Monkey Birthday Party

Yeah...I finally have another party to post about....Last weekend we had a monkey birthday party for my 7 year old daughter. We had a great time and did lots of Monkeying around. The birthday invitations started at school with a snack and and an invite. I used the containers I bought for the party banana split party and packed in a banana and the invite. Super cute and easy invitation. The little "fake" bananas were sent to those that were not in Natalie's class. We decorated with lots of banana and monkey themed items. I created fake palm trees out of wrapping paper rolls, balloons, and green posterboard. I stuck dowell rods down in some round flat foam pieces and placed the wrapping paper rolls over them. I then placed monkeys around the trees and placed bananas around the table. I found a few fake plants to tie the yellow and brown balloons too and used green, yellow, and brown for tablecloths and accent colors. I bought green, brown, and monkey printed fleece when it was on sale and created simple scarfs for one of the take home goodies. The looked great around each of the chairs and even the adults liked them and took one home. It was a great alternative to the tulle seat decorations and it was something usuable. The best part is I made 30 of them in about an hour and it only costs me around $10.00. We also had a banana split bar. I used an old crate I had laying around to place the bananas on and some baskets as well. It turned out very cute and it was the hit of the party. I found some monkey sucker molds and lots of fun stuff from oriental trading to dress up the tables and the kids...lol. We had a monkey coloring page out on the activity table when the kids got there they could start coloring. After they were done we hung them up on a clothesline with clothespins to display and for more festive monkey decorations. The goody bags were just plain brown lunch bags with welcome to the jungle wrote on them. I think they looked really cute lined up together. I also saved up toilet paper rolls for months so the kids could create binoculars at the party. We had a monkey dance contest with some songs my friend downloaded for me from madagascar 2 soundtrack. We also played bingo. It turned out to be a great party. I hope you enjoy the pics and are inspired for your next party.

Halloween Party

I have to say it.........I'm glad Halloween is almost over. I'm worn out. We had a big halloween party last weekend and Natalie is on her 5th costume tonight (2 of which I made). We had a great time at the halloween party though. The kids all looked so cute and we had lots of goodies, games, hay rides, picture spots, and food. Although at the end of the party everyone decided that Jumping on the trampoline and playing in the leaves at the same time was a good idea. I asked my dd what her favorite part was...I knew it had to be the games I worked tirelessly on or all the goodies I put together for the dessert buffet or the great hay ride the neighbor put together for everyone....but guess what she said. Jumping on the trampoline. Can you believe it? That wasn't even on my plan for 2 months ahead of time. Just goes to show you sometimes fun just happens without being planned :) Who would have thought. I could have just invited them got my pictures, picked up some pizza and threw them in the trampoline. Oh Well...I'll put that on my plan for next year.

So without further ado here are some pictures of my carefully planned out halloween party that hopefully someone who reads this blog will appreciate :)

I saw Amy Atlas halloween dessert buffet in a magazine and it went straight on my list of fabulous things to do for the halloween party. I realized mine would not look as glamorous but I think it turned out darn cute and if I could have found a wall that would have given me a seamless background in the house it would have even looked better. Although I did get reprimanded by my dh for putting thumbtacks in the ceiling after the party(I told him that's why I did the setup at midnight the night before when he was fast asleep..hehe) To setup the dessert buffet I took my buffet cabinet and another lower cabinet I have and placed them one in front of the other. This made the dessert buffet wider and it varied the height slightly. I then took boxes and wrapped them in black and white polka dot paper and pulled out all my white dishes for the orange, black, and white foods. I collected candies and items that were in the orange, black, and white color family all during September and October when I was out shopping. For the centerpiece I sprayed some branches black and placed them in a white vase. I also took some flower cones and painted them orange and placed black paper mache dots all around them and put some black pipe cleaners in the top of them. The balloons were from oriental trading. They are the pumpkin punch balloons. For the actual food I only made a couple of the items and the rest I purchased. The homemade items were the coconut balls, chocolate covered pretzel sticks, and the caramel apple(well my sister in law made those! Thanks Amy!) The rest of the items were purchased...the white donut and peeps ghost skewers, reece cups, m&m's, pumpkin suckers, smal pumpkin pies, and chocolate cream with orange icing cupcakes. All in all I think it turned out great and everyone loved it. I'm already dreaming up my christmas buffet idea.

