up on the way and adorned with a few plastic sharks. I’m not sure exactly what story we were telling here: are sharks attacking the donuts? Are the donuts life preservers thrown in vain to the swimmers caught in the fray? Whatever it was, the kids were into it.

And that brings us to this year… which we actually didn’t photograph at all except for snapping a few candid shots of the kids running around and spinning so fast they might barf on the tire swing. I said at the start of this post that the last few years have been sort of an experiment in how “all out” we’d go for these parties, and I think we’ve seen a slow deceleration in how much effort and money are needed to ensure that our kids have a good time and feel celebrated (and a huge deceleration in how much time we spend documenting it).

I actually don’t think it has anything to do with whether or not we’re blogging – but as our kids have gotten older (they’re 7 and 3 now) we’ve realized they love a quirky snack or a random theme (we landed on “Bugs” this year) but they could care less about whether the tablecloth is consistent with the favors or whatever. They generally just want to be around their friends, to be sung to, and to stuff some icing in their cake holes.

So this year we sent an Evite out to a bunch of their friends for a meet-up at a neighborhood playground (no table reservation – it was free) and we rolled up with pizzas, drinks, cupcakes, a plethora of gummy worms, and some bright balloons. The weather was great, the kids exhausted themselves playing on every piece of equipment there was, and heck – even us adults had a nice chill time hanging out, not even thinking twice about the fact that the “good camera” stayed at home.

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post Two Easy Kids Birthday Parties: Into The Woods & Under The Sea appeared first on Young House Love.

Two Easy Kids Birthday Parties: Into The Woods & Under The Sea published first on your-t1-blog-url

[endlessarchite]

Two Easy Kids Birthday Parties: Into The Woods & Under The Sea

We’ve had so much fun putting together kids birthday parties with random themes like worms and dragons (complete with a fire-breathing kid photo session). Shortly after our last party post back in 2014 (remember the “Pink & Gold Everything Party“?), we took a step back from the blog for a full year, and in that time we were both curious: would our enthusiasm for going “all out” wane in the absence of an active blog? I mean, “all out” is probably a relative term. It wasn’t My Super Sweet Sixteen and there wasn’t a petting zoo, but we did our fair share of decorating and having fun with a theme and cupcake toppers and favors and all that stuff.

The answer ended up being – sorta yes, and sorta no. When our kids requested a joint party in 2015 (their birthdays are just 4 weeks apart) we thought it would be an interesting test. We definitely went easier on ourselves and worried less about busting out the camera and taking ten million photos, but we had just as much fun taking a quirky theme and running with it.

Since this was our first time hosting a joint birthday party, we looked for the intersection of our kids interests (does a 12-month old have interests?) to guide the decorations. Our little lady was going through a big fairy phase (hence the fairy garden we made for her that year) and bears are always a safe bet for our boy, so the theme mash-up landed somewhere in the “Woodland/Forest” zone – complete with toadstool & bear cupcakes, faux butterflies sitting on various items, and even some fairy poop, but we’ll get there in a minute.

The gist of the party was the same as all of our previous ones: just a low-key outdoor hangout with friends and family, much like our pink and gold party the year before. We ordered pizza, set out some sprinklers for the kids, and even busted out a piñata at one point. The whole woodland/forest theme mostly came to life in the food… or at least our interpretation of the food, which we set out on a couple of floral tablecloths that we got at HomeGoods years ago (gotta love that they’re colorful and washable – here’s something similar for anyone looking).

From chips that got labeled “fairy wings” to pretzels turned “twigs” we basically took party standards and gave them woodsy names (written on folded card stock right before guests arrived). Was it a stretch? Maybe a little. Did it keep life simple, make the kids smile, and bypass any the-printer-isn’t-working-and-guests-get-here-in-four-minutes meltdowns? Totally.

And when your guests are primarily preschoolers, anything labeled “poop” – especially when they’re Skittles or brownie bites – is sure to be a big hit. Trust me on this.

I probably had the most fun with the cupcakes, making two sets – one for the fairy crowd, and another set for the bear-lovers. My favorite party trick in general involves already-made food. So it’s not really cooking or baking as much as “hacking” or “tweaking” what you can grab at the store (remember the dragon spikes I made with AirHeads?). The base of both the bear and the fairy toadstool cupcakes were just plain white/vanilla grocery-store cupcakes, and I converted one tray-full into bear faces using some mini Chips Ahoy cookies and a couple of chocolate chips for the eyes. Literally took five minutes and the kids loved ’em.

The fairy toadstools just got dipped top-down into a plateful of red sugar sprinkles (the fine kind that looks like glitter), and then got a few white spots thanks to some candies I found at the store (they were “York Piece’s Peppermint Candies” that came in blue and white – I just picked out the white ones). A wood slice “plate” I already had added some extra flair, along with some fake butterflies and a little plastic fairy.

