Table Cleaners (7/4)

 What you need: shave cream, smocks (optional)

Door Hangers (7/1)

 What you need: foam door hangers (you can get premade or cut your own), foam stickers sheets, scissors, markers

 "I am angry" ;)

Sticker Scenes (6/28)

 While Kelsey opened her birthday presents, the cousins and siblings were given a sticker scene from our dear Buddenhagen friends.  It came with a solid background and sheet of ocean stickers.  Joshua shows off  his finished product as Ethan works at placing his stickers.

Connectors (6/27)

 My sister scored these for super cheap at the local thrift store.  The kids spend hours connecting and creating.

Buffalo Bills (6/25)

While waiting at TGI Friday's for Kelsey's birthday dinner (she requested sushi but since we're housing too many guests at the moment we told her it was too expensive) the kids colored their paper menus.  Ethan asked how to draw the Buffalo Bills emblem.  Grammy showed him a photo from the Internet off her phone and here is HIS rendition...pretty awesome free-style for a seven year old!

Blog Neglect (SUMMER)

 Summer Fun Time... this summer I'm preggo with NUMBER 3 and we have my sister and 3 kids staying with us so I say, "I have an excuse for neglecting the blog!"  My apologies... hopefully once the baby arrives, summer comes to an end, guests return to North Carolina, and Kelsey starts half-day Kindergarten, I won't feel so overwhelmed and I can get back to posting and providing activities... And as a side note,  my camera is broken for good... trying to persuade my husband to buy a new one but he says, "I'm not buying you a new camera, you break them every two years!"  Obviously, it's the cameras NOT me!!!

 This was taken last month...only 3 weeks left to go...

 flying a kite on the sidewalk

relay races, trikes and bikes... outdoor summer fun!!!

 balls & play houses

Rainbow Party (6/25)

 Kelsey requested a rainbow birthday party.  My sister and I baked this cake.  We divided two boxes of white cake into 6 bowls and added Wilton's food dye to each.  We then dolloped each color in order of the rainbow into a bundt pan.  Bake as directed on the box.  Cool.  Remove from pan.  We then made a delicious butter cream frosting. (I don't have the recipe on hand but I'm sure it can be googled. You boil flour and milk, butter, and sugar.)

 Target's party section had the HAPPY BIRTHDAY rainbow candles and the sparkle 5.

  


Guests were asked to wear their favorite color.  Audrey obviously has many!

 The invitation suggested a spectrum of colorful snacks would be served.  We provided assorted fruit, fruit pizza, Skittles, colorful veggies & dip, tri-color pasta salad, and colorful juices with colorful straws.  The plates were RED & ORANGE, napkins were YELLOW & GREEN, the utensils were INDIGO & BLUE, and the tablecloth was VIOLET!

 Books all about colors and rainbows were set out on the picnic blanket; the party was indoors because of poor weather so we didn't get to put out the moonbounce.

 Yummy fruit pizza.  Pre-made sugar cookie rolled out into a crust.  Vanilla pudding mixed with sour cream and milk.  Fresh fruit arranged in a rainbow!

 Rainbow straws & juice.

 Red, yellow, and orange peppers. Green cucumbers. Orange carrots. White "cloudy" ranch dressing.

 Homemade pinata from a diaper box wrapped in white paper.  We drew a large rainbow and colored it with markers.  I stapled blue shimmery ribbon for each guest to pull.  I wove a batch of colored ribbons in the center for the birthday girl (and rigged it so that the pinata spilled open only when the rainbow strings were tugged).  It was filled with clearance candy found at Walmart.

 Fruit Loops and colored ribbon were perfect for stringing edible rainbow bracelets.

 We bought a 7-pack of headbands at the $ store.  I used leftover pieces of ribbon from the invitations (see May post RAINBOW INVITATIONS) and tied them around the band to make a birthday rainbow "tiara."

 HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY KELSEY!!! <3

 rainbow wrapping paper from the $ Store

 Rainbow blocks and xylophone!

Alpha Bits Art (5/31)

 What you need: dishes of glue, brush for spreading/applying, Alpha Bits cereal

Rainbow Birthday Countdown (5/31)

What you need: wooden plank, colored squares, hot glue & gun

In order, we hot glued the colors of the rainbow along the wooden plank, one for each day until Kelsey's birthday.  Each morning she peeled a square off and counted how many days were left.  We put a sticker of balloons for her party day that was planned a couple days before the real big day.