Low Key Pool Party Ideas

I'm getting a few friends together tomorrow for a low-key pool party.  I hate to even call it a "party" because then my psycho snobby brain starts thinking I need favors, labels, a dessert buffet... you get the jist!  But, "pool get-together" doesn't have the same ring.  I think I'm calling it a pool play-date.  Ooo-kay, this is turning into a tangent that needs to end!

Anyway, here's a few ideas that are inspiring me:

I am thinking of giving the girls this cute free printable in 4x6 from Vintage Marigolds:

 I don't have a source, but I have this on my pinterest board and it looks easy enough:

This one is like the pool party in my dreams!  The Joys of Home Educating has the cutest idea for serving food at a pool party, I might end up with a version of this if my friends are lucky!!!

And MMMmmmm, I think I must make these pina colada cupcakes from Keri at Pressed Down, Shaken Together:

*update!!  Of all my fun ideas, I actually only did the pina colada cupcakes, here's mine:

They were sooooo good!  But they seemed slightly more pineapple upside down cake that straight pina colada.  I did use the pineapple juice I had leftover from the can to add to the buttercream instead of as much milk.  I liked it better than I was feeling about the buttercream.  So just FYI :)  But head over to her site and try this recipe out!

And I saw a recipe in the latest issue of Family Fun, but there isn't a picture.  It's for a "pool noodle" salad.  You use ziti pasta so that it looks like pool noodle toys, cucumber rings, and watermelon cut into balls.  And it doesn't have mayo so it should outlast the heat.  I know it needs a picture, but here's the recipe anyway from Family Fun's website:

Hands-on Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes
Serves: 4

Pool noodles, swim rings, and beach balls -- this splashy pasta salad has it all. Plus, it's mayo-free for easy, delicious picnicking.

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound ziti pasta
• 3 pickling cucumbers
• juice and grated zest from 1 large lime
• 1/2 cup vegetable or light olive oil
• 1 tablespoon suger, 1 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1 clove garlic, finely minced
• 2 tablespoons slivered fresh mint
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta
• 2 cups balls cut from a seedless watermelon

X

Instructions

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, cook the pasta until just tender, and drain.
2. Cut the ends off the cucumbers, then use an apple corer or run a wide drinking straw through the center to core them. Slice them into rings. Whisk together the lime juice and zest, oil, sugar, salt, and garlic.
3. Toss the still-warm pasta with half of the dressing, then add the cukes, mint, and feta, toss again, and taste. Add more dressing and salt to taste, then fold in the melon.

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Saturday:
http://www.bedifferentactnormal.com

Dinosaur Birthday Party- Rawr! Part 2

I know, I know, you've been waiting with bated breath for part 2 of my son's Dinosaur Birthday Party.  You have been in endless agony waiting to see what the snobby food choices were, and how we spent the 2 hours from 11am to 1pm.  Well, wait no longer!  The best part of the party!

I made tags for each section of Dinosaur dietary concerns:  carnivores, herbivores, and sweetivores.  Sure, I could have just said done one that said "omnivore" but where's the fun in that???  I got the idea from a party I saw here.

Since it was a party for a two year old, there's some turkey sandwiches on white bread, back in the corner of the carnivore section.  Then dinosaur boiled eggs, and for the Mommy dinosaurs: Chicken Teriyaki Spinach salad.  MMMMMmmm, that salad is good!  The herbivores were given a selection of fresh fruit and salad.  The sweetivores also had a selection of cupcakes, chocolate covered marshmallow dinos on popsicle sticks, and chocolate dinosaur eggs (or leftover Cadbury eggs....)

These eggs weren't exactly delicious, but they looked cool!  I saw them at Our Best Bites, go check out their tutorial here.

The kids also got to slurp some juice right out of Gatorade swamp.  Hey, it's a fun color!  Reminds me of dinosaurs.  That works, right?

Saw the idea for these "Dino Bites" here at My House of Giggles.  They're chocolate covered marshmallow pops.  I used starburst cut into triangles for the spikes.  I was debating whether I wanted to make these, and then saw those candy eyes at Michaels and couldn't help myself!

I used the same green melting chocolate to pipe polka dots onto these Cadbury chocolate eggs.

For activities we had a dinosaur egg hunt, for these redone Easter eggs.

There was a plastic dinosaur figurine inside each egg, making these a hot commodity for the little dinosaur hunters.

And there was a "dino dig" as well.  We made our own salt dough a few days before, cut into bone shapes and let them dry out.  (I'll do a post next week with the recipe and pictures) We buried those and more plastic dinosaur toys in four buckets.  There were about 2 kids to each bucket.

This was a surprising popular activity that went on for a long hot while!

