Purr-fect Birthday Party

For my daughter's 2nd birthday party I planned a kitty party. She just loves cats!For food, I got Chex Mix (Meow Mix)......and Swedish fish. I also had just a veggie and fruit platter. I'm just kicking myself because I had such a hard time coming up with good food ideas...until the day before the party! While I was at the store I started thinking of all the things I could have done but didn't have time for anymore. Making individual fruit pizzas with a cat face cookie cutter, creating a cat out of cut up veggies, popcorn ball cat faces! I could have done so much!The first thing we did when the kids arrived was make collars out of Fruit Loops. The "kitties" had to put a name tag on their collar and decide what they wanted their cat name to be. After we made those, I gathered the kids in a circle and we took turns practicing our meowing. I asked them all what a happy, sad, mad, tired cat would sound like and they had to meow the way a cat would if it were feeling those emotions.After all that meowing I figured our kitties throats would be sore and they might need a drink!We played Thirsty Cat and had a race to see who could drink all the water out of their bowl the fastest!Then we played Yarn Toss! We sat in a circle again and passed around a ball of yarn while some music was playing. Whoever was holding the yarn when the music stopped won a prize!These were our prizes! I used a stiff felt to make them so I think they were a little more difficult to make than if I had just used a regular felt but I think they kept their shape much better.Here's the template that I found. I have to say, the yarn game didn't work that well with younger kids. They had too much fun unravelling the yarn instead of passing it to the next person!After everyone won a prize, I discovered a mouse in the kitchen! Then, we all looked outside and what did we see?? The whole backyard was overrun with mice! Our kitties rallied together to form a mouse hunting party and ran outside. They searched high and low and found every single one!I made the mice with Easter eggs, yarn for the tails, stiff felt for the ears, 7mm googly eyes, and 1/4" black pompoms. I just hot-glued everything on. I think they turned out really cute!After the mouse hunt, we went back inside for cupcakes and presents. I made these fondant cutouts for half of the cupcakes......and just used sprinkles to decorate the other half.I made a mini cake for my daughter with a larger cutout to put on top of it. I'm still learning how to work with my Cricut Cake and fondant. It's a work in progress!I don't think she minded though. She didn't care what it looked like, just what it tasted like!

Chick Day Playgroup

My kids just love chicks! My 2 year old doesn't say too much, but she says "chick" and "peep" if that is any indication. So, it was about time that we did something for playgroup to spread the love!We started things off with the "Chicken Dance." It was a great version of the song and the kids loved it! Heck, I loved it, too! It was "Hear Me Sing, Watch Me Dance" performed by Mar.The song and dance got everyones attention, so while they were listening we quickly herded them over the the table to do the craft for the day. Pom-pom chicks in a paper bag nest! All you do is scrunch the sides of the paper bag down, glue some twigs on it, and then glue the chicks inside. The chicks are as easy to make as they look. A triangle of orange felt and two googly eyes on a 2" pom-pom.Then, while the glue dried, we read a couple of our favorite chick stories and sang some songs. The two songs that I found were: Five and five eggs (Hold up hands)That makes ten Sitting on top is mother hen (Fold one hand over the other) Crackle crackle crackle (Clap hands three times) What do I see (Fingers around eyes) Ten fluffy chickens (Hold up ten fingers) As yellow as can be! Said the first little chick with a wiggly little squirm, "I wish I could find A fat little worm." Said the second little chick, with an odd little shrug, "I wish I could find A fat little bug." Said the third little chick, With a sharp little squeal, "I wish I could find Some nice corn meal." Said the fourth little chick with a sigh of grief, "I wish I could find A little green leaf." Said the fifth little chick, With a faint little moan, "I wish I could find A wee gravel stone." "See here,” said mother hen, In a little garden patch, "If you want any breakfast, Just come here and scratch!" After that, we moved back over to the table to help our chicks scratch for their food! I made cupcakes with chocolate icing and green coconut for our grass.Then, the kids put sprinkles on their cupcakes and helped their chicks scratch for food in the grass! We ended things with a coloring page of a chick hatching out of an egg. All in all, a good day!

