cake

Look what I got today!  A gorgeous cake made entirely out of flowers!!  Thanks so much to my friend's at BLUSH for making this arrangement for me.  I love it!!!  It's perfect for my b&w dining room and as the centerpiece to my table for my big birthday this week.

turning forty

via

Next week I will be putting another candle on the cake and as I say goodbye to my thirties I have been doing a lot of reflecting.  My thirties have been amazing!  I married a great guy, we bought our first house together and welcomed three healthy children into the world.  To say that I am blessed would be an understatement. 
I also started this blog in my thirties.  Encouraged by friends to have a place to share all of the projects, traditions and celebrations that I always seem to be working on I started les petits presents.  So far I have enjoyed this adventure.  I am definitely a little technically challenged and I am proud of myself for continuing to keep up with weekly posts and new features that I think will be helpful to my readers.  Sometimes I think the only people who read my blog are my friends (and I am ok with that!) and wonder why I don't get more traffic or comments and then I remember that I would be doing all of these things whether I was posting them on a blog or not.  I do these things because I love to.  I love celebrating friends and family and every single holiday.  I always have and always will. 
I just wanted to take the time to say thank you.  Thank you to all of my friends who do follow my blog, encourage my creativity, and join me in celebrating all of life's wonderful adventures.  Thank you to all of the people that come to my blog and take the time to make a comment or send me an email.  One of my all time favorites came from a reader named Molly who wrote: "I'm emailing now to tell you how inspired I am by your awesome projects. So many times I read one of your updates, turn to my husband, and exclaim over the amazing childhood you are giving your kids."  Thanks, Molly for taking the time to email me and for your kind words.  I know lots of people often think that I am crazy or that I have too much time on my hands and it is emails like yours that make me smile and remind me that my blog might just inspire someone that I don't even know! 
As is my style I am going to start celebrating this weekend and just keep going until my big day on Thursday.  I am looking forward to drinking martinis with friends, dinner out with my husband, taking my kids for ice cream, and an overnight at a spa.  Here's to being forty and fabulous!

that's a wrap

(photo courtesy of amazon)

(photo courtesy of Barnes and noble)

(photo courtesy of uncommon goods)

 

My son went to a birthday party at the park this weekend.  We gave the birthday girl a sand bucket filled with sidewalk chalk, bubbles, a sun hat and some new sunglasses.  Some other other fun gifts for kids who love to spend time outside (and who doesn't!) are Melissa and Doug's sand cookie set, a book with 52 different activities to do outside and this garden cookie set.  My daughter received the Melissa and Doug set for her birthday last year and loves it!  Wouldn't it be cute to give the book "I Love Dirt" with a bottle of bubble bath- for cleaning up after!  I also love the idea of the garden cookie set.  You could put it in a terra cotta pot with a watering can and oilcloth apron.  What gifts to you like to give to kids who love the outdoors?

doll party stationary

I found the most adorable invitations for my daughter's birthday party at Michael's craft store.  They have a lot of fun American Girl doll party supplies and crafts.  I asked all of our guests for their dolls name so I could personalize the mini doll sized invitiatoins.  For the thank you notes I used this template.  It was supposed to be used for a version of pin the tail on the donkey.  I shrunk it down and personalized it - then copied it and used it for our thank you notes. 

doll party favors

Last year when my daughter turned five we gave out five party favors.  This year we decided to give out six of my daughter's favorite things.  I put all of the favors in a wrought iron plant stand and gave each girl a pink bag to put all of the items in  On the top of the stand I put some cute and cuddly teddy bears. The next tier held glass jars filled one was filled with pick satin eye masks, another with pink gumballs, the third with cupcake lip gloss, and the last with tiny s'more kits for the dolls (they had tiny marshmallows, chocolate bars and cinnamon toast crunch for the Graham crackers).  The bottom tier held the adorable polka dot boxes filled with beautiful felt hair bands- one for the girls and one for their doll.  These were made by the extremely talented Laurie at Hopscotch Boutique.  She will work with you to find exactly the color and style that you are looking for.  Although there were a lot of favors I found many of them in the dollar section- I just dressed them up a bit!

doll pajama party

On Sunday we had my daughter's sixth birthday party.  She invited seven of her friends to a store called Gather in Ivoryton, Ct.  It is a great little place with antiques, unique gifts, and candy. We had the girls and their dolls come in pajamas for lunch and crafts.

My daughter and her doll in their new matching pajamas ready for the party.

For decorations I brought a clothesline with doll clothes and some balloons.  Small ones for the dolls and big ones for the girls.

For flower arrangements I placed some Gerber daisies in milk bottles.  I filled the bottles with some breakfast cereal and tied a ribbon around them.  Again I used a big one on the girls table and a small one fore the dolls table.  Tiny Fancy Nancy books were placed around them as well.

We set two tables one for the dolls and one for the girls.  They were exactly the same except for the size of everything.  Mini plates and doll sized cups with petite "6" cookies were on each plate.  I also made party hats for the girls and their dolls with scrapbook paper and stickers.

The owner of Gather, Deanna, took care of the food.  The menu consisted of fruit salad with watermelon stars, sandwiches shaped like doll dresses, mac & cheese and cupcakes for the girls (mini ones for the dolls).  I also brought some pink yogurt covered pretzels and strawberry breakfast cereal which I had out in cupcake liners for the girls to munch on as they arrived.

