Mermaid Birthday Party

Better late than never! In the Spring (ignore that we are now entering into Fall), Ruby kicked off her 5th birthday with a mermaid themed birthday party. I still remember her zeal after the party AND her sugar high. It looked like this:

TREASURE HUNT
Because what's a party without a treasure chest full of chocolate coins, gems, and jewelry?!?

The hope chest normally stores the girls dress up clothes but ended up working great as a treasure chest. All it needed was a pillow to prop up all the treasure and keep it from sinking to the bottom! The last touch was a piece of scrap gold fabric to give it some flare.

We gave the girls a map that big sister made and hid the chest in some bushes outside. It was quite the hit with the ladies.....

SAND BOX TREASURE

I have to say that this was the funnest activity not only for the party but something that our girls did OVER AND OVER. Hide the treasure. Find the treasure. Hide the treasure. Find the treasure. Fight over the treasure. Truce.

Before the guests arrived, Nevaeh helped me bury a grip full of diamonds (craft warehouse find) and gems (from the dollar store) in our sand box to have guests dig for treasure.

With all the goodies hidden, the kids spent forever tried to find their treasure and each had little bags to put them in to take home. The only thing missing was a bigger sand box!!!!

SEA SNACKS

PEARLS (chocolate covered raisins)

FISHIES

HOTDOG OCTOPUS 

 This cake cracks me up! We added shell rings around the rim to try to help this poor cake but there was no helping the mermaid. She looks like she has seen better days lol

 UNDER THE SEA CRAFT

For the wall back drop I used two sea table cloths (dollar store) and mounted them on the wall. I'm a big believer in using hall ways for art projects!

 

Each kiddo had a mermaid to decorate & a cup of sticker jewels to decorate their sea mural

The gigantic jewels were actually wall decals that and came on sheets (12+ to a sheet from the dollar store) that were cut out individually. They went for it until the wall was covered. We may have left it up for a week. . . or two.

And of course what's a party without a tan mermaid? Ha!

Fairy Garden Party

Here are some fun highlights from Ruby Rox's 4th birthday party!  Better late than never right?

We made scroll invitations with card stock and twine and Ruby was stoked on being able to hand them out by herself. It was a BIG deal in her world. Like "I'm almost a teenage because I get to hand out invitations by myself" big deal.

The part-ay started with the kiddos decorating wooden houses with markers.  The miniature vials of glitter were supposed to be for nail decorations but I knew that they were really meant to be pixie dust (and they were sold in packages of 8 for a buck)!!!! Some chose to sprinkle them over their fairy gardens when they were done, others chose to save them unopened.

Each kiddo then got a basket filled with soil and a cute plant to imagine up their own fairy garden...

 The craft table had everything from rocks to moss, to craft diamonds and jewels, and a welcome stone (thank you dollar store once again). The kids went for it and in no time each had a paper plate heaped up with supplies.

 

The "jewels" were quite the hit. Maybe because the girls said that they reminded them of the movie frozen?

How cute is this crew?

Even little sis Jasmine had fun and made her own garden (this pic was after shaking off ALL of the dirt she was covered in)! She got appointed as a guardian of their tiny village lol 

Ruby Rue- We love you so much, our passionate, spunky, heart overflowing girly girl! 

P.S. You are not allowed to grow any older

Sailor Party

We planned this Sailor party for Jasmine's 1st bday long before she started staggering around the house looking like a drunken sailor, practicing her first steps. It started with an adorable sailor dress I found when she was just a few months old. How is that for being neurotic?

But it ended up just being perfect for her one year-old crazy cool, eating chunks out of toilet paper, best slobber kisses ever- self. 

Adorbs.

For goodies and snacks, we went matchy matchy tongue-and-cheek-themed. Or what I would call pinteresty. Thank you oriental trading company!

For entertainment, we built a cardboard boat from gigantic fridge boxes for the kids to play in and filled the bottom with small plastic balls. Jasmine's own mini ball pit =)

They colored cloth sailor hats as well as the boat and their cardboard spyglasses (from paper towel rolls). Jasmine loved the boat and all of the balls so much so that we kept it in our living room for a few weeks!

Can you tell who is burnt out on pictures? Sorry Miss J!
Happy birthday little sailor. We love you so immensely and celebrate the miracle you are!

Holiday themed bentos

We love to add creativity to meals, especially bento time! Chef Johnny (a.k.a hubby) heads that department around here. Check out previous nummy posts here and here.

 

Halloween Bento

Mandarine orange pumpkin with seaweed face and a green bean for stem, sushi rolls with egg and veggies, and rice colored with carrots

Thanksgiving Themed

Rice Turkey: Seaweed eyes, cheese nose, apple skin gobble, pretzel legs, and candy corn feathers

Christmas Themed

Rice Snowman: Seeweed for buttons and face, pretzel arms, and gardetto's rye chip for hat

Rice Candy cane: seaweed for stripes

I should add, these are John's perfect versions (that man has a gift) and these are mama's ideas of fun kid food: pancakes with marshmallows and grapes! That's fancy right?

Baby Sensory Board

Exposing your little one to a variety of textures and sensory stimulation, sensory boards are not only classified as educational, they are wildly entertaining as well. What's great about this project is that you can use items that you already have around the house! The main thing is providing things to look, touch, and feel- soft, bumpy, shiny, rough, etc that can be fixated down securely. As with any play, you want to make sure you give them plenty of time to discover the different things on their own but with direct supervision.

How to get started:

Poke holes in sheet of cardboard & securely tie ribbons & pipe cleaner
(make sure there are no rough edges)

Supply List:

• Cardboard sheet, Hot glue gun, Stock Paper
• A Variety of ribbon, Pipe cleaner, Leash (shortened)
• Zipper, Fake flower , Fake jewels
• Foil, Fabric swatches, Pinwheel
• Magnets backed with foam sheet
• Pom-Pom balls

Cover with stock paper

Fixate flower with hot glue after poking through cardboard

Add fabric swatches, foil "mirror" & pom poms

The J & ? are magnets that I backed with foam for safety before
hot gluing them on

Remove the top portion of the pinwheel, poke through the cardboard, and glue securely.
Trim the pointy edges of the pinwheel so they are rounded 

The Finished Sensory Board:

It has been such a hit around here that the older girls wanted to make their own boards too! We will have to share what they came up with as they used things that were challenging for each of their age (preschool & elementary). I may just name them Bored Boards!