Don't all things begin with a desperate need to buy themed vintage stamps from an etsy shop???? How could I ever resist? :) It's taken a while to blog Charlie's ninth birthday party because I was waiting until it was featured on Hostess with the Mostess which finally posted on the same day I flew to Boston WITHOUT my laptop! They had told me it would feature at the end of the month so I was not ready or prepared at all for a mid-June feature! And of course, I had to wait an additional five days to get home from B-town to even access my images! Crazy times! :) I started planning Charlie's party back in November. The second Henry's Monster Party wrapped, my talented party-styling girlfriend, Rachel, wanted to know what was next. We asked Charlie to give us a theme to start working on -- and he said "LEGOS!!". That didn't really work for us. There are too many lego parties already out there. It might've taken a little persuasion to get him to decide that what he reeeally wanted was a chemistry party. :) Rachel runs RV Parties with her BFF and partner, Victoria. They design the most adorable printables for pretty much any party theme. You can buy the science printables from this party as well the monster printables from Henry's party -- or a variety of many other themes - HERE at their etsy shop! You'll also see lots of my photography there. I'm their favorite professional photographer. I was seriously & intensely proud of the large chalkboard that we used for our backdrop at the dessert table. I knew two things: 1., there was NO WAY that I could handwrite anything on any chalkboard and have it look adorable - not to mention, I'm way to OCD to have the font on a backdrop not completely match with the party design/font, and 2., I did NOT want to buy a new, giant chalkboard and then have no idea what to do with it when the party wrapped. But, thats why engineering prints from Staples are the greatest thing in the whole wide world. Yes. You heard me. The greatest. If you need something printed in a very large size (this one was 36x48) but don't want to pay your child's college tuition for it - and it happens to be a black and white image - then head to Staples. I had Rachel design a large print to look like a fake chalkboard and had it printed for $6. Then I tacked it to a corkboard that I already had hanging over my desk in my office. Perfect. We had so many amazing treats on our dessert table! Miss Lulu's Sweet Treats sent us the cake pops atoms on a stick. They are the best cake pops I've ever had in my entire life. No joke. I *might* have lied to a couple of the children who asked if they could have one and said they were for display only so there'd be a few leftover. And the chocolate-dipped Oreo Molecules were her idea and I looove how creative and perfectly themed they are! And the amazing Jessica of J&J Bakeshop - local here in VA - provided us with the perfect cookies decorated to look like the element of Charlie!! She is so talented, y'all. I ordered specialty cookies from her for Christmas gifts last year and I encourage you all to find a reason to need cookies just to see what she can do! And I made the cupcakes because I'm a cupcake snob now and can only eat the cake that my BFF, Mandie, makes or the cake my BFF, Mandie, taught me how to make. I was also really proud of my party favor idea! Last summer, I taught Charlie the Mentos + Diet Soda reaction - read about it here - (so many links in this post!!). He loved it so much that I figured it should either be an experiment at the party or the favor! Since it's pretty messy and doesn't take very long to react, I figured, favor it is! I think it's always best to send the messy stuff home to the parents. Just like it's always best to serve the guests all the sugar RIGHT before the end of the party. :) Did you know that lab coats are RIDICULOUSLY expensive?? And that even the costume ones for kids to play doctor and dress up with on Halloween don't even dip below $10 each?? As much as I wanted real lab coats that I'd have embroidered with guest names for the party, that's just plain insane and I could not encourage the market to continue to charge those prices! Harumph!! Instead, I bought the 5-pack of two-sizes-too-large white undershirt tees from Target and cut them up the middle! Voila! Lab coats on the cheap! I did splurge on party color lab goggles for about $3 each. Totally worth it. So cute. And Charlie's adorable science shirt was a custom design by Ella Mella who rocks my world with their awesome kid's fashions. And Henry's shirt was sent to us from Periodically Inspired! I just love how she smooshed periodic table elements