Dr Seuss Birthday Party

V celebrated her fourth birthday this past Saturday, Dr Seuss style.

Lorax wall decor, made of poster board and a plastic tablecloth.

We had a blast at her party, and everyone loved the theme. My sister took most of the pictures, since I was busy playing hostess, and she hasn't sent them to me yet, but I thought I'd share a few I had on my phone.

Book page bunting.

I'd picked up several old copies of Dr Seuss books at Goodwill, which I massacred to make decorative items. ( It totally felt wrong to chop up good books, but the decorations turned out great, and we're keeping some of them for the play room.) The above picture shows one of several buntings made out of book pages and bias tape, inspired by this post at Real Life, One Day at a Time.

Balloons!

I blew up something like 70 balloons, and hung them up all over the dining room. I thought I might pass out afterwards, but you can't beat balloons for high impact, low cost decorating.

Balloon column at our Dr Seuss party.

I made Thing 1 and Thing 2 cupcakes, like the ones found on this post at Kara's Party Ideas. They turned out super cute, but the humidity literally melted the cotton candy into little blue puddles within about 30 minutes.

Thing 1 and Thing 2 cupcakes, before the humidity took its toll.

Oh well. Can't win e'm all, right?

I'll probably follow up with a part two once my sis gets around to sharing her pics. 

V's already trying to plan next year's party...

Projector Crafting, Seuss Style

Cat in the Hat decoration for our Seuss party.

I ran across an old projector at Goodwill a couple of months ago, and couldn't pass it up.

I've successfully made a couple of cool t shirts for the kids, by using it as a light table. (I printed off Pokemon and Sesame street coloring sheets, placed them on the projector, placed a t shirt over the picture, and traced it with a Sharpie or fabric marker.)

V's birthday is coming up next month, and I thought I'd try my hand at making some large decorations for the party. She's having a Dr Seuss themed party.

Green Eggs and Ham

I traced some images from our favorite Dr Seuss books, (excepting the hat above, which came from here,) and onto clear plastic, and projected them onto foam core and poster board, and traced and colored them. A little time consuming maybe, but easy and the results are fun.

Thing 1 sign. Lettering to be added later.

I think I'll get my 25 bucks worth out of the projector. It has lots of crafting potential.

Tween Party Favors on the Cheap

My niece's 12th birthday is coming up, and I've once again been put in charge of the festivities. She and I decided on a beach party theme, which should be fun, and pretty easy for me.

I've been trying to think of some little party favors that were a) suitable for "big" girls, (ie, not plastic trinkets,) b) inexpensive, and c) something that might actually be useful in some capacity, instead of winding up in the trash in a day or two.

I picked up some small tote bags in bright, pretty colors on sale at hobby lobby for around a buck a piece. I'm debating whether to stamp them or stencil them, but I'm thinking something along the lines of seashells or summery flowers.

I'm also going to make some hemp bracelets and ankle bracelets for the girls, since they're sort of beachy. I used to make jewelry back in my pre-mommy days, when I had lots of leisure time, so I'm just shopping my old stash for supplies.

Finally, I decorated the girls each a little notebook. The tiny little composition books came 3 to a pack from Dollar Tree. I spruced them up with some card stock, stickers, and clear contact paper. They turned out really cute. The girls can use them to write notes to friends, to do lists, or angst ridden Smashing Pumpkin  lyrics, like I used to. ;)

Pink Princess Party (Part 1)

The kids know that after Christmas is over, it's time to start thinking about birthdays. Their birthdays are months away, but because mommy usually makes a lot of the party stuff, preparation starts early.
This year, I thought I'd get off easy with V. She's recently become infatuated with Hello Kitty, and when I saw some cute Hello Kitty party stuff at Target, I figured I was off the hook.
When I showed it to her, she sternly said "I don't want a Kitty party. I want a PINK PRINCESS party!" I revisited the topic a couple of days later, and she told me the same thing.
So um, here I am, starting on the pink princess party...
I decided against a Disney type theme, and I think I'm going to go the usual DIY route.
Here's my first contribution, tiny little goody bags.

I'm thinking I'm going to come up with a crown and a wand for the kids, and fill these little bags with candy jewelry or something. I sort of hate filling up a big 'ol bag full of plastic trinkets the kids aren't going to play with anyway, and I thought these might solve the issue, in that they're too small to hold much junk. They're also reusable, as opposed to the plastic goody bags you buy.

They're crocheted of cotton yarn.

Also on the agenda, a DIY Mario party, which L has been talking about since shortly after his last birthday.

Rock Star Party

Saturday we celebrated my niece's eleventh birthday with a Rock Star themed party. I meant to get lots of pictures, but I was so busy playing hostess that I only got a picture of the table before the kids got there...

