Minnie Mouse 1st Birthday Party

My daughter turned 1 in January and I had been planning her first birthday party since she was just weeks old. I LOVE planning parties and I tend to go over the top (not in price though)! Having a child gives me the perfect excuse to plan parties. The theme for her first party was a no brainer for me, Minnie Mouse!!!! The color scheme of pink, black, and white was easy to execute and then add a few bows and Minnie mouse cutouts and you've got the perfect party.

In this post, you will find every element for the party from the decorations to the food and everything in between. I will include what I did to create them. First, let me preface by saying that I have a Cricut cartridge that is Disney theme. It has the classic characters like Minnie and Mickey. I used this cartridge to cut the shapes I needed for the party.

Center Pieces

I made 2 different center pieces for the 4 tables I had in the room. One was a Minnie Mouse Styrofoam head and the other was a ribbon ball. Both were displayed inside a flower pot I painted pink.

For the Minnie Mouse Head:

I hand painted a large Styrofoam ball and 2 smaller Styrofoam balls black
Hot Glue the balls together to form the head
Create a bow to place on top and hot glue
Wrap a Dowl rod with ribbon and place in the bottom of the head and into the painted flower pot (there is a piece of Styrofoam in the pot to hold up the center pieces)

 

For the Ribbon Balls:

I have posted a "How-to" previously and you can find it here!

The thing you need to know is to match the ribbon to the colors you want.

 

To finish off the tables, you can see a polka dot runner: I used wrapping paper to run down the center of pink table cloth.



 

Other Decorations:

Wreaths for the doors; ribbon wreath and a fabric wreath.

 

Mickey mouse fringe around every doorway and window. I used my Cricut cartridge to cut these out and then glued them along a piece of string.

2 banners; one with my daughter's name and the other says "Happy Birthday"

Large Minnie mouse cutouts to hang on the wall.

Foam #1's; some were decorated with glitter polka dots and others with cupcake wrappers.

30 tissue paper balls hung from the ceiling.

Tutu around the highchair

Dessert Table:

I had a dessert table for everyone to snack on throughout the party. Every dessert was Minnie Mouse themed.

sucker head

Cake balls

Oreo pops

Dipped marshmallows

Cupcakes

Smash Cake (for the birthday girl)

AND THEN THE FINISHED PARTY!!!!

 

 

Whooo's the Sweetest?

Valentine's Day is sneaking up and here is a quick and easy Valentine you can do for a school exchange or just because you want to give a little something to a few friends!

Materials:

• 5 1/2 in square piece of colored paper
• small white piece of paper
• black piece of paper
• small orange piece of paper (easy if it's a square)
• Glue stick
• pencil
• medium circle shape (to trace)
• smaller circle shape (to trace
• scissors
• individually wrapped candies

Instructions:
1. Fold your 5 1/2 square piece of paper in half. With the open half pointed away from your body draw a bracket: { just like the picture below

 

2. Now along the shorter side of the folded piece of paper, draw a semi-circle; do the same on the opposite side. See picture below

3. Now cut along  your lines so the finished piece looks like the below picture.

4. Using this as a template, create as many owl faces as you desire.

5. Using the orange piece of paper, you will create a small (in fact it might actually be tiny) triangle. This will become the beak. I made it easier on myself and simply cut off the corners. (See picture below) If you choose to take this route, you will need several pieces of orange paper.

6.Use your 2 size circle items for tracing, and trace 2 of the medium circles on to the white paper, and trace 2 of the smaller circles on to the black paper. (See picture below)This will become your eyes. Cut out the circles.

 

 

 

7. Glue the beak on first, then the eyes.

8. Now you are ready to glue the candy inside. Open up the face, and place a lot of glue on one side. Lay the candy on top and then close the face and press down making sure to seal it so that it will remain closed.

9. On the back, you can write whatever saying you like that pertains to owls: "Whoooo _______". I chose to write "Whoo's the sweetest?"

Happy Valentine's Day!

 

Enjoy your simple Valentine!!!

  

A Valentine Keepsake

Valentine's Day is just around the corner and I have been working on a couple of simple projects you can do with your child! This project will be made easier if you have a Cricut machine but it is NOT impossible to do if you don't have one. You'll simply be doing a lot of cutting and/or tracing by hand. 

Handprint Sign

Cricut Cartridges

Materials:

• Tear Drops Cricut cartridge
• Sweethearts Cricut cartridge
• 12X12 scrapbook paper (background)
• pattern paper (heart)
• 2 different solid color papers (key & words)
• Letter stickers (compliment background paper)
• Acrylic paint (compliment background paper)

Instructions:
1. Using the Sweethearts Cricut cartridge, set the size dial to 6 1/2 and cut out the swirl heart from your pattern paper.
2. Using the Sweethearts Cricut cartridge, set the size dial to 4 and cut out the key from the key and lock from your solid paper; I chose black.
3. Using the Tear Drops Cricut cartridge, set the size to 1 1/4 and cut out all the letters for the saying "These ______ Hold Our ______ Forever"
4. Play around and rearrange the letters and pictures until you like the placement. REMEMBER to leave room for your child's hand prints and for the letter stickers to say "Hands" & "Hearts" .
5. Once you like the placement of everything, glue it all down first.
6. Paint your child's hand with the paint and place them on the paper where you have designated. As you can see, I chose to do them in the upper right hand corner.
7. Now place the stickers where you would like the words to be. I chose to add variation to my picture and placed the word "HANDS" vertical instead of horizontal.
8. I bought a 12X12 scrapbook frame from hobby lobby to finish it!



