Cupcake Party

For her 7th birthday, my youngest decided on a cupcake party. I would make the cupcakes, the girls would decorate. This was the easiest, happiest party we've ever done! The girls had a great time, they stayed busy the entire time, and everyone got along beautifully. I limited the number of kids to the number of chairs we had around the table--six. That was the perfect number. I think that's going to be my standard rule for kids' parties from here on out.

These are the invitations that we made. I just used some pretty scrapbooking paper in the colors that she liked. I traced around a large lid for circles that I cut in two for the icing, traced around a coke bottle top for the "cherry", and used the hole punch on some trimmings from the scrapbook paper for the sprinkles. We then drew a number seven with a glue stick and added glitter. The party information was on the back.

Hobby Lobby's Christmas ribbon includes lots of colors besides green and red. Check it when they have their after-Christmas markdown and stock up on colors for the year. That's where I got the pink ribbon I added to the back of the chairs.





I found cupcake stickers that I added to plain bags and wrote their names on each one. I added another sticker to each napkin. Snacks were served in mini cupcake wrappers. Also at Hobby Lobby, I picked up these little wooden cupcake ornaments that were in their Valentines Day merchandise for the girls to decorate. I also found kits to make your own candy necklaces.

Here is one of the brooches we made for each girl. She got to design each one. We used large and small cupcake wrappers, old buttons and trim.

The table was set with different types of sprinkles and toppings. We also made cupcake bracelets out of craft foam. Hope this gives you some inspiration for your next party. Super simple makes it super fun.


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Finally Back Where I Belong

It seems that in the couple of weeks that I was out of commission in blog land I managed to miss two major holidays and loads of great stuff. There were so many things I wanted to share, I just didn't have the time...or the brain power. We got a different computer and I couldn't get my pictures to load onto the blog. The pace is slower this week and I was able to slow down long enough to work the kinks out on the computer. Sweet, sweet normalcy.

The major cause of my busy-ness was with the school. I am president of the parent volunteer group at our elementary school and last week was Teacher Appreciation Week. We had something different planned for each day and we made a couple of the gifts for the week.



Here are the cakes from Thursday's Cake and Coffee time. One of the moms sells cakes and did them for us. Didn't she do a great job?

We've misplaced the cord to our industrial size coffee pot, so I had to make many, many little pots of coffee that day. Do you have any idea how long it takes a pot of coffee to brew when you've got a line of ladies waiting? FOREVER!

This is the outside of one of the boxes we made. They were waiting for the teachers on Monday. Each one was a little different. We used those clear plastic crafting boxes with all the compartments. Each compartment was filled with a teacher necessity--rubber bands, paper clips, hand sanitizer, chocolate... We purchased one big book of scrapbook paper and used it to cover the boxes.

The infamous candles. We made over 90. When I went to Meredith's Mother's Day Brunch on Friday each child had drawn of their mom and told what their job was. What did Meredith say? "My mom makes candles." And there was a picture of me surrounded by lots and lots of monagrammed candles.


The leftover paper from our scrapbooking box tops got shredded to make the straw in the bags. (We volunteer moms are thrifty.) The little tag on the bag says, "Thank you for letting your light shine in the hearts of our children."

I'll show you how to make the candles later in the week--super easy. Except when you're doing 93.


Other things we did during the week--

Monday--breakfast from Chick-Fil-A, survival boxes pictured above

Tuesday--salad luncheon (that was a big success, a definite thing to do again)

Wednesday--monogrammed candles

Thursday--cake and coffee

Friday--gift cards and notes from students

We also had daily drawings for teachers and staff of things we'd collected from area businesses. One of the big prizes on Friday was a 1/2 day sub (time off) for two of the teachers. When I went in the class and told the first grade teacher she'd won a 1/2 day sub she got so excited she jumped up and down and squealed. One of the little boys in her class asked, "Why is she so excited about a sandwich?"

That's a little of my time away. I'll share some more later. Have a wonderful Monday. It's great to be back, I've missed you all!

Wanna Swap?

I'm in the mood to do something a little different...and apparently in the mood for something crafty. I want to try a swap. For those of you who know me well, that'll be a surprise. I can be crafty and I am (surprise to myself) good at the stuff I do. I am just the most procrastinating crafty person there is. I have all these crafty intentions, even put it on my 'to do' list everyday. And that's where it stays. To do. (Although I DID make something the other day I'll have to show y'all in another post that's a little strange and a lot adorable.)

So I'm calling on all of you (and others you want to tell) to let's try somethings new. No matter if you're crafty or artistic or just in the mood for a challenge.

Here's what I'm calling it: SPRING CLEANING SWAP/CHALLENGE Rules:

1. Go through all those things you've collected to create with but haven't got around to.


2. Get one of those small 'all you can cram in for one price' boxes at the post office.


3. Fill it with all the bits you want to use in the swap/challenge--anything, everything.


4. Here's the twist (and the challenge). You're getting back your stuff. The person who receives the box has to take the materials they find and create something with it. And don't worry, the things in the picture above aren't necessarily the things I'd send you. They're just a few random things I pulled from my craft cabinet.


5. They mail it back to you. This way, you know you'll love the colors/style of what you get because they are things you picked out. You don't have to use the same size box to mail it back in and you can add something from your craft closet to complete the project if needed.


6. You get the fun of having something made for you that you never got around to and in a way that you wouldn't have thought to do.


