Outer Space Themed 1st Birthday Party for Orion!

Yesterday was Orion's 1st birthday and we threw a big outer space themed birthday party to celebrate. I found a custom shirt I loved from Etsy which served as the inspiration for the party theme. I incorporated the primary colors of the shirt into the party decor. I also found a lot of great ideas from Pinterest. I even had a whole board dedicated to 1st birthday party ideas. I also used my Facebook page for my blog to ask questions about the party like whether I could use fondant on a smash cake. I started the planning and prep early since I wanted to do a lot myself. The results were great and we all had a lot of fun celebrating Orion's big day!

Orion's custom birthday shirt

 Balloons and "ONE" by the front door to greet guests

Dessert table with handmade backdrop, banner, outer space themed cake, and cupcakes with stars and the planet Saturn.

I love how the cupcakes turned out!

 For the cake I made a vanilla cake and vanilla butter cream from scratch but bought pre-made fondant and just rolled it out and used cookie cutters for the rocket ships and big stars. I free hand cut out the small stars.

 I used ribbon and clothes pins to display all of Orion's monthly photos from his first year.

For party favors I had custom cookies made with the photo of Orion's birthday shirt. I bought a helium tank and balloons and we attached a balloon to each cookie. Really cute favors for less than $1.50 per child.

Custom cookies

 We ordered sandwiches so we didn't have to worry about a main course. I then bought a bunch of fruit and veggies to serve with hummus and ranch.

 I hung these brightly colored balls above the drink station to add to the festive atmosphere.

We served martian punch (lime sherbet, pineapple juice, and ginger ale), water with lemon and lime slices in it, and rocket fuel (iced tea).

 Target had affordably priced paper and plastic ware in primary colors so I went that route instead of rounding up enough dishes for 50 guests. I love the coordinating paper straws.

 The smash cake ended up being a lot of work and was very big. I decided to give Orion a giant piece instead of the whole cake.

 He's had a couple tastes of sweets before but he doesn't seem to like them or even many bread products. I was pleasantly surprised that he dug into his cake.

 He may not have swallowed a lot but he sure smashed it up.

 The adorable birthday boy playing with a balloon (one of his favorite things).

After Orion got a nap and most guests had left we opened presents with Nate's family. Orion stayed interested most of the time and liked checking out all his new toys.

Thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate! It was a great day!

DIY Projects: Homemade Birthday Invitations

Making homemade birthday invitations is easier than you think and you aren't limited to what you can print from the computer. Wyn is turning 10 this year and is no longer into all that character stuff. She likes bright colors, especially blue, so we set out to make some cute invitations for her party.

For the cards I took a very inexpensive multi-pack of pastel colored card stock and pulled out sheets of blue. To get the correct size I cut the sheets in half and then folded the half sheets in half to make a traditional size invitation. This size invitation fits into standard invitation envelopes that can be purchased inexpensively from Target, Wal-Mart, etc.

I am not an avid stamper so we had to work with what I had on had (about 5 stamps and 3 colored stamp pads) so we choose "Happy Birthday" for the outside of the invitation stamped in purple ink. We added a 3D sticker I already had on hand from my scrapbooking supplies which dressed up the outside of the invitation.

For the inside I had a simple, single sheet stencil of birthday related items with journaling lines. Wyn and I choose the cupcake because it allowed the most information inside and fit inside the invitation perfectly.

I traced the cupcake and lines with the stencil in a fine tipped, purple scrapbooking pen and then used a coordinating fine tipped, green pen to list all the party details.

We then took the invitation envelopes and dressed them up a bit using a plaid, large size alphabet letter to spell out the first letter of each guests name. I used a coordinating scrapbooking pen to spell out the rest of their name (I forgot to take a picture of this part).

I think the invitations turned out beautifully. Wyn and I spent less than an hour putting them together and most importantly I saved money. I had every single item used to make the invitations on hand. If you had to purchase everything new it would probably cost around $10 (similar to 10 invitations) but almost all the stuff can be used again and again. I also use the Happy Birthday stamp to make homemade cards. Why spend $4 or $5 per card when you can spend a small amount of money up front and make tons of cards that look just as good as store bought cards?

