Make It Happen Club in 2011!

My motto in 2011 is "MAKE IT HAPPEN!" (Actually, that's normally my motto but I wanted to spread the word and infect my girlfriends with it!). I hosted a "Make It Happen" event with several girlfriends to kick off the exciting New Year. Each person brought a project they wanted to work on to get started ahead in the new year. Plus, what's more inspiring than hanging out with girlfriends while they are getting their projects done too! I ordered a ton of delicious food from Carlos O' Briens for our mexican fiesta and made yummy chocolate cupcakes, cookies and brownies. We all enjoyed eating dinner together and working on our own personal projects. It was a nice, easy, fun night!! I worked on a special scrapbook I'm making as a gift while others brought a bag full of coupons to clip and organize or updated their calendars and family binders, some organzied their online photos or addressed their New Years Cards, some cleaned out their email inbox and worked on their laptops. We all enjoyed lots of laughter, a little bit of gossip, some great shared stories, and a yummy meal together. Happy New Year to my wonderful girlfriends!
Here's to MAKING IT HAPPEN in 2011!!

Oscar Party 2011!

And the Oscar goes to.........

We had a blast at February's Make It Happen event......Oscar Night 2011! My girlfriends came over and joined me in the movie theater to watch Hollywood's biggest night. We enjoyed lots of treats.....

Delicious drinks......

And Chocolate Popocrn!!! :)

Chocolate Covered Strawberries were my favorite tho!

We had a contest to see who could guess the most correct award winners...

And no Oscar Party is complete without an superstar entrance on the Red Carpet!

Remember, color is the key to making your party feel inpiring, fun and delicious!

Make It Happen Girlfriend!!

~Father's Day Treats Contest~

Father's Day is a very special holiday in our house. Not only do my kids have the best Dad in the world but so do I!  I love to honor these very special men in my life, along with Matt's Dad, with a celebration in their honor. What's more fun than blindfolding them and shoving yummy treats in their mouths?!

We host a "Father's Day Treats Contest" each year. Basically, the kids feed the dads different treats while they are blindfolded and the dads have to guess what each one of the treats is. The makeshift "blindfolds" are just my kids pajama pants. Grab any long sleeve shirt or pj pants you have laying around if you don't have blindfolds. Decide which type of treat you want to serve up. In previous years, we've done different types of ice cream, different cookies and my favorite from last year was Convienence Store Treats!

Preparation: You'll want to decide on the number of treats you are going to have them guess. Then you'll cut each of the treats into bite sizes pieces. You'll want a clean plastic fork for each bite that you are going to serve. For example, we had 3 dads participating and I wanted 10 different types of treats that they'd have to guess about. So we needed 30 forks for the 30 different bites that would be served.  I took the package of Hostess Cupcakes and cut off 3 bites and set the rest aside. You can offer all the extras to the dads after you are done with the contest. The kids will be begging for bites after the contest too!  

Make sure each dad has a glass of water ready to cleanse their palate after each bite. They'll also need several napkins ready (in case someone doesn't particularly enjoy one of the items they are guessing). ;)

Each Dad should have his own piece of paper and pen to write down his guess. This part is actually pretty funny seeing how badly they write while blindfolded. You'll want to decide who is going to feed the bites to whom. Luckily, ours works out perfect since I have three munchkins and three dads to feed. Each kid gets to feed someone! My kids have such a great time participating in this activity and watching Daddy, Papa and Gunggung. It's fun watching the little hint of fear of the unknown on the Dad's faces when they know the next bite is coming. After each bite, the kids put the dad's hands down on the paper next to the number we are on and then the dads write down their guess. The scoring can be however you choose it to be. We give one point for the answer "cupcakes" but two points for the answer "Hostess Cupcakes" or "Chocolate Cupcakes" as an example.
Once the Dad's have gone thru all the bites, they get to take off the blindfolds and see the packages of treats before them. They are always shocked what they were. Some of their guesses are so far off it's hillarious! Whoever guesses the most right wins a Gift Card to take the kids out for ice cream.

This activity is so much fun for everyone involved. It really doesn't take long to prepare. 15 minutes in the grocery store for napkins, plastic spoons/forks and the 10 different treats. Five minutes to find blindfolds, grab paper, pen, and glasses of water. And another 5 minutes to cut the treats into bite sized pieces. It is so worth the small effort for the joy and laughter everyone will get to experience! Make It Happen!

