Kelly of Kelly's Korner is hosting a Carnival of Children's Parties! Head on over & check out some wonderful parties! Thursday, July 16, 2009
Carnival of Children's Parties!
Kelly of Kelly's Korner is hosting a Carnival of Children's Parties! Head on over & check out some wonderful parties! 
Bathing Beauties
How great are these Chocolate-Gingerbread BathingBeauties? Once again, Martha comes to the rescue with something super cute & original!
I just love the Lifesaver umbrellas & stripped napkin beach towels! Find the recipe & How-To's on the Martha Stewart website.
Gingerbread Men (& Women!) are my absolute favorite decoration at Christmas and now I have the perfect excuse to bring them out this summer!
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Happy Gummy Worm Day!
According to the National Confectioner’s Association, July 15 is Gummy Worm Day! Here are some fun ways to celebrate:
Make Dirt Cake Cups with Gummy Worms! Deanna's Corner Cooking has the recipe here. Mmmmmm!
Read the book How To Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell with your kids.
Or watch the movie!
The adventurous can even make their own gummy worms - here is the recipe. Me? I'm off to the store to buy a bag!Happy Gummy Worm Day!
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Christmas In July ~ Food
This post is all about the yummy food we had at Christmas in July Bunco. I used the bar as the buffet table for the food and my friend Karyn brought over a grass hula skirt to decorate the bar. It wasn't quite long enough to fit the entire bar, but it still looked festive!
Inspired by Melissa's cookies, I made flip flop cookies with Nutter Butters, Betty Crocker can cupcake icing (this icing is so easy to work with - it is already colored in an aerosol can and comes with 4 different decorator tips) and mini red M&M's.
Some Fisher Fusions Snack Mix. This is the Ice Cream Sundae mix - I liked this because it has the dried banana chips which are very tropical!
Pictured here is the vege tray (all red & green veges, of course!) served with Ranch dressing, Snowman Cheeseball (recipe below) with Ritz crackers and Hot Bacon Swiss Dip with Corn Chips.
No party is complete without the perennial favorite - Chips & Dip!
I replaced the water bottle labels with Hawaiian print scrapbook paper.
SNOWMAN CHEESE BALL
1 8-ounce tub cream cheese spread
Mix cream cheese spread, Cheddar cheese, chives, almonds and red pepper until well blended; cover. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
Divide mixture into 3 different-sized balls (1 small, 1 medium and 1 large). Coat with Parmesan cheese. Arrange on serving platter in a line to resemble a snowman lying down. (Largest ball should be at bottom of serving plate for base of snowman. Smallest ball should be at the top for head of snowman.)
Decorate with peppercorns for the eyes, mouth and buttons. Add carrot for the nose and rosemary branches for arms.Serve with crackers and cut-up fresh vegetable dippers, such as carrot sticks and celery sticks. Serves 16.
I apologize for not giving credit for the snowman cheeseball recipe. I found it online last December and forgot to add the URL to my recipe file!
In keeping with the theme, I pulled out all of my Christmas serving dishes and platters.
Inspired by Melissa's cookies, I made flip flop cookies with Nutter Butters, Betty Crocker can cupcake icing (this icing is so easy to work with - it is already colored in an aerosol can and comes with 4 different decorator tips) and mini red M&M's.
Some Fisher Fusions Snack Mix. This is the Ice Cream Sundae mix - I liked this because it has the dried banana chips which are very tropical!
Pictured here is the vege tray (all red & green veges, of course!) served with Ranch dressing, Snowman Cheeseball (recipe below) with Ritz crackers and Hot Bacon Swiss Dip with Corn Chips.
No party is complete without the perennial favorite - Chips & Dip!
I replaced the water bottle labels with Hawaiian print scrapbook paper.
SNOWMAN CHEESE BALL1 8-ounce tub cream cheese spread
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh chives or green onions
1/4 cup slivered almonds, toasted
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne), or to taste
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Whole black peppercorns
1 baby carrot, or the tip of a regular carrot
Rosemary branches, stripped of leaves - I used pretzel sticks
Mix cream cheese spread, Cheddar cheese, chives, almonds and red pepper until well blended; cover. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
Divide mixture into 3 different-sized balls (1 small, 1 medium and 1 large). Coat with Parmesan cheese. Arrange on serving platter in a line to resemble a snowman lying down. (Largest ball should be at bottom of serving plate for base of snowman. Smallest ball should be at the top for head of snowman.)
