Birthday Archives - Busy Moms Helper

Minecraft Birthday Party

February 16, 2018 by Danielle

My twins turned 5 this month. FIVE! Ya, I’m still in shock a bit. When we started talking about what type of birthday party they want, it was a definite MINECRAFT answer from both of them! No surprise there, of course. Although this was a few weeks ago, I’m finally getting around to sharing our Minecraft Birthday Party!

One thing that I was really excited about is that there’s SO MUCH you can do with a Minecraft party, from the food, to the decor, to the activities…really, it’s crazy how many possibilities you have to work with! I really like not going broke for a 5-year-old birthday party, though, so I kept it really budget friendly and as stress-free as possible.

Minecraft Invitations

I’m really a fan of making our own invitations because 1. usually I can get them cheaper and 2. they’re totally fun! I made sure to include some Creepers, Steve? and his pup, even an Enderman! There’s a spot at the top of the text area you can write who’s celebration it is, then all the spots for details!

Print off the invitation HERE, cut it out and tape/glue the blank sides together. Then just fold on the designated lines, fill in your details, and pass them out. Now get ready to Par-Tay!

Minecraft Decorations

We had a ton of fun creating the setting for our party! Our awesome backdrop was a huge hit with the kiddos, and was really simple to put up! All you do is get some square plates in 2-3 shades of green and some black. Lay them out on a table or the floor, creating your Creeper pattern.

Turn them over, being careful to keep them in the patter you’re wanting, and tape all along the plate backs. Across, down, and diagonal.

See how easy it picks up? Then just use little nails or something at the top corners and one in the middle to hold it onto your wall. Easy and fabulous!

On our tablescape we used these fun Minecraft paper/box sets to really make the place look like the game. They come in sheet patterns that you just pop out and fold together. Great activity idea! I also nabbed this Grass tablecloth, which worked perfect!

I hung balloons and put Creeper faces or Enderman faces on them in our kitchen area and at the front door. For the favor bags I just got simple green baggies and taped black construction paper Creeper faces on the front!

I found these awesome swords and pick-axe and the kids LOVED them! Perfect for the decor, then you can use them for a game of ‘fight the Creeper’, then the birthday kid can keep them afterwards. We HAD to get a diamond sword version along with the iron, since my family is kind of obsessed with this game and it just ‘topped it off’.

There’s also PLENTY of Minecraft items HERE you can check out, from glowing wall torches, to pins, to spinning Wither and more!

Like the fabulous torches? Get the Tutorial HERE

Minecraft Food

Seriously, you could go even more crazy here, too! Here’s some of the delicious snacks and drinks we served up…

Creeper Juice & Creeper cups (green cups with marker faces)
Gold Brick boxes (also good for favors) with Coal (chocolate)
Sticks (pretzels)

Water (blue jello)
Lava (red jello)
TNT (licorice bits)
Dirt & Grass (pudding with green frosting)

Bread (biscuits with pizza toppings)
Redstone (rice krispies with black/grey food coloring and red candy chunks)
Diamonds (rice krispies with black/grey food coloring an blue candy chunks)
Creeper Cake (with green/white/black fondant squares to make a face)

I got the fun Free printable food name place cards from Catch My Party.

Minecraft Games & Activities

Like I said, you could play ‘fight the Creeper’ with the foam swords, or go ‘digging’ through some boxes with the pick-axes. You could also create your own sword with this fun Free Printable Sword Stencil HERE.

There’s also a Creeper Pinata – Get the Tutorial HERE

My boys seriously LOVED their party, and everyone had a wonderful time. We were also able to keep most of the decor for the kids to enjoy for a long while yet!

Don’t miss out on more Minecraft Fun…

Printable Fall Party Invitation

September 10, 2016 by Keri Houchin

Once we get past Labor Day and the beginning of the new school year, it’s time to start thinking about fall. Download this pretty printable fall party invitation to send to friends and family for a Halloween, Thanksgiving or other fall celebration.

Fall is my favorite season. I love the cooler weather after months of blazing Texas sunshine and always look forward to being able to bake pumpkin muffins and unpack my sweaters again.

Really, we are probably as busy in my family as we are during the summer. It seems like we slow down just a bit for fall, though. September, October, and November are a time to reflect on the past year and look ahead. After all, the new year will be here before we know it, right?

This season brings plenty of reasons to throw a party. You might throw a late back-to-school celebration in September, plan a kid-friendly Halloween party or host a big Thanksgiving gathering. In my house, we also have a few fall birthdays.

What are you celebrating this season?

