A Backyard Camp Birthday Party: DIY Ideas

Back in October our sweet son turned 5 - I'm still trying to process that. Just like we have done over the past several years we had a little DIY party for him.  This year he chose the theme - he wanted a backyard campsite, a fire with marshmallows and a tent.  That sounded super fun to us so we went with it and came up with several easy and fun DIY projects for the day!  Here is a little recap and some ideas for hosting your own backyard campsite party (or any diy party)...Welcome to Camp Silas!

For his parties I try and make several things, reuse other party items and purchase just a few new ones.  The DIY elements included some wood slices, a few chalkboard items, his pallet board campsite sign and a rustic tent.

Since I was making a lot of things for his party and reusing a bunch of things (like the striped banner and little crepe lanterns) I didn't mind splurging a little on this deer.  Now that I'm thinking about this, besides the food and paper products I didn't spend anything on decorations besides this deer.   I stalked it at Target for a while until it went on sale and now that the party is over it has found a permanent place in our spare room - so I felt ok with it.  

This was just a simple painted pallet board sign we made - so easy but so cute!  

The red buffalo check table covering is just a blanket I already had.  This was a last minute thought but I loved it.  I just walked around the house looking for things that might work (this is pretty much what I do every time I do any sort of party planning).  Always use what you already have first!

So probably our favorite thing was the simple tent Justin made.  How precious did this turn out?  Silas and Justin went on a hunt for the tree branches and he used a simple canvas painting tarp we already had.  Justin secured the tent with some heavy duty rope/twine.  I was not really involved in the making of the tent process so I really don't have a how-to for it.  But it came together fairly easily.

The kids loved it and was a great place to play, eat and laugh together!  We added a little lantern and a string of lights, oh and a little slice of wood turned chalkboard sign...such a fun spot!

So we had lots of different food options but we did this fun little make your own trail mix station inside.  I bought some blue paper bags and cut them almost in half for a cute little "grub" on the go snack.  It was nothing fancy and as you can see I used a various selection of bowls and jars - it didn't have to match or be perfect.  The kids loved choosing and making their trail mix (and the adults loved it too).

It was such a sweet and fun night celebrating Silas and as a family we had a blast planning and doing it together.  Silas has already picked a theme for next year and we have been talking about different ideas we could come up with.  Its so fun to get your kids involved and encouraging that creativity inside of them.  Thanks for visiting today!  If you are looking for more easy diy party ideas you can check out Silas' dinosaur party, race car party and safari party!   I also have some ideas for hosting a sweet 16 party , a "tweens" pirate party and global themed going away party.  Go grab some ideas!

See You Soon Party Ideas

A few months ago one of our dear friends answered the call in her life and made the decision to move to Haiti to serve, love and teach the word of God there.  We were incredibly excited for her and we can't wait to see what all God does while she is there.  She has been there a month now and I know her faith has grown as she fully leans on the provisions of God.  We miss her in so many ways, she has one of the biggest servants hearts I have ever met but we know she is where she needs to be for this season in her life and so we are thankful.  So to send her off with lots of encouragement and support we held a "See You Soon" party.  

It was fun putting this together for her and we were able to pick up most of the items on major clearance at Target and reuse things we already had - always a win.  

We had a table set up for people to write encouraging notes for her, I'm pretty sure she is reading them one day at a time, a little note from home to encourage her every day.

For decorations we found some fun fabric table cloths (on Target clearance for $3/piece!), some inflatable globes, photos of her in Haiti, a few little items from the dollar spot at Target and I snipped a few hydrangea off of our plant.  They were so pretty that time of year.

I also found these little light up arrows, they were a fun touch.  Plus, aren't these mason jar drink dispensers great? 

Another part of the party was a photo booth set up with a map of Haiti and some fun props.

It was such a sweet time and we were honored to be able to share that time with her.

Randa is still in need of monthly financial support. If you are interest in sponsoring her you can visit here.  To learn more about what Randa is doing in Haiti, check our her blog here.

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Tatertos & Jello (linky palooza)

Pumpkin Painting Party

Sometimes life feels like it moves at lightening speed.  You start getting really great at keeping up your blog and then all of a sudden weeks have gone by.  Its crazy how full our life can feel at times but I'm so thankful for each little moment, its all definitely a gift.  I have the pleasure each week of leading a small group of high school girls with a sweet friend.  We have just loved getting to know them, studying God's word and encouraging one another in our walk with Christ.  To help us have time to relax together and chat about life a little and get to know each other better we like to do something different and fun each month.  This month we decided on a pumpkin painting party.

