Teddy bear birthday

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So it's just been like 18 months since this party, but I am finally uploading pix to the computer and trying to declutter my to-do list. Bekah decided to have a teddy bear party, and she wanted purple and teal for her colors.  So we went on a bear hunt-on Pinterest. Because there are a billion cute ideas involving teddy bears!

  
One of the best things about this party was the low cost decor. I learned how to make these awesome tissue flowers and we used them as a main ingredient.  Add in some balloons, with a marble inside so they will hang upside down, twist up some streamers, and you have a lot of bang for your buck!

We put some on the front door, too.

These basic cupcakes are super cute with printables from chickabug.com. 

I actually took the cupcake wrapper (from chickabug) and cut it to fit the front of my plain blue treat bags. A little ribbon, and you have a custom treat bag worthy of any little girl's birthday wishes!

These are teddy bear Oreo pops. Just a double stuf Oreo dipped in candy coating, then mini Oreo for the ears, more googly eyes, a red mike n Ike, and another mini Oreo mouth. 

 I attempted some bear cupcakes-I think these are just mini kisses, Wilton googly eyes, and then an upside down cocoa candy melt with a little frosting mouth and red hot nose.  

I used another tissue pom, this one mini, to dress up my cake plate. I attached some ribbon with glue dots, and it held up well and then came right off when we were done!  I also love using tissue paper to make jumbo confetti.

 

We did two simple activities-one was making headbands with teddy bear ears.( I have no idea what happened to that picture. Or pix of the birthday girl, for that matter!  Probably still in the digital clutter all around me...) But the other activity was making these cute teddy bear cars.  A mini snickers bar, m&ms and teddy grahams, all glued on with candy coating.  We also tried to have other bear-friendly foods: bit-o-honeys, more teddy grahams, nilla wafers and root "bear"!  

A "beary" good time was had by all!  (Sorry, I couldn't resist that one.)

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Andy's Mission Farewell

So eight months later...here are some pix of the birthday party/mission farewell  we had for Andy.  This is a terrible pic, but as usual, my camera was no where to be found so I had to use my phone.  I drew out the colors of the Uruguayan flag, white, yellow, and royal blue.  It was the end of August so there were sunflowers everywhere, a perfect addition to the table.

I did a picture display on our entryway bench with some mini flags in a garland.  We used pix from birth up to graduation and opening the mission call.

I set out some cards and pens for people to write some wishes/goodbyes for Andy.  We put them in his scrapbook after he read them.

This was a super easy detail but added a lot of drama- I took strips of crepe paper and cut them in varying lengths and then stitched them together on my sewing machine to create a garland.  They mimic the stripes on the Uruguay flag.

The AWESOME cake that my friend Karen made.  




One more shot, close up.  The detail was amazing and it was delicious!  She is super talented!



A little thank-you- mixed kisses and hugs in little paper sour cream containers with a sticker on it that had the address of the blog to keep up with Andy.

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Ellie's Mustache Bash!

So the other day I gave a sneak peek of Ellie's birthday party  with this invitation.

party pix

Here are some pix from the mustache bash!  I found lots of ideas for baby boy showers and little boy parties, but nothing for a little girls mustache party!  Go figure!  Anyway, I put on my thinking cap and this is what I came up with.  We picked one color to go with black and white, and she loved the lime green.  I found some great houndstooth ribbon and some lime and white striped ribbon and we went to town!

I had only my iphone to take pix with, so they aren't the greatest, but at least you can get the idea!

 Clear glass votives with ribbon glued around the bottom.  Added a mustache for flair!

Not only were these mustaches on a stick a cute centerpiece, but they were a hit with the girls.  We spent about 45 minutes taking mustache pix! You can get the template for these mustaches from easy makes me happy.  I used sticky back felt and cut two of each, then stuck the dowel in the middle.

Even daddy got in on the action!  Here he is with the birthday girl.  Doesn't he look like Mario?

