Tyler's Second Birthday Party: The Prep

Tyler loves Elmo.  He asks for him every day, "more Momo?".  For his second birthday party it seemed only fitting that we throw an Elmo themed party.  I started a board on Pinterest to get some ideas.  Wow, there are some really creative and crafty people out there! 

Here is the mantel just before his birthday:

And here it is after all the birthday love:

It had just rained for two days straight.  Our backyard was swampy and I knew the kids would want to play outside so I put this basket together of towels and wipes for their feet:

The party favors waiting to be taken home.  I included a few of Elmo's favorite things: bag of gold fish, crayons, and Sesame Street tattoos.

I made a sign for the front door (just in case the balloons on the mailbox were not evident enough that the party starts here):

The cake!  It's a simple store cake from Giant Foods.  I've seen the Sesame Street Big Bird and Elmo in Tow Birthday Cake Decorating Kit on Amazon where you could bake the cake yourself if your feeling ambitious.  I was not.  :-)

I saw this giant inflatable Elmo balloon and had to buy it.  I was so excited to see his face when we brought it home.  He gave Elmo a big hug, then took his hand and led him around the house.

 

 

I will post about the actual party soon!  There are too many great pictures to narrow it down!

 

Our Lego Duplo House Party

I signed up at the House Party website to host a Lego Duplo Read and Build party and was so excited when this arrived one day:

Inside the box was 4 Lego Duplo Read and Build games and a bunch of other goodies to hand out to the guests:

I got to work right away creating a Lego Duplo board over on Pinterest to get some creative ideas for food and decoration.  {If you are thinking of throwing a Lego party for your kids there is some great inspiration on Pinterest.}

I decided to go the simple route with the food.  I was out of town the day before the party and had no time to bake Lego shaped cookies or mold Lego jello.

The kiddos had a great time playing together and at the end of the party we put names into a hat to see which 3 lucky guests got to take one of the Read and Build sets home with them.

Crafting with AstroBright Paper

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Astrobrights Papers by Neenah Paper for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.


AstroBright’s paper is the brightest highest quality paper you can find. Ranging in 23 different colors it is sure to offer your project exactly what it needs to be noticed.  AstroBright's papers are also acid free, which makes them great for scrap booking and crafting with pictures. They also work great in both my laser and ink jet printers.  What sets it apart from other papers is the smooth thick quality of the paper and bright and evenly colored pages.  No fading here! I love to use AstroBright’s to create fliers for my community social committee functions so everyone is sure to see which event is coming up next. I even used them in my wedding invitations and thank you cards 4 years ago.  Astrobrights even has matching envelopes I was able to find online.  It's the perfect solution for any paper crafting no matter how big or small.
If you are looking for some great projects to use AstroBright's paper with check out Astrobrights on Facebook where they have family-friendly "Make Something Astrobright" design challenges that would be fun for the whole family to participate in, and hey, you may even win one of their challenges!!
Right now you can click on over to the AstroBright's website and support your local elementary school by entering the "Give a Brighter Year" sweepstakes. You can win a $500 gift card for yourself and school supplies valued at $30,000 for the school of your choice. Hurry, contest ends September 10, 2012!

Sewing Project: New Throw Pillows

After my curtain project I got excited to be sewing again.  I decided we needed to update the pillows in the family room to give the room some color. 
I found some fabric I liked (and it was 50% off!).  For $10 I got two new throw pillows: