Star Wars Trunk or Treat

Our church does a Trunk or Treat event for the community every year.  We decided to participate as a family this year.  I hoped it would be something fun for us to do together since my kids are getting older and less "into" Halloween (well, at least the teenager!)  It was a blast and we are already talking about / negotiating what theme we will do next year!

For this year, we decided on the classic, never-fails Star Wars theme.  I focused less on the trunk itself and more on our costumes and the photo booth.

Here's the whole group!  My husband was Darth Vader, I was Princess Leia, my 13 year old was Hans Solo, my 10 year old was Luke Skywalker, and our dog was Yoda!  Everyone loved seeing the dog dressed up! 

For the trunk, I covered the back in black using black plastic tablecloths and black felt.  I added the Death Star inflatable hung from the ceiling (Amazon).  I made a Star Wars banner with silver foil cardstock.  But, the center of attention was Yoda!

 My next favorite thing (besides the costumes) was the photo booth!  I borrowed the PVC backdrop frame from a friend and added starry plastic tablecloths as the backdrop.  Then I had tons of quotes and masks for people to use and take their own Star Wars pictures.  I purchased the masks HERE.  I made the quotes and you can download them HERE.  For photo booth props, I usually print them on white card stock, laminate them, and hot glue a wooden skewer to the back.  This was a big hit and created lots of cute photo opportunities!

Trunk or Treat was so much fun!  I can't wait to do it again next year!

Willy Wonka End of the Year Party

I LOVED this Willy Wonka End of the Year Party!  It was SO much fun!  The teacher read the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl to the class in the month leading up to the party.  Plus, they watched the original movie in the morning before the party, so the kids knew all about it and were so excited about each station!  Here is what we did!

Decorations:
I made a banner that said "Factory" with my Silhouette and hung it between the classroom doors.  The font I used is called "WillyWonka".  Then, we hung purple streamers from the doorway to make it feel like the kids were entering the chocolate factory when they went in the classroom!  I also made "candy" from colored plastic plates wrapped in cellophane.  So cute!

Set-up:
We had 10 stations to do!  Instead of doing all 10 at once, we decided to set up 5 stations at a time so that there would be 4-5 kids at each station.  So, we set up and did the first 5 stations and then set up again to do the second 5 stations.

To divide the kids into groups, I made golden tickets!  Each golden ticket was coded with an "A", "B", "C", "D", or "E".  I randomly handed out the tickets and then the 5 kids holding a ticket with an "A" on it were in one group and so on...  This was a fair way to divide into groups and helped break up some of the kids that can be a handful when they are all together, especially at a party!  Plus the kids loved having a Golden Ticket to keep!  You can download the Golden Tickets HERE.  To make changes to the time and date paragraph, you can add a text box over mine and insert your own text.  I used "HelloBigSky" font in size 10 for this paragraph.  I added the letters for the groups and printed the tickets on gold vellum.

Games:
The games were the best part! Here is all 10!  You can download the place cards with instructions to put at each station: Page 1 HERE, Page 2 HERE, & Page 3 HERE.  Print on cardstock, trim inside black lines, & fold in half.  This is what they look like:

1. Violet's Bubble Blow: Chew a piece of gum.  Can you blow a bubble?  Who can blow the biggest bubble?  Who can make the loudest pop? 
   
2. The Chocolate Room: Put Hershey's syrup on a plastic plate that has been taped to the table.  See who can lick the chocolate river off the plate first without using their hands. 
   
3. The Inventing Room: Who can get their Gobstopper the smallest without biting it? 
   
4. Golden Ticket Challenge: How many cheese balls can you put in your mouth and still say "I've got the Golden Ticket!"? 
   
5. Charlie's Fizzy Lifting Drink: Give each child a gulp of Coca-Cola.  Can you burp?  Who can burp the loudest?  Who can burp the longest? 
   
6. Veruca's Egg Find: Fill a large bucket with plastic Easter eggs.  Inside one egg place a piece of paper that says "Good Egg".  Who can find the egg with the paper inside? 
   
7. The Augustus Gobble: Hang a mini doughnut from a string attached to a pole.  Who can finish their doughnut first without using their hands? (this was my favorite game!)  
   
8. Mike's Taffy Pull: Give each child a piece of Laffy Taffy.  Who can stretch their taffy the longest distance? (This game took patience.  The kids had to warm up the taffy in their hands and then slowly stretch or roll it.  I wondered if Air Heads would work better?)
   
9. Oompa Loompa Waddle: Waddle with a purple balloon between your legs to the finish line.  Then pop "Violet" without using your hands. 
   
10. Willy Wonka Hat Toss:  Who can get the most pieces of candy into Willy Wonka's purple hat? (I got this hat from Amazon.)  
    

Food:

We didn't have any additional food since there is so much food involved in the party already!   However, I found these cute ideas online and will pass them on just in case: a chocolate fountain with lots of dippers, ice cream sundaes with lots of candy toppings, and a fizzy lifting drink made from soda, pop rocks, and sour candy straws!  We did have waters with Twizzler straws that the kids loved!  (Also, parents sent in popcorn and juice boxes for the kids to have while they watched the movie in the morning.)

