Celebrate Summer!

I still remember how exciting the last day of school was as a student. And guess what, I was just as excited for the last day of school as a teacher, if not more so!!!

so I say : Lets CELEBRATE SUMMER!!

This is what my kids came home to:

 I hung balloons upside down by taping them to the inside of my roof! I painted a banner, mounted it on an old curtain rod with tape and stuck them in two flower pots.  It was pretty simple and I used things that I already had in my home so that I didn't have to spend any money.

My kids thought it was great!!

Happy Summer!
XOXO,
 Amy

P.S. Don't forget to enter our awesome giveaway- the grand prize is valued at $1300!!

Party Games on the Brain!

The count down is on to party day and the big question is . . . how do you keep a bunch of little kids entertained at a party? With fun games of course. Here are a few games that I found via Pinterest.

1. From Girlygirl109.hubpages.com, I found this awesome carnival themed Party! How great would that be!

2. I found this great activity to use in lieu of a pinata from Celebrate the Big and the Small

3. From Calebandshelley.blogspot.com, I found this fun game. I have already played it and it DOES NOT disappoint. So fun!

 4. This is a great game too, from One Charming Party. I have also played this with my kids before but we used sponges to carry the water from bucket to bucket.

I Love all of this inspiration that I get from Pinterest. It is so much fun to see what other people are doing! I can't wait to show you what we do!

Happy Party!

XOXO,

 Amy

Party on the Brain

I feeling myself switch gears to all out party mode. I have one daughter with a birthday party on Thursday and one with a birthday party on Friday. In that past I have combined these two birthdays parties but it all starts adding up to a lot of body management. It all comes down to how many kids I can really handle and still enjoy the event.  So we broke of the days and limited the guests. One Party has a Lalaloopsy Them and one has a Hello, Kitty! Theme. I just wanted to share some of the cute results I found.

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First off, from Partygamesplus.com,  I found this. It is a great website with dozens of themes and games all planned out for you. In some cases they even have free printables. (click hi-lighted word for source info)

Next, from Cake central.com I found this:

 and this:

 and this:

 and this:

Now will I be able to make these adorable cakes? Not a chance. Had a planned better could I have ordered them? Absolutely! Maybe you can learn form my mistakes:)
Even still, I am feeling more inspired and though I know the clock is ticking, I am sure that thanks to these sites, I will be able to pull of something that feels wonderful:)

Party On!
XOXO,
 Amy

Birthday on the Brain

In my family we will soon celebrate two birthdays almost back to back. My two oldest girls are two years apart with brithdays three days apart. It is almost like Christmas all over again as far a gifts are concerned. Maybe more so since we only get the kids roughly three gifts each for Christmas. Anyhow, My oldest daughters class has a tradition of spot lighting the birthday kid with an "all about me" poster that is displayed in the classroom. I started to rummage through old scrapbooks for pictures to display and quickly realized, I needed something more. Something to make the poster stick out 3D style. It is some much more appealing to the eye:) I had seen cute little scrapbook paper banners here and there and thought they were cute. So I thought it was time I try out making my own.

I stole a triangle from a shape puzzle that my kids rarely play with anymore and began tracing.

Then I cut out the triangle shape and glued them to a thin grosgrain ribbon and my banner was done- so easy and yet so satisfying!

Next . . .

I wanted to make some kind of flower embellishment. I got the idea for these cute tissue flowers badges here, from Fave Crafts:

Unfortunately, I didn't have all the same scrapbooking tools that she has. So I folded the blue tissue paper so that I would be cutting through four layers, then I traced the shape of a large plastic cup and a small glass cup with a pencil and cut the paper using the scissors above. Then I scrunched them up until I was happy with the "badge look" and hot glued them together (using just a tiny dap of glue in the center of each tissue petal). Then I printed out my phase and cut it in the circular shape you see in the picture and hot glued that on too! Then I used my favorite zebra print ribbon, cut two short strips, cut a triangle shape in the middle by folding the ribbon and cutting on the fold toward the top of the fold.

I think these made perfect embellishments for an otherwise boring poster. Cambria said all the kids in her class thought it was the fanciest poster they had ever seen! I'll take the compliment. My other daughter also took pause to compliment my craftiness. I'll take the compliments now before they get to the age where they think I don't know anything:)

Here are some other fun banners to look at: From Bandy Canyon:

From the Toy Maker, Happy Spring Banner- thetoymaker.com

From:  At Second Street  An America Banner

Hope You find some inspiration for your  next event!

Happy Crafting!

XOXO,

 Amy