I made this printable fall party invitation in autumn leaf colors – gold, orange, maroon and lime green. It is simple and cute and I couldn’t resist adding a little owl sitting on a tree stump at the bottom.

The text says “It’s time to celebrate!” and has lines for you to write in the date, time, location, and contact info. I made it generic enough that you can use it for any type of seasonal celebration.

Click to download: Fall party invitation

This card measures 5”x7” and can be printed on stationery cardstock for a flat 5-by-7 invitation. You could also print it on regular 8-1/2”x11” card stock or paper, but you’ll need to trim it. The design doesn’t have any copyright info on it, so you should be able to get these professionally printed at your favorite copy shop if you prefer.

To throw a fun fall party, you might also like these ideas:

{matching} Fall party printables with woodland creatures – full alphabet banner, tent cards & circles

Printable Halloween scavenger hunt

12 tips for hosting a big Thanksgiving dinner

Sweet Sunshine Sunflower

May 20, 2015 by Nikki Cole

Sweet Sunshine! Need a fun and exciting gift to brighten someone’s day? Well this Sweet SunShine Sunflower is perfect for anyone that needs cheering up, it has delicious tootsie rolls and looks amazing! Also is great as a center piece for a summer get together.

Supplies:

Approximately 500 tootsie Roll midgees
1 (4 inch) Styrofoam ball
Sharp knife
Butter knife
Approximately 20 12 x 12 inch pieces of yellow cellophane
1 (18 inch long) 5/8 inch dowel painted green
straight pins, I like the ones with the colored ball on the ends it makes it easier to push into the Styrofoam ball
Styrofoam for the base
6 inch clay pot (I painted mine red but can be whatever color you desire)
Approximately 10 6 x 6 inch pieces green cellophane
Optional: extra green cellophane and tin foil

Directions:

Get all your supplies cut, painted, and gathered together.
With your sharp knife cut two lines around your Styrofoam ball around the center ½ inch apart and about ½ inch deep. Don’t cut too deep or it won’t hold the cellophane as well.
Get your yellow cellophane and one piece at a time pinch the center of the square to form a tip. Now flatten the tip and lay it against the ball so the tip extends 1 ½ to 2 inches beyond the cut closest to you. With your butter knife poke the cellophane into the cut closest to you until it is secure and just the very tip of gathered cellophane shows. The tip should be facing the others line so when complete the tips are hidden by the two rows.
Continue adding the pieces of yellow cellophane into the same cut about every 1 ¼ inch apart. Sometimes you will need additional pieces or less but fill to desired fullness.
In the middle of the two cut lines insert the dowel about 1 to 2 inches into the ball.
Repeat steps 3 and 4 on the other cut line.
Gather your tootsie rolls and pins.
Starting at the edge of the yellow cellophane poke a pin through the twisted end of the tootsie roll wrapper and insert into the Styrofoam ball.
Continue densely adding tootsie rolls into the Styrofoam ball until one side is completely filled. (I would insert the pin into two tootsie roll ends just to save on pins and to save some time)
Repeat steps 8 and 9 on the other side.
With your clay pot cut extra Styrofoam to fit in the base. You will want the Styrofoam about 1 inch from the top of the pot. Optional: cover Styrofoam with tin foil and green cellophane to help keep Styrofoam from crumbling everywhere and to fill in with green color.
Fold a piece of green cellophane in half and then half again and fan slightly, then in the same manner of the yellow cellophane fold the point down between the pot and the Styrofoam and poke into the base with a butter knife.
Continue inserting green cellophane into the base to desired fullness of ‘grass’.
Insert the dowel into the Styrofoam base as deep as it can go keeping it straight.

*can use different sizes of dowels, Styrofoam ball, and pot for different sizes of sunflowers and also can use different colors. If using bigger sizes be careful because it will be very top heavy.

Cinderella Funfetti Pudding Cake

April 16, 2015 by Nikki Cole

Hey it’s Nikki Christiansen (sister to Danielle)! I’m a fun, outgoing, athletic, baker who loves basically anything, especially food. With the new Cinderella movie out my little sister decided to have a Cinderella party, so of course I made a Cinderella cake! This cake is traditional homemade funfetti with white chocolate pudding in the center to make it super moist. Cinderella Funfetti Pudding Cake is delicious and looks great for all those princesses out there!

