DIY Party Mom

Pool Birthday Party

Today was "Mini Me's" 7th birthday. I can't believe how the time has gone and how much my little one has grown. He is a wonderful "crafter" and "helper". He loves to sit beside me and help with whatever I am doing whether it's work or chores. He is truly a special little boy.

So we had to plan a special birthday party for him.

Despite, or due to the fact that it felt like 110 degrees outside today, we planned a big pool party water bash for his birthday. We planned it in the evening so it would be a little cooler and there would be alot of shade from the big trees in our back yard for the adults.

I tried to tie the party around a pool and beach ball theme, so I hung 3 beach ball from the tree above the table. Then I carried the blue and red colors onto the table by layering 2 tablecloths on top of each other. The blue cloth kept blowing up until I used straight pins to pin it to the red. Then it stayed down perfectly.

On the front of the table I pinned this fun banner I bought on sale at Shindigz.com. Mini Me absolutely LOVED having his picture and wanted it in front so everyone could see and admire it all night long.

We had originally invited 14 families to come to the party, so we planned for LOTS of food. We had Lemonade Pool Water on one side of the table...

And "Ool Water" on the other. (Notice there's no "P" in it...)

Okay, I thought it was funny to have the Pool Water a yellow lemonade (like Pee) and the "Ool Water" a blue koolaid like a good pool. Funny right?! Okay, maybe it's just me and my weird sense of humor.

We had our Swimmer Cupcakes in chocolate and yellow cake on either side of the drinks.

They were so cute at the beginning of the party, but 10 minutes later, the cupcakes were starting to melt. We had to bring them inside to avoid pools of mush, but they were already so bad the candy was melting off the cakes.

It was pretty sad.

The middle of the table had a bucket of popsicles that melted to liquid despite a bucket of ice. The kids didn't mind and actually enjoyed drinking them.

All the food on the front of the table were labeled to be items needed at a Pool party.

We had Chocolate covered Nutter Butter cookie Goggles.

Goldfish cracker Pool Toys, Tostito chip Pool Umbrellas, and Dorito Toy Boat Sails.

A swimming pool filled with Swimmer Rice Krispie Treats.

I filled little pails up with candy including Marshmallow Floaties, Candy Lifesavers, Starburst Kickboards, and Peach Ring Pool Rings.

We also had Diving Board Watermelon (cut into rectangles.)

And I used my Cakepop maker to make cupcake balls filled with chocolate frosting and dipped in blue chocolate for Pool Bubbles.

My sweet hubby manned the HOT grill to make hot dogs for everyone since we had the party during dinner time. (Okay, I admit I stayed inside the cool house while admiring his grilling techniques through the window.)

I had a ton of activities for the kids planned, but once they saw the water slide, they didn't want to do anything else. They did make a trip into the pool every now and then, but the slide was the big hit of the party.

It was 18 feet high and a ton of fun! Even the big kids loved it.

I admit, I did go down it once before it was wet and am anxious to give it a go before we have to return it tomorrow. (Maybe when there aren't so many people around.)

We all had a good time and Mini Me was in absolute HEAVEN! I can still hear him screaming in joy outside my window playing on the slide at 9:30 at night. I think he had a GOOD time.

Water Party Games

With temperatures feeling like 115 degrees here in town today, I know I'm certainly looking forward to playing in the water tomorrow. While we have a large above ground pool, an 18 foot water slide rented, and a (pretty sad) PVC pipe Sprinkler system, we want to have LOTS of water games planned to keep our guests nice and cool in the summer heat.

Here are a few we have planned...

Limbo: I plan to take one of our PVC pipes drilled with holes and attach a water hose to it. The kids can then play limbo under the water stick. I imagine the ground will get pretty wet and slippery and make it a little harder for the kids to limbo.

Counting Ice Cubes: I plan to place 2 bowls inside a ring floatie so it sits on top of the water. Then we will separate the kids into two teams. I will dumb a large container of ice cubes into the pool and each team will have to collect the ice cubes into their bowl. The team with the most cubes in their bowl wins.

Cold Potato: This will be much like hot potato with the kids all sitting in a circle tossing the "potato" around the circle. The "potato" will actually be a water balloon with a small leak inside it. The child that has the balloon when the water runs all out is out.

