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!

Eclipse Girls Night

Wow, neglected much?? March was a pretty wild month for our family, but I promise to do a better job of updating more frequently! (For my one faithful reader...not even one? Oh well...) At the beginning of March I hosted an Eclipse girls night. Pretty much just an excuse to get people together to watch the movie!"Love Is Forever" is actually one of the songs on the soundtrack for the movie so that's why I used it for the banner.Of course, a heart broken in two for the ends of the ribbon. Which team would you choose?Then, for wall decorations, I took movie quotes and put them on paper from the paper stack "Immortal Love." (Found it at Joanns.)For decorations around the rest of the room, I used black, red, and white. I found big fake diamonds at Hobby Lobby that were scattered all over the room along with red glass gems.The first thing the guests had to to when they walked in the door was decide what team they were going to be on. I made name tags that everyone had to wear.These were the prizes for our games. I wrapped black and red tulle around little bottles of lotion and tied them with white ribbon. I chose scents like Twilight Woods, Enchanted Orchid, Dark Kiss, and Sensual Amber.Our first game was a trivia game that I found online. It was from the books, not the movie. If I had the time, I would have made my own but it worked fine! Our other game was Twilight Pictionary. My friend put it together and chose scenes, people, or terms from all three movies for the clues. It was awesome! Then, everyone on the winning team won a prize!The food!I made gourmet caramel apples (you know, the forbidden fruit) and, if it's okay for me to say this, they turned out delicious!My friend who put together the pictionary game also made these fabulous red velvet cupcakes! Notice how Jacob's cupcake wrapper has wolf prints and Edward's has something akin to the Cullen crest? Genius!Veggie platter with a quote that says "...we call ourselves vegetarians, our little inside joke."Another genius detail from the above friend; we had Italian Creme sodas to drink and instead of just having boring cherry and strawberry, we were able to taste the blood from a grizzly bear and a mountain lion. I favored the mountain lion.

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!

Valentine's Day Banner

I had to do things a little differently with this banner otherwise it would've have been about 15 feet long! I put two letters on each heart so it was a more manageable size.

Kiss the Cook Apron

I made a few aprons for Christmas this year. One for each of my in-laws with our kids' handprints on them, and this one for my husband. I cut everything out with my cricut (Oh how I love that thing) and ironed it on the apron. Eventually I hope to sew the apron, too!

Little Chick Activity

My son loves chicks, as in baby chickens. I mean loves them! So, we had a fun night with chicks!I ordered this super cute book and brought it out after dinner one night. We read the book together as a family (and by "as a family" I mean I read it to my son while my 1 year old made a huge mess of the house and my husband played Angry Birds on the iPhone). After we read all three stories in the book I pulled out...

...our dessert of dirt and worms! We had to pretend that we were chicks digging for worms in the dirt. Fun, easy, and delicious!

New Year Cupcakes

I received a Cricut Cake for Christmas this year (yay!) and this was my first project with it. The numbers and the stars were the only things I cut out with the Cricut Cake.For the confetti I just rolled out the fondant and sliced it into thin strips.

I made these white chocolate fireworks by melting the chocolate and mixing in the food coloring, piping the melted chocolate onto a piece of wax paper, sprinkling it with sugar, and putting it it in the freezer to set. In retrospect, I should have either done just the chocolate or just the fondant. I got a little too excited and was trying to do too many things at once!

Forever Family Banner

This is my second vertical banner (the other one that I made for my friend with the great ideas)!

Love At Home Banner

I made two banners for a friend of mine and she had the awesome idea to have them hang vertical instead of horizontal. I feel like a whole new world has been opened up for me!

Classroom Banner

As part of a gift basket for my son's teachers, I made this banner for them to (hopefully) use in their classroom. At his school, each classroom has an animal assigned to it and his classroom is the Bear Room!