Kids Christmas Tree Party Treat Tutorial

At our annual Kids' Christmas Party each of the kids made their own melted chocolate Christmas tree:

A friend helped me by keeping lots of color melts ready for all the eager kiddos:

We loaded assorted color melts into plastic bags so kids could easily squeeze out a Christmas tree pattern over three pretzels positioned on wax paper:

And then they loaded them up with their choice of sprinkles! Voila!

Celebrate Jesus' Resurrection

Easter is coming up. Here's little table idea for your gatherings I first designed and posted in 2008!!

These quick paper place cards can be set out for your Easter brunch or dinner whether you're hosting 2 or 20 people. The egg symbolizes the new life we have in Jesus, and the message tags make it clear why we celebrate this holiday.

"He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay." ~ Matthew 28:6

Tutorial: 
• Cut out 3 inch egg shapes from patterned paper using decorative edged scissors. 
• Print or write various phrases on coordinating solid colored paper. 
• Cut out in circles. 
• Punch a hole through each and string together with matching ribbon. I used: "Hosanna!" "Happy Easter!" and "He is Risen!"

Enjoy! And remember, you can always use the search bar on my site sidebar to find other Christian holiday ideas - 7 years worth of ideas!

Rubik's Cube Birthday Party - Part 2

If one of your kids or family members are in a Rubik's Cube phase, here are some more ideas from my son's recent birthday party. (for the cake and other party ideas see my first party post here.)

 The centerpiece of the fiesta was this homemade pinata I made.

Assorted Rubik's Cube puzzles decorated the lunch table:

Paper cubes that coordinated with the invites hung from the lights:

 The first activity after my son's kids arrived was a contest to melt a frozen popsicle the fastest. Here's a group of them holding theirs against the hot patio:

 And first place goes to:

Next we formed two teams and did a relay of filling a bucket using a sponge and water:

Then we were ready to jump in the pool for more racing games:

WooHoo!  Thanks for stopping by!!

Rubik's Cube Boy Birthday Party!

We recently celebrated my son's 7th birthday with a colorful Rubik's Cube themed kid party.

He LOVED his cube cake! It was really easy to make, but all the kids were "wow'd" by it! Stack four square strawberry and cherry cake layers to create the cube shape. (I didn't even bother to level it into a "perfect" cube.) Frost with chocolate and spray black.

Then simply sort out M&M's by color and set into your pattern of choice. Here's a photo of the cake table. The Rubik's Cube birthday cake is surrounded by the kids' favors.

The 2x2 Rubik's Cube thank you gifts for the boys:

 Personalized drinks for the kids:

 More birthday party fun next time!

Fashion Barbie Aqua Zebra Stripe 8 Year Old Girl Birthday Party! (part 2)

The Fashion Party fun continues! The table is prepped for the first craft activity:

 

The girls got to create a work of art to take home! I painted a sample canvas using the dress art on the birthday party invitation as our model:

I cut out a dress form template so each girl could trace the dress outline onto their canvas as a starting point. I went around and sketched the hanger for those who wished.

Then each little artist designed their own fashion using acrylic paint, glitter glue paints and gel tube paints.

We offered buttons, mini silk flowers and ribbons to embellish their art masterpiece as they liked.

While the last artists finished their dress fashions, we sent the girls out to jump on the tramp. When all were done, I told them they could hunt for blue eggs hidden around the yard. They all contained little zebra striped candy mints and a couple had other prizes:

Meanwhile, we cleaned up the paints and readies the table for the next activity: bottle cap jewelry:

I had bought a kit so it was really easy. Just pass out the supplies and everyone could make at least two items of bracelet, necklace or earrings. We then moved on to the snacks and cupcakes.  Next up was opening gifts, followed by Fashion Bingo!

I threw together these bingo pages the night before when we thought it might be too windy to swim, but was pleased with how they came out.

Mini-marshmallows were a fun marking item:

The prizes were "the latest" fashion accessories! :-) Assorted animal print hair bands.

 

To see the fashion party decorations, zebra-striped theme accessories, birthday cake and snack foods visit the first post Fashion Barbie Aqua Zebra Stripe 8 Year Old Girl Birthday Party!

Fashion Barbie Aqua Zebra Stripe 8 Year Old Girl Birthday Party!

