CARS- Cupcake Cake

A fun CARS themed cake idea!!!

 

 

I made this Cake for my sons 3rd Birthday and I really like how it turned out. To make this cake I simply made two dozen cupcakes. I then made a crumble out of Brown Sugar and Graham Crackers. I lined a cookie sheet with tin foil and arranged the cupcakes on the tray, in the shape of a 3. I then spread the crumble around the cupcakes. This was made to look like dirt around a race track. I frosted the cupcakes with grey frosting and added the yellow to resemble a road. I downloaded and printed the flags from Google Image and attached them to toothpicks. Just a quick fun idea:)

Another Day in Paradise

I wanted to take a entire blog and dedicate it to my Husband. This past August we celebrated 7 years of marriage and 10 years of living together wahoo!! The title of this blog has much significance as it was one of our wedding songs. As some of you may know, we already had two kids as of our wedding date. We were well into the trials and tribulations of a "Married" couple with small children. I must say that this man never ceases to amaze me. We have come so far individually and as a couple.We have brought three wonderful kids into this world and I couldn't imagine a day in life without them. It's easy to get lost in the busy lifestyle that families with young kids lead... Shuffling kids from one event to another not to mention homework, baths, appointments, household chores and practices. My advice to all of you is take time for yourselves and for your relationships.

My Husband and I do a weekly "Date Night In" mostly during the fall and winter months. Summer months tend to be spent outside doing various different family activities. This can be as simple as eating an appetizer with the kids, and preparing your meal after the kids go to bed. The sacrifice is eating later but the time spent together, and uninterrupted conversation will be worth it. Go on Dates...These do not need to be lavish dates that require a huge financial obligation. Find couples that are willing to trade with you for babysitting time, or ask a family member to watch the kids. We all know how expensive childcare can be for nights away. One of our favorite dates is simply going to our local Barnes and Noble or Borders book store. We love to get coffee in the Coffee Shop, find a comfy sitting area where we can talk, and thumb through various books we have found interesting. One of my guilty pleasures is junky tabloid magazines, they have all of them!!! I may have been known to sneak a peek at them while we are there. Shhh don't tell anyone:)

I will continue to try and make time in my life for these moments. I hope I have inspired you to do the same. In a later Blog Post I will share an idea I have on choosing how to spend these moments together, keep checking back in. Here is to 7 happily married years Babe!!!!!!

Brandon and I in Las Vegas celebrating our Anniversary and my 30th Birthday!

Gone Camping

We celebrated my Son's 5th Birthday over the weekend. He loves the outdoors and is such an active kid, so I decided to go with a Camping themed party. We did everything from a Bug Hunt to S'mores around the camp fire. I wish I would have taken more pictures, so you could see all of the activities/decorations that were done. I did get some photos, so will post what I have. ENJOY

 

This was the table that was set up as you come into our home. I created a Welcome sign out of a picture frame with camo scrapbook paper as the background. I used a dry erase marker to write on it this later just wiped right off with a towel. I found pine cones scattered under a tree at a local park and scattered them throughout the party. I found checkered tablecloths on mega sale at Wal-Mart, thought this gave it a picnic feel. It pays to have a party at the end of a season the sales are GREAT! 

Here is a closeup of the Goody Bags that I made for each kid. I found these bags 5 for .98 cents at Target SCORE!!! I used camping themed foam stickers to add decorations to the bags. Each kid was given a Glow Stick(pictured above) and a camp visor that read "Happy Camper _________ (kids name) they were so adorable wearing them.

 This was a picture of our backyard Campsite complete with sleeping bags, lawn chairs and a stuffed Moose. Kids enjoyed pretending to camp and played inside the tent all night. I made signs out if cardboard and staked them into the ground. They were scattered throughout the campground others said "Don't Feed the Bears," "Outhouse," and "Fire Pit"!!

I used our Coleman water jug as a "Hand washing Station" just another little extra that added to the camping feel. I think it eventually turned into a water gun refilling station:)

I made a camping banner out of twine and construction paper. Looks similar to those hung at an entrance to a campground. I also hung one on the front door that read "Welcome."

