Avery's Daniel Tiger Party

Hi friends!  I hope that you are doing well!  We are pretty good.  I'm having a small flair up with my liver but hopefully it will pass soon.

Today, I'm sharing a few things from Avery's birthday party.  My kids LOVE picking themes that I can't just run to the store and buy.  Avery's birthday is a couple days after Christmas and I was just spent so I didn't do a ton of crafting.  I did want to share the few things I made with you.  Most of it came from the PBSkids website.   (I am no way affiliated with PBSkids, I just appreciate that they had a bunch of printables on their site for free.)

First I made this Trolley with print outs and directions from PBSkids.org.  I used a smaller sized diaper box (the box that holds about 100 diapers) and it was too small for the directions they gave.  I'd say a box that holds about 150 diapers would be better.  I also had to freehand cut the red roof part down because after I put it on my box that was too small, the roof looked way too big.  I used the blue Marvy circle punch for the wheels/light and I think I cut the gray paper at about 1.5 inches in width.  The directions on the site and a little vague.

Here's my little Avery Tiger.  I got the sweater from a local moms group when I posted about trying to find Daniel Tiger items locally.  The lady and her husband made this super sweet sweater for their daughter.  They found a sweater like the ones the kids wear on the show and sewed a Daniel Tiger patch on it.  It's so cute and I'm so lucky that wonderful lady saw my post!  I couldn't find tiger pants so these are actually $3 Walmart zebra print leggings that Dustin dyed orange with Rit dye.  I tried finding red shoes but they were all about $30 and I didn't want to spend that on shoes she might wear once.  The buns are supposed to be her tiger ears.  

I didn't get a picture before the party started since I was running around like a crazy person but at each of the place settings we had a couple coloring sheets (print them here) and I tied a few crayons together with Halloween Divine Twine.  I also put little bottles of bubbles which was a HUGE mistake because we were at an ice cream parlor and I wish I would have put Divine Twine on those too.

Here's Avery with her cake that was a nightmare to get.  It's from Bel Air but if you order one, be sure to call the night before or the morning of to confirm that they actually MADE your cake.  We got to the store and they had NO cake for us.  Finally, they said they would just make us a cake and give us our money back but it would take 10 minutes (which was AWFUL because we just swung by to pick it up on the way to the party.)  It's one of those images they print and put on the cake so I'm sure they have them at different stores.  

Here's the favor I made for the party.  I'm trying not to give so many little dollar store toys to kids for goody bags because well I dislike getting them.  I feel guilty throwing them away but they are usually cheap and break.  I've switched to only doing consumable favors (not just food but things like bubbles, crayons, etc... that can be used up.)  I was going to make cake balls but my friend Summer convinced me to do pretzel tiger tails which they do at Disneyland as Tigger tails.  (They actually have this as an idea of PBSkids too.)  I put them in a long bag and tied them with Halloween Divine Twine which looks great at a tiger themed party.  Dustin made the print out that I placed in the basket.

Have a grrrrrr-rific day, everyone!

Pink and Purple Birthday Party

Hi friends!  I hope you are well!  We are ok.  A couple of the kids seem to have a little cold.  Fingers crossed that it doesn't get worse than that.

Today, I'm sharing some pictures from my daughter's birthday party.  Sigh...  I'm late in sharing the pictures.  I was late in having the party.  I guess the theme should have just been LATE.  ;)  Originally, we were going to do a Princess Tea Party themed party but we were so sick in late December and almost all of January.  We decided to throw together a little party and this is what I came up with.  I spent almost nothing on this party but we were all happy with it.

I always have this line and hook thing (I don't know what it's called) from Ikea up for the kids's art.  I decided to change out all the kid art with some pictures, doilies, and some Whisker Graphics Bitty Bags.  

I love this little area!  I framed a doily that I wrote on.  The writing says "Thanks for coming to celebrate our Cutie!"  We gave away Cutie oranges as party favors because I'm kind of done buying tiny cheap toys that will get thrown in the trash.  I added a jar with burlap and lace, a candle, and a framed pic.  I thought this was so cute!

I found this little chest in front of a neighbor's house one day with a bunch of stuff and a sign that said "free."  Woot woot!  I added a bunch of dress up items for the little girls to play with.  There was jewelry from the Dollar Tree, headbands, tutus, hats, etc...

Here's the gift table and back door decorated.  We also hung some balloons that I blew up from the light fixture.  So easy, so cheap!

Here's some of the food I made for the party.  Let me know if you want any recipes!

My daughter LOVES balloons and lollipops so I made these little balloon bouquet cupcakes for her.  I used the cheap thin ribbon from Michael's to tie a bow around the center lollipop.  

I made dipped marshmallows in pink and purple.  I put them in a jar with some sprinkles at the bottom.  These were a HUGE hit and they are SO much easier than cake pops!

