Sunday, May 29, 2011

Lego Party


Oh boy! The Lego party is finished and was a huge success. Jansen had several children from his Kindergarten class over to help celebrate his 6th birthday...which is not until Tuesday.

"What did you guys do?" you ask.

Well, here we go. Bear with me...this will be a long post.

I used a few pieces of card stock and printed off his Lego party invitations...

I made a really cute balloon wreath to greet guests at the door, and sat the Lego pinata on a little table with balloons...

Then we had a "Guess how many" station. Incidentally, there were 70 Lego pieces in that little jar!

In our living room, the mantle was decorated with a name sign done Lego style, with a Lego banner, two Lego clocks the boys have, and the word LEGO spelled out.

And the bar had JANSEN spelled out in Legos as well...
We had two activities in the piano room. First, the piano stored some little minifigs and the box of treat bags. Treat bags had little coloring books and bubbles in them and then doubled as candy bags for the pinata.

We set up a card table coloring station with printouts from the internet. As the kids finished coloring their pictures, I hung them from twine, banner-style over the window. I also hung some little fanned circles over that window for a little extra something.

After the kids colored, they could play Pin the Smile on the Lego Man. That was super fun. For this game, I just painted a face on a piece of foam board, and cut out a bunch of "smiles" out of black card stock. The kids' names were written in white crayon on the front and they were stuck to the board using 3D glue dots. Thank you to my friend Angie, who provided me with the foam board and paint! She used it last month to make one for her daughter's party, so I could just flip it over and use the other side :)

I made some banners a few months back for a little extra color in the dining room and had the dining room table covered with Legos so the children could build whatever they wanted.

The kitchen island was covered Lego-style!!!! This turned out EXACTLY how I saw it in my mind!!!

I made these cutie cute lego cupcakes using colored chocolate melts and a silicone Lego mold.

Word to the wise if you try to make these.....you have to really shake and beat these on the table to get the chocolate to settle into the Lego brick. Much harder than you think you should have to! When you get bubbles at the top that pop...you are good.

Then I made Jansen his own little Lego Man head smash cake...vanilla with vanilla cream filling and covered it in marshmallow fondant.

He was really excited about that, and we were so glad he liked it! I was just really glad that it looked so cute on the little cake plate I made.

The kids each got their own bottle of water....I made them from strips of red cardstock, and those cute little birthday circles my friend, Angie made. They turned out adorable and all the kids seemed to really love them. We had an ice chest full of water and sodas for the adults that stayed.
We also headed outside to break the pinata I made several months ago. It had the perfect amount of paper mache covering it, but I should have reinforced the tied part even more than I did...because three kids into it....it broke. So I just ripped it open and let the kids scramble for the candy.
And after all that preparation....what was the thing that the kids wanted to do most???? Our outside equipment, the trampoline, see-saw, and play set. It was a sweltering 95 degrees, so the parents all stayed inside and let the kids have a blast and sweat it out. And boy did they have a blast.
Jansen had fun opening presents and got some really cool things! My husband and I bought him a bicycle.

All in all this was a really fun and inexpensive party to throw. I only had to buy a few things and made them work for all the decorations. Thanks so my friends who let me borrow some supplies :)

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Wednesday, May 25, 2011

I've been MIA...




















Yep, I have been missing....but if you know me, you can find me at my boys' school. The end of the school year is barrelling toward us and I have been there all month long. We have had so many fun things going on that has kept me and my other volunteer moms busier than we expected. But I love it, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Also, the lego party is Saturday and I have started putting up decorations. It is looking good.
The pictures above are of the school happenings that have been keeping me away from crafting...The Reading Team Party, Field Day, Awards, Kindergarten Splash day...etc.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Legos, legos everywhere

Ok, I am up to my eyeballs in legos. Actual legos, chocolate legos, paper legos, Lego men, lego signs, lego bags, lego boxes, and on and on and on...


This week and next week are incredibly stressful and it makes me want to never plan a birthday party at my home the day after school gets out.
Thank goodness for my friend, Angie, who made the cutest little lego man circles for water bottles. I spent an entire afternoon printing them, cutting them out, cutting strips of red paper, gluing the circles on, ripping off water bottle labels, and slapping these on. And boy they turned out cute!


The cute little yellow bucket I found in Target's $1 section, and I just drew on the lego man smile.


The picture also includes the cake plate I made last week. It's really coming together. I am so ready to get to this party and then to have it over with!!!!!!

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Anniversary Trip....
















Anyone in the Texas/Louisiana area looking for a fun and relaxing getaway??? L'Auberge du Lac in Lake Charles, LA. The staff has everything we asked for and made our vacation totally effortless. We had a massage, relaxed by the pool and floated on the lazy river, gambled, shopped, ate, and ate, and ATE......it was awesome!!!!

Monday, May 16, 2011

Making a small cake plate

Well, everyone, we are back from our 1oth Anniversary Weekend Getaway to beautiful L'Auberge du Lac in Lake Charles, LA. Might I say, we had the most wonderful and relaxing time. I will post about this later...but now....on to the cake plate.


Remember how I bought these at the thrift store?


Well, I decided to use the taller candle holder, which incidentally has a half used candle built into it, and the black swan plate. Speaking of Black Swan...has anyone seen that movie yet? I am dying to see it so DON'T TELL ME WHAT HAPPENS!!!!!!


I was out of red paint, but after a quick trip to Walmart and 96 cents later...yes the spray paint was 96 cents!!!!!, these little items were ready to be transformed into this...


It turned out great. Since Jansen is just going to have a small 6 inch lego man cake for himself, I didn't need anything really big or fancy. I just wanted something with a little detail.


So here is the before and after shot. See the candle holder I chose? Cute enough on it's own but WAY cuter as the pedestal for the cake plate!


This red color should definitely be called Lego Red instead of just Red. Yes my friends, this one is labeled "red". BORING.



I can't wait to see how it looks with the lego cake on it!!!!! Total cost for this was under $3 for the plate, candle holder, and paint! Now that is a good deal!!!

Thursday, May 12, 2011

$1 platter makeover...

I went to the thrift store yesterday and spent a whopping $5 and came out with this....


Yeah it doesn't look like much now, but boy it will soon.



I was wanting to find a few things that I could transform into a small cake plate for Jansen's birthday cake. He will have two cupcake towers filled with cupcakes for the guests and a Lego Man head cake for himself. That's where the black duck plate (oh wait, maybe that is a swan) and two candle holders come in. Lego man needs a really cute display....coming soon!!!!

Anyway, I was rummaging through a rubbermaid box at the thrift store and came across that vinyl "Family" sign. At $1, I had to have it and practically ran to the register.
I have this platter....
It's had about 22 different lives, visiting all different locations in my home, had various things written in dry erase marker on it....but today, my friends....it gets a transformation.
YEAH!!!!!! It's perfectly perfect!!! WOOHOO for dollar vinyl. And the best part is the color....PEWTER. Isn't that a cool word to say....pewter?!