Sesame Street Party: Games

This is post 3 on the Sesame Street Birthday Party I threw for my 2 year old. You can see the invites and food on past posts. This will be the games that we played.

At first I was considering canceling the games I had planned because the kids were having so much fun playing on the little playground we have in our backyard. So I asked a few of the kids of they wanted to play some games and they enthusiastically said yes! Here are the games I had panned. Some we played, some we didn't. I had way too much planned. Parties go by so fast!

Zoe Necklaces- 

As guests arrived I gave each child a bowl that had stuff to make a snack necklace. We used fruit loops, pretzels, peach rings, and cheerios. To make the necklace I used embroidery floss and ties one end to a pretzel. The threading end I taped so it would be a more stable and act as the "Needle". Some kids made them so just ate them and other took it home with them to do later.

Big Bird Treasure Hunt- What you will need is Bird seed, prizes, blindfold and safety pins (Optional). Get a bowl or container (I used a plastic shoe box) and put the bird seed in it. Then either put the prizes into the bird seed or safety pins. I did safety pins because I didn't want the toys to get dusty with bird seed crumbs. Then each had a turn to see how many clothes pins they could find. Kids 5 and older were blindfolded. Then they got to pick out a prize. I had slinkys and spinning tops. The Slinkys were a huge hit!

Cookie Walk- This game was inspired by Cookie Monster. Growing up at the school carnival they would always have a cake walk. It was so exciting to win this huge cake to bring home. Then in high school years at Church Halloween Parties they would do the same thing, but make it personal and do a cupcake walk. I loved that idea. I wanted to incorporate it somehow into the party and so I did a cookie walk! If you don't know how to do a cake/ cupcake/ cookie walk here is the jist of it. Each player stands on a paper with a number on it. They walk around in a circle to music and when the music stops so do they. Then a number is drawn and whoever is standing on that number gets to pick put a prize. To make the game go faster I did colored paper so each time 2-4 kids would win. We played until everyone had a chance to win. We had several cookies for them to choose from.

Keep Super Grover in the Air- We didn't play this one, but I think the kids would have enjoyed it. I had a blue balloon blown up and drew a Grover face on it. Then we would have just tried to keep it in the air as long as possible.

Oscar Trash Toss-  This one is all over the internet. Basically throw crumpled paper into a trash can.

Elmo Says-  Simon Says, but Elmo style. You know since he talks in 3rd person all the time anyways.

Duck, Duck, Goose- In honor of Ernie's love for his Rubber Ducky we were going to play duck, duck, goose. Not enough time though.

I didn't want the grown ups to be left out of the fun. So I came up with some games for them to play.
Bert's Paper Clip Collection- 

My bug's favorite muppet is Bert so I wanted a game to honor the boring pigeon lover. Did you know Bert collects Bottle Caps and Paper Clips? He does! So I thought the perfect game would be to have people guess how many paper clips he has in his collection. What did the winner get? Their very own bottle cap collection... a box of Bottlecap candy. Love this? I have a printable for you...


I also, came up with a word scramble game. This is really hard if you aren't watching Sesame Street these days. There are a few new characters. Here is the printable, there is 2 on a page so cut it in half. And to make it easier on you an answer key:)


This was so much fun! Sesame Street is a great theme to have for a party. Really the sky is the limit! Hope you like my ideas. Next monday will be my final post and I'll share the party favor I did! Everyone loved it!

~CJ

Sesame Street Party

I just threw a Sesame Street Birthday Party for my 2 year old! He's getting so big. He had the time of his life. Unfortunately I didn't get the best pictures as usual. Here is the problem with planning parties I'm finding. Only I know what is going on so I have to do everything and I don't think about things like pictures when I'm doing a billion other things. No matter what, I never have enough done before hand.

So here are some pictures from the party. Hopefully I can explain enough without the pictures. This is the overview. I'll do a couple of more specific posts.

***Update- You can see games here.

Sesame Street Party invites

My little bug is 2 now! Time flies. I'll be doing a few posts on his birthday party. I hope you can get some ideas for your little ones party.

My little bug loves to watch TV. Don't worry I limit how much he watches. I don't just stick him in front of a TV all day. Some of his favorite shows are Blue's Clues, Curious George, and Sesame Street. I decided to go with a Sesame Street Birthday Party. I thought it would be the most fun and more people would get it. Not many people do Curious George.