Next, since I feared it was going to rain the day of the party I took all the games and placed them in my husband's basketball dome(don't ask). The dome actually came in very handy and I think we will have the games in there from now on. I had them lined up against the walls and instead of pumpkin bowling(since I didn't think the pumpkin and the concrete floor would cooperate) we used a basketball to knock down the bottles. We also had a small baskeball hoop for a hoop shoot, a tub full of sand and bones for a dig for bone game(small children love this one), and a duck pond. The other games we had was plinko(oriental trading), spider ring toss(oriental trading), bottle toss(oriental trading), punch out, and a bean bag toss. I used the same bean bag board that I had painted last year. My mom graciously made 4 bean bags for each person and the party and I found halloween buckets at Michael's for $.79 cents so everyone would get a bean bag game to take home with them. Each game had individual goody bags or tickets you could win. And of course we had a pinata. It took forever to get that thing to bust. After everyone played the games we took pictures in my homemade spooky picture frame wall. I think the parents enjoyed this just as much as the kids. After all the excitement of the games was over I led the children with their tickets to my makeshift ticket table. I set it up sort of like chucky cheese and they got to pick their prizes. They seemed to like this and it was funny the things they picked out. We then ate goodies, went on a fabulous hayride, and then we took a group picture and they jumped on the trampoline while playing in the leaves. Overall it was a big success. Natalie dressed up as a bee, my dh dressed up as a Buzz the beekeeper, and I dressed up as a Vampire. I'm always looking for something to put on 20 minutes before everyone arrives. This year it was throw on some face paint, rip up a white shirt, and put blood all over me. Maybe next year I will actually plan for me an outfit :) I hope you enjoy my party details and can use some of these ideas for your parties. Let me know what you think and let me know if you have any ideas for next year.

I'm having a Halloween Party this Saturday

I've been busy planning and making things for our annual Halloween Party this Saturday. I'm praying it doesn't rain and get really cold because I love to do the activities outside. I've been a really busy girl coming up with ideas for this party. Here is a sneak peek of a few ideas that I have been working on(some not completely finished but will give you a general idea).

Check back next week for action pictures and lots of ideas. I have posted more details about some of these projects on my other blog - http://getsboredeasily.blogspot.com

School Snack Idea

It's our turn for school lunch this week. We usually do a fruit because most people do a starch like peanut butter crackers and baked chips. While Natalie really likes pb crackers and chips she gets bored with them. In the past I have done strawberries with ff cool whip and mini bananas, ff vanilla pudding, and vanilla wafers. So this time we came up with oranges. Since 1st graders can't usually peel oranges I got that job. If I never have to peel another orange it will be too soon. :) I have to admit even for me I went a little overboard this time around. I made bag toppers for the oranges with a knock knock joke, sewed wet one packs for the wet ones(you can't give kids oranges and not have wet ones can you? I didn't think so). And the thing that put it over the top...when Natalie told me she gets to hand out her treats ...what did I do you ask? Yep, I made her a orange shirt to wear to school and a hair scrunchie on snack day to match her snacks. I told you,,,over the top. But hey, let the other mom's talk about how I must not have a job, etc(BTW, I do have a job)..... I had fun making the stuff and Natalie said she loved it...so yeah! Hope you enjoy the pics and let me know if you have any other ideas for snacks.

Fun Fruit flower pot kabobs

I went to my neice's birthday party and her grandma had made these cute flower pot fruit kabobs. I had to take a picture because they were so cute! She took a grapefruit and stuck the flower shaped fruit kabobs down in them. She wrapped the pots in silver paper and tied a cute ribbon around them. She placed them on a tray and put the fruit dip in the middle. So cute and so yummy. ENJOY!!!