Ingredients

For the Cake:

1 cup milk, room temperature
4 large egg white, at room temperature
1 whole egg, at room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract (if you can get clear so it doesn’t tint the cake if you want it really white otherwise either will work)
¼ teaspoon almond extract
2 ¾ cups flour
1 ½ cups sugar
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon baking powder
¾ teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter or margarine cut into small squares
½ cup rainbow sprinkles or more depending on what you like

For the Pudding:

1 3.3 ounce package of white chocolate instant pudding
2 cups cold milk

For the Frosting:

1 cup solid white vegetable shortening
1 teaspoon almond extract (can use vanilla if you want, use clear if you want white frosting)
2 tablespoons milk or water
1 pound confectioners’ sugar (about 4 cups)
1 tablespoon Wilton Meringue Powder
Pinch of salt (optional)
Also I used silver sixlets found at party stores or wedding sections, shimmery sprinkles, a glass (plastic) slipper, and a tiara.

Directions

Cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and line with parchment paper 8 or 9 inch pans then sprinkle with flour.
In a separate bowl combine the eggs, ¼ cup of the milk, vanilla and the almond extract and set aside.
In a mixer combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, sugar, salt) and stir for about 30 seconds.
Add the butter or margarine and mix then add the remaining ¾ cup milk and mix on medium speed for about 2 minutes.
Scrape the sides down and slowly add in the egg mixture and beat on medium speed for 3 minutes.
Divide the batter into the two pans evenly. Tap the pans on the counter to help prevent air bubbles.
Bake 25 – 35 minutes or when toothpick is inserted comes out clean and the cake is slightly pulling away from the edges.
Let the cake cool 10-15 minutes before loosening the sides with a spatula and turned out onto a wire rack. Let cool completely. Before frosting put in fridge for about an hour. This makes frosting a little easier with less crumbs.
Level the two cakes. Take the ½ cup of thick frosting and frost a wring on the top edge of the bottom piece of cake. Make the pudding and immediately pour onto the center of cake evenly only about ¾ cup so it won’t spill over the sides. Place the top of the cake gently on the bottom. Put in fridge for another 30 minutes to an hour for pudding to set.
For the remaining frosting place a big spatula full on the top of the cake and without picking up the spatula gently press and spread the frosting over the top. Then doing the same technique with the sides. Decorate to your liking!

Pudding:

Make according to package. Whisk milk and contents of package for about 2 minutes.

Frosting:

Cream the shortening, flavoring and water together.
Slowly add in the dry ingredients and mix on medium speed until they have been mixed thoroughly together and become creamy. If not creamy slowly add ½ teaspoon at a time more water.
Take ½ cup of the stiff frosting and set aside. (if planning on dyeing the frosting another color this ½ cup won’t be seen so it won’t matter if it has color or not)
With the remaining frosting add in about 5 teaspoons of water or until easily spreadable. Add in color if desired.

Make Your Own Minecraft Creeper Pinata

January 31, 2015 by Danielle

Who else has kids that are totally into Minecraft? A year ago, I had no idea what that even was, but now it seems like a normal part of daily conversation to bring up Creepers or Endermen! Now you can join in the fun and Make Your Own Minecraft Creeper Pinata!

My twins turned 5 last month (insane, right?!) and had a big Minecraft themed birthday party. If you missed the party post, go check it out! We also had this super fun Creeper pinata for one of the activities, and the kids thought it was the coolest thing ever.

Of course, I couldn’t FIND a Creeper pinata, so I decided to make my own. It was really easy, and saved my budget even more! Gotta love a wallet-friendly birthday party!

Supplies

Square box (or pinata) – with a small opening to insert candy/etc.
Random green tissue paper
Tape & scissors
Black construction paper
Rope or something for hanging

Directions

I got a simple, inexpensive box ‘birthday present’ pinata to start out with. Take your tissue papers and randomly put the colors row after row taped to the box on all four sides. After each row, cut slightly so the paper ‘ruffles’, like a pinata! Overlap the next row OVER the tape area to hide that part.
Keep on going, keep on going….
After your box is covered, cut out the face from the black paper and tape that onto one (or all four, like I did) sides.
Fill with your candy/etc., attach the rope (or whatever you’re hanging it with) and you’re ready to go!

Our box lasted a decent amount (the main group was filled with 5-6 year olds, so not exactly hard hitters), but when it WAS finally done it didn’t exactly resemble a Creeper anymore….

This was so much fun, and even easier than the DIY Minecraft Torches I made for the party!

Don’t miss out on these other Minecraft Posts…

Make Your Own Minecraft Torch: Party #2

January 7, 2015 by Danielle

Wow, this week has been CRAZY trying to get everything done in time for my bloggy trip! I’m so excited, but my to-do before I leave list is pretty daunting! I couldn’t wait to share with you more from my twins’ party, though, so today I’m showing you how to Make Your Own Minecraft Torch!