I made cupcake wrappers to go around the cupcakes from regular bright cardstock.  I have a Cricut Lite cartridge that just does wrappers and these were the "grass" choice but looked wild enough for dinosaurs.  Then I made toppers with stamps on the same colors of paper.

This face made it all worth the effort:

And if any of all ya' all want to recreate this party, feel free to use these tags I made.  Just let me know!  (That's right, my only payment is in flattery!  And we wouldn't mind if you decided to follow our blog!)

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Tuesday:

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Wednesday:

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Thursday:

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Friday:

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Saturday:

http://www.bedifferentactnormal.com

Dinosaur Birthday Party - RAWR! Part 1

You may not be surprised to hear that we enjoy a good birthday party and might get a little carried away at times!  I'm trying not to spoil my kids when it comes to presents, but they are becoming birthday party snobs.  Awhile ago, I'd seen the most adorable tutorial for dinosaur tails and I couldn't wait to find an excuse to make them.  So when my little guy turned two a few weeks ago, it was the perfect excuse to RAWR!

I made the invite on Picnik as a 4x6 and then ordered a few prints at Costco.  I sewed the invite onto these egg shaped plates (leftover from Target's Easter stuff) along with some chocolate "dinosaur" eggs.

Here's the graphic minus my address:

We set up a dinosaur cave that was basically an impromptu fort.  I bought the silk plants at garage sales the weekend before and after the party immediately ran those bad boys to Goodwill. 

 

The frame of the cave is another garage sale find.  I don't know what it's called but it looks like this without the brown paper:

I made dinosaur party hats from generic ones from the party store with embellished spikes and dinosaur stamps.

Of course, I had to make the tails that inspired it all!  They were way easier than I thought they'd be and I ended up making one for each party guest, plus all the cousins we saw for a second out of state party.  I think I totaled out at 20 tails.  Whew!  I used fleece and felt remnants and sales and it probably cost a total of $30 bucks to make them all, and about 5 or 6 hours of work over different days.  Not that bad for the result!

Here's the birthday boy in his tail and hat:

I also made a photo booth for all our adorable guests!  My cartoonish art skills came into effect for a piece of posterboard transformed into a dinosaur with landscape.  And I needed a ruffly "RAWR means happy birthday in dinosaur" banner as well.

Check back on Wednesday for the rest of this dino-mite party!

See inspirations here:

Celebrations at Home, Dinosaur Party, "Rawr" theme

Running with Scissors, via Tatertots and Jello

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Saturday:
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A Snobby Way To Show Off Your Big Day!

We have always been ones to celebrate with a bang and turning "60" is no small accomplishment. So when one of our friends asked us to put together a "Sweet 60" birthday package for her mom we got to work. She wanted her color scheme to be black but with some fun too...so we went with black, yellow and pink!! We included one of our birthday countdown blocks and wish banners, a yellow, black and pink balloon wreath, some crepe paper ruffled streamers, cupcake liners and toppers and then we made this "60" pin for the birthday girl to wear in honor of her big day!! (We did think of a party hat and decided there does come a time when you do need to pass on the party hats...at least in public!) So a party pin we felt was very chic and fun. The "60" charm is removable so when it is no longer her "big" day she will still be able to wear this fun pin either on her sweater or pinned to a belt. Either way, we hope she has a fabulous 60th birthday!!



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Wednesday:

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Friday:

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Saturday:

http://www.bedifferentactnormal.com

Birthday Shopping

Oh my goodness, you guys, I just found the cutest little store (with seriously low prices!) and I just had to share!  It's called Madeleine L'Amour, located in Centerville, Ut, and the owner is the next door neighbor to one of my favorite girls.  I went to check it out after my adorable friend Ashley wore an amazing skirt and I needled her mercilessly until she recommended I get myself one here:

all of the above photos are courtesy of Madeleine L'amour

"Madeleine L'Amour is a French inspired home decor and fashion boutique."  But they also have the most TO DIE FOR birthday accessories for women or girls.  It's very Parisian chic with silver glitter, pink tissue, marabou feathers, and old song sheets.  The owner I met (one of a pair) was Jeni and she was the cutest, nicest thing.  She said that they ship all the time because they have such low prices for their vendors.  They don't have a website with paypal, but you can email them with specific requests and shipping is only 5 bucks and next day for most locations!  I bought a plethora of skirts and handpainted silk flower pin/clips ($16 each, for hand-painted and hand-beaded giant gorgeous flowers!)  but I'm rationalizing this post by saying it's birthday shopping at it's best!

By the way, we have not received any payment for endorsing this fabulous store so this is just pure gushing and compliments straight from my heart (ha!)

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