Birthday Balloon Pop

Today, my "baby" turned 6! 

(I guess I have to face the fact that 

my baby isn't a baby anymore!)

For a few years now, on their "real" birthdays (their parties are often several days later), my kids have enjoyed a special Birthday Pancake to start their day.  Made in the shape of the number of their new age decorated with a bit of whipped cream and sprinkles, it's a simple little tradition that they just love.

This year, I decided to add a new little activity to our birthday traditions ~ a Birthday Balloon Pop!  I came across the idea a few months ago at Increasingly Domestic and knew my kids would love it.  Well, boy, was it a hit today!!

It looks like a fairly ordinary bunch of balloons, 

but they're hiding a special surprise!

In each of the six balloons, is a dollar bill!

Armed with a pin, my daughter had a BLAST 

popping her balloons and watching the dollar bills 

float down to the ground.

Without a doubt, we'll be doing this for every birthday from now on!  (Her big sister is looking forward to her chance in a few weeks when she turns 9!)  

Check out this smile 

as she gathered up her birthday loot! 

Thanks so much, Amy at Increasingly Domestic, for this awesome idea!

Sharing the balloon popping fun at:

I heart Naptime 
The Sunday Showcase 
Under the table and Dreaming
Six Sisters' Stuff 
Creative Jewish Mom 
C.R.A.F.T. 
Running with Glitter 
Homemaker on a Dime 
Lines Across my Face 
Delicate Construction
Skip to My Lou 
Today's Creative Blog 
Sugar and Dots 
Somewhat Simple 
Gluesticks 
It's Playtime 
Happy Hour Projects 
The Frugal Girls 
Sun Scholars 
Design Dazzle 
Tatertots and Jello
 Be Different Act Normal
The Girl Creative 

Party Ideas

What better way to come together 

with your kids, family and friends

than with a good party!


Let this on-going collection 
be your "Party Central."

Link up your posts for whole party themes 

or just for the cakes and cupcakes, 

decorations and favors,

or anything else party-related.

It can be any kind of party ~

Birthday, Holiday, or other Special Occasion ~

as long as it relates to families and kids.

 


It will continue throughout the year, 
so come back often 
to link up new posts or check out new ideas.  
I'll showcase your ideas periodically 
in my "Five Fun Ideas..." posts.

A few guidelines:

1.  Please link to your specific blog post relating to PARTIES  ~ themes, foods, activities or decorations.

2.  Please do not link to an Etsy shop, business, or someone else's post.

3.  Finally, the more people who link up to this party, the better it will be.  Please help me spread the word by linking back either with a text link or by grabbing a button.

<center><a href="http://cometogetherkids.blogspot.com/2011/09/party-ideas.html" target="_blank"><img alt="Come Together Kids" src="http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z245/lauranovo/blog%20stuff/partybutton-1.jpg"/></a></center>

Birthday Countdown Stand

My "baby" will be turning six later this month!  She's super excited, I'm finding it hard to believe.  A couple months ago, I came across this cute Flip Recipe Organizer at Positively Splendid.  I'm not nearly organized enough to keep all my recipes together, but I thought the concept was perfect for a countdown.  I followed Amy's great tutorial and it came together really quickly.

 Our new Birthday Countdown Stand was an easy little project (and I got to use a power tool!), my daughter LOVES it, and I no longer have to answer "How many days till my birthday?" multiple times a day.  

Here's what you'll need:

* acrylic picture frame/sign stand (mine was 5x7")

* decorative papers and/or embellishments

* two 1" binder rings

* drill with a 1/8" bit

* painters' tape or masking tape

Here's what to do:

1.  Measure where you want your ring clips to be at the top of your frame.  I made mine about 3/4" down and in 1 3/4" in from the sides.  Place a piece of painters' tape or masking tape over that part of your frame (to prevent cracking when you drill) and drill two holes using the 1/8" bit.

I only had really narrow tape on hand, but it worked just fine.

 2.  Gather your decorative papers and embellishments.  I just used some of the tons of patterned paper I have left over from my short-lived scrapbooking days and printed up the words and numbers on my computer.

3.  Cut your main pieces to 5x7" and then assemble your pieces.  Punch two holes at the top to correspond to the holes in the frame for the ring clips.  Slide your completed design into the frame.  (Mine's nothing fancy, but I wanted to finish before my daughter came home from school to surprise her. )

4.  Make your number cards for the countdown.  Because we'll only be using this for a couple weeks, I didn't laminate them.  However, if you're making a countdown stand that will be getting a lot of use, laminating for durability might be a good idea.

