Pink Monkey Flower Birthday Party?

I am just now getting back to posting.  I have a feeling that no matter how good my intentions are, I will never really stay current with this blog (or any).  But, I can sure tell you that my heart and mind want to. I think we all do so much already, some things just fall in the cracks.  I guess I'd rather make the little cutesy things, give them away or bake away than talk about it.  (Or show it.)  So now you all know, I am not Little Ms. Blogger, or photographer, I am just a Mom that wears a million hats and tries to get it on a blog when she can.

So....

Pink Monkey Birthday Party? 

My daughter (Lilypad) really wanted pink monkey cake pops for her Birthday. She also wanted flowers and Pirates and a Pinata.  Oh, and she told me she wanted the bounce house and popcorn.  Alrighty then!  She is one of a kind.  She loves many things and wants to be able to have it all and all at once, not caring if it matches or not.  She is just a treasure to me.

                                                                         Monkey!

IT RAINED!

The bounce house did not happen.  But, the painting party DID happen.  The girls got a heart shaped box and the boys got a treasure chest.  So cool!  I ordered enough and Lily was able to have one of each.  This was awesome!  We hired this gal Sandy from KlayKids. LOVE her!  We know Sandy from my kids school where they take the extra curricular ceramics class.  We originally were going to have the kids paint outside and bounce house it up, but because of the massive rain storm we had, be brought it inside.  Thank goodness for having a big living room with wood floors.

                                         Big Brother Noah working on his Treasure Chest.

                                Lily's BFF Nathan.  This has to be the nicest boy I have ever met.

                  Great Family Friends, I love that Dad got in there and helped.  I love these guys.

                                                     Birthday girl with her treasure chest.

                                       Sweet girl from school.  This is the flower box, isn't it cute?

Then we had the pinata in the garage.  We went with a flower pinata.  Beating a flower is much easier on the psyche than a beloved pink monkey.

                                                            Birthday Girl taking a swing.

                                              This little one was the toughest of the bunch!

                                                                Big brother and his turn!


Then, we had the cake pops and cupcakes.  I went lazy with the extra cupcakes.  I used my cricut to cut out a flower template and then used colored sugar to make the design.  Then of course no Pink Monkey Flower Birthday Party can be complete without Pink Monkey Cake Pops.

 Let's not forget the popcorn!

Finally, a moment of heart filled pride for my baby girl. Shortly before my girl turned 4 a young girl in our community died of cancer.  But, before she did, she started up an AMAZING gift of joy to children all over the world called Joy Jars, where she encouraged children to NEVER EVER GIVE UP.  (NEGU)  We had been hearing about this little girl, praying for her and Lily said she wanted to do something or give something to the little girl who died.  So, we asked all of our invited guests to bring toys to fill Blessing Boxes to fill Joy Jars for NEGU instead of gifts.  We were blown away by the generosity of our friends.  Thank you for your love for Lily and your generosity to these kids.  Lily had a great 4th Birthday Party.

                                                                       Thank you!


 

Space Rocket Birthday Party

For my son's 5th Birthday he wanted a Space Rocket Party.  I just got online and started clicking away.  Turns out, I think there is a blog or an idea for just about every kind of party one could dream of.  That-is-COOL!  I love it.  So, I found a bunch of different ideas that I loved and I used some from a few different sites.  I also used my Cricut Space Party Cartridge!  It is incredibly cool.  Here is the invitation.

It was pretty cool how the flame pulls out to read the invitation.  They were surprisingly easy. I used blue, black and yellow cardstock some velum for the window and gems for the lights. Little bit of glitter glue and there you have it.  Easy Peasy & Cute.

I then found this gal and made Jet Packs.  They are time consuming to make (I made 20 of them).  The kids helped with the packing peanuts and that was fun for them. We got ALL of the bottles and packing peanuts for FREE using Freecycle.  If you don't already freecycle, find out if you have one available in your towns or nearby towns, I think it is a great way to keep stuff out of the landfills and clean out your house, or even to find 40 empty soda bottles without having to drink a drop.   One of the things I did wrong was fill the Jet Packs too full.  I liked the original one I saw better, that way when the kids would jump up and down or run around they'd make noise.  These were still a big hit and I know a couple of the kids that still have theirs and it is 3 months later.

FOOD!  I used a couple of sites for the food ideas.  We used UFO Bagels and Saturn Pizza's and the Cheetos ideas from the interweb, the rest Monte and I just came up with names for food we wanted to serve.  I love labels, so we of course had to come up with clever names for things.

You have got to LOVE Dry Ice - right?  It was a huge hit.  We used V8 Fusion juice for the Rocket Fuel.  

