Safari Party!

Silas has been 4 since October, so I guess its time to share a little of the details from the fun Safari Party that we had.

So far we've done dinosaurs and race cars and if you know Silas an animal type of theme was our next go to.  This was probably the easiest party I have put together for him.  I didn't do a ton of diy for this one but still added some personal touches to make it special.  It really doesn't take hours and hours to pull together a fun party for your kids.  Just a little planning ahead and you are golden.

When we decided on a (loosely) based safari theme I knew I wanted to find some cute safari hats and a little prop for taking photos (the jeep cutout).  I searched all around for these hats and kept coming up short.  Most were just too pricey for as many as I wanted to buy.  I ended up finding a great price online with Party Cheap. They had several great things for our theme so I also picked up the inflatable animals and leaf streamer from there.  

After ordering a few of the key elements we then used all sorts of things from around the house to put this whole thing together.  Plastic animal figurines (which Silas moved locations of the whole time), I reused the large faux leaves I got for his dino party a few years back (from the dollar tree), one of my antique lanterns and several items we have picked up from other countries we have visited.  It was such a fun, easy and simple party.

Initially I was going to try and find a fun animal or jungle type fabric print and make a table cloth.   The time got away from me and I almost used a plastic one until I finally got creative and decided to use the awesome hammock we got on our last trip to Panama.  It was fun and different and I loved it. Sometimes it just takes looking around your house for a minute to find a new use for an item you really like.

So now for the one part that I did diy - the water color canvas.  

Usually I do some sort of banner but I wanted to try something different this year.  I had some extra canvases, some paint, so why not?  It took hardly anytime but added a personal touch to the whole thing.

Its been 3 months and I still can't believe my little boy is 4.  I really don't like to think about him getting much older.  I'm just enjoying every moment the best I can.  Every sweet hug, funny thing he says, prayers prayed, painting project and each little birthday.

Silas is 3!...3 months ago

I'm behind! But I'm ok with that.  We had so much fun celebrating Silas' 3rd birthday back in October and I had so much fun putting his race car party together so I wanted to share it on the blog.  I'm still getting used to him being 3!  What is this?  When I asked him what he wanted to do for his party this year, he said dinosaurs.  Well, we just had a 2 year old dino party last year so I asked him to give me another option.  Race Car's was it.  What else does this boy really like besides dinosaurs and race cars - maybe the red sox?  Maybe that should be his party theme next year!  I'm getting ahead of myself.

You really don't have to go crazy to have a really sweet and fun party for your kid.  I feel like we, as moms can get caught up in the hoopla of it sometimes.  But for me, I just really enjoy putting together some handmade elements for his party and then finding a few fun things to make it special.    So here on this table above, I found some cute race car lollipops, borrowed some orange traffic cones and found a clearance striped bed sheet at Target to use for the tablecloth.  Sometimes you just have to think outside the box a little bit.  

I love a good banner and this one was super, super easy to make.  I found the patterned paper at Target on sale, I think it was $1.50 for the pack and I also found a pack of pre-made letters and numbers on clearance at Target as well.  So I didn't even have to cut out anything!  It was just a matter of assembling and gluing.  Some ribbon from the dollar store and a few hole punches later and I had a sweet banner for his party.  And, it cost me less than $5.

A few other little things I grabbed for the party were these fun glasses from Target.  I love these!  I also like to buy supplies online since you have more options and usually can find some good deals.  I found a huge pack of these race flags, the cute mini snack cups and of course some fun striped straws, I can't have a party without those.

Another little handmade element for the party were these little race car tags.  I used them in several different ways and once again they were so simple to make.  I used the patterned paper I had leftover from the banner to cut out little triangles and found some cute race car stickers to put on them.  The little plastic milk bottles I found last year and was able to reuse them again this year!

I just love putting a party together, its so fun to do something for your kid that you know he will love!  Silas loved all of the race car elements and had fun using his on stash of cars to decorate for the party.  It was fun taking a moment to look back at his sweet party.  Thanks for joining me today!

