Carter's First Birthday! Roar!

My sons first birthday party was probably one of my favorites. His nursery is a dinosaur theme, so I decided to go with that for the party theme as well. His party was the weekend before Easter. I thought it would be fun to have a Dinosaur Egg Hunt as the main activity for the party! Everything was just perfect!

For his birth announcement and party invitation I used the same colors as his nursery. So that was an easy color scheme for the party! I used a company on Esty to design the invitations. I sent her a picture of his room and she went from there. The dinosaurs at the top are the same as the dinosaurs on his bumper and the paintings we have hanging in the room. The stripes at the bottom are the same as his bed skirt. They are just perfect in so many ways! I found the suckers online and put a round foam ball wrapped in tissue paper into the bucket. I used stickers from the Dollar Tree to decorate the bucket.

 I found these plates on Amazon and thought they were adorable! They were the right colors and cute dinosaurs for a 1st Birthday (some are a little too scary!). The buckets were from Hobby Lobby and again I used Dollar Tree stickers to decorate them.

For the mantel I used my Cricut to make a banner. I printed pictures from each month of his first year. The little dinosaurs were actually on a banner that I cut apart and put onto sticks. Then I put them in planters.

My mother-in-law made this diaper cake for his baby shower and it was in his room. I thought it was too cute not to include it in the party! I put it on the sunroom table w/ some wooden dinosaur cut outs (the kids could color them if they wanted too).

Oh this cake! I loved it! Tricia at Darlin' Designs (http://www.triciasdarlindesigns.blogspot.com/) made Madison's first birthday cake as well. I sent her a proof of the invitation and she matched it exactly! I used Spanish moss on the table b/c I thought it look like it went w/ dinosaurs! ha! 

I used my Cricut to make this little banner for his high chair. 

 His Smash cake was just a small little cake from Harris Teeter. I added the dinosaur and the candle. I found the bib at a cute little Etsy shop.

Somehow I didn't get many pictures of the food table. We did dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets for the kids and subs for adults. Very low key, but everyone was happy!

My daughter and her cute dinosaur dress! She was hunting for eggs! For the big kids I put a variety of candy and dinosaur prizes in the eggs. 

The birthday boy! Hard to believe that was a year ago! For the smaller kids we had a separate hunt. In their eggs, I filled small jewelry ziplock bags with goldfish and puffs. 

I found these buckets at the Dollar Tree. Not sure why I didn't use my Cricut to cut out letters for their names? I used letter stickers and dinosaur stickers from the Dollar Tree. Each guest got a bucket and they filled it with eggs as their party favor.

The Dinosaur Egg Hunt was a big hit! I highly recommend it even if it's not close to Easter! It was a fun activity that they all enjoyed!

NC State Wolfpack/Sports Theme Party!

Last weekend we celebrated my son's 2nd birthday with a party at our local city park. This is the same park I grew up going to and celebrating birthdays. I am sure this won't be the last birthday party we have at the park! I planned this party down to every last detail! I visited the shelter several times to count tables, figure out how I wanted everything arranged, etc. Well, lets just say things didn't go as planned! First of all, the tables were bolted down, so I couldn't move them. They had to stay where they were. The biggest problem was the WIND! It was a gorgeous day, but the wind was out of control!

We are huge NC State fans! Our son, Carter, pretty much only wants to wear an NC State shirt every day. Luckily, he has plenty to choose from. :) I didn't want the party to be only NC State stuff. I decided to go with black and white chevron with red accents and a few NC State things here and there. This table was for the gifts and favors.

I found this chevron covered magnet board at Hobby Lobby on clearance. I had to have it! It was supposed to be be standing vertically, but the wind kept blowing it over. I turned it and rearranged everything, but it still  kept blowing over luckily I got a picture of everything in place! Our football stadium is Carter Finley Stadium. I thought it was only fitting that we call our party area Carter Fitzgerald Stadium! :)

I already had this frame from Hobby Lobby. I always like to frame a current picture of my kids at their birthday party. I saw on Pinterest the cute idea for the penalty flags. You wrap a tootsie pop with a yellow napkin and tie string around it. I thought they turned out really cute! I found the Mr. Wuf image on Google and used it to make my sign!

All party guests were given basketballs as a favor! My husband saw NC State, Duke and UNC basketballs at the Five Below store. They were a little more than we'd normally spend on a favor, but decided they were too perfect to pass up! After playing at the park and eating, the kids had the best time playing in the grassy areas with these balls! I found NC State wrapping paper and wrapped a large cardboard box. I found the NC State logo on Google and used it to make my sign.