I made S'mores to go as well... I set them in a large basket and guests were to grab one on there way out. I used Ziplock snack-size bags and filled them with Marshmellows, graham crackers and chocolate. I stapled a label to the front of the bags that read S'more for later. A cute inexpensive party favor, that I'm sure will be eaten up!!!

The Big Orange Camping Jug  came out for the party as well. It was filled with Strawberrry Punch also known as Bug Juice:) This was much more fitting then a fancy glass punch bowl...don't ya think?

This was the sign posted on our Bathroom door. Many of the kids were unclear as to what an Out House actually was. Too funny!!!

Smore's on a Stick, were one of many treats that were made for our Camp-Goers. I found huge Marshmallows dipped them in melted chocolate and rolled them in Graham Crackers. Yummy!!!!

 This was one of my favorite parts to this party, I am bummed I didn't get a better picture of it. I created a Trail Mix bar that included Gummy Bears aka (Grizzly Bears), Peanuts, Mini Marshmallows, Raisins aka (Deer Poop), and Pretzels sticks aka (Fire logs). Kids had a great time assembling there very own treat bags!!!

Thanks for reading I hope you enjoyed this party as much as I did...Happy Camping!!!!!

Maddison's Day Spa

This was such a wonderful idea for a Winter Birthday party! One thing for sure girls of all ages love a little pampering. That's exactly what we did here....The girls enjoyed manicures, pedicures, foot soaks, facials, and massage. They also were "Wined and Dined" in our fully staffed waiting area. Below I will post some pictures of my ideas. I hope they inspire you to do the same for your daughters. Enjoy!!!

The color scheme I chose was pink and lime green I also did Gerber Daisy accents. This was the table I set up right as you entered the front door. At this table the girls were to go, and sign up for there services. Here they picked up there SPA water and there SPA towels. They also picked up there customized Pampering Schedule as well.

I purchased the pink tubs and the flowers at our local Dollar Tree and printed the labels off of Microsoft Word. I was excited to see in there Clip Art selection was a pink Gerber Daisy. I bought mini water bottles and taped the labels on with packaging tape. The labels read SPA WATER!

The invitations were another fun twist to the party. I printed a cute little saying on card-stock and attached them to eye masks. They had to bring there eye masks to the party as there ticket in. They were later used during the "Foot Soak". The invite read...
Please come to our "Spa" for facials, nails, and Hair It's Maddison's 7th Birthday and she really wants you there. It then went on to tell the details of the party!

Everyone needs there own white towel at the Spa. the girls were all given one as they entered the party and they were used throughout there stations. I rolled and tied them with pink ribbon and attached a tag with the girls names to each towel. These towels were also purchased at Dollar Tree in packs of 3, as well as the green tub they were in. I love Birthday's on a budget!!!

This was a station the girls rotated to the "Waiting area"! The girls were waited on by my experienced  staff and were given Sparkling Cider, Chocolate Covered Strawberries, Veggie Cups and other fancy treats. I added a basket of girly magazines and some coloring sheets for some added entertainment.

The Entrance to the Waiting room!!!

Pictured here is the " Foot Soak" station. Kids got to soak feet in warm water and relax with there eye masks on. They could choose between scented rose petals or scented bath salts. I bought 8x10 pictures frames at Dollar Tree and painted them lime green. I then hot glued a daisy to the corner of them, and made station signs. This one read "Foot Soak"!

This was the Manicure and Pedicure station. Girls could choose between many different nail colors as well as nail stickers. They were also given a hand massage with choice of scented lotion.

And last but not least...A day at the Spa would not be complete without a facial. I did this in the kitchen so we would have access to a sink. Girls put on face masks and got to relax there eyes with slices of cucumber.

The Food table...Veggie cups with Ranch dressing, Chocolate Covered Strawberries, Wafer cookies, Chocolate Marshmellows on a stick and more. The girls were also given goodie boxes with lip gloss, eye shadow, a brush and comb set and nail polish. I wrapped them in clear cellophane for the added special touch.

All in all this was a fun party and I know she will remember it for years to come. I did have some assistants help me with providing the services for the girls. This could be another Mom a Girlfriend or an older sibling. Even Mom got her nails done on this particular day!!!:)

Toy Story Party

One of my many things I love to do is throw parties. A year ago this month I threw a Toy Story party for my then 4 year old son. I got so much positive feed back from this party that I had to post some of my pictures and ideas.









This was a picture of the Gift Table. If you all are familiar with "Lotso the Bear" in Toy Story 3 that rides around in the dump truck this will make sense to you. I simply downloaded the images off of Google and matted them on card stock. I used Chalkduster as my font to appear more "kid like"

We played various games at the party...this one was a huge hit by the kids and my most favorite. This game was called "Stinky Pete the Prospectors Gold Mine." I already had these large galvanized tubs so I simply filled them with Play-Sand ($2.50 for a large bag at Home Depot.) I then found, and spray painted small pebbles gold and added them to the sand. I threw in some sand sifters and and a couple shovels and the kids went to town finding gold. This was inexpensive and a lot of fun!!

Yes, even the Apple Sauce got dressed up for the party!!! By simply cutting out different sized circles on Scrapbook Paper (found at your local craft store) you could easily replicate this. This particular Applesauce was a generic brand but you would have never know with the cute labels on them. Great healthy snack for young kiddos!!

After watching the movie a 101 times, I had all kinds of phrases in my mind I thought I could use as decorations. A very famous quote "There's a Snake in my boot" said by Woody was displayed here. Again I used Google Image to download various pictures of woody as well as stickers to decorate the sign. I then borrowed a friends boots and stuck my sons plastic snake inside to replicate the phrase. I had some small hay bails in my Fall bin and this added the western flare.

I wanted to add another special touch and decided to roll my own silverware. I decided on a cow print ribbon as well as a western ribbon. The silverware and napkins were purchased at our local Dollar Tree and this really presented them well.

I created another game called "Bulls-eye" (The Horse in Toy Story) I used a piece of poster board, a large red square, Masking tape, to make the target, and stencils to make the letters. The kids then lined up and had to throw wiffle balls and try to hit a Bulls-eye. I had most of the supplies on hand and spent little to no money creating this game.

We all know about the "Watering Hole" in the movie! I found and downloaded these water bottle labels on designdazzle.blogspot.com. Printed them on card stock,  and cut them to fit the bottles. I used packaging tape which fit over the labels perfectly to create a laminate. Stuck them in a decorative bin with a label that read "The Watering Hole."

Everyone loves Rice Krispie Treats!! I created Alphabet Blocks using your standard Rice Krispie Treat recipe. If you recall in the movie these were the blocks that Andy played with in his room. I then used decorative frosting to right letters on the blocks. Sticky yet yummy!!!

I made these Goody bags out of brown paper bags and they worked great!! I used classic Toy Story colors orange,yellow, green and red and cut tags out of card-stock. I then tied them on with fun themed ribbon. I had all the supplies on hand and this cost me nothing even better!!!

As people entered they could guess "How many Army men were in this jar". I used the classic Toy Story pail of Army men...but you could easily purchase toy soldiers at your local dollar store. The person that came closest without going over won a small prize. This was an easy game that required no guidance.

And here is the Birthday Boy himself with his classic "Cheese" face....He had such a great time and talks about his Toy Story party to this day! I hope you enjoyed this post, and got some good ideas for your next Toy Story Party:)

Hustle & Bustle

Hello all!
 I have been wanting to start a blog for a while now and have never had the push to actually do it. However, after some conversations with friends and some more thought on my end I decided to create one. I am excited to document the "Hustle and Bustle" of our lives as well as post fun Crafts, Recipes, Organizing Tips, Party Ideas, Parenting trial and errors and so much more. I spend my days doing all of these things, and in my case with lots of little people at my heels:). I am excited to share them all with you. I hope you enjoy reading...Stay tuned!!!