 

5.  Attach your number cards in reverse order using the binder rings and you're ready to countdown.

I know this Countdown Stand will continue to be used for all my kids' birthdays and special occasions.  It'll be super easy to swap out the design and whip up some new number cards ~ expect to see a Halloween one soon! ;)

Sharing our countdown at:

Gluesticks 
Fireflies and Jellybeans 
Katie's Nesting Spot 
It's Playtime 
Smilemonsters 
Happy Hour Projects 
Sun Scholars 
Design Dazzle 
Delicate Construction 
Tatertots & Jello 
Be Different, Act Normal 
I heart Naptime 
The Sunday Showcase
Under the Table and Dreaming 
Craft-O-Maniac 
Running with Glitter 
Homemaker on a Dime 
Beneath the Rowan Tree 
C.R.A.F.T. 
Skip to My Lou 
Making the World Cuter 
Lines Across my Face 
Today's Creative Blog 
Reasons to Skip the Housework 
Not Just a Housewife 
The Mommy Club 
Momnivore's Dilemma 
Bear Rabbit Bear 
The Idea Room 
It's Playtime 
Momma's Kinda Crafty 
Craft Junkie Too
Ladybird Ln. 
Sugar and Dots 
The Frugal Girls 
 


Our Fourth of July recap

My best shot of the fireworks! ;)

I hope all my readers here in the United States 

had a wonderful Fourth of July Holiday

I thought I'd share a short little recap of our day together.  We didn't do anything fancy ~  no big barbeques or parties ~ but the kids enjoyed the few, simple little things we did as a family to celebrate.

To start our day, I made some Patriotic Pancakes 

(similar to our Birthday and Valentine's Day pancakes).  

No culinary awards being given for this breakfast ~ they're not really flags, in fact, they're not really much of anything design-wise, just three stripes of batter colored red, white and blue ~ but the kids loved them regardless and it was a fun way to start our day!

 

Next, I made up some little 

red, white and blue trifle push pops 

to take with us for our fireworks picnic.  

I simply layered raspberries, pieces of white cake,  blueberries and whipped cream in some handy little plastic push pop containers.   

They were a yummy and fun way to make a trifle portable  

(although next time I'll use pudding instead of whipped cream since the cream just melted into the cake and fruit ~ still tasty, just not as pretty when we went to eat it)

Individual push pop trifle

I made my girls some cute little  

red, white and blue tops 

using bandanas I found in the Dollar Spot at Target.  (tutorial to come)

Aren't they cute? (both the girls AND their tops!)

The kids had fun playing cards and hanging out 

while we snacked and waited for nightfall.

"Go fish!"

Smiles and hugs!

Posing for a picture

Finally it got dark enough for 

our Glow-in-the-Dark drinks!

This pic reminds me of that movie, The Blair Witch Project! ;)

And then the best part of the Fourth of July... 

FIREWORKS!!

I love this shot of my son watching the show.

Of course, I'm not going to share the little meltdowns and sibling fights that were also a part of our holiday (and every day!), but overall, it was a nice day that we enjoyed as a family.

Glow-in-the-Dark Drinks

Okay, this is seriously so cool!  

The kids got the biggest kick out of these drinks 

( they got to drink soda AND it glowed!!) and it was so simple.  

To celebrate the first night of Summer Vacation, the kids got to go out in the backyard in their pj's to catch lightning bugs.  While they were filling their jar with fireflies, I remembered THIS cool idea for glow cones I'd seen on Pinterest.  I ran inside to see if I had everything I needed.  Luckily, I found a package of glow sticks leftover from Halloween.  I didn't have any shaved ice, so I just used Sprite, but it was still super cool.

This is all you need:  some glowsticks, clear plastic tumbler cups,  larger opaque cups ( I used the red keg cups) and your beverage.

Activate your glow sticks and bend them to fit in the bottom of your larger cup.  ( If your glowsticks have the connector piece to make them into a bracelet, it's helpful to make it into a circle so it stays in place and doesn't push up on the clear cup). Nestle the clear cup inside the larger cup and fill with your drink.  

That's it!  Serve to your amazed kids ( or fill with an adult beverage and serve to some amazed adults!)  

I definitely plan on doing this again throughout the summer.  How cool would it be to have when you're waiting for fireworks on the Fourth of July?

Welcome Summer banner

Today was the last day of school for my two oldest 

( my youngest finished up on Tuesday).  

To celebrate the start of summer, 

I made a WELCOME SUMMER paper banner 

to hang on our front steps. 

Notice the cute sign but ignore my overgrown bushes.  I'll get to them someday!

When my "big kids" got off the school bus, 

they were so excited to see the sign.

They posed for a quick picture...

