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.  :)

Simple Large DIY Outdoor Tent

The tent I made for Kalla’s latest bday bash was quick n easy.
Just like I like.


This particular one needs to hang from something.
I did not make supports to hold it up.
I hung it from a tree limb that hangs over our patio.
Here’s what I used:
Three 10ft pvc pipe
2 cheap queen sized flat sheets
Assorted ribbons
String of Christmas lights


I first sewed a bunch of colorful ribbons across the bottom seams of each of the flat sheets.
Then I hung one pvc pipe with twine to limb.
I wrapped the Christmas lights around the pipe hanging and then tied the sheets together at the top on each side.


At the top of each queen sheet was a wide hem that was open on one end and I inserted another pipe into each.
The pipes were a bit longer than the width of the sheets and I simply cut the extra off with large tree pruning cutters.
I used bricks to hold each side open as wide as it would go.


And inside I used a large quilt (king sized) inside for the girls to sit on.
I hope to get some more pipe to try to figure out how to make it free standing one day.  If I do, I’ll be sure to share!

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.  :)

Next Party

Our summer birthdays are 3 weeks apart.
So it’s party time again.
For Kalla’s 9th she wanted an American Girl doll party.
We put a camping twist on it.
I am not a fan of slumber parties (I know I’m a party pooper) so our compromise is a party later in the evening up to bed time so we can enjoy the twinkly lights and campfire.

Check back next week for details and lots of pics.  :)

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.

Bunting Bottle centerpiece/table decor

           

A few weeks ago I was asked to make some table centerpieces for a ladies retreat at church.

I needed to make 8 in specific colors for each table.

(Yellow is missing as the yellow table used my bunting for a craft later so I came home with just yellow bottles)

I started with all those coke bottles we drank at my last Christmas craft party.

I of course saved them all.

I gave them a nice coat of color with spray paint.

To make the bunting, I simply grabbed a bunch of my fabric scraps and folded pieces in half and cut the triangles (I used the first one as a template for the rest so they would all be the same size and shape).  Then I just sewed them all together along the top.

To anchor the bottles down a bit I poured rice down to the bottom to add a little weight.

Then I used clothespins to hang the bunting to the tops of the bottles.

How fun and simple would these be for parties?

Baby showers, wedding showers  or even weddings.

I love having them all on hand now in every color and can pull them out for a little decoration for all sorts of things.

Not to mention that the painted coke bottles would make great bud vases.