Winter ONE-derland birthday party

Whew! What a week. And, another one is just beginning. This one isn't giving me a break either!

I was planning on doing a whole bunch of posts showing off my creations and where I got my ideas and how I did things. Last week. But, unfortunately things never work out the way you plan. Especially when you plan them for 10 days before Christmas and you only have 7 days to go until party time. We found out the weekend before my son's first birthday that my husband's beloved grandmother passed away unexpectedly. So, on top of all of my shopping, buying, organizing and cross things off my many lists for the party I had to also get ready for the quickest trip to Wisconsin we would ever make to date. Plus, prepare all of us for it to be one of the toughest. But, we did it. We were in town less than 24 hours and thanks to God, my children were AMAZING in the car and all driving went smooth and quick :)

The party went off without a hitch about 36 hours after returning home and I only had to trim a few things off my "I want to do this" list for the party.

This was huge in my opinion since I have been planning this since before he was born. Seriously. I decided to do our 'Winter ONE-derland' theme while still pregnant and 10 days after he was born I went out the day after Christmas and bought most of my supplies when they were half-off or more. I love saving money. Then began my quest for inspiration and ideas for everything else-and had a list of things I wanted to do about a mile long. I was so pleased with the whole party and everyone loved it so that means it was a success.

I made most of the decorations myself. With minimal supplies bought at a really low price to be sure. While my basement was decorated for Christmas I wanted to be sure that the birthday party had plenty of snowmen and snowflakes.

I love these Snowman hats and I was happy to make them for the party because I could still use them as decor around my house for the holidays! They were the centerpieces on my two tables.

 

The first one is actually a papier mache hat I bought at Michaels and just dressed up to look like a snowman hat. The second one is more along the lines of what I found here-a coffee can and a piece of cardboard. I bought that Snow-tex stuff at Michael's as well with a coupon so it was cheaper. I had to really look for it but I found it near all the model making stuff.

I was going to just use the birthday banner I made years ago but decided to do something else. After finding this snowman paper plate banner and this snowflake banner, I decided to combine them. I looked all over for paper snowflakes but finally settled on foam ones. I did all the lettering myself too since I didn't feel like pulling out the Cricut and adding all those extra steps when I was on a time crunch. I used some twine to bring it all together-simple and finished!

 

Please forgive the piece of twine hanging out on the right there. My husband was helping me with picture taking and one of the snowmen fell off the wall and he simply put it back up without winding the twine back under it-don't worry, I fixed it ;)

 

I thought about making a buch of paper snowflakes too. You know, cutting them each out one by one. Like when I was in grade school. Yeah, didn't look forward to that. So, I was happy to find a tutorial and my snowflakes were BEAUTIFUL! My daughter actually asked if she could have one after the party :) I made one large one, one medium one and two small ones.

 

 

I had seen-and made-these snowflakes a few years ago. Before Pinterest even...they were one of my bookmarks before I had "Pinboards"!  They were just waitig for a coat of paint. This party got the fire under my butt and I finished them and they looked great hung over my food buffet and in front of my less than pretty blinds.

After the decor, the next important thing was my yummy treats and food. I found this cake idea over at Taste of Home. Since I don't like coconut and am also allergic to it I nixed that idea and left the icing plain. The "1" is the candle and the tree and the snowman are suckers I found at Dollar Tree. Six suckers for a dollar. And, I simply cut down the stick and it stayed upright and in place in my cake! I used a box cake mix too. Don't hate me :)

 The rest of the kiddies got to eat these snowman cupcakes. Chocolate chips and orange sprinkles for the faces and they were a HUGE hit!

 

 The biggest hit of the day though was the hot chocolate bar. Everyone loved it and I barely had any left at the end of the day. I used this recipe for crockpot hot chocolate and everyone said it was like drinking a candy bar. It was simply amazing! The recipe gives tips for thicker hot chocolate and I did mine that way....outstanding!

 My 'toppings' included: mini Jet-Puff marshmallows, red sugar crystals, green jimmies with snowflakes, white chocolate chips, mini milk chocolate chips, chocolate covered candy canes (I dipped them myself) and pirouline cookie stick. Oh, and Reddi-whip. Can't forget the whipped cream!