Decorate with peppercorns for the eyes, mouth and buttons. Add carrot for the nose and rosemary branches for arms.Serve with crackers and cut-up fresh vegetable dippers, such as carrot sticks and celery sticks. Serves 16.
I apologize for not giving credit for the snowman cheeseball recipe. I found it online last December and forgot to add the URL to my recipe file!
Check out the decorations here!
Christmas In July ~ Decorations & Crafts
Last night I hosted my Mom's Group monthly Bunco night-out. The theme was Christmas In July. It was so much fun coming up with decorating ideas that combined Christmas with Summer!
Here is the hall table:
I placed one of my Alpine Christmas trees in a red sand bucket. To stabilize the tree, I filled the bucket with red lava rocks. The garland is colorful leis that I cut and connected to make a continuous strand (leis from Dollar Tree 3/$1). I decorated the tree with paper umbrellas and tropical wood cut-outs hung with pieces of raffia hot-glued to the back. The cute cut-outs are from Joanns and were on sale for 33¢ each! The topper is a pretty shell.
Using the Cricut & scrapbook paper, I decorated another beach pail to hold players' money. Rather than give out a lot of prizes, my Bunco group splits the pot 60/40% between the 2 players with the most Wins. The person with the most losses gets to go home with their $10 and the Hostess provides a gift for the player with the most Buncos. To get a red & green sand pail, I just switched the handles & shovels at the store.
Everyone picked a red or green lei when they arrived.
Each table was decorated with a Christmas tablecloth, Christmas Bunco Scorecards, Christmas pencils and Christmas note paper to keep tallies.
All of the tables had centerpieces consisting of sand scrapbook paper cut to look like a flower, Mylar palm trees (Dollar Tree), table number tent sign & glass bowl.
The table # tent signs have Santa surfing (all made with Cricut) and the glass bowls are sitting on a Christmas berry wreath and filled with sand, 2 shells and a Christmas ball.
The rest of the decorations were kept pretty simple. I put a Christmas wreath on the front door, hung Christmas towels in the bathroom & put out a few Christmas decorations around the house. I didn't want to put too many Christmas decorations out because I knew it would all have to come down and be re-packed the next day!
Check out the party food here!
Here is the hall table:
I placed one of my Alpine Christmas trees in a red sand bucket. To stabilize the tree, I filled the bucket with red lava rocks. The garland is colorful leis that I cut and connected to make a continuous strand (leis from Dollar Tree 3/$1). I decorated the tree with paper umbrellas and tropical wood cut-outs hung with pieces of raffia hot-glued to the back. The cute cut-outs are from Joanns and were on sale for 33¢ each! The topper is a pretty shell.
Using the Cricut & scrapbook paper, I decorated another beach pail to hold players' money. Rather than give out a lot of prizes, my Bunco group splits the pot 60/40% between the 2 players with the most Wins. The person with the most losses gets to go home with their $10 and the Hostess provides a gift for the player with the most Buncos. To get a red & green sand pail, I just switched the handles & shovels at the store.
Everyone picked a red or green lei when they arrived.
Each table was decorated with a Christmas tablecloth, Christmas Bunco Scorecards, Christmas pencils and Christmas note paper to keep tallies.
All of the tables had centerpieces consisting of sand scrapbook paper cut to look like a flower, Mylar palm trees (Dollar Tree), table number tent sign & glass bowl.
The table # tent signs have Santa surfing (all made with Cricut) and the glass bowls are sitting on a Christmas berry wreath and filled with sand, 2 shells and a Christmas ball.
The rest of the decorations were kept pretty simple. I put a Christmas wreath on the front door, hung Christmas towels in the bathroom & put out a few Christmas decorations around the house. I didn't want to put too many Christmas decorations out because I knew it would all have to come down and be re-packed the next day!Check out the party food here!
Monday, July 6, 2009
Christmas In July Invite
This month is my turn to host my Mom's Group Bunco Night-Out. We usually don't have theme parties, but when one of the girls suggested Christmas in July, I thought it would be a lot of fun. I'm hoping everyone will want to have theme Bunco Night-Out from now on!
Here is the invitation I came up with using MyPunchbowl (I removed my address & phone from the invitation for the post). I know I've said it before, but I really do love using MyPunchbowl to send online invitations!
For this invitation, I wanted to combine Christmas with a summery-feel and this picture of Santa surfing was just perfect! The Hawaiian background and snowflake ribbon finished the look I wanted.
Here is the invitation I came up with using MyPunchbowl (I removed my address & phone from the invitation for the post). I know I've said it before, but I really do love using MyPunchbowl to send online invitations!
For this invitation, I wanted to combine Christmas with a summery-feel and this picture of Santa surfing was just perfect! The Hawaiian background and snowflake ribbon finished the look I wanted. Tomorrow I'll show off some of the decorations I put together.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Book Club Party
Lulu and I hosted our first ever Kids Book Club Meeting/Party last week and it was so much fun! My idea was to get Lulu and her girlfriends together once a month to read a book and do a craft or activity and have a snack related to the theme of the book. For our first meeting, we chose the books Fancy Nancy and Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy by Jane O'Connor.
Since the moms decided to take turns hosting the meetings at their houses, I really tried to keep everything simple and keep the cost low. I didn't want other mothers to feel pressured into anything elaborate. I didn't decorate (which goes against everything in me!) and made it a really easy party to put together.
Eight girls were able to attend and they all wore their fanciest assembles! One little girl even came dressed like Nancy (the costumes are available in the toy department of Target)!
I put a quilt on the floor for the girls to sit on during story time and snacks. While waiting for everyone to arrive, the girls sat on the quilt and thumbed through the books.
I went to Burger King and got free paper crowns. I used large foam stickers to cover the Burger King logo. In the Fancy Nancy books, Nancy and her family enjoy eating at the King's Crown restaurant where they are given crowns that look just like the Burger King ones.
Since the moms decided to take turns hosting the meetings at their houses, I really tried to keep everything simple and keep the cost low. I didn't want other mothers to feel pressured into anything elaborate. I didn't decorate (which goes against everything in me!) and made it a really easy party to put together.
Eight girls were able to attend and they all wore their fanciest assembles! One little girl even came dressed like Nancy (the costumes are available in the toy department of Target)!
I put a quilt on the floor for the girls to sit on during story time and snacks. While waiting for everyone to arrive, the girls sat on the quilt and thumbed through the books.
I went to Burger King and got free paper crowns. I used large foam stickers to cover the Burger King logo. In the Fancy Nancy books, Nancy and her family enjoy eating at the King's Crown restaurant where they are given crowns that look just like the Burger King ones. I read the two books to the girls. They were all very attentive!
Next, each of the girls shared a "fancy" item they brought from home. Here is Lulu sharing her jeweled tiara ~
After Show & Tell, we did crafts ~
Each of the girls decorated foam wands and had an activity book and plumed pen (that's fancy for a pen with a feather!) to take home. The wands and pens were purchased 3/$1 at Dollar Tree. I downloaded Fancy Nancy activity pages from the Harper Collins website (free) and made books using folders purchased on clearance at WalMart for 10¢ each. All of the decorations for the wands came from my craft stockpile.
All in all, I spent less than 80¢ a girl for the crafts!
Lastly, the girls all made their own parfaits (that's French for ice cream sundae ~ everything sounds fancier in French!)
Again, very simple. The toppings including sprinkles (Nancy's favorite), mini marshmallows, mini chocolate chips & gummy bears. I made a Parfait table sign with scrapbook paper and used napkins I had leftover from another party. I purchased the spoons and plastic tablecloths at the dollar store.
The girls had an absolutely wonderful time and I spent less than $20 doing it. Everyone is so excited for next month's Book Club meeting!
Next, each of the girls shared a "fancy" item they brought from home. Here is Lulu sharing her jeweled tiara ~
After Show & Tell, we did crafts ~
Each of the girls decorated foam wands and had an activity book and plumed pen (that's fancy for a pen with a feather!) to take home. The wands and pens were purchased 3/$1 at Dollar Tree. I downloaded Fancy Nancy activity pages from the Harper Collins website (free) and made books using folders purchased on clearance at WalMart for 10¢ each. All of the decorations for the wands came from my craft stockpile.
All in all, I spent less than 80¢ a girl for the crafts!
Lastly, the girls all made their own parfaits (that's French for ice cream sundae ~ everything sounds fancier in French!)
Again, very simple. The toppings including sprinkles (Nancy's favorite), mini marshmallows, mini chocolate chips & gummy bears. I made a Parfait table sign with scrapbook paper and used napkins I had leftover from another party. I purchased the spoons and plastic tablecloths at the dollar store.
The girls had an absolutely wonderful time and I spent less than $20 doing it. Everyone is so excited for next month's Book Club meeting!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