So here are the invites I did for a 2 year old Sesame Street Party.

I found a printable online. However it was just a picture not an actual source. I just saved the picture to my computer and added the information using fotoflexer.com. 

What Sesame Street Party wouldn't be complete with out the party being brought to you by a number and letter? R for Ryder and 2 for 2 years old!

On his Birthday morning I took him and did a photo shoot. The boy wouldn't look at me! I'll post some other ones later. This one was playing with the R and 2!

You can find the overview post and the Sesame Street Themed games here.

Puppy Party: Activities

This is post #4 about my little Bug's 1st birthday party. 

What is a party without some activities? 

The first activity we did was pass the toy. I didn't get any pictures of this game but basically it was like hot potato except with a dog toy. I was originally going to get dog songs to play, but well you know how it goes, put it off until it's too late. We just played whatever music I had on my phone because our stereo wouldn't play load enough. The puppies had fun squeaking the toy.

Next we did an obstacle course to see who was "best in show". There were some good puppies at our doghouse. This was the course...

First I threw a ball and they had to fetch it and bring it back to me.

Puppy Party: Decorations

This is post number 2 for my little bugs 1st Birthday. 

This post is going to focus on the decorations that we used. The theme was a puppy/dog theme and I wanted the kids to get that feel as soon as they came.

In our carport we laid out paw prints out of red, blue, and yellow paper that I die cut at the nearby scrapbook store.  It was a nice touch and showed that the party was in the backyard and not the front door.

The guests would then see this sign.

Puppy Party: Invitations

My little bug turned 1! I am still in shock, I don't know what to think. Like 6 months ago or so The Hubs and I decided to get our Bug a dog for his birthday, so going with that I started planning a puppy themed birthday party. Well we ended up getting 2 golden labs for free a few months later, but I kept with the theme.

This is a few days after we got them. (Tonka and Ella)

Spooky 7 layer bean dip

Ok so I love this time of year! It's not my favorite, but it means my favorite is getting close! Every October my family and 2 other families we've known since before I was born get together and have a black and orange dinner. What is this you might ask? It is so much fun! All the food is black and orange. Ex. black olives, baby carrots, Doritos  Whatever people want to bring. The main course is dinner in a pumpkin. I'll do a post on that later. We also always have orange jello with those plastic spider rings in them. So much fun. The last few years we've tried stepping out of the box. This is what I came up with last year.

If you have never made a 7 layer bean dip before start! They are so easy and always a big hit. My usual bean dip is this (Layer in order)

Refried beans
Sour cream
Guacamole
Cheese
tomatoes
green onion
olives

For this Halloween one I focused more on the halloween colored food showing; green guacamole, orange cheese, and black olives. I also ended with an extra layer of sour cream to make the web. I just put sour cream in a zip top bag and cut the end. It was pretty simple to do. I LOVE my little spider made out or an olive!

It was a huge hit! I'm trying to brainstorm ideas for something fun for this year, it's Sunday!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

~CJ

Partying with:

Puppy Party- Doggie Bags

This is post #5 on my little bugs 1st Birthday Party. Scroll to the bottom for links to the other posts.

This will be the last post. It was so much fun to see how it turned out in pictures it was a lot of fun and not as much work as I was worried it would be. 

This post is for the Doggie Bags, loot bags, treat bags, prizes, whatever you want to call them. With it being a Puppy Party, doggie bag fit perfectly.

I just used the white lunch sacks and decorated them. I actually had these on hand from my Nephew's birthday party. I just decorated them with a strip of yellow paper with paw prints stamped on it. I die cut some dogs and wrote each kids name on it. Then added a collar out of ribbon. I like how these turned out.

Puppy Party- FOOD

This is post #3 on Little Bug's 1st Birthday Party. One thing that I always hate about doing posts on parties is I never get all the pictures I want to do a detailed post. I'm seeing now what I should have took pictures of.

For the food we didn't want to do a full on meal because we wanted to keep this party to minimal spending. So we offered a few finger food for party guests.

Candy Bar Boquet

***OLD POST

Are you still needing a gift for your sweetheart for tomorrow? It's not too late, this project only took about 15 minutes once I had all the stuff gathered.

When Valentine's Day first started appearing at the store I noticed this candy bar bouquet. It looked like a fun gift for a guy. Immediately I thought I could so make that! So I took another challenge, could I make one cheaper than what they sell them for??? I decided to make one for the hubs!

