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Showing posts with label Summer Fun. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Summer Fun. Show all posts

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Maddi's 9th Birthday Luau

I have been pinning ideas for Ella's upcoming Halloween party for her 7th birthday, and I realized I never posted about Maddi's 9th birthday.  Bad mommy, I know!  But in my defense, I was VERY pregnant and then had a baby, so blogging hasn't been my top priority.

Maddi had decided she wanted to do a luau, and I had so much fun planning and shopping with her for her party.  99% of the decorations and party favors came from the Dollar Tree, with a few things coming from Party City and Garden Ridge.

Maddi invited girls from her school and her soccer team and we had about 13 show up!  That was A LOT of 9 year old girls in one small house!  My husband was a smart man, and stayed in the other room.  I, on the other hand, had to be in charge and deal with all the girls, even though I was 9 1/2 months pregnant.  But the HUGE smile that never left Maddi's face throughout the party, made it all worth it.

Warning* Picture Overload is Coming!!

Let's start with the décor.  We didn't go overboard with décor, just tiki type things and lots of flowers.
 
Flowers (from Dollar Tree) and a wooden monkey flip flop (from Garden Ridge) welcomed the girls on their way in.

 
 
 

 
This wooden tiki man (from Garden Ridge) guarded the kitchen.
 
 
I made Maddi's picture number, which is becoming one of my favorite birthday traditions.
 
 
We set up a table so all the girls could get Lei's when they first walked in.
 

 
We found a tiki man/flower streamer (Dollar Tree) that was 6 ft. long and it worked perfectly over the tv, sorry the picture is so bad.
 
 
Maddi loved this her super cute hula girl and tikis (all from Dollar Tree) that welcomed her guests as they arrived.
 
Apparently I only took one picture of the food table, and it was before I put the food out (pregnancy brain at its finest).  We found a cute flowery plastic table cloth (Party City) and had tiki plates and napkins (Dollar Tree).  For the drinks, I had juice boxes, and then I made Sweet TEA-ki and Tiffany Blue punch.  I made bacon wrapped pineapple (delicious!!) and pulled pork sandwiches on Hawaiian rolls (yummy!)  I also had a plate of mandarin oranges, pineapples and cherries.

 
Maddi decided she wanted cupcakes, and I found a super cute "beach" type cupcake, but then I couldn't find any of the tiny umbrellas.  I think the cupcakes turned out cute anyways.
 

 
These were so easy to execute.  I just made chocolate cupcakes with white icing mixed with blue food coloring.  I took some graham crackers and crushed them up to make the beach for the teddy graham to lay on.  The girls all loved them.
 
 
I had planned on doing a lot of games with the girls, but ran out of time finding the right objects for the games.  So we bought some cheap toilet paper and played Maddi and Ella's favorite party game, Wrap the Mummy (this will be a perfect game for Ella's Halloween party).
 
Here are some of the pictures of the girls wrapping each other.  They played this game so many times and used all 12 rolls of the toilet paper.  Each girl had a turn to wrap and be wrapped and then they had a toilet paper fight.  The best part was not feeling guilty about the toilet paper since it only cost $2!!  Best $2 spent EVER!


 

 
Brayden was lucky to have a friend over during the party, and they wrapped each other.

 
Of course she opened presents, and then one of her friends wrapped her.
 

 
On the way out, the girls were given a little goody bag that had a few things in it.  They had a shiny pencil, a flowery notepad, some stickers, a small thing of bubbles, and a few pieces of candy.
 
 
 
That smile, yeah it made it all worth it!!  Even at 9 1/2 months pregnant!
 

Saturday, August 31, 2013

Brayden's Toy Story 3rd Birthday Party

Well it happened.
My baby boy, the prince of our family, turned three this past Monday.
Where did the time go?
The past 3 years have flown by, and I think each year goes by faster than the last.
 
With the new baby's due date fast approaching, I wanted to make sure that Brayden had a fantastic birthday and the best party ever.  I tried to make it special and add lots of little touches.  Thank God for my mom, who drove in a few days before the party, she was truly a life saver in helping set up.
 
Brayden has been obsessed with Toy Story this past year, so it was the perfect theme for his party.  He loves all the characters and will even tell you their famous lines, ex: Buzz says "To Infinity and Beyond."
 
Almost all of my ideas came from Pinterest.  I mixed and matched from lots of different parties.  I don't have the exact links to everything I decided to do, but here is a link to my Brayden Turns 3 board, in case you want to see some of the originals for yourself.
 
Warning: Picture Overload Ahead!!
 
Here are the decorations, most of which came from the Dollar Tree or Party City:
We hung 2 parachute men (Dollar Tree) from the ceiling


My mom strung Army men on thread and then we hung them across the wall.
As cute as these were, they were a pain!  It took my mom forever to string them, and they kept tangling when we tried to hang them.  But they added a cute touch.
I found the tiny Toy Story figures at the Dollar Tree.  For the picture, I cut up a party bag and put it in a dollar frame and added a picture of Brayden.  So simple, and I love it!  All the army men came from a Dollar Tree pack.
We set up a tattoo station and Maddi and Ella gave the guests a tattoo and a sheriff badge when they walked in.  The tattoos, sheriff badges, and the wall décor are from Party City.

