Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Happy 6th Birthday to my youngest...


Just 6 short years ago, at 12:56pm,
this little cutie was whisked into the world.

His little life has brought us more joy than I could ever imagine. I am honored to be your mother, Jansen. You are complete delight!

Jansen through the years: At his 1st through 6th birthdays



Craigslist barstools!

I have been searching for bar stools FOR-E-VER!!!!! Seriously, I am not even joking. Forever.

It just so happened that the wonderful Craigslist stalker that I am...found the perfect pair about an hour and a half from where we live. Obviously, I would never travel that far just to pick up a pair of bar stools....even if they were FREE, which these were not. BUT, my friends' baby's birthday party was last weekend and it was in the same city where these cutie cute cute bar stools were located.
So, I just ran by and bought them on the way to the party!!!

These sold at World Market for $300 and I got them for $80. They are the perfect height, color, texture, and I love them. YIPEE!!!!!

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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