My Sunday Best

It has been a while since I have done an outfit post, so I decided today would be a good day. Sometimes during the week, I get busy with cleaning and projects and trying to look nice is not really a priority, but I always try to look by best on Sundays when I go to church. I'm not concerned with it being a fashion show, but I see it as a sign of respect. I hope everyone had a great Sunday!

Shirt: Belk $5

Skirt: The Limited (old) $20

Shoes: Target- gift

Watch: Charming Charlie's- gift

Bracelets: Belk (super old) $?

Total- $25

 

"Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name,  that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,  and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Philippians 2:9-11 NKJV

 

Today I am linking up with Blissful and Domestic

Pirate Party

Since we ended up having the kids' joint birthday party in Bristol, we decided to let our son invite a few friends who live locally  over to our house on his actual birthday. It was originally supposed to just be a very simple little get together, but pretty much turning into a full blown party. I just can't help myself sometimes when I start getting ideas.

While on vacation a few weeks ago, I stumbled across these super cute pirate swim trunks and a smocked swimsuit at a boutique called the Swing Set in Amelia Island, FL. They were both 40% off, but still a splurge for us. I'm not quite as ...how do you say..."cheap" (haha) while on vacation.

 

 I wanted "H" to have a shirt that would look cute with his swim trunks and regular shorts, so I found a plain white polo on clearance at Belk and had it monogrammed at a little shop called Dogwood Darlins. They only charged $4 and did a great job! I just put it with some red and white gingham shorts he already had.

 

 His breakfast consisted of pirate ship pancakes and cannon balls (blue berries). Although, I don't think he ate much of it cause he was too excited about his party. I found the pirate cup and plate on clearance at Pottery Barn Kids while on a trip to Nashville. (It's starting to seem like I sure do travel a lot.)

So on to the party...





We started the party with lunch. I decided to put the kids lunches in buckets, which would also be useful later on for one of the activities. They each got a cream cheese and jelly sandwich, pretzel sticks (peg legs), grapes (cannon balls), and a juice box. My intent was for the food to go with the theme, but I didn't have it labeled, so I doubt anyone else made the connection. 

The adults had fish tacos, chips, and fruit. I wrapped the fish tacos in red and white striped parchment paper that I found on clearance at Walmart after Christmas for like $.25 for a pack of 40 sheets.

The wrappers for the root beer bottles came from some free printables you can find here.

Umm, yes, my printer cartridge was running out of ink.

 

I am no baker (or really any kind of cook), so I just used a box cake mix for red velvet cupcakes. The cupcake liners came from Walmart, and the toppers were from Hobby Lobby. I love Hobby Lobby, however, I was not impressed with these toppers. They are cute, but the pack was supposed to have 24 and there were only 19. And 2 of those were broken! Maybe I just got a bad batch. I ended up making a few of my own toppers for the cupcakes on the adult table. Crisis averted! Shew!

 

I looked around my house and found some pirate decorations for the adult table. I had no idea I had so many things that looked pirate-y.

I didn't do much for the kids' table. Just put down some red and white striped fabric that I already had and my normal place mats. I just used the cupcakes as a centerpiece. I hung tissue paper pom poms from the chandelier and hung a banner on the curtain rod. 

 

My husband made these great maps for the treasure hunt. I was impressed! He copied the maps onto resume paper, crinkled them up, and burned the edges to make them look old.

We used the costume trunk that is usually in our son's room as the treasure chest. I filled it with tan paper shreds (it was supposed to look like sand) and put all the goody bags on top. The bags were filled with pirate candy (found at the Dollar Tree), sidewalk chalk (dollar spot at Target), a furry stick on mustache (Dollar Tree), inflatable pirate ball (Amazon), and a Ring Pop (Dollar Tree). The labels were from the same free printables I used for the root beer bottles.

 

The banner and flags were also made from the free printables.

 

Everything on the "Dress Like a Pirate" table came from Amazon except the bandannas were from Hobby Lobby. I cut them in half to save money.

 

A baby pool was filled with sand and the kids got to use their buckets and shovels from lunch to search for buried treasure.

 

I found this pirate pool on eBay. It was probably the best $25 I spent. The canon sprays water and a few of the kids thought it was hilarious to spray their parents, haha. We set up 2 baby pools for the younger kids to play in.

I really wanted to try to make the picnic table look like a ship by making a sail for it, but that seamed a little too complicated. Instead, I found a Jolly Rodger flag at Hobby Lobby. I used the stick from a mop that I got at Dollar Tree as the flag pole. The mop head unscrewed right off. I had to use a little Teflon tape to secure it into the umbrella slot.  



Sometimes I let myself get a little stressed out over party planning. Despite a few stressful moments, like discovering a huge (and when I say huge, I mean about the size of a golf ball, haha) wasp nest under the rail of the deck (where a lot of activities would occur) the morning of the party, this one seemed the least stressful of any I have thrown in the past. The kids seemed to have a blast, and I think the parents even had a good time too.

Mickey and Minnie Birthday Party

A couple of weeks ago, we went on a little trip to Bristol, Tennessee and had a joint birthday party for our kids. Originally, we wanted to have the party at our house, but Bristol is a more convenient location for a lot of our family. I had to switch gears from most of my original ideas since the party ended up being at a park. I thought the park would be a fun location for the kids, but it definitely had some decorating challenges. The rules of the park restricted us from hanging anything from beams, trees, fences, etc., so that really put a damper on my plans. I decided to mostly focus on the table decor since I really couldn't do much else. I didn't take the wind into consideration when planning things out, though, and all my decorations were getting blown away. I tried to at least snap a few pictures first.



