Reptile Swamp Birthday Party

So I have decided that I have been a very bad blogger, as I have not had a post in quite sometime. Oh, how I wish that there were more hours in the day, but sadly there are not.  Thankfully I was inspired recently by our youngest to create an alligator/swamp birthday party so I can end this blogging drought.  He loves alligators and all things creepy, and absolutely loves The Wild Kratts...so naturally we had to create a swamp themed birthday party.  We had a Snake Egg Hunt, made swamp slime, created a reptile garden, and let the kids play in the backyard.  It was a perfect party in my book.

For the Snake Egg Hunt I was able to find some plastic Easter eggs after the holiday and spray painted them and then speckled them with acrylic paints.  The spray paint came out with a texture on some of the eggs which was completely not expected, but worked just fine for this project.

For the egg hunt I made little brown bags for the kids to decorate with some swamp (jungle) themed stamps our son had.  I printed their names on some cardstock for the handles...I have found it is always good to have everyone's things very well labeled...less likely to have any tears over misplaced items.  Not that I know this from experience.  :)

When having a swamp party there should definitely be some swamp slime!  We made our slime using the recipe from this blog...this recipe was perfect.  When adding the 4 ounces of water to the glue we just filled up the glue bottle, which was conveniently 4 ounces, and shook it and poured that into the bowl.  Super fun craft and I would say it was quite the hit.  We just packed it up in ziploc bags and sent it home with the boys.

We also made reptile gardens using glass candle holders from the dollar store, I just love the dollar store for party supplies!!!  The bottom layer is some river rocks from the dollar store, then some potting soil, a few chia seeds and a reptile of course. A perfect little reptile garden!

The alligator cake was absolutely adorable and I found my idea here, but truth be told...I will never be a professional cake decorator.  Anything that can go wrong with frosting will go wrong for me. Despite all of this the cake came out looking as it should despite a few mistakes here and there.  :)

There were also Chocolate Frog cupcakes.  I made the chocolate frogs using a candy mold that I found on Amazon and just placed them on top of the whipping cream frosting...super easy!

One of my favorite parts of this party were the party favors.  They were super fun to make and I hope all of the kids enjoyed them.  I know our little one has been enjoying his.  The favors included an Adventure Notebook which was found at the dollar store....surprise...surprise!  They were just perfect with the alligator/snake skin look.  I printed out labels and stuck them onto the notebooks. I included a pen to write in their notebooks.

There was an alligator brownie that I made using an alligator cookie cutter that I found on Amazon.

Our little adventure loving boy really loves these wish bracelets/necklaces that we made.  I found the adorable alligator charms on Etsy through the cutest little shop.  Absolutely loved the shop owner and loved the beads.  Just used some hemp twine and printed out the wish cards.  

There was also a  fruit roll-up, a bug container which held a little plastic lizard or frog, a nature scavenger hunt game which I found here.  I loved how these turned out and her printables were absolutely adorable!  I just printed them four to a page and used both of her designs to make them double sided.  We made the little Snake Egg labels for the TicTacs using a template from here.  I was quite pleased with how these turned out.

Here they are all wrapped up and ready to go home!

If you would like more ideas feel free to check out my Wild Kratt Birthday Party board on Pinterest.

This was a fun party to plan and enjoy with the boys.  While I do not love reptiles, I love how much our little creature lover does!  This was another super easy backyard party!  Hope you enjoyed stopping by! -Robyn

Best Ever Pumpkin Bread

Hello again,

I have failed to keep up with any holiday postings seeing as we were busy with the holidays...such is the way.  Well, who says we cannot enjoy pumpkin treats beyond the fall holiday season?!?!  Not me!  I love all things pumpkin and this bread is our absolute favorite pumpkin treat.  In all fairness this can be called a cake, but either way it is delicious!  I do not alter very much from the original recipe which can be found on the Taste of Home website here.  I usually cut one egg from the recipe and use 1 cup of canola oil and instant pudding can be substituted; other than that there are no alterations to this recipe as it is perfect.

This year we hosted Thanksgiving Dinner for our family and as a little gift to all of our guests we made mini loaves for them to take home.  Super easy gift to share with family and friends around the holidays.  The tags that I used were a fabulous free download that I found on Pinterest here.