A Tween Pirate Birthday Party

Happy Valentine's day to all you lovely people.  I hope its a sweet day for you!  This is totally not a Valentine's related post - it does however have to do with people whom I love very much though, so that counts right?  If you want to check out some Valentine's inspiration you can head over to the party we hosted last weekend - here.  We also had another awesome party that happened last weekend and that was the Birthday of my sweet niece, Mya who turned 11!  She is all in that tween stage where she loves One Direction, Monster High and iphones but still loves to play and be a kid.  So what to do for a tween girls birthday party?  Have a Pirate Slumber Party of course!

So all props go out to my awesome sister who worked hard on all of these awesome piraty party ideas.  I was there to help set up, give support and snap some photos.  So let me share some of the fun things we did that night.  First up, the photo session.  My sister gathered a bunch of pirate gear and they all dressed up to take some shots in front of a little backdrop.

 We just used scrap fabric and felt to make little flags for the backdrop - Its all hot glue and no sewing involved.  The flags were glued to a string of twine and hung in front of a white tablecloth - it just added a little bit of fun.

As you can imagine with a group of ten and eleven year olds, this got silly fast.  They had so much fun with it!

My sister put a lot of thought into the activities for the party.  Here's a list of fun Pirate Party Games:

1. A Scavenger Hunt - She pre-made a bunch of fun clues and hid them around the house, all leading to the next clue which finally lead them to some "buried" treasure (which was their party favors).  It was a little treasure chest full of little things like tattoos, beads and candy.  She turned it up a notch and did the whole thing in the dark so the girls each got a mini flashlight to go through the hunt together.  They loved it!

2.  Next we had to do tattoos, what Pirate is a Pirate without one?

3. We played walk the plank - which was a board propped up on two stools - they played relays where they had to do different tasks, like walking balloons to the bucket and things like that.

4. We played sword toss - which is just like ring toss.

5.  They also played who could keep their balloon in the air the longest - classic game but I think that was their favorite.  I mean who doesn't like a good balloon in the air competition?

6. Finally to start getting them settled and ready for the slumber part of the party they all got a little crafty and made treasure maps.  My sister had pre-made the paper by burning the edges to make it look like an old map - so cute.

Along with the games and photo session she also had some fun little themed snacks - I loved these!

How cute are those little Island cupcakes?  The sand is just crushed graham crackers.

She also made little jello boats with blueberry jello and orange slices and diyed the little flags.  You can find this idea and the print-out and instructions for the little flags at the Makes and Takes blog.  These were so, so cute.

So here is a source list of some of the items purchased - most of which came from Oriental Trading Company:

Bandanas, Swords & Eyepatches, Tattoos, Gold Coins, Goodie Bags, Treasure chests

All of the beads and the white & red striped straws were from the dollar tree!

We pulled out some of our scarves for head gear and found the biggest earrings we could for the dress up - we all got into the pirate spirit, even us adults.

It was such a fun and special night for Mya!  I'm not sure how much slumbering actually occurred but there was plenty of pirating.  I'm so glad I got to be a little part of the event!  Happy Birthday Mya!

So what was your favorite themed party growing up?  Or, maybe your favorite party that you have had for your kids?  Share with me!

PS - I have a couple of other party theme ideas here - dinosaur birthday party, sweet sixteen party

Thanks for joining me today!  Hope you have a lovely Valentine's day!

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A Few More Party Things

I'm continuing with our little party project theme today and sharing with you a few more diy party decorations that we did for my niece's sixteenth birthday.  Last week I showed you the signature board and table centerpiece I made from items I already had and dollar bin finds.  Today I'll let you know what I did with all of this ribbon (which I found either in the dollar bin at AC Moore or at the Dollar Store).  I know you just can't wait.

