A Pirate Birthday PARRRty!

Seeing how my kids are a 2-year age difference and their birthdays are only 3 weeks apart, this year I decided to combine their birthday parties.  Lucky for me, they are both excited about pirates currently.  My daughter always wants to watch the Disney pirate show on television, and my son loves to walk around telling everyone "Arrgh Matey" with his fist pumping in the air.  Both were excited when we talked about this as their birthday party theme.

Invite:  I found some red and white striped scrapbook paper at Michaels which went perfectly with this theme.  I typed the party details using two free pirate fonts I found on the internet - Pieces of Eight is the majority of text, and Rapscallion is the Arrgh Matey font.  One of my students designed the pirate patch for me on Photoshop. She found the skull and crossbones, and then just added my children's initials to the image.  I used card stock for the invite and elevated the patch with a small piece of double-sided scrapbook foam. *Note: This 3D addition did cause the post office to charge me a little more to mail them.

Entry Decor:  I bought a long piece of plywood and wrote on it with Sharpie for guests to "Walk the Plank" before entering. I put a couple of crates until the wood for added support, and the blue tarp was my pretend water.  The simple sign on the door welcomed guests to The Pirate PARRty.  The kids LOVED walking the plank...this is an easy activity and a must-have for any pirate party as the kids had a blast.

Decor:  I kept things simple with red tablecloths, black/white napkins, and red/black plates and cups. My centerpieces for each table were wooden treasure boxes I found at Michaels with goodies inside. I used wood stain for each box, then set it on top of a pirate bandana (Oriental Trading Company), and filled it with red tissue paper, beaded necklaces (Dollar Tree) chocolate gold coins (Party City), and Ring Pops (Dollar Tree).  Some of the coins melted since the party was outdoors, but no big deal. I made the Happy Birthday banner with card stock and my Cricut machine.  Loved how it turned out.
I borrowed this amazing boat from a friend of mine to add a ship to the party.  Her husband made it, and it was a cute addition to the theme.

Activities: Upon entering, the kids received their pirate attire and Treasure Map.  I made the pirate hats and patches using black foam from Michaels.  You can get two hat fronts out of each piece.  The hat front and strip on the back were attached with hot glue.  I cut the white skulls out of white foam board that already had the sticky back. I bought a Pirate foam sticker pack from Michaels, picked out the skull/crossbones and used theses for the front of the patches.  Then just hole punched the foam and tied black elastic to complete the patch.

My mom also made these super cute head scarves for each guest.  To add more "pirate" to the plain red fabric, a friend of mine drew a skull and crossbones on the front with white paint and fabric markers.

I created the Treasure Map using Microsoft Word.  Besides the Patch the Pirate game, kids could just play throughout the party and didn't really have to go in this order or need organized supervision.  This was nice because it allowed the party to have freedom and kids could do what they wanted, whenever they wanted.  When the kids finished their Treasure Maps, they received their pirate sword and gold coins. Since my kids are so young, I didn't want plastic swords, so I decided to make swords out of balloons (video found on youtube).  The coins were just chocolate coins.

One activity was the Tattoo Parlor and Face Painting station. I bought pirate-themed tattoos from Party City, and one of my friends offered to put mustaches on kids with black makeup.  Easy and fun.

Patch the Pirate was one activity we did as a group.  I found the pirate image on Google and traced it onto butcher paper.  I made patches with each child's name on it and they used the pirate hats they were already wearing as blindfolds.

Activity #3 was the Captain Hook Toss.  I bought 3 pirate hooks from Party City, and my husband screwed them into a plank of wood we painted white. The kids tossed pool rings to see how many they could make onto the hooks.  Since my kids are only 2 and 4, I did not set a specific line to throw from.  I just let them go.

Activity #4 was Fishing for Buried Treasure.  I bought fishing poles for $5 from Walmart and attached large magnets to the ends.  The kids fished plastic coins with washers glued to them out of a small pool.

The other two stations on the Treasure Map were the Pirate Lookout and Bounce Ye Heart Out.  This was just the fort my husband has been building for the kids and a small bounce house we borrowed from friends.

Menu: I chose an easy menu and just thought of pirate names for things.  For the adults, I served meatball sandwiches out of a crock pot and called them Cannonball Sandwiches.  This was honestly just frozen Costco meatballs and spaghetti sauce with a few extra spices that I put in the crock pot that morning.  For the kids, it was hotdogs in buns which I called Scurvy Dogs.

