Gardening Tool Box

For every good Birthday Party you have to have a good party favor bag

Every year I try to come up with something a little different, something that the kids can use and personalize them.

This year for my sons buggy party I decided to make these fun Gardening tool Boxes.  Each tool box included a gardening shovel, bag of dirt, a pot and a package of seeds.

For this I got all the kids involved helping me.  Makai helped get me the wood to cut, then we would pass them over to Keegan who would sand all the edges and last we would hand them off to Chase where he would stand them up together and let me know how many more pieces we needed.

If you want to make your own here is what we did.

We used 

1x6 cut at 12" for the bottom

2 - 1x6 cut at 9" for the side.  I then measured 2" down and cut on a 45' 

2 - 1x4 cut at 12" for the sides

1 - 5/8" dowel cut to fit I believe this worked out to 13.5" long.  

Once I had all the pieces it was just a little wood glue and an air nailer to put it all together. 

Each one of the boxes were painted.  I decided on Brown for the boys and Pink for the girls and then finished off with their names stenciled on the front. 

The next day my kids got right to work putting their seeds into the pots and are waiting for them to grow. 

Birthday Season In Full Effect

Ahh Birthday season in this house is fast and furious.  By the end of the third one it all feels a little bit like a whirlwind.  Well 2 out of 3 have come and gone and we had a fantastic time.  

I still can't believe that my oldest son is 8 years old.  How crazy is that!!!  It seems like it was just yesterday that our lives changed and our little family had began.  

I told Keegan you pick whatever kind of cake you want and I will make it so he decided a monster truck cake was his pick.  

 Thanks to Jessicas Cake Blog for the tips on how to create this.  

 The truck is made out of Rice Krispie and carved in the shape of a truck  

There was a point when I was making this one that I thought he might just get a tire, lol.  

This year Keegan decided he wanted to go rock climbing so we had 6 boys and one little peanut that gave it a shot and they all did such a good job. 

 This was Chase's first time climbing and this guy certainly has no fear.  Right to the top on the first go.

Even though Makai was too little to get harnessed and climb to the top he wasn't going to let that stop him.  I think he is ready for the big leagues. 

I love giving personalized water bottles for favors, it is something that the kids will use and since and isn't a throw away favor. 

My kids favorite Birthday favor is the personalized t-shirts.  For this party we used a rock climbing image and their names.

They come so far in such a short time. 

Karate Party

Another Birthday party has come and gone and my little man had a great day.  This year we decided to have his party at our local Karate studio where both of my boys attend and the kids had a blast.  

As I posted earlier we started off the event with these Karate inviations.

For me when decorating a party it is all about the details.  I love coming up with a different idea for the favor bags, something the kids can use.  This year I decided on doing up some t-shirts with a Karate guy on them and their names.  

Then sticking with the theme I put them along with a few candies into these take-out boxes. 

Of course my favorite part is the cake.  I had big plans for this cake and then reality set in and I realized that what I wanted just wasn't going to happen.  Really reality was my 3D figure falling apart three times and me throwing them in the garbage, lol. 

So I kept it a little more simple.

I used a white buttercream icing as my base and then used red fondant to make the belt.  My son is a Red belt so wanted it to be the same color. 

 I used fondant to create the ying yang symbol on the top.

 For the Shurikens I borrowed my sons real ones to trace out the gum paste with and then copied the symbols off of them.  Once they were all dried I pressed them into the cake to make them look like they were thrown at it. 

 Here is my little man doing some Karate games and wearing his new shirt.  

Another party down and another one on it's way in two weeks.  I had better get going on planning the next one.

Birthday Favors

I am one of those moms that hates giving and getting the party favors that just get thrown in the garbage so I am always looking for something that will be useful. So for my sons party I did up these wooden block puzzles for each of the kids.  

I started by cutting a 2x2 strip of pine into squares (well maybe rectangles, because my measure were a little bit off).  For the boys I painted the squares brown and the girls I painted them pink.  

The next part was probably the most time consuming of it all as I had to cut out the pictures to fit on the puzzle and cut out the puzzles pieces.  Once that was done I glued them on and waited for them to dry.  Once they were all dry I sanded the edges with a palm sander and finished it off with a top coat.

Although it was a time consuming project the end result was well worth it.  

Each child got a family picture on one side and a individual picture on the other side

It's a Barnyard Party

My little man Makai turned 2 years old this month and today was a celebration just for him.  I am a lover of parties and making them as unique and different as I can.  My husband says a little to much, lol.  But I absolutely love it.  

 I love having a cake and snack table decorated to go with my theme.  The banner and printable I purchased from stockberrystudios on Etsy (I just love Etsy)

This cake is to date on of my favorites I just love every bit of it.  I was inspired by Melissa at My Cake School.

Well you can't have a kids party without a little crafting so the kiddies all made some sheep masks with a sheep printout, cotton balls, crayons and a little creativity. 

To Darn Cute.

For Favors the kids got a box of farm animal crackers and a bandanna with a little goodie inside.  For the adults I made individual pies.

I also created this Plaque out of some wood I had laying around in the garage.  I stained and then added a vinyl sticker to it.  I had made a few of them with various farm animals on them. 

Cannot Believe my little man is already 2 years old. 

I am one happy Momma to have such an incredible son.

Camping Themed Birthday Party

Camping Themed Birthday Party

One of my absolute favorite things is coming up with a theme for a birthday party and running with it.  I am a believer in every little detail counts. 

For my sons 4th birthday party we decided to go with a camping theme.  Here in March it is a little snowy and cold so I had to improvise a little bit.  

For birthday invitations I found these great clipart on Etsy.  In which I created these custom invitations with. 

I wanted our guests to arrive to see the camping signs so my husband and my sons set out with the router and the torch to make this (supervised of course).

I decorated with trees and stumps and some outdoor decorations that I found at my local dollar store.  We also created a faux fire pit made of wood logs, tissue paper and a fan.  

As part of the kids party bag each child received a water bottle with their names on it.

I created the Happy birthday Sign using hemp string, cardstock paper and burlap for the outdoor feel. 

Aren't these snacks too cute.  I made campfire cupcakes using pretzels and icing.  These little hamburgers are nilla cookies with chocolate, icing and dyed coconut.  I was also able to find these squirrel cookie cutters on Etsy.

Last but not least is my favorite part of the party ~ The Cake

As we are big on the off roading we had to include a dirtbike on the cake as well.  

This was one of my most favorite parties to date to plan and prepare.