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!

St. Patrick's Day Scavenger Hunt

My son talked for weeks about wanting to do a "clover hunt" on St. Patrick's Day. (I'm pretty sure it had something to do with last year's playgroup.)So, when he got home from school, there was a clue waiting for him right by the coat closet. He ran all over the house finding clue after clue until he came to......the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow! He's actually allergic to milk so he couldn't have the gold coins, so he got Skittles instead (taste the rainbow). I don't think he minded at all. He was just sad that the hunt was over!And, our St. Patrick's Day Banner!I did something a little different and really liked how it turned out!

Marshmallow Snowball Fight

Too cold to play outside? Just do what we did last night! We had an indoor marshmallow snowball fight that lasted so long it wore our 5 year old out! So much fun and SO easy! All you need is a bag of marshmallows and a smile on your face!

Survivor Girls Night

Okay, I hosted this girls night months ago and it was so much fun! It's taken me way too long to put a post up about it!Anyone who knows me knows how much I love Survivor. I had been thinking/planning this night for several months before it finally came to fruition.Along with a veggie tray, fruit tray, and drinks, I had some Survivor-esque food to go along with our theme. I bought fresh coconut that I cut up (I was shocked when I found out there were girls there who had never tasted fresh coconut before!), I made fried plantains (which were a little weird but went along with the theme), I made rice and put it in plastic seashell dishes, and, my crowning achievement, a volcano cake!

After we had eaten I had everyone draw a "buff" out of a bag to determine which tribe they would be on. Once everyone had a tribe, they all split off to decorate their "flags" (aka poster boards) with their tribe names that they made up. After the poster boards were finished it was on to the first challenge!The first challenge consisted of a map, phrase, and flag for each tribe. We tacked their tribe poster boards onto the deck outside and everyone stood on their tribe mats (just towels laid on the ground). I gave each tribe a map and, on my go, they opened them up. The maps led them to three different areas around my yard where they had to find three different bags with words to the phrase they all had to put together. Once a tribe had all three of their bags, they had to go back to their mat and then open them up and start working on their phrase.

United You Must Be

To Win Immunity

When they thought the figured it out I had to double check to make sure it was the right one (there were three different ways it would be put together) and once I gave the okay the tribe had to tape the phrase to their poster board, grab their tribe flag, run back to their mat, and stake the flag into the ground. The first two tribes to finish were able to move on to the next round!The next challenge was set up with each tribe standing in a line with each person being an arm's length apart from the person on either side of them. They had to blindfold themselves and then they were each given a small plastic cup. On each end of the line for each tribe was a bucket. On one end there was a large bucket filled with water and on the other end was a smaller empty bucket. Being blindfolded, and not allowed to talk to each other, they had to transfer water from the large bucket to the small bucket using their cups. The first tribe to fill their small bucket to overflowing won!

I didn't want anyone to feel left out so the tribe who didn't finish the first challenge still got to be involved. I split the losing tribe up and put half on each tribe doing the water challenge. Their role was to verbally help the competing tribes if they were having trouble finding each other. So, the competing tribe could talk, but the losing tribe members became "callers" who could help but only by talking, they weren't allowed to physically guide anyone's hand. (Phew, did that all make sense??)

After the water challenge was over we all went back inside for a Limbo competition! Originally it was supposed to be the tribe who won the water challenge competing against each other for individual immunity, but everyone wanted to participate and who was I to stop them from having a good time??The person who won was awarded with an Individual Immunity Necklace!

And then, it was outside for our Tribal Council! (And by Tribal Council I mean relaxing campfire in my backyard.)

Carnival Playgroup

With winter coming/here, we have to keep playgroup interesting so we don't go crazy from being indoors too much. What better way to spice things up than to take the kids to a carnival?We had a bunch of different stations with activities for the kids to participate in. Pin the nose on the clown was a simple and fun game to start off with!We had a fishing game with bouncy balls for the prize which the kids absolutely loved.I was in charge of a bean bag toss game. The object of the game was to toss bean bags and flip over three popcorn buckets to win a prize!Surprise, surprise, the prize was a bag of popcorn!We also had one mom in charge of balloon animals/other objects!And another mom in charge of face painting!

To finish everything off we had a parade set to some fun carnival music. We asked the kids to dress up in a crazy outfit. Another mom also brought a big tub of dress up clothes to add a little more fun to it!

I wish I could take all the credit for this carnival, but I just helped with my one game. Kim, if you ever read this, you're amazing!

Simple/Last Minute Birthday Party

My sister and I threw together a super last minute un-birthday celebration for our boys. All I did was go to the Dollar Store and get a Happy Birthday banner... ...and a flag banner that I was going to cut up. I also got a few pieces of poster board and some noisemakers. I taped the flags from the banner to squares of poster board and put a clue on the bottom of each which would lead whoever read it to a hiding spot for one of the noisemakers. We played that game kind of like a cake walk only I just called out someone's name when I stopped the music. But I did have to remember which pieces we'd already gotten clues from!

Then I put together a scavenger hunt leading the boys to their presents. Simple but always fun!

And lastly, my sister brought cupcakes and frosting and everyone got to decorate their own cupcakes!

It was so simple and easy to put together but the kids had just as much fun as if we'd spent weeks planning it!

Valentine's Day Playgroup

I love games, it's what I enjoy planning the most, so I always make sure to have at least one for any party or group gathering that I plan. The preparation for this game was so easy to turn into two activities so it really worked out.
Depending on the size of the group, cut out hearts and write out different actions on each heart. You'll have to get really creative if you have a large group! The first activity you could use them for would be:

Find the Hearts
Hide all the hearts in a separate room before everyone arrives. Then, when it's time to start the games, have all the kids lined up at the door. Once they're ready open the door and let them search until they find all of them!

If you have an older group you could play:

Heart Scavenger Hunt
Have clues written down (either hidden with the hearts or on a separate piece of paper) that lead the kids to find each heart.

After collecting all the hearts I separated them into two bowls and we were ready to play:

Follow Your Heart
Divide the kids up into two teams and the put the bowls ot the opposite side of the room. On your mark the first child on each team runs to the bowl, takes a heart and does the action while returning to their team. Once they get back the next person in line runs to the bowl...etc. The first team to finish all their hearts wins! It's also a really fun game for parents to play alongside their own children, especially if you have younger kids in the group.