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!

Indoor Camping

My son has been talking about camping for weeks on end and I figured the only way to satisfy him would be to go camping! However, since we live in a state that is ridiculously cold and snowy for half of the year, having an actual camp out was out of the question. Hence, indoor camping!

First, it's not really considered camping if you don't have a campfire. Our carpet-safe campfire was made out of cutouts of each of our hands.After cutting the hand prints out I taped them all together and formed a small circle with the adult hands, and a larger circle with the kid hands. We never even knew it wasn't a real fire!
Once we had our fire built, it was time for the camping snacks. I had gotten a wide variety of trail mix ingredients so that we could each make our own individual trail mix. Delicious! Then, while we were sitting in our tent (aka - the blanket thrown over three dining room chairs) enjoying our snack, we took turns telling stories.Once we finished with the trail mix and story-telling it was time to roast some marshmallows. Using a tea light worked fine since our son doesn't like to eat them when they're really roasted, he just likes the idea of it. We've also roasted marshmallows in the toaster oven by just leaving the door open and that worked great (and didn't leave a black residue on the marshmallows!).

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.

Valentine Exchange

If you're tired of exchanging the same boxed Valentine's every year, try doing something different that's specifically from your child. It's a fun project to work on together and then it really means something to them!Last year we made space Valentine's because my son is a space and anything-relating-to-space fanatic! He chose the color spaceships that we put on the Valentine's and was so excited to give them to his friends.This year he colored white computer paper (because I'm cheap and didn't want to go buy colored paper) and then I folded them into paper airplanes using a paper airplane book he had received for Christmas. Again, something specifically from him and it was fun to watch the kids running around and playing with their airplanes together.

Miss America Party

Having a Miss America party is a great excuse to have a girls night and there's no requirement that says you have to be interested in the pageant!

One of the best things about a party is the food being served. Food will inevitably bring people together! Having a fun dessert, like this cupcake cake decked out in it's own tiara, is a fun (and edible) way to show your guests what an awesome hostess you are.
If you know who your guests are going to be ahead of time, having pre-made sashes for each one will make her feel special! Focus on one attribute and then find an interesting and unique word to fit her. It also makes for a great commercial-break filler to go around the room and have everyone read off her sash name after which you'll read the definition for the word. A great source to use? Thesaurus.com!

A fun activity to have for the evening is your own Q&A/talent portion. Prepare the talents and questions ahead of time and each guest will then draw a slip of paper out of a bowl to see what she will be doing. Tons of fun and you'll be surprised at what people are willing to do! If guests are too uncomfortable being the center of attention, have an option open that they can choose one or two people to perform with them. A few ideas to get you started:

-Recite the “Star-Spangled Banner.” (Especially funny when the person who chooses this one doesn't know the song that well!)
-Find a partner and perform a ballroom dance routine around the room.
-You’re famous for impersonating Michelle Kwan, show us a few of your best figure skating moves.
-Perform a dramatic reading of “America the Beautiful.”
-Perform an interpretive dance telling the story of Jack and Jill.
-You’re a famous fire baton twirler, show us one of your favorite routines.
-Perform a 10 second ballet routine.
-You’re a famous opera singer, perform “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” like you would on opening night.
-If you were to write the next song that topped the music charts of 2010, sing a few of the lines that would be written in the song.
-If you had to choose, which cartoon character would you like to be and why?
-Your best friend just bought a new outfit and hasn’t even taken the tags off yet. She models it for you because she loves it so much. You see that it isn’t flattering on her and would never have let her buy it if you’d gone shopping together. What do you say?
-Would you rather direct, star in, or write the screen play for a movie?
Another fun ongoing activity is to have poster boards around the room with Miss America related questions. Guests could write their answers down at any point during the evening and then the answers would be read off before they leave.

And, for some fun competition, have brackets for the guests to fill out to determine who they think will win. Guests would have to guess the Top 15, Top 10, Top 5, and then, of course, Miss America herself! Award 1 point for each correct guess in the first round, 2 for the second, 3 for the third, and 4 points for anyone who chose the winning contestant.

This is guaranteed to be a night that will not be forgotten!