Baking Times vary on what size pan you choose to use.  I usually opt to bake it in a bundt cake pan as it is so pretty and easier...only one pan needed.

Bundt cake pan  325 degrees for 80 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Mini loaf pans 325 degrees for 30 minutes

Hope your family enjoys this pumpkin treat as much as we do.  Thanks for stopping by. -Robyn

Rustic Autumn Themed Wedding Shower

Good morning...I am so excited to finally share the autumn wedding shower with you.  A week ago I shared a little sneak peek of this shower here.  The link to the Etsy shop where I ordered the adorable invitations and the how to for the pumpkin centerpieces can be found in my earlier post.

We held the shower in a restaurant so the decorations were fairly minimal which makes this a very simple shower in the way of set up.  Here is a couple of pictures of the pumpkins that I made for the table centerpieces.  I was thrilled at how easy these were and how cute they turned out.  The tutorial can be found here.

Along with the invitations we included a little poem card asking every guest to bring along their favorite recipe to share with the soon to be Mr. & Mrs.  I found a simple brown kraft recipe box that I found at Hobby Lobby and decorated it with brown and white gingham ribbon and a monogram.  I found the wood pumpkin at Hobby Lobby as well, and painted it with chalkboard paint.  I painted the letter A and glued it right on, and attached the sunflower clip to dress it up a bit.

The shower favors were little milk cartons filled with a hot cider drink mix envelope and some caramels.  The cartons would not stay closed so I dressed up some small paperclips to solve that problems and thankfully it worked.  I followed this tutorial on how to make a monogram in MS Word and it was fantastic, what an eye opener...I had no idea how much you could do in Word.  I cannot tell you how excited I was after discovering that this was a possibility.  Just sized it down to be able to use a 1 3/4" circle punch and really cute personalized monogram for all of the favors (I had 8 to a sheet).

For the shower we had them set up on a tiered serving tray with a little tag thanking the guests for coming.

At each place setting we had a little sweet treat.  We used the salted caramels from Costco and wrapped them in little cellophane bags.  I made the little acorn tags using the same craft punch and my embossing tool and stencil.  I also made little place setting cards (which I forgot to photograph), but was able to find an Avery template which made this so easy.

Thank you for stopping by to see what was new.  If you should have any questions please feel free to ask.  Thanks again -Robyn.

Easter Basket Sand Pail Gift Basket

I love making holiday themed gift baskets for all of our nieces and nephews.  This year I choose to do the Easter Cookie Pizza Gift baskets, however this wasn't good for our one year old niece.  So I choose to make a sand pail the basket for her Easter goodies.  Her Easter treats included some sidewalk chalk, bubbles, some sand toys and a plastic chick filled with Goldfish grahams.

Super cute and easy!  Just wrap in some cellophane and cute ribbon and you are done.

As always, thanks for stopping by.  -Robyn

John Deere Farm Birthday Party

I cannot tell you how excited I am to share this party with all of you.  When my soon to be five year old stated that he would like a John Deere/farm party I thought...really?!?!?  No way to just run out to the party store and pick up the supplies.  Naturally I turned straight to Pinterest and was overwhelmed with all of the great ideas I found.  If you would like to see how obsessed I was just check out my Pinterest Board for yourself.  As usual I would have loved to have taken more pictures, but that just was not to be.  So sad that I did not take a picture of the Happy Birthday banner that I made...oh, well.  Naturally we choose green and yellow for our colors with some orange thrown in (the birthday boy's favorite color).  I had many games and crafts planned for the day, however I found that all the kids wanted to do was play in the backyard.  So much for all of my planning, but thrilled no one was bored!  The first activity that the kids did was to Plant A Garden, which was my favorite of the day.  I saved a bunch of tin cans and punched holes on the bottom with a nail and hammer, for drainage.  Then I got busy crafting with some cute burlap ribbon and my hot glue gun.  I printed out the John Deere logo from Google Images onto card stock and then cut them out and covered them in clear contact paper to try and protect them.  I cut small slits on the sides and threaded them with the green ribbon and again used the hot glue gun.  I have to say that I was quite pleased with the results.

We set up the wheelbarrow in the backyard with dirt and scoops (found these at Target) and some tomato plants from the local nursery.  We tried to grow our own from seeds as a fun project for the kids, but this just wasn't meant to be.

