diy: glow in the dark easter egg hunt

so... i know easter is long gone until next year.

but i still wanted to share this incredibly fun idea we did this year.

spotted it on pinterest as an indoor game for the kiddos

& turned it into an outdoor party for 11 littles...

WHO HAD A BLAST!

and EVERYONE says they can't wait until next year.

(picture taken by my friend mindy)

we had a glow in the dark easter egg hunt.

it was SO much fun.

each parent chipped in eggs, glow sticks & candy for their kids

& we bought pizza to feed the littles while we stuffed eggs.

(picture taken by my friend mindy)

here's some advice we learned along the way:

-buy the BIG eggs, but don't buy them from the dollar store

(the small eggs won't hold everything without tape, and the dollar store brand won't stay shut)

-the best eggs were the BIG ones from big lots & walmart.

-to get your glow on, buy bulk packs of glow in the dark bracelets

(found at walmart, & the dollar store all for $1)

-SAVE the bracelet connectors!!!

(the kids are going to want to wear every glow thing they take out of the eggs)

-get small-ish candies, too big & you won't have room for the bracelet.

-make sure you turn off your sprinkler system

(because when you set the under 2 crowd out to hunt in the bushes close to the house, they are going to FREAK when they get sprayed by water in the dark!!)

in the end it took us longer to stuff the eggs than it took for the kids to find them.

but every single kid LOVED it.

from the youngest (which was rance) to the oldest (which was mason)

even the parents were excited with the glow in the dark eggs!

and...here in florida..

it's much more fun to run after your kid in the dark for chocolate hidden in glow in the dark eggs,

than in the 90 degree, full sun heat that leaves them boo-hooing when the crack open their egg to a mushy chocolate mess.

trust me.

the ONLY down side is it's a little difficult to get cute egg-hunting pictures.

sometimes you gotta settle for the memories

(and your friend's un-blurry pre-hunt pictures!)

we are most definitely having a second annual glow in the dark easter egg hunt next year.

the dude is already asking for it!

xo-k



recipe: shirley temple cupcakes

so you know how crazy busy  life can get & then in the blink of an eye a week has passed?

that's how i feel today.

i can't believe it's monday.

...a week later monday to be exact.

last week:

-re-dyed my hair purple (it fades fairly quickly)

-rance had his first illness, a double ear infection.

-i made my first ever, from-my-own-imagination crockpot meal (recipe to follow soon)

-we had our last soccer practice of the season

-i introduced mason to space camp (the totally-awesome-80's-movie)

-i finished 'crowning glory of calla lily ponder' & hit my goal of 24 books for the year

-i started reading 'little women', to surpass my goal of 24 books for the year.

-i went to the midnight premiere of breaking dawn with 3 of my favorite people

 & 2 of my favorite teenagers :)

-i came down with a 24 hr bug

-mason had his last soccer game of the season & got his first trophy ever.

-i baked goodies for my cousin's bridal shower

-i saw breaking dawn AGAIN with 2 of the same favorites from the midnight premiere.

-i spent time with family & laughed my butt off.

that's the spread at my cousin lisa's bridal shower.

i am responsible for the dessert (minus the bundt cake), along with a little help from my mom on the piping job.

my other cousin (who is ALSO a lisa) put together a beautiful table & party.

it was my first shot at 'girly' treats for a grown up party

& i was pretty excited about how they turned out!

the party throwing lisa is a graphic designer

& she made me up some graphics to match the invites she designed.