 

... and then had a blast 

running through the paper banner 

and tearing it to bits!

It was such an easy little project for me, 

but got such a great reaction from the kids!

Thanks to Family Fun for the inspiration for this idea.

Sharing at:

Skip to My Lou

Today's Creative Blog

Baseball Krispie Treats

My son plays Little League baseball and this Saturday was our turn for snack.  I saw the cutest idea for these t-ball treats at Ladybird Ln.  I made a few changes based on what I had on hand (Even though I'd bookmarked the idea,  I kind of forgot about snack until late Friday night ;)  ) and I might make a few more changes when I make them again.  However, they turned out super cute!!  The boys all LOVED them and the parents thought they were cute too.

INGREDIENTS (made 24 treats):

• 1 bag of marshmallows
• 8 cups of Rice Krispies cereal
• 3 tbsp. butter
• white melting chocolate
• red candy melts
• cooking spray

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Make your Rice Krispie Treats.  ( Melt the butter in a large pot, add the marshmallows, stir until marshmallows are melted.  Mix in cereal, stir to evenly coat)

2.  Spray two 12-cup muffin tins with cooking spray.  Scoop the Rice Krispie mixture into the muffin tins.  Spray some cooking spray onto a piece of waxed paper and press the mixture into each section.

Mixture in the muffin tins and pressed down in the molds.

3.  Melt your white chocolate according to the package directions.  Take each Krispie treat circle out of the muffin tin and dip one side in the chocolate.  Lay on a sheet of waxed paper to cool.

Dipping in the chocolate

Cooling before the next step

4.  This next step is where I might want to make some changes next time.  I used the red chocolate melts to make the stitching on my baseballs.  I simply put the melted chocolate in a plastic bag and snipped off a corner to pipe it on the treats.  

My makeshift piping bag

It worked great for the bigger lines, but not so well for the smaller stitches.  I ended up having to use a clean, new fine-tipped paintbrush to dip in the chocolate then "paint" on the smaller lines.  Way more time consuming than what I'd had in mind!!  They still turned out cute, but next time I'll either take a toothpick and quickly swish out the stitches on each treat before the chocolate lines cool ( I did a whole tray of lines at a time and it was already hardened by the time I went to do the stitches) or I'd try those edible food coloring markers that allow to to draw right on your surface.

5.  Let your treats cool, then package up in individual bags to take to the game.

Ooops, a couple of my "FAILS".  So as not to embarrass myself, I had to eat the evidence of my mistake!

I'll definitely be making these again and it was fun doing a "project" just for my son!  I've been doing a ton of girly stuff lately and I think he was starting to feel left out.

Favor Box "CAKE"

My daughter made her First Communion this past weekend and I planned a party for back here at the house after the ceremony.  I knew I was going to make this "Guestbook" Table Runner, but I also wanted some kind of little favors for our guests.  For awhile I had no idea what to make.  It had to be inexpensive, but I still wanted something pretty.  Then I remembered these Paper Cake Treat Boxes I had bookmarked a long time ago.  All I had to do was change the colors and decorations to fit our theme, and I had a pretty party decoration and favors for under $10 total.

I love how sweet this turned out.

SUPPLIES:

• template for favor boxes found HERE
• package of cardstock
• variety of ribbon, colored paper, etc. to decorate
• treats to fill the boxes ( I used miniature reeses cups, hershey kisses and wrapped mints)
• tape

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Print out your templates directly onto your cardstock.  You'll print out 11 of each size to make a layer cake with 33 boxes.  (Do not shrink to fit the page or it'll be too small.).  Cut out each of the templates on the "cut" lines and score on the "score" lines.  This wasn't difficult, but was definitely the most time consuming step.

All cut out, scored and ready to go.

2.  Fold your boxes on the scored lines and tape where directed to form your cake pieces. ( I used a scrapbooking tape runner and it made it much easier.)

My daughter helped with this step.

3.  Fill your boxes with the treats and tape closed.  I didn't bother notching the front tabs and sliding them together to close, I just used a rolled piece of scotch tape.

Ready to fill.

4.  Decorate the front of each cake wedge with colored paper, stickers, ribbon, etc. 

5.  Stack the favor box wedges to form your cake and top with a little something as a cake topper.  Stand back and admire your pretty "cake".

Our pretty favor "cake" on our pretty Guestbook table runner


Sharing this idea at:

Reasons to Skip the Housework
Funky Polkadot Giraffe 
Today's Creative Blog 
What I Whipped Up Wednesday @ Sugar and Dots 
Someday Crafts 
Night Owl Crafting 
Sugar and Spice @ seven thirty three 
 Tatertots and Jello
Under the Table and Dreaming