For the kids' table, I made place mats by cutting the Mickey Mouse shape out of felt. Each child got a party hat covered with wrapping paper that had mouse ears added and a pom pom for the top. I also made Mickey and Minnie favor boxes out of toilet paper rolls to hold coloring pages and crayons. The labels for the bags came from some free printables that you can find here. I also used them for the banner, the labels on the bottles for the centerpieces, and the toppers for the fruit-kabobs. The favors included stickers, candy, mickey mouse fruit snacks, a book, and necklaces for the girls.

 

And of course no Mickey and Minnie party would be complete without bows, so each girl got a hair bow and the boys got bow ties.

I kept the centerpieces for the kids' table very simple and just used materials I already had. I took a bamboo skewer and inserted it into a paper straw. Just put a dab of hot glue on the end to hold them together. I cut out a Mickey Mouse shape from cardstock and used a glue stick to glue wrapping paper to it and taped that onto the paper straw. I should have made 2 Mickey Mouse shapes (one for the front and one for the back) so it wouldn't look ugly on the back, but I didn't. I put a foam block into yellow pails, stuck the skewer in the foam, and covered the base with red paper shreds. Then, just tied some ribbon to the stick. I love projects that are simple and free! 

I made windmills for the adult tables, but the wind kept blowing them over. I eventually gave up on trying to keep them up.

 

Even though the park rules would not allow me to hang anything, I wanted to find a way to hang a banner without breaking the rules. I found 2 shepherd's hooks at Jo-Ann on clearance for less than $2 each and they were perfect. Notice the wind blowing the balloons -Yikes!

 

I wanted to keep the food simple, so we had chips, fruit, a sweets tray, and of course hot dogs (the song is stuck in my head now).

 

 

 

The poor cupcakes melted. They were making a big mess.

 

 

The park where we had the party had this cute train for the kids to ride. It was a big hit!

 

I can't forget about their birthday attire. I'm sure it's no surprise that I appliqued a shirt for my son and made a pillowcase dress for my daughter (since that's pretty much the only thing I know how to make).

 

I think I learn something from every party that hopefully will help me when I plan parties in the future. At this one, I learned that I need to keep the wind in mind for outdoor parties and I think I spent too much time working on little projects that weren't even very noticeable (like the toilet paper roll favor boxes). I will probably get this party thing down about the time they outgrow these little cutesy parties, haha. Oh well, as long as the kids have fun and they feel special, I am happy.

Goodbye Bikini, Hello Mommy Suit

I am way behind the power curve finding a new swimsuit this year, but I have finally decided to retire the bikinis. After two kids, I think it's time. All of last summer, I felt very uncomfortable in my swimsuits and I want a few that are a little more mommy friendly, but I still want them to be cute. Sometimes it can be difficult to find a one-piece suit that isn't too matronly. Here are a few possibilities.

Target here

 



Target here

 

Target here

 

 

Old Navy here

Any favorites? Have y'all found any cute one pieces anywhere?

 

 

Minnie Mouse Birthday

Last week, my little girl turned 2. We are having a joint party for our kids in a few weeks, but I wanted to do something special for her actual birthday. I really didn't want to spend much money, but I still wanted to try to make it cute.
Here is the setup...

I already had the pink and white chevron fabric from a project I never got around to (I also had enough for her dress). I just bought some felt by the yard and traced plates and bowls to make the place mats (these are also going to be used for their party).

 

I got the idea for the centerpiece from pictures I saw online, but I wasn't really too pleased with how it turned it. I think it looks OK, but I don't really like it on this table. I bought styro-foam balls, attached them with toothpicks, and spray painted them black (this also might be used for their party). I attached the bow with a floral pin so it can be removed. I just placed the whole thing on top of a glass vase filled with paper shreds.

 

This chair garland is made from some free printables. You can find them here

I also use them to make the cupcake toppers.

 

I found a zebra print "Happy Birthday" banner on clearance at Walmart for $.50. It was a little too plain, so I jazzed it up a little to fit the theme.

 

Don't laugh! This is not my best work. I hadn't planned on making a Mickey Mouse head out of tissue paper pom poms. I was just going to have a few of the different colors hanging from the chandelier, but after I made the first two small black ones, they looked a little too small. That's when I got the idea to make them into ears. It is a little off, but oh well. You get the idea.

 

 

The birthday girl's morning started out with a bunch of balloons covering her floor. This was a real hit. I will definitely have to keep doing it for every birthday, probably with more balloons next time.

  

For breakfast, the birthday girl requested donuts. She doesn't get them very often, so this was a treat.

 

For lunch, she requested chicken nuggets and cheese. 

 

The birthday girl had never had her nails painted before, so I took her to the kiddie salon for a polish change. Out of all the colors, she chose neon pink! I would have picked the same one for myself. She seemed to like it, but the nail polish didn't last too long. I think 3 fingers were missing polish by the time we got home.

 

Snack time! I found the boxes on clearance at Walmart for $.20. I just added the mouse ears and bow. The juice box is wrapped in wrapping paper and I used a water label from the free printables.

 

I made Mickey-shaped cookies for them to decorate. Aren't they beautiful! Haha!

 

For supper, Mickey-shaped mini pizzas.

 

 

 I made her dress out of left over fabric from the table and other scrap fabric I had. I think it's pretty cute considering I didn't have to spend any money on it. This was my first attempt at sewing a ruffle, so hopefully next time will be easier.

I think the birthday girl really enjoyed her day. 

Now it's time to work on more party projects!