& i made up the cupcake toppers.

these were shirley temple cupcakes, found via pinterest OF COURSE.

i pinned them awhile back, and when she called me up & asked me to contribute i went to my boards for 'pink inspiration'.

they were SO moist & SO good..

very mild cherry flavor, but still very good.

here's a link to the recipe from 'the curvy carrot'.

with thanksgiving this week, there is no sign off life slowing down either..

here's to a busy life, that even with it's twists & turns & ups & downs,

is SO worth it! :)

xo-k

linking to:

tip junkie

today's creative blog

dr. seuss birthday: food

the food.. ohh the food...

i seriously don't think i've EVER had THAT much fun putting together a menu.

and it went without saying that when you work that hard on matching food to literature..

you HAVE to put labels on everything!!

and let me tell you..

everyone enjoyed the labels just about as much as the food!

for the kiddo's drinks we had a few juice choices:

pink ink yink dring (the cat in the hat): fruit punch

shloppity shlop (the lorax): blue raspberry

gloppity glop (the lorax): grape

i fell in love with the cups at this dr. seuss party..

& was so thankful she listed that she got them at hobby lobby!

i have THE WORST luck with kids not showing up..

and honestly, i'm beyond tired of coming up with treat bags

& then ending up with a bunch of left over treats.

so i decided these reusable cups were much more practical favors.

i couldn't afford to purchase the etsy digital file she did for the tags,

so i just used the doctor seuss font i found online & made my own flags.

the food:

noodles for poodles (fox in socks): caprese pasta salad

green eggs (green eggs & ham): deviled eggs

one fish, two fish (one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish): goldfish

truffula fruit (the lorax): grapes

cat's great tricks mix (the cat in the hat): maple bacon chex mix



grinitch spinach (what was i afraid of?): spinach dip

we had two sandwich choices, which i guess didn't get photographed..

ham (green eggs & ham)

rare who roast beast (the grinch who stole christmas): roast beef

the dessert buffet:

sneetch bellies (the sneetches): oreo truffles

which are, by the way TO DIE FOR.

thing 1 & thing 2 cupcakes (the cat in the hat): red velvet cake with buttercream frosting

(i can't find the frosting recipe i used, but it wasn't my favorite, so i'm not so sad about that!)

i printed out all these nice little circles with 'thing 1' and 'thing 2' to put on the cupcake wrappers..

annnddddddd.. ya.. they wouldn't stay on. neither double stick tape nor glue dot worked for me..

i was bummed for about 2.5 seconds & then i got over it! :)

yertles turtles (yertle the turtle): chocolate pretzel turtles

these were ALL over the web a few months ago..

and they are super simple.

pretzels, rolos & pecans

line a baking sheet with foil & place pretzels out

put rolos on top.

heat in 250 oven about 2-4 minutes, until the candy gets shiny

DO NOT OVER BAKE.

(experience speaking here people!)

pull out & immediately place pecan on top & push down.

viola. simple & tasty! :)

the cat's hat birthday cake: red velvet cake & buttercream icing

(same recipe as above)

as you can see, the babe had NO problem diving right into his cake.

he picked up each layer like a cookie and totally went for it!

he was in hoggg heaven.

xo-k

here's the invitation.
& here are the decorations.

dr. seuss birthday: decorations

ya, ok so the kid is almost 14 months old..

cut me some slack will ya?

there is no shortage of pictures or words in here..

so it's been a little daunting to get the posts together.

i'm going to start with the decorations..

coming in the front door.

i borrowed the idea from a few other parties to have 'happy birthday to you' by dr. seuss there for guests to leave a message to rance for his first birthday on one of the pages.

this sign is typed up in a dr. seuss font i found online..

printed off & placed in a frame.

the confetti is punched out from the scraps of book pages left over from other decorations.

i made this wreath from book pages out of a few cut up dr. seuss books.

i just cut the pages down into a square (6x6 i think)

& rolled them up into cones gluing them down as i went.

i kinda just wung it.. thankfully my booboos are covered by the front piece!

i spray painted a red wooden number one

& found some dr. seuss stickers at micheals to add to it.

for one of the table centerpieces i saved a bunch of boxes

& wrapped them up in coordinating wrapping paper

(not my favorite designs.. but it was harder than i thought to find the right color blue!)

i bought a cat in the hat plush off ebay for $6 (including shipping) & set it on top..