 In addition to the cupcakes we had other confections to enjoy after dinner. Like snoman cakes balls (mini chocolate chips and orange sprinkle things for the faces) and chocolate covered Oreos (with pearl bead sprinkles to look like snow).

 I also had these left over from the treat bags. Each bag had a plastic cup covered in snowflakes and inside was a snowman cake ball and one of these guys. I found the paper straws for $2.99 (144 count) at Meijer. I think they looked incredibly cute! I piped the snowflakes on with white chocolate and wish I had done all the cookies this way :)

I thought this guy looked pretty cute :) I found inspiration pictures all over pinterest but I made my own recipe up. I used 2 blocks of cream cheese and added minced garlic, a little garlic salt, some dill and parsley until it tasted right. I rolled it in mozzarella and added the peppercorns and carrot for the features. I mean, could he be any cuter??

 Finally, for the main course my husband and I did some brainstorming. We wanted to use our three crockpot system (best thing EVER!) and came up with a pasta bar. We had two kinds of pasta shapes (the shapes help hold the sauce and toppings better than a plain noodle), a red sauce, alfredo sauce and a cheese sauce. Again, don't be shocked but I used canned sauces. We offered mini meatballs, some grilled chicken chunks and pepperoni if you wanted to add some meat to your dish. Don't forget the shredded parmesan too! We ordered a anitpasto salad from a local pizza place and I made some garlic bread too for good measure!

 

Overall it was a great day! I can't believe how fast this first birthday came around but it was just as emotional as my daughters! And, of course with my party theme, I had to match my kids clothes to it too. I am just going to be one of 'those' moms. :)

 

Snowman Invites

Last year my son was born 9 days before Christmas. I decided way back then that for his first birthday I would theme his party "Winter ONE-derland". Yes, not very original, I know. And, yes I have been planning it for the entire year. The best part about it is that I was able to buy snowman/snowflake items after Christmas for at least 50% off! I have my napkins, cups, treat bags, plates-most of the important players for a rockin' party. I just have a few decorations I plan to make and I will fill the rest in with color coordinated pieces and we are all set.

 

I always like to make my invitations. If not I at least like to design them and then upload them as a picture. I came up with this idea after much thoughtful consideration. That, and I had designed so many invites that just weren't what I had envisioned. It wasn't coming together. So, I decided to build my own snoman. Out of white cardstock. And connected with tiny pieces of ribbon. Then I drew the faces on myself. And, added a cute paper scarf for something extra :)

 
They fold up neat and cute to fit in the envelopes too!

 

I'd love for you to come back and see what other projects I have in the works for this big event! I wouldn't even mind if you started following me-just to make sure you don't miss anything :)

A birthday gift with spirit :)

My BFF and I have now known each other for HALF of our lifetime. HALF.

Holy Cow. We met back in high school and you might remember me talking about her shower gift and her wedding card box. Wow. I make her a lot of homemade gifts.....

The latest installment of 'things I've made for my best friend' was in honor of her latest birthday. It was a milestone and to celebrate it her husband threw her a surprise party. I was so happy to be there with her! Although when my husband brought the gift in (WAY too heavy for me to lift!) her family all laughed and exclaimed "what a <my family name> gift!" uhhhh, thanks?? What kind of family do I come from? I like to think we're a family who likes to be fun :)

If you do this gift right it works out to around $1 a piece-some of mine ended up at $1.03/.04 ish but I didn't let that bother me. The big storage container was $7 so all in all it was just under $40 for this gift. And, my best friend is worth that and more :) (she may or may not be reading my blog.....)

Well, are you ready to see this GREAT gift??

 I cut the letters out with my cricut....that's contact paper so she can peel it off and use the container when she's done!

Yep, that's 30, count them THIRTY bottles of "cheer". I mixed it up and bought three different brands so she had a wide variety. I mean, if you have to turn 30 (which I do NOT plan on doing in February, pssh) why not have fun doing it?!

Happy Birthday, my dear best friend! <3

Princess Tea Party

This month my niece turns 6. I have no idea how we got here so fast but in a few weeks she will be six. And starting first grade. Whoa.