The food was all Toy Story inspired.  I didn't have time to make cute labels, so we used post its, and cute Toy Story stickers to hold them onto the bowls.



The food we served was: Slinky Dog Pasta (pasta salad), Al's Cheese Puffs, Ken's Fruits and Veggies, Jessie's Juices, and of course Pizza Planet Pizza (aka Little Caesars).  For Jessie's Juices, I just used the Hugs brand of juice, and we put a little sticker on the top of the juice to make those more Toy Story looking.
 
I found a cute party bag at Dollar Tree and cut out the rocket and planets, then labeled the rocket, Pizza Planet.  It added just a little touch to the kitchen area and was super cheap!

Brayden's 3 made out of his pictures.

All the goody bags (two for a $1 at Dollar Tree) for the kids were labeled with a popular saying from the movie and held on with Toy Story stickers.  I made 10 party bags, each with a different saying.  Some of the sayings were There's a snake in my boot, some one's poisoned the waterhole, howdy partner, you are a TOY, Ride like the wind Bullseye, and To Infinity and Beyond.
The party bags were filled with what Toy Story items I could find at 3 different Dollar Tree locations.  Since Toy Story isn't very popular right now, I had to use my imagination and do some digging.  I found mostly puzzles, a few felt coloring pages, and a potato head writing pad.  Every bag had 1 Toy Story thing.  Then I added a glow in the dark bracelet, some extra tattoos, and some glow in the dark snakes.  Everything came from Dollar Tree.
The birthday boy showing his muscles in front of his 3.  I had bought him a Toy Story shirt to wear, but it only lasted about 30 minutes and he ran around the rest of the day shirtless.
 
We played a few games.  One was There's a Snake in My Boot.  We bought rubber snakes and a bucket, and I attempted to make a boot out of cardboard.  We scooted the kids back and had them throw the snake into the bucket.  Ella was a great helper!


 
Then we played Pin the Tail on Bullseye.  The game came from Party City and only had 8 tails.  My girls were both sad they didn't get to play, but they were great helpers.


 
I made a white cake with white icing, and chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing.  I wasn't too worried about making a fancy cake, since I knew it was just going to get devoured.  The best thing I have started doing is cupcakes.  It is so easy to hand out cupcakes to every one of the kids and send them on their way to eat them.  There is no cutting or waiting.  I will have cupcakes at every party!!
The whole cake actually made it all the way to Monday, and we were able to use it for Brayden's actual birthday!


He did great blowing out all the candles!

Messy boy!!

I made marshmallow aliens for the kids to enjoy!  So easy and the kids loved them!!
 
We opened presents after everyone left and Brayden loved everything he got.  He got some guns, 2 Woody's, a Buzz Lightyear, puzzles, bubble things, and Mommy and Daddy got him his own Bulleye to ride :)
 
One thing that I worked forever on that didn't make it to the party was the Etch a Sketch.  I used a cardboard box, and cut and painted it.  So sad I missed getting all the kids pictures with it :(
At least I got my kids pictures with it the night I finished it.
 
It was a great party, and Brayden had a blast, which is all that matters.
 
Next up, is Maddi's birthday party in a week, then the baby is due to arrive anytime before September 19th.

Thursday, August 8, 2013

4th of July Fun

Yes, I realize this is SUPER late but I just wanted to post some pictures from 4th of July.  We had a good time, and stayed very busy through the holiday.  We went to a parade, saw a huge fireworks display and the next night had some good country fun!  It was nice to have Marco off and to hang out with friends.

The morning of the 4th we woke up super early and made our way downtown to watch a parade.  We got there early to get a good spot, and the kids had a good time hanging out with their friends, seeing the floats, and of course they loved seeing all the animals that passed.

Maddi and her friend at the parade

 
That night, we loaded up the kids, snacks, drinks and glow sticks and headed out to watch a huge fireworks display.  Waiting wasn't as much fun as it normally is because we were on the side of a busy highway, so the kids were stuck in the back of the Expedition.  But they were excited to see the fireworks and couldn't wait till dark.  To pass the time, I taught them how to play the slap game.  It was pretty funny to see them trying to play with each other.  There were tons of people setting off fireworks all up and down the road we were on.  I was getting worried when it got dark and the show didn't start.  Marco had faith that we were in the right spot and that we would see a great show.  I, on the other hand, grew very impatient, even asking Marco when he wanted to leave.  His patience paid off though, because we had a great spot for the huge fireworks display!
Waiting to see the huge fireworks display

The girls


We were invited out to the country about 30 minutes from us for some 5th of July fun.  The smoker was going with tons of meats and sides.  There were tons of people and kids.  The kids had a blast riding the donkey and the horse.  And once the sun went down, we were given our own private firework display by the men.  The kids had a blast playing outside all day, and they came home dirty and crashed out in the car a few minutes after we left.  I would say it was a successful day!  
 
I would say that we had a very successful 4th of July holiday!

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