If you missed my big Minecraft Birthday Party post, you definitely should check it out! Super fun printables, great food, and the decor totally kicked Creeper butt! One of our table decorations were these awesome Minecraft Torches that I made really quick and easy.

I’m all for themed, fun decorations at a party, but hate spending tons of money or time to pull it off. These torches were really fast to put together, and use really basic things.

Supplies

Cardboard
Brown Construction Paper
Tape
Yellow & Orange Tissue Paper
LED Tea Lights (if want it to really light up)

Directions

Cut four tall rectangles from the cardboard.
Tape together to form the frame for your torch.
Cut a square piece to close up at least one end. You CAN do both, if you want, but I didn’t worry about it.
Cut your brown paper so it will go all the way around the sides of the torch frame PLUS an inch or two above the top (that you closed the end off of).
Tape the paper around the frame. See how the part that goes above the frame is perfect for keeping in the LED light?
Take squares of yellow and orange tissue paper and tape them inside the top of the torch and all around.

That’s it! Now you have your Minecraft Torch!

You can attach them to a wall easily, since they’re so light-weight, or place them on your tables. My kiddos think they’re SUPER awesome, especially when we turn the LED light on in the dark!

Check out my other fun Minecraft posts from the party!

Celebrate with Kids Cards

October 29, 2014 by Danielle

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. See my Disclosure Policy for more information. #KidsCards #CollectiveBias

How many of y’all have family that lives far away? Most of our family is back in Utah, so we miss out on a LOT of celebrations, especially birthdays! We’ve found great ways to help Celebrate with Kids Cards, and other ways to stay connected during those big events!

To our family, birthdays are HUGE. Lots of fun, games, and plenty of family. When we lived in Utah, it was easy to join in, but now it’s more challenging! Luckily, there’s plenty we can still do to stay in touch and feel like we’re ‘there’ to share with the special person on their big day!

My sweet niece Adi is turning 6 this Halloween (yes, her birthday is Halloween…awesome, right?!) so we decided to mail her a ‘party in a bag’…or envelope, as it turns out!

In it we made sure to include typical party items (that are safe to be mailed…cake isn’t exactly the best choice here). Plenty of streamers and cute crinkle confetti, birthday card with sweet notes, some balloons (not blown up yet, of course) and even some stickers! Send it in plenty of time for the birthday, and it’s like you’re there partying with them! Especially with kids, they like to know you’re thinking of them even though you aren’t physically nearby.

The real fun part is the cute Hallmark Kids Card we picked up at Walmart! They’re really fun, starting off as a sweet birthday card with saying….but then it opens into a HUGE wall poster they can keep!

There’s such a huge selection of kid favorites, like Avengers, Star Wars, How to Train Your Dragon, Sophia the First, Princess, Tinkerbell, Minnie Mouse and many more! Just find the Hallmark birthday display at Walmart and choose your favorites! I found the PERFECT ones for my niece, plus each of my boys! Yes, I know my youngest isn’t near a birthday like my twins (they’re going to turn 5….CRAZY!) but once I saw the Jake & the Neverland Pirates one I just HAD to get it for their pirate bedroom!

So how does the card turn into the poster? Here’s my little Dusty fan to show you as he discovers his Planes Fire & Rescue birthday card!

He was so excited at how BIG the poster ended up being! He kept laying by it saying ‘Mom, it’s like a blanket!’

For my other twin, I knew Captain America was the perfect option….just check out how he matches!

So how can YOU help celebrate someone special even though you’re not close by? Here’s some tips and ideas:

Send a surprise package with party supplies (like we did for my niece)
Skype in so you can ‘see’ each other
Phone calls are always good
Get someone there to help you do a Scavenger Hunt to a big surprise, like a fabulous Poster Card
Send them a special photo of you they can set up during their celebration
Agree to eat the same party food at the same time

What are YOUR best ways to keep in touch during birthdays and celebrations with long-distance loved ones?

Make sure you check out Connections from Hallmark to sign up for Hallmark Rewards, and to see great content from other bloggers. Join in the #kidscards conversation on Twitter! They’ve got things such as gift cards to Amazon, Nike, restaurants, even travel! Just stock up next time you’re at Walmart, and you’re on your way to even more neat rewards! You can learn more here and sign up!

Frozen Birthday Party

October 1, 2014 by Danielle

Okay, so I know the whole Frozen Birthday Party has been done a million times already all over Pinterest and such, but this was our first girl birthday since the movie hit theaters last year. Every since we saw it in theaters, Wonder Woman had been begging us like crazy to let her have her own Frozen Birthday Party, so after all that waiting I was finally able to give her one….and I get to share the fun with you today!

This post contains affiliate links. You can see my Disclosure Policy for more information.

If you follow me on Instagram, you saw a sneak peak on Saturday when I was (finally) all set up and ready for the party to begin. I was so excited to bring in all the fun Frozen ideas I’d gathered throughout the year, such as our Frozen Wreath, and items from her Frozen Inspired Bedroom. I’ll admit, I’m also a huge Frozen fan, so it was a lot of fun for me to prep it all!

Frozen Birthday Party Invitations

Don’t die of shock, but I actually passed out the invitations a whole TWO weeks before the party. Yup, I was on the ball for once! Probably won’t happen again for several months, but hey, I’ll take what I can get. I loved designing these fun invitations to be a fun envelope all by itself!

So there’s two sides to this, and you can fit two of them on a page. This FREE PRINTABLE Frozen Birthday Invitation already has it laid out for you!

You can click here to download the Frozen Invitation Inside. It prints 2 per page, about 5×7 in size.

And here’s the printable ‘outside’ part, that works as an envelope:

Just be sure to print it correctly…when you open the envelope you should see the ‘You’re Invited’ under the top flap. I included fold lines on the outside, plus the lines where you can cut the flap out.

Frozen Birthday Party Decorations

Let’s start with the decorations, since I was seriously STOKED at how beautiful it all turned out! It was based on blue and purple, of course, with lots of sparkles and ‘snow sparkle’ goodness thrown in. My baby sis had a Frozen party earlier this year, so many of the supplies are leftover from that (thanks Mom and Sis!).

For the backdrop, I just got some blue, purple and white cheap plastic tablecloths from Walmart for a buck each, and pinned them hanging from the wall. Over the top of the tablecloth drapes are two Iridescent Vinyl Curtains. The Tissue Pom-Poms are hung to the side for a little extra dimension and fun!

Another cheap tablecloth on the table, then some sparkly purple and white tissue paper as a ‘table runner’ in the middle. Gotta love budget-friendly ideas, right?! In the center is a large round vase filled with little blue and purple Sixlet candy balls, along with huge gum balls. Then just stick in some blue and purple candy cane sticks and rock candies, plus a fun snowflake wand as an attractive centerpiece. I had some ‘crystal garland’ leftover as a holiday decoration, so folded that around the base. Wrap some ribbon around the center of the vase, add a simple snowflake sticker, and there ya go! In the small vase I also have my Lollipics, made especially for this party…don’t worry, more details on those to come!

Wonder Woman even wore her Elsa Dress to add to the atmosphere! She wanted to let one of the girls wear the Anna Dress I made her (in less than 2 hours)….but that many girls and ONE costume wouldn’t have ended well, so we skipped that!

Frozen Birthday Party Food

So we’ve got the main atmosphere looking and feeling totally Frozen-ified, right? But you can’t have a party without some delish and fun food! We had a whole variety, so every single one of our young girls were able to find plenty that they liked!

First up, we’ve got the Frozen Hearts. Take some delicious strawberries (I love Driscoll’s Berries), dip them in melted white chocolate, then sprinkle some blue crystal sprinkles over them. Viola….delicious, healthy, and totally fun! Plus, cute as a decoration 🙂

Sven’s carrots were, surprisingly, a huge hit with our party guests! You can go with this, or call them Olaf’s Noses. Your choice!

As the main course, I couldn’t get the sound of my kids singing ‘finish each other’s….SANDWICHES’ out of my head, so sandwiches it was! Again, LOVING easy!

“What is that delicious smell? MMMMM….Chocolate!” Yup, break out some mini chocolates, or just chocolate chips, to give ’em some yummy!

I saw this idea on Pinterest, and LOVED how cute the Melted Snowman’s were! Just some vanilla yogurt, chocolate chips, candy eyes…and an orange candy for the nose. I used Reeses chocolate chips for the nose, but there’s others if you want.

A Frozen buffet table wouldn’t be complete without Kristoff’s Ice Cubes. Blue jello to the rescue!

The cups were also a handy ‘adding to the decor’ factor on our table. We just got some cheap plastic ‘champagne’ glasses, tied pretty ribbon around each, then added some fun purple and blue striped straws….give it a little ‘pop’! The girls loved them!

