that's a wrap

There are some disadvantages to having your birthday right after Christmas.  But, there are also some great advantages like the fact that everything goes on sale!  Almost all of the decorations I used for the party were at least 50% off of their original price.  One of my favorite deals were the tins of cocoa we gave out as party favors.  I found these at Crate and Barrel after Christmas.  Since the tins had pictures of elves on them I decided to wrap some scrapbook paper around them and voilà - they were the perfect color for the party.  I know I have discussed repackaging before and this was a great example of using it to your advantage. 

winter "one"derland

Yesterday we had the winter "one"derland party.  The party started at 10 and guests were invited to come in their pajamas.  We served doughnuts and coffee and set up a few activities.  We kept the guest list very small since it was in our home and the party was for a one year old.  Since the food was not gourmet and the guest list was short I was able to focus on the fun details.

Here is our console decorated for the party.

The snack bar consisted of jars of cheerios, goldfish and a snowman trail mix.  The red and white paper cones held blue popcorn.  There were small paper cups and acrylic scoops for everyone to help themselves.

The  snowman trail mix was similar to my hoppin' down the bunny trail mix and Kung Fu Krunch.

(Rainbow scarf, pretzel stick arms, chocolate chip buttons, Oreo hat, carrot nose, and marshmallow body)

We also had a hot cocoa bar.  I am thinking that next Christmas I am going to leave this on my counter so it will always be ready when friends stop by.

We also served milk with snowman straws.

The cupcakes were shaped like tiny doughnuts.  I found the idea here.

I used the shutters to display pictures of the birthday boy from every month of the past year.  I found tiny red glitter clothespins at Michael's. 

For the activities I put out some snow books, filled our touch table with fake snow and snowman parts, supplies to make a clay snowman.  We also hung donuts from a string and had the kids try to eat them without using their hands. It was very funny to watch.

And finally the favors..... Mini tins of hot chocolate and boxes of marshmallows.  I displayed them in a tiny radio flyer wagon.

Sorry for the long post and so many pictures!  I hope you enjoyed everything as much as I enjoyed putting it all together!

baby a

Here is another simple and sweet decoration I made for the babies party this weekend.  His first name starts with the letter A so we always call him Baby A. I knew I wanted to use that for some sort of  decoration at his party.  You can buy paper mache letters at Joann Fabrics in different sizes.  I used some for my parents surprise anniversary picnic that you can see here.  I used gold glitter on them and had planned to use white glitter on the A, but I didn't like how it looked on the brown background.   Instead I just wrapped the entire letter with some white yarn that I had in the house and I like it even better than the glitter!  I love when that happens.  Now if only if I could make it snow this weekend in Connecticut......