Construction Birthday Playdate

My son turned two and he loves trucks and we love having friends over...so we decided to have a construction themed Birthday party. A Birthday party with a handful of toddlers is really more like a play date with food and decorations. I had a great time decorating for this party. I didn't plan any activities since at this age the kids just like playing with toys together. I kept it small so as to limit the cost of food and favors. For his first birthday we invited almost everyone we knew, which was fun, but not something we would do every year. This time we just invited his close friends, who are his age and he plays with regularly.

  

In the entryway leading to our front door I put a disposable (although I will reuse it) tablecloth on a card table.my sister bought the plastic hard hats and vests for the kids and this made it more exciting for the kids as they came to the door. I found stickers at Hobby Lobby that I used to write their names and then put on each helmet with their vest.

They all looked adorable in their vests and hard hats.

 

I took Mason Jars and wrapped yellow streamers around the mason jars and painted tools on them to label the silverware. The napkins and orange cones were from Hobby Lobby. I had the white plates leftover from Thanksgiving so they didn't cost anything. I bought the small black plates from Party City because I thought some people might want smaller plates. I put all of this in an easy foil pan so the mason jars didn't get knocked down by any little hands reaching up on the table.

 I used some of my sons trucks as decorations. I bought the small silver tubs the food is in, but I didn't mind buying them because I think I will use them again at other events. I used some paper I had and index cards and drew the trucks that are on the food labels.
Before I colored in the trucks for the labels I copied them and cut them out to make coloring sheets for the kids favor buckets we made.

I used a cupcake stand from another party and spray painted it black. I wanted to make cupcakes...but it didn't happen with all that I had going on so I bought some from Publix. I had thought these cupcake papers would fit around the cupcakes, but they didn't. I will just have to use them for something else.

 Pretzel logs!

 Clementines for boulders!

Doughnut holes for rocks

Chocolate covered donuts for Tires! (I also wanted to make these homemade...but no time...and as my husband says to me with a lot of my ideas...that would have been crazy.)

Refueling Station: Drinks (Drinks not shown, forgot to get a picture with them all set up.)

Orange truck balloons from Hobby Lobby. The only trouble with these balloons is it is hard to tape the balloons to the furniture without the trucks being upside down.

I found these great brown rolls of paper at WalMart that I used to make all the signs. This way I could cut them into different sizes and paint what I needed on them.

I made the Happy Birthday sign on the brown paper, I then painted the truck silhouettes and taped them onto the sign. I hope that I will be able to use the sign again and tape different things on them depending on the theme of the party.

Yellow and Black Streamers were from Party City.

 I painted the brown paper orange and cut out and painted the Dig In sign. (I wish I had made the words bigger and the perfectionist in me disliked it every time I looked at it..but it is not a big deal.) I had this disposable black plastic table cloth I saved from my husbands birthday party a couple years ago. I taped it to the table so it wouldn't move. Using Acrylic paint I painted a road on the tablecloth.

I bought the yellow buckets for the party favors from Party City. Inside I put the small truck coloring sheets I made, crayons, bubbles, stickers and a small plastic truck. 

The caution tape is from Hobby Lobby, but I saw in my research you can also get it at Home Depot. 

The problem with favors is I always forget to give them out by the end of the party, so my husband suggested the time clock idea to draw attention to it in case we forgot. Another cute idea I saw online was a sign that said Don't Forget to Collect Your Wages. 

Our food table was put in my painting area, so I moved the easels sideways in order to fit the table into the corner. 

I had another black tablecloth from a previous party that I also painted a road on for the food table.

I didn't like the way the easels looked behind the table so I made this simple sign.

We had a great time and it was great to get to celebrate another year with our sweet two year old.

Two years staying home...being creative/making it work

My husband and I decided I would stay at home with our children when we had our son two years ago. This year we welcomed our second child and being creative financially is still a big need. My husband is a teacher and things are tight financially. I have been amazed at Gods continued provision in our lives. It is only by His grace I have been able to stay at home. Many months I didn't know how we would make it and we would then receive an unexpected check in the mail or we would have a yard sale and it would make exactly what we needed for a bill we had received that I was concerned we wouldn't be able to pay. God gives us exactly what we need! All that being said I would like to encourage you if you are thinking of staying home with your children, you can do it! There is nothing better than being  home with my son and daughter.

