Our Annual Elf Breakfast

George the Elf is back this December and just in the nick of time!  I'm not sure my kids would have stayed on the nice list too much longer.  I needed the "George is watching you," threat!

So, George celebrated his return with his annual north Pole Breakfast.  you can see our last year's breakfast here. Get a cup of hot chocolate because there are a ton of pictures!

Inside each Santa gift bag was a Gymboree Christmas shirt and a pair of Christmas socks.

The kids were so excited about George's return! They were bouncing off the walls after a sugar filled, traditional elf breakfast.  The only thing we were missing is syrup.  :)

I love this picture because Garett is reading the note George left Nathan, and Nathan is eyeing the elf.  "You want be to be nice to my sisters??? All the time???"

Sources:

Reindeer Sippy Cups, cupcake cups, fondant cupcake toppers:  Target

Table cloth, Santa gift bags: Walmart

Gasp! I bought white couches!

Yes, I did it.  I am guilty of breaking the cardinal rule for moms with three kids; three young kids who are five and under, who have sticky hands, dirty feet, and holes in their mouths (that is the only way I can explain the amount of food that misses their mouths!!!).

I BOUGHT TWO WHITE COUCHES!!!  For my family room!  The room that we often eat it, the room that we live in.  See, I have wanted that white, shabby chic look for a long time.  I drooled over the Pottery Barn couches since my first son was a baby.  I thought I'd be old and gray before I could get them.

Then, I went to Ikea and found them--white SLIP COVERED couches and my heart did a little pitter patter right then and there!  They were cheap and on sale and SLIP COVERED!  That means, if I hate them in a year or two, I won't cry that I spent a fortune on them.  My husband and I scooped them up right there and brought them home.  We held a moment of silence for our sagging, stained, 8 year old couch and then chucked it to the curb.

This was three months ago, three summer months ago.  And guess what, the couches are still in almost perfect condition!  There is a spot or two on them, but they wash right out! These couches have been eaten on, jumped on (they became a gymnastics playground during the Olympics for my 3 and 5 year olds), and abused.  And I am still in love with them! Sigh...

I have my eye on a beautiful mercury glass lamp at Hobby Lobby to replace my pidly little lamp from the old house.  I also bought some curtains from Target that are way too short--see them folded up on the table??  Just haven't mustered up the energy to wait in the return line with three kidlets.

Long Ago, In a Galaxy Far Away...

A little boy was born, six years ago to be exact.  Now this little boy is a little obsessed with Star Wars and legos. And when his Crafting Mama asked him what kind of birthday he wanted, he looked at her like she had just lost her mind and said, "Lego Star Wars, of course!"  So, with a little over a month until the party date, I got my booty in gear!

My first project that I started on were for the take home favors.  I needed something affordable, cute (Star Wars can be cute, right??), and that matched the theme. So, I hopped in my car with my littlest in tow and headed to good old Wallyworld, where I found these bubble wands for a dollar each.  Inspiration struck.  They look like light sabers, right???

I rummaged through my garage until I found the black spraypaint and then picked up some silver at Walmart for less than $5.

First, I unscrewed the lid and stood the bubble wand up in a cup.  Then, I spray painted the top part black.  I used a paper towel to cover the actual white plastic wand part.

When that dried, I put painters tape over the middle and spray painted the two ends silver.  I took the tape off while it was still wet.

I let them dry overnight and then added a little red jewel as the on button.  I love how they turned out, and most importantly, my son loves how they turned out!

One project done, a million more to go!

Template Love

Back in my pre third child days, I use to have a bit more time on my hands and became a photographer.  I loved taking pictures of everyone, from newborns, to families, and even seniors!  My clients would often ask me to design their Christmas cards, birth announcements, and birthday cards. many of them I would design myself, but sometimes it was just easier to buy templates.  Why re invent the wheel, huh?

