Halloween Party

Long time, no post.  Life is busy this time of year, and I cherish every moment that I have with my son.  So, needless to say the blog posts may lag from time to time.  I did want to share our Halloween party we had with some of our preschool friends this past Saturday.  I was running low on time to make up my own printables, so I used this printable party set from Amanda Parker at Shinding Parties to Go. 

It was a really fun set of printables.  The photo props were a hit, and I used them in my classroom on Halloween to get some silly pictures of my first graders after reading Go Away Big Green Monster.  

Here are the party details.  When the kids arrived, they played with ghosts (white balloons with ghost eyes drawn on them).  It's amazing how entertaining balloons are to 4 year olds.  After the children arrived, we went on a pumpkin hunt.  We had his a couple dozen mini pumpkins in the yard.  So the kids found them and we rehid them a few times.  Next, we played tossed the spider in the pumpkin.  This was just throwing plastic spiders into pumpkins.  

Instead of carving pumpkins, we decorating and painted them with various art supplies.  Here are some of the girls creating their masterpieces.

For snacks I made spider crackers with peanut butter, crackers and pretzel legs, we had chocolate milk with bat straws, and decorated a cookie.

While they were eating we took our silly pictures...so fun!

I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween.  I know we did, and now the holiday madness begins.

My superman!

Pumpkin Party Package

Happy Sunday everyone!  We have been very busy around here with fall activities and school.  I wanted to let you know I finished up the pumpkin party package and it is up in my etsy shop.  This would be a great one for birthdays, baby showers or a Halloween party.  I will try to get some more pictures of them in action this week.  Here is the preview:

You can find this package here.

Pumpkin Party Planning

So I haven't totally committed to having a pumpkin party for my son this year (I feel like I am so busy), but just in case I do I have been working on some printables.  Here is a sample of the invite and cupcake toppers I cam up with.  

I am working on a banner and some food tents.  The toppers and invites are available in my Etsy shop if you are interested.

Candy Corn

Candy corn is a big weakness of mine.  I try really hard NOT to buy a bag until October 1st, because once I buy one bag it doesn't stop until November 1st.  Well, I broke down and bought a bag this week and boy are they tasty.  I couldn't help it, there are so many cute candy corn ideas that I needed a bag for...inspiration!  Here are some of my favorite candy corn ideas I have come across.  I love these candy corn treat bags.

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I love any macaron, especially candy corn ones!

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Candy Corn Krispies

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Candy Corn Waffles, a great way to start off a day!

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These candy corn vases are fun.

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Okay, even if I tried to make these they would not look like this...yummy!

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This garland is fun, although it wouldn't last as a decoration in my house.  I would just eat it!

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Candy corn is a fun treat and a great way to add a little color to decor.  What fun treats have you made that have been inspired by candy corn?  Have you made any fun decorations that are candy corn themed?  Do share, I love new ideas.

Baseball Party Recap

Well, I am finally getting around to a recap of our son's baseball party.  I wish I would have had someone just in charge of pictures, because I was so busy enjoying the time with my son that I did not get as many pictures of things as I would have liked.  It was also very windy that day, so some of the "planned" decor was nixed.  Here are a few highlights:

Overall it was a huge success.  For the food we served:

• hot dogs
• chips (snack-sized bags)
• watermelon
• potato salad
• red licorice
• peanuts
• Cracker Jacks

The food was so easy!  I really enjoyed having the pre-bagged chips and Cracker Jacks.  It made it easy serving 15 kids and 18 adults!

Most of the party was just free play, lots of t-ball was played. We did have a parachute and baseball beach balls, which was a lot of fun.

The kids are at an age where it is fun to just let them play and the end of the party, most all of the kids were in the pool (with the baseball beach balls of course).

We had one happy and tired birthday boy.  He tells me that each birthday he wants a different sports party, ha ha!  

My big 4 year old All-Star!

Baseball Party Preview

Wow, it has been a while.  The start of the school year is always so busy.  To top it off, soon after schools starts it is time for my son's birthday (along with our anniversary and my husband's birthday), all three days in a row!  Crazy, but fun.  Well, I still need to edit photos, but I thought I would share a photo of the baseball cake pops.  They looked much better when I first made them, but of course the two days leading up to the party it was 105 degrees here and they kind of melted a bit just sitting in the warm kitchen...ugh!  Oh well, the kids loved them.

I will try to get more photos uploaded this week, along with add the baseball collection to my etsy shop.  

Baseball Party Invite

Summer has come to an end around here.  I started back teaching this week and I am exhausted!  This group of incoming first graders are so cute!  Anyways, along with the craziness of the beginning of the year I also have to think about my son's birthday, my husband's birthday and our anniversary, all of which fall within three days of each other.  Crazy!!! 


Well our son has decided he wanted a baseball party, so I thought I would share the invite I have made for the occasion.

I made them so two would fit as a 4 X 6 photo.  When I have them developed, I can have two per photo and cut them in half.  That will make them about the size of a "real" ticket.  How fun is that!  I will share more of the preparations soon.  Have a great weekend.