I served Fish and Chips and Pirate's Booty for chip selections.

The vegetable platter was "planks" of celery and carrots of course to be "dipped" in ranch dip.

I cut a watermelon to look like a pirate ship, hollowed it out, and served the fruit salad in it.  I tried to include a lot of berries so that I could call this the Ship with "Berry"-d Treasure.  I also made some masts using a dowel pole and sails I created on the computer.

For drinks, I served Kool-Aid and iced tea which I called Pirate Punch and Ahoy May"Tea".  We also had soda and alcohol in a cooler for adults.  I added the party logo to the cups by printing the logos on Avery Name Tag Label stickers and then using my circle punch to cut them out.

The Cake:  I love the pirate ship cakes I made for my kids.  Each one is a 9x13 cake cut and layered to make the pirate ship.  Square pretzels, stick pretzels, and Lifesaver mints were used for the added touches. I placed the candles coming out of the portholes. Again, I created the masts on Microsoft Word.

I made pirate ship cupcakes as well.  These were marble cupcakes that I frosted blue and then piped on a boat in brown.  The sales were printed and attached to toothpicks.  I got the free printable for the sails online here.

Favor: I made pirate face sugar cookies for each guest to take home and chocolate suckers.  Both took a while to do, but turned out really cute.  The tag for the cookies read, "Thanks for Coming to Our PARRty!"

Choosing to make all the desserts, hats, patches, etc. added a lot of extra work (and luckily I had some friends offer to help), but I think they were great additions to the party. My kids had a blast, and the party turned out great.

Here's a couple final shots of the birthday boy and girl!  Happy Birthday Ella and John!

*As usual, please comment on your thoughts!  Love hearing from you!  And if you would like any of the tags, treasure map, etc....just ask!

April Fools' Fun

Ready for a wacky taste of some April Fools' Day fun?  That's what was in store for my friends this past monthly dinner as the date fell right on April Fools' Day.  As you can tell from the above photo, we had a blast!

Entry:  The fun started before guests even approached our door.  As the gusts parked in front of my house, they were met with silly signs and warnings -- Caution Tape and Danger of Poison signs blocked off the entire front yard, Wet Cement and Caution Tape cordoned off the driveway (and we wet it with the hose to look wet).  This left no way for guests to reach my door!  At the front door, the doorbell had the Shock Hazard sign and the door said Wet Paint.

Decor: Guests walked through upside down balloons after walking in the front door just for fun.  In the bathroom, rubber duckies were floating in the toilet!

I set the table with a bright colored tablecloth and multicolored napkins. I bought silly glasses at the Dollar Tree for each guest and folded the napkin inside of them.  Two upside down balloon bouquets were above the table with a silly wooden doll and a flip calendar sign that I made on my computer as the centerpiece.  Next to each wine glass was a fake lottery ticket I also got at the Dollar Tree.

As a place card, I printed off a joker playing card from the internet and put each guest's face in place of the joker face.  I glued these to real playing cards so they would look from the back and feel like a real playing card.  This isn't a great photo if it because of my flash, but you get the idea.

Menu:  After a yummy salad with colorful fruits in it, I came out this with birthday cake.  The guests laughed and assumed I was doing the Groundhog Day thing of starting out with dessert. They soon discovered that this was a meatloaf cake with mashed potatoes as frosting! The red decorations are cherry tomatoes.  This was served with carrots -- Starburst candies that is!! I put orange Starburst in the microwave briefly to soften them, then molded them and used a fork to make the crinkled look! I replaced these with real carrots as we started to eat.

I also served Strawberry Italian Sodas with the meal which was really strawberry jello.

For dessert, I served hamburgers and french fries in baskets I bought at Smart & Final and linings Ruby's Diner let me steal.  The hamburger is a cupcake!! The bun is a vanilla cupcake that I cut out the middle of. I used a little water to adhere the sesame seeds. The meat is the top of a chocolate cupcake.  The ketchup and mustard are red and yellow frosting and the lettuce is coconut I tinted with green food coloring.  The french fries are pieces of pound cake cut in the shape of fries and placed in the broiler for 30 seconds to crisp and brown a little.  The dipping chocolate is just white frosting I added red food coloring to.  Super fun April Fools' prank as it really did look like a real hamburger/fries!

