Enchantment Under the Sea

I need to gush about my talented friend 

Evelyn

who threw the most adorable party for he sweet little girl who turned 5!

I can't believe we have 5 year olds.

Evelyn did a ton of research online and via Pinterest and put together the most amazing

Enchantment Under the Sea Mermaid Party.

You have to see the pictures to believe it or check out her blog

The Littlest Things HERE

Here is the sign ushering you to the party room.  

She hand painted the faux wood planks she found at the craft store.

Glimpse of the party room.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away...

a certain little boy had an

AWESOME

Lego Star Wars Party!!!!

 (that is a direct quote from the little man himself)

Star Wars and Legos are number one in these parts and what could be better than

Lego Star Wars?

A 4th Birthday party.

I did my research on Lego and Star Wars parties.

There are so many blogs with amazing and creative ideas.

I needed to keep in mind we would be hosting approximately 15, 3 to 5 year olds

so I wanted to make the activities easy and fun for everyone.

I also wanted to keep costs down and get my craft on.

These are some of the things I either "borrowed" from many creative ladies

or figured out myself.

Invitations and Decor

I ordered a very cool ticket invitation from Etsy.  Unfortunately, the shop is no longer listed.
I made matching mailing labels.

I opted for a store bought Darth Vadar Pinata, it was too cool to pass up.

The decor was mainly primary colors

and Michael's regular and Star Wars Lego sprinkled about.

Bummed this picture was so dark.  :(

My aunt made these adorable fruit cabobs.

notice the Yoda container?

Surprisingly all the marshmallows began to disappear....  :)

Kid Sized Light Sabers
I ordered cheer sticks in blue and green and added duct tape as a handle.
These were a GIANT hit.  A plus is that they have
on and off switches and are soft,
so I didn't have to worry about the kids hurting each other.

I got my cheer sticks here

Cake Top

I whipped together a quick Top for the main cake.

Just printed it out and glued toothpicks to the back to stand on the cake.

Cupcake Toppers

We had the Jedi's and the Dark Side.

Get my Cupcake Topper template HERE

Lego goodie bags with Personalized Tags
Bags are from Target, then use your 2 inch hole punch in same color for Lego pegs.

I used the same characters from the cupcake toppers for the labels.
I found a free Star Wars font on THIS site.

Goodie Bags contained:

Star Wars Pez Dispenser - I found a box of 20 on Ebay for $15

Jedi Certificate found HERE

Star Wars Fruit Snacks - I found them at Walmart

One Lego Figure Pack - I found them at Target

Star Wars Sticker - I found them at Target

Jedi Training Games

Light Saber Training
I demonstrated how Jedi's have to train with balloons.
After a brief pause, the kids went crazy!

Mustafar Lava Jump
Once the kids had mastered their light sabers,

they needed to navigate the lava fields of Mustafar and not drop their light sabers.

The kids lined up and hopped from stone to stone to safety.

This game was very popular and super easy.  I made it with a old red vinyl table cloth

and brown paper cut outs.

Giant Lego Stacking
Another easy craft made with package boxes, toilet paper/paper towel tubes
and spray paint.

Tape the box closed, cut your tubes in 2 inch sections, tape to the top of the box and spray.

These make both great decorations and then a great game.

The kids have to stack all the boxes in a tower with out it falling.

They even get to use their Jedi Mind Power to keep it from falling over.

Pin the Light Saber on Yoda
I found a cool picture of Lego Yoda online and enlarged it to 11 X 17 and printed.
I also printed a light saber for each child.
We used a Boba Fett mask we had with eyes covered for each child.

Other activities
(besides running around beating each other with light sabers)

Star Wars Paper craft
Full post can be found here

Star Wars Coloring Pages

Get free printables on by doing a google search, there are TONS!
I picked a storm trooper and Darth Vadar.

Lego Coloring Pages with Birthday Message

These were just too cute and you can customize!

The kids had a terrific time, I think most of the dad's were also in heaven.

The smile on Michael's face was priceless and so was his exclamation of it being

The bestest birthday EVER!

