Valentines Day Birthday Party.

Check out the awesome party I did for my 11 year old. Remember these invites.. check this link to see the party!

Christmas Tea

Monday was our yearly Christmas Tea. This year Laurel and I went with red and green ornaments as our theme. As always it was a wonderful time and yummy food!

Breaking Dawn is out Saturday!

We had to do a craft and what better craft when you are standing in line for the latest addicting teen vegetarian vampire book.. than a custom made T-shirt and book mark. Here are our crafts!

Half Birthday party!

It was tine for our annual half birthday party! This year we used an Explorer theme. We sent the kids the train schedule mapping out their day as their invitation. We got on the train and then trax up to the U of U Museum of Natural History. The kids broke into two groups and did 4 worksheets (one of each area) scavenger hunt. They loved it!
After we finished at the museum we went out on the lawn for lunch and of course cheep birthday gifts! The kids loved the 3 ft gummy snake, magnifying glass, gold coins, compass and rock candy!
We took the train back down to the gateway and played in the water and checked out build a bear. Then our adventure ended with taking the train back home.
The kids loved it! Once again a great success!

Many thanks

As I have talked about before I am the PTA president for our school. With that title comes the honor of saying thank you to all of our volunteers! These are the people who donated over 3400 hours of their time, so I wanted to make it nice! We invited over 200 people and had a good turn out. Here are some of the photos of stuff I put together.

I love this site!

I found Tip Junkie, through another site, and I love it.. its so crafty, its everything I want this site to be, but better. Go check it out!

Christmas Tea

Remember these adorable invites? Well the party has come and it was wonderful! This is the third year Laurel and I have done Christmas Tea and is such a great tradition. Here are some of the details.

Decor... Red and White, swirls and mints everywhere.. felt minty just looking at it.

The sweets... chocolate dip, divinity, mint bark, brownies, cookies, stuff to dip, and a way cute cake Laurel slaved over.
Sandwiches.. cucumber, pb&j, bacon apple, and egg salad.. Ohh and some veggies to help with all the guilt!
Home made hot coco and we had an amazing party! And one last close up of the adorable cake.

Mummy and Me Tea

Each year Laurel and I do a Christmas Tea. Last year she got a bug to do a summer tea and we did a flower/lady bug theme, it was loads of fun and really cute! This year I wanted to do a Halloween party. So here are some of the details of our party.
The invites:
I custom made them from a design I saw online that cost a ton. I did splurge a little and the lettering is vinyl.


The Food:
We did hot hogs wrapped in croissant rolls (mummy's), chicken salad with eyes (grapes) on croissants, fruit cups, veggie tray, decorate your own cookies, popcorn, and we each decorated our own Carmel apple. For drink we did root beer with dry ice.


The take away:
Laurel picked up cute plates, I made pumpkins out of orange table cloth and wrapped the tops with floral tape and pipe cleaner (filled with candy of course). We added spider rings and little stencils along with sugar sticks and they got to take their glow in the dark drinking cups too. All this in a cute bag to go.

The rest:
After the eating, chatting and talking about our costumes, the girls watched Witches and the Moms cleaned up and hung out. Overall, a spook-tacular party!

Weekend get away

Ohhh how great it is to get out and focus on what crafts and projects need to be done. I am going to list a few of the photos, I have more that was done, but it goes with gifts, swapps, costumes and stuff that I want to keep wraps on for a little while.

Bags. I was going to make them reversible. I was going to send one to my swap buddy, and then realized I could make 4 and give one to each of us at the overnight scrap this last weekend.. oh and scrap buddy don't worry.. it wouldn't fit in the box. They were pretty easy.. esp since I can't sew.. it was a first for me, but the material was so cute I had to do something with it.


Want your mummy? I got the idea for these a couple of years ago from Family Fun, this year I am making about 80 of them, the girls classes and my PTA board will love them! They hold 2 pieces of candy and are just adorable!

Yes.. I know.. don't hate me! My Christmas cards were done in February, so I had time to get these mind blowing, cute as hell Christmas Tea for Mom and Me invites made. Custom design, cant wait for the party to show you the whole theme!

That's it for now.. I will have more promise.

A Roaring Good time!

Each year Laurel and I do a half birthday for our kids. We both gave birth to winter babies and like the chance of seeing how the other half the year celebrate. This is the fourth year we have done this.
We planned a Dino Party. The invites jaw even moved! We had cupcakes, Dino Snacks, bug wings, dino scales, and swamp water. We went and saw Ice Age 2 at the dollar theater, had lunch and then went to the Dino Park. For activities we did volcano's, dug a dino out of an egg, build habitats for the dinos in the eggs, and built our own dino's.
It was a great day and a quick easy party to put together!

Fall Themed Dinner Party

Summer will soon be coming to an end, giving way to crisper, cooler air, shorter days and richer scenery. Which also means the end of BBQ season is well upon us. This month we’ve put together some ideas to throw a warm, elegant dinner party focused around the new season. Fall, to me, just begs for a dinner party. The warm colors that lend to beautiful, regal decorations, the chilling air that allows for cozy sweaters, warm drinks and comfy home temperatures, the crisp smells of autumn and the food – the fall food – the perfect mix to get together with a group of friends and spend an evening mingling, cooking and enjoying delicious, hearty food.

Below are our ideas to help anyone throw a successful party.

A tip for any successful party:
If this is the first party and your guests are neighbors or business associates, keep it a little more low-key. If you are having fun and your company knows you’re a party-throwing freak, feel free to go all out!