Slip and Slide Bowling: I plant to make 10 bowling pins out of half full water bottles. The kids will be able to bowl themselves down the slip and slide and see who can knock down the most pins. The child who knocks the most down the most wins.

Toss the Penny: I bought several dollars worth of pennies and a few dollars of nickles, dimes, and quarters. I will toss them into the pool and let the kids dive for the money. Whatever change they find, they get to keep.

Water Balloon Toss: The kids will be paired up and stand facing each other down a line. Each pair will get a water balloon and have to toss it to his or her partner. If the balloon is caught successfully, the pair will each take a step backwards and throw again. The last team with a water balloon wins.

Water Gun Fight: I found 4 packs of water guns at Dollar Tree so I plan to place several buckets around the yard for easy filling. Each child will get a water gun and be allowed to shoot to their hearts content. In some of the buckets, I will also place a few soaker balls for extra ammunition.

Swimming Pool Cupcakes

Today was spent in the kitchen preparing lots of sweet treats for the party this weekend. We dressed up ordinary yellow and chocolate cupcakes to look like little swimming pools to match our pool and water themed party.

We made several different styles of cupcakes using candy and Teddy Grahams.

We started by dressing the teddy grahams much like we did on the Rice Krispie Treats swimmers. They have Wilton Food Writer Edible Color Markers faces and melted chocolate swimsuits.

Then we used the candy we had on hand to make pool toys for the teddy bears.

I had Twizzlers, Starburst, and Peach Rings.

To make the Pool mats, I flattened a Starburst with my rolling pin and then rolled up the top. I used a little bit of chocolate or frosting to glue the bear on top.

The Ring Floaties are Peach Rings with the Teddy Graham nestled inside.

The Beach balls are starburst cut in half and rolled into a ball.

The pool noodles are the colored Twizzlers cut into thirds and placed beside or wrapped around the Teddy bear.

The last cupcake is a swimmer and for this one we used one of the Teddy Grahams that had his arms up and placed him at a slant into the blue water frosting.

Pretty simple, but super cute!

Swimmer Rice Krispie Treats

It was not my original plan to make these this way...or this late in the day. But things don't always go with the plan, so you have to roll with the punches. It seems that has been a big problem with this party so far. I hope things will straighten out eventually, or turn out as cute as this "change of plan." (Although, I admit, the pictures are pretty rotten, so please forgive.)

I originally planned to make these out of cake pops, but after going to the store and Hobby Lobby not having the Silicone Gingerbread Boy Mold Pan until Friday morning...I had to rethink things. I know better than to think I'm going to have time to do this on the morning of the party, so I bought the Gingerbread boy cookie cutter instead and ran off to buy some Rice Krispie Treats.

We purchased a value sized box of Rice Krispie treats (I personally like the premade ones better than any I've ever made, but it's your call on which you go with.)

Since my Rice Krispie Treat was smaller than the cookie cutter, I used my rolling pin to extend my treat both wider and longer.

Then I cut it out with the cookie cutter.

We cleared away the scraps on the outside of the cookie cutter and enjoyed eating them. (Did I mention that I LOVE Rice Krispie Treats?)

I have these bottles of colored chocolate on hand all the time, so I dragged them out and melted the chocolate up. If you are going to melt chocolate, be sure to remove the lid and microwave them on medium heat for 1 minute increments. Once the chocolate is melted, it helps to add a little bit of vegetable oil to it so that it will flow easier.

I did find it easier to cut out all the treats and then work with one color at a time. This allowed me to keep the chocolate melted and flowing easily.

To decorate the swimmers, I started by outlining the swimsuit. (No bikinis here!)

Then I filled the suit in by flooding the suit and then tapping the treat (or cutting board) so the chocolate spread out evenly. I let the chocolate harden and then added a stripes and dots on the suits for interest.

I used my Wilton Food Writer Edible Color Markers to draw the eyes and mouth but found it a little hard to work on the porous surface of the treat. So I ended up just using it for the mouth and using the chocolate to make the eyes.

These were pretty easy to make...although pretty messy. I can't wait to add these cute, yummy swimmers to the dessert table at "Mini Me's" Splish Splash Birthday party this weekend!

Also linking to:

Todays Creative Blog

Craft: Epic Fail

I admit it...I'm cooked.

It's been one of those crazy days, where I haven't stopped running from the moment I got out of bed this morning. The only time I've sat still is when I spent HOURS driving around town running errands. It's been crazy.