Fishing Birthday party

We had a fishing birthday party for my nephew at a local fishing lake. We held the birthday party on a Thursday afternoon because the Lake gets crowded on the weekend. We got lucky and had the place to ourselves and the weather was perfect. We had lots of goldfish crackers and gummy worms on skewers. We used the goldfish cracker boxes for the goodie bags at the party. They turned out really cute. This was a great way to recycle and keep within the theme for the goodie bags. There is some great packaging out there just keep your eyes open. I made a huge fish out of fabric and stuffing and a sign that said I caught the big one at Hunter's Birthday party. I had each person fishing hold it up and took a picture for the Birthday scrapbook. I found a chipboard fish shaped book at Michaels that I took apart and ran ribbon through to make a banner for the party as well. I made big red/white fishing bobbers out of white bowls I found at dollar general. To make these you will need two bowls the same size. I spray painted one of them red and flipped it on top of the other. I drilled two tiny holes in the red bowl and strung a ribbon through it so I could hang the bobber. Then I took white duck tape and taped the bowls together. This turned out really cute. I also made several smaller versions with smaller bowls I found marked down at Walmart after the 4th of July. All in all this was a great party for an 8 year old and we caught lots of fish. ENJOY!

Happy 4th of July - Casual Dinner

We had a casual 4th of July Dinner party last night and I wanted to share a few ideas we(me and my dd age 6 threw together). First we set the table with a white table cloth and took a piece of blue and white polka dot fabric for the table runner. I took the base of the white plastic birdbath and placed a fiestware red pitcher on it with fresh white snowball bush flowers. We then layered white and red plates and put some 4th or July poppers on each place setting. We are actually going to take these to the neighbors house tomorrow for his barbecue and 4th of July fireworks but it looked cute so we left them. The poppers were placed in plastic baggies that are normally used for jewelry supplies and a topper was made that said "Just poppin by to say Happy 4th of July". If you were having them as favors for your own barbecue you could say "Thanks for Poppin by for 4th of July". After that was done the table still needed something and I looked around the house and spotted my red apron collection. I tied the aprons to the back of each chair. A bonus is the had pockets so we were able to make some red twizzler treats to go in the pockets of the aprons for a take home gift for the guests(my immediate family..lol). We also jazzed up the 2 liters by wrapping with a piece of felt, ribbon, and a tag that said Happy 4th of July. The cups also got a ribbon and we used a pen to write the person's name and Happy 4th of July. The storebought flag cookies got a quick sucker stick and were put into the oven. We threw this together in about an hour. Enjoy and Happy 4th of July!

Thursday Brainstorm Party - Perennial Exchange Party

I thought I would devote Thursday's to a party brainstorm session. A dreaming session per say...If I were to have a party this is what I would do. Then whenever I get a chance to actually do this type of party I will be armed and ready...And unlike my idea notebook I will be able to find my ideas easily :). I hope you enjoy these ideas. If you have any ideas that could make my party even better please leave me a comment. Thanks and have a great Thursday!

For my first Thursday Brainstorm Party Idea this is actually a party I'm planning for end of July. I will be creating invitations next week and have already started gathering my supplies.

PERENNIAL EXCHANGE PARTY

THE GIST OF IT:
The party is all about the love of gardening and getting some new perennial flowers for your yard. Everyone will be asked to bring 6 starts of their favorite perennial flowers. If they do not have perennial flowers they will be encouraged to bring seeds for perennial flowers so they can participate. At the end of the party everyone will take 6 new starts of flowers. In my invitation I will include instructions on how to properly separate flowers from an online expert. For my flower starts... I plan to put them in a small pot, wrap them with burlap, make a pretty tag(From the garden of: Hope) and wrap them with a green or yellow ribbon.

THE TIME:
This party will be a lunchtime party for approx 10 people. Very casual and relaxed but with special touches.

THE FOOD:
I will be creating a salad bar and either sandwiches or lasagna for this lunch. I bought a salad bar blow up contraption from LTD commodities. It is very cute and I haven't had a chance to use it yet. It looks like a blow up long pool that has a cover. I will use my green glass bowl collection to put the salad ingredients in down in the ice. It should look nice I think. FOR DESSERT i haven't quite figured it out yet...Maybe some flower cupcakes and a fresh berry trifle. I have already bought some cans of yellow and green drinks to match the colors and I plan on buying some mountain dew and lemonade as well. I will probably make labels that says perennial exchange party or something to that effect. For the drinks I will either put them in my turtle pool from the cookout that I had or I would love to find a wheelbarrow to fill with ice and place them in there.