Fast-forward a year to 2016 and we found ourselves hankering to simplify our annual birthday party even more. The kids both still wanted a joint one and we all thought it would be fun to have it at one of their favorite playgrounds this time around, so we reserved a few tables under their big canopy. It wasn’t a free venue like past years, but at $50 it was still cheaper than a lot of kids birthday party spots. And this year, thanks to the impending release of Finding Dory, both of our kids were going through a big ocean phase, so we brought a singular theme (“Under The Sea”) to life in a few simple ways. Why hello there, dolphin balloon.

Apart from the blue tablecloths and the fish-y balloons (we also grabbed this colorful one), the theme was represented once again mostly in the food. We made it a morning party, so things were a bit more breakfast-y. Think fruit, bagels, croissants, donuts, and coffee for the grown ups. Plus I threw together a few simple sea-inspired snacks that the little ones enjoyed playing with and eventually eating (that’s high praise when it comes to young kids).

Our daughter still talks about the croissant crabs and the banana dolphins. She looked at me like I was a magician when I made these, even thought I just used some tooth picks and eyes cut out of card stock to make the croissants into crustaceans (I didn’t have any googly eyes, but drawing them looking in different directions and adding lashes to some of them was fun). And it just took slicing the top of the banana, slipping a grape in, and adding two pen dots for eyes to make the banana dolphins (despite our bananas getting a little bruised in transport, they were still the biggest hit).

The goodie bags, which you can see there in the background, were also nice and simple (what’s a kids’ birthday party without a little sugar rush on the way out?) and these couldn’t have been easier to make. Just a handful of blue Jelly Bellys and some Goldfish crackers “swimming” on top. The clear plastic party bags are $3 for 20 at Target by the way, and I just used string I had in my craft room to tie them closed.

Now back to the aforementioned donuts. Since it was before noon when our kids blew out their candles, we thought these made more sense than cupcakes. They were just a few plates stacked with always-popular Krispy Kreme donuts that we picked up on the way and adorned with a few plastic sharks. I’m not sure exactly what story we were telling here: are sharks attacking the donuts? Are the donuts life preservers thrown in vain to the swimmers caught in the fray? Whatever it was, the kids were into it.

And that brings us to this year… which we actually didn’t photograph at all except for snapping a few candid shots of the kids running around and spinning so fast they might barf on the tire swing. I said at the start of this post that the last few years have been sort of an experiment in how “all out” we’d go for these parties, and I think we’ve seen a slow deceleration in how much effort and money are needed to ensure that our kids have a good time and feel celebrated (and a huge deceleration in how much time we spend documenting it).

I actually don’t think it has anything to do with whether or not we’re blogging – but as our kids have gotten older (they’re 7 and 3 now) we’ve realized they love a quirky snack or a random theme (we landed on “Bugs” this year) but they could care less about whether the tablecloth is consistent with the favors or whatever. They generally just want to be around their friends, to be sung to, and to stuff some icing in their cake holes.

So this year we sent an Evite out to a bunch of their friends for a meet-up at a neighborhood playground (no table reservation – it was free) and we rolled up with pizzas, drinks, cupcakes, a plethora of gummy worms, and some bright balloons. The weather was great, the kids exhausted themselves playing on every piece of equipment there was, and heck – even us adults had a nice chill time hanging out, not even thinking twice about the fact that the “good camera” stayed at home.

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post Two Easy Kids Birthday Parties: Into The Woods & Under The Sea appeared first on Young House Love.

Two Easy Kids Birthday Parties: Into The Woods & Under The Sea published first on http://ift.tt/2qxZz2j

[truereviewpage]

Two Easy Kids Birthday Parties: Into The Woods & Under The Sea

We’ve had so much fun putting together kids birthday parties with random themes like worms and dragons (complete with a fire-breathing kid photo session). Shortly after our last party post back in 2014 (remember the “Pink & Gold Everything Party“?), we took a step back from the blog for a full year, and in that time we were both curious: would our enthusiasm for going “all out” wane in the absence of an active blog? I mean, “all out” is probably a relative term. It wasn’t My Super Sweet Sixteen and there wasn’t a petting zoo, but we did our fair share of decorating and having fun with a theme and cupcake toppers and favors and all that stuff.

The answer ended up being – sorta yes, and sorta no. When our kids requested a joint party in 2015 (their birthdays are just 4 weeks apart) we thought it would be an interesting test. We definitely went easier on ourselves and worried less about busting out the camera and taking ten million photos, but we had just as much fun taking a quirky theme and running with it.

Since this was our first time hosting a joint birthday party, we looked for the intersection of our kids interests (does a 12-month old have interests?) to guide the decorations. Our little lady was going through a big fairy phase (hence the fairy garden we made for her that year) and bears are always a safe bet for our boy, so the theme mash-up landed somewhere in the “Woodland/Forest” zone – complete with toadstool & bear cupcakes, faux butterflies sitting on various items, and even some fairy poop, but we’ll get there in a minute.

The gist of the party was the same as all of our previous ones: just a low-key outdoor hangout with friends and family, much like our pink and gold party the year before. We ordered pizza, set out some sprinklers for the kids, and even busted out a piñata at one point. The whole woodland/forest theme mostly came to life in the food… or at least our interpretation of the food, which we set out on a couple of floral tablecloths that we got at HomeGoods years ago (gotta love that they’re colorful and washable – here’s something similar for anyone looking).

