Squishy Baby Turned One! Dr. Seuss style!

Last semester our Co-Op used "Oh, the Places You'll Go" as the theme for Kindergarten graduation. I decided to save a little on decorations and use the same theme for my little man's first birthday! It turned into more of an all out Dr. Seuss experience.

 

I used Oreo cookies with lifesavers and crème savers stacked on top of each other with icing to make "Cat in the Hat" snacks.

 

Green Eggs & Ham!

I had two different kinds of green eggs. I just made deviled eggs for one and soaked the whites in water with green food coloring before I filled them with the yolks.

 

For the other "eggs," I took white Wilton melts and put them on top of pretzels. They melted in the oven at 300 degrees for about five minutes and then I stuck on a mint green M & M.

 

 

 

Jelly beans made great Truffula seeds and the ham to go with the green eggs was just ham sandwiches on Hawaiian rolls.

 

 

One Fish, Two Fish.... Red Fish, Blue Fish!

Goldfish with Swedish fish and gummy sharks.

 

 

 

 Truffla trees were made by wrapping cotton candy around dum dum suckers. The only problem I had with these was that the cotton candy started dissolving really quickly, so wait until the very last minute to make them!

 

 

My amazing friend, Stephanie, made glittery rainbow cake pops and a perfect smash cake to make the party extra Seuss-ical!

 

Tables were decorated with Dr. Seuss books and  sprinkled with puffy craft balls. I hang lanterns from the ceiling and used the truffala trees my awesome friend Emily made for  Kindergarten graduation. She used colorful snack cups and glued a piece of floral foam. She then made the top of the tree from tissue paper and attached it to a dowel rod. She stuck the rod in the floral foam and sprinkled paper craft grass on top.

 

 

 

This precious boy had an amazing day! And his mommy did too.

 

 

Hulk Smash! Middle Baby's turning three!

My middle baby loves Hulk, so he wanted a green party for his third birthday. This was one of the easiest parties I've ever done! 

 

 

I purchased two different kinds of green juice and Sprite.

 

 

We had lots of pickles because they're his favorite! I found green licorice straws at the dollar store and mint green M & M's. I bought the green containers at the dollar store as well and filled them up with green fruits and veggies to serve with guacamole, spinach dip and a cream cheese fruit dip with some added green food coloring.

 

 

I found mint green cookie dough, green pear applesauce and green Jell-O cups.

 

 

I also made a pasta salad using green and white noodles.

 

 

These were cups of key lime and vanilla pudding turned green with food coloring. Hulk's "hair" was chocolate chips and I just drew the faces on with a permanent marker.

 

 

My amazing mother-in-law carved a Hulk melon and added grapes for his hair using toothpicks to hold them on and raisins for his eyes.

 

 

And this was the happiest birthday boy I've ever seen!

 

Whoa... It's time for a 5th birthday party! Super Hero style

Somehow, it's time for my baby's 5th birthday! Where has time gone?

This year, he wanted his party to be at the local gymnastics place, so mommy had to tone down the party craziness, but I still worked in a little fun.

The theme was super heroes, but we focused on Hulk and Captain America. We had green, blue and red juice barrels and Coke and Sprite since they were the right colors.

 For the Hulk section, we had green grapes and green veggie straws. Captain America got blue and red pretzel melts and blue tortilla chips. I also made different kinds of sandwiches and they each got a toothpick cupcake topper with a different hero.

 

Captain America's shield was made from strawberries and marshmallows with blueberries in the center and fruit dip in a star-shaped bowl I found in the candle section of Dollar Tree.

 

And, here's the cake!

 

Happy Easter!

Easter is one of my favorite times of year because we are reminded to talk about the amazing sacrifice Jesus made for us. If you are looking for more Easter activities or ways to share what Easter is about with your little ones, check out 1+1+1=1. Her resources are my favorite for almost every topic or occasion. You can also check out last year's Easter post here. Here are some fun ways we celebrated Easter this year.

 

I found these cute Some Bunny Loves You cards on Oriental Trading, but they could easily be replicated on your own. I added a cheese ball carrot and the boys gave these to their Sunday school teachers and friends. I also made some fun colored Wilton pretzels to go with them as well. If you want to know how to make these, check out the post here.

 

 

We had lots of fun coloring eggs!

And even visited the Easter Bunny!

 

Happy Easter!



Pretzel melts

If you ask anyone that knows me what I'm bringing to an event, they will almost always say pretzel melts. I. Love. These. Things. A friend taught me to make them a couple years ago and I make them for everythinggggg. I love them so much because they can go with the theme of whatever you are doing. These things come in every color and they are so easy to make my five year old can almost do them by himself. You can get them at Walmart or any craft supply store. You can see what you're looking for here. We make red and green for Christmas, match birthday party themes, use football shaped pretzels when they come out in the fall and just make them all the time!