 This one was at Fry's. It came with a vase, Dove chocolates, 3 Hershey candy bars and one of those $1 box of chocolates that aren't really any good. (personal opinion). Then of course the cellophane and ribbons... This particular one was selling for $16.99.

So I set out to make mine... I gathered all of my supplies. Most of it I already had on hand I just needed the candy and the foam to stick it into.

 You will need:

Vase

Skewers

tissue paper or cellophane (I only had tissue paper on hand)

tape

foam (I bought it from DollarTree)

Your filler I used the Crunch heart shaped chocolates.

Candy Bars I decided to use 6- Crunch, Kit Kat, Heath, Almond Joy, Hershey Almonds, and 100 Grand

Ribbon or tulle

First fill your vase with your filler. I didn't even use an entire bag.

 

Then tape your skewers to the candy bars. I was first rolling the tape and sticking it on with the stick in between, but later they would fall off so I would recommend just putting the tape on the normal way.

 Then get your form. I never realized how messy these were.... then stick your candy bars in. I laid it down because it wouldn't stand up straight.

 Wrap your form with tissue paper and stick into vase... Tie with ribbon or tulle.

Then add your own personal message

Now for the price match up. I think it might be close...

Frys to buy it was $16.99.

For me to make mine cost was...

candy bars- $3.75

filler candy- $3 have some left

foam form- $.50

Total= $7.25

However that was because I had a majority of the stuff, If I were to buy everything estimated cost would be...

Vase- $3 (cheap ones from Walmart)

Skewers- $1 for a pack of 100

Candy filler $3

Candy bars $3.75

Tape $1

Tissue Paper $1

Total= $12.75 

You would still spend less AND have stuff left over. Sounds like another win to me! I understand that when buying from stores you are also paying for the employee to assemble it together for you, but seriously this took very little time. 

So if you have a craft closet like mine you could make out with a nice gift for your valentine for under $8. Are it is more customized because you can choose his favorite candy! This would be perfect for any gift giving holiday or just because. Men love surprises too, almost as much as chocolate:) Or maybe I'm thinking of me...

I've also seen these with different snack items that would be fun also. Do you have any out of the ordinary bouquet ideas? One of these days I'm attempting a fruit bouquet.

~CJ

Burlap Banner

I cannot wait for Fall! I may or may not have gotten some of my fall decorations out today. I have made my first fall craft of the year and I'll share it with you today. I made a Burlap Banner!

I've been wanting to make something with Burlap for awhile now, but never knew what. Burlap seems so fall-ish to me so I thought a banner that said "fall" was perfect. Here is what you need to make your own.

Bridal Shower: Games

  Not everyone likes games so I wanted to pick ones that didn't require guests to do much. Here are the few "games" that we did.


20 Questions: The groom was asked 20 questions before hand. At the shower the bride was asked the same 20 questions. The goal was for them to get the same answer. If she got it wrong then she had to chew a piece of bubble gum. To involve the guests I typed up the questions and answers and had each guest read one. It worked out great. Poor Amy, she ended up with 8 pieces of gum.


Here are the questions we used,

1. When did you meet?

2. When & where was your first kiss?

3. When (Bride) was little what did she want to be when she grew up?

4. If (Bride) could burn one thing in your closet what would it be?

5. If (Groom) could burn one thing in (Bride's) closet what would it be?

6. How many guns does (Groom) own?

7. If (Bride) could be any animal what would it be?

8. What is (Brides) best feature?

9. What did you do on your first date?

10. What was (Bride's) first job?

11. What is (Grooms) shoe size?

12. What is (Brides) average bedtime?

13. What is (Brides) least favorite food?

14. What is (Grooms) favorite TV show?

15. Who made the first move?

16. What is (Bride's) favorite Holiday?

17. What is (Grooms) best feature?

18. What are the names of the Bridesmaids and Groomsmen?

19. Who said "I love you first?"

20. How many kids does (Bride) want?

With the invites was sent a recipe card. Guests were asked to fill it out and bring to the shower. We then picked out 2 recipes and they won a prize. Easy peasy!

At the entry way there was a piece of paper for guests to write down their Wedding Anniversary or Birthday on. The closest one to the Wedding date won a prize.

