A Day In My Life

When I realized that Harvey would have a Valentine party at his preschool this year, I got really excited. (Hey, it's a first for both of us!) He helped me look on Pinterest for ideas, and he really wanted to give away cars on a Valentine that said, "I wheelie like you." So we went to the dollar store to check out their selection... but when we got there, the cars looked really cheap and we found these dinosaurs instead. He was excited that they glow in the dark and if you put them in water they expand.  I got to work coming up with cute and funny phrases to go with them.. and my Laffy Taffy joke-loving side really started to show. Even though he only has eight kids in his class, I couldn't stop, so I made twelve.  These four are my favorite: Here's a printable PDF if you want to make some, although I removed the part about the dinos glowing in the dark so you could attach any dinosaur. To save, click the little arrow in the top righ...

Harvey is pretty much obsessed with underwater life. (Don't know why... we only have 3 fish tanks in our home). He was so excited about the thought of a SHARK birthday party. I thought it would be lots of fun to take a few kids to the aquarium, but our local aquarium relocated, and was closed during Harvey's birthday. So... I went with my second option - the local indoor pool. I took too long to reserve the room at the Rec Center, and it wasn't available by the time I called. So we started the party at our house. It actually worked out great, because I was able to decorate the night before and I had plenty of time to get everything ready. Our kitchen was taken over by sea weed! (Idea from Delia Creates .) And the best decoration of all, was Harvey's gift from Justin and I... a new fish tank (wait, did I say 3 tanks? The count is now at 4), with Glo Fish! They are so awesome! I wanted to come up with theme-friendly foods using spinach lin...

For fun we did a few Halloween-y activities. We made spinning spirits for Family Home Evening after talking about the Holy Ghost. I think I'll make that a tradition! Then for lunch we made jack-o-lantern quesadillas. Harvey wanted an angry face.. Easy and fun. And then after the kids found some glow sticks they wanted to take them in the bathtub and turn the lights off. I remembered the waterproof lights I bought for the glow-in-the-dark egg hunt around Easter, and I thought it would be fun to take a "spooky bath" with them since they were brighter. It was so fun! The kids put them in a bunch of different toys and had a blast.

Avery's birthday fell around the same time we were planning on blessing Max, and I decided it would be much easier for our family to come to one combined party. I debated on a theme - both girly and masculine - and finally decided on Princess and the Pea. As in, "our sweet pea." Justin didn't think all of the pink was very masculine, but oh well. I didn't do a whole lot of things that had to do with the theme, but I think it all went well together. Here's the invite: I made these delicious strawberry lime cupcakes (recipe from Your Cup of Cake , which is seriously my favorite cookbook ever!) and added a green lemonhead for the "pea". I made the centerpieces out of pink roses and a huge bag of frozen peas. It was so easy, and I thought it added just enough theme for a big munch/mingle kind of party. We normally bless our babies on Fast Sundays, which would have been perfect, because it fell exactly on Avery's birthday. But Justin ...

My baby boy turned FOUR! He requested a Dinosaur Party, and I was so excited to host a little party for his friends at our house. Here is the invite... When each child arrived, I adorned them with a dinosaur party hat, complete with spikes. (One little girl said she wanted a "girl hat" so I tied a little ribbon into a bow and glued it on the front of hers.) And after everyone arrived, we started lunch. I made up two signs... for two different types of dinosaurs. And my favorite part, was the swamp juice (just koolaid with dry ice). However, the dry ice totally cracked my dish! I'm not sure what I would put in the bottom to protect it next time, but it would be worth researching. If you're interested, here's a copy: Here is an alternate link to download the file: Dino Party Printables Then it was time for cake and ice cream. I this cake on pinterest, and I loved the trees, so I replicated them in green and added a few plastic dinosaurs to...

So.. I totally fell off the blogging bandwagon. I'm noticing a trend here... (haha. Story of my life.) Anyway, here's one of the little activities we did as part of our Halloween Advent... so fun!