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.

Painting with Cars

(This weekend was my little bug's Birthday / Party so I'm pretty wiped out. Luckily I've had this in my drafts so you still get a post today. Check back next week for the party details)

I know this idea has been around forever, I'm not inventing the wheel here. I just want to share how easy it is and well worth it! A few weeks ago I was watching my Nephew. It was the first time it was just him. I've usually had his older sister too. So I wanted to do something fun and BOY! He really enjoyed it and so did my little bug! We painted with cars!

Supplies

Paint (I just did acrylic)

Cars (I didn't want to use our nice cars, so I bought a pack at DollarTree just for painting with [3 for $1])

Paper (just used plain copy paper)

We had aprons on just in case

Also we had a clear cloth down to protect the table. That was back when I wanted to keep the table clean. Now I realize it's his art table let him have fun with it. It is now colored in crayon.

Just let the kids dip and drive on their paper. It looks pretty cool and the kids loved it!

 What is your favorite thing to let kids paint with?

Want another idea, see the post of painting with lettuce.

~CJ

Chest Freezer Inventory

We just bought ourselves a little beaut! We bought a deep freezer off on ones of those facebook yardsale sights. It only cost us $60 so we are thinking if this lasts us 5 years we will be very pleased. I originally wanted a stand up freezer, but for $60 I couldn't pass it up.

I have participated in a freezer meal swap the past few months so once a month I'm getting 12 freezer meals. That doesn't include normal freezer things, leftover I freeze and things to stock up on. So my little freezer over the fridge was not cutting it. I finally convinced the hubs that we needed one. The next day we looked around at freezers. Stand up freezers were $600 (that was the cheapest I found) and chest (which I didn't want at the time) was $175. We left discouraged and I thought we'd put this dream of mine on hold. The very next day someone posted it and I was very excited.

One of the reasons I didn't want to get a chest freezer was because they are terrible to organize. Now I'm not the queen of organization, but I can only take so much. So in hopes of not forgetting what we have in it I've created this freezer inventory spreadsheet. Wasted food = wasted money!




Because I'm still getting use to having an additional freezer it is pretty bare right now, but I imagine it feeling up pretty soon. Now to spend the week finding ways to organize the inside.

~CJ

CTR-B Lesson #4

I gotta get these up earlier! Tomorrow's lesson is #4 Joseph Smith's Childhood. Here is a coloring sheet I made to go with enrichment activity #1. Also, Here are the word strips needed for the lesson. Either print in color or print in black and white on colored paper. Hope it helps! Oh and I would love to know if you used this so I know my sharing is worth it:) Good luck

~CJ

Crafts By YOU linky party: January 2013

If you read my post about my New Year Goals you know one of my goals was to have a linky party once a month. Well here it is! Linky Party #1! Here you can submit your favorite project of January 2013! This will be open until the last day of the month. On February 1st check back and see if you have been featured! Let's see how this goes.

(This is a text link, if I get a good response I upgrade to the thumbnail. Until then there will be no picture)

MLK Day

It's Monday already?!?! I can't believe it. Since the Hubs works for the school district which means he had a day off from work and school today! So we enjoyed a nice (long) bike ride! We biked to a park that is a little over 6 miles from our house, ate a picnic lunch, tried feeding the ducks but they wouldn't come close enough. Ryder got to play with his cousin on the playground and then we biked the 6+ miles home. It was tough and I am pooped! Luckily my little bug is taking a nice nap so I can relax. Hence the not so exciting blog post.

January 21st is always a fun day. It kicks of the Birthday's. My brother is turning 30! We'll be going out tonight to celebrate. As if that weren't exciting enough, my grandparents are celebrating their 68th Wedding Anniversary! I love that! We had a party for them Saturday, it's always fun to get families together to celebrate!

My little bug is turning 2 in less than 2 weeks! He is getting so big and is so smart. I can't believe how much he knows. He impresses me everyday. So in a few weeks I'll post party stuff:) It's Sesame Street! It's going to be so much fun!

10 easy Valentine's Day Ideas

My little bug isn't in school yet so Valentines aren't really needed. However, I thought it would be fun to have him give something to his cousins. Plus I teach a primary class in church that I would like to give a little something to so they will like me... So here are some ideas that I have come across that I LOVE!

