playing the dirty diaper game on the cheap

i have posted multiple times that i was responsible for the baby shower games. one of my fave games is the dirty diaper game. i had spent money on a ton of stuff and that limited my overall budget. normally, i've just used mommy to be's disposable diaper's. but since the mom was going to be using cloth diapers and afraid chocolate would leave a stain on cloth diapers, i had to come up with an alternative. i looked at buying disposable diapers, but my they are expensive. i looked online thinking i could find an origami design for diapers and make origami diapers with paper towels. after an hour of searching, i only found photos on flicker but no instructions. so, in a pinch, i winged it and think everything turned out okay. here's what i did and some pics from the shower of us playing the game.

supplies:

• enough paper towels for the number of dirty diapers you want to create(i recommend 6-8)
• scissors
• as many candy bars as you want dirty diapers
• tape or safety pins
• a pen, marker, or crayon
• paper and writing utensil for each of the players(i used crayons cause i thought they would be cute for a baby shower.)

instructions:

take the paper towel which begins as a rectangle and fold it into a triangle to make it a square.

cut off the excess

keep the paper towel in the triangle. fold up all three sides of the triangle leaving small slits as if it were a real diaper with leg holes.

unfold the sides and place a bit of a candy bar inside. you may need to microwave the diaper for 10 seconds to get the chocolate mushy inside the diaper.

use either scotch tape or a safety pin to hold down the three sides folding down the two sides then the center triangle.

be sure to number the "diaper" on the back. make a key to use while playing the games. i recommend going with classic candy bars everyone is familiar with so people can easily guess them. you also want candy bars that will be sort of chunky to make it more poo like. don't try to trick people by getting the "dark" version of candy bars. trust me this game is harder than you think.

some of my favorite candy bars to use are:

• hershey's bar
• baby ruth
• mr. goodbar
• milky way
• nestle crunch
• snickers
• 100 grand
• butterfinger
• caramello
• almond joy
• 3 musketeers
• twix
• kit kat

at the shower, pass around the dirty diapers and have everyone guess which candy bar is inside each diaper. the person with the most correct wins a prize. here are some pics of our guests playing the dirty diaper game.

my confetti pasta salad

for the baby shower, i was asked to make my confetti pasta salad. as usual, it was a huge hit. so, i thought i'd share the recipe here.

my confetti pasta salad

1 lb pasta whatever shape suits your fancy i use rotini most frequently esp tricolor(garden)
zesty italian dressing either a bottle of store bought or homemade but must be zesty not regular italian
extra packet of zesty italian dressing with no liquids added
1-16 oz cubed cheddar cheese preferrably sharp
2 cans sliced black olives
1 green pepper diced
1 red pepper diced
1 yellow pepper diced
2-3 broccoli florets cute into bite sized pieces
1 package grape or cherry tomatoes halvedor quartered depending on their size
1 cucumber with peel left on for color sliced then quartered

other add-ins
1 can of sweet corn
1can of black beans drained and rinsed
peperoni slices halved or quartered(obviously, i never use this but one of my friends does.)
bacon bits
artichoke hearts quartered
feta cheese

cook pasta, drain, and cool. add all other ingredients and toss. i recommend allowing to set in the refridgerator overnight to allow the dressing to thoroughly flavor all the ingredients.

the approaching storm

i went outside hoping to get some photos of my crocuses and daffodils. i still need to get the 70-200mm vr lens to get the type of macro photos of flowers i want. that wasn't the only issue. many of my daffodils already in bloom are dying, so looks like i need to wait a day or two for new ones to bloom. however, it looks like a storm is approaching; and i did get some shots of that. the first few are cloud shots something i really like to capture even though aiming at the sun can be dangerous.

the next few shots include some landscape.

and finally, the few flower pics that i did kind of like though they need a lot of editing and will probably still not cut it to me.

see how not only can i not get close enough but the edges are looking a bit dark and the outside petals have fallen off since it is close to dying.

i just kind of liked the way these succulents looked like flowers to me.