Here are some ways we have found to make extra money to help out:

• Sam Goody buys DVDs for anywhere from .50 to over 2.00 a movie depending on what it is.
• Currently our local Books a Million is buying books, CDs and DVDs.
• Consignment shops- some will give cash on the spot and others you can get a percentage of money if your clothes sell.
• Pawn shops will also take DVDs as well as electronics, and video games.
• Places that buy gold and silver...this is good if you are in a real jam.
• Yard sales! - We have a yard sale at least once a month. This has been one of the most amazing ways God has provided for us. I will say yard saling is hard work, but after so many sales we have a good system in place to make them run smoother. Our family and friends give us stuff they would give to goodwill or don't need and allow us to keep the proceeds we get.
• Online yard sales/ Craigslist- I have had a lot of success with online this year.
• Trash/Walking - one mans trash may be your treasure! I find things on the side of the road on garbage day and the day before I have used towards restocking our yard sale stash or that I fix up and give to my son or sell.
• Art commissions: I paint and have been hired a lot this year to paint portraits, murals and such. You may not paint but there may be something special you do that you can sell.
• Babysitting: my husband and I team up and make a great babysitting team for a reasonable price.
• Dog walking

Do you have any creative ways to make money for your family? Please share them! I'm always looking for new ways to help our family.

Hope this can help someone who is struggling or feels it is impossible to live on one salary. We don't live excessively, but we live comfortably and I am so thankful for my husband who sacrifices and works hard for our family.

Cake decorating fun

A sweet friend of mine is expecting her first child and I had the opportunity to help with planning the baby shower.

She is a volleyball player and coach so the theme for the shower was that "it's almost game time!" Her husband roots for the Georgia team and she roots for FSU, so the colors for the shower were pink, black and gold.

 No stores sell volleyball decorations...which makes a volleyball themed party more difficult, but more fun (gave us a chance to be creative).
I made the volleyball net from a netted glove I found at Target and two cake pop sticks. I cut the glove up to make the rectangle and hot glued it to the sticks.
I wasn't sure how to tackle the players and decided to draw the Disney Princess Belle serving a volleyball and the Georgia Bulldog.  I took some cardboard cut it out to the same shape as the paper, hot glued cake pop sticks to the back and put paper over that.

 I'm pretty happy with how it all came together. It has been a while since I decorated or made such a large cake.

I saw this idea on Pinterest and I am happy with how easy it was to decorate them, I just iced them with vanilla icing and had a black icing tub with a narrow tip to make the volleyball lines.
I wasn't sure how many people were coming so I made cupcakes as well to make sure we had enough. We had way more than we needed, but that turned out well because then a lot of ladies could bring cupcakes home to their families or husbands.

Glad everything turned out well despite some hiccups in the process of my making the cakes, it all came together.

Salt Dough Ornaments

Making Salt Dough Ornaments is one of my favorite things to do at Christmas time. Crafts can be intimidating with your little one, but be encouraged, with the proper prep work and sense of humor you and your kiddo will have a great time!

Here is how we make our ornaments with an almost two year old...

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

 2. Prepare ingredients ahead of time, if little hands will be helping to make the dough.

 You will need: 1 cup of flour, 1/2 cup of salt and 1/2 cup of warm water.You will probably not need quite all this water, but this is a good estimate.

 3. Pour salt and flour either in a large bowl or in a zip-lock bag. I thought the zip lock back would be easier, it was in some ways because it meant one less thing for me to wash, but my toddler wasn't as into mixing the ingredients as I wanted him to be. After salt and flour are mixed add a little water add a time and knead together to get to a dough consistency.

4. I put down a plastic cutting board under the dough. Your dough should not be sticky it should have a smooth consistency before you start rolling it out or it will stick to the rolling pin and the cutting board.

 Little ones will need some assistance to get the dough thin enough. I let my son roll it and I press down on the roller as he rolls it. Your dough can be as thick as you like, but probably 1/2" thick seems to cook well and be a good thickness. (Too thin and it will not cook well.)

 5. Cookie cutter fun!

6. Take a straw and poke a hole at the top of the ornaments. (to put string in the ornaments after they are painted and cooked.)

 7. Have a cookie sheet with parchment paper ready for the ornaments to go on after they have been cut out.

 8. Put dough back together into a ball and have it rolled out again.

 9. Place ornaments slightly spaced apart, just be sure they aren't touching or they may stick together.

 10. Bake for two hours.

 (About half way through take ornaments out and flip them over.)

