Water Bottles

It is simple to personalize water bottles for your next party. Just peel off the label and use it as a template for the correct size label. Print out your guest's names and cut the strips to the width of the label template and tape into place. This way everyone knows which one is their bottle! You can even match the paper labels to your theme. Your guests can take their personalized water bottles home to refill or recycle!

Picture Book Party

Use your child's favorite book as inspiration for their next birthday party. I ♥ the classic tales of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Where the Wild Things Are and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Anything goes! Bonus: use the books for decoration!

A Where the Wild Things Are party ideas include making paper crowns, boat races and of course having a wild rumpus!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar party would have lots and lots of snacks, painting, storytime and butterfly wings! Assemble colorful cupcakes to look like a caterpillar using red and green frosting. 

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory would be fun to play games based on each character, like bubble blowing, a tv quiz, snacks and chocolate! A visit to "Wonka's candy shop" would be a scrumdidlyumptious way to make-your-own favor to take home. 

Yummy Punch Recipe

Yum! I made a party punch at a family gathering recently and really... I couldn't make enough of this punch! It was a big hit and my recipe was ever changing as I had to improvise and added various juices to it as needed.

I started with these basic ingredients:
1 container Cranberry-Raspberry juice
1 frozen concentrate lemonade
1 liter of plain seltzer
1 liter of ginger ale
sliced fruit as a garnish

As the day went on I added even more of the above ingredients, along with a splash of orange juice, then I switched to adding Cran-Pomegranate, frozen fruit juice and more lemonade! I used sliced strawberries, but any berries or lemon slices would be nice too. And ice. Since I used a concentrate, and controlled the amount of seltzer, it never tasted watered down. Enjoy!

Mini Tissue Poms

Tissue pom-poms are easy & colorful party decor! These mini size poms are made the same way as the regular size, just use half the width. Follow step by step instructions for the regular size tissue pom-poms. These are fun to suspend from the ceiling or place around your house for a pop of your party colors.      

Italian Soda Bar

Make your own Italian style sodas! Have your party guests start with a cup of plain seltzer and add a few drops of your favorite syrups, stir and serve with ice! Less sugar than traditional soda, and you can mix and match flavors. I made some fruity flavored syrups: strawberry, grape, lemonade by simply using the same recipe I use for snow cone syrups. Combinations include:  Stawberry-Lemonade, Grape-ade, Grape-berry, or a Grape-ade-berry punch! Enjoy!

Mini Cakes

Cakes, cakes and more cakes! I baked "mini" cakes for each of our guests to frost at our cooking party. 6" rounds were the perfect size for individuals! One boxed cake mix makes three 6" cakes and the cook time was about 30 minutes. Teams of two would have been a good idea too.

After frosting & decorating, we lined up all the cakes for a contest. The birthday girl made up categories and the cakes were judged on "Best Creativity" "Most Colorful" and "Best Design". Candles went in the birthday girl's cake and each guest had a slice of their own cake and brought the rest home!

Kids Cooking Party idea

My daughter wants to have a "tween" cooking party this year! We love watching Top Chef together, so this is the perfect theme for her. I am excited to sew some simple aprons from these cute & colorful fabrics. There were so many fabrics to choose from, and we narrowed it down to these. With the fabrics as my inspiration, I am choosing the color scheme with plates and decorations to match.