Thank You Card

My brother (who is an electrician) came over to fix some damage to our power lines after a huge storm went through our neighborhood. I made him this thank you card and, I have to say, I thought it was pretty darn cute! I just used a thin marker to draw the power lines on, but I think it would have looked a little better if I had used some black thread or something.

Lily Pad Game

I'm trying to make the process of learning how to read fun for my 4 year old. So, in my first attempt, I made up a Lily Pad game.
First, I cut a bunch of lily pads out of crafting foam.
Then, I hot-glued a word (written on white foam) onto each lily pad.

I used words that could be formed into several easy sentences in hopes that the game will grow with him. The way we play right now is only putting five words out and then he has to hop from lily pad to lily pad reading the words. Eventually we'll work our way up to me telling him a word and he has to find it. Then, hopefully telling him a sentence and he has to hop from word to word until he's completed the sentence.

Musical Birthday Party

For my daughter's birthday party, I went with a musical theme. It was a lot of fun to put together and the possibilities would really be endless! I focused mostly on percussion and beats.
For the party cake I made a xylophone! It was really easy, too! Just a regular 9x13 cake and frosted sugar cookies. I used Dum Dums as the mallets and tied a wooden bead onto a ribbon and tucked it under the cake to make it look like a pull-along toy xylophone.
This was the drum cake for my daughter to dig into all on her own! (It was her 1st birthday.) A tiny round cake with sour candy to decorate the outside. I also made sugar cookie drumsticks.

We played a couple games, too. The first one was Follow the Rhythm. I held my little girl in my lap and helped her pat/clap/tap out a rhythm on her lap/floor and then everyone else had to follow it. It didn't require any preparation and all the kids loved it!
The second game was March to the Beat. I made these numbered circles and the kids had to march around when music was playing. When the music stopped they had to stop on a number. I would call out a number and the person who was standing on that circle got to pick a prize! I chose percussion only music to play for the game and the prizes were mini-recorders.
Then, we had a jam session with all the kids! I made a bunch of instruments (that way I didn't care if they were destroyed within 2 minutes) so there were enough for all the kids and parents to play.
Margarine tub drums...
Baby food jar lid finger cymbals (say that 3 times fast)...
Paper plate tambourines...
Formula can drums and aluminum pie tin cymbals...And water bottle rice shakers! I also made one big bean shaker (which is in the picture with all the instruments) and wrapping paper roll didgeridoos (not pictured at all...oops!).

Mario & Luigi Hats

My son just loves Mario and Luigi so, for Easter, I made him his own Mario and Luigi hats! It was super easy. I ordered red and green hats online (since I couldn't find any plain kid-sized hats at a single craft store!) and just bought some thick white felt and regular red and green felt to match the hats. Then, I cut out an oval and a circle with the white felt, lined it up on the hat and then cut a piece off the bottom where it hit the bill of the hat. After that I cut out an M and an L and hot glued them onto the felt.Then I just hand-stitched the circle/oval onto the hats and voila! I also ordered some white kids gloves to complete the costume. My son loves them and wears one of them almost every time we leave the house and even more when we're not leaving the house!

Moon and Stars Birthday

A few weeks ago a friend of mine asked me for some ideas for a birthday party she was planning for her daughter. I was so excited, I wish I lived closer so I could have helped more! So, this is my first guest post!

Her daughter loves stars and the moon so...The party guests were greeted with drawings on the sidewalk leading up to the door...A birthday sign on the door...Blue and white lights...And moon and star decorations hung from the ceiling with fishing line!Guests were also encouraged to wear shirts that had any kind of star or moon on it and had their faces painted when they walked in the door with what? You guessed it, stars and moons!The first game the kids played is the only idea that I can take credit for, everything else was Lindsay! It was a Moon Rock Hunt. The moon rocks are space-themed candy (Starbursts, mini-Milky Way bars, mini-Mars bars, etc.) wrapped up in tinfoil and hidden/scattered all over the room. Before unleashing the kids to find the moon rocks, they each decorated their own little paper bag to put the moon rocks into.
The next game was the Blackhole Game. It sounds like so much fun and I can't wait to use it! Place the hula hoops in a circle and turn on some music. When the music stops the kids have to find a hula hoop to stand in (more than one person can be in a hula hoop). Before starting the music back up again, take one hula hoop away. When the game ends, everyone has to try to fit in one hula hoop! Some ideas for songs to go with the theme are:

How High The Moon
It's Only A Paper Moon
A Star Is Born
All Star
You're A Shining Star
When You Wish Upon A Star
Swinging On A Star
Satellite
Starry Eyed Surprise
Fly Me To The Moon
The party ended with a star cookie and star bracelet as the party favors. Sounds like such a fun party, and thanks Lindsay for letting me post all of your great ideas!

White "Board"

A few months ago I decided I needed a white board, but didn't have anywhere to put it. So...I made one! I took a 12x12 piece of scrapping paper, trimmed down a 12x12 piece of white paper to 10 1/2 in tall and wide and glued onto the first piece of paper. After that I picked out what I wanted to use to decorate it, laminated it and voila! Homemade white board that I taped right to my fridge!

