Congratulations to Katy of The Country Blossom! She won my 300th post giveaway that includes a DVD copy of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland and some of my party favors from my Mad Hatter tea party. Thanks to everyone who entered and visits my blog on a regular basis. I have met some great people in cyberspace and I really appreciate all of you!
You only have a few hours left to enter my 300th post giveaway! Ends at midnight tonight. Winner announced tomorrow!
Sheridan had fun setting up the army men around the table.
I made these cute little green alien men from Disney Family.
I used children's blocks as a plate stand for the cupcakes and barrel of monkeys were hanging from the chandelier.
I took my kids to see Toy Story 3 on Monday and I cried like a baby. The story begins when Andy is 17 and leaving for college. It hit very close to home because of the picture above, Matthew was 6 and Chasen was 2 when they were Buzz and Woody for Halloween in 2000. Buzz and Woody were Matthew's favorite and the Woody used in the tablescape was Matthew's from when he was 3. Buzz and RC are somewhere in the garage.
My family will be camping in the backyard Saturday night. It is something we have done for several years during the summer. I just found out that there is a day devoted to backyard camping. Won't you join us?
June 24th is National Fairy Day! Did you know that? Sheridan and I have been friends of fairies for many years. We have read the Fairy Houses series many times. (Fairy Houses, Fairy Boat and Fairy Flight)
Sheridan and I go on nature walks to collect items to build our own fairy house. We always follow the rules of the forest to keep the building to code. Never pick living plants or flowers, don't use unnatural things i.e.- jewelry, bottle caps, etc. and only use things found on the ground.
After we build our fairy house, we celebrate with a fairy tea party out in the garden. The next day, there always seems to be some golden mushrooms that spring up near the fairy house. That is how we know that the fairies have been to the house and leave us a little thank you.
I love this self contained fairy garden I found on etsy.
This is a miniature fairy table set. Too cute! I hope you will do something to celebrate fairy day! Please come back to let me know what you have done. A link to pictures is always fun, too.
On Saturday, I hosted a dragon party in Beverly hills. The tables were set with dragon skin placemats, orange charger plates, dragon dessert plates, flaming cauldrons, dragon coins, Viking ship and hooks.
It was a repeat client that I was happy to make a custom party theme for. It was a very warm and sunny day and I had lots of games planned out on the marble courtyard. (Ignore the fallen hooks. Some girls were playing with them and didn't put them back "correctly". LOL)
When the guests arrived, they could get a custom glitter tattoo. Some of the kids kept going back and by the end of the party, their bodies were covered in glittered artwork. I handed out Viking helmets and had different mustache styles to choose from.
The guests were put through rigorous dragon slaying training. We started off with an obstacle course and then Dragon, Dragon, Night Fury (duck, duck, goose) followed by target practice with bow and arrows. The training ended with some tug o' war. Their reward for training so hard was to stuff their own dragons to take home.
Last night, I attended our PTA installation and it was a potluck. I'm not really a cook, I like to bake. When I came across these beauties on Joy's Hope, I knew I had to make them. They are TDF!! I highly recommend!
Last week was our last week of elementary school (my high schooler got out the week before). My middle child, Chasen, was promoted to jr. high (7th grade) in a very nice ceremony for 130 students. That night, they had a 6th grade dance and my son partied HARD! He had 5 pieces of pizza, 7 brownie bites, 3 sodas and 2 glasses of rainbow sherbert punch. He told me that he danced all night and 4 girls asked for his phone number. I'm in trouble now.
We also had our 2nd week of swim team practice. (Monday-Thursday) My oldest son is a jr. coach for the 5-8 year olds. Chasen got his arm brace off last Thursday, so he has yet to swim this year.
Sheridan had dress rehearsal and pictures for her dance recital on Sunday. She performed a tap routine to "Sea Cruise" and a jazz routine to "Chapel of Love".
On Sunday morning, Chasen left for Boy Scout camp for a week at Camp Chawanakee at Shaver Lake. I delivered a Mad Hatter party on Thursday and hosted a Spa Girls party on Monday. To top it off, my car had $1000 worth of work and was in the shop all weekend. We haven't had much of a "vacation" this week.