As I was searching for templates made with photographers in mind, I hit GOLD with Birdesign!  I think I swooned over their cards for hours and now have many of them in my stash.  If you have, oh say lots of time to fall in love, go take a look at their new website! Have your wallet ready, though, because I warn you--you will find so many things you LOVE!

If you're not in the market for a birth announcement, they have a ton of other things to offer : blog banners, accordian style book templates (which make great Christmas gifts to grandma), and storyboards, just to name a few!

Sunshine Lemonade First Birthday

Well, she went and did it.  My very last baby turned one!  Gah, why does time have to go by so fast??!!  I think it may be time for another baby...Now I just need to convince my hubby.

So, for Ellie's first birthday, I knew I wanted the theme to have something to do with the song, "You are my Sunshine."  I sing that song to her while we cuddle.  Since she was born in June, I thought the sunshine theme would be perfect.  Then, I threw in the lemonade part just to make it a bit cuter.  Our colors were pink, yellow, and a pop of aqua.

I am going to have to break this into a couple of posts, because I don't have pictures taken of everything and I really want to share EVERYTHING!

So, let's start with favors.  I love sending my guests home with fun things.  For this party, I came up with my favorite favor ever--a CD filled with sunshine music.  I put some of my favorite songs on the CD for people to listen to on a rainy day.  They all had to do with sunshine.  But, my favorite part of the CD, was the CD itself.  I found this wonderful place that prints on the CD for you for very cheap--less than 50 cents each!  I didn't get a great picture of them, but here is an instagram photo of it!  My mother in law sewed up little square pouches to put them in.  I bought them from NCIMedia and I couldn't be more thrilled with their quality and service!  They were easy to order--I just designed the front and uploaded it!

The second favor were these cute little gumball tubes filled with lemonade gum.  I have seen these all over and really wanted to make sure that I included them in the party.  I didn't really want to pay too much for them and it seems like everywhere I looked, the shipping was outrageous!  I ended up buying them at I Heart Papers and was a little nervous about it since I had never ordered from them before.  But, I can't praise them enough!  The shipping was fast and inexpensive!  I will definitely be ordering them again from there!  Then I found a cute graphic online and changed the colors of it to match mine, added the polkadot background and had my silhouette cut it out.  I tied it on the top with bakers twine.  I am in love with baker's twine!

For the third favor (yes I might have gone a bit overboard) I found the CUTEST little candy bins with even cuter tiny scoops!  Since we had a lot of younger kids coming to the party, I wanted to make sure they have a favor just for them.  So I loaded each little bin up with matching M&M's. I designed a little label to go on top using digital papers that I used throughout the party and on her invites.  I loved the way they turned out!

Now, onto other decor.  I made this adorable wreath out of yarn, a little banner I made out of the same digital scrapbook paper, and a wooden letter I bought from Hobby Lobby.  My E sort of fell over during the party :(  It is supposed to be leaning up, tilted facing the right side.  Just use your imagination!

Another fun, and perhaps one of my favorite things of the whole party was the lemonade stand my hubby made!  I am in love with it and can imagine my kiddos using it a lot for impromptu lemonade sales!  We found the tutorial at Lil Luna and followed it very easily.  My fabric bunting ended up being a bit too big, but oh well.  I just loved the way the whole thing looked

I bought mason jars and wrapped them with left over scrap fabrics that I used for the bunting.

Now, onto inside and the dessert table!  I used a long table and butted it up against the fireplace. Since this was at my parents' house, I couldn't really take down their picture over the fireplace, so just pretend that isn't there!

My hubby and I made the Sunshine sign that morning based off of one that I had pinned on pinterest.  I love how it turned out and plan on hanging it in her room.  Then I added pictures from her one year old shoot on either side and some tissue poms.  I had more poms ready to make, but I ran out of time!  Imagine that!

I hung her banner on the fireplace and am so disappointed with how it looked.  I love the way it turned out, but it was wayyyyy to big.  I took a pic of her every day on her monthly birthday in some onesies I had made for my older daughter.  They have a number that corresponds with the month.  It was really cute, just way too big!