"The Office" Beach Day Party

We hosted the Annual Scranton Beach Day this week! I made sure to watch the episode and take notes so I could follow it as closely as possible. It was supposed to be a completely outdoor party but the weather didn't cooperate, so I had to improvise inside a little!Every party that the Party Planning Committee throws has a printed banner hanging on the wall, so I had to make one, too!
When the guests first walked in the door they were greeted with the Coal Walk! (I didn't think it would be that safe to have an actual coal walk, but this did the job.)
I just glued red and yellow crinkly paper to a red poster board. If you actually wanted to do a "coal" walk some other ideas would be a "Crunch Berry" walk or "Tin Foil" walk.I decided on a blue and white color scheme since those are the Dunder Mifflin logo colors. And it what Office party would be complete without an office supply encased in Jello??
We started the night off with a blindfolded egg-on-a-spoon relay race! Each team had an egg, a spoon, a blindfold, and a tiki torch that each member of the team had to walk down, around, and come back from. The other members of the team could verbally guide the blindfolded person so they knew where they were supposed to go.
The second "funtivity" we had was Sumo Wrestling! Since it would've cost several hundred dollars to actually rent the sumo suits, we decided to skip that and make our own. The pillows in the front of the picture are for the arms. I just folded them in half and wrapped duct tape around the middle. Then, we used a rope to tie another pillow around the chest. I used more of the rope to make a wrestling ring and the object of the game was to push your opponent out of the ring! SO much fun!
After the Sumo Wrestling we headed inside for the hot dog eating contest! It was low-key, I wasn't sure how many people would actually want to have a full-out contest!
Then, after everything was over, we tallied up the scores! (The team names are from the show, too.) One point for each member of the team who didn't drop their egg during the relay race, one point for winning your sumo wrestling match, and one point for each hot dog every team member ate. The prize for the winning team was a Schrute Buck for each person and an "Assistant to the Regional Manager" pin for the team captain.

Right before I handed out the prizes to the winning team, we received a "memo" from corporate telling everyone from the Scranton Branch that a new Regional Manager had been chosen to replace Michael Scott.

The party was a total hit and was actually pretty easy to put together!

"April Showers" Shower

This weekend I threw a rain-themed baby shower and I had such a fun time planning it. I've come to the conclusion that baby showers might be my favorite thing to plan, the possibilities are endless!

Since the baby shower was for a friend of mine who was having her second boy, this was more of a "sprinkle" than a shower. This is what I came up with for the invitation:

It's that time of year when the snow starts to melt,
When joy for the warmth is always heartfelt.
But along with the sun there will also be showers,
To ensure that May will bring plenty of flowers.
So as we look forward to each little sprinkle,
We see Ashley's eye holds a small sparkling twinkle.
For she knows that her bud will be a tad late to bloom,
As he's set to arrive sometime in June.
So let's shower Ashley with laughs and attention,
As she showers "Baby" with love and affection!So, besides the banner, the table decorations were the things that I really concentrated on. I cut out paper raindrops to put on the table along with this umbrella...
...and a rain boot that served as a vase for...
...these awesome roses I found at Hobby Lobby with raindrops on them! I almost started jumping for joy when I found them totally by accident in the store!
Brunch in the form of breakfast burritos and crepes was served at the shower. I'm so proud of this cute little sign I made! (Is it kind of tacky to announce that you're proud of your own stuff?)
And, instead of a cake, another friend of mine made these cupcakes complete with blue sprinkles! And yes, they were as delicious as they looked!
Here's everything all together!Since it was my friend's second baby the idea was to do baby essentials and have a raffle. Basically for every baby essentials item a guest brought she would get to put her name in the drawing. And, instead of doing prizes for each game, if she won then she got to put her name in again.

We played a game I had never seen done and it was so funny, the only downside was that it didn't last long enough! Everyone had to split up into teams of two and then choose who was the "baby" and who was the "mommy." Then I handed each team a disposable bib, spoon, and baby food. Whichever "mommy" fed her "baby" the food the fastest won! Such a great game and everyone was a great sport about it!

After the games were played and the gifts were open our mom-to-be drew three names for our raffle. The theme for the raffle prizes was "Things to do on a Rainy Day." One package was popcorn and a movie, the second was a book of variety puzzles and chocolates, and the third one was a New Moon movie card game and candy.

All in all, a TON of fun to plan and I might be using this idea again because there were so many other things that could've been done, too!

Leprechaun Dust

We never did much for St. Patrick's Day when I was growing up (aside from wearing green clothes to school) so I didn't do too much this year. The one thing we did do was "find" some leprechaun dust (pistachio pudding mix)! I split it up so we each had some in a soon-to-be sealed container. Then, I put milk in each of the containers, put the caps on, and everyone got to shake theirs up to see what would happen to the leprechaun dust! After it was all mixed together we enjoyed eating the pudding with graham crackers. Yum!

(The ration is about 2 tbs. pudding mix to 1 cup of milk.)

St. Patrick's Day

Here's what I did for playgroup this week (but it could also be used as a fun family activity) to celebrate St. Patrick's Day and the kids (hopefully) learned a little something, too! We started off by talking about what rainbows are and how they're made. I did a demonstration by putting a glass full of water on a window sill and a...

White poster board on the floor right in front of it. Make sure the sun is shining brightly through the window or I doubt this would work as well! The sun shines through the water and creates a rainbow that the kids can see. You could also pull out the crayons and let the kids trace and color the rainbow onto the poster board or paper that you're using.

Then I asked the kids what they could find at the end of the rainbow on St. Patrick's Day which led us right into a scavenger hunt! (My latest obsession...they're so much fun!)

The hunt led everyone outside where there was a pot of gold hiding behind a tree! It was so nice out that we all stayed outside and enjoyed the chocolate coins and sunshine. Happy St. Patrick's Day!