Sunday, December 14, 2014

Graham's Hot Diggity Dog party

Graham had his 3rd birthday party last week.  We kept going back and forth between dog and Mickey Mouse, but a dog party was easier, so that is what we went with.  Luckily he loved them both equally as much.  

So, I based the whole party around this invitation.  It was all about hotdogs and fancy dogs with their bow ties.  I didn't get a picture of it, but I attached this invitation with a big red ribbon to a dog rope toy I got at the Dollar store that matched my color scheme.




When the guest first walked up to the door they were greeted with very large doggie prints.


And then they opened the door and saw this.  


One of my favorite decorations about this party was the giant size dog house and dog to greet the kids.  How cute is that dog.  I bought him years ago from Costco and he has just sat around not doing much until the party and then he was the showcase piece of the party (well, of course besides my little graham).


We started out the kids with a coloring activity.  Here is how I decorated the tables.  I saw the cute dog balloon idea on Martha Stewart so I used their template.  Note: the ears were too heavy (started to make the balloons fall) so I just cut the ears shorter and the seemed to work).  



Also, I made doggie medallions for each chair.  I had 4 different dogs represented, again the different dog templates were found on Martha Stewart, I just added a hot dog in each dog's mouth to go with my theme. 


I got the paw print paper at the dollar store.  it is just a roll of wrapping paper.  So easy and it adds so much.  I bought the scalloped placemats at Part City and traced some coloring pages onto it for the kids to color.  That was their first activity - coloring.  What 3 years old don't like to color, right.


I made the cute bowtie utensil holders from this tutorial.  I loved how they tied (no pun intended) into my whole theme.  


Next item of business was lunch.  Of course we had hot dogs, but we had a fun more fun items to go with out puppy theme.  


On the menu were some fun items.  Like dipped doggie bones (scooby doo graham cracker bones), paw-tato chips and paw-sta salad.  

  

And the hot dog menu was as follows, but as you can guess not one 3 year old looked at this thing.  They all just wanted to eat.


I got these adorable doggie bone sippy cups at Oriental Trading Company (I just love that place) and added some coordinating paper to the middle.


And the cupcakes were these cute little doggies made out of mini milanos from Pepperidge Farms, m&ms for the noses and eyes from Wilton and some black frosting gel.  Seriously so easy, but yet so cute.  



After the food, we turned the little boys and girls into puppies.  They were able to each pick out some dog ears, a bow tie and we drew a nose and dots on their faces.   Again, I got the ears from OTC and I made the bowties.  


Here are just a few of our little puppies.



And the whole dog pound!


 Some of the games we played were:

Obedience School - Simon Says

Dog Chase - Relay Races - timed them to see who was the fastest dog.

Catch the Cat - Dad was the cat and the kids had to chase him and when he was caught he had to freeze and throw out candy while the kids were distracted he could "escape" and they had to catch him again.  A nice alternative to a piƱata.  The kids loved this came by the way!

and Best Bark.

For the prizes, they got a box of Scooby Doo Graham Cracker Bones.

We sang happy birthday and had cupcakes and ice cream and opened presents.


As the friends left, they got to stop by the adoption center and adopt a puppy.  


They got to choose their own dog (notice the bow ties on each of the adopted dogs :-)  




Then they put their new pets into the boxes and got to name them.


 They also got a certificate that made it all official!


 Then they got to pick a puppy pop for the road.


And some last little details:

I made the garland using my silhouette machine.


I made this banner years ago for Jake's dog party, glad I kept it!



And these cute dog signs.  I loved these two.  I just used foam core from the Dollar Store and taped the edges and used vinyl for the silhouette portion, painted the whole thing and took the tape and vinyl off and wa-laa!


So, there you have it. Graham's Hot Diggity Dog party.  




Monday, November 3, 2014

Family Halloween Costumes 2014

Ok, now for this year's family costumes.  This is our third year doing this and the kids love coming up with our family costumes and dressing up together so how can I say no.  This year everyone was on board to do Star Wars.  Jake is obsessed with Star Wars, so it was the perfect year to do it.  Here we are in all our Jedi glory.



Queen Amidala

Yoda

Princess Leia

Luke Skywalker

The kids all together.

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Halloween Festivities

I swear the Halloween season is just as busy as Christmas time.  I feel a huge sigh of relief now that it is November 1st.  Fun parties, yummy treats, getting costumes together and then the big day.  The craziness of Halloween is over, but it sure was fun.  Here is a little of what we did and our family Halloween costume this year.