I bought a number 1 chocolate lollipop mold off of ebay and made these the week of her party.  They were super easy and the kids loved them!

My sister made these cake pops for me and then I put them in the cutest little paper cups that I bought from Sur La Table.  I bought little Martha Stewart bows from Jo Annes and put them on the tip of each stick.  I LOVED how these looked!

Her store bought cake.

I made her tiny smash cake.  I loved the way it turned out and it was super easy to make!

I scoured Craigslist for months looking for an antique highchair!  I finally found one and sprayed it pink, then distressed it.  It turned out just like I envisioned and she looked super duper cute in it!

 Next week I'll post pictures of the activities that we did, our fingerprint guest tree, her invitation, and some super cute pictures of the birthday girl herself!

Thanks for visiting!

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Mission Impossible

We made a Bucket List at the beginning of the summer and have been pretty good about crossing things off of it. It is hotter than hot outside right now, so we had to add a lot of inside activities. Thank Heavens for Pinterest!

As my kids were watching Goonies, I set this up in the only hallway we have in our house. They LOVED it! My son is upstairs making up booby traps for it as I type! He keeps humming the mission Impossible theme song.

Besides the fact that it has kept them busy for the last 45 minutes, the best thing about this was that it was free! The worst thing? I can't finish my laundry because streamers are attached to my laundry room door! Darn.

So, what is on your summer bucket list?

Valentine's Day Playdate

Well, I lost my bet with my husband. We all know he had fun with that...for a few seconds until he realized that his winning the bet wasn't all it was cracked up to be. It just meant I spent more money!

I didn't go too much over my $50 budget, but I did go over. Bleh. I was able to stay under $90, which brought the smile back to my other half's face. See, it all worked out in the end. He won a back rub out of the deal, and I was still able to throw the kind of party I wanted!

Let's start with the decor. I made all of it myself to save money and probably spent about $12 on it all. First up, I made these super easy paper fans using scrapbook paper I bought on sale at Hobby Lobby.. They took me less that 10 minutes to do a piece and I think made a huge statement. You'll be seeing more of these at my parties for sure!


Next up, I bought .99 cent packs of tissue paper from Walmart and made fun tissue poms to hang from my curtains. Again, another super simple project that costs next to nothing to make! I don't know why I didn't get a better picture of them, though. You can sort of see them here.


In between the groupings of tissue poms, I hung this heart banner that I made using coordinating scrapbook paper and string left over from the pirate party.

I made another pennant banner to add to the staircase, just above the dessert table, using more scrapbook paper and left over string.

Speaking of the dessert table... no party is complete without giving the kids a complete sugar high (and then sending them home)!


I used a free Valentine subway art printable and stuck it in a frame I already had. All of the sweets on the table were store bought (gotta love Litte Debbie Valentine cakes and brownies). I also filled a bowl with heart marshmallows, which were a huge hit with the kids.


The glittery pink banner on the bottom of the table was left over from Emma's princess party.





The drinks were red HEB sodas that I made a bit cuter by adding drink labels I whipped up in photoshop. The kids LOVED drinking their Love Potion. And guess what, no spills! My carpet breathed a sigh of relief!






My friend over at Giraffe Doodles & Design monogrammed the aprons for me! She will soon be offering party packs of monogrammed aprons in her store. So much fun for art parties, cupcake parties, and baking parties!


And here are where my pictures end. :( I had my hands full with the party and my baby!


After the kids ate, they each decorated heart sugar cookies that I made with pre bought white and pink icing and sprinkles-- told you I sugared them up!

Each kid was sent homw with a boxf candy hearts that I spent about 10 minutes making a bit cuter. I used a punch I had to cut out scalloped circles and then my three year old put a heart sticker (bought at the Dollar Tree)on each one. I used tulle leftover from the princess party and tied a bow around each box. Then I used a glue dot and stuck the scalloped circle in the middle of the bow.

And that is how I do a party on a budget!