The kids had fun, in spite of the sweltering 102 degree heat. The highlight of the party was the water balloon fight at the end. We also gave the kids "rock star" makeovers, which included spray in hair color, lots of fake tattoos, and black nail polish. (I wonder what their parents thought of their new look when they got home...My own kids went to church today with several large tattoos. )

Yep, Another Rockstar Birthday Banner

I posted several weeks ago about the U Rock Banner I made for my niece Madison's upcoming birthday. Here's another along the same lines.

She knows I've been working on this stuff, and she's getting excited. I hope she likes it...

Rockstar Goody Bags

I'm trying to squeeze in a little time here and there to work on my niece's birthday party. Here's the second item I got to cross of the to do list: the goody bags. They're made of felt, and machine sewn. I sewed the bags for V's party by hand, and I thought they turned out super cute, but my hands and wrists are hurting so bad these days (Arthritis? Carpel tunnel? I dunno.) that I opted for using the machine this time. Not quite as cute, but not bad.

(The applique pattern came from another blog, which I bookmarked, and now cannot find. I think AOL is eating some of my bookmarks. Anyone recognize it? I'd love to give proper credit...)

U Rock Birthday Banner

My little niece turns 11 this year, and my sister wanted me to help come up with a cool, themed party for her. I decided to go with a rockstar theme. Madison loves to sing and dance, and one of the focal points of the party will be a Wii karaoke game for the girls to play.
I'm going to be using a mostly hot pink and black color scheme.
This is the first completed project for her party: a felt birthday banner. There are a million tutorials on the project, but I ended up using the basic template from Pick Up Some Creativity. After fussing with cutting the letters out for what seemed like forever, and then deciding I didn't like the way the turned out, I opted for sticky felt letters from Hobby Lobby. Much faster, and frankly more legible than the ones I had made.

I love planning birthday parties.

Five years ago today...

Five years ago today, I became the mother of a beautiful, sensitive, intelligent, complicated, tornado of a son. He came three and a half weeks early, as if to say even then, that we were going to do things his way, and not mine.

I thank God every day for him. He's a blessing, and I'm honored to be his mommy.

Happy birthday, son.

Happy almost birthday, little man.

Well, we're not back to ourselves yet, but we're on the mend, I guess.
L's 4th birthday party is coming up this Sunday, and I have to do the requisite amount of cleaning and panicking before we fill our very small house with about 20 people. He's having a Tonka Truck themed party. I was thankfully able to buy most of all of the supplies, so I won't be crafting much of this party. I am planning on making the cake. I'm going to cover the top with crumbled up cookie "dirt", and decorate it with some little Tonka Truck toys. I'll post pictures if it turns out well. I'll probably also post pictures if it doesn't turn out so well. I've been burning everything lately. The kids get me distracted.
I can't believe L is almost 4 years old. That suddenly seems like such a big kid. All those old women at the grocery store who tell you (while your kids are crying, or throwing groceries out of the basket, or talking loudly about bodily functions,) that you should enjoy this time, because it goes by so quickly, are right. It does. Sometimes I wish I could press pause just for a little while.

The birthday party was lovely. I'd post pictures, but L hid the memory card for my camera, so I am still waiting to get some pictures from my sisters. I feel blessed that so many people came out to wish baby V a happy birthday. She is officially walking, by the way. She's also trying to say a few new words.
My uncle's funeral was sad, as they always are. He was a relatively young man, and apparently in reasonably good health, up until about a month ago. He'll be missed. I'm reminded, as I always am after someone passes away, how important it is to stay in touch with people, and tell them the things you want them to know, and not hold grudges. We all know these things, but they never seem so real as they do after you lose someone.
Anyway, I'm back in the blogosphere, as it were. I'll check back in later.

Here are a few work in progress pics of the party stuff for V's birthday. Here is the required "birthday poster". It's sort of a tradition in my family. I started it when my nieces were little kids. They thought it was so cool to have a poster with their names on it hanging outside the house. Now it's just not a party around here without a poster.

These are most of the contents of the goody bags. Coloring books (printed from nick jr), crayons, stick puppets (printed from nick jr, and laminated,) bubbles, play doh, candy, a thanks for coming card (printed from nick jr,) and puzzles (printed from nick jr, backed with cardstock, and laminated.)

I printed the images for this banner from nick jr. Then I printed another set in reverse. Cut them out, glued them together, laminated, punched holes, added ribbon on the balloons, and strung everything on ribbon. The result is a durable, double sided, really cute garland/banner thing that will probably end up in one of the kid's room after the party.

Some Muno stuffies I made for the kids, that won't fit in the goody bags. These were my first attempt at machine applique, and they turned out pretty well. I printed the templates at nick jr.

The muno pinata is finished, but I haven't gotten a picture yet. It turned out...um...ok. lol. Let's just say my paper mache abilities are pretty limited. I've made a ton more stuff, but that's about all I've taken pictures of.

Incidentally, I noticed that they started selling actual Yo Gabba party goods about a week ago. I opted out anyway, and purchased the solid colored tableware at Party City, since we're having quite a few folks over, and the Gabba stuff would have been pretty pricey for such a large crowd. It's cute though.