Added Fun:  While I was serving dinner, my husband snuck outside to play some more jokes on my guests.  We decorated one of my single friend's cars with a "Just Married" sign and cans tied to her bumper.  The other guests all received fake parking tickets each with a different citation!  We were going to toilet paper another friend's car, but did not have a chance.

Favor:  No April Fools' Day party is complete without Whoopie Cushions!  I bought Whoopie Cushions at the Dollar Tree to use as my favor.  I attached this silly card to each.

We had a great time at this monthly dinner with our mismatched/wacky attire, silly jokes, and funny food. The only thing I created, but then forgot to play was my activity.  I had post-it notes with random things I was going to stick to people's backs during the night.  Anything crazy, like "Flap your arms when I talk" or "Spin in a circle every time I say the word 'I'" or "Call me Suzy." I definitely recommend trying some of these ideas next April Fools' Day!  If you need any of the templates, feel free to email me!!

Amazing Rainbow Cake

I promised you the "skinny" on how to make the amazing looking (and tasting) cake from my daughter's Art inspired 3rd birthday party.  I say skinny because I tried a new cake recipe which substitutes a can of Sprite for the eggs, oil, etc.  It cuts down on the fat/calories, but doesn't take away the flavor = HOORAY!!

There are only a few ingredients for the actual cake:

• 2 boxes of white cake mix (any brand)
• 24 oz. of clear diet soda (2 cans, I used Sprite, but you can use ginger ale as well)
• Gel Food Coloring (Betty Crocker Classic - gel food colors)

Step 1:  Mix the cake mix and the soda according to the regular instructions on the box.  Don't worry if it is lumpy. That's fine.

Step 2:  Divide the cake mix into 6 separate bowls as evenly as possible. By estimate, approximately 1 cup and 2 tablespoons per bowl.

Step 3:  Stir color into each bowl with its own spoon.

Step 4: Measure out 2/3 to 3/4 of your first mix (about 1 cup) and pour it into the middle of the cake pan. Start with red, then orange, then yellow.  In your second pan, work backwards...start with purple, then blue, then green.  This is so the layers are even.  After you've done the first three colors in each pan, continue with the rest of the rainbow. Pan #1 - rainbow order, Pan #2 - reverse rainbow order.

Step 5:  Bake the cake according to the instructions on the box.  Note: you probably need extra time (5 or 10 minutes) because of the density of the soda.  The cake is done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean!

Step 6:  After the cakes have cooled, place one upside down on top of the other and frost!  Then enjoy!

This is an easy cake for a rainbow themed birthday party of any fun affair. You could even make it with only red, white and blue for a 4th of July or Memorial Day party!  Or various shades of green for St. Patrick's Day! So fun!

Red Wagon First Birthday!

One of my favorite photos of our son is the one we took of him at 4 weeks old asleep in a mini Radio Flyer wagon.  We used it on his birth announcement, so I decided to take his one year photos with this same wagon and use this as the theme for his first birthday party.  He sure has grown!!

And now on to the party details...

Invite:  My sister-in-law helped my ideas come to life with her PhotoShop skills.  I wanted the red wagon to say my son's name, so she helped with that.  I also wanted the event title to match the Radio Flyer logo, so we worked on that.  I had the invite printed at FedEx/Kinkos on card stock, backed them in light blue card stock, and they were done.

I asked my talented friend Jill, of Little Boy Blue, if she could make John a wagon shirt, and she designed this amazing onesie!  She does such an awesome job (she even made him a matching super hero cape just for fun!).

Decor:  At our entry door, I borrowed a Radio Flyer wagon from friends and attached balloons to the handle.  I added a simple sign I quickly made on the computer to welcome guests. Inside, I borrowed another wagon to collect gifts.

I made a pendant Happy 1st Birthday banner out of card stock to place above the food table, and used a mini wagon to hold the plates and napkins. I borrowed yet another friend's plastic Radio Flyer wagon to hold the drinks.

As a centerpiece at each table, I bought wagon wheels from Harbor Freight.  I then bought red and white flowers and arranged them in one of those green foam pieces to place on top of each tire.  I bought $10 worth of flowers at a local florist and arranged them myself to save money.  Next to each tire flower, I made a frame to showcase photos for each month of John's first year. I didn't want to spend money on 13 frames, so I made them myself.  I cut one piece of foam board into 5x7" pieces, covered the front in black card stock, hot glued black ribbon on the edges, glued the photo in the center, and cut out a wagon with the number of the month on the front using my Cricut machine. I actually loved the way they came out, and this was a super cheap way to do it.  I stood two frames back to back so they could prop each other up and hide the back of the foam a bit.