Notice the fun place cards for the food, also? Simply print off some pictures of the characters on paper with a fun blue background (or blue paper….even easier), cut a styrofoam ball in half with a slit on top, then you’ve got a darling place holder snowball!

Frozen Birthday Party Games & Activities

We had a ton of fun doing Frozen crafts and games during the party, even though the girls got so hyper and excited! What’s a party without a little crazy noise, right? To start it off, we made some fun foam Elsa Crowns. I used the template from My Sister’s Suitcase, so head over there for the tutorial. I was able to find LARGE foam sheets, so could fit many crowns onto one. Get random stickers, sparkles, foam shapes or letters to decorate.

Do you remember the game ‘Don’t Eat Pete’? Well, we’ve got a special Don’t Eat Olaf game board you can print right off! To play, print the game board using that link and laminate it (if you want). Use marshmallows, candies, pom-poms, whatever and put one on each picture. The person who is ‘it’ goes away, then the rest decide which picture is the one that time. The ‘it’ person comes back and one-by-one starts removing the candies. When they go to remove the one on the selected picture, everyone yells ‘Don’t Eat Olaf’ and the ‘it’ person can’t choose anymore. Using treats makes it more fun, since they want to get as many as possible.

We also made Elsa Wands, like the one in our table centerpiece. Just paint tall craft sticks, use ribbon to twist up it, add a snowflake, dangle ribbon, whatever you want to make it a cute pretty Frozen wand!

You can also do a Frozen Memory Game…just print pictures from the movie, double of each, laminate them and play away! Or even this Pin the Nose on Olaf game!

Frozen Birthday Party Favors

The girls got to keep their crowns and wands, plus these adorable Olaf Favor Bags! Just simple white bags, add some googly eyes, then cut out the black mouth and orange carrot nose. Simple, yet everyone loves them! Fill them with other favors such as the purple and blue candy canes, rock candy, stickers, blue and silver kisses, marshmallows, the blue and purple sixlets and gumballs, nab some fun Frozen favors, and especially some fabulous Lollipics!

Love them? Want some for YOUR next party, whether it be Frozen, like our Pirate Lollipics earlier in the summer, or your own theme of choice? Come back tomorrow to learn more about this wonderful company, plus a GIVEAWAY for a dozen free Lollipics of your own choice or design! LOVE THEM!

Everyone had an absolute blast at the party, and I was so thrilled with how it all turned out. Head on over to Shindigz for so many supplies and ideas for your next party! They certainly made my vision possible, and left Wonder Woman a very very happy Elsa!

DIY Baptism Pillow Gift

July 9, 2014 by Danielle

My sweet little niece just got baptized this month, and we wanted to give her something simple-yet-cute, and something to help remind her of her promises to Choose The Right (CTR). This DIY Baptism Pillow Gift turned out so beautiful and soft, and I loved how easy it was to make!

I probably don’t share this nearly as much as I should, but for those that don’t know: I’m LDS. That is, I’m a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. In my church, once someone reaches the age of 8 they may choose to be baptized into the church. We bless infants, but one cannot be baptized until they reach 8 years old. Last month my oldest niece turned 8 years old, and chose to be baptized last Saturday. It was such a special day, and we’re glad to have been included.

One thing our primary children in our church (or anyone, for that matter) likes is CTR, which stands for Choose The Right. You’ll often see LDS members wearing CTR rings, and that’s why. It reminds us of our promises to always Choose The Right. So this DIY Baptism Pillow Gift was the perfect thing for ‘K’ to have on her bed or in her room to remind her. And the minky fabric sure made it soft and snuggly….bonus!

Supplies Needed

1/4-1/2 yard fabric (I used white minky)
Plain pillow, or stuffing (I got a 14×14 plain pillow from the craft aisle at Walmart)
Sewing machine/thread
Fabric or felt for the symbol and CTR (I used pink sparkly felt)
Hot glue, or more thread for the symbol/CTR

Directions

Cut your fabric to fit your pillow. Keep in mind the thickness of the pillow, and allow room for seams. Try to keep one edge of the pillow as a folded edge, leaving just 3 edges to sew. This folded top edge will be the top, since that’s the most seen and will leave it extra pretty and clean looking. So the folded edge is the top.
Face the pretty side of the fabric together and sew your two SIDE seems. Cut off the excess fabric from the seam. Turn your case right-side out. Cut out your symbol and CTR letters. NOTE: If you want to sew your symbol/CTR onto the case instead of hot glue it, sew it one now before putting in the pillow and sewing the last edge. Stick your pillow into the case and sew your last edge. Cut off the excess fabric from the seem so it looks as nice and clean as possible.
If you’ve already sewn on your symbol and CTR letters, you’re done! If not, this is when you hot glue them onto the front of your pillow. Keep in mind the pretty folded edge is the top!