7. You get the challenge of creating (in a time limit to prod us procrastinators) from a box of unexpected materials. It'll stretch your craftiness and your imagination.

So what do you say? You'll have until May 1st to let me know you want in on the swap. On May 1st I'll email you with your address. Box up your supplies and send them out right away. You'll have until June 1st to return your box.

Clean out those supplies and start making a pile of stuff to use.

Prepare to 'think outside the box'.

I'll try to get my techno guru (help Jen!) to work on a swap button we can post.

Visit the other people at http://suelovescherries.blogspot.com/ and see what crazy ideas they've come up with.

Kiddie Christmas Tree

It's been one of those mornings. I started to take the pictures for my post and the camera battery died. I spilled an entire bowl of cereal in my lap and got milk in my underwear and a Fruit Loop stuck to the rear of my pants. I accidentally threw the silverware in the trash. One little person forgot their bookbag and we had to turn around and go back for it. All before 7:30 a.m. Things can only get better...right? It's Thankful Thursday and you'd better believe the thing I'm most thankful for is a change of clothes.

Today I thought I'd share a few pictures from the kids' tree. I found a small tree, four feet, at a yard sale for $5 last fall. It has colored lights, our big tree has white ones. This tree is totally theirs. The get to decorate it any way they want. They take the ornaments on and off and rearrange at least once a day. It's full of things they've made or ornaments they like. I'll show you a few of the crafty ones they've done at school or church. The one above is Santa made from a popsicle stick. My cousin Sharon actually did this with her kindergarten class. I like his little beard.

This angel looks like she's having my kind of day. Her hair is on crooked and her poor star is upside down. Maybe she's just from the future...5002.

This is a very old one that somehow survives each year. That's me when I was a toddler. See the overalls? I was a farmgirl even then. And notice the curlers in my hair. I've always had my own "special" style.


A reindeer made from a clothespin.


And here's my personal favorite. I did this with Riley's preschool class. Write the child's name on a round blue plastic ornament with a paint pen. Brush white paint on their hands (a thicker paint will give more texture). Place the ornament in the palm of their hands and have them grasp it with their fingers. The palm will form the snow on the ground and the fingers will form the snowmen. You may need to give their fingers a little wiggle or you'll end up with some very skinny snowmen. When the ornaments are dry, go back and draw on scarves, hats, buttons, etc. with permanent markers. You can see the handprint when you hold it upside down.

Bathroom Santa

I thought about showing you some of the cute things off the kids' tree or some of the pretty things my neighbor has painted. Then I thought...nah, let's talk potty talk--Santa in the potty.

My kids like it every year when this decoration comes out and guests like to go in the bathroom and see the surprise. This clever little contraption was made by my Aunt Betty.




You can make them two different ways. The first is totally by hand, cutting felt to create each of the stockings and then connecting them with a wide red velvet ribbon. The other way, shown in this picture, is to buy two Santa stockings. That way, you only have to make some little mittens out of black felt and connect the two with ribbon. You've got a five minute craft that makes going to the bathroom a Christmas treat. Well, sort of.

And speaking of my Aunt Betty, I do believe the woman is a genius. We have a very nice, very large artificial Christmas tree that is our main Christmas tree. It is covered in white lights. Should say was covered in white lights, because most had burned out. We've thought about replacing it, but hadn't found the right tree (or the right price) and hated to chunk a really good tree. I just hated the thought of stringing all those lights. All my trees are pre-lit and I've become lazy in that department. My Aunt Betty had a suggestion. Use net lights, like go on your bushes outside.

Hmmm, would that work? How would it look? When we got to looking, the lights on our pre-lit tree would come off easily. They came off easily when we were looking, not so 'easily' when I was doing. I finally got the lights done on the bottom third of the tree (it comes apart in three sections). I threw my net over and held my breath as I plugged it in. It looked great. The wires blend in easily and tuck behind branches. It did take two nets for the bottom because it's a really wide tree. But now, instead of weaving strand after strand in and out, year after year, I simply cast my net! Let their be light!

Don't forget the other great posts for Rednesdday that you can see when you visit Sue over at http://suelovescherries.blogspot.com/

Kids Craft Ideas for Next Year

Hi there! We are battling the ick at our house. Not the fish kind of ick, just the congestion kind with a serving of stomach virus. Fun times at our house. Now you know why I didn't get to blogging yesterday. The moments I did feel like dragging to the computer, my brain couldn't think of a thing to say! I've got to take one of the kids to the doctor, but I thought I'd stop long enough to show you a few cute things that Meredith brought home from school. They're simple craft ideas to do with your kids. You might want to save them for next fall or adapt them for other uses (like, it'd be easy to turn the cat into a bunny by changing the color of the plates and elongating the ears or using the spider when telling Little Miss Muffett). Have a great (germ-free) day.


Isn't this a cute cat? Just two paper plates hot-glued together with features added.


Handprint bat. You could easily change it around a little and make handprint birds.


A little spider that swings on his web.


And the artist, giving us a pose.


They dressed up last Saturday and visited neighbors. We don't allow anything scary. Meredith wanted to be a princess. She had on another, very elaborate dress that was so pretty, but declared it too itchy and put on this play outfit. The boys are harder to figure out each year as they get older--Ry was a hunter (see the bag I made for his candy) and Jack was a fisherman who collected his candy in a tacklebox.