From chips that got labeled “fairy wings” to pretzels turned “twigs” we basically took party standards and gave them woodsy names (written on folded card stock right before guests arrived). Was it a stretch? Maybe a little. Did it keep life simple, make the kids smile, and bypass any the-printer-isn’t-working-and-guests-get-here-in-four-minutes meltdowns? Totally.

And when your guests are primarily preschoolers, anything labeled “poop” – especially when they’re Skittles or brownie bites – is sure to be a big hit. Trust me on this.

I probably had the most fun with the cupcakes, making two sets – one for the fairy crowd, and another set for the bear-lovers. My favorite party trick in general involves already-made food. So it’s not really cooking or baking as much as “hacking” or “tweaking” what you can grab at the store (remember the dragon spikes I made with AirHeads?). The base of both the bear and the fairy toadstool cupcakes were just plain white/vanilla grocery-store cupcakes, and I converted one tray-full into bear faces using some mini Chips Ahoy cookies and a couple of chocolate chips for the eyes. Literally took five minutes and the kids loved ’em.

The fairy toadstools just got dipped top-down into a plateful of red sugar sprinkles (the fine kind that looks like glitter), and then got a few white spots thanks to some candies I found at the store (they were “York Piece’s Peppermint Candies” that came in blue and white – I just picked out the white ones). A wood slice “plate” I already had added some extra flair, along with some fake butterflies and a little plastic fairy.

Fast-forward a year to 2016 and we found ourselves hankering to simplify our annual birthday party even more. The kids both still wanted a joint one and we all thought it would be fun to have it at one of their favorite playgrounds this time around, so we reserved a few tables under their big canopy. It wasn’t a free venue like past years, but at $50 it was still cheaper than a lot of kids birthday party spots. And this year, thanks to the impending release of Finding Dory, both of our kids were going through a big ocean phase, so we brought a singular theme (“Under The Sea”) to life in a few simple ways. Why hello there, dolphin balloon.

Apart from the blue tablecloths and the fish-y balloons (we also grabbed this colorful one), the theme was represented once again mostly in the food. We made it a morning party, so things were a bit more breakfast-y. Think fruit, bagels, croissants, donuts, and coffee for the grown ups. Plus I threw together a few simple sea-inspired snacks that the little ones enjoyed playing with and eventually eating (that’s high praise when it comes to young kids).

Our daughter still talks about the croissant crabs and the banana dolphins. She looked at me like I was a magician when I made these, even thought I just used some tooth picks and eyes cut out of card stock to make the croissants into crustaceans (I didn’t have any googly eyes, but drawing them looking in different directions and adding lashes to some of them was fun). And it just took slicing the top of the banana, slipping a grape in, and adding two pen dots for eyes to make the banana dolphins (despite our bananas getting a little bruised in transport, they were still the biggest hit).

The goodie bags, which you can see there in the background, were also nice and simple (what’s a kids’ birthday party without a little sugar rush on the way out?) and these couldn’t have been easier to make. Just a handful of blue Jelly Bellys and some Goldfish crackers “swimming” on top. The clear plastic party bags are $3 for 20 at Target by the way, and I just used string I had in my craft room to tie them closed.

Now back to the aforementioned donuts. Since it was before noon when our kids blew out their candles, we thought these made more sense than cupcakes. They were just a few plates stacked with always-popular Krispy Kreme donuts that we picked up on the way and adorned with a few plastic sharks. I’m not sure exactly what story we were telling here: are sharks attacking the donuts? Are the donuts life preservers thrown in vain to the swimmers caught in the fray? Whatever it was, the kids were into it.

And that brings us to this year… which we actually didn’t photograph at all except for snapping a few candid shots of the kids running around and spinning so fast they might barf on the tire swing. I said at the start of this post that the last few years have been sort of an experiment in how “all out” we’d go for these parties, and I think we’ve seen a slow deceleration in how much effort and money are needed to ensure that our kids have a good time and feel celebrated (and a huge deceleration in how much time we spend documenting it).

I actually don’t think it has anything to do with whether or not we’re blogging – but as our kids have gotten older (they’re 7 and 3 now) we’ve realized they love a quirky snack or a random theme (we landed on “Bugs” this year) but they could care less about whether the tablecloth is consistent with the favors or whatever. They generally just want to be around their friends, to be sung to, and to stuff some icing in their cake holes.

So this year we sent an Evite out to a bunch of their friends for a meet-up at a neighborhood playground (no table reservation – it was free) and we rolled up with pizzas, drinks, cupcakes, a plethora of gummy worms, and some bright balloons. The weather was great, the kids exhausted themselves playing on every piece of equipment there was, and heck – even us adults had a nice chill time hanging out, not even thinking twice about the fact that the “good camera” stayed at home.

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post Two Easy Kids Birthday Parties: Into The Woods & Under The Sea appeared first on Young House Love.

Two Easy Kids Birthday Parties: Into The Woods & Under The Sea published first on http://ift.tt/2qCHnUt