Heat your oven to 300 degrees. Start with your melts and lay them out on foil. Put them in the oven for just a few minutes. If they look shiny, you're good to go.

Then pop on the pretzels.

 

Let them sit until they are hard and that's it. Seriously, so easy, so cute and so yummy too!

Soccer fun

This little cutie just finished up an amazing soccer season and Mommy had so much fun making snacks for his team!

 

We got to fix snacks two times this season and for the first game, I made these fun soccer guys. I got the idea from Pinterest here.

 

I used applesauce for the head, mini fruit roll-ups for the arms, raisin feet and soccer ball cupcake topper rings. I drew faces on the applesauce and glued everything together with hot glue. I attached a spoon to the back of the applesauce. Everyone loved them!

 

The second time we had snacks was the very last game of the season. I found blue boxes on clearance at Walmart and printed labels with each child's name. In the box, I took Oreo cookies and, with chocolate icing, attached soccer balls I found in the cake decorating section of our local craft store. We also added soccer gummies and a small bottle of water.

Both ideas were very easy and the kids loved them!

Valentine's Day fun

Valentine's Day is a fun opportunity to show Gods' love for us by doing special things for other people.

 

We made some quick store-bought crafts, painted heart hands and used an edible marker to write our own messages on conversation hearts.

 

 

 

I love to make special food for my boys on holidays, so I thought I would try some cherry turnovers for a special Valentine breakfast. I used a roll of crescent dough and rolled it out flat.

 

 

I added cherry pie filling...

and topped it with another roll of crescent dough.

I cut out a heart shape with a cookie cutter... 

 



and baked it at 350 for 30 minutes. My boys loved this and it was delicious too! Next time I will add a little less filling to get it to seal a little better.

 

 

 

 

Snowmen crafts

We have several families that we give Christmas gifts to and I always try to do mostly homemade. This cuts down on cost and also is hopefully something they will appreciate more than something store-bought.

I made this easy orange bread and paired it with these inexpensive jellies I found on Amazon.

We wrapped the bread and jelly up on these plates that we made. I bought the plates at the Dollar Tree for $1 each. I used acrylic paint and then baked them at 300 degrees for about an hour.

 

We also used the acrylic paint on these Dollar Tree ornaments to personalize them and included them in our gift bundles as well. I just painted their hands and had them cup the ornament and then used a Sharpie to add details.

 

 

 

Apple Chips

I am always looking for healthy, easy and affordable snacks for my boys. One of my new favorites is apple chips. I grabbed some apples at the Farmer's Market and used our dehydrator we purchased fairly inexpensively at Walmart to make these. This apple was a Granny Smith, but any type would work fine.

I used my peeler to core and my mandolin to slice the apple. I sliced them on the thinnest option.

I then layered the chips in the dehydrator. We got it to use for beef or deer jerky, but it has proved to be awesome for making dried other things as well.

I let these chips dehydrate overnight. It took around 14 hours for them to be completely crunchy.

 

The kiddos really enjoyed munching on these with sandwiches instead of greasy chips. I let them dip them in caramel and it made them extra yummy. I also served some the next day sprinkled with cinnamon and brown sugar and they were great as well. This method also works great for peaches and bananas.

Adventures in Preschool: Arrrgh! It's Pirate Day!

We have been so busy this summer, I haven't posted any of our fun-ness lately, but I couldn't resist sharing our pirate morning adventure! I knew today was going to be a rainy, boring day, so I thought I would create a little pirate magic. 

When he first woke up, I had a pirate ship and a pirate cup sitting beside the potty, along with his pirate clothes.

 

We had a pirate sword and hat in the dress up box, but no telescope, so we made one! I just let him color a piece of construction paper (he chose to draw a pirate ship), rolled it up and wrapped it with tape. I know this is so simple, but he seriously has carried this thing around all day looking at stuff.

 

 

He was then greeted in the dining room by pirate books. This was a great opportunity to read and learn, not only about pirates, but also about the ocean they sailed. We talked about what pirates did and what they ate- which was a great segway to pirate lunch!

 

This happy little cutie loved his skull and crossbones and pirate hat sandwich. I used cookie cutters purchased for a pirate birthday party a couple years ago and he thought it was awesome.

We ended our pirate morning with a treasure hunt. Since we are working on letters, I just had him find all the things he could that started with C. 

 

 This was such a fun morning, doing thing we normally do, but with a pirate twist. And did I mention that it didn't cost anything? Arrgh! Now, that's a good adventure, mateys.