The 100% Papers Celebration!

Don't you feel proud when your munchkin comes home with a 100% on their schoolwork? You can see the look of confidence and pride when they hand it over. It's the cutest darn thing! I wanted to find a way to celebrate those sweet moments and encourage them to continue to strive for doing well every single day. So, a few years back,  I started collecting their 100% papers and throwing them into a folder in my office. The folder continued to grow throughout the school year.

Right after school on the last day, we head straight for the kids favorite place, Olive Garden. We call it "Our  Last Day of School Celebration". 
I decided to bring the 100% Papers folder with us and each kid was handed their stack of papers to count. However many 100% papers they had in that stack equaled how much money they would earn towards spending on Back to School clothes and items later that summer. They get $1 per paper.
The kids LOVE going thru their papers and being surprised to see how many papers they really did a great job on!  It's always such a positive experience because it's a day to reflect only on the good and another great opportunity for you to tell them how proud of them you are.
Once they've counted up their papers, I hand them their stack of money that they earned. The first year I did this, I used a paper money pack that I bought at the nearst Dollar Store. The next year, I used real money because I knew it would be more fun for them.
I needed to know how much I would need by first peeking thru the stack of papers and counting them up. To accomplish the pay off with the real money, I drove to the bank and got 175 dollar bills out (or you can do the larger bills but know exactly what you need. That's how many total papers there were between the two kids). Then I headed to school to pick the kids up and off to Oliver Garden we went. We order our food then begin the counting.
(Now.... I know what you are thinking...... "Are you crazy??! I'm not giving my kid $175 to spend AND I don't have that kind of money just laying around!!")  Hear me out. I had no real intention of my kids getting to keep the money past the initial celebration lunch. I just wanted to make them feel excited about something and also teach them the value of earning their school clothes and supplies. If you think about it, we are going to spend at least that much anyway when we go school shopping for clothes and those incredibly long teacher supplies list we get these days. Well, my plan was to get the money out of the bank account right before I picked them up for lunch and then we would put that same money back in our account first thing the next morning.  Here's what the purpose is...... the purpose is to have a moment of PURE JOY with your kids. Any kid would be excited to see that their parent is so proud of them for doing well all throughout the school year and kept their 100% papers. And, any kid would be excited to get to hold that much money.(My son was so thrilled because he had never held 100 real dollars in his hand before).  After they added up their papers, received their amount of money and counted it all up, they handed it back to me to "hold" til it was time for the Back to School Boutiqe (more on that later).  I make a mental note of how much each kid got and then I return the money to the bank account the next morning. They know I'm holding their money for them until it's time to shop. Easypeasy. It takes a little pre-planning and a short amount of your time but it is SO worth it.

Also, it's just another way of having a special family moment and teaching them to earn things and acknowleding their hard work and effort at school.  It also makes my kids realize that THEY are purchasing the school items  (see the "Back to School Boutique" post to know how we do back to school shopping in our house).  It helps teach that lesson that they can't just get whatever they want during back to school shopping. The only effort this tradition requires is the 5 minutes in the bank's drive thru line, a little folder space somewhere to throw the papers in and a special celebration time picked at the end of the school year to honor them for doing so well! Make It Happen!

Make It Happen Tip: The trick in finding unique party supplies

The trick to finding really great stuff at the dollar store is to be on the lookout every single time you shop. After you drop the kids at school, take a half hour to go to your local dollar store and walk up and down each aisle. I like to do this about once a month. Sometimes I leave there with 5-10 really great things for upcoming parties and sometimes I leave there with nothing.
The key is being open to what you might find and letting the item create opportunity. For instance, I recently saw the most adorable little mini picnic baskets. They were such an exciting find! They were $1 each in the baskets at Michaels. I wasn't looking for them. They found me! Do I know what I'm doing with them yet? Nope.  BUT.... I know there is a ton of things I could do with them!

A Picnic in the Park party. A Wizard of OZ party. A Baby Shower game item. Christmas cookies delivered in it. A romantic night out with your honey (filled with goodies). Fill it with a friend's favorite candies so she has a secret stash in her office drawer where her kids won't find it. ;)
So many fun options! I'm still not exactly set on what I'll do with them but I feel a little shot of joy every time I come across them in my party cabinet!

