Disneyland Savings Tin

It's been 6 months since our last visit to The Happiest Place on Earth & I'm missing Disneyland!

I covered a dollar store piggy bank with cute scrapbook paper & added ribbon on the top & bottom edges with my glue gun. I finished off with some simple embellishments.

Now I can add in spare change and cash to add towards our spending money next time we go back!

DIY Painted Ikea Kids Table

For my daughter's 2nd birthday, I made-over an Ikea table for her, as she loves tea parties.

I got this small table that came with 2 chairs (price is in Canadian Dollars).

I bought a set of Martha Stewart paint at Michael's that had some pretty colours I loved and painted it all...

*Note: I already had one chair from this set in case you are wondering how I managed to get 3 chairs!

I chose yellow for the table, pink for one daughter, purple for my other daughter, and blue for my son so they each have a chair, just for them!

I added on cute letting stickers onto the back of each chair & put some Mod Podge over to keep them from peeling off. I bought some flower vinyl stickers from the dollar store to add onto the top.

She loved it when I gave it to her on her birthday and my kids use it each and every day!

My Son's 5th Birthday Party- Pirate Theme!

It's about time that I post about my son's birthday party from last month!

He had a Pirate theme and I had lots of fun putting everything together!!

I did a party for extended family the Saturday after his actual birthday. I made these invitations that we mailed out......

And then he had a "friend party" where he was able to invite a few friends from his kindergarten class. 

It was the Friday before his birthday and I opted to do it in the afternoon right after school so that the kids could come right to our house, have lunch, then party! {I used this cute printable}

The set up in our dining room......

There were 3 banners for his party in total.

The first one was this pennant banner I made out of  fabric......

Here's the table all set up with the treats!

Above the table I had another banner and a couple pirate balloons......

I used some pirate scrapbook paper and a couple pictures of my son dressed up as a pirate to made the second banner that hung above the table......

All right, let's explore the table a bit more closely, shall we?

I covered bottles of water in scrapbook paper that had a wood grain on it and then made a label that said "Sea Water" and stuck in in a big bamboo clothespin. (I had bought a few sets of those clothespins with his party in mind from the dollar store. I knew they would be perfect for holding labels at the food table!) I made all the labels on my computer, then distressed them like crazy so they looked like old paper. (Although you can't really tell in the photos!)

I had a couple 2L bottles of pop: Pirate Beer and Pirate Ale (and I put in brackets underneath what they really were, just to avoid any alarmed parents....ha!)

I covered 1L cartons of apple juice in pirate scrapbook paper.

I found some of those sword toothpicks which were just fit perfect for the pirate theme.

I made soooo many cupcakes! 

I made cupcakes for his friend party.

I made cupcakes for him to take to school on his actual birthday. (Plus extras for our immediate family to celebrate together that night.)

And made more cupcakes for the extended family birthday party.

I just made 2 types and kept it simple. The white cupcakes were made in the blue pirate cupcake liners and had chocolate sprinkles and a pirate flag on top.

The chocolate cupcakes were made in white 'square' cupcake liners and then I topped those off with chocolate foiled gold coins.

Beside the cupcakes, there was a dish with chocolate gold coins & a 'pirate map', rolled up, and tied with twine.

I had found a couple of glass bowls from the dollar store that reminded me of fish bowls, so I filled them both with some "Catch of the Day" (gummy fish in one & colourful goldfish crackers in the other one).

The "Cannon Balls" were Whoppers chocolates.

And then there were come "Chips Ahoy Pirate Cookies". I was going to buy some of those Pirate Brand cookies (the peanut butter cookies), but I opted to stay away from anything with peanuts or nuts since so many kids have allergies these days.

I had some starfish shells on the table here and there.

The pirate chest was at request of my son. He told me a day or two before his party that he really wanted a pirate chest! So I made one using a box from mandarin oranges. I covered it with kraft paper, then painted on some details with acrylic paint, then distressed the edges with ink. He has played with it soooo much and still has it! So funny! On the table, it was filled with pirate loot!