We carved pumpkin earlier than usually this year (because Chris had to go out of town). I was afraid the pumpkins would get moldy (we were 3 days early), but they made it to Halloween.  The kids love (I mean love) carving pumpkins.  They all get to design their own and then mom and dad cut it out (or this year... we only had to help on some of them).  Graham kept telling me he wanted a "mickey pumpkin".  So, I did the best I could.  Besides the ears, I think it looks pretty good (it really is all about the eyes :-).  He loved it, so I declare success.


We had our ward halloween trunk or treating party.  There is ella with her cute little friends.


And graham with his best bud.  These two are like a little married couple.  They are inseparable.  This picture is super blurry, but it captures their relationship perfectly!!!  Graham kept saying "yoda and minnie go trick or treating". 


Chris and I had a couple halloween party to go to.  And since our family costumes weren't really "couplish"  (made up word alert), I found this cute idea on pinterest and thought... done!  It was super easy, besides the time commitment to painting the details.  But I love how it turned out.


I'll share our family halloween costumes soon.  What fun we had as a Star Wars crew.

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Fall and Football

Chris was given some tickets to a Fresno State Football game.  There were 4 tickets, so I told him to take the big kids and enjoy some daddy/kids time.  They went and had a ball.  Hannah was totally into the game asking all kinds of questions.  Ella I think just liked being out and Jake got tired of the whole thing about 1/2 way in.  But they had fun all and all... especially when they were able to go onto the field!


Jake and his kindergarten class went to the pumpkin patch as his first field trip.  They got to ride on a tractor, learn all about pumpkins and he got to bring his baby pumpkin home.  He had a lot of fun and we heard all about it for days to come.  And his baby pumpkin became a ball for his younger brother. I can't tell you how many times Graham has thrown that thing.  I'm so surprised it has still survived.


Monday, October 20, 2014

New Calling - Activity Days!



I have been the Gospel Doctrine teacher for the last 2 years and I got released and called to the one of the best callings in the church.... Activity Day leader.  And to top it off, I am the AD leader to Hannah and her friends, so that is even more fun!

The best part is that I have a co-leader, so we take turns each month leading the activity... so how easy is that... I almost feel guilty :-)

A little note about my philosophy in regards to AD.  I try to have activities that help the girls pass off something in the Faith in God book.  I know not all girls get this done on their own, so I want to give them every opportunity to complete the Faith In God before  they graduate and move on to YW.  I can't say I will be perfect at this each and every time, but I will try :-)

Also, here are the elements I think I will try to incorporate into each activity:

1) the activity/lesson
2) a craft
3) a treat
4) a handout
5) corresponding Articles of Faith

So, with that being said, this is the first activity I led.  It came from the Learning and Living the Gospel section of the book.  It was about the Holy Ghost.

Mark these verses about the Holy Ghost in your scriptures: John 14:16–17, 2 Nephi 32:5, and Moroni 10:5. Discuss ways the Holy Ghost helps you.

I had each girl bring their FIG book and their scriptures.   Together as a class, we looked up the corresponding scriptures.  I had the girls highlight these scriptures, read and determine what the role of the Holy Ghost is from each scripture.  I got the idea from this blog (and then redesigned the worksheet to fit my needs).




I also bought each girl a photo book (the cheap plastic $1.50 ones from Target). I put their name on the front of each book and gave them this quote/handout to put in their books to remind them of the lesson.  I will have the girls bring these each time we meet, so we can add to it throughout the year.


This is the quote I used for this lesson.  I had it printed as a 4X6 photo and gave it to the girls to put in their photo book.


Here is a printable version of the quote (which comes from the Friend :-).


Also, I printed out this photo of the 1st Article of Faith to go with the lesson and to help them memorize it. They also put this in their photo book.  I got this image from this blog.  I love who we are all willing to share our talents and ideas to help each other in our callings!


Then for the craft, we made ghost and pumpkin lollipops.  They are the traditional ghost lollipops from your childhood (hopefully they look familiar) and then I added the pumpkins too.  (I didn't want it to look like I was trying to correlate the Holy Ghost with these halloween ghosts (being sacrilegious), but I wanted to do something that tied the lesson into the Halloween (since it is right around the corner)... so I made the craft more about Halloween and less about the Holy Ghost :-)

You'll notice one of the girls snuck a "Frankenstein" in there too :-)


I also, had the girls put together a FHE packet of this lesson to take home to their families, so they could teach the lesson.  I gave them a copy of the worksheet.  Lollipop and supplies for each member of their family and a cute paper bag, tag and washi tape to put it all together.  




Lastly, I made rice krispie treats sprinkled with halloween sprinkles (to add to the festiveness of the holiday :-) There yo go!  If you would like me to send you the girl praying image or the worksheet, just let me know.