i put some of the stickers on cardstock to spell out the babes name..

attached them to wooden skewers

& then stuck them in the top of the boxes of the centerpiece.



for the dessert buffet i used the same method of wrapped boxes to make a cupcake/cake tower.

i cut out banner pieces from book pages & attached them to seam binding.

and put out our collection of dr. seuss books.

i sucked it up & shelled out the money to have balloons this go round :)

more banners from book pages..

i printed out some monthly photos of the babe & put numbered stickers on them...

then i made some clay 'rocks' & put wire photo holders in them..

more banners in the kitchen...

and then i made food labels for everything from cardstock..

printed labels & stickers.

hopefully you can check back tomorrow for the food!

xo-k

see the invites here.

the food is here.

linking here:

whipperberry

sun scholars

dr. seuss birthday: invitation

most of the invitations for the babe's birthday have been delivered..

so i figured i'd share them here.

especially as it's pretty much the closest thing to a craft i've done in the last month.

there were a TON of cute invitations on etsy.

a TON.

i was having a really hard time narrowing one down..

i knew i wanted the cat in the hat on the invite,

and i ABSOLUTELY wanted the wording to reflect dr. seuss rhymes,

and i really wanted one that had everything in a dr. seuss font.

so as cute as all the etsy invites were..

i just wasn't head over heels in love with any of them.

i thought about enlisting the help of my cousin lisa,

who is a GENIUS with these things.

(here is her fb page: glitz by lisa)

i even called her & asked her if she could do something like i was wanting.

she agreed & asked that i send her some dr. seuss images that i liked.

but when i sat down & started googling..

i found THE PERFECT image.

it meant i could do it all myself!

ya see, i can't do all that fancy stuff in photoshop.

one, because i don't own it & two, because i'd have to learn how to.

i'm guessing that it's an image from a digital book..

but i knew i could make it work.

first i loaded it up to picnik

(if i haven't said it before, i'll say it now, it's SO worth the premium membership on this site!)

i used the cloning tool to remove the text.

i'm SURE there is an easier way...

but this was quick enough for me & i didn't have to ask for help.

i just picked a white spot on the page & started going over the text to remove it.

once that was done i resized my image to 5x7.

& saved it to my computer.

i found & downloaded the dr. seuss font from this site.

i opened up the saved file without the text in microsoft paint. 

created a text box, put in my wording, & saved the completed invite to my computer.  

i uploaded it to snapfish & ordered 5x7 prints.

with shipping i paid $20 for 26 invites.

(snapfish, even with shipping was cheaper than local stores for a 5x7)

now, that may seem sort of expensive, but i actually saved money.

most of the etsy invites ranged $12-$20 for just the digital file..

then i would have paid another $20 to get them printed.

and i honestly couldn't be more happy with how they turned out!

i got everything i wanted on one invite :)

besides the wording, i think my favorite part is the fact that in this cat in the hat image..

he's holding a birthday cake :)

have a great weekend! :)

we are off to nana's for our last sleep-away before school starts in a week!

xo-k

view the party food here
view the decorations here

linking to:

tidy mom

whipperberry

733

somewhat simple
tatertots & jello

life: 1st birthday theme

sometimes stepping back & focusing is a good thing... right?

or maybe i should say..... obsessing instead?

ya. i'm obsessing...

i mean.. you only get ONE first birthday right?

& it's coming quicker than i'd like to admit!

i was fairly sure i was going to have a knights & dragon's party for the babe..

my aunt set me on that path because she calls the babe 'sir rancelot'.

cute, right?

but tough. so tough.

i mean. everything just seemed too grown up.

i couldn't get a handle on the vibe.