together to form geeky-chic words. Henry's my precious little GeNiUS!! And a bit of a camera ham, too! Once the house was decorated and the kids dressed, it was time to paaaaartay! An amazing woman, Calsin, runs a business of bringing science, technology, engineering and mathemathics to parties and playdates and schools, oh my! She. Is. Awesome. She told me that if she didn't have her business, she'd set up a lab in her garage and experiment anyway! I loved it. That's how I feel about my photography. If there wasn't work, there'd STILL be pictures. Her business, STEM-KIDS, is such a great concept. Learning can be a BLAST (literally!) and parties don't have to lack brain power, either! Calsin can tailor the experiments for any party. I didn't want the party to cross sciences (OCD, much?) so everything had to stay in a "chemistry" theme. Duh. And, the experiments also needed to entertain eight very active nine year olds. Calsin knew just what to do -- MESSY, hands-on chemical reactions that would result in slime, exploding "elephant toothpaste" and a giant bowl full of smoky, bubbly dry ice! EXPERIMENT #1: SLIME The kids loved this. Calsin set up a table full of the necessary ingredients and as the kids started to mix everything together, it started forming ooey-gooey slime! After they finished squishing it in their fingers, we packed up their custom-colored slime in take home bags! EXPERIMENT #2: ELEPHANT TOOTHPASTE Whats better than seeing foamy goo grow and grow and grow, so much so that it spills up and out of a bottle and into a tray for you to play with it!? NOTHING! Birthday boy was the first one to pour in the special ingredient to make the chemical reaction activate! He was SO excited!! And, um, he's also incredibly cute. EXPERIMENT #3: SUBLIMATION DEMONSTRATION I'm a creative. I photograph things. I can write fairly well. And I daydream great things. I enjoy and am awed by science but, I am no scientist. So, I have to admit that when Calsin said we'd do a "sublimation demonstration", I just blindly nodded my head like I had a clue what she was talking about. Google and Wikipedia say that sublimation is "the transition of a substance directly from the solid to the gas phase without passing through an intermediate liquid phase." So, why the dry ice turned into a smoky gas without any water sneaking in between those phases, all makes sense now. (Can you tell I was concentrating on proper exposure and focus while she was explaining all of this to the kiddos???) Oy. Adding in some dish washing liquid will create a giant bubble that will enclose the smoke inside of it and when it pops, the smoke explodes out! It's really fun and the kids obviously LOVED getting the chance to be the one to pop the bubble! And then it was time to blow out the candles and for me to cry the weepy mama-cry because my baaaaaaby is NINE!!! See the party with all our vendor info plus more of my wit and charm in describing the details (and more pictures!!) on the fabulous and well-followed Hostess with the Mostess blog HERE.
Make Lettuce Wrap 🥬 Recipe: https://seonkyounglongest.com/pork-bulgogi/
Planning a Star Wars Birthday? The force awakens with these 27 Star Wars Party Ideas that are out of this world! Star Wars is one of the top party themes this year, and it’s not hard to see why. The Star Wars universe presents so many out of this world ideas that any kid would
This is at least 7 months late at this point, but I'm so proud of how Charlie's 4th birthday party turned out, I have to share! Let's pretend I've just been ruminating on the perfect way to present it... When I asked Charlie what he wanted to do for his birthday, he quickly told us he wanted to, "paint with [his] friends." Done, buddy. After a few trips to Hobby Lobby, Amazon, and Target, Charlie's art party came together relatively easily. Hobby Lobby had... Tiny easels (4 for $5) Washable paint ($1.50 bottle) Paint pallets (8 for $5) Chip board letters ($1 each) Paint theme cupcake liners ($2) Paint splotch wall decorations ($3) Black butcher block paper ($6 roll) 144 paint brushes ($5) Brown paper goodie bags (5 for $2) Target had... Back to School sale markers, crayons, chalk, and paint brushes (various prices, all under a dollar) Amazon had... ABC silicone molds for favors ($12) Smocks ($7.50 dozen) All in all, I was able to purchase the snacks, supplies, favors, etc. for under $75. The back to school sales going on the months leading up to the party really helped out with the various art supplies used for favors and decorations. Crayons were a quarter a box, which I'm thankful for as we went through tons of them! My favorite decoration