Beach Ball Ideas

Welcome to day two of beach party ideas.  Today I thought I would focus on the beach ball.  I have seen so many fun things related to the beach ball.  The great thing is using them to deocrate is inexpensive.  First off, a beach ball fruit tray made with a sugar cookie base...yummy!

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Beach Ball Lights

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Beach ball pillows

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beach ball pinata

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beach ball toss game

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These are a few fun things you can do with beach balls, and of course just having them all around in the pool or play area.  They will get played with.  Their colors are just so vibrant and fun. How have you used beach balls?  I would love to hear more ideas. 

Beach Party Ideas

Well, after spending last week in San Luis Obispo and getting in some serious beach time, I thought I would share some beach party ideas I have found. 

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Guumy sharks in Jello...fun!

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I love the design your own sailor hats.

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There are so many fun ideas for a beach party.  Tomorrow, I will share some fun ideas all related to the tried and true beach ball!

Enjoying life...

I know I have been absent, but this is what we are up to.  Spending a little quality time at the beach.  I'll be back next week all refreshed.  Happy summer!

Summer Smoothies

I know that I have mentioned this before, but I love summertime.  The warm weather, lazy days, play time with my boy and the yummy fresh fruit available.  We are very fortunate where we live because we have a huge vairety of fresh fruit and veggies from local farmers available during the summer (and year-round).  My favorite is all of the berry choices and with all of these berries, we love to make smoothies.  Here are the ingredients of our summer favorite around here:

Well, the banana is not local but the strawberries and blueberries are.  My son is very picky, so I sneak veggies in when I can.  Pureed veggies work great.  It would be fun to have a make your own smoothie playdate/party with kids.  Hmmm, maybe I should get on that.

Denim as decor

Well, happy Canada Day to those in Canada and happy Friday to others!  Where did this week go?  I am looking forward to a long weekend here (3-day for most in the U.S.)  Today we are off to the zoo and the rest fo the weekend will be spent in the pool, it's supposed to be 100+ degrees for the next few days.  In the meantime, I though I would share some fun decorating uses with denim.  First off a cupcake stand:

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A placemat

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I love the simplicity of tying silverware with denim in this pic:

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So many fun ideas and denim can be incorporated into so many themes.  Have a great weekend my friends!

Space Week {weekly theme}

This summer I have decided to have a play theme each week.  I was inspired by Katherine Marie's theme of the week posts she has.  It's a fun way to keep things fresh around here.  I bring out new toys (usually homemade) and books related to a subject.  We play, read and eat snacks related to what we are learning about.  The first we was Space Week.  My son loves to learn things and he learned the planets this week and we made space packs and traveled to the planets and their moons many times that week.  Three weeks later (I'm a little late posting this), he still travels to space with his space pack.  Here is the space pack we made from a cracker box, paper, toilet paper rolls, paint and markers.

The funny thing about the music button is he loves to listen to music and see mommy and daddy with their Ipods when we go to workout, so he wanted to be sure to have a music button on his pack.

Getting ready to take off...first stop, Mercury!

Painting the tubes were messy and fun.  We were inspired by this book:

These last two weeks we have been learning about plants and bugs, working a lot in the garden.  It's been warm here, so we garden for a bit then play in the pool.  Fun times...I love summer.

 

Hot Dog BBQ {sneak peak}

Happy summer to you!  I am loving our hot weather here in northern California (hmm...maybe that's why the lack of posting).  We have been poolside daily, but we are gearing up for a summer BBQ with friends this Friday.  We are going to have an All-American BBQ, hot dogs and all.  I was inspired by this party I posted about earlier and this party from Hostess with the Mostess.  Between the two, I have come up with this hot dog menu that I plan to stick in a frame next to the hot dog station.

I'll post more pictures after the BBQ.  Now it's time to get ready to go to a baseball game tomorrow (go Giants!) and then back home to finish party prep.  

Happy Father's Day

Dad, you're someone to look up to no matter how tall I've grown. ~Author Unknown

Happy Father's Day!

Baseball Gourmet Night

We are big baseball fans in this house, well my husband and son (3 years old) are really obsessed.  I am an Okland A's fan and my husband and son are San Francisco Giants fans.  My husband and I go to games each year because it really is a fun time experiencing a game at the park.  I recently stumbled upon this gourmet night put on by Kate from Studio LIME designs.  I love some of the decorations she chose to use for the party, the jars of baseballs are great!

I like the Cracker Jacks and Babe Ruth candy

Soft pretzels, yummy

To see more great pictures, check out her party here.

4th of July Cupcake Toppers

I am still working on getting my etsy shop up and running with some fun printables.  I am planning to offer whole party packages along with bits and pieces from packages.  If you have any specific needs, let me know and I can work with you.  In the meantime, here are some free 4th of July cupcake toppers to enjoy.

Get your 4th of July cupcake toppers here.

Not a great picture, but at least you get the jist(is this even a word?) of it.  Well, I hope you have a happy day!