Never Grow Up Birthday Party (free stuff inside)

April 1, 2012 2 Comments

We threw a Neverland themed party for the boys this past weekend and despite some rain and a sick baby, I think it was still pretty successful. A lot didn’t get done because I was up all night with Wade and, while I had hoped to be doing party prep, I ended up taking two showers after being thrown up on four times. Yep, it was that kind of weekend.


The party was just a small family thing. In fact, there were only 4 kids there, including my two. But, that was just the right size for us. Everyone was supposed to wear pajamas like Wendy, Michael, and John from Peter Pan, so some of us looked like we just rolled out of bed – that was done on purpose!




We decided to do brunch so that we could get bagels and pastries from Ronnie’s favorite place to eat – Panera! We also included some of Wade’s favorites – peppers, tomatoes, crackers, and hummus (from Jason’s Deli).


I was able to get these cute stickers done by purchasing a voucher for Sticker You way back before Christmas. They are dishwasher-proof, so we decided to apply them to some Preserve cups – now we can reuse them and avoid the added trash.


Outside, we had activities for the kids. First up, the Indian Camp complete with teepee, drums, and homemade feather headresses. HOW! We also set up a Mermaid Lagoon with a water table, but that didn’t really get used since the weather was quite drippy. The last station was Pirate’s Cove, a treasure hunt through sand for gold coins, alligators, jewels, and bouncy balls. I didn’t get a chance to take a picture of it, but there were little bags and lists for the kids that told them what to find – similar to this one.




I had a “Neverland Swag” table set up with favors for both the adults and kids. Party guests over the age of 4 got little bags of meringue cookies and the little ones got flouro-dipped canvas bags with a Peter Pan Golden Book, goldfish, party cup, candy, and an alligator crayon (Made by Maxx)


Vendors:
Cake Stands: Sunday Hatch
Arrows: Native
Crowns: Felted Kitten
Cupcakes & Smash Cakes: Trader Joe’s
Bagels & Pastries: Panera Bread
Hummus: Jason’s Deli
Stickers: Sticker You
Paper Favor Bags: Gift Wrap So Pretty
Alligator Crayons: Made by Maxx

Free Downloads:

Never Grow Up PosterNever Grow Up Poster – 24″ x 14″

Pirate's Cove PosterPirate’s Cove Poster – 14″ x 11″

Indian Camp PosterIndian Camp Poster – 14″ x 11″

Neverland Swag ImageNeverland Swag Image – 7″ x 5″

Mermaid Lagoon PosterMermaid Lagoon Poster – 14″ x 11″

Never Grow Up StickerNever Grow Up Sticker – 3″ x 3″

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Mickey Mouse Birthday Party

April 13, 2010 28 Comments

This past week was Ronnie’s second birthday party. I wanted to make his party extra special, so I put in a lot of time making sure I didn’t overlook any details. Unfortunately, wind got in the way of most of our decorations. We had to nix the streamers and tablecloths at the last minute because it was so bad. I think the party still turned out well, though. I know Ronnie had a blast – and I have the pictures to prove it!

I am so in love with apothecary jars, but I never thought I’d be able to get them for the party.  Everywhere I looked, they were at least $50.00 – that is, until I went to TJ Max and scored these for $6.00 a piece!  I was so thrilled that I could do a candy bar for the party!  We had homemade marshmallows [recipe by Prudent Baby], cotton candy, party pretzels, caramel popcorn, m&m’s, and orange candies.

We also had sack lunches for everyone.  For the kids, we had organic peanut butter & jelly sammies, Snikkidy Snack cheese puffs, and raisins.  For the adults, we had ham & swiss sammies, pretzels, and a pickle.  I sprung for Panera bread for all the sandwiches and it was well worth it!  The stickers were printed on label paper and punched out with a 2″ punch.

No sodas here. We had juice boxes for the kids and for the adults we had tea, lemonade, italian soda, and crystal light packets.

Do you notice the little plaque made by my friend, Megan? She hand painted it to match the invitations!

