Soccer Birthday Party

My son has a love for everything soccer so when I suggested a swimming party at the local gym he said only if it’s a soccer party. The best part of this party was how easy it was! The cake was frosted like grass along with the cupcakes. That was my sons favorite part was his grass cake in the goal. In the past I will be the first one to say I may have gone a little crazy party planning. This year however was a very busy few months and everything was planned and finished in no time at all. No stress and it still has the little guy so excited. The guest tables were all covered in green table cloths with paper soccer balls.

Harry Potter Birthday Party

My son started reading Harry Potter at the beginning of 3rd grade.  He never much talked about it the first books but then started using Harry Potter lingo in everyday conversation.  He was hooked!!!   After he finished a few of the books we started watching the movies.  Then he asked for a harry potter birthday party. That was Oct and his birthday was not until August so I half expected him to change his mind. 

 I always let the kids make a few suggestions of the most important items to be included at their parties and then try to work them in in some way. This year his was a long and magical list. 

• Magic Wands
• Potions
• The pink cake Haggard made in the first movie.
• Quidditch
• Sorting Hat
• Costumes
• Honeydukes candy cart
• Pumpkin Juice

Well some of these request were easier than others but he was extremely happy with our attempts to make magic out of fabric, cardboard, pool noodles,  hula hoops, wood sticks, hot glue and other not so magical things we had laying around the house.

Owl invitations. These were great the only down fall was they had to be hand delivered ASAP.

Figuring out how to have the sorting hat place them in Gryffindor or Slytherin was difficult.  We only needed two groups so he picked his favorite ones.    The houses were used this to divided them up for Quidditch teams and potion classes along with the photo booth time.  First I was just going to have them draw the team names out of the hat but my son wanted to actually wear the hat.  So I decided (that morning) to place tags with numbers on them on the rim of the hat with tape. They put on the hat and pulled one of the strings.  After they were all done they sat down and we passed out the boxes with wands on top. I figured since the wands were all different it was safer to just give them to them as if that is what was chosen for them.  To my surprise not one kid wanted a different wand. I wrapped the 2 different shirts in all kinds of boxes and wrapped them in shipping paper and twine.  The best part was that it looked great on the table.

Honeydukes Candy store had some amazing treats.  All of which I packed up and gave them as a goodie bag.  I knew that cake and butter beer was plenty of sugar for our 3 hour window.

Pumpkin juice… aka Orange Crush.  Although I found many ways to make my own on Pinterest I decided that in August no matter how good a tall glass of pumpkin  just sounded gross.  This was great and a real hit.

Sugar Worms and Acid Popping Suckers

 

U*NO*POO This is just a box  with a label I made. The candy was just giant gum balls.

Every Flavor Beans …These were just regular Jelly Bellys but I did buy a few boxes of gross beans for a taste test.

Dragon Roasted Nuts…Honey candied coved peanuts.

Fainting Fancies…Air Heads & Fever Fudge… Sour rainbow toffee

Milk chocolate candy mold frog.

Cockroach Clusters … white chocolate w/pretzel crumbs in a roach candy mold.

Butterbeer was a very welcome treat on this hot August day. I looked up every copycat recipe in the world, ok maybe not the world, but I felt that I could get away with cream soda ice cream floats. They were wonderful and the kids who have tried the real stuff said these were much better.

The birthday cake is inspired by the first movie. This was the easiest/hardest element of this party. It was so hard for me to make intentional imperfections.

Spells and Explosions Class

Spells and Explosions was a wonderful success and what kid doesn’t like to make a little mess.

Quidditch

Quidditch was the perfect game for the day! We spry painted the field in the grass. We made goals, brooms, and a quidditch ball for this game.

 

Berties Bott’s Every Flavor Jelly Bean Challenge.

Bertie Botts Jelly Bean taste test. We bought the Bean Boozled beans that have normal and gross flavers and you can not tell what you get until you put it in your mouth. They LOVED this although most of them spit them out they had a great time. Dog food, baby wipe, booger……

Photo Booth

The props were old cardboard boxes painted and cut out. I then attached sticks on the back.

Kids New Years Party

The kids were so excited to have their very own New Years party two years ago.  I did drop the ball and did not take very many photos of all of our actives. I put everything together the day before so with a little more planning it could be even more fun.  The kids had a blast though and my kids who go to bed at 8 made it all the way to midnight with our hourly activity count down.

I was getting ready to take down the tree when I thought what a great way to hold all of our hats, glasses and blowers for midnight. Right before midnight we all went to the tree and picked out our party gear.

We had a planned activity or treat planned for every hour. Each child got a chance to pop a balloon labeled with each hour on them.

One of the balloons announced a snack of milk and cookies. The kids thought this was very cool.

They also got to play the one handed skittle race. They each had the same number of skittles and cups labeled with the colors on them. Each kid had to as fast as they could sort the skittles with one hand and put them in the right cup. This started off very cautiously but got very fun and loud as they got close to the end. They also loved eating the skittles at the end.

One of the balloons had the game where everyone puts a Oreo on their forehead and by just using the muscles in their faces they try to get the cookie in their mouth.  This was a blast to watch the grown ups even joined it.

At midnight they toasted in the new year with sparkling grape juice.

Space Camp Birthday Party

My 5 year old son wanted to be a astronaut last year (he thought he would be able to fly to China).  He had to have a NASA Space Camp Party.  I was a little worried that kids not interested in space would not have fun but they all had a blast.  Of course I couldn’t find anything astronaut in stores so we made do with a little paint and cardboard.

One of the most important things was that he could look like a astronaut. My solution was to paint one with a face cut out and NASA Space Camp shirts for everyone.

Each kid got their photo taken behind the sign and then we made thank you cards online with the images.

