How to throw a super simple birthday party for an 11 year old boy.

Back in September my oldest turned 11 years old.  Ugh. 
He is 5 foot tall now ( a mere 7" shorter than me) and in his last year of elementary school.

I threw him a small, simple party this year.


He invited a handful of friends to come celebrate.
I filled the kitchen table with junk food, koolaide and labeled plates and cups.


Party favors in paper cups I got at Target dollar spot.
I put googly eyes on and filled with a few party favors from Party City and gum.


Outside a bowl of styrofoam airplanes, glow sticks and silly string.


They came to hang out for 3 hours and just ate and played as they pleased.


Kickball and football in the front yard.


Silly string in the back yard.






Foam light saber whacking and wrestling on the trampoline.


Dinner was Z's favs...chicken tacos and watermelon.


Cookie cake (decked out in Clemson colors) and sparklers to end the night.  :)

Make it: Easy and Simple Doll Chairs

If any of you own an American Girl doll or the like, you quickly realize the thing cannot sit on it's own.
It needs to lean against something to get it to sit proper.
So we were having a Doll and Camping birthday party and I really needed to have all these dolls sitting around a campfire.
But where was I going to find a dozen chairs for them to sit in?
An idea came to me....I had some left over pieces from a cub scout book end project in the garage.


I realized putting 2 pieces together made a primal type chair that sits on the floor, perfect size for Kalla's dolls.


So to make some chairs like these here's what you need.
Don't be scared...I'm no carpenter.
I've never tried an Ana White project, nor do I have a saw.
I can use a hammer though.
So I went to Home Depot and got some lumber, a 10ft section of 1/2" thick piece that is about 5.5" wide.
I had the guy cut it down for me to 8" pieces.  For a dozen chairs (2 pieces each), this took 2 10ft sections.
So I ended up with 2 pieces of wood .5"x5.5"x8" per chair.


Other than the wood, you need wood glue and some finishing nails (these nails are thin, won't split the wood and sinks down into the wood.
First you need to sand the edges well.  I do happen to have an electric sander which rocked my project way fast.
Then, I used wood glue to adhere the pieces together.
Little glue goes a long way.
Let it dry completely.


Once dry, nail together across bottom with 3 nails.


Then of course I had to have plenty of color.
Spray paint all sides.


They are a little plain.  I thought about letting Kalla stencil or personalize hers.
i think they would be cute with the doll's initials.




Here they are in party action.


And I let the party guests all take one home for their doll.
Kalla plays with her chairs all the time.
Now I should figure out a way to make a simple table.  :)

Doll and Camping Party

This past weekend we celebrated Kalla’s big 9th birthday with a bash in our backyard.
A giant homemade tent (tutorial to come), lots of yummy food and crafts.


For the table (our picnic table) I covered it in white paper table cloth and pink printed wrapping paper (found at Target on clearance).
White tin votives down the middle of the table.
Tin pie plates from the Dollar Tree in place of paper plates.
Glass jars and straws.
Trinkets at each place setting:  banana, mini colorful flashlight and glow stick bracelets.


The girls all brought their favorite doll (or stuffed animal).
The dolls all enjoyed their own mini bandanas, campfire and roasted marshmallows.
I made the chairs with simple pieces of wood and paint. Will share my how to this week.


Marshmallows on a stick is simply bamboo skewers and folded sheets of copy paper.
We used elastic hair bands to help the dolls hold their sticks.


Food for the party goers per request of bday girl:  chicken tacos, fresh salsa and chips, buttered corn on the cob and fruit kabobs.






Campfire cupcakes.


Crafts:  glitter votive candle holders.


To make we simply poured and coated the inside of mason jars with mod podge, then sprinkled glitter inside.






In the big tent, their were supplies to make bracelets and necklaces. 
The girls made some for themselves and for their dolls. 




Aside from taking home their doll chairs, marshmallows, trinkets and crafts, we set up a trail mix station for party favors.


They all had a really great time.
Even though the rain didn’t hold out for the whole party and the smores got nixed.

To see the invitation go here. :)

Star Wars: Episode VII The Party

Ok here’s the pics I took of Micah’s Star Wars birthday bash.
We used the boys lego Star Wars collections to decorate.
Plastic silver table cloths and black gift wrap on the tables.


I used silver pie pans from the Dollar Tree for the plates.
I really loved this idea.  I love finding something interesting, cheap and reusable for party ware. 
Will be using them again for the next birthday coming up!


Chewbacca cut out from Amazon.
 I meant to get pics of the boys with him, but totally forgot.




Sorry for the poor lighting on some of these pics.
 I was in and out and forgot to change the setting on my camera some of the time. 
What a difference to fix your white balance it can be!


We served Padawan Pizza, Vader Veggies, Boba Fett berries, Chewy chips and Yoda Soda (lemon lime kool aid).


I am SO NOT a cake decorator.
 I was tempted to make Micah the 3-tier black fondant cake with lava, etc to put his lego guys battling on top, but thought better of it. 
We agreed that setting up battles of lego guys for me to take pics of and then use as cupcake toppers was a better idea. 
I did have some cool star shaped silver glitter sprinkles from Hobby Lobby.


It was the weekend of 106F temps so it was SUPER hot.
I usually plan all our summer bdays on our deck, patio, play area outside, but decided I better not.  Though the boys did want to play outside a bunch too. 
So I put food stuff inside, and outside on the deck filled a cooler of ice pops and waters. 
Big hit. 




Made the pool noodle light sabers. 
Super easy.
 Just cut them in half and tape up the bottoms with duct tape and black electrical tape to look like light saber hilts. 
You can find lots of these on Pinterest if you need more info. 


Z man was Darth Vader.


He braved the wrath of all the seven year old padawans.


Inside we had lunch and cupcakes.
I got one of those sparkler numbers. 
The look on Micah’s face when it was lit was priceless.


Then we took down the Death Star.
I just got a soccer ball pinata and painted it gray also a la Pinterest.


Party favors included the take home light saber noodles, coloring book packets I found earlier in the year at Target dollar spot (not pictured), pinata goodies and these solid chocolate Millenium Falcons.


I found the molds for these on Amazon.
Super easy to make and impressive looking. 
It was a trade up between these or the Han Solo in carbonite molds.
I just used white melting chocolate and a bit of black gel food coloring to make them gray.


And lastly here were our invitations.
We decided to copy the top of the Staw Wars dvds look for them and then added a Micah looking jedi minifigure.
Made that on this website I’ve talked about in the past.