Kaylin's {Tangled} 5th birthday

Kaylin turned 5 (a few months ago, but who's counting?)!  She loves a party and decided shortly after her 4th birthday that she was going to have a Tangled party for her 5th birthday.  [Side note:  She has decided that she will have a pajama party for her 6th birthday.]  I started compiling ideas in a folder in my email.  It's hard to believe, but I wasn't using Pinterest at the time.  Once I started actually planning the party I was a Pinterest addict and transferred my favorite ideas to a board.

First up, the invitations.  Come get Tangled in fun at Kaylin's 5th birthday party!!

I was inspired by a tower shaped invitation.  I found a tower shape in the Silhouette store and let my new toy do the dirty work.  I was having some problems with my printer, so I wasn't able to use the print and cut feature.  I settled on just writing it out by hand.

Here is what our guests saw as they arrived on party day:

Rapunzel's Braid!

Idea found here.

To keep our royal guests occupied while others were arriving, I covered the dining room table in Ikea paper.  I told them to draw, "just like Rapunzel".  I don't know if they drew like Rapunzel, but they enjoyed coloring all over the table.  Please notice that Kaylin wanted all of her friends to dress up, but at the last minute she refused to wear the Rapunzel costume we borrowed for her.  Let's just say I was very happy I didn't make or buy one for her.

Down the hall from the front door, past the dining room, is the entrance to the kitchen/family room.  I made a kingdom banner (idea found on pretty much every post about a Tangled party) and Laura made the amazing tower.

 

Isn't that awesome?  It was the best part of the party!  I'll try to take some credit... I made the braid :-).  Yes, I got the easy part.

As guests arrived, I took their picture inside the tower (they had to stand on a stool) and later used the picture as part of the thank you note.  Here's my cute niece:

We played some fun party games:

First we played "pin the frying pan on Flynn Rider":


 Apparently I hung the poster a little too high.  I need to remember not to base things on the height of my incredibly tall daughter... at her 5th birthday check-up she was the height of the average 7 year old and she's a full head taller than quite a few of her friends.  I originally saw the idea for the poster here.  I printed a coloring page off of the Disney site and traced it onto poster board at my mother-in-law's school using her document camera.  I cut the frying pans with my Silhouette and put each kid's initial in the center to make it easier to see whose pan was whose.

Kaylin loves pinatas, so I came up with a lantern pinata:

  
 I used a goldfish cracker box (Costco size).  I glued strips of crepe paper, that I cut to make it look fringed, around it.  I cut suns using my Silhouette and taped them on top.  I made it a pull-string pinata, I wasn't about to have kids swinging a bat in my family room.  Plus I didn't have anywhere to hang it, this way I could just hold it up.

No party is complete without favors!


 I first saw the idea here.  I used purple gift bags (bought at Michael's) with the sun medallion.  My printer was working again, so I used the print and cut feature on my Silhouette and printed each kid's name on a sun.  It worked well because they were able to put their pinata prizes in their bag and they didn't have to worry about getting them mixed up.

Each girl received a sun medallion necklace as they arrived:


Laura had the suns in her stash and donated them to the cause.  She really came through for this party!  I just strung them on thin purple ribbon.

Rapunzel Paints:


I first saw this idea here.  I bought sets of water color paints and used, you guessed it, my Silhouette to cut out suns and labels.

I let Kaylin decorate her own cake using sprinkles and her Tangled figurines:

Although she refused to wear it at the party, I made Kaylin a Rapunzel braid to wear.  It has since seen lots of action.

Kaylin had a blast!  It was a lot of work and I said, "I won't do this again!"  Someone please remind me of this when it is time to plan the next birthday party.  Although I'll probably do it anyway, because Kaylin loves a good party.

Little Mermaid Birthday Party

Kaylin requested a Little Mermaid party theme for her birthday. This was her first friend party. I decided to let her have a drop-off party, so I kept the time short.

As guests arrived, I had Little Mermaid coloring sheets to keep them occupied.

Once everyone was there, we played "stick the crown on Ariel". I didn't spin them around, but I did blindfold them. They all did pretty well. Although two of the kids didn't want to play.

