Fabulous Birthday card

I made this birthday card for my children's grandma. I got three cards for .99 cents. A special that shutterfly.com runs often.

Classic Green Birthday 5x7 folded card

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Sleepover Cake

I made this Sleep over cake for a friend's daughter. I got the idea at Family Fun. I pretty much followed the recipe exactly. For the flowers, I bought "snowflake" sprinkles and decorated them with gel icing. This cake was a hit at the little girl's sleepover. It was simple and fun to make. Give it a try.

Tip of the Day

Be on the look out at dollar stores, garage sales, and clearance aisles for inexpensive party supplies. For example, I found a train happy birthday banner at the dollar store. What a find! Another time, I found little dinosaur bone 3D puzzles. This made a fabulous game for a dinosaur party.

Super Hero Training Camp

For my oldest's 6th birthday, we did a Super Hero Training party. It was a blast. We called it a super hero training camp. The kids went through different courses or training to develop the super hero ability. They kids each had their training manuals to follow and final test, graduating at the end of their training. We did not focus on any one super hero. That made the party easier, since we could bring in elements from several different super heroes.

Invitations  

I like to design my own invitations. Often I scan pictures that go along with my theme and use a desktop publishing program to design the perfect invitations. For this party I had picked up a sheet of marvel hero stickers. I scanned the stickers and used them to decorate my invitations. I also had a superman shield sticker (this sticker came in a special super hero airhead candy I bought as a favor) I scanned and used. The front of the card simply said "We want you!". Then the inside said, "Bryson thinks you have what it takes to be a super hero. We'd like to invite you to our training facility." The details of the party followed. I bought a 20 pack of greeting card printer paper, envelopes included. My son then handed them out at school. This was my biggest party. We invited the entire class plus family, however we only had a total of 10 kids. This was also my first party in which the parents just dropped the kids off and picked them up later.

Decorations

Originally the decorations consisted of pictures of different super heroes that I printed off my computer. But while shopping for last minute supplies I came across a wall hang of superman. It was very cool and on clearance for $7.  This became a fantastic backdrop for photos.

Games and Activities

• When each guest arrived they received a  bag with their name on it which contained their training kit: a cape, mask and training manual. Then they went to the table to decorate their training manual. I made the capes out of felt and ribbon. I bought a yard of felt at a local craft store, about $2 a yard. I was able to get 4 capes out of each sheet. The felt was folded in quarters which I used as a guideline for each cape. I bought two packages of 8 Maudie Gra masks at the dollar store.  The training manual had the name of the "courses" in the training and they were rewarded a sticker when they completed the course. This kids take this very seriously, make sure everyone gets their sticker.
• The first course was "Demonstrating strength". For this course I blew up a package of silver balloons, $1 for 25. I instructed the super heroes to crush the "rocks", or sit on the balloons and pop them, that threatened the city.  After they crushed all the rocks, I informed them that all good super heroes clean up their mess. Each child was given a sticker in their manual.
• The next course was "Capturing the Super villain". For this game the kids tied the super villain, played by my husband, by wrapping him up in toilet paper. We found that this was easier for the kids to do with a pencil in the middle of the roll. Each child earned a sticker for this.
• The last course to take was "Protecting the innocent". This game was a treasure  hunt. The young super heroes trainees followed clues to find a young child who had been kidnapped, a doll, and their party favors. The favors were a special Superman airhead, Marvel heroes candy, Marvel heroes stickers and Spider man tattoos. 
• After completing all of the courses, there was a graduation ceremony. I handed out diplomas, I bought from the dollar store. The diplomas already had each child's own name on it. 
• After the graduation, the super villain ran off with the party cupcakes and as their first official act as super heroes, the children had to track them down. This was the best part of the party!

Cake and Ice cream

• For this party, I did not make a cake. I made cupcakes and topped them with small superman figurines, I found at Michaels on clearance.
• Instead of ice cream, I found Spider Man and Green Goblin Popsicle.
• We did not serve snacks at this party.

Science Party for about $45

We did this party for my oldest son's 8th birthday and it is one of my favorites. I was afraid it would be too much like school, but all the kids had a blast. I modeled this party from an article I saw in Family Fun Magazine. I took several elements from this party and added some of my own stuff.

Decorations

For the decorations, I made a poster for the door of an fictional scientist on my computer. It said welcome to Bryson Laboratories. I also made colorful splotches on my computer and placed them randomly around the house. I had my heart set on making this Lab test centerpiece, I had all the ingredients, but I ran out of time.   If you decide to make this, it is very inexpensive. Gelatin runs a couple of dollars for a package of 8. And you use toys that are just lying around the house. 