I made some colored popcorn for the party as well.  This is SO easy and everyone loves it.  Let me know if you want a recipe post!

I hope you enjoyed a look into my daughter's birthday!  Have a great day, friends!  

Minnie Mouse Baby Sprinkle

Hi friends!  I hope you are doing well!  I just got off two really busy weeks.  First, we went on vacation then I came back and helped with a baby "sprinkle" for my bestie.  It's been keeping me super busy!

Today, I wanted to share some pictures from the party with you.  I didn't get a chance to do as much as I would like but it still turned out super cute!

Here are the Minnie Mouse cupcakes I made.  I got the cupcake liners at Michael's and the bows at Target.  I saw a Mickey Mouse like this on Pinterest and adapted the idea.

This is the basket of party favors that I made.  I just put some ribbon on a basket.

Here are the party favors.  I made baby rattles using dipped marshmallows and regular mini marshmallows.  I used a printable from The Lovebug Blog for the Minnie bows and hubby put text on them in Photoshop for me.  I used tiny favor bags and a tiny attacher.

I made up a special recipe for the party, Minnie's Bows and Dots pasta salad.  It's bow tie pasta, tomatoes, black olives, and string cheese.  I dressed it with a balsamic vinaigrette.

I made bows similar to the ones I saw on The Lovebug Blog.

 I made these garlands from punched card stock and Divine Twine.

 My friend Karen made this GORGEOUS beverage bar.  Aren't her Minnie Mouse decorations SO cute??  She even decorated the red solo cups with little white dot stickers to make them look like Minnie's dress.  She also made the hanging Minnie Mouse heads on the ribbons that you see on the other pictures.

Hope you enjoyed a look into this special party!  Have a great day, friends!  

Fun Toddler/Kid Snack and Raise Awareness

Hi friends!  I hope you are doing well!  We are pretty good over here.  The baby is teething but other than that, we are pretty healthy.

Today, I wanted to share these little Valentine's Day treats that I made for Avery to give to her friends.  These are so cute and very well received.  They are fairly simple other than the filling of the bags part.  I had the most success with filling one side, zipping it shut, then using my fingers to create a clamp on that bag in the center and filling the other side then closing it.  I used the snack sized baggies because I wanted them to look more like a dragonfly than a butterfly.  I used a regular sized clothespin and covered the bottom part with washi tape.  I drew on a face with Sharpie pen.  I added pipe cleaners as antennae.  I printed out these cute Valentines (but I think you could use them for handing out a snack at school or a sports event or even party favors.  You can download the Unravel Color Valentines HERE or the black and white ones HERE.  I did the black and white ones since I don't have a color printer.  Then I used some glitter glue to fill in the hearts and dragonfly wings.   I ended up slipping the paper into the top of the clip so I could just hand them out as one piece.

For different ideas on how you can help Unravel Pediatric Cancer, check out their Give Us 12 page.

Minecraft Birthday Party (Photo Heavy)

Hi friends!  I hope that you are well.  I've been better.  Not going to lie.  Fingers crossed that I'll be a-okay for Halloween.

Today, I'm doing an extremely overdue blog post.  I'm posting about the boys's Minecraft Birthday Party that happened four months ago.  I don't know why but I always drag my feel on blogging about parties.  I think it's all the editing photos and figuring out what I want to say about the crafts.  Also, let's take a moment to mention that I know NOTHING about Minecraft.  I had to run these things by D and the boys to make sure they were in the game.  If I say something wrong about the game, I'm sorry.  Ok, here we go!

As per usual, Dustin made the invite.  Honestly, it was nicer when he made it but I went in and edited out our personal information and made it not as good.  But you get the idea.

Sorry for the blurry picture.  Actually, none of these are pictures I took.  I get really overwhelmed doing everything for a party that I forget to take pictures.  Brady wanted a portal into the party.  Apparently, Minecraft has portals.  Dustin printed out the sign in this font he found and then we used black and purple streamers to make it look like the portal.

Also for decoration, we had these spiders.  It's just a black balloon and I cut out red rectangles for the eyes.  Then D did the legs with streamer.

For food, we had all food that could be found in Minecraft or food that looks like things from Minecraft.  For example, we had pretzel sticks for sticks, we had gold wrap chocolate pieces from gold ingot, swedish fish for fish, etc...  D created signs for all the food including what you can use them for in Minecraft.  For example, you can use coal and sticks to make a torch.  I think.  I'm trying to read tiny signs in pictures.  

 For the party favors, I bought Green Paper Party Favor Bags and colored Creeper Faces on them.  The kids got to fill a bag with all the Minecraft "supplies" (aka candy) to take home.  Sorry parents but this idea was too good to pass up.