Next up was the pinata. I found that Winco sells pull-string pinatas fairly cheap, so even though it didn't go with the theme, that's what I got. I highly recommend the pull-string pinata.

See how easy? I could hold it while the kids just pulled on the ribbons. (Thank you Laura for taking the pictures!)

the loot

After presents, it was time for cake!

My sister designed the cupcake picks for me. Thank you, Kelsey! They were a hit. The kids loved choosing which cupcake they wanted.

These kids crack me up.

One of the favors in the gift bags was a set of seashell crayons. Kaylin and I made the crayons. Kaylin sorted a box of 64 crayons by color, then we peeled the crayons, melted them, and poured the melted crayons into a chocolate mold. Each kid got 8 or 9 crayons, I think. I love how they turned out! Kaylin loved making them for her friends.

We hung blue streamers from the ceiling to make it feel like we were under water, at least that's what I told the kids. I also played songs from The Little Mermaid during the party.

Kaylin loved her party and I think the other kids had a good time too.

Canning House Party

Have you heard of House Party? I just learned about the site a couple of months ago. Here's what they say on their site: A House Party^™ is thousands of parties across the country, hosted by people like you. Each event is sponsored by a leading brand and focuses on something cool that the sponsor wants its best fans to experience firsthand and share with their friends.

I applied for and was accepted to host a House Party for Ball (canning). I was so excited. I have wanted to learn how to can for awhile, but I didn't know how to get started and I didn't want to invest in a canner until I knew whether or not I would actually do it. Ball sent me a canner, coupons for free jars, a Blue Book Guide to Preserving with directions and recipes, a Home Canning Discovery Kit, and stuff for my party guests to take home. It was awesome!

At the party we canned salsa and pepper jelly. I canned a batch of salsa on my own earlier in the week to try it out. It was so much simpler than I thought!

Here's my party:

Home Canning Discovery Kit and Utensil Set

If you don't want to invest the money (and space) in a canner, this is what you want. The Home Canning Discovery Kit comes with a plastic rack that fits in a standard stock pot, three pint size jars with lids and bands, and a pamphlet with directions and recipes.

The utensil set isn't necessary, but the tools made the canning process so simple.

The Blue Book Guide to Preserving.

I received two of these books, one for me and one to give away. I had my guests guess how many noodles were in the jar, the closest person won the book.

Design a label for your jars

I cut out circles to fit on the two different sized lids and had guests make labels.

The food!

I kept it simple since we were going to be chopping and canning. I made chicken salad croissant sandwiches, Parisian salad (from Costco), chips, and salsa (that I canned a few days earlier).

I forgot to take pictures until the very end, so I only have a few "action shots".

Denise putting pepper jelly into jars.

Carly and Angela snacking on some delicious salsa.

The finished salsa and pepper jelly!

Thank you Ball and House Party!

I have a new hobby! I love canning! It is so easy, it doesn't take a lot of time, it's healthy, you know what's in the food, it's cheaper than store bought, you can do a little or a lot... I could go on. It's great for food storage. I've already canned some strawberry jam (post to come). I want to can some applesauce and some peaches.

Let me know if you want to come over and can with me. It's more fun with friends!

Baby Shower for Angela

Last night Kristina and I hosted a shower for our friend Angela. Eric was fabulous and kept Kristina's girls and Kaylin upstairs in the bonus room for about 3 hours! Lauren went to bed early which worked out great.

The baby's room is going to be decorated in light blue, navy blue, red, and stars. Thus our theme:

I made little tissue paper flowers and a fun star banner with the baby's name. I should have taken a close up picture of the flowers. I put each one in a glass pop bottle and tied a piece of ribbon with colored stars around it. I gave the banner to Angela to take home. We'll see if it ends up in the recycling or on display :-).

We had yogurt parfaits with blueberries and strawberries (plus extra berries on the side), red licorice, red velvet cake balls, and gummy worms.

I just loved this alligator (or is it a crocodile?) box. Too cute!

Angela wasn't too surprised by my gift, a car seat canopy, because she "ordered" it from me last week.

We played Family Feud, baby edition, which was a lot of fun. The shower was a success and Angela got lots of cute clothes and other fun stuff for baby Ian. We can't wait to meet him in 3 weeks!!!