for the party was the "cake." Since we planned to decorate cupcakes, there was no centerpiece to the food table. I saw this art supply cake on Pinterest and just had to recreate it. Thankfully, we had enough art supplies laying around to put it together at no additional cost. Another fun Pinterest find were these "spilling paint" can decorations. The empty paint cans were about $5 each at Lowe's and the plastic table cloths were from the dollar store. I used tripods (one was mine, one I borrowed) to prop up the paint can to look like it was spilling paint all over the food table. The space under the "paint" tablecloth also made for a good place to stash extra snacks, cupcakes, and supplies out of sight. To keep the kids occupied, we set up three activities for them - a chalk wall (black butcher block paper and chalk), a painting activity, and cupcake decorating. Alternating between the activity and free play time worked well for the kids and their parents. It seemed to mix things up and be just the right amount of entertainment while giving parents a break to eat and chat. Each child's station had the first letter of their name, smock, brushes, and paint in cut up egg cartons. I grabbed some small canvases as well in case little siblings wanted to do hand/foot print art. We included instructions on the invitation to come dress in clothes appropriate to paint in, which was appreciated by the parents. The paint was washable, but things happen! I wasn't sure how the cupcake decorating activity would go, but they loved it! A plain cupcake along with little bits of different decorations (sprinkles, candies, Teddy Grahams, mini marshmallows, colored sugar, etc.) entertained them for way longer than I could have imagined. Clean up was as simple as dumping the excess decorations in the trash and throwing the paint pallets in the dishwasher. Charlie's favorite part was blowing out his "4" candle. He had so much fun painting with his friends and playing the afternoon away. Each child got a splatter painted goodie bag with their name in crayons (tutorial on the way!) a scroll of paper, paint brushes, and of course their smock and painted letter. There were some beautiful masterpieces created that day! The best part of this party theme is that the supplies to make it happen are easy to come by, inexpensive, and if you don't happen to need 100 tiny paintbrushes or big bottles of paint afterwards, can be donated to a daycare or preschool. Thanks for checking out Charlie's art party (and being patient with it's slow posting!) Even now, 7 months later, Charlie still talks about his paint party and has kept up his love of everything art.
Party tips, party photos, and inspiration for throwing a Pirate Party! Find resources, ideas from real parties, and more!
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Last week I declared this week was going to be Birthday Week. Well, it’s Wednesday, and I’m finally getting around to it! A sinus infection and bronchitis (both kids also got hit with sinus, ear and eye infections) on top of new puppy duty will put you back a few days. Sheesh! So without further...
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by Ed If you're looking for tons Minecraft Party Ideas - you've come to the right place! We've got unique Minecraft printables and Minecraft crafts to share. (Or, if you're just looking to read a
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Aquí tienes Siluetas de Vestidos para que las uses en tus decoraciones de Fiestas de Princesas Disney. Serán perfectas para u...
Minecraft has been all the rage the past few years and last September I helped a friend throw a fabulous Minecraft birthday party for her son! It was a fun party! The guests entered the party room through the “Nether Portal” The room was decorated to the nines! The birthday banner was at the center…
If you have a villain lover in your life, you'll definitely want to use these Descendants birthday party ideas to plan the best party ever.
This broccoli and baby corn stir-fry especially good with really fresh broccoli from the garden or farm stand. Great with Asian noodle or tofu main dishes.
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Old-fashioned ice cream parlours use to be the “in thing” in metro Detroit. However overtime, many of these places faded out, but the memories remain. One of my parlours sold fresh popped popcorn c…
Host a fun art birthday party with these easy ideas.
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Free printable Wish coloring pages of Asha, Star, Valentino, King Magnifico and other characters from Disney's Wish movie in pdf and png.