Bridal Shower Bingo- Each guest was handed out a blank BINGO card. I use this website for all my Bingo card needs. Before gifts were opened they filled out their card with what they thought she would be opening (Couldn't write there own) first with BINGO won. We did blackout too, but no one got that.

Bridal Shower: Candy Buffet

I recently threw a Bridal Shower for my best friend who is getting Married in August. It turned out so nice! I decided I wanted to do a "Love is Sweet" themed shower. What is more perfect than doing a candy buffet???

 Luckily I had plenty of help with this otherwise it would have cost me an arm and a leg. Candy is expensive!!! We wanted it to be the colors of the shower which were yellow, brown, and purple. Instead of wasting money on just getting the right colors, we bought the normal bags of candies and just picked out the candies we wanted. The men were willing to help sort for a small fee... a handful of candy of course! It looked so pretty:) I love having the different jars. We also put boxes underneath to give different heights.

I had a couple of the jars on hand, plus borrowed from my mom. I bought about 5 jars from Goodwill for about $5 on half price day. 

 The candy we used was

Cow Tails (One of the Brides favorites [with the wrappers off])

M&Ms

Tootsie Rolls

Lemonheads

Whoppers

Skittles

Rootbeer Barrels

Reese's Pieces

Kisses (Regular, Dark Chocolate, and Camel)

The favor was for the guests to fill up a container and take it home with them. I bought them at DollarTree it was $1 for 12 boxes. I was going to wrap them with leftover paper from the invites, but decided not to since it's just going to be thrown away. Instead I stamped "thank you" on it with some flowers.

It was a hit and The Hubs is loving the leftovers:) Have you done a candy buffet? It's becoming my new favorite thing! I'd love to see yours to get ideas for my next party:)

~CJ

Bridal Shower: Food

Looking for some ideas to serve at a Bridal Shower? Here is what I did for the one I threw for my Best Friend. The theme was "Love is Sweet" so we served sweets and treats.

I didn't take very many pictures so hopefully it's enough to give you an idea. We did cheesecake bites, brownies, cream puffs, s'mores bars and a chocolate fountain. Items to dip, strawberries, bananas, pretzel rods, rice krispie treats, and marshmallows.

It was the perfect touch for the love is sweet theme. So much good stuff to eat:)

Bridal Shower: Decorations

I love throwing parties. However I always seem to skimp on the decorations. Here are the few things that I did for my best friends shower I threw a few weeks ago. The colors were yellow, brown and purple. 

The theme was "love is sweet" so I wanted that somewhere on display. Above the dessert buffet was this banner. (kind of hard to read)

 To make this you need thread, doilies and a writing utensil (I used colored pencil). Fold doilies in half. Glue to thread where you want them placed, and hang up to be admired! I love how this looks. I'm going to hang onto it and hang it up around Valentines day.

For the dessert bar we just used purple tulle around it to add some color.

We had a candy buffet so above that we made some of these pom pom balls. So easy to do! Take your tissue paper and fold accordion style (We used 8 sheets, 1 Pack). Tie fishing string around the middle Start fluffing out. I love how they looked! It added so much to the party and only cost about $3 to make and like 20 minutes!

 With the invites I sent out a recipe card to be filled out. As people walked in there was a bowl for them to place them in. Also one of the other games was on this table. The fabric is just pinned to the wall with a thumbtack. The edges are folded in so you don't see the raw edge. I would have hemmed it, but I want to do something else with this fabric.
The burlap banner was so easy to make and so CHEAP! Lips is her future last name. I'm in love with Burlap!!! Post to come:) This also doubled as a gift, how cute for them to take pictures with or even to use to decorate at the Reception!

I forgot to get a picture of this, but on the front door there was a WELCOME sign on the front door that the letters were horseshoes. (Doubled as a gift!) They are having a western themed reception and moving to Prescott, AZ. I thought this would be prefect for them. As a bonus it was on clearance at Joanns for like $7!!! WHooo!

What is your go to party decoration???

~CJ

See more about this shower

Invites

Bridal Shower: Invites

My Best Friend is getting Married!!!

I can't believe it, it's so exciting. Amy and I have known each other forever! Literally! At least for me since she is almost a year older than me. Our families have been friends since before we were even thoughts in our parents minds. I am so happy that she has found her eternal companion!

