Cars Party Inspiration Board

Ideas are in the works!!  My husband's planning on making up a racetrack!

Cars Birthday Invite

Asa has been planning his birthday party for months, literally.  Now we're finally getting close!  He's hooked on Cars and decided that's what he wanted when Safeway displayed a fantastic Cars cake.
My little buddy's been giving me all the details over and over, "My friends will come over, we'll play upstairs, eat Cars cake and chocolate milk, or something okay??!"  So that's what we're doing!
His ideal guest list includes his cousins in Seattle (in case they're reading this......).
He helped me design his invites today. (I didn't want it to be an exact picture of Lightning McQueen so this is what we came up with!)  

DIY: Cardboard Gingerbread House

We do a Gingerbread House party every year and my talented husband whipped this cardboard house up for the kids in 20min! He used a refrigerator box, cut a triangle on the front and back and folded down the sides to form a peak. (Make sense?) I used paper and leftover felt for quick decorations. It was a big hit - and Asa's still playing with it.

Of course - you could paint it brown and add on a lot more "candy" too!

Halloween Costumes

Here's our kiddos all set for the party! Thanks to pinterest for inspiration! Ida was a candy corn and our little boy was Johnny Cash.

I sewed a really basic pillowcase dress for the candy corn.  I just googled some pillowcase dresses for reference and here's what it ended up being. It measures about 14in long (all said and done with 5/8in seams) and 16in wide.  I left 5/8in casing up top for the ribbon and cut triangles off the top two corners (for her arms).  I lined it for extra warmth and as an easy way to get the arm holes done.

Johnny Cash was pretty easy.  Asa had the guitar, my husband had the belt buckle and those were his boots when he was little.  A little black hair dye and a trip to Ross for pants and a shirt and there you have it!

Real Parties: Kids Carving Party

Sorry for the blogging silence!  I really don't have any specific excuse other than the normal busy with kids and playing catch up!
My family grew up carving pumpkins together every year and we still regularly get together to carve.    This past weekend we had a casual carving party at our place.  Super easy and fun! The night before I ran out to the dollar tree, grabbed a few things for some decor, and that was that. The best thing about this party was that from the set-up to the clean up it was kid friendly. Asa (he's two in a half by the way) was able to help me decorate everything.  He helped me make the cookies, cut them out, and patiently sat spreading the icing with a toothpick.  I was impressed at how careful he was! He even held off eating them until his friends and cousin came over. (My mom's sugar cookie recipe is really the best. I did a faux royal icing which tastes better than actual royal icing, but nothing beats a buttercream so I added on some canned last minute.)

I got a bunch of googly eyes at the dollar store and Asa and I taped them on the cups and plates.  He saw Monster's Inc recently so this made him extremely excited.

Yup.  Here's my crazy helper.

I despise mice.  I have a phobia of them.  My sister-in-law picked these up for one of our parties a couple years back and I held on to them.  But it really took a lot for me to handle these things.

Plastic tablecloth from the dollar tree works great for cleaning up all the pumpkin goop. 

Mummy dogs have been popping up all over pinterest so we got some crescent dough, cut it into strips, and wrapped them up.  Asa helped wrap them up too!  Great kid activities.

When it came to the actual carving part, well the kids headed downstairs and we carved.  My brother does extremely detailed pumpkins.  He created cinderella's pumpkin coach a week ago for his daughter!   (The garland in the background there is just a package of foam pumpkins from the dollar tree stapled to black ribbon.)

They spent the evening doing a bunch of this.

The finished product.

Bassinet Makeover

Here's another post that's just taken forever for me to blog!  At the end of last summer I found this Eddie Bauer bassinet for $5 at a yard sale.  It was in great condition, just missing a wheel.

BEFORE - this is what it looked like before.  It just didn't match the plans for Ida's room and I wanted to have fresh bedding.  So we painted it white and after searching all over for new bedding I decided to venture out and make some! And here's the result! Just don't look too closely - I had to fudge a few things.

I didn't attempt to re-create the canopy.  I used coupons at JoAnns for the fabric so the total makeover cost was $35 for paint, fabric and notions plus an extra $20 for the baskets which I got on sale at Michaels. My husband had some spare wheels that he put on there and voila! $60 - great sewing challenge and fun project! (They retail over $100)

This storage space has been invaluable on those late night feedings and diaper changes!  Everything's right there.

She's been pretty happy with it.

Just love those chubby cheeks!

Weekend Fun

Can you tell we had a blast in Seattle this weekend?!

Harry Potter Party Ideas

We're headed to the final Harry Potter tonight and I happened to stumble on this today!  Fun fun!
Butterbeer recipe here from Heather Bailey via birthdaygirlblog.
Broomstick tutorial here.

U-Pick Flowers

We've got a great local u-pick cutting garden, Sunshine Crafts and Flowers. I've used it for a number of weddings and it's a great cost-saving and fun option. You never know quite what flowers will be blooming until you get there.
The peonies are going crazy right now due to our cold weather. I took my nieces with me today on a girls' outing and we had a blast. Amara let us know that her flower was just like Rapunzel's and Madeline (the older one) was carefully selecting each blossom, removing leaves, happily posing for loads of pictures, and helping Amara.

Flower Girl and Ring Bearer Alternative

(image from Style Me Pretty)
Instead of having little kids throw petals or carry the rings why not have them carry signs, flags, or banners?!

(image from Martha Stewart)

Ida Mae Dekker Church

Look who arrived!  This is what we've been up to the last few days! 

Real Parties: Cat in the Hat Party

This past weekend we had the Cat in the Hat Party for our now 2 year old! 

We set up our IKEA kids table with craft paper for the kids to color on.
Ties -made from cardstock (almost all the decor was from cardstock - diy details coming!)
Treat bags for the kids (included Cat in the Hat stickers).

Umbrella Sugar Cookies (recipe)

Red Velvet Cake (recipe from epicurious - after making it and being unhappy with the color and texture, we re-made it with these alterations)

BLT Bites (Snack for the adults!  This was an idea that I got from my friend, Katie - easy to do and really tasty!)

No surprise that only the babies were willing to wear the hats!