Invitations:
Of course they’ll have to be hand delivered, but tie an invitation to a caramel apple or attach it to a stick and put it in a gourd or small pumpkin.

You could wrap the invitation around an apple or wrap it in leaves and tie them off with raffia.

For traditional, paper invitations (the kind you could even send through the mail), fall colors and the things that represent autumn (scarecrows, pumpkins, leaves, etc.) are easy to get on paper to make simple, cute invitations.

If you preferring buying invitations, following are some sites that have numerous options (or ideas if you do want to make your own):

Announcingit.com

Myexpression.com

Eleganthandmadecreations.com


Food:
Mulled Cider or Hot Cider would be a great before or after dinner drink

Use the cooling weather as an excuse to serve a favorite soup instead of the traditional salad before dinner.

Autumn is the perfect time to serve a hearty stew or pasta as a main course.

A tart or crème brûlée would be a perfect dessert

Wine and cheese are a great pairing for before or after dinner while guests visit and relax

Other great food ideas, as well as fall party tips can be found at the following sites:

Mormonchic.com

Digsmagazine.com

Gildedfork.com

Decor:
Deep, regal shades of color will create an ambience of fall throughout your house and tie your decorations right into your party. Gold, burgundy, chocolate brown (even a tan depending on your other choices), eggplant, forest green, burnt orange, mustard are all excellent fall shades.

A centerpiece of a cornucopia with real or plastic colorful vegetables on top of a deep colored table cloth or runner

Ceramic dish with a variety of gourds or apples as small table decorations (whether on the dinner table or the areas surrounding the table), or on the serving table if you have one

Sunflowers are always a nice touch for fall floral arrangements

Handmade or printed place cards rested on top of small gourds or apples at each setting

Small pumpkins and gourds in bunches in a line down the center of the table keep it simple and don’t take much room

Party Favors:
Instead of sending your guests home with just leftovers, consider a simple, understated gift as they head for the door.
Carmel or candied apples (decorate the stick with a fall-colored ribbon)
Leaf wine glass charms

Patriotic Party

Yes, it's always party, party, party around my house!!
This week it was a patriotic themed party for our city's local Roy Days. I sent out cute easy to make envelope pocket slide cards, made easy cupcakes with sprinkles and flags, colored table clothes, cute bowls with homemade salsa and chips, handmade apple pie (cuz whats more America than that?) Hot dogs, Hamburgers, Chicken, and made my favorite baked beans. Yup.. party, party, party.

Reunion Luau

We were in charge of the family reunion this year. I planned a Luau themed pot luck lunch. Each branch of the family was assigned food and we proved the main dish and drinks. Being me, I also had to do decor and toys for the kids (of all ages!). We held it at Willow Park in Logan (half way between SLC/Ogden and Idaho), the park was great with a little zoo right next to us and a great playground.

These are the save the date post card, the invite (front and back) and the reminder post card.

These were a last minute idea I HAD to do, cupcakes with the beach, sand and an umbrella. They should have been a lot better looking, but I decorated them at the park and the the girls helped.. they were a hit regardless!

Not the best photo, but I found this great drink holder from OTC. It was inflatable and held our drinks cold.

My girls of course with all the swag we had available for every to play with, also from OTC.

And lastly the food. I feel pretty good, I used real pineapple to hold napkins down and got all the paper supplies from Dilly Dallies.. a discount store here, for $1 a pack.

Beach Party

One of our goals with this site is to give ideas for parties, so each month we are going to pick a theme and plan a party.

For July we are planning a Beach Party!

Invitations:

* Write on a cheap pair of flip flops... or stuff the invite in a beach ball.

* Create a message in a bottle.

* You can order this or make something similar for a more refined look.

* Or this is another idea starter for something to make. And of course you could just go all out and get this one!

Food:
* Skewer pieces of fruit, cheese, and meat with fancy toothpicks and arrange them on a pu pu platter (that's Hawaiian for appetizer!).

* Hot dogs/hamburgers, you know.. BBQ food!

* These yummy party cups.

* Of course s'mores if your party goes into the evening hours!

* This pail cake looks fun!

* Any cake can be made and with some crushed graham crackers or brown sugar you have a beach! Cover with paper unbrellas or add some water by using blue icing, this party cake is limitless!

Decor:
* Ya gotta play the Beach Boys!

* Make your place look like a tropical paradise by decorating it with exotic paper or silk flowers, colored holiday lights, and paper lanterns.

* Set up a beach umbrella to create a shady spot where kids can get out of the sun. Have plenty of sunscreen on hand!

* Use a surf board for all the food to go on, if you don't have one - make it!

* There is this beach ball set you can purchase.

* If indoors is your party place, lay out towels on the floor, umbrellas, fish and starfish hanging from the ceiling, beach balls all over and of course the Beach Boys singing loudly.

* Serve food buffet style, filling beach pails (line with plastic) & giant plastic clam shells with chicken, potato salad, etc. Guests can use shovels to put the food on their plates.

Games/Activites:
* Water balloon volleyball

* Use the Hawaiian alphabet (a, e, h, i, k, l, m, n, o, p, u, w) to come up with fun new nicknames to go by.

* Make animals out of sea shells

* Limbo

* Swim

* If the party is for a birthday, have the attendees sign/decorate a beach ball for the birthday person.

Party Favors:
* Add stuff like sunglasses, gummy sharks, bags of goldfish crackers, bubbles, plastic shovels, gold coin chocolates, and small beach balls in a sand bucket.

If we haven't given you enough... Family Fun has a whole page we could steal ideas from but we thought we could just give you the link instead.

What ideas do you have to add??