Everyone in their NASA shirts.

Another activity was to get dressed in adult diaper (they thought this was the best) snow paints, snow boots, winter coat, rubber gloves, a and Halloween cauldron with a hole cut out for there faces. They then had to crawl into a big box and preform a handful of task.

Adult diapers were a hit!

One of our actives was collecting space rocks with our robotic arm.

Here we put on our “space gloves” and preformed some important task such as putting a magnet together, opening a bottle, and using a key to open a pad lock.

Then we had our space meal.

Each tray was a Dollar Tree cookie sheet. the food included a Capri sun, meat stick, apple sauce, and dehydrated fruit bag. everything had Velcro on it and the tray so it wouldn’t fly away. We also had cake and astronaut ice cream.  I covered the apple sauce in duck tape.

 

Mindcraft Christmas Tree

Nothing made my son happier than when he walked into his room and saw his Mindcraft tree.  The tree included the base that was a cardboard box sold as a mask.  The mask had also been used for his birthday party this year.  After the photo I placed black paper behind the eye holes.  The ornaments included a few toys but like the torch on the top and a few plastic toys but most items were in a kit that you fold and make paper characters.  I also had a few green ornaments from past years that I used.  I enjoy making there tiny trees special and completely different each year but hate will not buy items we didn’t already have or won’t use or  play with later.  My favorite thing is when we can just use toys we already have.  No one ever said it has to be made for charismas to put on a tree.

Easter Carrot Snack Mix

I first made this snack mix a few years ago with Santa hats ( https://danielleyarian.wordpress.com/2014/01/06/santa-hat-chex-mix/) and instantly imagined making it with carrots the following year for Easter.  I finally made it happen and here it is.  This is a simple mix that you could put any snack items in you would like.

What I used:

• Rice Chex
• Pretzel Sticks
• White chocolate melts (orange, green, white)
• Reese Pieces or M&M’s
• Bugles Chips

 I made the carrots by using a broken pretzel and Bugle.

1. Dip tip of chip into orange chocolate not getting any in the opening.
2. Then let cool in freezer for a few min.
3. Next dip tips of the pretzels in the green chocolate and place in the opening.
4. Then let cool in freezer again for a few min to sit up.
5. After cool dip the pretzel end into the green chocolate.
6. Let cool while finishing the Chex mix.

Chex Mix

• In a large bowl place Chex and pretzels.
• Warm white chocolate melt and poor over top
• Place on a lid and shake or mix with a spoon.
• I place mine in freezer until chocolate is set.
• When done brake it apart and place it in a bag or clean bowl.
• When ready to serve or putting in goodie bags is when I mix in the M&M’s and carrots.  This  limits the amount of white chocolate that comes off and looks like powdered sugar as it is moved around.
• 

Sharpie Easter Egg Decoration Party

 Decorating eggs can be so messy especially when you have a group of kids trying to decorate all at once.  Sharpies are the perfect solution.  No wet sloppy dies that get all over everything and tie dye your fingers.  Easy to control markers do the trick.  The best part is what kid doesn’t love sharpies.   We used plastic die able eggs so we could keep them year after year.  The eggs are $1.97 at Walmart for 12 and die just like real eggs.  Not only easy and fun but super cheap. You can do black and white or any color your heart desires.

 

Baby It’s Cold Outside Hot Chocolate Bar

When I found out that I would be hosting a baby shower in December I was so excited.  I put up all my Christmas trees and decorations so decorating for the party was simple and easy.

 Everyone seemed to enjoy the many choices and commented on how fun and unique the bar, and who doesn’t like at least one of these choices.  You could easily add coffee to the bar as well.  We had water bottles of course as well.

We enjoyed Creamy Hot Chocolate, White Hot Chocolate, and Peanut Hottie  

The toppings were Carmel sauce, chocolate sauce, whipped cream, biscotti, dark chocolate cookies, chocolate chips, 4 type of marshmallows, peppermint, peppermint bark, and Andie mints.

Vanilla Buttercream Cupcakes

Peppermint Mocha Buttercream cupcakes

The best part of the party was the simple set up.  Well if you ask my kids it was all the topping leftovers that they have been experimenting with over the last few weeks.  I will defiantly have another hot chocolate bar it something a little different and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Art Birthday Party

Instantly upon asking my soon to be 11 year old daughter what kind of birthday party she wanted this year she knew.  She had her heart set on a art party complete with canvases, easels and lots of color.  I love this idea not only was it great for her age but with a few modifications it would be great for younger and older kids.

 

 These crazy young ladies had a great time!

Decorations were very simple.  I bought cheap paint brushes at my local hardware store and painted the handles.  Then I attached a ribbon and had a instant banner.

I found a fabric on clearance at Hobby Lobby and let it be the inspiration.   I hung some of the fabric on the curtain rod and made 2  table runners. I then used paper lanterns and  tissue paper pom poms all over.

 

No art party would be complete without easels.  My husband made ours and  I think they turned our perfectly.

Each girl had a packet of how to draw and  ideas and inspirations. But the girls were encouraged to paint whatever they wanted.

Everyone had a 11×14 and 8×10 canvas as well as a wooden letter

 

A colorful surprise awaited the girls when the cake was cut.  They all commented on how they loved all the colors.

Here were just a few of the works of art from the day.

Graduation Party

Last weekend was a big day at our house. My youngest son was graduating preschool and had to have a party just like his big brother and sister did.

With just a few little details he felt like a king for the day.

My sons only request for his party is that his cupcakes had to have eyes.  He loved them!

Cupcakes were just hat and diploma picks, candy eyes, and black cupcake wrappers.

Next was Swiss Cake diplomas

These cups and straws were my favorite element.

Now we just have a few more years until we can have another graduation party at our house.