Puppy Paw-ty

We had Jake's birthday party this weekend. We were torn between throwing a puppy party or a cow party, but in the end the dog theme won. Mostly because I found so cute inspiration on the web to help me through my party. Here are the details of his 2nd birthday party.

Here are the invitations I sent out. I got the rope bone at the Dollar Store and attached a ribbon to it. I got the invitations from here and altered the text a bit to fit our party.

Here is an overview of the table spread in all its brown, red and white glory. I loved how it all turned out and it was more or less simple.

I got puppy ear headbands from Oriental Trading Company and each kid got a pair. They loved their puppy ears. They were a huge hit.

We had the kids act like dogs and go to Obedience School. They got candy each time the obeyed. So, they rolled over, shook hands, sat, laid down. etc. Then we played fetch and each kid got to fetch a doogie toy and bring it back. They loved all of it. So, simple and yet so fun!

Here is the birthday boy as our Lil' Puppy. I made Jakey's shirt to match the theme of the party. I just added the paw-print to a shirt I bought at Target.

Here is Jake trying to figure out how to blow out his candles. He didn't quite figure that part out. I got the idea of the dog food cake from this blog. So, clever! I actually got a lot of ideas from this blog, so thank you so much!



Here are all the little favors I sent the guests home with. I dipped Scooby Doo graham cracker bones into chocolate and sprinkles and wrapped them up. I had dog bone cookies made for each guest in the party colors. I found the stuffed dogs at the Dollar Store and used kraft brown bags with dog prints and tags for the kids to capture all their goodies and treats.

I found the dog print paper at the Dollar Store. I couldn't believe it. It matched perfectly for my party and it was only a $1. I made the banner months ago in preparation for the party.

Like I said I got the idea for the dog food cake from another blog and decided to make some cupcakes too. I got the dog bowl at the Dollar Store too. Again it matched perfectly.

I had the kids do a little craft, where they made doggies out of paper. Keep them busy for a bit.

Jake loved his doggy party. Especially his doggy ears. And I liked it because it was relatively easy and relatively cheap. Since I got most of it at the Dollar Store. Can't get much better than that. And now i am done with birthdays until next year... yippee!

Wonderland Photo Booth

At Hannah's birthday party I had a make-shift photo booth. Let's just say I could have done a better job, but the pictures are fun nevertheless. Here are some fun photos of the party guests.

Alice in Wonderland Party

It has been awhile, but i finally have photos of my daughter's 7th birthday party. It was a Wonderland party and boy, oh boy was it fun to prepare for. So many ideas out there in the blog world, that i had to finally put a stop to the planning and executing. I could have gone on forever.

Here are all the details of her big day!

One of the activities was decorating Mad Hatter hats. The girls got to use everything from gems and feathers to stickers and pom-poms.


For the favors, I got notebooks at Target in the $1 section (that was all I found that day that had to do with Alice, it must have been fate). Then I made floral pens (with eyes), included capri suns and a cookie and taffy.

I put out all our Alice in Wonderland books and I framed different quotes from the movie and had them displayed throughout.

For the decorations, I made paper chains from an Alice in Wonderland book and sowed crepe paper together and then made the circular hanging pendants. And lots and lots of satin ribbon! I really love how all of it worked out.

Another activity we had was painting tea cups and saucers. The girls got to paint their own set and then I will go and get them fired and return them to the girls as their thank yous.



This was the sign that welcomed the guest when they walked through the door.

We had a photo booth like set up. Here were the props the I made and purchased for their photo shoots. More pictures of that to follow.



In case you didn't see my earlier post, here are the invitations i sent out.


Here are all the yummy treats we served in Wonderland. I got the cute idea of using Cheshire Cat smiles on cupcakes from this blog. I made lollipop rice krispy treats dipped in chocolate with sprinkles. We served ham and cheese sandwiches with "eat me" tags, I used playing cards and "drink me" tags for the drinks in mason jars. Made napkin pockets for the utensils and eclairs and cookies dipped in chocolate and sprinkles. The girls asked if they could "eat" everything and when I said "yes" you should have seen their eyes... they were so excited.

Zoo Outing

This is a pose the kids do and then we always send the photo to Grandpa. It is our family "to infinity and beyond" pose... thanks to grandpa!



A couple of weeks ago, my husband took the kids to the zoo (while I was busy with church stuff). Here are some photos of their adventures at the zoo. Apparently, Jake loved the animals at the petting zoo. The goat was starting to head-butt jake in the chest because he was too affectionate and in his personal space. It took awhile for the girls to warm up to the animals, but once they could use the brushes to touch the animals they were all good.