Favors:
Favors are completely unnecessary at an end of the year party but I just couldn't resist!  This counted as our end of the year classmate gift and included, of course, a bunch of Willy Wonka candy!  I put Gobstoppers, Fun Dip, Pixie Sticks, Laffy Taffy, purple sucker, Bottle Caps, SweeTarts, and Nerds in a purple bag and sealed them with gold washi tape.  I attached a tag that said "Hope your summer is SWEET!"  You can download the tags HERE.

Sports Birthday Party

It's been pitifully long since I posted, but I'm going to catch up today!  For my son's 8th birthday, we had a sports themed party at the local trampoline place.  He had a blast with his friends!

Invitation: I ordered the cutest invitation from Etsy!  Order them HERE

Decorations: I made a pennant banner with my Silhouette.  I used sports scrapbook paper for the pennants and Team MT font for the letters.

For table decorations, I filled mason jars with orange and white gumballs and attached balloons.

For a fun keepsake, I had everyone at the party sign a baseball using a sharpie.  Love!

Food: I went very simple on the food!  Pizza, cheese balls, & cookie cake!  Publix made the cookie cake to resemble a football field.  Sorry I don't have a great picture but you get the idea.

Goodie Bags:  For the bag itself, I cut football and basketball outlines with my Silhouette and glued them to a plain white bag.  I added a "Thanks for being an all-star friend!" tag.  You can download the tags HERE.  We filled the bags with Big League chew, sports toys, balls, and more candy!  We also took a poll of everyone's favorite sports team and ordered cups to match.  They loved that!  Most of the goodie bag items came from Party City.

School Treats:  I sent icing filled cookies for the school treat.  These are simply place and bake sugar cookies that I rolled in orange sprinkles before baking.  Once cooled, I spread funfetti icing in the middle to make cookie sandwiches!  I printed these "8 is Great!" labels on sticker paper, used a 2" circle punch to cut them out, and then stuck them on ziploc snack bags.  You can print the labels HERE.

Thank You Notes:  We used these sports thank you notes.  You can download them HERE (page 1) and HERE (page 2).

It was a great birthday!!

Halloween Banner

For Halloween last year, we invited neighbors and friends to gather at our house while trick-or-treating.  We set up a tent, tables, chairs, and coolers and had some soups, snacks, and desserts.  To decorate the tent, I hung lights around the sides, orange and black paper lanterns from the top, and a "Happy Halloween" banner.  For the banner, I cut chevron Halloween paper into triangles and added orange letters that were cut by my Silhouette (using Roller Coaster font).  I punched holes in the tops of the triangles and strung them on orange tulle.  We had a fun Halloween night!

Birthday Banner

Y'all know I have a thing for banners!  I needed one for my son's 11th birthday and decided to make a generic one that I could use for any birthday!  Using my Silhouette, I cut polka-dot scrapbook paper (found at Hobby Lobby) into pendants.  I cut orange cardstock into circles and then cut white cardstock into the letters & numbers (Hallandale Deco font).  I went ahead and cut every number so that I would have them to change out & use for any birthday.  For the "Happy birthday!" pennants, I assemble the pennant, circle, & letter and then laminated it.  For the number pennant, I assembled the pennant & circle and then laminated it.  I then laminated all of the numbers separately.  I attached the "11th" to the outside of the pennant with an adhesive foam square.  Because the pennant was laminated, it came off easily after the party was over.  I also went ahead and cut a birthday cake Silhouette shape with the white cardstock.  I laminated it as well and thought I could use it in place of a number if someone didn't want the number on display!

Camping Birthday Party

We had a camping themed sleepover birthday party for my son's 7th birthday!  We ended up inviting a ton of kids but they had a blast and we survived!  It will go down in history as the most epic sleepover ever - at least in my son's eyes!

I got these ADORABLE paper backgrounds and camping clip art files from Jessica Sawyer Design on Etsy (purchase HERE).  I used her files to create my invitation and all of these cute camping themed items!  I also used mostly "Hallandale Deco JL" font plus "Cicle Gordita" font and "DriftType" font.  Here is the invitation.  We did not sleep outside and I gave 2 pick-up options because I didn't know some of the parents very well and didn't want the child not to come even if they couldn't spend the night!

When the kids arrived, I gave them an orange bandana to wear and let them play outside for a little while.  (The picture is really cute of all of them in their orange bandanas!)  Next, we ate dinner, which I had set up outside.  To decorate, I made a "Camp James" banner and used orange and lime green colors.  For the banner, I used burlap triangles that I found at Hobby Lobby and added letters cut by my Silhouette ("Hallandale Deco JL" font).  I served hot dogs, chips, trail mix, watermelon, and chocolate dipped marshmallows.

To make the chocolate dipped marshmallows: melt chocolate, dip in large marshmallows about half way, then drop in graham cracker crumbs to coat the bottom, and let dry.  I added tags to the marshmallows (download HERE), which I taped to halved orange chevron straws.