This mickey decoration was made with floral balls and tissue paper flowers.  I followed this tutorial at We Met In A Bar for making the flowers and securing them to the balls.  Then I used kebab skewers to connect the ears to the head.  My original plan was to make six of these to use as centerpieces for all of the tables, but that didn’t necessarily work out.  I underestimated how long it would actually take to make even one.  Literally, I added the last flower just before guests arrived.

For favors, I decided to make Mousketools boxes.  On the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Mickey and the gang use Mousketools that Toodles brings to them to solve problems throughout the show.  I had all the kids scream “Oh, Toodles!” and gave them their boxes.  Each box had mickey ears, white gloves, a puzzle, a ball, organic shark gummies, and a coloring page with crayons.  The coloring page looked like this:

Although the park served as an activity in itself, I had a few extra things planned for the kids.  The first was a Mickey Art craft similar to the car party craft at Jack and Izzy.  Instead of a car, I cut out a Mickey shape and instead of frames (which would have cost a fortune!), I used clear photo sleeves with magnet tape attached to the back.  This way the kids could put it on the refrigerator.  I wish we had taken a photo of one of them, but it got missed.

The second activity was a “photo-booth”.  Originally, I was going to make a booth out of a refrigerator box like I had seen somewhere online, but I later decided that it was easier and more practical just to put up a piece of fun fabric for the kids to stand in front of.  It worked out better, I think, because the lighting wasn’t restricted and my photographer was able to get some great shots!  We put out some hats, party glasses, and a feather boa for everyone to use, but I think this photo of Gracie in her Mickey ears is just priceless.  Unfortunately, by this point Ronnie had lost interest in the party and went to play on the park, so we didn’t get any of him.

In researching for the party, I found that there isn’t much out there for a Mickey theme that doesn’t use the licensed junk they sell at party stores.  For this reason, I’m sharing some of the printables I created so that anyone can use them.  Because things will need to be personalized, you’ll need Photoshop and a working knowledge of how to edit .psd files.  You’ll also need the following fonts that I used:

SF Slaptstick Comic

Cartwheel

Mickey Ears

TW Cen Mt Condensed

Fenway Park JF

Click on thumbnails to download PSD & PDF files:

“Thanks for Coming” Coloring Page

Cupcake Toppers

Mousketools Labels

Water Bottle Labels

Don’t have Photoshop or would like a customized party package for your next party?  Email me at shay@dumplindesignstudio.com!  I’m hoping to have a package available soon for purchase, but until then, just let me know what you need and we can work something out.  :)

I’ll leave you with a few photos of us at the party to show off how happy Ronnie was!

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Meal Planner & Grocery List

March 29, 2010 1 Comment

Use his handy meal planner to get ready for your grocery shopping trip.  Plan out your meals then determine what you need to get for each day.  Then put it all together on the shopping list.  Enjoy!
Meal Plan & Groceries: Download Here Grocery Shopping:  Download Here
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Free Printable Daily Planner

March 29, 2010 1 Comment

Staying organized is vital to successful professional motherhood.  Use this printable daily planner to keep things on track.

Instructions:

  • Download the .pdf file here.
  • Fold the page in half so that you have one day on each side.
  • Punch holes in the side using the top and middle punch on a 3-ring hole punch.
  • Put in your home management notebook or any 3-ring binder.

Tips:

  • Keep your to-do list at a maximum of 6 tasks a day!  Out of those 6, pick 3 Most Important Tasks (MIT) and sketch a star next to them.  These are the high-priority items that must get done.  Its highly unreasonable to think that you can get everything done in one day, so spread things out over the course of the week.
  • Pick one day a week to organize your week ahead.  Print out new planners.  Fill out the date, supper plans, and any appointments you have scheduled.  This way, its much easier to start each day out, knowing that your planner is ready to go.
  • Use your planner as a guide, not a set in stone agenda.  Don’t plan out your entire day.  You just need a skeleton of what you want to accomplish before the day is over.
  • Keep it simple!  Don’t try to over-do things, because you’ll get burnt out too quickly!

Here’s my example:

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