'You Are Destined......for Adventure'....Brave Birthday party

Ok, I admit it. I LOVED the movie Brave. I mean, who doesn't love an independent princess that can ride and shoot? So for my daughter's 5th birthday, we used the Brave theme.

  INVITATIONS

This is one of the easiest invitations I have made and yet it was also the cutest. The face for the invitation came from the adorable Merida paper doll on Disney Family.com.  I printed the 'You Are Destined......for Adventure' on the cardstock, used circle hole punches to make the bulls eye, added the face and yarn hair to the front, and I was done!

Invitation (front and back)

 Wording on the back of the invitation:

This proclamation is going out to gather the Clans

For a party to honor Princess Catherine.

Come for an adventure where you try to change your fate

Join in the merriment, you don’t want to be late!

Sunday, April 7, 2013

ACCESSORIES AND GIFTS

I bought 4 different patterns of plaid and cut them into approximately 6" x 45" strips for the clans. I also created buttons with the clan symbols for the kids to pin their colors. however, the brand of kids buttons I had purchased fell apart easily, and so the kids ended up tying their colors instead.

Clan colors

Buttons

The bullseyes on same the Disney Family.com page that I used for the invitations were recycled  into gift tags.

Gift tags

I made each girl a Celtic knot necklace out of cording. When the knots are bent slightly, they look like hearts. The best instructions I found for making the Celtic knot was on YouTube.

Celtic knot necklaces

Each child received a bow and arrow set (which I found at the Dollar Tree). I made sheaths for the arrows out of wrapping paper rolls, duct tape and ribbon. The kids could decorate them more later if they chose.

Arrow and sheath

DECORATIONS

I admit it, I was tired this year and so I kept the decorations very simple. I re-created the adorable Will O Wisps shown on the Catch My Party site and used small plant stakes to place them leading up to our front door. The main decorations inside were pictures that I printed off of the Brave movie site. I adhered them to 12" x 12" black scrapbook paper and added heart Celtic knots made from twine at the bottom. Several of the Merida paper dolls from Disney Family.com were also placed around the house.

The triple brothers as bears

Queen Elinor and King Fergus

Merida doll

Outside, I used small hula hoops wrapped in streamers to decorate the the patio.  Streamers added to a wooden pole gave an additional festival feel. More of the Will O Wisps were used to 'lead the way' to the various activities.

Hula hoop rings

 

GAMES AND ACTIVITIES

Inside, I had some mazes printed from the Family Fun site, along with beads for making necklaces. Outside, in addition to the standard bouncer, we had the 'Will O Wisp Toss' game and targets for the kids to practice their archery skills.

Printable maze

Bead station

The shuttlecocks for this lawn toss game were turned into more Will O Wisps.

Targets made from large sheets of cardboard (left over from an Ikea Cupboard).
Holes cut in the center gave easy targets for the kids to aim at.

The End

All in all, it was a fun party.

Pool Noodle Birthday Party (sans the pool)

Alas, my poor son's birthday is in sweltering month of August and I am always looking for creative ways to keep the kids active and yet cool them off. So this year we tried an outdoor game theme with the main ingredients being pool noodles and water.

Thank goodness for the Dollar Tree! I was able to get the pool noodles, balloons, paper airplane kits, buckets and squishy balls there!

POOL NOODLES
First up, the Target Station. I got the idea to make this target from Parents.com. However, I decided to have the kids throw the pool squishy balls through the target instead of pool noodles.

 

 

 

 

 

Target Station

I  had so much fun creating the rings, that I next created a Ring Toss station.

Ring Toss

 Sponges in buckets of water made up the Splash Down game. The players take turns throwing their sponges into the bucket near the other player to try to soak them. The rules of the game can be found on Spoonful.

Splash Dow

 Use Your Noodles involved pool noodles with duct tape wrapped around the ends (think safe bat) and balloons. The noodle bats later became party favors. More details on this activity can be found at at Parents.com.

Use Your Noodle

I tried to make a Badminton net out of pool noodles. That did not fare so well, but the kids still had fun!

Badminton

The Paper Planes station included fun paper plane kits I found at the Dollar Tree.

Paper Airplanes

The balloon pinata was an absolutely brilliant idea and I am grateful to whomever first posted it on Pinterest. The original blog can be found here.

Pinata

Last, but not least, I had a bubble station for our younger guests. 

Bubbles

 By the end of the party, the kids had resorted to sitting in the kiddie pool, spraying each other with water guns, and dumping buckets of water over each others head (while the adults watched safely inside through the sliding glass door.)