Because she is six she got to have her very first friend birthday party. Growing up we got a celebration with the family every year. Our grandparents and aunts, uncles and cousins would come over for dinner and cake and ice cream. We only got a birthday party with our friends three times. In first grade, when we were ten (sleepover!!!!) and when we were sixteen. This worked so well for my mother and I plan on doing the same thing. So does my sister.

My niece wanted a 'princess Kate' party for all of her friends. She is enamored with the newest member of the british royal family. So we explained to her how very popular tea time is in England, where Princess Kate lives and she wanted a princess tea party.

We were happy to oblige. And, we did it on the very cheap too!

Most of our decorations I found around my sisters house. Never underestimate what you can take off the wall and use for a party!

For starters, we told each of the girls to dress up on the invitation. I made an invitation using Word and some clip art and saved it as a picture. I then uploaded them to Walgreen's and my sister had very inexpensive invitations...this is my favorite party tip to date!


The day before the party we starting prepping and setting the stage. This is our 'tea room'. The green fabric is actually two sheer panels my sister has on the window of the playroom. My mom and I joined them together with a rubber band to make that pretty rosette and used 3M hooks to attach them to the wall. We hung some pretty beaded necklaces in the middle for some bling. The table was covered with vintage tablecloths that once belonged to my grandmother. I made the tissue paper poof balls hanging from the chandelier. My brother in law brought the chairs in after the picture :)

We decorated my sister's fireplace with the two pink sheers that go with the green ones in the previous picture. That castle is somethinng we found at Hobby Lobby for $2.80!! It was missing a few pieces and was very scratched up but with my good old Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and some scrapbook paper I fixed it all and you could never tell! The turret is actually a storage piece from the girls' bedroom my sister got at a garage sale a few years ago. The princess chair was something else they already had.

For atop the mantle I simply took some inverted bowls in varying heights and covered them with my sister's pink scarf. Then I added her tea pot from her fine china (first time it has ever been used for anything!) and some tea cups she has from her grandmother in law. The finishing touch for this was when my sister went and got her tiara from her wedding (I wore it too!) and we put that at the base of the tea pot. 

 

We all searched thrift stores and garage sales and found a great collection of different tea cups. They ranged in price from $1-$4 depending on where we were shopping. Each girl got her tea cup to take home as part of her goody bag and they were very excited when they found that out! My mom found the cute plastic plates we used. They looked like crystal candy dishes and the little girls thought they were eating on the 'good' stuff ;) Each girl also got a fascinator/hat that I made after reading about them here. 

I came up with the idea for the placecards at the last minute. Literally, after working from 10:00 on Friday morning we were putting these together at 4:00 that afternoon! I made a template for a tea bag, wroter each Princess' name on it and we made the 'tag' part (does that have a name???) with a piece of ribbon and a princess sticker.  My niece loved picking out the best seat for each of her friends!

The centerpiece on the table was the cake stand we covered with the cupcakes. The middle cup cake is sitting on an inverted wine glass to give it height. My mom and I found those cupcake wrappers for $1.80 at Hobby Lobby! They were on clearance from $5.99!!! My sister got the pics after my niece found them at the party store.

On to lunch!!! We gave each girl her own cup of veggies and dip. I wanted to put the dip right in the bottom of the veggie cup but I was overruled :) The veggie cups were another Hob Lob find on clearance in their summer section. I think we paid $1 for 8! Each girl also got an edible tea cup filled with candy that I found via Pinterest on the Disney Family website.

Of course we also had lots of finger food! The fruit pizza's were my favorite!

Three kinds of finger sandwiches were served at tea time. Peanut butter and jelly crown sandwiches. (Helpful tip here: cut the bread, meat and cheese with the appropriate cutter BEFORE assembling them...the shape was much neater that way for us at least.)

We also had turkey and Swiss cheese heart sandwiches topped with a cherry tomato for color. Ham and cheese butterfly sandwiches were our third choice. Each sandwich had it's own shape and we also used three different kinds of bread. 

There were plenty of cute conversations while nibbling on their food....