 

In between all of the food the girls did two crafts and a scavenger hunt.  For the crafts they made necklaces for themselves and their dolls and picture frames.  I will share another post about the favors, but a wonderful time was had by all!

american girl doll store

On Saturday we went to the American Girl Doll store in NYC.  My daughter's big birthday present was a trip to the store to pick out some matching pajamas for her (and her doll) to wear to her birthday party on Sunday.  I love giving gifts of andventures! We had an amazing time. 

that's a wrap

Sorry for the lack of posts.  We had a very busy weekend followed by my husband going out of town for work with the lap top and Spring break for the kids!  I will post about my daughter's party soon.

This was a gift we gave to a little friend who just got a new dog.  As is typical with my gifts a book was the inspiration.  I found the dog bone shaped tin at Target a long time ago and couldn't pass it up.  It was too cute!  My daughter and I made some home made dog bones in the shape of donuts to tuck inside.  It was so cute I didn't even wrap it.  I just tied a pretty ribbon around it and it was ready to go.

cake pops

For school, my daughter requested hello kitty cake pops for her birthday snack.  Since this was my first time making cake pops I went to the guru herself, Bakerella, for directions.  I still had trouble.  At first I made the cake pops too big and every time I tried to dip them in the chocolate they fell off the stick.  Then I ran out of sticks!  So, I bought new sticks and made them smaller. It worked much better.  My daughter decided she wanted milk chocolate kitty's (instead of white) but the black food writer pen did not show up on the dark chocolate so I wasn't able to add the details for the eyes and whiskers.  I think you can still tell that they resemble hello kitty.  My daughter was thrilled with the end result and really appreciated all the effort that I put into making them.  I put a pink bow and some ribbon on her pop stick to make it extra special.  I made this cake pop stand using some Styrofoam, some scrapbook paper, and a box frame.

that's a wrap

Today is my daughter's sixth birthday!  We started the day with some m&m pancakes in bed and presents.  Of course all of her gifts were wrapped in her favorite colors- pink and green!  We are going to spend the rest of the day celebrating her, but I'll be back to share more details about her party and day soon.

magic (jelly) beans

I wanted to bring a little something to a party that we are going to tomorrow.  When I saw this idea, I knew it was perfect.  Basically you give a child a magic bean ( a jelly bean) and have them "plant" it in some Easter grass and the next morning the bean is gone and a lollipop has grown in its place!  I found some flower lollipops at the party store and knew they would be perfect.  I put the magic bean, tiny pot and some Easter grass in a glass bunny dish and wrapped it in cellophane.  I will give the lollipop and directions to the parents.  I am going to make them with my own children too. This is my last Easter post so I hope that you all have a wonderful holiday. I hope that you will come back next week when I will begin to share details from my daughter's birthday.  She is going to be six on Wednesday!

s'more treats

Here is one last Easter treat that I thought I would share.  I found some pastel, bunny shaped marshmallows.  I dipped them in chocolate and then graham cracker crumbs and stuck them on a lollipop stick.  You could package each one in a cellophane bag and tie with ribbon for a great favor or dessert for the holiday this weekend.  Also darling for a baby shower! 

an "egg"cellent snack

Tomorrow is my daughter's last day of school before Easter.  I thought it would be fun to send her a special little snack.  I saw this idea on Pinterest for lunch, but decided to just make it a snack since my daughter is in half day kindergarten.  I used a recycled clear egg carton and some preppy paisley pink and green eggs.  I am going to put some cheddar bunnies, blackberries and jelly beans inside.  The note reads "from some bunnies who loves you" and has a pom pom tail on the back!  I am also going to send one of my bunny water bottles with her.  You can find the directions for that here. 

that's a wrap

Last month one of our favorite little friends turned six!  To celebrate we brought him an over sized "6" balloon.  We attached a card that listed the six reasons why we love him and a Lego watch.  This would be a fun gift to give anyone of any age! 

easter basket

I saw a fun alternative for an Easter basket on Pinterest and knew I wanted to try to make one.  I had everything I needed to get started.  I got out a mason jar, pipe cleaners and some ribbon and got to work.  I was happily surprised that it only took me a few minutes to make one.  A complete set of step by step directions can be found here.  I decided to use a white chocolate bunny (which was a little tricky to fit inside the mouth of the jar) some edible easter grass, and pink, green and orange jelly beans.  I am so happy with the results, that I had all the supplies at home, and that it only took me a few minutes to put together!!!  This is a great gift for a teacher, hostess or neighbor.  It would also be perfect filled with some flowers for May Day or Mother's Day.  I will definitely be making these again.  What are you making this year for Easter?  Any fun ideas or alternatives to an Easter basket?

easter flowers

I found these cute galvanized buckets with ribbon handles in the dollar section at Target.  They would make darling little Easter baskets, but I decided to put some apricot colored roses in them instead.  This would look beautiful lined up along an Easter table or hanging on the back of each chair.  It would also makes a lovely hostess gift!

easter treats

If you are looking for a fun dessert to serve at Easter try these "dirt" cupcakes with carrot cookies!  I made chocolate cupcakes and stuffed them into some clear glass terra cotta pots.  I frosted them and then crumbled some more on top to look like dirt.  I made carrot shaped sugar cookies (you could but some at the store) or you can carrots from candy like orange starbursts.  I tied some ribbon around the containers and served them in a basket.    

april fools

In honor of the first day of April I served the children lunch in tiny lunchboxes!  They thought it was hysterical and asked if I could make it for them again.  I just put some mini cupcake liners in the metal lunchboxes than cut sandwiches in to tiny triangles, and added some baby carrots and pretzels.  Next time I want to put some baby goldfish in too!  For dessert they had tiny ice cream cones!  SO cute.  Even the baby had one.  For dinner I am making ice cream potatoes.  You can find the directions here.  Hope you enjoyed some giggles today too!