Mayhem

PIRATE CAKE
I tried to make the pirate cake depicted on Spoonful, but my cake was not as pretty as theirs. However it did look quite impressive when the candles were lit!

Pirate Cake

Pirate Cake

Fire!

 It was a great birthday party over all!

Chocolate Birds Nest Cupcake Toppers

When looking for ideas for Catie's birthday party, I saw some adorable chocolate bird nests on a spoon made from dipping spoons in chocolate on the Cute Food for Kids site.I thought that these would be perfect cupcake toppers if I could make them without the plastic spoon.

1. Line cupcake molds with small pieces of parchment paper.

2. Place chocolate Candy Melts in a squirt bottle and set in warm water to melt.

3. Once melted, drizzle the chocolate into the bottom and sides of the cupcake molds.

4. Optional: sprinkle candy sprinkles over the top of the nests before adding the candy robin eggs.

5. Place in the refrigerator to harden the candy.

6. Once hardened, remove the nests from the molds and peel off the parchment paper.

7. Viola! a bird's nest cupcake topper!

Catie's Easter Birthday Party

Even though the bouncer I had reserved in February did not show up, I think my daughter's 4th birthday was a success.

Invitation wording:

Miss Catherine Grace is turning FOUR
For a theme she requested Hello Kitty-Princess-Lego-Star Wars.
However, as her birthday falls on Easter Day,
Instead we will have a bouncer and hunt for Easter eggs*!
The festivities will start at 11 am on April 8
And we hope that you can join us to celebrate

Decorations: Much to my husband's chagrin, there were Giant Easter Eggs everywhere: 

Cake table: featured coffee-filter flower bouquet, a Hello Kitty flower bouquet, and blow up light sabers.


Food: deviled eggs, crackers and cheese, fruit, a bread bunny dip bowl amid a field of veggies, a bunny shaped watermelon fruit bowl and finger sandwiches.
 Activities: make a princess crown or monster mask craft, an Easter egg hunt, and playing.

Birthday cupcakes: baked either in egg-shaped foils or ice cream cones and topped with chocolate birds nests, Hello Kitty candies, or candy Lego bricks (made with the Wilton's candy melts and a Lego brick ice cube tray).

Overall, I think the party was a success!

Catie seemed very happy with her party
.

Coffee filter flower uses

In an earlier post, I detailed how I made coffee filter flowers. Here are some of the ways I have used these flowers:


1. Catie's Easter basket.....Dollar Tree bucket, coffee filter flowers, chicks from Michaels, a little ribbon and green tissue paper... and Beacon's 3-in1 glue.

2. Wreath: I absolutely love the way my wreath turned out and plan to use it each spring. My husband thought that I would be throwing out all of the decorations after Catie's party, but that will not be the case!

3. A table center piece: this arrangement practically made itself

4. Teacher Day gift bouquets:

Gerber daisy, peony, and lilac paper flowers

Hyacinths, Gerber daisies, and peonies

I recently saw a post on Aunt Peaches blog on how to make hyacinths from tissue paper and another post where she made dyed coffee filters to make roses. I decided to make some for my daughter's Easter birthday party.

1. I diluted 15-20 drops of food dye McCormick's Neon food color and egg dye in approximately 0.25 - 0.5 cup water in a small bowl. The edges of groups of filters were placed in dye until they were completely wet. I was a little impatient for the filters to dry, so I put them on top of a piece of newspaper on a cookie sheet in the oven at 225 degrees, checking every 20 minutes.

Dying coffee filters-- note that the coffee filters acted like chromatography paper and separated out the pink and the blue of the purple neon dye

Do you see the flowers I saw in these filters?

2. After the filters were dried, fold 3-4 at a time into eighths and cut the tops into a heart shape or smaller petals. Cut a 3" wide (by approximately 18" long) strip of yellow tissue paper, fold it in half and notch the folded side. Cut this strip into 4 pieces (approximately equal in length).

Different flower petal shapes

3. Two techniques for making flower centers:

• Aunt Peaches technique for making hyacinths to make the centers of the flowers:

Flower centers created with hyacinth technique

• Twisted coffee filter: twist yellow filter into a loose ball and stem -- like a large lollipop.

4. Flower assembly: snip off the tip of the folded coffee filters, open them up, and attach them to the flower center with floral tape, floral wire or a pipe cleaner.

5. Fluff out the petals, experiment, and enjoy! I started out to make hyacinths and roses, but ended up with Gerber Daisies and Peonies!