THE THEME:
Of course gardening will be the theme of this party. I have picked the colors yellow/green to tie everything together. I will use gardening containers to decorate with. I'm thinking burlap down the center of the table with tin cans of varying sizes down the center with fresh flowers. I scored some white lanterns with lights from big lots for $2.00 so I'm sure I'll hang them up everywhere and probably add some green and yellow birds, butterflies, or polka dots to them to match the theme. If I can find some flower picks I will use them in the salad bar to name all the things(green pepper, onions, bacon, carrots, etc) I also may cut out some flowers from cardboard boxes and decoupage them with scrapbook paper for the back wall of the deck if we end up putting the table up there.

FAVORS:
Gardening Gloves stuffed with tissue paper at each place setting and a seed packet wrapped with a ribbon around them. I possibly might make some flower pens with my dd too. She loves to give things out to people. I bought a couple of butterfly knee cushions that will be the children's gifts if they come to the party. I will probably use them for the children's table on the back of their chairs. They are yellow and should look really good with everything else.

ACTIVITY:
Since my mother-in-law is a master gardener I have asked her to do a container garden demonstration for everyone at the party. We will use this container garden as the door prize for everyone that attends. I'll probably just pull the name out of a hat or maybe before then I'll come up with something more creative. If we have several children show up I would like to have an activity for them as well. I'm thinking of finding some large rocks and cleaning them up so they can paint them for their mom's flower garden. If I do this I'll have to make/buy some painting smocks so they don't get paint all over them. Still thinking on that.

Look for pictures from this party near the end of July.

Comments Welcomed

Hope XOXO

Casual Cookout

My dh wanted to have a casual get together for work. He said upfront I couldn't make cutesy stuff or mess up the house making things for the party. So I went on a hunt for some cute things to put the food in...we had to eat right? I found a plastic bird bath that was great for the relish tray. I also found the flower pot saucers for the chips and dip. But my favorite of all was the turtle kiddie pool that we filled with ice and put all the drinks in. It was $10 bucks at Walmart and they had a hippo too but I thought the turtle went better with the outdoor/cookout party we were having. I also plan to reuse all of these containers at a garden themed party I'm having later in the month. Have you found any unique containers for food that you just loved?

Hope XOXO

Party Idea Notebook

I have 3 parties coming up in July so I'm really busy with the planning phases right now. I just wanted to share how I keep track of all my crazy ideas. I keep a notebook with me at all times to sketch out ideas and write down anything that pops in my head about parties. It never fails when I'm trying to go to sleep at night a party idea springs in my head and I need my idea notebook. Here is the page I have started for a fishing birthday party for my 8 year old nephew in July. I like to sketch ideas and brainstorm anything I can think of. Some of it gets used and others ideas get scratched but I always have it to look back on after the party is over. I plan on using bobbers as the main feature of this party. I'm going to try to make large red/white bobbers to hang from the picnic shelter. I might use plastic bowls glued together or make them out of fabric, or use the throw away plastic bowls to try and work them out. I'm also going to try and make fake fishing poles out of pretzel rods, life savers, twizzlers, and swedish fish. Check back soon to see if they turn out :)

How does everyone else keep track of their ideas?

Banner Ideas

For fathers day why not make a tie banner. I plan on adding some letters to each tie to spell out FATHER and hanging it up on father's day. Here's how you do it:

1.) place two ties side by side and set your sewing machine on zig zag stitch.

2.) sew approximately 15 inches up from the bottom of the ties.

3.) make 6 of these 2 tie sets

4.) use rotary cutter to cut 14 inch tie banners

5.) cut off small area of remaining tie pieces to use as the banner base.

6.) sew small pieces right sides together to make long piece

7.) place tie side by side pieces right side together with small tie long piece to create banner.

8.) flip over small piece and sew again to make the tie banner pieces lay flat.

9.)Add letters or just tie up to decorate for Father's Day.

ENJOY!!!!

XOXO....Hope

Another idea to use for a banner is discontinued upholstery swatches. Since they are already bound you would just need to put them together with some ribbon and add some letters and they are usually in the same color family.