Road Trip Birthday Party

 

Last week, a group of us gals wanted to celebrate our friend Sande's 50th bday.  She said she wanted to take a day trip down to Magnolia (2 hours).  Even though we planned to eat lunch in Waco and try out the Magnolia bakery, I wanted to personalize it and make it feel like a party, so I planned a tailgate breakfast.  

I posted all the details about each of these in a previous post, but each girl got a box of breakfast and a personalized cookie.  

I also bought some popcorn for a road snack (it doesn't hurt that Sande's husband owns the shop) and I provided personalized shopping totes for each girl.

I brought an ice cooler and personalized some tumblers for each girl to have in the car as well.  

I think all the necessities for a successful girl trip down 35.  

Glamping Favors

One of my favorite people on planet earth is turning 'as old as me' in about a month. Due to travel and schedules, we are celebrating (with her first party) with a group of gal pals at a cabin in Broken Bow, OK.  I put together a bucket for each girl attending.

I embroidered a blanket for each girl (not knowing it would be 90 degrees), made wine glasses (or Diet Coke cups....knowing me) for each gal, and I bought some popcorn and had some cookies personalized for the party.  

Hosting a Group Baby Shower

I've hosted a lot of baby showers in my day.  When you host with a group things can get a little complex.  Who brings what?  How do you 'split the bill' etc.  This is one of my favorite group themes-milk and cookies.  I've done several versions of this.  A cute alternative is 'milk mustache' for a boy.  I put the milk and cookies link below to some of the more elaborate parties.  The easy thing about this one is that you can just assign each person a few cookies to bring.  This way, you don't have to worry about if someone wants to get plates from the Dollar Tree or Nieman's.  You do you, I'll do me, and we all bring equal shares and skip the cake serving.    I recently threw a shower with three other ladies and we just each decided which cookies we wanted to bring (points for pink).  I used scraps of fabric I keep in various colors to cluster under the food.  

We signed messages on the diapers for the new parents to use as they change diapers.  I also LOVE to get a book for everyone to sign-useful, and fun (especially since this was a shower for a teacher friend of ours.....hosted by a bunch of teachers).  We got "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie."

I also have a bunch of pink pom poms and fans....you'll see these again for a flamingo party I'm throwing next spring.  

This time we served pink lemonade, tea, and pink (strawberry milk).  A little hint-not many will drink the milk, but it sure is cute!  I also put out some bags for people to fill up with cookies to take home with them.  

And that's all she wrote in this chapter of party prep.  

Dinosaur Party Hats

 I helped out with a dinosaur party a few months back.  The goal was to make as many 'at home' projects and save as much money as possible.  I looked up party hats and found that designs generally ranged around 4 bucks for 8.  I needed 24.

 I found that the dollar store had some generic hats 8 for a dollar, so I bought those and used some construction paper (a great time to buy construction paper is during the back to school sales in August).  I measured one hat out to get the right shape to cover the hat and used this for my template.  I then wrapped it around each hat and stapled it.  The staples didn't matter b/c I used the scales to cover up the staples.

I super glued the scales down the staples.  For a few bucks I made a bunch of dino hats for what I would have spent over twenty bucks for, AND I varied the colors to make it a little more fun.

DIY Dinosaur Party Projects

I recently helped a friend host a birthday party for her daughter's 7th birthday.  The goal was to do as many simple/diy projects as possible.  I tried to pick things that weren't intimidating.  One thing we made were these pudding cups.  We did this in place of ice cream and served them next to the cake.  We crushed oreos and made layers of oreos and pudding.  On the top I also placed a little plastic dinosaur in each and some chocolate rocks and we called it prehistoric dirt.  

I also made this banner.  I googled an outline for a dino skull and then just placed it over construction paper and cut out the shape.  I punched out the birthday girl's names and strung them all together.  I love layering banners so I also added the pompom puffs from the dollar store, and some dino punches.  All for less than two bucks.  