My daughter recently celebrated her 8th birthday – playing and creating with 8 sweet friends. She chose a festive aqua and zebra stripe color theme for her "Barbie Fashion" birthday party!

We gave her this dress form jewelry holder for an early gift / party decoration. She decorated it, the coffee table and mantel herself and was SO excited! We used aqua tulle, silver disco balls and turquoise and zebra stripe napkins liberally. A name banner made from large printed letters in aqua and zebra stripe and strung with shimmery aqua ribbon hung below the mantel display.

 

 Here's the invitation on which I sketched a dress for our theme:

Personalized water bottles are a long-time staple at all our parties:

 

The turquoise frosted cake is accented with zebra striped sugar paper cut into a strip to wrap around the cake side. Elegant pearls create a simple embellished top.

 Cupcakes with [again] store-bought zebra stripe sugar cake decorations:

Plates and napkins carry out the color scheme:

We took a break midway through our activities for treats:

Birthday girl chose her favorite fruits: strawberries, kiwi and Cuties [sweet mandarin oranges]; and favorite snacks: Chex snack mix, homemade Puppy Chow [chocolate peanut butter Crispix] and Cheetoh Puffs. And heart-shaped sandwiches:

Teal candy sticks were a parting "Thank You" favor for the 8 girls.

We played fashion themed games and the girls sure got their artsy craft on, too! I'll post those photos next time so this one doesn't get too long. [Note: the stores all have TONS of zebra stripe stuff right now!]

Welcoming Card for House Guests

Had to share the lovely card my daughter made for her grandparents on their recent visit:

set on the side table in the guestroom along with two treats sacrificed from her leftover Easter stash. :-) What a sweetie!

Dessert Time!

Here's a peek at some of the desserts we've been treating ourselves to recently.
Deep-Fried Banana:

My wonderful husband surprised us with these fruity concoctions one night. Individual servings of deep-fried banana sprinkled with Ghiradelli chocolate chips and a dusting of powdered sugar. (Keep the batter light in order to cook quickly and not turn the banana to mush.)

I decorated this Angry Bird birthday cake for my son's family birthday dinner:

A simple 2-layer round cake. Marshmallows for his top feathers. Two pieces of chocolate for his tail feathers. Slices of marshmallows for his white eyes. Orange gel beak. All outlined with chocolate piped from a baggie with the corner cut out.

And with fall comes the classic – Apple Pie:

Love to use Granny Smith apples to give my apple pie some attitude. Serve with drizzled carmel and a dollop of whipped cream. Mmmmmmmmmm!

Kids Junior Olympics Party Games - part 2

Today I'll share more about our Junior Olympics Party we held last week in our backyard.

We had 21 kids – most of them between ages 5 and 11.

We had to start our games with an Olympic torch relay, of course! :-)

We ran around the cul-de-sac, set our torch in it's cauldron and started right off with Track and Field. Kids were paired up for a 3-legged race:

Shot put found 8 kids at a time rolling bocce balls, striving for closest to the golf ball target.

Our littlest ones got to try from up close:

Hurdles was all about the numbers – the colored bars of this lawn game are 1, 2, 3 top down:

Discus was a frisbee toss into concentric circles on the grass. For some of the games, we adjusted for the age differences by having the younger children stand a little closer than the older kids. Similarly we used a ring target for a child's lawn 'dart' game, counting points for the win.

We also had a badminton individual competition – how many vertical hits each child can get in a row.

In gymnastics we competed in a test of balance – standing on one leg for as long as possible:

Into the pool we went to cool off on this blistering hot August afternoon. We started with individuals competing against the clock two at a time, down and back the length of the pool. This should have been  an age-adjusted race, 5-7 competing and the 8-10s competing. We also did kick board races and relays with teams of 4 kids of assorted age and ability.

After each group of events we held a medals ceremony beside the pool, in front of a large U.S. flag.

It was so sweet to see all the kids up on the 'podium' receiving their medals with pride.

I went with simple felt circles and assorted red, white and blue ribbons:

 Of course, with the actual 2012 Olympics going on, I had plenty of tv time to work on a stash of medals. A little fabric glue and you can see the back side with just a little overlap:

I learned so much from this party, we'll have to do it again next summer and it'll be really smooth! Ha! The game ideas are really limitless, so have fun being creative with your events! We don't really get snow here, so I'm not sure we can do a Winter games, but that would be equally fun! See my first post for more about our Junior Olympics Party!