that's a wrap

My dear friend who hosted the "mad about plaid" party, happened to celebrate her birthday the day before! When I ran into the package store to grab her a bottle of wine, I found wine in a box shaped like a purse! It made me laugh and I grabbed it for the birthday girl. I used the colors from the wine box (red, black and gold) as the inspiration for wrapping the rest of her gifts and also added some plaid ribbon. I arranged some flowers in a vase, bought a mini dessert for her to enjoy, and popped a gift into a glittered gift bag. I love how it all came together in the end and I hope that she had a fabulous birthday.

mad about plaid

Over the weekend we went to our friend's "mad about plaid" party! It was a great theme for a cold winters evening. Everyone came dressed in their favorite plaid shirts and scarves. Some people even wore plaid pants! They served white hot chocolate, which was DELICIOUS, in plaid cups. (Sorry for the quality of photographs, but I took all of these with my phone.)

I love how she mixed and matched all of the plaids. Those forks are to die for.

 

I made some coconut cupcakes with plaid ribbon flags.

 

 

The hostess even made the most amazing plaid garland! I love the yarn bow details at the ends.

It was a GREAT party and such a fun theme. This would be a great theme for a bachelor party, husband's birthday even for a little boy celebrating a winter birthday. I know one thing is for sure, this party confirmed that I am definitely "mad about plaid!"

valentines day is for the birds

We woke up to a snow day! It was a pleasant surprise after a late evening watching the Super Bowl. It was unexpected so I don't have any specific plans for us today, but sometimes that is the best kind of day. When searching for ideas for a Valentines Day class party for the kids I was thinking it would be fun to make all kinds of different bird treats and then hang them on a tree at school. I LOVED this one. We decided to go with a different theme for the class party, but I thought it would be fun to make a bird treat with the kids today. All you need is some round cereal and string or pip cleaners. All three kids sat down and started stringing cereal, we even had a discussion about patterns, and the older two decided to make rainbow bird treats.

If you do use pip cleaners you will be able to easily bend them into the shape of a heart. We have two bushes outside the dining room windows where we often see little birds. We thought this was the perfect place to put our valentines treats for them.

 

 

I love how colorful the hearts are against the snowy branches and this has proved to provide a lot of entertainment for the children. They have spent nearly an hour sitting in front of the window waiting for a bird to come enjoy their treats!

 

We made chocolate chip pancakes with whipped cream for lunch and will go play in the snow a little later.
Check out some other fun snow activities that are easy and provide great entertainment for the kids. Or, take out the kids sleeping bags and pillows and pop some popcorn and snuggle up for a movie.
Whatever you do I hope you all enjoy a slow paced, snowy day wherever you are reading this from!
Come back later this week for some fun details from a "mad about Plaid" party we attended over the weekend.

 

chicken soup for the soul

It has been very cold in Connecticut. I wish that if it was going to be cold we could at least have some more snow to show for it! Of course, with winter and freezing temperatures come stuffy noses and sore throats. I have been laying low and drinking lots of tea and am already feeling much better. My sweet friends have taken such good care of me. One took my littlest for play date and returned him with a delicious quiche for our dinner! Another friend made me some delicious chicken tortellini soup! It was like a hug in a mug. I am so blessed to have such wonderful friends.
Whenever I am out shopping in January and February and see all of the beautiful Spring flowers for sale, I simply cannot resist them. A vase of white tulips reaching in different directions for the sun does wonders for my soul.

Even though there isn't any snow in the forecast, I managed to make it snow in the kitchen with some snowflake cookies for the teacher's luncheon tomorrow. I love making sugar cookies and often make them a week in advance and then freeze them. I take them out the day before and frost them. This was especially helpful this week considering I am not feeling 100%. I love frosting cookies, I find it extremely therapeutic.

So, I hope that wherever you are reading this from that your days are filled with people (and flowers) that warm your soul.

that's a wrap

 A fun gift for a friend who celebrates a winter birthday is to fill a mug with some cozy gloves and a hat! I placed the mittens/hat in the mug and wrapped it a in some cellophane and attached some fun ribbon and a craft paper tag. We got some snow here in Ct. last night! The kids had an early dismissal yesterday and a two hour delay this morning. I love when it snows. Hope you all have a cozy day.

a third brrrr-thday

On Saturday my son celebrated his third birthday! Since we didn't have any snow to have a sledding party which I had originally planned, we invited everyone over for a snow themed party at the house. We started the morning as a family with some snowman pancakes and presents!

We invited a few 2-3 year old friends over for some hot cocoa, snacks and crafts. I set up a table in the living room for the children to eat at. I turned some milk bottle into snowmen wearing felt scarves and black buttons. I glued a snowman gift tag onto a clear straw and added a snowflake sticker to his hat. The kids loved them! The favors were placed in a wooden sled behind the table and a silver tree branch held snowflake frames with the quote "If snowflakes were kisses I'd send you a blizzard.".

 

 

 

 

I served all of the food in the dining room so I kept it to a fun b&w color scheme. We had a hot cocoa bar with lots of toppings to choose from. The hot cocoa was in the crockpot and was easy to throw together the morning of the party. I also served popcorn, pretzels, baby carrots, s'mores on a stick, powdered donuts and cupcakes!

 

 

As is my style, I had five activities set up around the house and let the children pick what they wanted to go to. It was very informal. I offered snowflake cookie decorating and candy sled assembling, snow finger painting, snowflake coloring and white glittered play doh. We also played "pin the part" on the snowman. I tied a scarf around the children's eyes so they couldn't peak.

 

 

 

The favors were packs of hot cocoa and marshmallows and pairs of fleece slippers! I made heart candy canes (by melting two small candy together and very low temperature) and attached them to the outside of each package with twine.

On Saturday night the children made snowman shaped pizzas and enjoyed snow cones for dessert!

I know everyone says this, but I can't believe my baby is three! It was a wonderful celebration of the special little man he is.  Hopefully everyone else had a fabulous weekend filled with lots of reasons to celebrate with all of the ones you love.

birthday prep

As I mentioned last week my baby is turning three on Saturday!! I was really hoping to have a sledding party with hot cocoa served tailgate style, but alas our snow has all melted. So instead we are going to have a bunch of 2-3 year olds doing some fun snow themed activities here at the house. I made some snowflake shaped sugar cookies for the kids to decorate at the party. I figure if it isn't going to snow outside I might as well make it snow inside.  Check out my son's first winter "one"derland party and his second puppy paw-ty and come back next week to see all the details from this winter themed party.