Sports wreath

 

Softball sports wreath. I used a grapevine wreath. Cut strips of purple and white fabric (our school colors) and pawprint ribbon. Tied the fabric around the grapevine wreath. I found a wooden baseball at a craft store and painted it neon yellow like a softball and added my daughters number (15). You can also add your team name like GO TIGERS!

Candy Bouquets

From Birthdays to Graduations and just about any special occasion. A Candy Bouquet is so easy to put together. A quick trip to the Dollar Store or local drugstore and about $15 and some creativity and you have a gift you can't go wrong with! I used a box, a bucket and a beer mug for these three. I used floral foam to secure the candy that I taped (using shipping tape) to lollipop sticks, and then inserted them into the foam. Add tissue paper, shredded paper, and curling ribbon to add bulk.

Liquor Bouquet

This is an awesome Birthday gift for a 21 year old!
Dollar Store Mug, add floral foam and Shredded paper and a Happy Birthday Spray from Dollar Store. I used small vodka bottles and taped them (clear shipping tape) to lollipop sticks and added curled ribbon to the bottles with tape. Put a Balloon in the middle and voila! This is also great for a party for anyone who may like to party and you just don't know what to get them.

Cakes

Special occasion cakes...possibilities are endless! The Barbie cake is made using the Pampered chef batter bowl and two 8" round cakes. Start by stacking the cakes using icing in between each layer. "Dirty" ice (ice using plain white buttercream icing) the cakes and use a lollipop stick pressed into te layers to hold them together. Cover the Barbie doll legs with saran wrap and insert through the cakes. Icing colors should coordinate with Barbie's dress...I used the Rose tip to ice her dress starting at the top and creating layers to the bottom. I finished it off with Roses and ribbon.
The Easter cake is a double layer cake, buttercream iced and decorated with colored (green food coloring) coconut for grass, Jellybeans and a Chocolate Bunny!

Thanksgiving Napkin Rings

Thanksgiving napkin rings you and your kids can make. These are so simple and easy to make. You will make a memory that will last for years. You will need pipe cleaners, beads (indian corn colors), raffia, hot glue and a napkin ring. You take a pipe cleaner and cut into three pieces, one piece in the middle should be slightly longer than the other two pieces. Twist the three pipe cleaners together, there should be some leftover and sticking out at the top. You will then put the beads onto the three pieces of the pipe cleaner, looping the bottom of the pipe cleaner around the first bead or twisting it to ensure the beads stay on. Once you have the three strands beaded and secure tie a raffia bow around the top of the pipe cleaners as shown. Then hot glue the napkin rings to the Indian corn. I purchased my napkin rings at the dollar store (they were fabric covered). We made these years ago and get them out every year-merry memories :)

Wii Sports Party

This year my daughter had a Wii Olympics Birthday Party. I tried to look up some ideas for my party on the internet and it was very hard to come by. So I decided to just use my imagination and come up with ideas all on my own. My daughter was turning 11, she is very much into sports and her birthday falls in December so we are somewhat limited to the activities and locations of her party. This year was a little tough in agreeing on a theme. But eventually the Wii Olympics was the "winner." I started out with making the invites. I searched the internet for pictures of Wii Mii's until I found the one I liked the most. I then did a play on Words:
Wii are having a Party!
Please join us for
food, fun and Wii Olympics
when we celebrate
NAME AGE Birthday
DATE
at
TIME
Address and phone number for RSVP
I added the Mii picture at the top of the invitation and Olympic Rings at the bottom of the invitation.


There are lots of mii pics to choose from the picture here is not the one I used but for idea purposes.

I had a large whiteboard that wii used to keep "scores." I had a craft table set up so that when the kids began to arrive they would go and make their "country" flag for the Olympic procession into the "coliseum" aka the living room. Wii downloaded the Olympic theme onto the computer and used it for the procession. The kids really got a kick out of this. Wii used pencils, tape and construction paper to construct the "flags" and markers and stickers to decorate. Wii then started the Wii Olympics. Wii only have one Wii therefore the kids were broken down to play against one another in twos, teams cheered on teams and so forth. We actually have the Wii Sonic and Mario Olympic Games, that we used to play a few of the sports and then we also used Wii bowling and Tennis from the Wii Sports. You can use any variation of games that you wish. The kids thought that the winner would be the one with the highest score but I decided to actually give them medals for "other" categories. Example: My daughter got the Birthday Girl Medal-she stood on the podium and her guest filled in around her wearing their award medals which consisted of; Best All-around player, Most energetic, Most Outrageous, Best Dressed player,Most enthusiastic and so forth. We then rose up the flag of the birthday girls country and played the US National Anthem. Wii then had cake and ice cream and opened presents. The cake was decorated red, white and blue that read Wii wish you a Happy Birthday Alexa! Wii also had cupcakes that had sports picks in them to coordinate with "Olympic sports" theme. The kids really enjoyed it!

My Review of Hyper Dash - NEW!

Originally submitted at Wild Planet

Hyper Dash™ - NEW!

The Electronic Game that's as Fast as you are!