Featured on:

Linking to these fabulous parties:

Monday - Craftomaniac * Kristens Junk Drawer * Sarahndipities * Dittle Dattle * Skip to my Lou * Mad in Crafts * Keeping It Simple * Sumo's Sweet Stuff * C.R.A.F.T. * Making The World Cuter * Alderberry Hill * So Very Creative * Singing Three Little Birds *Ask Anna * Get Outta My Head Please * Three Mango Seeds * Lisa's Craft Blog * Polly Want a Crafter * DIY Home Sweet Home * Sew Can Do * Debbie-Debbiedoos

Tuesday - Tip Junkie * Sugarbee Crafts * Funky Polkadot Giraffe * My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia * Crafty Confessions * Home Stories A to Z * Homework * Not Just a Housewife * Project Queen *A Diamond in the Stuff * Cherished Bliss * Blackberry Vine

Wednesday - Someday Crafts *Sew Much Ado * Tea Rose Home *A Little Tipsy * The Thrifty Home * Fireflies and Jellybeans * My Girlish Whims * Gingersnap Crafts * Creative Kristi * Raegun Wear * The CSI Project* The Stuff of Success * Lil' Luna * The Sasse Life

Thursday - Somewhat Simple * The Shabbycreek Cottage * Thirty Handmade Days * The 36th Avenue * Thrifty 101 * A Creative Princess * House of Hepworths * The Artsy Girl Connection * Katie's Nesting Spot * Between U and Me * A Glimpse Inside * Christina's Adventures * Made in a Day * Adventures in Dinner * 52 Mantels

Friday - Romantic Home *Tatertots and Jello* Simply Designing * Creation Corner * Blissful and Domestic * Young and Crafty * Delicate Construction * Happy Hour Projects * Sassy Sites * A Blonde's DIY Life * Whipperberry * Little Inspiration * Serenity Now

Saturday - Positively Splendid.com * Be Different Act Normal * Family Ever After *Lovely Crafty Home * Lollyjane * Funky Junk Interiors * Too Much Time On My Hands * Six Sisters Stuff

Sunday - The Girl Creative *The DIY Showoff * Nifty Thrifty Things *Petite Hermine * I Heart Naptime * Flamingo Toes * Cherished Treasures *My 1929 Charmer * Embellishing Life Everyday

First Annual Cookie Swap & Ugly Christmas Sweater Party

I've wanted to host one of these parties for a long time.

I love to bake!

I love making cookies, especially.

I try to make themed sugar cookies every year for Michael's Birthday.  I also make a ton during the holidays and have my set few "go to" winners. 

Knowing I need to expand my repertoire, I invited friends and family over to share their special treats. 

All I asked that they wear a "festive" Christmas sweater or shirt.

We served appetizers and light food and drinks.  Then it was on to the cookie!

Everyone made 4 dozen cookies to taste and share. 

Here are the pre-party pics of the cookies I made.

The table centerpiece surrounded by snowman sugar cookies.

Aren't they sweet?

More sugar cookie, these with glitter gel and edible pearls. Yum!

M and M, Rollo and Pretzel bites.

Lastly, I made Oatmeal Scotchies.

Here is the table decked out with all of the cookies.

Starting at the middle left we have my friend Jeannine's amazing pizzelle's with a touch of Jack.

Next up is Sarah and her scrumptious Red Velvet Truffles covered in White Chocolate. 

She also made very tasty peppermint cookies, which I really liked.

Monica made delicious Peanut Butter and Jelly cookies.

On the other side of the table;

Annette made a beautiful mix of tastiness; chocolate gingerbread men, jam cut outs, and white chocolate cherry cookies.

Carmen made jam thumbprint cookie that were adorable and yummy!

Even 5 year old Gabrielle made a batch of Christmas tree cookies for everyone.  She did great!

Evelyn made these colorful and wonderfully cute and delicious pinwheels.  I love the colors. 

And we finish at the other end of the table with Jeannine again and her  decadent tiramisu balls (they were in the fridge) and her coconut blackberry and apricot thumbprints.

As you can imagine, the kids were sufficiently sugared up on cookie.  I figured M&Ms (minus the red and green I used) 

 would be just the icing on the cake for them.

:::::insert evil laugh::::

My cousin advised she would be calling me at 3 am, when her 5 year old is wide still awake, to thank me.

And here we all are, decked out in our finery. 

Neil won the best shirt award for his sweater and tie tee shirt!

Also you can just see my banner on the wall, you can find the tutorial here

It was a great party and we will definitely be doing it again! 

In the words of Michael, "YAY!!!  COOOOOKIES!!!!!!!"

Michael's 2nd Birthday

Happy 2nd Birthday to my sweet, handsome, wonderful little man!!!!!

We decided on a Dump Truck themed party this year and Michael was in heaven. Jaime's Mother, sister (Marina) and three nieces (Angelina, Amanda and Lauren) also flew in from California to celebrate, which was wonderful. It was the first time that Angelina and Amanda met their cousin. The party was a lot of fun and all of the kids had a great time. Michael received a entire summer wardrobe, complete with his first pair of crocs! LOL Michael's favorite gift was the bubble mower that he received from his Papa (Great Grandpa). The wagon Jaime and I gave him came in a close second.

Michael, it has been the most wonderful 2 years of our lives. You are the best thing that has happened to us! XOXOXOXO Love Mommy and Daddy