To reward my very sweet readers who put up with my sporatic postings, I decided to have a giveaway for my 300th post. My Mad Hatter party has been my most popular party since I first introduced it last July. To honor it's success, I am giving away a Alice in Wonderland package! I am including a Alice in Wonderland DVD and some party favors from my very own Mad Hatter party.
A few weeks ago, we kicked off our summer backyard movies with the showing of "Babe". Sheridan received this movie for Christmas and has watched it many times.
I tried to create the country fair where Esme Hogget wins all of her canning ribbons. I even put out a few of my jars of strawberry jam I made and a silver loving cup similar to Esme's.
Marina's son, Joseph, played some great music on his guitar while guests toasted marshmallows for s'mores. Marina also brough pink marshmallows and decorated them to look like piggies.
Right before the movie started, I spread a quilt out on the grass and the kids got to stuff their own "Babe" pigs to snuggle with during the movie and take home.
It was a great start to our 4th annual movie season. Next week, we will be screening "The Little Mermaid" because Chasen will be away at Boy Scout camp. :)
Today my youngest son is 12 years old! This week, I have been sharing a few of his past birthday celebrations. 4 years ago for his 8th birthday we went to a local bowling alley for his party. We asked the gusets to dress from the 1950's. I bought retro bowling shirts for my boys, Sheridan was in a car hop outfit and I had my sock hop ensemble complete with cat eye glasses and fake pony tail.
I processed all of the photos vintage B&W and took pictures of each guest with the birthday boy. I do this for ALL of my parties and frame them and deliver them with the thank you note.
After bowling, we had pizza and cake in the party room of the bowling alley.
The kids had such a great time bowling! I bought everyone retro sunglasses and a mini bowling bag full of goodies such as giant bowling pin drink bottle, bowling trophy and vintage candy from the '50s.
This is Sheridan chilling out on the stairs waiting for her turn to bowl.
Happy Birthday Chasen! I love you more than you will ever know!
In honor of my son's 12th birthday tomorrow, I am sharing some past birthday parties. This was his 7th birthday celebration. Chasen is a huge baseball fan so this was just a perfect fit for him.
Of course, Dodger dogs were served as well as chips, Cracker Jack, peanuts, soda and Gatorade.
The decor was all in red, white and blue.
Kinzie is eyeing the Baby Ruth candy bars!
The kids made their own personal pennants.
We had a bubble blowing contest with Bazooka bubble gum.
What would a baseball party be without a quick baseball game in the street.
When opening presents, I always have the gift-giver sit right next to the birthday child when opening their gift. It makes the giver feel special and gives them the attention they deserve for being a guest.
I made all of the tags by hand and filled it with lots of baseball stuff.
They had a relay race with plastic baseballs balanced on spoons in their mouths.
Water balloon toss.
My kids love pinatas. They drive me a little nuts. No one has ever got hurt but it still scares me. I really don't want to be on AFV! I'll see if I can dig up his retro bowling party for tomorrow.
Fossil Dig
My middle child is turning 12 on Friday and I thought I would show you some highlights from past birthdays. This was his 4th birthday party and it was a dinosaur party! I cut dinosaurs out of fabric and satin stitched them onto t-shirts. 8 years ago, this was a big deal!
I made his volcano cake out of a Pampered Chef glass 8 cup measuring bowl. I think you can also make doll cakes with it as well.
At first, I put sparklers on top of the cake to look like it was errupting. Later, I found out that the sparks made tiny holes in my fabric tablecloth.
We played "Pass the dinosaur egg", just like Hot Potato. The guests also got an explorer hat and stamped their our goody bags with paint and dinosaur stamps.
Then they played Dinosaur Stomp. Each child wore a dinosaur mask and had a balloon tied to their ankle. The object of the game was to pop everyone else's balloon while protecting your own.
Then we had a Dinosaur Egg relay race. They carried plastic eggs on spoons and ran from one end of the yard a back again.
There was also a Dinosaur egg hunt. You can tell the birthday boy was quite good at this game.
I also had a plastic volcano that we made erupt with vinegar, baking soda and some red food coloring. The best part of the party was the fossil dig. (see top picture) I found a company online, the Dinosaur Recovery Beareau, and they supplied name badges, dig flags and replicas of real fossils. Unfortunately, the company is no longer around. Tomorrow, I will try and post his Safari party!