 

And, of course there was LOTS of tea drinking! Our tea was actually pink lemonade :)

We only played one party game because my niece insisted. She really wanted pin the tail on the donkey. Well, donkey's  don't come to tea parties :) so she said she wanted to play pin the diamond on the tiara instead. I  took a picture of the birthday girl and added a clip art tiara to it and uploaded it as a 16x20 print at Sam's club and cut diamonds out of colored paper. The print cost $6 and the girls thought it was so neat that it was a picture of my niece.

It was a successful party, albeit a noisy one! 12 Six year old girls can really make a room loud!! But, me, my sister and my mom survived and my niece is still talking about it two days later!







Minnie Mouse Birthday Party

Our little girl turned 2 this past weekend. I started planning for her party last summer. Knowing I would give birth a week before Christmas and 5 weeks before her birthday I wanted enough time!

For months I collected anything and everything I could find. Anything that was red, black, polka dot or Minnie Mouse and was on sale or a great deal came home with me. I had so much red and white polka dot ribbon to work with I didn't even use it all!

It was all worth it and the party was a success :)

I started by making my own invitations. I found the idea and the instructions here. Except I had a Mickey Mouse paper punch for the ears. I watched for scrapbook supplies to go on sale at JoAnn's and also used one of my % off total purchase coupons so it wasn't as pricey. So many people told me how great they thought they were!

I found ideas via Pinterest too and ran with them. This one was really easy to figure out and cheap too! I bought the wreaths at Dollar Tree and used wire to connect them and then added some hot glue for good measure. I wrapped it with a bit of polka dot ribbon and was sure to cover the wire with it. I made the little pennant myself with the leftover paper from the invites and attached it with white ribbon. I actually free-handed the two, backwards on the back of the page and cut it out. I was impressed with myself!

I also found the supplies for this one at Dollar Tree and filled in with some other things I had at home. I spray painted the styrofoam balls blacka after I glued them together. I made a bow with some more ribbon and attached that too. I had bought a set of graduated boxes to make a card box long ago and had the two smallest ones leftover. I took the smallest one and wrapped some tissue paper around it and glued Minnie to it. It was the perfect touch on one of our tables.

Those were the most I did in terms of decorating. I bought plain red tablecovers at Dollar Tree, red and black plates and napkins too! I found polka dot balloons at Hobby Lobby way back in the summer on redline markdown and they were PERFECT! I put the birthday banner I made last year out once more and I found a huge Minnie at a garage sale for $1 last summer and it looked great as decor. 

Along with the balloons I found cupcake wrappers that were red polkadot and since I always make cupcakes instead of a big cake I was in luck. I used a white cake mix so the color would soak through them and ruin the look and frosted them with chocolate icing and stuck two mint cookies in for ears and the kids loved them. I made half my cupcakes that way and the rest I frosted and topped with white pearl sprinkles. 

I also made these cute Oreo Pops. I found them over at The Idea Room. They were very time consuming but worth it in the end. I put them in treat bags and tied them with some more ribbon. I put them all in a bucket that I found at Michaels and it completed the dessert table.

Of course I made the birthday girl a set of ears too, but she refused to wear them. She doesn't let me do much with her hair! I bought an inexpensive black headband and glued the ears to that. I cut four circles out of an old file folder and glued two together to make it really stiff. Then I sandwiched that between two pieces of felt and had my ears. I made my own bow and glued that to the center. I wore them for the party and will be holding onto them for a future trip to Disney World. :)

I found Mickey Mouse ears at the party store and got 8 of them. Since this was a Minnie Party and I had yards and yards of ribbon i turned half of them into Minnie ears myself and the kids loved them. \

Of course, the birthday girl had to dress the part as well. I found a Minnie Mouse costume from the Disney Store at a mom2mom sale for $3 and it was perfect for her to run around in at her party. Everyone thought she was the cutest!

And, because I am growing to despise thank you notes I made her help me this time. I found a Minnie Mouse coloring page and sized it down to fit under my WordArt and put four on a sheet. I let her have at it with every red and pink crayon she owns and then cut it out and glued it to a piece of red cardstock. I wrote the sentiment on the back and they are ready for mailing!