I love how this pillow turned out, and she was thrilled to have something aside from her CTR ring (that she got from grandma) to remind her of her special day!

Pirate Party: Part Two

June 24, 2014 by Danielle

I feel like I’ve been drowning in Pirate-themed madness the past month, but in a can’t-wait-to-see-what’s-next type of way! Now who’s ready for some amazing Pirate Party food, decor, crafts and the neatest Pirate thank you gift ever?! Oh, and don’t forget the Free Printables!

I received free Lollipics to facilitate a review. All opinions are 100% my own.

If you missed it, be sure to check out our Pirate Party: Party One for all the fun games and activities we did for Green Lantern’s 3rd birthday! I wanted to save the best for last, which means lots of food, decor, Free Printables and this AMAZING Pirate Thank You Gift: Lollipics!

Aren’t those just the cutest?! I first met the crew from Lollipics at SNAP! Conference, and instantly loved their products. I mean, how cool is it to just upload any photo or graphic and have them create your very own personalized, handcrafted lollipop with edible images? SUPER COOL!

Plus, they’re some of the nicest people ever….and came fully stocked with a mountain of Diet Coke for those bloggers needing a pick-me-up. I also fully support companies that provide quality products AND quality shipping. How often do you order something, and it ends up packaged half-properly? These guys take the time to put your tasty Lollipics into a very well packaged box, with more than adequate padding.

Call me crazy, but I think any company that takes the time to make the PACKAGING look nicely done deserves two thumbs up!

These Pirate Lollipics are one of their MANY stock images that you can choose from, if you don’t have a specific image of your own. And you don’t have to buy dozens of them…just a minimum order of 6! I used these as a fabulous Thank You gift for our party friends. Since we did a photo booth, the following week we printed their pictures and took them in an envelope with our cute printable, attaching their very own Lollipic for them to enjoy!

You can connect with Lollipics and their amazing, tasty treats to join in the fun!

Ready for more of our fabulous Pirate Party fun?

Pirate Party Food

Seaweed Wraps: we got spinach-herb tortillas (so they’d be green), then just did turkey, cheese and lettuce wrapped inside.

Polly’s Crackers: crackers and cheese….simple as that!

Salty Sea Water: blue Hawaiian punch bottles with the labels replaced.

Fish ‘n Chips: Goldfish crackers with potato chips

Jolly Roger Cannonballs: olives

Shark Bate: swedish fish (in a clean fish bowl, of course)

Pirate Party Decor

Although many of the games and activities served as decor, also, here are some of the other Pirate-y extras!

We used our Chore Treasure Chest to hold our pirate swords, hats, and eye patches (all found on Amazon) next to our photo booth. We made our spy glasses using empty paper towel rolls covered with brown paper, then gold paper on the ends and semi-middle. Super simple, yet they STILL play with them like crazy!

If you saw the boys’ Pirate Bedroom Makeover, you probably noticed this amazing Pirate Direction Sign. It was SUPER easy to make, and lots of fun! Tutorial coming soon…so stay tuned!

I had to incorporate ‘X marks the spot’ somehow, so I used poster board to cut out a big red X on our front door, with black cut out ‘Ahoy Matey’ greetings! This is now on the boys’ bedroom door.

I had so much fun with the printables for our Pirate Party, and even made some Pirate Booty signs to attach to their DIY Treasure Chests to take home!

Ready for the Free Printables? I bet you are! Here’s ALL the fun signs and tags I did for the party….

Thanks fer coming, Matey! Tag

Walk the Plank & Pirate Booty

Photo Booth & Treasure Chests

Hook Toss & Pirate Faces

Food Signs

Salty Sea Waters

Dig for Treasure & Food Signs

Pirate Booty Tags

Pirate Party: Part One

June 18, 2014 by Danielle

It’s been almost a month since Green Lantern’s 3rd birthday, and I’m finally ready to share his Pirate Party with you! There was a quite a bit, so today I’ll be sharing the games and activities we did!

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Better late than never, right? After the party was over, I got so busy doing the boys’ Pirate Bedroom that I just let his Pirate Party sit on the back burner for awhile. I guess this way we have a couple weeks filled with Pirate fun, right?!