Props/Favors $20

• As each child came in, the received a pair of goggles and lab coat. 
• The most expensive part of this party was the "lab coats". To make lab coats, cut large adult-size white T-shirts down the middle, fold the collars back to form lapels, and secure them with double-sided tape. Stick on name tags with "Doctor" or "Professor" before each kid's name. From Family Fun.     I found 5 pack t-shirts for $9. I also used Adult  size medium, so my husband could wear the leftovers. I tried to use the double sided tape. But it just came undone while all of the "mad scientists" were working. You could try hot glue or fabric glue.  
• For the goggles, you could order them at discountsafetygear.com for $1.24 a pair. For about two years we have been taking our boys to Lowes Build and Grow workshops. They are free workshops on the 2nd and the 4th Saturday of every month. For participation in the workshop, the boys get the project, apron, patch and safety goggles. So after workshop I collected the goggels and set them aside.  We collected about 15 of them, plenty to share at the party.
• I decided not to get the gloves. I used most of budget on the shirts, so I was out of money. I also figured the kids would get tired of wearing very quickly.

Activities 
Total cost less than $10

Party guests thought the bubbling brew was cool. (no pun intended)

• After the young scientist were properly fitted, we proceeded into the laboratory. Which was the kitchen. I set up each experiment before hand, putting the proper amounts in baby food jars and other small container, so that we could move through each experiment smoothly. 
• I bought Styrofoam bowls and plastic spoons to aid in the experimentation. Cost was about $4.
• Most of the experiments I did came from Steve Spangler Science. 
• Our first "experiment" was carbonating juice, to make sparkling cider for our punch. I took a two pound block of dry ice, which I found at HEB Plus for a little over a dollar a pound, and placed it in a large bowl. Then I poured two 64 oz containers of apple juice over the top, as the children watched. Make sure you wear rubber gloves. I was pretty nervous about this experiments. I thought for sure a child was going to freeze off of finger. But I only had to give one warning of the danger and they proceeded with caution.  Now this block lasted for over an hour, I would suggest using a much smaller piece. All the kids thought the smoke was very cool.
• Next we did the classic baking soda and vinegar. I collected empty water bottles for each child. I placed each water bottle in a bowl to minimize mess. I bought some funnels at the dollar store and asked the guests to bring their own, so we had enough for everyone to have their own. I filled pitchers with warm water to put in the bottles, but I gave each child a baby food jar with vinegar to pour themselves. I put the baking soda in small bowls and they used the plastic spoons to put a spoonful of baking soda in the bottle.

Eruption in a Bottle
1. Pour warm water into a plastic bottle until it's three-quarters full. 
2. Add some drops of food coloring and 1/4 cup of vinegar. 
3. With a funnel, quickly add a heaping teaspoon of baking soda. Instantly, the mixture will fizz and overflow from the bottle. (from Family Fun)

My boys making their eruption in the bottle

• Next we did the Color Collision.  If you want to know how it works, check out Steve Spangler. We used the bowls for this experiment too. I put the detergent in baby food jars.

Color Collisions
1. Pour some milk into a bowl.
2. Add a drop of food coloring.
3. Pour a small amount of dishwashing soap into another bowl. Dip a toothpick into the soap, then into the drop of food coloring floating in the milk. The drop of coloring will instantly spread into a ring, repelled by the soap. For another fun experiment, try adding drops of several food colors to a single bowl of milk.

From Family Fun

• We then made slime. The kids loved this experiment. My kids played with their slime until it was dead, about two weeks. I suggest stocking up on elmer's glue at back to school time when it is only $0.25. If not it normally runs about $0.88. Borax runs about $2, I keep it around the house for cleaning. This is the recipe we used:

Ingredients:

1 bottle of elmers school glue
water 
food coloring
1/4 borax
1 gallon size zipper bag per child


Squeeze entire bottle of glue into bag. Fill bottle with warm water and pour into bag. Add desired color of food coloring to mixture and seal bag. Shake and squeeze bag to mix glue and water. Add borax to mixture and continue mixing. Continue to add borax a tablespoon and mixing until you reach desired consistency. 

