Let's Hit the Beach!

 My Hannah loves the beach and always has... I decided to do a beach theme for her graduation party.

 I saw the marshmallow pop idea somewhere on Pinterest and put my good friend Desiree to work on them. hehe. That kept her busy for a while.  I made the centerpiece with a large glass platter, some sand and rocks and then some random shells that I've collected through the years.

 I used the mason jars that Mandy gave me from her wedding. I added the blue/gray burlap and hot glued a shell to it.  They held a small tea light candle and gave off a pretty nice glow.

I put out fish bowls with gold fish crackers in some and shark gummies in the others. Big hit.

 The larger jars were even easier. I took some shells, added a dab of hot glue to the inside and then stuck some twine in the ends.  I found some beach sand and sea glass pellets at Big Lots on clearance. Perfect!

 This was the drink station.  I added some fishing nets, more shells and jars and a chalkboard with a quote that I doodled.  Chalk markers work best on these re-painted projects.

"Salt in the air - Sand in my hair"

 Our friend Rick has a friend that just started her own cookie business called Sweet Treats by Shamaine and he ordered these for Hannah's party.  Not only were these surfboard cookies perfectly decorated, but they were good too.  Nothing worse than biting into a beautiful treat to find that the rest of it tastes horrible.  

 Now I've used some of the decor for my front entry way table "mantle". =) 

Perfect for summer!

I love a good themed party! What will the next one be?? We shall see!

Marco's 5th birthday... Angry Birds Theme *photo heavy, but worth scrolling through* ;)

A year ago, I couldn't even tell you what the Angry Birds were.  Now, I know more than I care to about these characters and the game that has made them so popular. haha!  

My son decided about 6 months ago that he wanted his next birthday to be Angry Birds theme.  Yes, I am one of "those" moms that likes to do themed parties.  I really do!  

Anyway, thanks to Pinterest, I was able to get a few ideas.  I didn't actually do all the ideas I pinned because we found out that the temperatures would be 110*+, so my husband suggested we get some sort of water activity for them and we rented a big jumper water slide. Got a great deal on it too!  

These games, as cute as they were, were not going to be able to compete with the jumper. lol

 I saved up some soup cans and then painted them with acrylic paint and a sponge brush.  Then I just (free-hand) painted the faces.  I added a crown using cardstock hot-glued to the top.  I bought three balls at the dollar store and BOOM - one game done.

These are centerpieces that I made using Baby Formula Cans.  Just peeled off the labels and then painted each can with acrylic paint.  Then I painted the faces on each one.  I just googled Angry Birds and went to images so that I could see what the different birds looked like.  These were my best attempt at copying them.

The second game I made was this tri-fold presentation board turned into a frisbee toss game.  I used an x-acto knife to cut the circles and then painted the faces and details with acrylic paints.

I can't take credit for any of this goodness!  My good friend Lorany of Nany Sprinkles made these amazing cupcakes for my son.  She made almost 70 of them.  Each cupcake had some kind of fondant topper on them and you can see the amazing detail that went into each one.

The amazing set up (frame) was built by Lorany's husband, Robert.  Everything was just perfect.

This is not what I made this for...but it works too!

Here are the cans, stacked and ready to go!

Frisbee toss was a little harder than I thought it would be, but it was not impossible for them.  Lots of fun.

Watch out!!

This game was a favorite! The kids kept coming back to this one.

We also had lots of water balloons, thanks to my friends, Rick and Desiree.  They even let Marco keep this cool pouch to carry his balloons.  He said he felt like David and was looking for Goliath. haha!

I can't believe he's five now and starting school at the end of the month.

My four babies. My oldest is going to be starting her senior year and my youngest is starting Kindergarten.  Any trouble I go to, to make these days special for them, is worth everything to see them happy and help make great memories for them.  My life. I love it. =)