The Super Mario Brothers Birthday Party details (post 1 of 2)

Super Mario Brothers Party 2011! What a blast this was! Scroll down 2 posts to see more photos from the event. So many fun details to share about the party that I hosted for Jackson in honor of his 9th Birthday Party. Let's begin! :)

The Cake: I found ideas for multi-layer cakes at several different party websites online. I decided to go a little farther than the ones I'd found online and do an eight layer cake. I was so nervous that it wasn't going to hold up overnight but it did! I removed a shelf in my fridge and kept it in there until an hour before the party. I used food coloring in the white cake mix (one box of white cake mix split in half for 2 layers). I used a 1/3 of a can of white frosting in between each layer of cake. Next time, I'd probably try to use the spray frosting can instead just because it would be faster and easier and tear the cake less. It took an entire can of frosting for the top and outside layers of frosting. You want to make it have ridges so you can throw sprinkles onto it sideways. If you make the frosting smooth, the sprinkles won't stick well. It's a lot of fun to make and very exciting to celebrate it's outcome so don't be scared! Make it Happen!

Jello Champagne cups: I used jello mix that was the different colors of my party and poured the liquid mixture directly into champage cups that I bought at the Dollar Store (8 for $1). Then I put them in the fridge overnight to set and they turned out so cute! The boys enjoyed eating out of the cups and trying to figure out how the jello got in there so perfectly.

The Outfits: I bought red and green shirts at Joann's Craft store when they were on sale at 5 shirts for $10. The boys were excited to see them when they walked into the party! I found their cute mustaches for 20 cents each at Party City. You can also find them online at Oriental Trading. I bought the red and green baseball caps at Michaels for 69 cents each on clearance! That was an exciting find. I will say that the mustaches don't last long so make sure you wait to give them to your guest until you are ready to take the group photo. I did a group photo of all 8 boys together, then a photo of each boy with my birthday boy, then a group shot of the school friends and a seperate group shot of the baseball team friends. I highly recommend you always take photos of your party details and definitely ones of the guests. Photos help you plan future parties and remember all the fun you had years later. They also are great for sharing with friends who would like an idea for their own party. :)

The Colors: one of the most exciting parts of this party for me as the planner was the color scheme. I LOVED doing these four colors. They are so easy to work with and get inspired by. I bought plastics (plates, cups, napkins, serving dishes, silverware, cheap table covers, etc) all in these 4 colors and then mixed them up in the presentation. Red plates with yellow cups with blue napkins with green straws.
I also printed out the boys names on a plain piece of paper in a cute font with those same colors and then taped it around the water bottles to add flair to those. You can get fancier and look around online at websites to find even more embellished water bottle labels. I also puffy painted some simple dots on the tops of the water bottles just to make them "pop" a bit more.

Curling Ribbon: One of my favorite ways to add detail and fun to a party is to use tons of curling ribbon on everything. I LOVE to enhance the simplest of things by adding severals colors of curling ribbon. How do I find the time when it's such a minor detail? I find it peaceful to grab the curling ribbon, scissors and the subject while I sit in front of the tv after the kids go to bed and watch my favorite guilty pleasure (input current reality show). Then I cut and curl to my heart's content. :)

Bracket Board: My husband made a Bracket Board (the yellow poster board looking thing you see in the photos) that kept track of the MarioKart games the boys played. The board listed each of the boys names then the different rounds they played in the Winner's Bracket. The boys were split into 2 groups of 4. One group on one tv and another group on the 2nd tv.

The Game and Party Room Set Up: We moved our rug, coffee table and 2 couches out of the living room onto our back patio. That opened the space up for our party. It was quick, simple and worth the 10 minutes of effort. We had our living room tv already set up with our Wii box and MarioKart game. We moved our bedroom tv out to a different wall in the living room for the other team to use (there were 4 boys at each tv). We borrowed the second Wii box with remotes from a friend and rented the 2nd MarioKart game from Blockbuster. The boys LOVED playing the games together in groups. It took about an hour or so to do the rounds.

                                    

Food/Drinks: I kept the food simple and went with Dominos pizza. Boys love it and I'd rather spend the time on all the details and fun. The drinks were Root Beer Floats (a party favorite) and the jello cups. They also enjoyed the fabulous cake (see photo).

If you have any questions about the party details or photos, feel free to leave a comment. :)
Scroll down two posts to see all the fun photos of the details above.