My little pony birthday

I never gave you a full look at the My Little Pony Party from this summer. I have featured many if the ideas in my "Pinned it:Nailed it" blog entries but wanted to put them all together in one place for you to view. 

The biggest decoration hung in the kitchen. A giant crepe paper rainbow coming from tissue part clouds. 

On the wall next to it you can see several paper fans. I used light weight 12x12 coordinating colors of paper and made lots of them and hung them all over the house. Tutorials for how to make them can be found all over the web. 

I printed several My Little Pony graphics from online and mounted them on colorful cardstock. 

These cute little guys below hung off the fireplace mantel. I used my paper punch to cut the circles, printed and hand cut the pony graphics, then sewed them on my sewing machine.

Below: On the right: More examples of printed and mounted graphics with some tissue paper poms for a cute centerpiece. One the left: I splurged and get the pony balloons. 

I wanted the silverware and straws to be displayed in a cute way on the buffet. I used down polka dotted paper and made a little cone, cut off the bottoms,  places it in a glass, then dropped in the silverware. It added some color and spunk.

The pony table decorations were a Pinterest inspiration. Originally in a ball jar I decided to use sprinkles in the bottom of a juice glass and add the small plastic pony.

Outside we setup a special tent for the kiddos. Inside we had a picnic table with two buckets of crayons and papers with a blank pony template with "design your own pony" written on it.

Some kids drew existing ponies and some designed new creations. 

Here are some printed graphics that I mounted on paper fans. These hung outside on the kids tent.

The cake and cupcakes were from a local bakery. It was a great deal and tasted wonderful!

To add to the fun we also had a photo booth. I used my Cricut to cut out beards, glasses, hats, thought bubbles, and lots more!

The background was made from a simple white plastic table cloth, some paper dot garland, and a few paper fans (made from colorful wrapping paper)

I made a cute little centerpiece from some online printed graphics. I used a bowl and put foam inside. Wrapped the bowl with polka dot tissue paper and covered the top with coordinating pink. Then I put the graphics on sticks and put them in. 

I made a pair of giant paper fans. This one with a #5. The "partner" to this one was on the front door decorated with cute crepe paper twists. (I forgot to take a picture of it.😕)

The party was a huge success! A lot of work went into it and it'll be awhile before I do another big one like this but it was well worth the effort!

Fall Party Mix Snack

I saw a Pinterest post for a Fall ChexMix but I didn't have the time to make it from scratch so I made my version of a quick and easy fall party mix recipie. 

Great for a get together with friends, a snack for the kids,  or to share with coworkers at the office. 

First pop two bags of kettlecorn and place in a big bowl.

 Add a bag of sweet and salty Chex mix. 

Finally, add 1/2 a bag of Brachs autumn  candy mix.

Quickly mix it up and you have a great big bowl of a sweet fall treat made in under ten minutes and for less than $10.

Dried Apple Bird Feeder (Pinterest fail)

I saw the cutest little pin the other day. It just screamed fall craft and right now I am slightly obsessed with fall. 

I just HAD to make it!

Here is what I did:

I sliced apples with my mandolin and dehydrated them.

Next I had my daughter help to string them on wire.

We added some cute ribbon.

Finally I hung it outside. 

Looks super cute outside, however two days later we had a huge rain storm.... All the apples rehydrated and turned to mush. ☔️😕 after that it attracted bees so I had to toss it out. 

I think if I was to redo this I would wait until winter and stick on a little birdseed with some peanut butter to give the birds more to eat. Also, I won't have to worry about rain or bees!

Handprint Owl Painting

I seem to be on a kick with the handprint art activities. But who can help it? Kids hands are so cute at this age. Plus, getting paint all over your hands is such a 'hoot' for kids. (Pun intended, sorry I couldn't help myself.) 

First get out a piece of cardstock. (I always recommend using cardstock over standard paper for kids crafting it just holds up much better.)

Coat your little ones hand with paint and with their fingers together place the print in the center of the page.

Next use brown to paint the branch. I used pencil to lightly outline the branch for my daughter. 

Cut white eyes from scrap paper and glue onto your owl.

We added goggly eyes because they are so much more fun than just drawing an eyeball!

Use a bit of orange paint and make a triangle for the beak.

Next use yellow red and orange to add some fall leaves to the end of the branches. 

Hang up and enjoy!

Pinned It, Nailed It! Fairy surprise sandwich.

Original pin:

http://kidsactivitiesblog.com/58069/make-a-fairy-sandwich

My attempt:

Verdict:  Nailed it!

Super easy and it thrilled my 5 year old!

Here's what you do:

First: Invest in a few basic mini cookie cutters. (I've used mine more times than I can count: Jello Jigglers, cutting bologna and cheese into fun shapes for lunches, shaped quesadillas, cutting fresh fruit....) 

Cut out a shape in the lower corner of ONE slice of bread.

Add peanut butter (and/or jelly) to the second slice:

Put the bread together.

Gently shake the sprinkles into the cut out shape.

Tip: if too much pours out (as it did for me) just shake off the extras into the sink. The base layer will stick to the peanut butter.