I made these ball trees by using floral tape to put 2 floral stems together.  I glued fishing line to the sports themed Easter eggs and hung them on the "tree". This one is a little windblown, but you get the idea. I had to put the water bottle on there to help keep them from blowing over. The pots were ceramic so they already were pretty heavy!

There was supposed to be a big bouquet of balloons on the basketball in the center. Again, due to wind we couldn't do that. We lost a lot of balloons while trying to get set up!

I love these water bottles! This cute little Mr. Wuf was the image I found and used on the invitation. I added it on top of a chevron image that I also found online. I just think they are adorable!

We had about 80 people coming to the party so decided to serve hot dogs, chips and fruit. Not very fancy, but practical and not too expensive. I found these cute trays at a local wholesale store. I thought they looked like something you would use at a tailgate or would get at a concession stand.

I put the fruit in an NC State bowl and the chips were in a NC State picnic basket that we have had for many years! I was glad to have a reason to use those pieces!

I've never made or used cupcake picks before. I decided to use BJ's cupcakes instead of trying to make them myself. The ladies there could not have been sweeter! They went out of their way to help me! I used the same image from the invitation and water bottles for one side and then the regular NC State logo for the other. I cut them out with a round punch, taped one side to a toothpick and then used a glue stick to attach the back. I was happy with how they turned out!

My original reason for making this cupcake stand was to put the cake on top. Unfortunately the cake was way to heavy for my amateur stand! At the last minute, I made the large cupcake pick that's on top so I would have some sort of topper.
I used wooden charger plate and wooden candle sticks from Hobby Lobby to make the stand. I painted it white and used a craft/wood glue to glue it all together. I hope to be able to use this stand for a long time!

 THE CAKE! I can't even tell you how much I LOVE this cake! It turned out so perfect! I sent the bakery a picture of the invitation and asked her to put the chevron on the outside and the wolf on the top. When I saw the 2 and his name on the front I was speechless! Just perfect!!

Here is a view of the cake and cupcakes together! Love!!

Here is the happy birthday boy after blowing out his candles! 

One last detail...I made this dress for my daughter to wear to the party. I might have to make myself one next! ;) I have had several requests to make more of these. Not sure if I'm ready for that yet!! 

My sweet family at the party! Still can't believe my baby boy is 2! 

Teacher Appreciation Week

I know Teacher Appreciation Week takes place in most schools during the first week of May. At my kids Playschool, we do it in February. May is such a busy month for everyone, so we do it a little early. Here are a few things my committee did for our wonderful teachers this year:



My son is in the Babies Morning Out program at the same church. We included them in on the fun this year! For the first day, all student brought flowers for their teachers and the director.


Here is a picture of the vases that we made for our Playschool director and Music teacher. They get SO many flowers they needed a bigger vase. The teachers got a smaller version of the one above. We found them at the Dollar Tree and bought the burlap ribbon at Hobby Lobby. I made the sign and then made matching tags with the teachers names for each vase.


One of our committee members combined a few different bulletin board ideas to come up with this one! It turned out so cute! Each bird had a teachers name on it. The owl up top represented our Playschool director.


We also bought these hand sanitizer bottles at the Dollar Tree and a committee member used her Cricut to personalize each one. I found the sign on another blog (can't remember which one) as a free printable.


I found this sweet poem somewhere online and loved it. I've been making these personalized candle holders for gifts lately and thought I'd make them for the BMO teachers. The holder is from the Dollar Tree and I used my Cricut to personalize it.


I made these post-it note holders by using acrylic picture frames, scrapbook paper, and cut the initials with my Cricut. I think this was their favorite gift of the week! The students also brought cards to their teachers the day they received these.


They also got muffins and juice to go with their post it note holders.


For the last day, we set up a coffee and chocolate bar. It was a big hit with the teachers. My kids were sick, so I didn't get it set up as perfectly as I'd hoped. It still turned out cute!


They each got a coffee mug (again from the Dollar Tree) to use at the coffee bar. A committee member had lots of fabric scraps that she used as an insert for each mug. I made a tag for each mug that said, "Thanks for quenching our thirst for knowledge!"

This week was so much fun! Our teachers deserve so much more, but we enjoyed taking one week so shower them with gifts! I was exhausted when the week was over! ha!

End of the school year...

I realized today that it is almost time for me to start planning my daughter's end of the school year party for her playschool class! Hard to believe the year is almost over! I hosted her party last year as well. I looked back through the pictures for motivation for this years party. It seemed like a good topic for my next blog post!

I thought it would be fun to go with a beach ball and sand bucket theme! I went to my favorite place, the Dollar Tree! I got several beach balls and buckets! I also found these cute plates that I thought were kid friendly. My MIL has tons of cute table toppers so I used these since they kind of look like a picnic table cloth. I tied the beach balls from my light fixture. I don't think they liked being hung, b/c they slowly lost air. I thought they were still cute though!

For each child, I found a picture of them from a school event during the year. I attached the picture to a stick with tape and put into a little bucket (floral foam in the bottom of the bucket). I found the cute little pinwheels and the flip flop suckers. I added natural color shredded paper to look like sand. I put these at each place setting so they would know where to sit. 

My kitchen table wasn't quite big enough for the whole class so I set up the rest in my dining room. The teachers went along with the "sand bucket and beach ball" theme by making their end of the year gift a personalized sand bucket. They filled them with certificates and other stuff from school (seen on the sconces).

For the entry way, I just taped down a beach ball on my foyer table. I made a bigger bucket w/ the class picture, bigger pinwheel, and the shovel that came w/ the bucket.

Another view of the table. You can see the rest of the class gifts on the mantel.

Food table...found a cute beach ball balloon and added other primary color balloons. Kids love balloons, right? Then I found these cute plastic buckets at the Dollar Tree. They had all different shapes/sizes that were perfect for this party! 

Closer view of the food.

We set up a few outdoor activities (bubbles, sidewalk chalk; bounce house; and all our outdoor toys). Looking back at these pictures makes me want to have the same party this year! Definitely makes me ready for summer!!

Princess Party!

I think I'll start with my daughter's birthday party from earlier this year. She wanted a princess party w/ Rapunzel being the main princess. We had it at our local children's museum. This was the first party we had not hosted at our house, so I was a little nervous about it. In the end, it turned out to be a perfect place for a party! The kids had a great time!

I'll start with the food table. The sign was the one I made for her Pinkalicious 3rd birthday party. I was glad I was able to recycle it. I bought princess fabric from Hobby Lobby and sewed ribbon on the edge for a table runner. 

I recently learned how to make cookies. I was excited to be able to make Wand cookies for her party! I found the cute buckets in the Easter section at Hobby Lobby. I put a piece of floral foam in there so it would hold the cookies in place. I used a variety of pink things to make a "princess snack mix". They loved it!

My little princess had very specific instructions for her cake! We looked at pictures online and told the bakery what we wanted. It was perfect!! She LOVED it!

More cookies, fruit, and chicken nuggets for the food!

 This was my first time using/designing water bottle labels. I found a cute image on google and just adjusted the size to make it work for the labels. I had them printed at Office Max on their cardstock and cut to size with my paper cutter. I used my Cricut to add Happy Birthday and the crown to the bucket of drinks for the kids.

Favors for the girls! I don't know what came over me, but for some reason I thought it was a good idea to make all the girls these purses! I made 20 total! The girls LOVED them so it was totally worth all the hours of sewing! I made the stands for the bags out of dowel rods and other wood pieces from Hobby Lobby. My husband had to help a little with these. Then I just spray painted them white.

For the boys I made satchel bags (too look similar to the one Flynn Rider in Rapunzel carries). I found the swords at the Dollar Tree for each bag. The boys seemed excited about these too. 

Gift/Favor table! I always frame the invitation and put it out somewhere. I also designed a little picture collage of my daughter in some of her princess costumes.

For the tables, I made more runners out of a purple princess fabric. I added a little ruffle trim to make it a little more sassy! Each seat got a pink charger plate (again from the Pinkalicious party). I told them they were at a Royal dinner!

I made these centerpieces by finding images again on Google. I believe all the princesses were represented. I got the vases at the Dollar Tree and filled them with shredded paper. On the outside I used my glue gun to attach tulle. I tried to make it look like a tutu. Then added princess ribbon around the top. I love how these turned out!

Another view of the party room!

My little princess waiting to blow out her candles! All of her friends wore their princess dresses (the boys were superheros). She wanted to be the Rapunzel bride. 

From now on, I'll know to do a better job taking pictures of things as I'm making them!