DIY +Simple+ Wild Animal Party!!

A while back my daughter had a Wild Animal Party!

When trying to come up with a birthday theme, we thought and thought and thought for quite a while.  She's kind of a hard one to peg down.  She generally likes most things and isn't especially attached to any one thing. We came up with lots of ideas, but eventually settled on Wild Animals. 

For the invitations she got to play dress up, which is always a Plus!

(I changed the name below-- just because I don't share my children's name here).

Once the guests arrived we play three games together and had one art project. 

 Add that with Pizza and Cupcakes and it was a dream four-year-old birthday party!

First Game: Knock Over the Animals!

Our first game was knocking over animal cups that I painted.  

To hear the crash of the cups was so much fun.  Each kid couldn't wait to try.  

We played this three times.

Second Game: Pin the Banana on the Monkey!

As long as I am in charge of parties, there will be the game, Pin the (object) on the (object). 

 I've done it for all of our parties! 

I had little cardboard cut out bananas, where the kids tried to pin (tape) it onto the Monkey's hand.

Third Game: Going on a Bear Hunt!

I asked my husband if he would plan a game this time.  He's pleasantly agreed. 

 Here's what he came up with.  

The game starts by reading the book, Going on a Bear Hunt. 

 Before the last couple of pages you stop (right before they go into the cave).

Then you read the clues

:

#1: It's our turn to go on a real Bear Hunt. Who's Ready?  This animal has a clue, but we need to find him first. This animal eats bananas and swings in trees. He hides in your house, under the key. (answer: a monkey, in the cupboard.)

#2:  This animal lives in Africa and has a big horn.  You can find him in the room with toys, not corn.

(answer: a rhinoceros, in the toy room.)

#3: Your next clue is with an animal who likes to hop.  You can find her in the room of your Pop.

(answer: a bunny, in Dad and Mom's room.)

#4: The next animal stands on one leg and is pink.  You can find her somewhere in this house watching TV, I think.

(answer: pink flamingo, by the TV)

#5: The next animal has lots of spots and is just a baby.  Look in the boy's room, for luck, just maybe.

(answer: baby dalmatian, in the brother's room.)

#6: This next animal is big, strong, and it can really go.  Perhaps you could say he is buff and low. He is in the green room, under the water.

(answer: buffalo, under the upstairs sink.)

#7: This next animal carries his house on his back and tastes great in a stew. He's now in a pot getting ready for you.

(answer: turtle, in the pots and pans.)

#8: Last clue in your bear hunt! Go to the place where towels are kept. But be careful we haven't found that bear yet!

(answer: Big Bear in the linen closet.)

Last clue on the big bear: You found me and I'm now yours to keep!  For your helpers, here's a special treat!

(a box of animal crackers for each guest.)

This is the only picture I happened to capture from this game.  Too much fun being had.

The bear hunt was So much fun!  The kids just loved going from clue to clue, running all over the house together!

One Art Project: Wild Animal Art!

While the kids were playing the first two games I had a fellow Mom help grab the kids aside to make their wild animal art.  She asked them which animal they wanted to make (by looking at my samples), then painted their hands accordingly on a small white canvas.  Then, helped them clean up and grab the next kid.

Then, while everyone was opening presents, I quickly turned their hands into their animals.  This was their "party favor".  These turned out so cute with their little hands.

But before presents, we had a quick pizza dinner, with "wild" fruit salad, and Pink Flamingo lemonade.

  

And of course, we had to enjoy our wild animal cupcakes.  These were real simple, I followed an idea I saw from Betty Crocker. 

Happy Birthday, Sweetie, you Wild Thing!

For more parties check out:

Angry Birds Party

Super Hero Birthday Party

Hot Wheels Birthday Party

The Garden Party Dress

As previously mentioned this cute girl had a special birthday last week.  And since she's been growing (taller, not wider) she was in need for a new dress for Church. 

I knew exactly what I wanted to sew up = a Garden Party dress by Oliver + S.  

As I picked this I was keeping in mind her signature style -- choosing her favorite colors and darling dress pattern.

And like with all Oliver + S dresses I've sewn it was really easy to read and really fun to complete.  Plus I learned a new skill, how to add a thread chain, for the closure in the back.

I took my girl downtown for some cute snaps in her  new dress.

I really didn't tell her to smile once, but she assumes this is what I want.

I have to say something silly to get a more genuine smile.  Toot noises are my best ammo.

Anyone remember this location I used from last year?  I just love the colors.

I actually changed the pattern a bit by tracing the top of the front bodice pattern piece on tracing paper and cutting out that piece in a different fabric.  I'm glad I did, it turned out just as planned.

All fabrics from JoAnns.

My Family Peg People

Are you a goodwill shopper?  I am very occasionally and more than not I return out of the store empty handed.

Well, I was looking for something very specific (for the second time) one Saturday and let my eight year old play in the toy section.

When I came over to retrieve him, my heart stopped (probably) as I saw this Gorgeous Castle from Melissa and Doug.  I flipped it over to see a $15 price tag and snatched it up as quick as a lick!  Not only was it the castle, but it included furniture pieces. I was thrilled!

Now, mind you it was dirty and dusty to pieces.  But nothing a little elbow grease couldn't solve.

As I came home beaming to my husband about my new purchase I quickly added, "You wouldn't mind if I spray painted the whole thing white and repainted it all....right?"

He somehow convinced him that this would not be the best use of my time and that it was cute enough, as is.  