Let the Games Begin!!

We played Pin the Alien on the Moon.  I made the Aliens with my Cricut Space Party Cartridge and Monte got an image of the moon on line and used his Large Format Printer to get a big Moon.  

I made the Banner too using my Cricut.  I can't find out which one I used for the life of me, once I do, I shall update it.  

Then my incredibly AWESOME and BRILLIANT hubby found a Rocket Launcher that you can order, and make at home, then download prints to make homemade rockets.  Monte was so excited he nearly burst. So, not only did he make the Rocket Launcher, but he decided to make a rocket for each kid. (20)  He also had some 'practice rockets' that he 'practiced' with outside at night when the kids were in bed.  Let's just say this really made the party BLAST OFF.  It was a huge hit and some of the kids took their rockets home.  They flew everywhere!  In the road, down the street, in the neighbors yards.  We were finding the rockets for like a week.  

Then there was CAKE!

I was going to make a Space Shuttle Cake but, as the date of the party got closer, I ran out of steam.  So, I went with cupcakes instead.  I just got a white cake box and frosting, I added silver jimmies to the cake batter, with the hopes that they would look like little rocks inside (it was fine) and then sprinkled the silver sugar on top to make it look like gravel or space rocks.  Then, using Cricut Space Party Cartridge I made more space rockets and glued 1/2 of a skewer to them and jabbed them into the cupcake and called it done.  I also made the Alien Head Cake Pops, using my book from Bakerella.  The cake pops were lemon and I found the purple chocolate covered sesame seeds at Party City.  

So, the Aliens weren't as awesome as the ones in the book, but not bad for my second try at cake pops.

Then, it was time to leave.  I made homemade Moonsand.  I got the idea from another Rocket themed blog post, and used her link for making the moonsand.  I then used some cute 'to go' containers I had left over from a Baby Shower I co-threw.  Then I used the  Cricut Space Party Cartridge to make the UFO's and put them on the box.  I used a normal Circle Punch and a Thank you Stamp to finish the job. I also found Jet gummies at our local candy store and put them in little baggies for each kid.  

Noah's favorite color is purple, so that was the color of the moonsand.  Now, one thing I'd do differently is put a note in the bucket with the moonsand.  I'd say what it is and how to use it and how to preserve it.  I did not do that, I think it was something I wanted to do, but it just didn't happen.  Turns out, not everyone knows what it is and how to use it.

So, there you have it, the Space Rocket Themed Birthday Party.  Use all, use some, add to it, let me know how yours turns out!

Cake Pops - the beginning...

                                                                   

Ahhh, Cake Pops...
I was given this book from a friend that said she 'thought of me' when she saw it.  I was thinking, 'she must be crazy' but now I am in love!  So, I am forever grateful for my dear friend Kandice who feeds my addictions.

Our amazing and awesome and super cool feel at home church TerraNova had a VBS this past summer called A Jungle Adventure!  I was given the honor of helping out with the Crafts for the week and had a ton of super helpful co-leaders and helpers.  At the end of the week, I really wanted to do something special for them as a thank you.  Now, what better way to say Thank you than with a Cake Pop?  Right?

Me, being the person that I am, that loves themes instantly thinks of MONKEYS!  Now, I only had a couple of days to think of this and plan, so, I didn't have time to make my practice pops.  I just dove right in.  Honestly, I think everyone should start out with the basics, something simple, like a ball in a cup or just a ball on a stick.  But, I was pressed for time.  So, I just went for it.

Not bad for my first attempt.  I think these little guys turned out pretty darn cute.  Oh, Bakerella how I love you so!  I put them in little bags that I got from Michael's and followed along with the books instructions/guidelines/ideas.   I used a chocolate cake mix and chocolate frosting.  I couldn't find the mini black wafer sprinkles (it was summer - those come out in the Fall) so I had to make do with what I had.  The sugar looked better than me just drawing in the eyes, and I wanted it to look different from the nose.  So, that is what I came up with.  :)

My second attempt at cake pops was for my son's 5th Birthday party.  I made them for the grown-ups, but the kids went wild for them.  My son's party was a Space Rocket Theme.  (Stay tuned, I will have a party post soon.) So, I made Alien Heads!

Cute huh?  No where near as perfected as Bakerella.  I sure am in awe of her awesomeness.  But, still cute! I used a Lemon cake mix and Lemon frosting for the Aliens.

And there you have it, just the beginning of my cake pop experimenting!

My daughter informed me that she wants a Pink Monkey themed Birthday Party, with flowers.  Okay, oh, the options are endless.  Stay tuned.  (Her Birthday is at the end of March.)