Seriously, our students are the best. They are so welcoming and encouraging to one another which in turn is such an encouragement to me.  We are so grateful for these people in our life and I'm glad I get to do things like paint pumpkins with people I love.   

The first part of a pumpkin painting party is of course, picking out your pumpkin.  I love walking thru a pumpkin patch and seeing how each pumpkin is unique and different and then so beautiful all assembled together as one.  One pumpkin is great but a multitude of pumpkins makes a beautiful statement.  What a great reminder of the body of Christ.  We are each uniquely and wonderfully made but we are also made to do life together - to be united as one in the name of Christ.  And how beautiful and powerful it is when we are.

The next part of a pumpkin painting party is posing with your pumpkins and taking lots of photos together.  This is an essential step, do not leave this one out or your pumpkin painting experience will be ruined.

It was such a beautiful fall day so we opted to paint outside.  I grabbed a couple of tarps for the tables and some painting supplies.  I picked up a few paint sample sizes from Lowes which we found we liked the best for actual full painting coverage.  I also had some chalkboard paint - because you can never have enough chalkboard stuff and then some craft paints.  I also had various paint brush sizes, a few cups of water for cleaning your brush and some paper plates for paint usage.

It was really cool to see how everyone chose to paint their pumpkin, we have a talented bunch.  We also had a mini lesson on perfection built right in.  It was a struggle to want your pumpkin to be executed to absolute perfection but in the end we had to learn to embrace the imperfections and enjoy the process.

Pumpkin lessons are the best.

Hope you guys are enjoying the fall, enjoying the process and embracing imperfections while you are doing life together as one.

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.  Romans 15:5-7

Graduation Party Ideas

It is that time of year for Graduation parties!  Recently we held our annual grad party for our group of seniors in our youth group.  Its such a sweet and sentimental time.  We have shared the last 7 years with these students and have had the opportunity to laugh, cry and watch them grow and mature into young men and women of Jesus.  Its pretty cool.  So I thought I would share some of the details of the set-up for any future party ideas.

Since we do this on a pretty large scale I try hard to do things as inexpensively as I can.  Throughout the year I am always on the look-out for things on clearance that would work for us.  I also utilize the dollar store and the Target dollar section as much as possible.  I love little details at parties.  I know its not everyone's thing but for a celebration like this I love recognizing the Seniors in little special ways.  We set up their table special for them with little fun treats like these.  All of the little 2015 stickers I found in the Target dollar spot and the glasses are from the dollar store.

Flower arranging can sometimes be intimidating for people.  To make these bigger arrangements I chose hydrangea - they are the most simple way of adding fullness to your arrangements without really doing much.  I also literally just used a grocery store bouquet of flowers and added a few hydrangea to them - the key is to trim down your flowers to the correct height.  Don't be afraid to cut down your stems!  

The rest of the tables were really simple.   Either a centerpiece of balloons or a simple pail with one hydrangea.  I would say using balloons is an inexpensive way to decorate- but not if you are using helium! Filling a ton of balloons adds up.  I have been going to more ceiling decorations like lanterns and poofs because of the helium cost.  I constantly search the Target clearance section for lanterns because they are often there and marked way down.  

This year we went with cake and cupcakes for the seniors.  I love this little table.

For a little added bonus, here is a little bit of last years graduation party....

I try to change it up a bit every year with colors and the little details.  These little star balloons are from Oriental Trading company and the turquoise mason jars are from Target.

Decorating is one of my favorite things, its almost therapeutic for me and its all in the little details that make it special.  Hope you all have a great week!

PS - If you are looking for more decorating ideas here is another graduation party we did a few years back!

Its a Country Christmas

The Christmas crafting has slowed down here and the Christmas gatherings have gone into full swing. We kicked off the weekend Friday night with a party here for our Seniors in youth group, we ended the weekend Sunday night with a cookie exchange with my girls community group and in between we hosted a Christmas cookie exchange with my mom and sister - which we dubbed A Country Christmas after showing up dressed like we were on our way to Remington Grill (which we do love coincidently).  I promise we didn't plan it.

Really though, for us our family gathering on Saturday was more about spending time with each other than christmas cookies or decorations.  

Although, there were a ton of Christmas cookies to share.

