it's beginning to look a lot like....

Valentine's Day around here.  I picked up these adorable place mats that have a little felt pocket on them for silverware, a napkin, or even a little love note!  We used them last night and the kids loved it.

 

I also changed out our hot cocoa station to look a little bit more like Valentine's day too.

  

Do you decorate for every holiday?  I had a friend comment on our house at Halloween and how she never thought to decorate for anything besides Christmas.  I thought it was funny since I seem to decorate for each and every holiday!!!

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!

pink-a-licious

My children love hot chocolate. So, this year, for Valentine's Day I am going to surprise them with pink hot cocoa and heart shaped marshmallows. A simple way for me to show them how much they are loved!
mug: pink hearts baby mug by emma bridgewater ( I picked these up on a trip to Ireland...but I found some here.)
pink cocoa: is from I Party
heart shaped marshmallows: CVS

hot cocoa

Every year on the day after Thanksgiving we go with a bunch of our friends to get our Christmas tree. It has become such a fun tradition. This year it was a little rainy and cold so I decided to bring along some homemade hot cocoa to warm us all up. As a child my mom always used to make me homemade cocoa and there is absolutely no substitute, and it really isn't that hard! You can find the recipe on the side of a box of Hershey's Natural Unsweetened Cocoa . Here it is:

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup Hershey's cocoa

dash salt

1/3 cup hot water

4 cups milk

3/4 tsp. vanilla extract

Mix sugar, cocoa and salt in a saucepan; stir in water. Cook and stir over med. heat until the mixture boils; boil and stir for 2 minutes. Stir in milk and heat. DO NOT BOIL. Remove from heat; add vanilla.

I lined a basket with some red/white striped napkins and threw in a bowl of mini marshmallows and candy canes. I even found some adorable ceramic snowmen mugs. For the adults, I brought along some peppermint schnapps. This would also make a lovely gift basket for someone you know this holiday season. Enjoy!