Wonderland Invitations

I have been working for about a month on my daughter's 7th birthday party. She wanted to do another Alice in Wonderland party. There is so much to do and so much fun to be had with this theme, that I have to admit, I just kept coming up with ideas and kept making more and more stuff. I hope that is all comes together.

For the moment, here are her invitations for the party. Little slices of cardstock cake with some ribbon and a tag that says "eat me". We filled the cake up with pieces of taffy. I loved how they turned out! In a few more days, I will show you the rest of the party.

The invitations read:

Don’t be late for a
very important date!

Please join us for a birthday
celebration in WONDERLAND
with (child's name)

(Date) from (time)

Down the white rabbit’s hole
(address)

RSVP to the Queen of Hearts
(name, phone and email)

or off with your head!

A little fun while I'm away

I am on vacation for Spring Break, so that is why there hasn't been much on my blog, but I promise the week after I get back, there will be plenty of stuff to look at. I am having my daughter's birthday party, so there will be plenty to share.

But until then, if for some reason you haven't seen or heard about Pinterest, then you need to get on the bandwagon. It is well worth the trip. I love this site. It basically a way to bookmark all the great things you find on the web in a spectacular eye-candy-like visual way. You get to organize your "pins" on "boards" and you also get to see other people's pins and repin them in your boards.

If you are interested in my boards... you can search angbrimwil.

Warning!!! it is highly addicitive!

My Girls

I found this picture amongst all my stuff and so I thought I would post it, even if it is months late (or months and months early). I love this picture and I don't really know why. It must be their smiles! I just love these two girls.

So, now is a good time to write a little bit about them and their advancements, their changes and their personality. Let's start with Hannah.

1) She got the Mighty Wolverine award this month at school. Her teacher had the nicest things to say about her. Here are just some of them. She is highly motivated and gives 100% everyday. She is reading well into the third grade level (she is in the 1st grade). Her writing is full of wonderful details, her punctuation and spelling are out of this world and her penmanship is perfect. She is kind, respectful and considerate to everyone especially her teacher. And she is well-liked by her peers.

2) The other day she asked me "are we lucky to live in America?" I said absolutely yes and then we had a long discussion about what we have that others don't have. We discussed that some people don't have toilets and have to use the bushes. That some people have houses with mud walls. That countries have police that are are mean and don't take care of their people. And that not all kids get to go to school to learn and read. She was very interested in all of the questions and answers. I am glad her teacher mentioned this in class, it allowed us to have a nice talk.

3) To show the personality of Hannah, she told us the other night that she doesn't play with a bunch of kids at school right now because they are playing a game where they tag each other. And the school rule is "no hands on each other". So, she isn't going to play because they aren't supposed to be touching each other at recess. That tells you so much about my girl. Obedient to the end. She does what she is told and will not break the rules. I hope that continues throughout her life. It will make my job as a parent so much easier :-)


And for Ella:

1) Every since she has turned four, she has begun to use sentences and her speech is finally to a point we can communicate. It has changed my life as I am sure it has changed hers. It is so fun to hear her little voice actually use words that make sense... I love hearing her talk all the time now.

2) The other night at the dinner table, she started telling us all about the Easter story. We knew she had learned all of this at preschool and she was relaying what she had heard. She told us about Jesus dying on the cross, being placed in the tomb, the angel appearing and saying "fear not" and that Jesus wasn't in the tomb because he is alive! She was very thorough in her story telling and very happy to share this story with us. As she should be :-)

3) Ella has started to recognize words. She has a Dick and Jane book (do you remember those books? That is how I learned to read in school). She gets out the book and can read the following words "oh" "look" "Jane" "baby" and "see'. I love that she is trying to learn to read (or at least trying to recognize the words). It is fun to see her learn!

Jake isn't in the picture, but i need to talk a little about him.

1) He is starting to hit the terrible twos. So there is more crying and fit throwing, but i have found that if I let him walk where I need him to go, he will be much happier. If he is able to do it on his own, it changes his whole attitude. And I put him in his crib to cry once because he was just having a crying fit that wouldn't stop. After that experience, all I have to say is "do you want to go to your crib?" and he stops. Such a good learner.