With the excitement of her getting married, I get to throw her a bridal shower! I love throwing parties! Amy is the only girl in her family so growing up I was like a sister to her. So as her Sister I want this party to be over the top. (My over the top and your over the top are most likely different. My over the top is probably your thrown together in a few hours.)

The shower is tomorrow so I have been SUPER busy getting things ready. It is looking awesome! Can't wait. So to get you as excited as I am, here is a look at the invites I made!

She decided she liked the colors Yellow and Brown for her Bridal Shower. It seems a little baby shower-ish so to make it less baby I found some coordinating paper with purple. So the colors are going to be yellow, brown and purple as the accent color.

I love how they turned out. I made 40 of them and between paper, envelopes, and recipe cards it was less than $10. Gotta love it!

We are doing a door prize at the shower. Sent with the invitations was a recipe card. Guests were asked to fill it out and bring it to the shower. We'll randomly pick 1 or 2 and that guest will win a prize! Who doesn't need more recipes? And better yet who doesn't love prizes?!?! Hopefully there is a lot of participation.

 I found the recipe cards at Michaels, regularly $1 on clearance for $.50, plus I had a 15% entire purchase coupon. I bought 3 so there would be a variety of design. Artichoke, lettuce, and mushrooms. At first I didn't really like them, but they are kind of growing on me.

 All the paper was bought at Joanns for 5 for $1 plus 20% off because they were doing college discount! Love it!

Stay tuned for the rest of the Bridal Shower Details!!! Hopefully I'll get right on them and not post pone it too much.

~CJ

See more about this shower
Decorations

Linked to these parties

Yee- Haw a Barnyard Baby Shower!

This shower was for my sister Tiffany. She was pregnant with her 3rd boy. However, it has been around 10 years since she last had a baby shower and she has done so much for me, I felt like it would be nice to treat her to one even though she didn't want it.

We decided on doing a barnyard theme. I thought it would be so much fun and Tiff chose either barnyard or frog. The shower was at my house and since it was beginning of June in AZ it was indoors. Here are pics and I'll explain each thing a little bit.

Here is the out side of the invite. I bought the paper from michaels when it was a 5 for $1. I made around 12 invites so it wasn't so bad. The white I originally was going to cut out strips for the lines and glue but one was a lot of work so I bought a white marker. I made templates out of cereal boxes so I just had to trace. It went really fast once I knew what I was doing.

The barn doors opened up to the party info. Here is the info on the inside. The bling cow was from Michael's for $1 but I always used a 40%-50% off coupon. I got all different animals cow, chicken, sheep, horse and pig. Unfortunately this was a seasonal item and they no longer have them.

(For invites with the chicken bling I changed wording to Oink,Cluck, Neigh, Moo) 

          

   

The napkins we got the horse ones from michaels in the $1 bin, but used a coupon. The brown ones were leftover from My brother & sister-in-laws wedding. We used the zoo pal plates that are barn animal shapes. They were so cute and fit the theme. My sister-in-law purchase these so I don't know what the cost was. Around $5 maybe? They have different animals not just duck. The cup for the silverware was michaels $1 bin also. The checker cloth was just a piece of fabric from Joannes cost me around a buck.

FOOD!!! Always the funnest part:) I decided to give each item a name and it turned out so cute! Everyone loved it!

Deviled eggs

   

BBQ Beef sandwiches

How I made these was I made a dough and rolled in a ball. I placed them in a mini cupcake pan and pushed a Mini tart shaper (pampered chef item) and it made them hallowed out. I filled with pudding and put a squirt of whipped cream. They kinda melted a little and were runny. It was pretty tasty still.

We did a punch bowl for water and I bought rubber duckies that were barn themed. I got these from hobby lobby It was 6 for $3.99 I think. It was short notice so I didn't have a coupon. But I gave them to Tiff after so it doubled as a gift:)

These are a fav in my family! It is just the little smokies wrapped in bacon and then sprinkle in brown sugar and bake! So good!!!

 

Typical veggie tray. We arranged in rows to look more like a garden. We also had a bowl of watermelon. (One of her cravings at the time and Dr.'s orders to eat watermelon)

   

We did a diaper raffle which in my opinion is one of the greatest ideas ever! She got a ton of diapers. We gave away 2 prizes and $15 Walmart gift card and a $5 gift card to Bahama Bucks.

The shower turned out wonderful, everyone was generous and she received a lot of fun stuff to welcome her new baby boy!

Linking up to these fun parties: