Pink and Green Birthday

We had Big Bear and Me Too's birthday party yesterday.  Me Too's birthday is in November and when I called ASI to ask about scheduling a party, the soonest date they had was Dec. 17th.  That got my wheels spinning for a double party since Big Bear's is on New Year's Eve.  It ended up being way cheaper than having two parties.  And since the girls all do Adventure Princess together, many of them know each other so it was tons of fun.  I decided to do a pink and green theme.  Me Too's favorite color is really purple but pink is a lot easier to find.  So here's what the party room ended up looking like...

 Big Bear's green side

 Me Too's pink side.

Most of my inspiration for the crafts you see are from...where else...PINTEREST!!!  Best place EVER!!  

The puff balls turned out super cute I think - even though the pink one is kind of sideways.  I found this craft here. They are super easy and fun to make - check out her tutorial but it's just cupcake liners on a styrofoam ball.  I think I'll add liners to the bottom which I left blank to go on the little candle holder that I got from the Dollar Store and spray painted white. 

 The G & the K were also super fun to make.  I found the little balls at Hobby Lobby a long time ago and knew they'd be adorable super glued onto chipboard letters.  I had tons left over so I put them in some little glass votive holders and super glued ribbon to them.  I stuck a little flickering candle light that I had gotten from the Dollar Store long long ago when preparing for Me Too's Rainbow Birthday Party.

I forget where I got the idea to do the popcorn for the goody bags.  It was sometime after a failed attempt at melting crayons into shapes with cookie cutters.  I don't know how people do that...I've read tutorial after tutorial and blog post after blog post and can't make it work for me.  They turned out cute but WAAAAYYYY more expensive than I expected - long story but it had a lot to do with my not being either smart nor able to speak up when things go wrong.  That's another blog post for another day when I feel like spouting off.

See the little box up there?  I found those (the pink only shown here but of course there is a green one too) at Hobby Lobby as well.  They were on clearance - probably because there is no way to latch it.  There is what looks like a latch but it doesn't actually work.  I had NO clue what I'd do with them but got them anyway knowing I'd figure something out.  And I did - just hours before the party!  I had decided to make candy coated marshmallow treats and realized it would be fun to use the boxes to display them!

Last is my cupcake stand.  I painted these Dollar Store plates using stencils that I made with my fun fun toy...my Silhouette Cameo!!  I super glued them to a candle holder that had been clear glass but I spray painted white for a Christmas display. I LOVE LOVE LOVE how these turned out.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE how it all turned out.  

 And the kids had a blast.  They have such sweet friend with such sweet families.

  In fact, we stated specifically on the invitation NO PRESENTS.  Apparently, our friends don't follow directions!

Here's a video of the kids having fun!

Hope you enjoyed our pink and green birthday as much as we did!!

Where Have You Been All My Life?

Finally...the website I've been looking for all my life! I have so much trouble finding good ideas for Catholic crafts and activities to do with my younger kids. It's pretty easy to find materials for older ones - word searches and harder crafts and things like that - but not for the younger ones. But today I ran across this amazing site - Catholic Icing.

You will find cute things such as making an alphabet of saints crafts, a neat prayer and activity to do while carving pumpkins, and some fun All Saints Day games are examples of what you'll find right now. These are easy, fun crafts for little ones but older ones will enjoy as well.

We will sure be doing some of these fun activities!!

Kidz Linkz

I found a really neat Catholic website for little ones called My Friend Magazine! I'm always in search of fun ways to introduce my kids to their faith - crafts, games, etc. I've found that there is very little out there for the tiny ones like mine - toddler and preschool age. So I was thrilled to find this. It has games that my preschooler can play online, coloring pages for the toddler, fun stuff for older kids to read with topics that pertain to their issues, and ideas for parents and teachers to use with their kids. Check it out!

Domestic-Church is another good one that gives parents some neat ideas on how to celebrate different feast days and seasons. It has separate sections for young and older children. Again, a lot of the "young" children stuff is for school age young children but some of it can be adapted.

My sister sent me this website. It would be great for an older teen or young adult. It's called the Red Letters Project. Here's how their website describes it:

"The Red Letters Project" is like no other. It's the Book of Matthew as written in the New Testament, word for word, put to rock music with influences that include Coldplay, Aerosmith, Lenny Kravitz, James Blunt, Arctic Monkeys, Gorillaz and Weezer.

Neat idea!