I forgot the "s" at the end of "HEARTS" OOPS!

Ideas if you don't have a Cricut:

Heart and key: I would find an image you like, print it out and cut around it. Then trace it onto the pattern paper of choice and cut and glue onto your 12X12 paper.
Letters: There are a couple ways you can do this; the first would be to find a stencil and trace and cut them out; the second could be to find letter punches and punch them out; a third could be to find an artistic font you like and print them on a complimentary paper and cut and glue each word or print the letters out and cut around each individual letter.

Healing a Severe Diaper Rash

For the first time since my daughter was born, which has been a year, she unexpectedly acquired her first SEVERE diaper rash. When my sweet angel was acting fussy throughout the morning I knew something was awry. Then when she awoke from her 3 hour nap screaming in pain I knew this seemingly simple rash had developed into more.

I noticed the rash a few days ago but it wasn't bad at. I treated it with my go-to A&D diaper cream. When it didn't go away, I treated it for a yeast infection by putting Lamasil on it. Still, it got worse!

When my daughter, who never cries (and those who know her, know that's not a lie), was screaming for over an hour, I called the on-call nurse for help. I was sure she would laugh at the fact I was calling about a diaper rash but when she heard my daughter screaming she jumped into action. She told me about the following treatment plan:

First:
Put about 2 tablespoons of baking soda into a luke warm bath and let the child soak for about 20 minutes.

Second:
Mix together the following ointments and slather it on her bottom: 

Vaseline
Neosporin (I used the one with pain relief)
A&D ointment (NOT cream)



I made a large batch of the ointment and stored it in a tub-a-ware.

My daughter immediately felt relief and was no longer in pain; on top of that she was able to move around again and the rash began to clear up. After 2 days of using the ointment after every diaper change the rash has healed up.

I will ALWAYS keep this ointment on hand and use it at the first sign of a rash!

I hope y'all find this useful in your adventures of parenting!

Guns or Glitter

Gender Reveal

I had the wonderful blessing and privilege of hosting a gender reveal party for my dearest and best friend Carolyn! Oh the ideas we threw around for the theme never ended, UNTIL, we came across the idea of Guns or Glitter. Both of our minds were going with all the ideas we could use, however, they were not on the same track. Carolyn's idea was pink and blue and mine was camo and glittery pink. After talking to, or rather persuading, Carolyn that pink and blue goes with the theme of "Blue or Pink what do you think?" I won out and the decorating began; CAMO and GLITTERY PINK!!!

I am a huge DIYer! In fact, you can always find me making something. If you can make it instead of buy it you will always save money; at least that is my philosophy and I will stick to it. (This is how I can convince my husband to let me go to hobby lobby so often)


Carolyn confined me to decorating and setting up to her kitchen and dining room. This isn't a very large space but I sure made the most of it.  

 

 

           

 

The guests signed this picture book (which would be used in the actual reveal) for the baby to have throughout his/her childhood. The sign reads:

 

GUEST SIGN IN!

Welcome!

We're so glad you came

We'd love to have you

sign your name,

And write perhaps a line or two

By which we can remember you.

Then when Baby Hall

 

has arrived

Our memories of this day will thrive

For when we look at it we'll see

Kind words from friends and family!

 

 

I made these pins for the mom, dad, and big-sister to be!

Guests would choose a ribbon pin (glittery pink or camo) and pin it to their shirt according to the gender they were hoping for. The sign reads: Once you have cast your vote, grab a pin and pin it to your shirt!

 

I had guests write their name on a piece of paper and place it in the corresponding jar for the gender they choose. I then held a raffle for the winning jar. The winner got a gift card to either Academy (boy) or Target (girl). The sign reads: write your name on a piece of paper and place it in the corresponding jar for your vote. A raffle will be held for the guest who guessed correctly! (each guest gets an entry!)

 

Then I had props for pictures for the guests to take. Once they had chosen the gender they are hoping for, they grabbed either a tiara or a gun and posed for a picture! The sign reads: Come take a picture, let us see which side you're wanting it to be.

 

To help guests vote, I talked to the mom-to-be and created a midwife tale chart so they could see which side the mom-to-be yields to.

 

This is the chalkboard drawing and voting for the guests so we could see what the majority thought!

Window fringe

 



Ribbon balls

 

The camo and glittery pink didn't end with decorations; I carried it over to the food and drinks as well. I had a pink lemonade and a green sherbert punch to incorporate into the drinks.

The Reveal

I got the idea from a friend whose gender reveal was unbelievable. It was so unique I knew instantly I wanted to do it for my best friend. Her reveal can be found on her blog The Kurtz Corner.

I gathered all the guests together and put them in a circle. I passed out small take out boxes and told them to not open them just yet. I also said that only one box contains the actual gender. I was going to read the book from the sign in (I Love You More). Every time I read the word "love" they were to pass their box to the right. After the story was over, everyone opened their box and the person with the gender was to shout out "IT'S A ...." the trick was, everyone had the gender in their box. Some how, it worked out to where the mom and dad- to- be shouted IT'S A BOY!!!! before anyone else. They were elated and overwhelmed!

Their bundle of joy will arrive in May and Jackson will be theirs to love on till the end of time!!! Congratulations Carolyn and Derrick!