Then I had made paper pinwheels following these instructions which I had each child's name attached to.

We had a guess the seeds game set up which only a couple of the kids played, however I was amazed at how good they were at guessing the seeds correctly.  We also had a puppet craft and a clucking chicken craft.  The clucking chicken was a huge hit.  I had printed out a bunch of farm themed coloring sheets and had those set up with crayons and markers.  We also had a Feed the Pig game which was simply a cute little pig garbage pail I had found at Meijer and some bean bags we had.  Then there was a Tractor Races game which was just a board set up and some small John Deere tractors to race down the ramp.

We served lunch for the kids which included Pigs in a Blanket, also known as bagel dogs which we kept warm in the crock pot.  Popcorn, watermelon and corn on the cob was also on the menu.  

For dessert the kids enjoyed dirt cups.  I loved the carrots in the dirt which I had found here originally.

While the adults had carrot cake.  This carrot cake is one of our favorite recipes which I make every year for Easter, so I was happy to be able to pull it out again so soon.  You can find the recipe for this Carrot Cake at Taste of Home.  Just a note, I prefer mine more cake like and bake it in a 13"x9" baking dish and bake it for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

The party favors were very simple and included a homemade s'mores snack mix which we made from the Pepperidge Farm graham cracker fish, mini marshmallows and milk chocolate chips.  A homemade chocolate covered oreo with green and yellow drizzles.  My inspiration came from here. Of course we had to include a candy Cow Tale.  

This party was so much fun to plan and host.  Next time I guess I will just host a large playdate.  :)  As always, thanks for stopping by.  -Robyn

Easter Treats

I am always looking for cute little ideas to share a little holiday treat with the littles in our life.  This past Easter I choose to make the same Peep pops that I used for the Easter Pizza Cookie Gift baskets and attach them to some bubbles.  Super cute and easy treat for the littles.  This could be altered to suit any holiday or special event.

Thanks for visiting.

Birthday Party at the Park

Last year for our youngest's birthday party we decided on a picnic themed party at the park.  I cannot say enough good things about this party.  Very easy to plan and all the activities come with the location...little kids love the playground.  The party invitations read...

Meet us at the park

We'll swing, slide, and play

Please join us to celebrate

Child's Birthday

I found this adorable phrase on an invitation phrase site, not at all mine, but too cute not to share.  Our little one loves bugs, so the ants at a picnic was the perfect theme.  I made sack lunches for each of the kids using red paper sacks and used a circle punch to cut out the circles to make the ants.  I drew the antennae and legs with a Sharpie.  Finished them off with eyes punched from a hole punch.

Each lunch included a PB&J Uncrustable, goldfish crackers and an applesauce cup with the spoon and napkin.  I did ask if anyone had an allergies on the invitations.  Just in case I had a couple of Lunchables packed in the cooler.

I had a cooler packed with plenty of juice boxes and bottles of water for all of the littles after playing hard on the playground, thankfully as the weather was warm that day.  Also, I had a few snacks for the parents as well.  There were cupcakes and I just topped them with whip cream that I had packed in the cooler as well.  Super easy and they traveled well.

For the party favors I made little Lemonade stand baskets complete with plastic cups, water, and of course lemonade mix.  Included were bubbles, just because we love bubbles.

Here is a close up of the Lemonade mix in the party favor.

This was an incredibly easy party that was a lot of fun.  And the best part....all of the mess was left in the trash can at the park.  Love the preschool set as they are so very easy to entertain.

Thanks for stopping by.

-Robyn

Cute DIY Kid's Valentines

Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's.  I just wanted to share the Valentine's I made for the little Valentine's in my life.  I love to give them a little something to make the day that much more special, however I do not want to over load them with sweets seeing as they get so many from school friends.  So I made these little Valentine's for them.

Hers includes a sock bun sponge, hairpins and a small box of chocolates, and a smash balloon.  I found a pack of four of the smash balloons at the dollar store and I have to say that they were a big hit.

The boys included a Lego minifigure, small box of chocolates, and a smash balloon.  Everything was wrapped up in cellophane and tied with a ribbon.  Super easy and very inexpensive as they were about $5 each.

This could be used for any holiday that you are looking to make a small, sweet treat.  Or could be used for party favors.  Hope you enjoyed stopping by.