2) He loves animals of all kinds. He loves bugs and birds, and sea life. The other day, he discovered Roly-Polys and just sat there and watched it for a long time. I should have taken a picture. And we had a nature show on about fish and he just went nuts. Squealing and touching the TV saying "fish, fish, fish". And whenever he sees an animal that makes noise... he says the noise the make.... MOO! BAA! QUACK, QUACK! He loves to make animal noises.

Activity Days - Value of Money and Tithing

For Activity Days a few weeks ago, we had a lesson on the value of money and tithing. I started the lesson off with giving each girl change adding up to $1.00. I gave them a piece of paper split into three sections titled 1) Tithing 2) Savings 3) Spending. I told the girls to divide the money up into the three categories. Whatever way they wanted to. Then we shared the way the divided the money. It was interesting to see what they each did.

Then we talked about why we have the Law of Tithing. What it is? What Tithing is used for? and the blessings of tithing.

Then I passed out index cards and pens and we played "the price is right" (sort of). I held up different items that the girls might ask their moms for. i.e. cake mix, pencils, hair bands, cereal, notebook, gum, can of soup, etc. Each girl was to write what they thought the price was for an item. We would all show our answers and then I would reveal the price. Who ever got closest to the correct price without going over, won the item. Then we would go to the next item until they were all gone.

I wanted to teach the girls what things cost, so that they knew the price of things and understood what their parents were spending on them (even for the simple things). I still had some time, so I asked the girls what was the one thing they needed right now from their parents and had them guess what it cost and then I told them approx would it would be.

Lastly, each girl got a white piggy bank (I got them at Michaels in a pack of 3 for $10, but I used the 40% off coupon. They were a nice big size, but I am sure you can find smaller ones for cheaper). Then I cut out vinyl words "tithing" and some flowers and had the girls but them on their piggy banks. They took these home to use as a reminder and a place to put their tithing.

Lastly, I told the girls they could keep the $1.00 change, but that they had to put the amount they had in savings, in their savings, the amount for spending in spending and then each girl filled out a tithing slip and put their $.10 in it and they were to go and give it to the bishop. All and all, it was a simple and fun activity and the girls learned a lot.

We have a winner.

I used the Random Number Generator tool and came up with the winner to the Epic Letterpress Machine.

Congratulations to the person that left this comment.

Carpenter's said...
I have heard of this!

Ohh the jubilee would be the one I would want. I could start on my Christmas cards :) Thanks for the chance to win this amazing giveaway!!

Please conatct me within 1 week (April 14 end of day). If I don't hear from you by then, I will randomly select another winner. Email me your name and address and I will get the machine to you!

Teacher Gifts

When I have my act together, I love giving gifts to teachers for any and all holidays. I think teachers do so much for our children and don't get the recognition or money they deserve... so at the very least, a few little gifts of thoughtfulness here and there is the least I can do as a parent to say thank you.

Here is a list of little thank you gifts I wanted to gather in one place as ideas to give to teachers throughout the year.

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL


A Caramel Apple Kit or a Rocky Mountain Caramel Apple

Or this fun calculator gift.

HALLOWEEN


These cute witches shoes or a potted plant.

THANKSGIVING


Some sparkling apple cider. Here is another cute way to wrap up a bottle.

CHRISTMAS

I am leaving this blank. I have yet to find the go-to gift for Christmas. I try to make the gift be something special for the teacher (a "real" gift) and something they might not normally get (from all the other parents). i.e. good balsamic vinegar or something for the house. It all depends on the year and the teacher. So for this holiday... it ends up being more of a "wait and see what happens" kinda of holiday. But I thought this picture of flowers and candy canes was adorable!


VALENTINE'S DAY



Chocolate Dipped Fortune Cookies or a bowl of fruit.

St. PATRICK'S DAY


APRIL FOOL'S DAY

These fun cupcakes TV dinner cupcakes. Instructions found here. Cupcake image taken from here.

EASTER

Cute Easter Bunny Brownies in a Jar.
these simple but adorable peeps.

TEACHER APPRECIATION WEEK

Here is a list of things I do for each day of the week.

LAST DAY OF SCHOOL

A picture frame or picture holder and a tag that says "Thank you for a picture perfect year!"
or a Jamba Juice gift card with there acrylic cup (to celebrate the start of summer).

This could be fun

This morning I decided to try a little pancake art. I made these little bunnies for the kiddos. They loved them and it was easy-peasy! What a fun way to serve breakfast and to make it extra special and fun.

I got the idea from this pancake artist... she is fantastic. We will be doing this more often!

The secret is.....squeeze bottles. It makes drawing with pancake batter a cinch.