So we settled on the idea of me just painting some peg people.  That seemed to make everyone happy.  (And as I was finishing painting the peg people during nap time an hour before she was to open the present, believe me I was happy with this decision.)

So, as you know I've made peg people before.  I casually asked my daughter which kind of dolls would be funner for a castle, for example-- Kings and Queens, or like Princesses, or like dolls of the family?

She let me know dolls of the family would be quite fun.

Thus:

So, I painted our cute family.  And as I've explained to the family a few times, it's everyone's likeness, meaning, no, those aren't actual outfits we own.

The three kid peg people came from JoAnns.  

The two adults and the baby peg people came from Michaels.

These little people and castle really lend themselves to some really fun playing.

This has been such a great toy that has been played with almost every day, even the boys really like playing with it.

Who wouldn't want to play with a little peg version of yourself?

Skirt + Shorts (+ Round - UP)

My girl had her birthday a couple days ago. So, of course in preparation I had to make her a couple things.

Up first in my mind I wanted to make her a play skirt with shorts attached.

I was looking around Jo-Anns when I spotted this darling soft, knit material.  I knew she couldn't resist those cute animals.  In fact, she found a scrap of it laying around and grabbed it and carried it around with her, even to soccer practice, afterwards declaring it her bookmark.  

Always a good sign she'll like the project.

Well, I spent some time finding some good ideas for skirts + shorts on the web.

  So I gathered a few up:

It's Always Autumn has a simple tutorial HERE.

Crafterhours shares her ideas Here.

Crafterhours also shares this Free full pattern via Craftsy Here.

Ultimately I decided to go with this simple tutorial via The Long Thread

I followed her ideas for the skirt, though I made it smaller.  Her tutorial is for a size 6.  I was shooting for size 4. I also used my already printed out Sunny Day Shorts pattern from Oliver + S.  Since I wanted the shorts to be short I made them a size smaller and cut off some length before getting started.

Worked like a charm.  I probably completed this project start to finish in 1 hour or less.  Not bad for a 1/2 yard of fabric.

Shorts!

My daughter loves them!  The skirt/shorts are super comfy and just darling on her.

The perfect skirt for picking flowers in!

Hot Wheel Birthday Party!!

Several months ago we had a Hot Wheel Birthday Party for my dear 5 year old.  My boy LOVES Hot Wheels!  He has since he was a little baby and plays with them almost every day.

 So a Hot Wheel Themed party was a natural choice. 

 

A couple weeks before the party I made up these invitations and emailed them to his friend's Moms.

I made this card using PicMonkey-- it was so simple and turned out so cute.

The day of the party arrived and the first thing my son did was hand everyone their freshly picked out Hot Wheel car.

Then my husband took over and in his most animated voice let the boys know they were gathered for one purpose only...."To have the ULTIMATE HOT WHEELS RACE!"  He informed them they were going through series of race car track games  to see who the ultimate hot wheel race car driver is.  But first they had to come up with their cool race car name. 

Each of the boys picked a name.  We had such awesome names as:  Cloud Cutter, Lighting Crisp, Beast Hunter, King, Road Runner, Racer.

Then, the racers were off to their First Competition! 

I made this game on a large poster board with circles, crayons, and a sharpie.  

Then the bulls eye mat was tapped on the ground in our kitchen and each of the racer had three chances to race their cars to see who could get the most points. 

Up next was the Pin the Wheel on the Hot Wheel.  

No party, in my opinion, is complete without a pin the something onto something else.  Gotta have it.

I made this by drawing a hot wheel onto a poster board, colored it with crayon, and outlined it with sharpie.  Then I made the wheel that was going to be pinned onto the hot wheel car out of cardboard.

I spent days and days trying to come up with a good plan for how to tell who wins this game-- bouncing a couple of ideas off my husband he came up with the idea to cut a hole into the wheel and putting a dot in the very center.  Each kid was assigned a different colored marker to mark their dot.  Whoever gets their dot closest to the red dot, is the winner.

Then instead of the traditional blindfold, which typically falls off or is see through, we used a beanie pulled down.  It worked Great!

Next we moved over to RACE TIME!

We split the boys into teams and they decided if they wanted to be a "motorcycle" which is fast, but small or a "monster truck" which is large, but slow.  After they choose teams we set them loose and they decorated their vehicles.

Once they were all set, we lined them up in their racing pits and had them race around our house.

 Monster Trucks Won!!  They were so large, the motorcycles couldn't get around them.

After all the fun games, we sat down for a pizza dinner, cake, and presents. 

Let's take one more look at that cake.

 

It was made rather simply, but looked great.

I made it using two cake boxes and filled up a small rectangle pan and my bunt cake pan.  Once it was cooled I did a little bit of cutting to make it a five.

Then I moved my cake onto the back of a foil lined cookie sheet.  I bought some black icing color, which worked great.  I did the top black and the sides green.  Finished with some yellow strips and two hot wheels that my boy chose.  Then, being goofy, I accidentally added the cars to the same side of the road-- oops.

For party favors we made some hot wheel candies. I made a template and wrapped up some mambos on top, and some heresy's chocolate and kit-kats on the bottom.  Then I wrapped those up in paper using a hot glue gun.  Then I glued four rollos to the sides for the wheels.

They turned out SO cute!  Then we added those to the party bags, filled with stickers and their hot wheel cars.

The party ended exactly two hours after we started.  It was the perfect time with really happy, pleasant boys.  A happy day, indeed!