Snow Day Playgroup

I've actually done a Snow Day twice for playgroup now. The first time we made marshmallow snowmen for our craft. We put frosting in between the marshmallows to hold them together but it didn't work that well. I would've used toothpicks but didn't since we have such a young group. I also brought Pull-n-Peels to use as scarves for the snowmen.

Then, we had a marshmallow snowball fight! Always, always, always a success! I've done this at two different playgroups (one with a really small group and one with a large group), at home for a family activity, and once when my son had a friend over for a play date. It doesn't matter how many or how few people you have, it's always fun!

The second time we had a Snow Day playgroup, I skipped the marshmallow snowmen and we made paper plate snowmen instead. I brought tape, little black pom-poms, glue, and big & small paper plates. This was fun and not as messy as the frosting!

New Year Banner

Happy New Year to anyone who actually reads this blog!!

Christmas Party Playgroup

For our playgroup Christmas party we had a few different activities. I made these little "Jingle Bells" (with popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners, and bells) that we passed out to the kids so we could sing some Christmas songs. Can you guess what the first song was that we sang?Our craft was making Christmas tree ornaments out of homemade playdough! I added a tiny bit of mint extract to the playdough so it smelled better than a big handful of salt!

Roll out the dough, cut out your shapes with the cookie cutters, poke a hole with a straw for the string, and then let it dry for a day or two on a piece of wax paper. Merry Christmas!

Christmas Banners

Thanksgiving Turkey

On Thanksgiving, after we had stuffed ourselves with a delicious meal, we gave this turkey a feather display to be proud of! Everyone cut out a feather and wrote a list of things they were grateful for this year. It was fun for adults and kids alike!

Thanksgiving Banner

I love my Cricut!

American Indian Playgroup

November is American Indian Heritage Month so I wanted to do something to celebrate. Plus, it would be something new and different for the kids!I found a couple of books that I thought would be fun but also teach something to the kids.I also planned a dream catcher craft for the kids to do. We ended up having a fairly young group though so it turned into a craft for the moms! Oh well, I think they all enjoyed it!
And to top it off, a coloring page to go with the book The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses.

Halloween Banner

I didn't get to do too much for Halloween this year due to a busy schedule and a school party at the same time as playgroup. Boo.The one thing that I did (which hopefully made up for the lack of anything else) was put together a banner for the playgroup party.

I put more work into it than I usually would for a banner, but I plan on using it for several years!

Ribbon Pumpkins

Last year I wanted to do something different with our pumpkins. I decided on ribbons!Splash-of-color ribbon!Sporty ribbon!Spooky ribbon!

Spacy...pumpkin! No ribbon at all but it was 4 year old perfection!

Mario Galaxy 2 Party Hats

Along with the Mario and Luigi hats we already had, I made some more character hats for the kids to dress up in for my son's Super Mario Galaxy 2 party. I cut out all the patterns with my Cricut, traced them onto felt, cut the pieces out, hot-glued them together and then hot-glued them to the hat.I made a mini Princess Peach hat for my 1 year old daughter so she could join in on the fun!When I made the Mario and Luigi hats I actually sewed the white part onto the hat itself. With Wario and Waluigi I just glued it on and it was just fine.I had to be a little creative with some of the hats. This one is for Diddy Kong. He has stars on his shirt so I just put those on the hat instead.DaisyDry BonesKing Boo - This is one of my favorites for some reason!ToadRosalina! I totally had to make up my own ideas for this. I used a wand (since she has a wand), a "luma", and then I added the light blue tulle to give it a little something extra.

And last, but not least, Bowser! This one is also one of my favorites! The horns are made of two pieces of felt hot-glued together. The flame mohawk is made of flames alternately glued together and then glued to the hat at the bas of the flame. This is the hat my husband wore for the game when all the kids had to defeat Bowser.