Even with all the exciting stuff for his party, Green Lantern was in the wrong mood for a party that afternoon. We’d be like ‘time to open presents’ and our stubborn 3-year-old says ‘I too busy’! Seriously, what a pill! Once we convinced him to join in, though, he couldn’t get enough of the fun! We didn’t do a lot of complex activities at this Pirate Party, since it was geared towards 3-year-olds, but most of it can be changed up for any age level!

Walk the Plank

It doesn’t get much more simple than this, but the kids thought it was a blast! Just get a long board (make sure it’s sturdy…don’t want injured kids) and something to prop up the ends on. We used some extra bricks. The blow up Tick-Tock-Croc was from Amazon (and came with rings for a toss game….see below what we used them for).

Hook Toss

I quickly colored stripes on a plain poster board, cut holes and stuck three hooks through (ordered on Amazon), and then used the rings that came with ol’ Tick-Tock-Croc for a fabulous game of toss. The youngest friends (under 2 year olds) hung out by this the majority of the time, putting the rings on, taking them off, putting them on….it was super cute!

Make a Pirate Face

I found this awesome stick book at Walmart for a few bucks. It has a LOT of pages of pirate characters, then you use the included sticker sheets to make your own with eyes, noses, mustaches, skulls, and other pirate stuff! Some of the kids wanted their pirate to look ‘the right way’, others turned out quite unique!

Take Yer Photo – Photo Booth

Since the kids were moving around so much during the Pirate Party, I was so glad I did a spot for a photo booth. That way, I actually got SOME photos that weren’t blurry from all the jumping and running! I just used cheap $1 tablecloths in red, white and black hanging on the wall for the backdrop. For the banner, I cut out black and red poster board, taped each to some rope (thought that was more fitting than ribbon), and put skull stickers on them.

Dig for Treasure

My wonderful neighbor let us borrow her little sand box for this activity. We filled it with sand, but put some pirate treasure in there for the kids to dig up! You can get simple pirate things such as skull rings, ‘jewels’, or other small items. It helped to have a list of how many of what each child could get, so one person didn’t end up with ALL the rings or jewels!

DIY Treasure Chests

For this one, you’ll need a bunch of empty wipe containers. I spray painted them gold with Rust-Oleum’s Metallic Gold spray paint. The kids then used glue, glue dots and/or tape to attach jewels to their ‘treasure chests’. They were able to use these to take home some of their ‘booty’ from the digging for treasure activity!If using normal glue, I’d suggest doing this activity near the beginning to allow time for it to dry.

Sing Happy Birthday

Okay, so I know that’s a huge ‘DUH’ activity for the birthday, but I had to put it so I could show you this photo…..THIS was Green Lantern’s attitude for the party! While everyone was singing happy birthday to him, with candles lit on the cake, he sat there with his hand flat over his face. Yup, told ya, MAJOR PILL!

Stay tuned for PART TWO of our Pirate Party, where I’ll share all the decor, fun food and Free Printables! Oh – and the coolest pirate thank you gift EVER: Lollipics!

Superhero Dad Gift Free Printables

May 26, 2014 by Danielle

It’s been awhile since I’ve shared some of our ‘geek-ness’ with you, so I don’t feel the least beat ashamed of sharing with you a new superhero-themed post. As you may have guessed, it’s also in preparations for the big Father’s Day coming up (already? yikes!). I give you…drumroll please……

Superhero Dad Gift Free Printables!

Okay, okay, I know we DID give him a Superhero Dad Gift last year….remember the Superhero Soda Gift? It was AWESOME, and he LOVED it! So yes, it’s yet another superhero thing….but that’s how our family rolls 😉

But wait…I’m not just giving you ONE free printable Superhero sign you can give ol’ daddy-o this year. I’m giving you THREE options to choose from! Or don’t choose, take them all, that’s what we did!

They’re awesome, I know….and I think I’m safe to bet that he’ll put them straight into his office (when the boys are out of it and back in their room, as we’re currently doing heavy construction in their bedroom…but more on that later). These will look rockin’ on his wall!

So first, we have this one, that’s too cute and stylish for words!

Then these two break down just how totally SUPER your dad really is….and you have a Marvel Universe theme, and a DC Universe theme! In case you don’t know the difference (don’t worry, I didn’t until hubby made a total geek out of me)……

Here is the DC Universe theme…which is basically Justice League heroes.

And here is the Marvel Universe themed printable…..so Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four, as the big ones.

See, they’re just perfect for the Superhero in your life! Print them out, frame them up if you’d like, and enjoy the grin on his perfectly-geeky wonderful face!