Fun Things

#6  Garden Party
Last week my oldest turned five.  I don't even like saying that.  Five means kindergarten and independence.  It means I have to give up control of several aspects of her daily life and hope that someone else (teachers, friends, etc.) is looking after my baby with as much care and love as I would.  That makes me nervous.  The last thing I wanted to do was celebrate this milestone.  But who am I to deny a kid a birthday party?  So we threw a garden party because her birthday conveniently falls in early spring when a garden party is perfectly appropriate.  Here's a look at what we did.

I found these cute little watering cans in the dollar section at Target.  I filled them with tissue paper flowers that I was inspired to make stole directly from a super cute tea party we had a church in honor of our elder ladies.  I also used different sizes of mason jars an filled them with flowers, too.  They made great centerpieces and helped to keep the plastic table cloths on the tables as there was a mild breeze that kept blowing everything away from their intended places.

I set up a table where the kids could plant their choice of seeds in peat pots and take them home as souvenirs.  I left out some colorful Popsicle sticks and markers so they could write their names on their pots and make plant markers. 

I made these garden cupcakes.  The idea came from the book "Hello, Cupcake" given to me by my mother.  It was also the inspiration behind these

corn-on-the-cob skewered cupcakes.  The ones in the book are much cuter.  These were an improvisation using what I happened to have available at the time. 

This was probably the biggest hit of the party.  A ranch fountain.  We were having a garden party, so I thought it only natural to push some fresh veggies on our guests.  What better way to ensure the consumption of large quantities of veggie sticks than to provide a fun dip fountain.  I've never seen that many kids run to the vegetable table.  Okay, I've never really seen a vegetable table, either, but we had one at our party and the kids flocked to it.  I'm pretty sure the ranch fountain had more than a little something to do with it. 

It was a great party!

#5  Park-apalooza
A good friend of mine, with whom we have regular playdates, suggested that we take advantage of the spring weather and go park hopping one day.  We did and it was a lot of fun! 

We packed up some picnic lunches, sunscreen, and the munchkins, and we hit up several parks that day.

We spent and hour here...

an hour there...

and wore those kiddos out!

#4  Make individual pizza into shapes.
With another Valentine's day coming up, I felt a little inspired to get creative with my pizza routine.  We frequently make homemade pizza.  Everyone has different tastes and preferrences so its a whole lot easier to make our own so that everyone can have what they like.  I decided to make pizza hearts this time. 

Its easy to do.  Make your own pizza dough or buy a package from the store.  Shape the dough with your hands, or if you have a cookie cutter big enough, roll out the dough and cut into whatever shape you like.
 

#3 Put things in your pancake/waffle batter.
Things like blueberries, chocolate chips, banana slices... you know, whatever. 

Some of our recent additives: chocolate chips and mini marshmallows (can you say s'more pancakes), and crumbled bacon (to. die. for).  Or try this: skip the vanilla extract and add a tablespoon of lemon juice and two extra teaspoons of sugar - very fresh!
And while you're at it, why not make your pancakes into fun shapes?

I'm kinda obsessed with pancake molds.  I realize that hearts and Mickeys don't really require molds, but someone made them, so I bought them.  I also own several others; Saturn, a jack-o-lantern, and the sun, to name a few.  Its just fun!
#2  Make your own lip gloss!!!
http://meetthedubiens.blogspot.com/2011/01/make-your-own-lip-gloss.html
Check out this awesome tutorial on how to make your own!  Its super simple and a great idea for gift giving!

#1  Cut your veggies into fun shapes.  The kids will love it.

And drop them into some soup.  Save the veggie rings you're left with and throw those in there, too.

This could also work with potatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, squash, or any other solid, slicable veggie you can find.  Yes, slicable.  I said it.