After the ornaments have cooked they will need to get to room temperature before they can be painted. We waited to paint ours until the next day, but you could make the ornaments and cook them in the morning and paint them in the afternoon.
LATER THAT DAY or the NEXT DAY...
Materials needed: Acrylic paints (assorted colors), paper plates, paint brushes, paint shirts, water cup, wipes (ready and open in case of emergency), paper towels
 11. Place ornaments to be painted on paper plate. (I also wrap my sons highchair tray with a garbage bag to be safe. We paint with acrylic paints, so you will need to pay extra attention to your little ones during painting. Acrylic paint will NOT wash out of clothes and it is not good for children to ingest or get on their skin of you can help it.)

 I usually limit his colors at the beginning of painting, I wouldn't put all the colors on the paper plate right away unless you want a brown ornament. I hold the plate with the paint on it to keep my toddler from getting too much paint and keep him from painting the paint plate instead of the ornament.

Allow ornaments to dry completely after they have been painted.

 Painted ornaments!

 The rest of the work will be done by you as the adult. Children should not handle the clear spray paint, there are harmful fumes and this should be done in a well ventilated area, outside on a dry day. If it is raining or went outside the ornament will not dry properly. Spray one side of ornament and allow to dry and then turn over and spray the other side. Ornament should be completely sealed with the clear spray.

I also like to write with either acrylic paint, or bubble paint the year and the name of the child who made the ornament. This can be done before you spray it so the year and name are sealed as well.

Attach a ribbon or string through the hole in the ornament and they are ready to hang on the tree or give as gifts!

Hope it works out for you! Happy crafting! Remember it doesn't have to "Pinterest perfect" to be a successful craft!

The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat. (2Thessalonians 3:10)

Recently I've been researching Montessori activities to enhance the time my son and I spend together. If you're at home with your children, it's definitely worth checking out some of the ideas from dedicated blogs. Here's an example of such an activity, promoting self-confidence, responsibility and safety in the kitchen, and the tasty rewards of hard work.

Baking Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Muffins with a Toddler...

In an attempt to be more intentional in my time with my son we did some cooking and baking together today. It takes a lot of time and patience, but I would encourage you to try cooking with your child! My son is a toddler, so I measured out all the ingredients ahead of time. I talked to my son as I measured the ingredients out and talked to him about what we needed to make the muffins.

Here are all of our ingredients laid out. This is really important with a toddler because he is on a step stool while we are baking, so I can't leave his side once we get started.
There are some loose chocolate chips for a snack while baking and mixing. :) I left the stick of butter whole, and helped my son cut it to the right amount. (We used a dull knife.) Then I microwaved the butter while we started mixing the ingredients.

 Two mixing bowls and two spatulas ready for mixing!

 My son put the paper cups in the cupcake pan.

Now for mixing the dry ingredients! (This was not a perfect experience...he tried to mix the ingredients with his hands...and he also is a very strong mixer, so some ingredients made it to the counter rather than the bowl, as you can see from the picture!)
He mixed together the wet ingredients, but needed some assistance with this because he was losing focus and wanted to eat the chocolate chips.

 Dry and wet ingredients mixed together and chocolate chips added! Ready to go in the cupcake pan.

 This time I added the batter to the cupcake pan, but maybe next time I will have him do it. Now the muffins are ready to go in the oven!

Muffins done! I think someone enjoyed them (Let's be honest if it has chocolate in it, who doesn't like it!)!

  
Pizza making time!

 I made the dough for us to make some pizza tonight. You can also buy dough at Publix if you don't want to make it yourself. It is really easy to make it from scratch though. I use my KitchenAid Mixer, which makes it really easy!

 Pizza making station.

 I moved the ingredients off of the pan until we are ready to use them. I don't have a small rolling pin, but my son patted it out most of the way and I helped him thin it out more before we moved to putting the sauce on.

 Time to add the sauce! I made the mistake of just giving him the spoon with the bowl of sauce, so after he dipped the spoon in the sauce he started digging the spoon into the dough. CHANGE OF PLANS! I dumped the sauce out onto the dough and showed him how to spread it out. This worked a lot better!

 He did a great job spreading out the sauce.

 The cheese was too much for him...I showed him how to put the cheese on the pizza and he proceeded to eat whatever I put down. So I put the cheese on for him and gave him a bowl of cheese to eat. :)

 Baking and cooking with a toddler means being flexible and not getting upset when things don't work out or go as planned. It is good for there to be a mess! A mess means a fun time and a mess can be cleaned up.

 Another change in plans! The pizza ended up being a pizza turnover because I couldn't get it off the cutting board so I folded it over to get it off the board. Next time I would have him just do it directly on the sheet we are cooking on.

 Adult pizza!