...and ya.. i realize that probably sounds silly..

but what i mean is that stuff wasn't jiving for me..

food, decorations, colors, games, favors... all that stuff.

and i thought it was just because i was coming off of a post-birthday high with the lego birthday..

but when it didn't subside i knew i was in trouble..

and that's where the birthday express catalog stepped in.

up until mason's lego birthday, i was all about avoiding the themed birthdays..

i like the non-character, build from scratch birthdays..

but truth is.. sometimes those are hard.

original. fun. but hard.

so, as i flipped through the catalog, just because.....

ya know, i can't toss it out without looking at it first..

i found like 4 different themes i liked.

a lil' rebel one with argyle & skulls.. blues & blacks..

a dinosaur one..

an owl one... which i had already contemplated before...

and then the one that, after a little digging online..

i decided i just couldn't NOT do...

just a little something i whipped up...

any guesses as to what it might be?

i'm SO excited!! :)

xo-k

ps. back tomorrow with some crafty posts... i think the dry spell has left me..

wellllllll.. maybe it's just that i ran out of smut to read... ya. i'm thinking that's it. :)

lego birthday: desserts

next up.. dessert.

'cause really that's the best part of a birthday party anyways right?

i REALLY wanted to throw a whole bunch of candy up there as well..

but that was just outta my budget this go round.

(and with my intentions of jumping back on a diet post-party.. i didn't want to be stuck with a ton of candy!)

after six birthday parties, i think it's safe to say cupcakes are were it's at for me.

i pretty sure i've said that before. guess what? you'll probably hear it again :)

i made 'hershey's perfectly chocolate chocolate cake' for the cake...

and i'm kinda ashamed to say i used store bought icing...

yes... i'm hanging my head in shame...

BUT in my defense..

i spent probably 20 hours between friday & saturday making soo many other things..

i didn't have the chance to taste test a bunch of recipes.

i needed something i knew would work.

don't judge me! :)

this silicone minifigure mold was put to good use.

for some reason (which seems stupid to me), the US lego website doesn't sell it..

you have to get it on ebay, etsy, or amazon.

after some trial & error i found the best way (for me at least) to fill in the mold with different colors.

it's not sectioned off well, so it's tricky.

first, i microwaved the candy melts in a disposable icing bag..

(a tip i got from wendy @ ramblings from the sunshine state)

SO much better than the squeeze bottles, trust me!

i just put the bag over the top of a microwave safe mug & started melting them.

starting with the shirt.. pipe in a small layer, enough to just fill the bottom of the shirt section.

next fill in the pants with whatever color you want. you can put a thicker layer on here, but be careful not to overflow into the hand cavities.

next pipe in a dollop on each hand section, as well as the head.

after all sections are filled, come back to the shirt portion & put another good sized squirt in the middle.

then tap the mold gently on your surface to fill & help any bubbles rise to the surface.

thankfully, they only take a few minutes to set up... since i made over 40 & there are only 8 sections!

once the dude saw these lego minifigure heads,

there was no way i was going to get away with NOT making them.

truthfully.. they weren't as difficult as i thought they were going to be.

i've seen a couple different methods for making them..

but i went with snipping a small piece off the bottom of a regular sized marshmallow..

and snipping off a small piece of a miniature marshmallow..

then using a little water rubbed on the top of the big one

& the bottom of the small one to stick them together..

then dipped them in yellow candy melts & drained off the excess..

once dry i used black decorator gel to put on the faces.

the toughest part was figuring out what i was going to put them in to keep them upright.

problem solved when my grandparents came to visit & brought mason an early birthday present!

i used two lego racers boxes, poked holes in them first with a metal skewer..

& then stuck in the lollipop sticks!

next up... the lemon minifigure gummies.

again i used the minifigure molds.

got the idea from modern moments design via tipjunkie.

and the gummie recipe from skip to my lou 

they turned out good, but a little chewy for our taste, so i think we may decrease the amount of gelatin next time.

it was fast & messy, so there are no pictures.

the mixture is hot & sets fast, so there are no pictures.

i burnt my fingers twice & got my foot run over by the babe while trying to avoid tripping over him, so there are no pictures! :)

they were a big hit with the kids though my oma didn't like them so much!

that's her gummie eating face :) haha!

last but not least..

i tried my hand at the cookie cupcake.

i just used the nestle toll house chocolate chip recipe & substituted in mini m&m's for the chocolate chips.

wouldn't you know it i picked to take a picture of the only one without m&m's in it?!?!?!

of course i didn't realize it until i uploaded the pictures!!

again, they had store bought icing..