Finally, about 4:30, I got home and started dinner. While dinner was in the oven, I started working on a project for Mini Me's water birthday party this weekend. We are going to have several different water stations and one of them was going to be a large sprinkler for the kids to run through made from PVC pipe.

I first got the idea from Come Together Kids here and since then Family Fun has a version here. My version was going to be BIG and GRAND and the kids were going to LOVE it. Well....this is what happens when you don't take a moment to totally read the directions, the reviews, and the "helpful hints" on a project.

EPIC FAIL!

(as my kids would say.)

Do you see how low he has to get to get any water? (pretty sad.)

I spent an hour trying to rework it to be able to maximize the water pressure so the water would even make it to the top and down the other side.

I finally got a little action on the far side and on the top, but it was still pretty pathetic.

I admit it. I finally just let him run. He had a ball. He told me it was AWESOME and he LOVES it. (I'm so grateful for my little one. He makes my day.)

But I will have it awesome. I will spend this evening (not moving...in my pajamas) reading all the extra helpful hints on these websites...then tomorrow...or the next day...I'll get back to it....and it will be AWESOME, or at least Super Cool.

(But don't tell him in the meantime, his Grandma and I rented him a 18 foot double water slide for the party too! So if all else fails...he'll be in Splish Splash heaven.)

Shout Out Sunday

Here are some great party ideas from around the blogging world...

Polka Dots on Parade shared her Beach Blanket Tic-Tac-Toe board. I love this idea and how easy and fun it is. I may actually make one of these for a non-water activity for our birthday party next week. It might be a nice break for the kids to play with when they get 'watered' out.

ReMarkable Home shared her Trampoline Tent. How awesome would this be for a camp out in the backyard? Or a play date? To have your own little world under the trampoline would be any kids dream.

ObSeussed shared these Lego Storage Jars. With all the Lego parties going on right now, these cute baby food jars would be perfect to put those cute chocolate Lego guys or bricks in as a yummy party favor. I love the idea! You could actually use this idea on a larger scale for table centerpieces or balloon weights. LOVE IT!

Creative Mommas shared the tutorial on making this Dessert Table Awning. I just love how fun and festive this makes the dessert table. It has so many fun uses from lemonade stand to party table that I can't help but want to go buy some bookcases now just for the box!

Choose to Thrive shared these DIY Travel Games. After just coming back from a 2 week vacation, I can tell you how VERY much I wish I had seen this idea before going. I love how easy it is to make your own games for travel. With a little cute packaging, these would make great party favors for a game night too.

Shindig Saturday Weekly Linky Party #20

So sorry for the lack of a Shindig Saturday last week. I had every intention of hopping online sometime during the week and writing the post, but ended up not having any cell phone or Internet connections during our vacation. Our moments out into the "real" world, were very few and far between, so things didn't go as planned.

But we did have a good time playing with cousins...

Playing at the lake...

Visiting Howe Caverns and gem sifting...

And visiting Hersheytown!

But I will admit, I'm REALLY glad to be back home.

So back to work and the party.

Our blog of the week is...

The Exception, not the Rule who shared her Reptile Party Preparations. Kara did such an amazing job on the treats for her party. I am amazed. Her invitations are so much fun and tie into the rest of the party perfectly. These cupcakes are DIY and look like so much fun. I'll bet the kids LOVED playing with the plastic lizards after eating the cupcakes. I know MY boys are craving these while looking over my shoulder. It looks like a little boys dream party. (And those bananas are definitely calling MY name!)

Our party favor of the week..

Our Candy bar notebooks made from real movie theatre candy boxes. These notebooks have 80 sheets of lined paper inside an up-cycled candy box. This is a perfect treat for the candy lover to keep in their purse, beside the phone, or in their school locker!

Now, let's party!

Show us your newest party or fun creations by sharing your favorite party themed craft, table scape, photo, favor, or whatever! I'm pretty flexible since just about everything can be used at a party...that's the great thing about us moms! We can see the potential in ANYTHING!

Linky Party Guidelines:

* Link up to your OWN project post, not just your blog, but your actual post. (We want to see it!)

*Grab a Shindig Saturday button for your post or blog page. (Hey, it benefits us all!)

*Stay and enjoy the party by visiting and commenting on other's projects. (It's fun to mix and mingle!)

Pages