The Garden Brunch Birthday and my new 8 year old

Ok, so this is just a month late.  But better late than never right?  ;)

For Kalla's 8th birthday this summer, we had a fun garden brunch with a sprinkling of garden gnomes and fairies.

My eight year old.  Sigh....isn't that considered a tween?? 

I'm not ready.

Table is decked out with clear glass plates, jars and paper straws, gnome finger puppets, mushrooms painted on rocks and fresh flowers.

Girls were given tattoos upon arrival (this was so popular at last years party, we had to do them again).

Craft table on the patio. 

We painted smooth stones.

Made these easy fun pipe cleaners fairies

(I didn't get pictures of much of the crafting due to helping the girls make their fairies.)

I had another craft on hand to make some tissue flowers, but we ran out of time.

One popular activity was also painting the patio.

To make your own sidewalk chalk paint go here.

For this party we had brunch.

Serving:

monkey bread

hashbrown patties

fairy bread

mini sausage biscuits

bacon

make your own yogurt parfaits with fruit, granola, toasted coconut and sprinkle toppings

strawberry milk

orange juice

iced coffee for the adults

(how to for iced coffee in this post)

Instead of cake Kalla decided to let me make these tiny mini doughnuts.

I got the mini doughnut pan at Hobby Lobby.

Will probably do another post about those.  ;)

And the party favors.

Strawberry baskets stuffed with the mini mushroom notebooks we made, the gnome zipper pouch, some gel pens and gnome stickers I found on etsy.

Tutorial to make the notebooks and link to zipper pouch tutorial in this post.

Oh and here are our little invites.

Pardon the blur...it's to protect our privacy.  ;)

I found the gnome pic online and then used photo editing to change the words to Happy Birthday.

Cute Little Mini Mushroom Notebooks~Make your own~And other Garden party favors

I made these fun little notebooks for party favors for Kalla's Garden Brunch bday party this past summer.

They were super easy and I thought they turned out super cute!

First I got these mini comp books I found at Target...I think a 3-pack was a dollar or something.

I put them down on a colored card stock paper and traced around the edges to get the curved corners.

Then I cut out one for both front and back sides.

Used mod podge to glue them to the front and back.

Then I cut a 1" strip from the red polka dot paper in the length of the notebook binding.

To make attaching it easier I creased the edges before gluing down.

Then I used a scallop punch on a punch of white card stock and found this cute mushroom stamp at Hobby Lobby.

Glued them on top of the notebook. 

Once everything was glued down and dried a bit, I gave the entire thing a good coat of mod podge to make it nice and sealed.

You could of course stamp anything on or any cute picture.  

Would make a fun gift or stocking stuffers (yep I'm afraid it's time to start that Christmas crafting!)

Also made cute little zipper pouches with this great Michael Miller print I got on etsy.com.

Here's a super easy tutorial on how to make them.  :)

At first Kalla used hers to hold her bday cash.

Then she spent all of it, the last bit on a simple mp3 player of which is now stored neatly in the gnome pouch.

You can find me

guest posting over at

Fussy Monkey Business

today with a back to school craft.

(I've done it before, but this post has better pics.  :)

Birthday Cheesecake

Yesterday, I made this incredible cheesecake.

Several steps involved, but straighforward.

TOTALLY worth the effort.

I strongly encourage those who love white chocolate raspberry cheesecake to try it.  :)

Hubby was very impressed.

As tradition holds I print this banner off the computer.

Then the kids color it.

This year we got extra festive and hung balloons and streamers. 

I let Z man stand on a chair and tape them up while the other kids handled the tape and handed them up to him.

It was a lovely little family party.

Completely the way hubby prefers it.  ;)

Oh and the gifts. 

A new picture to take to the office (let Zachary pick one out from the pictures from the beach).

And some really spicy, dark dark chocolate (which the girls have been trying to get him to share generously with them).

I think he had a good day.

Back to Batman

Just thought I'd share a few details from the big Caped Crusader party.  :)

First off how I made the bat symbol chocolates for the cupcakes.

I melted some chocolate in a Wilton chocolate squeeze tube (I think I got them at Walmart). 

 I printed a page full of bat symbols to trace.

Placed the print under some parchment paper on a cookie sheet.

Then I carefully traced around the edge, then filled it in.

After making a full cookie sheet, I placed it in the refrigerator to set up. 

 Then carefully peeled them off the paper to put on the cupcakes.  Very easy to do.  :)

For the cute little Batman mini totes.  For more info on the party favors go here.

 I got these plain blue mini totes at Target in the dollar section.  There were 3 in a bundle I believe. 

I wanted to make a bat stencil for it.  First I tried to use freezer paper to stencil them. 

Well, um even though these totes look and fell like fabric, they are not. 

They are made of plastic...and melt under an iron.  So plan B.

 I made a simple stamp with a small scrap piece of 2x4 wood. 

 I used a thick foam sheet to cut a bat shape and then glued it to the block.

Then  I coated the stamp in yellow paint.  The first coat didn't show up real well on the dark blue.  So I used a smaller paintbrush to add a second coat.

Now that I've got this party thoroughly covered, I'll move on to Kalla's Garden Brunch. 

 Look for the posts soon.  :)

Feeling a groove coming on soon as the kids settle into school.  ;)

Remember me??

Why hello there!  There I go again dropping off the face of the earth.
 It's been a busy but wonderful summer. 
Spending time with the kiddos, running here and there. 

Now we are spending our last, treasured week of summer break at the beach.

I actually brought my external hard drive that houses my photos to finally catch up my posts during our quiet/rest time.  But I guess the sun and surf has been a big energy sucker and I've taken a lil nap, then it's time to take the kids back down for more beachy goodness.  We only do this once a year...for 7 glorious days on the gulf.

Have I ever told you my third born child is a natural born boogey-er?  lol  He is always bustin' a move.

This is Maressa's "daddy shell, mommy shell and 2 baby shells."

Anyhoo, I hope to catch up my latest bday celebration stuff this week (some Batman details and Kalla's garden brunch shabang).

Also, I finally jumped on the Pinterest band wagon.  Slowly makin' my boards, etc.

I'll add a button/link to my sidebar when I figure out how, if you care to follow my boards.  :)