I had a couple little tables set up with a pirate table cloth and a vase of plastic gold coins and plastic diamond jewels. When the kids ate, I had them kneel around the table, cause I just didn't have enough chairs for everyone. They're little and it worked! :)

In the living room, I hung up this humongous pirate banner & had the rest of the balloons there as well. 

Since his birthday is in December, his party decor is always up with all our Christmas decorations. 

I used some of the bamboo clothespins I had to display a few more of the pictures of him dressed up as a pirate......

I bought so so many foam pirate swords. Each kid got a sword to take home...... (I'm sure all the parents were thrilled! ha!)

Each child also got a treat bag to take home......

Here's the pirate loot that was in each bag......

The dollar store had this pirate photo prop for a couple dollars that I had bought almost a year ago with his party in mind. I took a picture of each kid at his friend party and guests from his family party as well. I printed a picture of each of his friends and gave them to the kids after the party as well as a picture of the group with a "thanks for coming" type message on the photo.

Here are my kiddos posing in the photo prop......

I'm happy with how everything turned out and how smoothly his parties went. And most importantly, he was such a happy birthday boy! That makes it all worthwhile! :)

I love doing fun parties for my kids' birthdays!

Here are the other parties we have had:

My son had a Cars theme for his 4th birthday:

My son had a Toy Story theme for his 3rd birthday:

My son had a Wiggles theme for his 2nd birthday:

My son had a Zoo Animals theme for his 1st birthday:

My daughter had a Black, White, and PINK theme for her 1st birthday:

My daughter had a Dora theme for her 2nd birthday:

Hopefully I will be back with a new post sooner than later!

Clothespin Photo Block

I love my kids. I love taking pictures.

So you can imagine that I take lots of pictures, mostly of my kids!

I enjoy new, fun ways to display pictures in our home. 

So I made up this little photo block........

I didn't make up a tutorial since it's pretty self-explanatory. 

I painted some scrap wood. I cut a piece of scrapbook paper to fit & inked around the edges.

Then I adhered it to the block, then used my glue gun to add on the mini clothespins.

The clothespins allow for me to change the photo out as often as I like. 

I can display one larger photo.......

Or I can display a couple smaller pictures together.......

I am all about the simple projects lately!!

Simple Ideas for Travelling With Kids

 A couple weeks ago, our family went on a little holiday around our gorgeous province of Alberta and even went a little bit into Montana. Over about a week we drove 2070 kilometres (or 1286 miles). 

In the weeks before, I tried to think of some simple ways to make the time in our vehicle a bit more fun for the kids.... and easier for the Mr. and me!

We have a portable dvd player with dual screens, so the kids each got a new dvd and a toy set from the Disneystore right before we left. (Our 2 year old has had issues with bad car sickness in the past year so the dvd players have been a must ever since anytime we travel in the vehicle.)

At Dollarama I picked up these containers for $2 each......

I filled one for both of my kids with various snacks & a few treats that they both like......

I used my glue gun to add a chipboard letter onto each lid to personalize them a bit.....

I also added some scrapbook paper onto one side, where the sticker label had been. It made them cuter and made it so I didn't have to bother removing all the sticker residue! Win win!

Since we were going to be seeing lots of lakes in the mountains and spending lots of time outside, I thought a new bottle of bubbles would be something good to have on hand!

And I was super stoked to find Angry Birds gummies at London Drugs, so I bought one of each character and saved them for our trip.

I also like having some extra activity stuff to pull out during those moments when kids need some extra distractions. I bought a bag for both of them from the party section at Walmart for 97 cents. Character stuff is always a hit with my kids!

I filled each bag with some goodies from either the dollar store or Michael's to keep them happy.

They each got:

-a colouring book & a bag of cool shaped crayons

-a notebook & a little story book

-one of those magnetic drawing toys

-a water marker colouring mat set (they were $2 at the dollar store and were their fave things by far!)

Hopefully that gives some ideas for the next time you travel with your little kids!