Thankful Tree #2

I posted about our Thankful Tree last year here.  We had fun doing it again this year.  This is how the tree turned out this time...

To preserve our thankfulness I pulled all of the words off the leaves and stuck them to a piece of card stock as a simple collage.  Now we can keep them from year to year.  It was fun to see what had changed in a year's time and what had stayed the same.  We certainly have so many things to be thankful for!

Football Birthday Party

We have been enjoying a great football season this year, so it was no surprise when my oldest asked for a football party for his eighth birthday.

Invites: 

"Thanks for coming to my party" cups.  It helped a lot to do this party during football season- I was able to source most things at Wal-mart.  Like these plastic party cups.  The flame footballs came from Oriental Trading.  Personalized name pennants were made from scrapbook papers and attached to glow sticks.  The cups also held football playing cards I "scored" in the Target dollar section, Denver Bronco tattoos from Bed, Bath and Beyond,  and foil wrapped chocolate footballs.

 

The spread:  I started with generic football colors green, white and brown, but used plenty of blue and orange because we are Broncos fans around here!

Plates, napkins, paper bowls, cupcake wrappers all from Wal-mart...

 

I used a football themed card stock sticker pack from my local scrapbook store to dress up the cupcakes and individual cake for I...

 

Yum! Chocolate covered strawberry footballs.  I think I ate half of these by myself...

 

We served store-bought pre-made cheese pizzas and added pepperoni footballs before baking...

 

 Soup cans covered with scrapbook paper for utensil holders...

 

Plastic yard line bunting and table cloths were all from Wal-mart.  I pulled anything football related from I's room for the party including this ceramic piggy bank (I think this was another Target dollar section find) and I displayed his new Broncos poster...

We were hoping to spend most of the party playing football outside, but it was snowing the day of the party. :(  So we ended up in the garage again.  My husband kept the kids entertained by making a quick  football obstacle course- run through the tires, tackle the punching bag, catch a perfectly thrown spiral.  All the kids got to put their Peyton Manning skills to test trying to throw through shapes cut out of a tarp.  I also broke down and bought a helmet shaped pinata from Target.  And I vowed No Pinatas! this year.

Disclaimer #1- my garage is never this clean...

 

 

Disclaimer #2- I have told my daughter that the orange and white skirt goes with her blue Bronco jersey, not the pink shirt.  And nothing goes with purple Crocs and black socks.  She just likes to do her own thing.

 

So football fun was had by all, even in the garage.  And our Broncos are heading to the SUPERBOWL (woo-hoo!!) so I am recycling everything for our Superbowl party. Yah!

Teen Beach Movie Party

This summer D went nuts for the Teen Beach Movie.  We have seen it... a lot.  Naturally she requested a TBM birthday party!

 

We had to make a tiki hut to serve as Big Mamma's for the food table.  We made a frame using PVC pipe we had in the garage, a grass beach mat for the back, and cardboard and a grass skirt table skirt for the roof...

Mini bunting for the tiki hut.  I found a beach themed paper pack at Hobby Lobby for lots of details...

Drink station...

 

 

Paper ware from Walmart...

 

 

Beach ball cake.  I used a soccer ball mold and brown sugar around the bottom to look like sand...

 

Beachy decorations and Happy Birthday bunting...

 

For one activity the girls decorated cardboard surfboards (Oriental Trading) with stickers, markers and glitter glue...

 

And they made jewelry with these pre-packaged sets I found at Hobby Lobby and Walmart.  I added beads from my stash to round out the activity...

 

Flower leis for everyone when they came in...

 

Goody bags: mini metal pails (Target) filled with stickers, tatoos, bubbles, braclets, and mini beach balls (Oriental Trading)...

 

Invites...

Coat Rack Before and After

One of the things I like about our house is our good size entryway- it has just enough space for greeting guests and taking coats.  But our front hall closet is stuffed with board games, winter coats, and snow pants, so there's no place to put guests' coats!  I went in search of a free or very, very cheap coat rack.  One day my husband brought home this unbelievably uninspired stand that he found in the basement at work.  Time for an makeover. 

 

This project was very simple- remove old hardware, sand, paint, install new hardware.  One afternoon and finally a spot to hang your hat!

Planes Birthday Party

Since we have some CARS movie fanatics in our house, it's no surprise we were counting the days before Planes came out in theaters this summer.  And I guess it shouldn't have been a surprise when M requested a Planes party for his third birthday this year... after I had spent months pinning monster truck party ideas!  Thankfully Hobby Lobby took back all my monster truck supplies, and M promises that next year he'll be expecting monster trucks when he turns four.

So I went to work on Planes.  These are the boarding pass inspired invitations.  Our last name is Bong, in case your wondering if that's an appropriate name for an airline at a child's birthday party...

Baggage Claim in our entryway where kids picked up their goody bags...

 

 

I made the suitcases our of brown, blue, and orange card stock.  Since the movie had already been released it was easy to find Planes themed treats for the bag...

I used a yard of fabric hung from a rafter as a backdrop for the food counter...

 

The in-flight meal: your choice of sandwich in to-go boxes...

Caprese ka-bobs...

In-Flight snacks to eat with dinner or take home...

 

Treats included Jello and Cool Whip cups, color coordinated jelly beans, and cupcakes...

 

 

Drink station where guests could fill up on jet fuel (blue Hawaiian Punch mixed with fruit juices)...

 

 

Birthday banner...

Sky balloons...

For games we had a large styrofoam airplane for the kids to zoom around in the back yard and Pin the Propeller on Dusty.  My mom painted this picture of Dusty on a piece of foam core (amazing, yes?)...

And the kids tried to pin propellers made from craft foam onto the picture...

I think the birthday boy had plenty of high flying fun!