For drinks, we make a Brewing Stand which is a thing in the game.  Our friends had made a lemonade stamp for their daughter's birthday and we asked to use it.  We covered up the top with poster board and our sign.  We added balloons and streams.  On the left is "Creeper Aid" which is lemonade with green food coloring.  On the right, we have "potions" which were a bunch of those favorings you add to water bottles.  We had the drops and the single packet powder things.  There was a tub next to this with ice and water bottles.  This was a HUGE hit.  

My bestie Summer made the boys this cake for their birthday gift.  She spent DAYS cutting out the little fondant squares and making it all fit.  It looked AWESOME!  The kids loved this cake!

Since the cake only feeds 20, I made some cupcakes to look like the cake in the game.  I couldn't find red square sprinkles or candy so I used hearts.  No one seemed to mind.  

For games, I made a Pin the Tail on the Pig.  I just made this out of a poster board and some card stock.  You know you love your kids when you pull out your nice Bazzill cardstock for a pig game.  I put numbers on the tails and had the kids remember their numbers.  

We also had a craft station where you could make your own mask.  We cut 10x10 pieces of foam board and duct taped tongue depressors to them.  I cut out a BUNCH of different colored squares from construction paper and provided glue sticks.  D had to sit there and cut out the eye holes with a pocket knife during the party.  We also had a contest where a judge picked the best mask and they got a prize.  My step brother was in the other room doing homework and he randomly picked the smallest kid to get the prize, it was adorable.  

We also set up a Photo Booth for the kids.  We bought the Minecraft Creeper Head and the Steve Head.  I just used construction paper to make the tree and clouds for the background.  It was the world's easiest photo booth and the kids LOVED it!

 I spent HOURS making this sword because I didn't want to spend the money buying one.  It was an extremely frustrating project and I do not recommend it at all.  I cut all the squares, Dustin cut the foam then it wasn't thick enough so he had to cut another piece of foam and it was STILL not thick enough so he had to put cardboard in the middle.  Yeah, it probably took close to 13 hours to complete.  Do yourself a favor and BUY Minecraft Diamond Sword for the $12 instead.  Seriously.

 This is Brady and Dustin in their matching shirts.  Teehee!

It was a fun party and everyone had a great time.  I told the boys that this was the last year that I'm doing a huge DIY craft party for them.  Sigh... we'll see when next year rolls around.  Plus, I still have a little princess to plan a party for in December...

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Ready to Pop Baby Shower

Hi friends!  I hope you're doing well!  We are ok.  This last week was super busy.  I'm hoping not to have a week like that for a while.  I just overcommitted and that's ok.  Live and learn.

One of the events I had last week was a baby shower for my friend who is due to have her baby next month.  Today, I'm going to share the projects that I made for the shower.  I'm really getting into making things for parties.  (I actually still need to blog the boys's birthday party.  Who knows when that will happen.)

This is the invite that Dustin pretty much made on his own.  I gave him an idea of what I wanted and he makes it happen.  

This is the sign I made for the front door.  

Here are all the elements of the party favors.  I made a sign, decorated some favor bags, and had 3 different kinds of popcorn.  The favor bags are Whisker Graphics White Horizontal Stripe Middy Bitty Bags with Scrolly Square Sweet Sticky Labels in Pink on top.

Here are the drinks and some little "POP" themed treats.

And here's the banner I made with some Spellbinders rectangles and circles.  The letters were cut for me by my friend Elly on her Silhouette.  The onesies are a die from Taylored Expressions.  I added a few little rhinestones to the onesies to dress them up.  The banner was strung together by my friend Cynthia using Cotton Candy Divine Twine and Purple Plum Divine Twine to match the party colors.

We also had balloons and streamers for decorations and some great games!  It was such a fun shower and I'm so glad that people seemed to have a really great time.  Have a great day, friends!

Ninja Turtle Party

Hi friends!  I hope you're having an amazing day!  We are doing pretty well.  The boys are both in school and we are trying to get our routine down.  Avery is learning new things everyday.  Time is going by SO fast.

Here are some crafts and pictures from the boys's Ninja Turtle birthday party this summer.  It was really hard to craft with a baby so it was pretty minimal.  All the ideas are from Pinterest.

Here's the cake, from Safeway.  

For favors, we made all the kids masks inspired by THIS POST.  We used the remainder of the t-shirt material to make bands the kids could tie around their arms and legs.  Each kid got to be a Ninja Turtle, they loved it!

 Ninja Turtle balloons and lanterns were inspired by THIS POST.  The balloons had eyes that were punched from white cardstock then Brady colored the black parts.  The lanterns got google-y eyes.

And that was it for crafts.  We will see if I can be more crafty for Avery's birthday.  Have a great weekend, friends!