So after my sister and I proudly sported our plaid flannel Justin had to get in on the fashion statement and wore his too.  We were a flannel loving family that day, he even found Silas' matching plaid shirt.  Justin would like me to mention that he is growing his beard back for all of those wondering - big news being announced here on the blog today, big news.

We laughed so much taking these pictures and it was so nice to have a down day of just relaxing and eating cookies and playing sporcle quizzes (one of Justin's favorite things).  Seriously though, its a great activity/game to do with kids when you are all together.  Its just a site full of quizzes and trivia and you can pretty much find a quiz on anything.  We did several Christmasy ones and also had fun with my niece playing the disney movie ones.  I would just like to say that my team dominated the Christmas Song category.

We finished the day by our fire pit in the back, its really just a table with a fire pit but it was nice - the perfect ending to a Country Christmas.

I have a little bit more to share about our other cookie exchange this weekend as well as some ideas for wrapping so stay tuned!

Do you guys have any Christmas gatherings in the near future?  I'd love to know all the fun details!  Share with me!

Hope you all are having a great Tuesday! Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Ornament Party

Recently we have had the opportunity to be involved in helping start a new class for young adults at our church.  After talking and praying together we dubbed our class the Next Step and it came out of a need for a place for young adults (single or not) who are at their next step in life -whether that be grad school, a new career, a new move, etc.  It really has all been God's perfect timing and we have been so excited to be a part of this awesome class with some amazing people.  

As our class has started to come together we have decided that we would love to do some just girls nights every now and again -I mean, who doesn't love a good girls night?  So our first one came together as a Christmas Ornament Party.  We spent the night eating, talking, laughing and of course being crafty and making ornaments together.

We had a wonderful host (hey Melissa!) who put everything together for us - she cooked, she gathered supplies, she organized - I was so thankful for her!

We made ornaments from yarn, cinnamon applesauce ornaments, salt dough ornaments, painted ornaments - I even crushed a glass ornament with my bare hand.  Sometimes I just don't know my own strength - one day remind me to tell you the butter knife story.  Pretty much it involved me, a butter knife and six stitches.  

As much fun as making ornaments was, the best part of the night was just getting to be together with a great group of ladies.  

So any of you have any christmas parties or get togethers coming up?  My sister, cousin and I have a cookie baking date set and our small group has a cookie exchange planned.  So many fun things going on, I'd love to hear what you have planned!

Have a great week!

Dinosaur Birthday Party - Silas is 2!

Where has two years gone? Seriously, I'm not sure if I like my little boy getting older. I'm so thankful for a sweet, energetic and hilarious son - we are so blessed.  We celebrated Silas' second birthday over the weekend with our family and I have some of the party details to share with you.  Recently Silas has taken a liking to dinosaurs so I knew I wanted to do a theme sort of party for him featuring his new found friends.  Silas also has one of the best Roar's I have ever heard in my life so this was a great way to showcase that as well :).

So when it came on how to decorate I knew I wanted to do as much of it myself as possible - and that is just what I did.  This was not a giant party, it was low key but I wanted Silas to have fun and enjoy it so for me, it was all about him.

Today I will give you some of the details shots and then I will give you another post with a breakdown of all the specific projects I did and what it cost and all of that, you know for all of the dinosaur parties you are wanting to throw in the near future- this will be most helpful.

So here's some ideas to get you started...

Lots of diying going on here - mini chalkboards, burlap tablecloth, birthday banners and so on...

I found a lot of the supplies online at a precious little shop called Sweet Lulu here's a link to some of her awesome goodies: Striped Paper Straws

Ok, don't laugh at my dinosaur cake (well, you can it you want, just not to my face).  I totally needed more icing but just didn't have it.  Note to self: if attempting a dino cake in the future, plan for more icing than necessary.  Even though it didn't quite turn out magazine worthy Silas loved it and even knew it was a dinosaur so that's all that mattered to me.

I loved these plastic milk bottles - a great kid friendly (and wallet friendly) alternative to the fancy glass ones. 

Some of Silas' favorite foods, plus cute mini snack cups found at Sweet Lulu.

We served a variety of Silas foods and adult foods (most not pictured) so everyone had a chance to eat something they enjoyed.  We had such a great time celebrating together and watching Silas open his gifts and hear what he had to say or just watch his funny expressions.  It was a special time.  

As always, thanks for stopping by and Happy Wednesday!

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