I tried to make things that my niece would want to use again and maybe even put up in her room.  It's tough to gain the approval of birthday decorations from a sixteen year old but I got a huge thumbs up from Ashleigh on these next two.  She actually got down right excited when she saw them, and I'm not even exaggerating.

These are both so easy and inexpensive.  The first little project was a ribbon garland.  I'm sure you've seen these all over pinterest and blogland.  I think they are so cute.  In order for this to work for my niece though it had to be a bit funky.  Ever since she has moved in with us she has talked about wanting a room painted lime green, orange and purple.  Even though we haven't busted out the paint brushes one this on yet I thought I'd give her some things in those colors to make her room more fun.

In addition to cutting my ribbon strips I also cut up a bandana to use with this as well.  All this took were my strips of ribbon, a piece of yarn and me tying the ribbon on the yarn.  Simple.  

So while I was making this, Justin thought that this was something I was making to actually leave in our kitchen for decoration - like all the time.  When I asked him what he thought he said, ummm, well it's a little kermit the frog, haha!  He kept asking me questions like, Where exactly are you putting this? and What exactly is this again?  I finally realized he wasn't getting that this was a birthday party project so when I filled him in he let out a huge sigh of relief, realizing that I hadn't gone all wacky and kermit the frog on him.  Although, Ashleigh thought this was the coolest thing ever and that was all that mattered.

Ok, next up is a little bandana wreath I made from a beaten up old wreath form from the Dollar Store, a bandana (that I just cut in strips) and a few felt flowers.

Just a little hot glue was all I needed.

I have a little tutorial on how to make felt flowers, don't worry they are easy and it involves no sewing!

For some reason, this is the best picture I took of the final wreath.  But, you get the idea.  I also used a little flower cut-out I made to finish it off and make it birthdayish.

Once again - I scored some cute lanterns at the Dollar Store in our perfect colors.  Always check there first!!!

I think I'm all partied out now between this and the Senior Salute event.  Don't forget to join us tomorrow for the first story in our new Share Your Story series!!!  Can't wait!

DIY Birthday Party Decorations

Today I'm going to share a couple of easy party decorations we did for our niece's birthday party over the weekend.  I did everything on a budget and raided every dollar bin I could find.  The first project I'm going to share though I used supplies I already had on hand as well as some that I bought.  I tried to make things that she could keep and even use to decorate her room if she wanted to.  Since it was her sweet sixteen, I wanted her to have a keepsake she could cherish for a long time so I decided to make a signature board for all of her friends and family to sign and write birthday notes on.  So let's get to it.

So I had this canvas that was leftover from a pack I had bought at AC Moore that I had been waiting to use but didn't have an idea for.  The problem was that it had a hole in it, so I wasn't really sure what to do with it.

Then along came washi tape.  I already had some that I had purchased from Target and AC Moore for some other things and it was the perfect solution to my hole problem.  A few strips of tape later and we had a pretty cute signature canvas.

We weren't quite done yet though.  I had found these cute cardboard cut-outs in the $1 bin at AC Moore and decided to use the "a" for this project.  

The gray wasn't quite right so a few coats of purple craft paint and we were in business.

A little hot glue and we were done, cute right?  Everyone at the party took turns writing little notes to Ashleigh.  We just used permanent writing pens and it worked perfectly.

Ok, so on to the next thing.  There were several plain flower type shapes remaining from the package so I decided to use those too.  I found some paint colors from my stash that matched our color theme and gave them a couple of coats each. 

Next, I cut out some circles from some leftover colored paper I had.  I just used a cup to trace the circles.

Then a little decorating, some glue and a few straws later I had these...

I used a container I already had, a little floral foam, some ribbon and leftover easter grass to put it all together.

And we had a cute little centerpiece for our food table.

We had a few leftover to use in other places too.

We had fun putting this all together.  I have a few more things to show you so check back later!

Don't forget we are starting our new series - Share Your Story next Wednesday!  

Happy Thursday!!

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