I also decorated a frame and made some picks and took pictures of each kiddo.  They loved this.  I put out some stickers and paper 'frames.'  They glued the picture to the middle and decorated the frame.
More to come, but...so far-minus some construction paper (you can grab for pennies at back to school sales in the fall), most of these has been practically free.

Dinosaur Party Details

A month or so back I helped with a dinosaur themed party.  I have lots of finished details I'll share in another post, but here is some of the prep.  I made a shirt using my cricut machine and some iron on vinyl.  The nice thing about the dinosaur is you could print out a design from online and lay vinyl over and cut it out and make your own without a machine.  I also made a welcome sign for the door using one of the dinosaur metal cut outs I found at Hobby Lobby.  They had two different designs and I grabbed it when it was half off.  Again, I added a vinyl message that I'm pealing off...a ribbon and a bow to greet guest.  

 There are several different activities, but one that was age appropriate, and seasonal (though I thing you can get away with this all year) was an egg hunt....a DINOSAUR egg hunt.  I ordered the fillers from Oriental Trading.  I found a couple coupons by searching online so I got 10 dollars off my order and free shipping.  I ordered some eggs with puppets inside (it was the same cost with or without the eggs for these puppets).  I also ordered stamps, gummies, erasers, stickers, foam stickers, and 144 different shades of green eggs (they have a ton of different colors).

 I also made a banner-modeling it after a bunch I saw online.

 I just looked up a skull outline, printed it and then placed my paper behind it and cut.  I free handed a tail and then made little banners with her name spelled across it.

More details to come...

Mickey or Minnie Baby Shower

 In the fall some coworkers and I planned a shower for our pal, Jessica, who was expecting in October.  She did not know the gender, so we decided to incorporate something she loved (Disney) to throw her a shower.  We had lots of plans for playing up the Mickey or Minnie theme, but baby Miles had other plans.  The shower was planned for a Thursday and he arrived on a Monday-more than a month before his due date.  He spent a month plus in the NICU, but is now home safe and sound, growing and loving life, so....we celebrated Miles and Momma a little after the fact.

 One of my favorite sign in ideas (especially at work-we are teachers) is a guest sign in with a book-we got a Disney book this time to give baby Miles.  He still had to be really careful about being around germs, so I had Jessica send me some pics and one of our talented staff members made some adorable pictures banners that we hung around the place so everyone could see Miles.

 We went ahead and let Minnie make an appearance in some of our shower prep-we had a salty (Mickey) and sweet (Minnie) side to the food.

 I dipped some pretzels and oreos in red chocolate to look like Mickey Bellies (and added some mini m&ms for his buttons).

We had planned to make all the other guest make a Mickey or Minnie headband to wear and take pictures of each group, but....we will take pictures of Miles and a healthy little boy any day over a few party activities.

Golden Globe Drinks

Here's one of about 6 things "I'l be sharing on Good Morning, Texas tomorrow (the only one not packed up in a box and ready to go).  I'll post the video later on my facebook account, and link it here, but first..

Let's have a moment of silence for the first time I broke out th gold spray in 2017.  P.s.  I have some super cute summer plans for these little Dollar Tree fishbowls....right after they are done being golden globe drinks tomorrow.

Mom's Retirement Cookies

 At the end of January, my Mom retired!  Whoo hoo!  29 years at the University of Dallas.  Many more years than that in the work world.  I threw her a little family party I'll post about later, but I also ordered these adorable cookies.  I did a bunch of searching and found two cookies I loved online-a typewriter and a cookie (originally part of a Mother's day set) that looked exactly like my mom...if she were a cookie.

 I emailed a bunch of cookie companies that totally ignored my email just inquiring about if they were able to take orders at the end of January.  I googled and found a company called DallasCookieCompany who A) responded right away and B)  were willing to do exactly what I wanted.  I don't get anything for telling you this, I just want Dallas folks to know there are good businesses out there!  The cookies were tasty too.

 And adorable.  My Mom has always had a typewriter in her office.

 And then these adorable retirment and congrats cookies.

Seriously, precious cookies.  I sent them up to my mom's office on her last day of work and to a few other places she frequents to enjoy with her friends.