DIY Projects: Chore Chart

My children are 10, 9, and 7, and I constantly struggle with ways to make them more responsible in a fun and rewarding way. We have gone back and forth in our house in regard to chores and allowance. Hubby and my first thoughts were that allowance was not necessary, but as members of our household, as the children got older they would have increasing responsibility for themselves and for basic household upkeep. My kids are good kids and help out but I got tired of the daily struggle of toys, clothes, and wet towels spread all throughout our house. Hubby got tired of the daily struggle of getting the kids out the door every morning. This is where the chore chart (or responsibility chart as we like to call it) came into play.

We had been using a responsibility chart for the past 6-9 months. Our first chart was an Excel spreadsheet which I made and printed out weekly. The kids were each assigned a daily chore and paid 50 cents per day that they complete it. Everything else on their list is simply responsibilities they have to get themselves ready in the morning, after school, and before bed.

I wanted a more permanent solution that did not involve me printing charts weekly so I began to search online and through Etsy for chore charts. I found some great ones but none that worked exactly as I envisioned for our family of 5. Hubby suggested I make my own to save money and viola, the chore chart was born.

I bought a framed dry erase board from Target ($15) and measured out three equal section and wrote each child's name at the top.

For the chores I found these craft, wood stars at JoAnn and used a hot glue gun, roll of adhesive magnets and colored sharpie markers ($12).

The basket was in the school supply section of Target ($3) and it holds all the magnets when chores are completed.

Each day the child completes their chores, they receive a 50 cents star and are paid weekly on Sunday for the money they've earned each week.

Once all their chores (responsibilities) are complete the board looks like this.

They put the completed chores into the basket to be reused for the next time and I put up a 50 cents star at the end of the day.

Total I spent $30 and 45 minutes of my time. The chart helps motivate my kids and is an easy way for me to keep track of who is done with their responsibilities that day and how much allowance they have earned each week. My kids save their allowance for toys they want, trips they want to take, and even day-to-day treats like an ice cream or candy bar. It really is teaching them the value of money and that you have to save to get what you want instead of instant gratification.

Any questions, let me know!

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Flower Pot Pen Craft - How To

Friday was the kids' last day of school. I am now the proud mama to a 5th grader, 4th grader, and 2nd grader, yikes! At the end of each year (as well as various times throughout the year) we like to thank the kids teachers for all the hard work they put in. This year I decided to be creative and have the kids make their teachers' gifts. I knew the flower pot pens were easy and affordable to make but I had no idea how affordable and easy.

Flower Pot Pen Craft

Supply List

-Two stems of silk flowers with 5 flowers on each stem

-Green duct tape (at craft store)

-Package of 10 ball point pens

-Terracotta pot

-Paint to match

-Ribbon to match

-Fabric paint (if gift and you want to include a message)

-Gift bag (if gift, at craft store)

-Disposable paint brush

-Paper plate (for paint)

-Scissors

-Beans (bagged, uncooked, I used red beans)

How To

1. Cover work area in newspaper for easy clean up.

2. Pour paint onto paper plate. We started with a half dollar size glob and add more as needed.

3. Use brush to either paint terracotta pot or dip child's hand into paint to make a hand print on the outside of pot. I let my children decide and they all opted to paint the entire pot orange not put their hand print on it.

4. While paint dries cut flowers from stem, approximately 1 inch from flower.

5. Take pens from package and discard pen caps.

6. Tear approximately 1 inch squares of green duct tape and attach flower to top of pen with duct tape. Continue to tape the pen from top until bottom with 1 inch strips of tape so pen appears to be flower stem and not a pen.

7. Once paint dries, add beans to pots.

8. Use fabric paint to add message to pot, if desired. My children wrote messages to their teachers on theirs.

9. Add pens, now flowers, to pot.

10. Add ribbon to pot, if desired.

11. Once completely dry, if a gift, wrap in cellphone bag and close with ribbon.

All three of my children did this nearly independently and enjoyed it. Start to finish this project took less than 1 hour and cost $30 to make three gifts.