the lorax

Tonight we are having "dad's night" at my son's preschool.  Traditionally this has been a teacher run event, but for various reasons this year it has been taken over by the board/parents.  We choose The Lorax as our theme.  As I have been planning for this evening I was thinking that it would also make a great theme for a birthday party!  There are lots of ideas all over the web and Pinterest and I even have a board full of Dr. Seuss ideas that you can check out here.  For tonight, the children will be making Lorax pots and planting grass seed in them.  They will sort recyclables into their appropriate bins, take pictures with some  Lorax themed photo props and will munch on Truffula tree cupcakes, humming fish, and bar ba loots!   My son is SO excited for tonight and I couldn't be happier to help plan this event for him. 

that's a wrap

Now that the weather is finally warming up it's fun like to give friends a new bathing suit and a pair of flip flops!  Old Navy has a great selection at very reasonable prices and if you remember to get a gift receipt than it's easy for them to exchange for a different size or color.  We wrapped this pink/green bikini and flip flops in a polka dot metal tub. 

hello kitty party

My daughter asked us for a Hello Kitty/Ice Cream party and I was happy to oblige.  We had the party on "Sundae" afternoon and along with some fun crafts and activities the girls made their own ice cream sundaes.  If you have followed my blog for a long time you know that I usually try to avoid character parties, but if that is what my children desire, I try to make my own spin on it.  I used the colors red and pink along with polka dots and hello kitty's signature bow.  The kind people at Namemaker reached out to me and asked if I would be willing to try some of their products.  I was so flattered, since this is one company that I love and have ordered from previously many times before.  I especially love their personalized ribbon, but was happy to try a new product this time, personalized paper candy bags.  They also sent me some beautiful ribbon which I used to decorate all over the party.

For the activities we had a "get your kitty on" station with tattoos, bracelets, hair clips, and pink body glitter!
We had a make your own hello kitty candy bracelet and over sized ice cream coloring sheets with hello kitty crayons. The girls played pin the bow on hello kitty.

 

I think I had the most fun with the decorations and setting the table!  I made some carnation sundaes with real cherries on top and  some bow straw toppers.  The napkins were large bows wrapped around white square plates.

The ice cream sundae bar was a big hit!  And, my daughter had fun drawing the ice cream on the chalkboard.

We also served watermelon bows, popcorn, Hello Kitty sugar cookies and pink lemonade.

 And for the favors, among other treats, we also gave each girl a Hello Kitty toothbrush!  I figured it was the least I could do after sending them home with so much sugar!

This was a very fun party to plan and I think my daughter has been dreaming about it for at least a year.  Who knows what she will dream up next, but I can't wait to find out!

7

Yesterday was my daughter's seventh birthday!!!  Of course we celebrated all day.  We started the day with our traditional m&m pancake breakfast in bed.  She opened some presents and headed off to school.  I packed her a special lunch and even filled her lunch box with tiny balloons!

She LOVES ice cream so we sent in some tiny ice cream cones that we purchased from the grocery store.  I offered to make her cupcakes in ice cream cones, but she really wanted ice cream.  Since she is having a very small party this weekend we decided to send in some ice cream shaped bubbles for her classmates too.  My daughter loves to write, especially poems, and recently wrote an "ode to ice cream."  We decided to include a copy of her poem with the bubbles.  I wrapped them in cellophane bags and tied them with some pretty ribbon.

Since she had to go to an after-school activity we had a quick dinner and I thought it would be fun to serve some 7up as a little treat!  She did turn 7 after all!

To end the day we invited a bunch of her friends to our local ice cream shop.  Again, since she is having a very small party for only girls, a lot of her boy friends are not attending. She has such great boy friends that we wanted to do something with them too.  Although it was a chilly evening here in Connecticut, everyone met us for kiddie cones and it was the perfect ending to a great day.  My daughter was surrounded by friends, ice cream, and a whole lot of love  I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate her birthday.   Her hello kitty ice cream party is on Sunday.  Come back next week to see all of the fun party details!

that's a wrap

 Looking for a fun gift topper?  This time of year there are so many beautiful flowers blooming everywhere you don't need to look any farther than your own garden! It's so easy to stick a fresh stem on top of a gift.  You can stick the flower in a florist tube (which can be found at the grocery store florist) or place it on the gift right before you head to your party.  Just don't forget to dry off the stem or the wrapping paper will get wet.  For the gift below I went monochromatic and tried a stem of Hyacinth which smells divine, but for a pop of color a daffodil will do the trick too.  The possibilities are endless!

My daughter's seventh birthday is tomorrow and I am up to my eyeballs in Hello Kitty!  Please come back after the weekend to see all the fun details from her party!

truffula trees

 

 

 

Last week was the last day that my the student teacher in my daughter's first grade class would be there.  Her teacher had the idea to make truffula trees so when I saw this idea on Pinterest, I knew they would be perfect.  They were quite easy to make and luckily I had all of the ingredients at home.  I think they came out pretty cute!  I saw some other pins where people used pretzel sticks for the tree trunk, mine used straws.  If you want to make them all edible, I also thought it might be cute to use Pirouline cookies.  These would be great for a Dr. Seus or Lorax party or even as a special treat for Arbor day.

april fools

  Boy do little kids love April Fools Day!  This morning my son's school had backwards day.  They wore their clothes backwards and even started their day outside which is usually saved for the end of their day.  Such fun.  I sent in an apple with a worm in it for my son's snack.  I told him I sent him a rotten apple.  When he got home I made lunch for all three kids (my oldest is home sick today.)

 Last year for April Fools Day I made the kids a teeny tiny lunch.  They loved it so much I did it again this year and found some really cute additions.  I included a tiny banana, juice box, baby goldfish, and a bite size sandwich!  For dessert I gave them some candy peas and carrots.

I even put the food in tiny Ziploc bags!  I told them that I hoped they were hungry because I made them a really BIG lunch.  It was a hit! 

I made some homemade chicken noodle soup for dinner, but for dessert I made ice cream potato's! My children don't care for potato's, much to my Irish husband's dismay, so it was pretty funny and they actually tasted quite good. Hope you are all having a fun day too!