I used a blue plastic tablecloth for my dessert table so my red items would pop a bit more. On the table, I had a couple 1 year photos of John with the wagon as well as a mini Radio Flyer banner I made out of card stock.  I made simple cupcakes for the kids with red/white polka dot wrappers. I topped them with white icing and scrapbooked toppers. I used my Cricut machine and Paper Dolls Dress Up cartridge since it had a wagon.  I love how they came out.  The smash cake was simple with a blue J on it.  I am glad I used white icing for the smash cake because John got icing everywhere!

For the cake, I wanted to make a Radio Flyer wagon.  I started with a simple vanilla cake in the largest rectangle pan I owned.  I placed it on a cardboard cake plate cut to fit exactly, so no edges would show.  Then I frosted the entire thing red. I free-handed the logo on the front (I am not the greatest artist), but you get the idea.  The wheels are frosted Rice Krispie Treats covered in frosting.  For the handle, I cut a dowel rod and covered it in black electrical tape.  The "handle" at the top is also electrical tape.  I cut a pizza box (since this is all I had handy) to run the length of the cake plus a little extra in the front.  I covered this in electrical tape as well and attached the dowel.  The cake is propped on a Toms shoebox covered in construction paper, and I died coconut green to give the look of grass.

For the favor, I made sugar cookies. I originally planned to do them in a wagon shape, but had a hard time finding a cookie cutter that wasn't a million dollars.  Instead, I did a simple circle and then just piped the wagon and number 1 on with frosting.  I put these in a clear bag, folded the top and used the extra cupcake wrappers to add a little color. My brother helped me design a wagon wheel tag that read "Thanks for rolling in to celebrate with us!" I placed the favors on the dessert table in another mini Radio Flyer wagon.

Menu:  I stuck with a simple menu of sandwiches, chips, and watermelon.  The only menu items that went with the theme were Gerber Wagon Wheels I set out for the little kids, and the Jello Wagons I made out of baby food containers I saved.  I found black spoons at a local fast food restaurant (they gave them to me for free!) to use as the wagon "handle".  I attached the card stock wheels with glue.  Some fell off, but most stayed.

Activities: I stayed simple with the activities.  We had a jumper we borrowed from a friend, and I had out a wagon, Radio Flyer scooter, and a Radio Flyer tricycle that we already owned.  Kids enjoyed taking turns with these.  I made an official Radio Flyer license for each kid.  These are free to download. I bought the Scotch brand photo-laminating sheets from Target to cover them and make them look more official.  These sheets are about $2 for 5 of them.  I also had crayons and wagon-themed coloring sheets set out for kids to do.

All in all, the party was fun and not too expensive (my kind of party!). It was great to celebrate our little man's first birthday with so many family and friends. I would definitely recommend a Radio Flyer themed party for a first birthday party. I felt there was even more I could have done if I had more time as well.

Side note: If you are interested in purchasing the banner, cupcake toppers, month frames, and favor tags, I saved them and I am planning to list them on Craigslist. I'd be happy to have someone time making them as they are super cute!!

An Art Party - Ella's 3rd Birthday!

For our daughter's 3rd birthday, I decided to throw her an Art Party.  She loves to color and paint, and even though I have no idea what she is drawing most of the time, she is always so proud to hand me her finished product.  I knew this was a theme she would really love.  However, my husband and I decided only one week before to have a party for her, so I had to act quickly to get  out invitations and pull everything together.  Here is what I came up with in a week...

Invitations: Since I had to act quickly to make all the invitations, I went with supplies I already had at the house. I typed up the text on the computer and cut around it to make the artist's palette.  I then used a circle punch to cut out circles and trimmed one side to look like a blotch of paint.  I backed the palette on red card stock and rounded the edges.  Simple.

Decorations:  At the entry door, I set up an artist's easel and made a giant crayon box Welcome Sign to sit on the easel. I used my Cricut machine to cut out all the letters and just enlarged the crayon photo from a Crayola box image I found online. I did have to do some photo editing with this to make it as large as I wanted, but I think the time spent on this was worth it. Love the way it came out. If you would like the image, just email me, and I can save you the hour editing!

I decorated all the tables with plastic tablecloths in primary colors.  As a centerpiece, I bought $10 worth of colorful flowers and arranged them into small vases I already owned. I borrowed large paint brushes from the art teacher at my school, and stuck 3 in each vase.