I KNOW!

i promise, next time no store bought, if you promise to leave me a link with a tried & true easy magical vanilla frosting! :)

but even they were a hit.

my uncle mike snagged two before i could even get them put up for the next day!

next up. games & favors. :)

and who knows.. maybe i'll tell you how much i spent.

maybe. :)

xo-k

for the lego birthday overview post click here.

for decorations click here.
for the invitation click here.

linking to:
tatertots and jello
something swanky

lego birthday: decorations

my philosophy on decorations is this.

if you can use it again, spend the money.

if you can't, do it on the cheap. 

i took an empty diaper box & wrapped it in red wrapping paper. i printed out the word 'welcome' on regular old computer paper, colored around the outside edge with a yellow sharpie & cut it out. attached some balloons on curling ribbon & set it out on the front step.

since we served the food buffet style, i put the plates, napkins & forks on the buffet.

for the table:

i covered the table in a blue plastic tablecloth from family dollar, and made a runner out of bubble wrap. i got the idea from delia creates. i didn't read the tutorial, i just sort of flew by the seat of my pants. let me tell you. you definitely want to spray the bottom side of this, not the bubble side. i ended up having to spray both sides. i did the bubble side first & it ended up very uneven. i had to go back over the smooth side to get it look evenly coated. it took a can & a half of green spray paint to do 3 12' pieces.

for the balloon topiary:

i cut a dowel rod in half & spray painted it green because it's what i had on hand. my mom cut up some floral foam & wedged it into a ceramic pot, then we covered it with duplo legos. for the balloons, i blew up the balloons & tied them to a piece of fishing line. once i felt i had enough on there, i just started wrapping it around the dowel. nothing technical. it wasn't pretty underneath, but thankfully the balloons covered all that up!

for the decorations on the dessert buffet, i started with my brother's old legos, that are still constructed, living up & away from little hands in his old bedroom closet. my mom cleaned them up & we set them out. there is a tow truck on the left side, as well as a helicopter. up top is a semi with a flatbed & some of mason's new lego racers.

for the banner:

i printed out my letters in the lego font, at size 500. the idea came from this party here @ homemaking fun. i again colored around the edge with a sharpie marker & cut it out, attaching it to a piece of red cardstock. i punched holes in the top of each corner & strung it onto blue curling ribbon.

the two blue boxes up at the top are mine & my brothers old lego sets. (yep, still have those too) we cleaned them up & set them out as well. my mom picked up these two plush lego men @ toys r us to add to the decor! (aren't they cute!) you may notice they have tags on them still. mason had to choose one to keep after all was said & done. the other.. well.. he went back to the store. :)

the red box with mason's name on it is actually his present from us. i wrapped it in the same red paper as the 'welcome' box & added his name in the same manner as the 'welcome' box & dessert banner. i went through & put together a bunch of my brother's old minifigures & set them out on the edge of the shelf. mason is all about the minifigures! it was so cool to see all the different minifigs. from policemen, to emts, to colonial soldiers & what i can only describe as some of robin hood's merry men!

i picked up a lego storage container as part of mason's presents, & we stuck it out on the dessert bar as a cupcake riser. (it's currently being used as a cupcake holder, since we brought home about 15 cupcakes!)

any questions?

i'd be happy to answer!

back with more tomorrow!

xo-k

for the overview lego post click HERE.
for desserts click here.
for the invitations click here.

you can find the lego font here

linking to:
the blackberry vine
tatertots & jello