This just in! Hyper Dash wins an iParenting Award for "Outstanding Products, Toys & Games"

Overview:
Hyper Dash will challenge you to be your best. It t...

Hyper Dash - NEW!

Great game for all ages

By Michele bells from Pickerington on 1/3/2008

 

5out of 5

Pros: Fun, Gets kids moving, Entertaining

Best Uses: Friends, Children, Family, Adults

Describe Yourself: Parent

The hyper dash is a great motivting game for kids of any age, indoors or out. It's an active game that gets your kids moving.

(legalese)

Birthday Parties

I love to throw parties, I love to personlaize parties. You know, give it that little something extra that makes it stand out from the rest. I always say, "it is all about the presentation." I believe that is true. You don't have to spend a lot of money or buy tons of themed partyware. It is all in how you present it!

SpongeBob Luau-we had this party inside in early December, it was quite a success. We made invitations via the computer and personazlized them using Spongebob talk, referencing his blurbs to adapt to our theme. I bought Leis to give to each child upon arrival. We made a backdrop for pictures with the birthday girl. The backdrop was a plastic, blue, dollar store tablecloth we put on the wall using sticky tack (poster tack), you can also use tape. I bought clear balloons and a SpongeBob stand-up balloon, we added the number 8 (this was my daughters eighth birthday), and added little squigglys to make it look like Bikini Bottom. Each child at the party was photographed with my daughter, we sent the photographs in a thank you card to each child. The kids made SpongeBob foamie frames, I bought at Wal-mart. We played games such as a Hula Hoop contest, bubble blowing contest and hot pineapple (a take on Hot potato). I printed out various coloring pages and made a Happy Birthday sign with all the SpongeBob characters, each attendee signed it with a birthday message. Goldfish crackers to snack on before I made "Krabby Patties" (little hamburgers), and ordered the "plankton pizza" of course it would not have been complete without pineapple slices. You can find many additional luau items at your local party store, it just depends on how elaborate you want to be. The cake was a SpongeBob cake, made with a Rectangular pan, I just drew spongeBob on the cake. The ideas are endless.

School Spirit Ideas

Need ideas for a school or recreational sport. Personalize candy, make spirit bags, motivational messages, here are a few I have done. My daughters have played Volleyball for many years, I try to be as creative as I can coming up with new and different sayings for each game. Usually the first game I make a Bag, our colors are purple and white and we are the Tigers. I get purple and white lunch bags and put TIGERS, vertically on the front of the bags with a motivational sentence with the first letter being the T in Tiger and so forth, see my example:

TIGERS DOMINATE AND DEFEAT
IGNITE THAT TIGER SPIRIT
GEAR UP FOR VICTORY
EVERY PLAYER COUNTS
READY, SET, WIN
SCORE, SCORE, SCORE
Inside the bags I put a variety of candy, each standing for something. I usually add a motivational quote on a piece of paper with it also. I use clip art also, like tigers, paw prints anything that pertains to who they are or they might be playing.
Example:

“Never let the fear of striking out, keep you from playing the game.”
Three Musketeers- We’re all for one and one for all!
Starburst- To give you that extra burst of energy when you need it!
Laffy Taffy- Not only play the game, but have fun doing it!

Tootsie Pop- Pop ‘em up and Spike ‘em down!

Extra Gum-Give it extra effort!
!GO TIGERS!

Of course you can put your own twist to your own team. And it's not just for Volleyball. Cheerleaders, football, basketball, baseball, personalize it to your sport of choice.

Here are a few more spirit sayings "Crunch the CATS"-use crunch bars, "Rip the Raiders to Pieces"-Reeses Pieces, "Tigers Rock the House"- Pop Rocks, "Blast 'em to the Milky Way"-Milky Way bars, "Stick it to the Warriors"-gum, "Blow the Gales away"-Blow pops, "Tigers are Mighty & Mean"- M&M's, "Roll-over the Raiders"-Rolos or tootsie rolls, "Kiss the Celtics good-bye"-hershey kisses.

Halloween Costumes

Easy to make Halloween costumes-

Pippi Longstocking-The beloved children's character comes to life with this great kids costume idea. I went to the local children's resale store and picked up the denim dress, any type of dress would work and the brown shoes (they were a boys pair of shoes). I then gathered fabric scraps, which I sewed by hand onto the dress. We layered shirts, of various colors, under the dress. My daughter wore her baseball pants as bloomers. We picked up two sets of knee socks at the dollar store and mismatched them to make a mismatched pair. I weaved a strip of wire through her hair as I braided it (it spanned from one braid to the end of the other braid). I sprayed red hair paint in her hair, added a few freckles and finished it with her monkey Mr. Nilsson. She got raves on that costume all night long.

Leprechaun - I found a green outfit at Wal-mart, with knickers and a short blazer along with gold buttons. I added a white ruffled blouse, white knee socks, green hat, bow tie, a pipe and a pot o' gold to finish off the outfit. I added a red beard with sideburns using lip liner (you could use any makeup). The outfit looked great and it was very inexpensive.