Olivia cupcakes

As I have mentioned before, my sister lets my two nieces choose the theme for each birthday.

And, let me assure you that these themes are well thought out and chosen MONTHS in advance. So, I wasn't surprised that this year my oldest niece wanted an Olivia (the Nick Jr. pig) party for her big 5th birthday. If you don't know what I'm talking about here is Olivia:

It was decided that we wouldn't theme the food to match the party even though my mom and I thought serving hot dogs and pulled pork would be kind of funny :) My sister bought some Olivia themed items from online-cake plates and balloons. But, everything else was just red and white everything since those are Olivia's favorite colors. My niece even wore her Olivia t-shirt and of course she had to wear the Olivia tutu and hair bows from her dress up set and requested white and red striped tights like this one picture of Olivia she has so my sister bought her some leg warmers.

I have made EVERY birthday cake for her since year one. I am very proud of this. My other niece could care less who makes it as long as she gets it but my oldest niece won't take anything unless I make it. Of course she saw a picture over my sisters should on-line one day and it was the most ridiculous and time consuming two layer fondant covered cake and I somehow managed to say NO to that one. I am not that talented or patient either! I found these cupcakes on nickjr.com and we convinced her they would be great. You should have heard the squeals of excitement from both nieces when they saw the finished product. I didn't make the cupcake recipe but rather used a funfetti box mix which is what the birthday girl requested. I also used canned frosting and tinted it myself. The one thing I should have done but didn't read the recipe at that point was to make this in MUFFIN tins. They need to be a bit bigger than a cupcake for the template of the nose to work and still have room for the rest of the face. We made them work, mistake and all...Olivia just couldn't have a mouth and the ears had to go straight in the cupcake and stand up in the air instead of kind of off to the sides as in the pic on the website. It didn't look exactly like Olivia but it looked like a pig who may resemble Olivia :) Everyone loved them and enjoyed the extra bit of chocolate that the ears and nose provided.

A successful birthday treat if there ever was one!

Birthday 'Panda'-monium

Every year my sister allows my two nieces to each choose the theme for their birthday party. My youngest niece has a birthday on April Fool's day and she turned three this year :) Months ago she decided what she wanted and told us and sent my sister and I into a planning scramble where we franctically searched high and low for the tools we needed. She wanted a panda party. We still don't know how or why she came to this decision. Today was the party and it was a success. The birthday girl was thrilled! We couldn't find any party supplies or decorations that weren't Kung-Fu panda so we improvised :) She stuck with a theme of black and white and searched through the millions of toys and stuffed animals her girls have and pulled out any and all pandas and set them throughout the party.

This is the main party area with balloons and goodie bags.

 This big panda actually belongs to my mom. She works for a church and this year VBS has a panda theme and she bought this for it and let my sister borrow it. My sister tried to talk my niece out of the HUMONGOUS 3 balloon but since she wouldn't be getting any character balloons this year my sister eventually gave in :) We sat my niece here with a 'thank you' sign and took her picture for the thank you cards.

 This part I am so impressed and proud of! My sister has never made a cake/cupcakes for her girls' birthdays. I have always done it for them since I have a bit more talent. She got the cupcake idea from Bakerella and did a GREAT job! The letter picks are something I got for her while in Argentina a few years ago and they go on the birthday cake every year :)

 She used the wilton free standing teddy bear cake pan and just used black and white icing. Again, she has never done this so it isn't perfect but still totally cute!

 My sister also gave me Bakerella's book for my birthday. As soon as I opened she informed me I had to make these for the party. Not entirely happy with how they came out but I haven't done cake pops in a while...

 These were in the goodie bags. We found them at Dollar Tree in the baby item section. The large one has 3 fortune cookies in it and the little one has gummie panda bears we found at Big Lots.

I didn't take any pictures but of course we had Chinese food to finish off the theme. My nieces love Chinese food so this was a hit. My sister ordered three entrees from a local restaurant and then bought her egg rolls and fried  rice at Sam's Club and did it herself. Everyone was pretty pleased and incredibly full!