After dinner, we played games!  We played flashlight tag, had a sack race, played "dead fish" (where you were out if you laughed or moved), and played the "mosquito bite game" (where the kids were given a sheet of bug stickers and tried to put them on each other without getting caught).  We also did Camp Charades (download HERE).  Here's a picture of page 1:

And, we had a Nature Walk scavenger hunt (download HERE).

Next, we ate cake and the kids came inside to settle down and watch a movie.  In the morning, we gave out brown favor bags that I had stamped and put their names on.  The favor bag had a flashlight, their orange bandana, the scavenger hunt items including a wooden pencil, any leftover bug stickers, candy, and a s'more kit.  I attached a "Thanks Happy Camper" tag (download HERE).  I individually packaged the s'more kit with 2 whole graham crackers, 1 Hershey bar, and 2 very large s'more marshmallows.  I attached a "S'more for Later" tag (download HERE).

Here are some camping thank you notes too (download HERE)!  This is a picture of page 1, but there are a couple of different wording options on the 2 page download.   It was a super fun party!

End of Year Balloon Party

I am doing a "Balloon" themed End of the Year Party for my third grader's class and am so excited!

For decorations, we will have balloons (obviously!), balloon topiaries (instructions HERE), and a banner that says "Up & Away to OMIS" (our kids go to a different school for 4th grade).  For the banner, I cut aqua, green, and yellow cardstock with my Silhouette using the "6 banner set" rounded shape.  I cut orange cardstock with my Silhouette using "Blueberry" font.  I also cut balloons out of all 4 colors.  I attached 3 balloons to each of the banner shapes that were used for spaces between the words.  I attached the orange letters, laminated each banner piece, and thread with orange tulle.  I used puffy paint to make the balloon strings and let dry.  Cute!

For food, we had drinks, cheese puff balls, grapes, and cupcakes.  We also had popsicles for after the games.  For the cupcakes, I used these cute Wilton cupcake liners with orange, yellow, green, & aqua polka dots.  I made cupcake toppers by cutting these fun aqua straws in half and attaching some more cardstock balloons.  Fun!

Now, to the best part, games!

1. Balloon Pop - this is a relay race where the kids pop balloons with their bottoms!
2. Balloon Bop - the kids get into a circle with the teacher in the middle.  The teacher tosses a balloon in the air and calls out a student's name and a body part.  The right student has to keep the balloon afloat by hitting the balloon with that body part.  If the balloon falls or the student uses the wrong body part, then they are "out".
3. Water Balloon Toss - the kids get into pairs and toss a water balloon back and forth.  If the balloon doesn't break, then the kids take a step back and do it again.  If the water balloon breaks, then they are "out".  The last pair standing wins!
4. Water Balloon Hot Potato - the kids get in a circle and pass a water balloon around.  If the water balloon breaks or if a kid is holding the balloon when the music stops, then they are "out".
5. Water Balloon IT - in this game, one kid is "IT" (I used the winner of the hot potato game as "IT") and stands on a side of the field by himself.  All the other kids stand on the other side of the field.  When "IT" hits someone on the other side with a water balloon, then they join the "IT" side and help him until everyone is on the same side!
6. Water Balloon Fight - this is a free-for-all with water balloons!

For the games, I used jump ropes to make 2 lines on the field that the kids weren't supposed to cross and I also told them to aim for shoulders and below (not heads!)  Also, I HIGHLY recommend the "tie-not" tool to make all the water balloons!  It was a great party!  The kids had a blast!

Baseball Banner

I made a team banner for our baseball party that was so cute!

I cut navy cardstock into pennant shapes with my Silhouette using "6 banner set" pennant shape.  I added 2 small circles to the shape to thread the ribbon through.  Then, I cut white and red cardstock for the letters with my Silhouette using "Allstar" font.  I glued the inner red letter onto the whole white letter & glued the letters to the pennants.  I printed out Nationals clip art on white cardstock to use at the beginning and end of the banner and glued that on.  I laminated each pennant and thread with red ribbon.  Banners are so easy to make and we took a cute team picture underneath it!

Easter Banners

I love banners!  Or, at least, I seem to be making them lately for every occasion!  So, here are 2 Easter banners I made.  The Easter Bunny one is SO easy and I love the way they both turned out!

Easter Bunny Banner:

This idea came from She's Kinda Crafty and I just followed all of her directions!  It's so cute!

Risen Banner:

This banner was more time consuming but turned out so pretty!  I used my Silhouette to cut 7 banner pieces out of white cardstock (using Lori Whitlock's "happy birthday banner 2").  Then, I added a cross shape to the first and last banner pieces and the letters R, I, S, E, N to the middle five banner pieces (using Elephant font) and cut all of these out of white cardstock as well (so, you'll have a top and a bottom for each of the 7 banner pieces).  Then, I used the same scrapbook papers I used for the Easter Bunny banner to make strips of paper.  For each banner piece, I traced the cross or letter onto the bottom banner piece.

Then, I put glue on the whole traced cross or letter and randomly glued down strips of the scrapbook paper.

The next step was to glue the top banner piece onto the bottom banner piece.  I then laminated each banner piece and cut them out.  Lastly, I put the banner together on a blue ribbon.  So pretty!