What got me thinking about it was I saw these bubble gum party favors at Sams Club today for $10. They also had just fun colorful ones that weren't valentinesy. If I didn't already have the favors for my bugs upcaoming Birthday Party I would have gotten those. $.41 a piece, what a deal!

samsclub.com

These recycled crayons are so much fun. These are one of the first things I ever pinned and I'm so glad I did. I love the no candy idea.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61951289@N08/5672821563/sizes/l/in/photostream/

This next one is perfect for school age kids. When I was in school I was always losing pencils

http://indulgy.com/post/exx28Vs6E1/love-this-diy-valentines-day-gift-idea-all-yo

Valentines don't have to cost much. Here is an almost free idea. However, I'm a little nervous about taking all those paint chips.


http://www.babyalerts.ca/valentines-day-diy-projects-kids/

I'm thinking of making the grandma's a photo bookmark or my little bug.

I love this boy valentine! Feb 14th is such a girly holiday. What boy wouldn't love this?

http://www.jacolynmurphy.com/2012/01/for-valentinesall-is-fair-in-love-and.html

How cute would these be to throw in your child's/ hubbys lunch? So fun!

http://www.coolmompicks.com/2012/02/last_minute_valentines_ideas.php

These ones can be done with staples or a sewing machine. Love that you could buy candy in bulk and divid between gifts.

http://irinascutebox.blogspot.com/2012/02/valentines-day-gift-idea.html

This brings me to a side note, can kids even hand out candy not package from the store? When I was a kid we would just buy a big bag of conversation hearts and put like 5 in each card. I think that is a no-no now right? So I guess the one above would be for non school kids.

I love this idea, maybe it doesn't fit into the easy category because it would be time consuming to make all the slits.

http://24-7-365.blogspot.com/2009/02/lavish-me-with-praise.html

Another sucker one. Seems easy especially if you had a cricut to help you. She does include a template.

http://www.quietfish.com/notebook/?p=3109

And last, but not least Fortune cookies. I think older kids would have a fun time coming up with the different fortunes to go inside.

http://celesterockwood-jones.typepad.com/designwashrinserepeat/2009/02/freebie-fortune.html

Valentines Day is in a month from tomorrow! Do you know what you are going to do yet? Now to get ideas on what to give to the Hubs!

~CJ

New Years: Blogging

Today is day five for my New Year goals and the final day. I'm already thinking I took on too much. That's why I need your support! If you are just joining my New Years Goals you can start here.

Today's goal I'm sharing is blogging. You may have noticed I've been slacking lately. Well this year that is about to change! How? I'm taking things slow. I'm having an official blogging day once a week so you should see at least one blog post every Monday! Something to kick off the week. Every once in awhile there will be some extra posts thrown in there. But for now I'm keeping it simple and once i've mastered that I'll kick it up a notch!

In addition to more blog posts with recipes and crafts and what not, I want to host my first giveaway! Also possibly starting a linky party (need to research that more) once a month.

Not only do I have Crafts By CJ, I also have a personal blog with my families fun stuff. I haven't updated that in awhile. It's sad to think of that. It is a journal for my family that I never write in. So I'll be doing that once a week as well to give updates on the family.

I'm hoping you will enjoy my posts in 2013, it's going to be a good year!

~CJ

New Year Goals: Organization

This is post #4 on my New Year Goals. If you are just joining the fun you can start here.

I'm embarrassed to say that our office/ craft space is a nightmare right now. it is out of control! This year is my year to get organized and stay that way. Hopefully in the next month or so I'll be posting a craft space reveal. Here is the little beauty that I bought that is getting me motivated!

Sorry for the poor picture, taken on my cell phone.

I bought this off of a local Facebook Yard sale site for $5! Does your city have one? It is so nice!  Before this picture was taken I had already removed 4 or 5 stickers. Let me let you in on a secret, when Goo Gone says let stand for a couple minutes they mean like 10+ minutes. At first it was not helping at all. Then I sprayed it and let it sit for like and hour and they came right off.

I am so excited to fill these drawers. Not just to teach my little bug to stay out of them. How is your craft space organized?

~CJ