Flip Flop Cookies

I am completely in love with these adorable flip flop cookies. Aren't they fabulous? They look so easy to make too!

Melissa at A Little Loveliness came up with these little cuties. Check out Melissa's blog for directions on making Ballet Slipper Cookies & Soccer Cleat Cookies.

A Giveaway!

*6/30/09 - Today is the last day to leave a comment for the MyPunchbowl giveaway! Visit 5M4M for lots of great tackles!

One of my favorite new ways of sending out invitations to casual events is MyPunchbowl. MyPunchbowl is an online site that provides everything you need to organize and plan a fabulous event. You can create your own online invitations, poll guests for the ideal date, easily import guests lists and manage RSVPs, design personalized candy favors, and more.This is the invitation I designed for my first Kids Book Club meeting. Since our theme is Fancy Nancy, I uploaded a picture of Nancy to use on the invitation. Using MyPunchbowl I was also able to customize the colors, background and font. Another MyPunchbowl feature I used for this party was the Date Decider. I was able to poll my guests with dates and times that would be best for first our meeting.

I've also been working on an invitation for my Bunco Club. July is my month to host and our group decided it would be fun to have a "Christmas in July" theme. Since the invitation design is all personalized, I was able to choose a Hawaiian card, change the background to blue and upload a picture of Santa surfing! For this invitation, I added the Potluck List which enables me to list items I would like people to bring.

One of my favorite features of MyPunchbowl is the instant gratification of knowing when your invitation was viewed and the ability of your guest to give an immediate electronic RSVP. I also love the message board you can create with your invitation that allows your guests to communicate with each other.

***I could go on and on about MyPunchbowl, but why don't you check it out for yourself! It is free and so easy to use and navigate. As a special treat, MyPunchbowl has graciously offered a complimentary one-year MyPunchbowl Premium membership (a $49.95 value!) to 2 of my readers! All you have to do is leave a comment on this post. I will pick 2 winners on July 1st.

Kids Book Club

One of the new loves in our house is the Fancy Nancy series of books by Jane O'Connor. For those of you that haven't met Nancy yet, she is a vivacious (that's a fancy word for lively) little girl who believes that more is ALWAYS better when it comes to being fancy. Nancy loves all things sparkly and French and just adores fancy words!

I thought a Fancy Nancy party would be so much fun to plan and host. Since Emma has already decided on a Fairy party for her 6th birthday, I needed to come up with an excuse to throw a Fancy party.

Voila (that's a French word for behold - everything sounds so much fancier in French), I had an idea - a Book Club with a few of Emma's friends. My plan is to meet monthly at a member's home, read a children's book and then have a snack and craft/game/activity related to the book.

I polled the moms by email and got a terrific response. Our first meeting will have 10 kids! I think it is a great way to get the girls and moms together on a budget (plus, I get to plan a mini Fancy Nancy get-together!)

More to come on my Fancy Nancy party Book Club Meeting!

Tip Junkie's Birthday Party Bash

It's that time of year again! Tip Junkie is showing off great birthday parties. Today is all things girly, including a fairy party, slumber party & a Nancy Drew party.

Check Tip Junkie all week for lots of super party ideas!

Preschool Graduation

Emma has officially graduated from preschool! Although her school doesn't put-on a graduation ceremony, a few of the moms got together to make a special graduation snack for the kids.

These are graduation sugar cookies with royal icing. To save time, I actually used a Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix rather than make them homemade (shhh...don't tell!).
Inspired by Family Fun, we also made these cute diploma sandwich roll-ups. Since one of the children is allergic to peanut butter, we filled the inside of a tortilla with cream cheese and strawberry jam. Roll up the tortilla and tie off with a fruit by the foot or fruit roll-up (do not under any circumstances use Airheads Extreme Sour Belt Candy. It disintegrates overnight in the fridge - I learned the hard way!)

Of course I can't resist throwing in a picture of my little cutie!

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Since the school doesn't have a graduation ceremony, a few moms purchased graduation caps from the party store for all of the kids. We wrapped them up and sent them home in the kids' school bags.

And you just know that it was another opportunity for me to use the Cricut Paper Doll Dress Up Cartridge (the cap was made using the Locker Talk cartridge)! The diploma was made with a small rolled up piece of white paper tied with gold ribbon. I made each paper doll to match the child. On the back of the tag I printed a preschool graduation poem found on the web.