Above the food table, I created an art inspired banner.  I don't have a cartridge that has a paint can or paint brush, so I again used Google images to find a paint can and brush.  I traced these images on the card stock and cut them out.  The paint brushes served as the spaces between words. I have made several banners, but this one has to be my favorite.  Colorful and fun.  I also bought silver paint buckets from Home Depot and used a plastic tablecloth to  look like paint was spilled out and covering the table.  My intention was to hang these and have the paint spilling out onto the food table, but I ran out of time.  To label the food, I created tags using a paint brush font and a Clipart image.  I placed these on mini easels I found at Joanns for $2, but I also made some easels out of toothpicks (to save a bit of money).

I used a collage of picture frames on my wall to adapt into an art wall of my daughter's paintings, etc. 

Along the fence at the side of my back yard, I placed pieces of plywood together that I covered in cheap plastic tablecloths. I then used masking tape to create an art easel.  The kids used these for the painting activity (see below).

Menu:  I wanted to serve food in all colors of the rainbow to match the colors of the party.  I ended up serving:

• Red: Strawberries and Cherry tomatoes
• Orange: Orange Slices and Carrots (with ranch dip served in a hollowed out orange pepper)
• Yellow: Pineapple slices
• Green:  Grapes and Celery (again with dip in a hollow green pepper)
• Blue: Blueberries and blue licorice
• Purple: Purple Grapes and Blackberries

For the rest of the lunch, we had chips, potato salad, macaroni and cheese, and hot dogs. We had a wide range of drinks including lemonade with fresh strawberries.  As you can tell, my daughter LOVES fruit and vegetables!

Dessert: I got a little carried away with dessert!  Of course, first I made the cake.  This was such a fun cake...a rainbow cake! I promise to post the recipe in the next few days, and this was the coolest and easiest recipe!  I cut the round cake to look like a paint palette and added the paint splotches and brush.  I love the Crayon candles too.  I found them at Calico Cake Shop.

I also made cupcakes, Rice Krispie paint brushes and paint palette cookies.  We couldn't find a palette-shaped cookie cutter, so we used an empty can and bended it in to make the shape.  The rest is just frosting.  I used pretzel sticks as the paint brush on the cupcakes and just added a tip to it with frosting.  I bought some sticks at Michaels for the Rice Krispie treats, stuck them in after cutting the rectangles and then dipped them in various melted chocolates.

Party Activities:  The first art activity I had for the kids to do whenever they felt like it was Fruit Loop necklaces.  I set out yarn and Fruit Loops and let the kids make their own (and eat some along the way). It works really well to put a piece of tape around the end of the yarn so it doesn't fray and kids can easily string the cereal.

I also had chalk pieces set out for the kids to draw on the ground.

We used the easels for our first group activity. I gave each child an apron I bought at the Dollar Tree, a large paint brush (the ones from the centerpieces), and a paper plate with paint on it. I posted all the animals I had drawn on butcher paper up on the easels and the kids chose which one they wanted to paint.  SO FUN!  To make the coloring pages, I simply found an image on Google (choose line drawing) and then put it on an overhead projector to trace onto the paper.  I can't draw, so this was an easy way around it.  The kids loved these and it made great decor for the party.

The final activity was painting with their feet. I bought canvas from Michaels and used contact paper to put each child's first initial on the canvas.  The idea was that after the kids painted the canvas with their feet, I would remove the contact paper and the initial would still be the white of the canvas.  This idea did not work as well as I had hoped.  I think it would have worked great had I just had the kids use their hands to paint, but with their feet, they twisted which pulled up the initial on some of their artwork.

Favor: As a take home gift, I made crayon bags with card stock. I bought the bags in a multi-pack at Michaels, and used construction paper for the "wrapper".  I used black card stock and colored cardstock for the rest.  On the back was a tag that read "Thanks for helping to make my art party a masterpiece!".  Inside, I had a paint set I bought at the dollar store, 2 colored pencils, and a crayon I made.  If you've never made these round crayons...they are so easy and fun.  Spray a muffin pan with nonstick spray, and break up crayons into each hole (I used four crayons per muffin).  Then put in a 325 oven for 8 minutes.  Take out and cool. I put mine in the freezer for 15-20 minutes.  Then they are done!!  Such a fun way to reuse old crayons.

Hope you're inspired to host an art party soon....it's so much fun!