The girls also wanted to do some mug shot style pix.  This is the rear shot!  :)

Our food table.  I tried super hard to come up with lots of puns!  Or mustache-y names!  We had Black Tie cupcakes, Puttin-on-the-Ritz crackers with  dip, Walking sticks (pretzels) with 24 K dip (cheese dip), Rainbow suspenders (extreme sour strips), and Mr. Goodbars (peanut butter bars).  I also set out some candy for the movie in little buckets-tuxedo buttons (jr. mints) and mother-of-pearls (green sixlets), plus chocolate and cherry twizzlers.  I had no creativity by this point, so they just got labeled twizzlers.  :)

                                    

For decor I used black and green and white.  Mostly tissue poms and streamers.  My pix didn't turn out, so use your imagination!  But I did put these mustache posters all over the mantel.

  You can get these mustache posters here!

We played stick the mustache on the man for a game.  It was so easy- I drew a face on my dry erase board.  The girls pulled down a hat over their eyes and stuck on their mustache.  They kept playing this through the night.  Simple is best!

It was a great night! We sent the girls home with these favors made out of clear candy tubes, filled with sixlets and decorated with ribbon, mustache sticker, twine and tag.

The favor bags were just simple green bags with a mustache sticker on them.  We also put in a chocolate mustache, a wax mustache and tootsie rolls!

I have to say this was my favorite design element.  I just took a clear cup, put on a mustache sticker, made a bow tie out of ribbon, and topped it off with a green stripey straw!  The best part-each mustache/tie combo was different so the girls were able to keep track of their drinks through the night.  Thanks for coming to see our 'stache bash!

linking up to tatertotsandjello

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Send in the Clowns...

And I just happen to know some!  Look how cute they are!  Daddy and Ellie were the hit of

Bekah's circus birthday party last week.

We did lots of fun games--like the balloon relay!  Bekah is trying so hard to pop her balloon!  I think it took her a while!

Here is one of our clown assistants setting up the Can Knockdown.  She had to do it like 5 million times!  It was a very popular event!

I had to show off my powerpoint skills--I made cute signs for each activity.  I am sure it took me way more time and effort than a lot of other people, but I am happy with the way they turned out!

The donut eating contest was another hit!  It was very fun to watch the girls try to get their donuts into their mouths without hands.

The birthday girl with her birthday cake.  Which you can't see because it was so windy that we went into the garage to light it and then it took so long to light that the litttle paper bunting I made caught on fire.  Oh well. Thank goodness there was a clown around to put out the burning flag with a squirting flower!

A group photo with mustaches, big lips and clown noses!

 Rachel did the face painting--thank goodness she can draw!  I would probably do just smiley faces!

This is the prize table where the girls traded in their tickets for prizes like clown noses, chinese finger traps, pencils, candy, rings, etc.

 Our treat table.  Popcorn, cotton candy, caramel apples, cupcakes, and chips.  And little packs of animal crackers.  Most of the cheetos blew away because it was so WINDY!  So did a lot of the cotton candy.  

The girls got to guess how many pumpkins were in the jar.

Another favorite was the potato sack race!  Here is Vaughn giving the girls instructions--they loved this game and did it several times each.

And once again, our clowns!  Vaughn actually taught himself how to make several kinds of animal balloons!  What a great hubby!

Of course, everything did not work out the way I planned it!  It was so windy we didn't even put up balloons or streamers.  I was doing party prep until the very last minute because I procrastinated some of it!  And the cake caught on fire.  And all the cheetos blew away.  Did I mention it was WINDY!  But overall, we had a good time and it was a great afternoon!

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What have I been up to?

About 5'2"!  Hee hee.  Seriously, I can't believe how long it has been since I have blogged.  Since this is supposed to be my journal, I feel doubly guilty.  So.  Here are some of my recent projects:

This is a cute flower arrangement we used for a prize at a RS meeting this summer.  We had an ice cream social.  I just used carnations tucked into florist foam and topped them with a red hard candy ball.

 Here is another decor item for the same event--this one is my favorite kind---EDIBLE!  It is made of whoppers, mini marshmallows, and the same round red candy.

Here is another view.  Yum.

This one I am especially proud of.  Why?  Because instead of stalking other people's blogs and stealing, I mean borrowing their ideas,  I came up with this one all on my own!  Maybe there is a little creativity in my tired old brain, after all!  I made a snack mix out of goldfish, white cheddar popcorn, teddy grahams, pretzels, raisins, m&ms, and honey roasted peanuts.  Then I put it in this cute galvanized pail.  Here is the cute factor--this was for a back to school party, so I used alphabet magnets to spell out "snack mix" on the side!  Centerpiece, snack, and food label all in one!

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