Our soda geyser

• After making the slime, I took all the kids out to the back yard to do the mentos and diet coke experiment. You can find the full experiment at Steve Spangler Science. Before the party, I took a lid from a used bottle of soda and drilled a hole in it, only big enough to put a pipe cleaner through. I then used a nail to poke a hole into three mentos. I poked a pipe cleaner into the lid, slid the mentos onto the pipe cleaner under the lid. Folded the pipe cleaner around the mentos to secure them and pulled them snugly under the lid. Then I secured the pipe cleaner on the outside the lid and clipped the access.  When I was ready for this experiment, I took the full soda bottle outside, took off the lid and replaced it with the doctored lid. When I was ready, I pulled the pipe cleaner out and dropped the mentos into the soda. This experiment cost about $2.

Food 

Total cost $16

• In keeping with the experiment theme, I did not buy ice cream, we made our own. I thought I could replicate the ice cream ball to make ice cream. I took two tin cans, one small enough to fit in the other. I think one was a cookie tin and the other a popcorn tin. I placed the ice cream ingredients in the smaller tin and placed it into the larger tin. Then I packed ice and rock salt around the smaller tin. The idea was to roll the tin around the table for ten minutes and then have ice cream. First the lid popped off, then the kids got bored. So one of the parents stirred for ten minutes and we got our ice cream. It was a soft serve type. We told the kids it was a failed experiment and even the most brilliant scientist have failed experiments. Also a lot of the things we have today started from a failed experiments, silly putty, chocolate chip cookies, and ice cream to name a few. The ingredients cost about $5.
• I did cake I did was the Fantastic Flask cake from the Family Fun party. This cake took a lot of frosting, at least two batches. Altogether I think it only cost $2 for the cake mix, frosting and cotton candy.
• I just did a happy birthday table cloth, plates and napkins, and cups from the dollar, $5.
• The juice and dry is was $4, but I recommend a smaller block of ice, so you could do it closer to $3.
• I did not do any snacks for this party. After cake and ice cream we opened presents. This party was so much fun, the kids are still talking about it 6 months later. 

Bug Birthday Party For under $50

I did this party for my middle child's 5th birthday. He loves bugs, but he is scared of spiders. He will pick up every bug. He is the one I call to put the bugs outside.  But if he sees a spider, he will call for me to kill it for him.

You can do this party for a boy or a girl. For this party I did not do paper invitations. I just made a event on facebook.

Decorations  Total cost $6.25

•  I bought sparkly foam bug stickers on clearance at Wal-Mart for $3 and some plain foam bug stickers for $2. I used these stickers to decorate everything.
• I also got some green streamers from Wal-Mart for $1.25. However later on, I did find streamers at Party City for only $0.78. Doesn't it always happen? You find what you need for cheaper after you need it. I hung these streamers, placing periodic sparkley foam stickers of the streamer,  on the ceiling in the living room and dining area, to look like bugs in the grass. As a side note, as I did this, my oldest says to me, "If we have an ocean party, we can hang blue streamers on the ceiling." and that is how I got the idea for the Mermaid party.
• I made a door sign on my Create a Card program, with cute bugs in grass, which read "Welcome to our garden"

Food and Paper Goods Total cost:$20

• For the table cloth, plates, napkins and plates, I bought plain green and decorated them with the foam stickers I bought. I let my 5 year old decorate the cups. He just loves helping with his parties. It's something special we share. Total cost for paper goods: $6
• I made Dirt and Worms for the kids. Recipe found here. I bought clear plastic cups to put the "dirt" in a clear plastic cup for effect. This recipe cost about $7 including the cups.
• For the cake I made a bee hive cake I found on Family Fun. There are cute little bee cookies that go with it. This cake looks complicated, but it was actually quite simple. The cake only took one cake mix and 2 batches of homemade frosting, dyed yellow. All you have to do is heat up the frosting in the microwave and pour it over the cake. I made the cookies with a simple sugar cookie recipe. I just made drop cookies. After the cookies were cooled, I cut them with a biscuit cutter to make them perfectly round. I displayed the cake on a cake plate. I set it on a crystal platter. I put bee cookies around and underneath the cake. I topped the cake with a giant bee I found at the dollar store. Total cost for cake and cookies: $6
• I did not do ice cream or any other snacks, because we had pudding, cookies and cake. They way it worked was the kids had the pudding and the adults had the cookies.  If you wanted to have more snacks, the classic "ants on a log" (peanut butter in celery sticks, topped with raisins) would be perfect.
• We just had soda for drinks. 

Games and Favors Cost approximately $20 

• When everyone arrived, they received a pair of bug antenna. I made these by hot gluing two pipe cleaners to a plastic headband (4 for $1 at dollar store), then I hot glued pom poms to the top of the pipe cleaners.   Total cost $5
• I down load the Disney Song "Ugly  Bug Ball" on my smart phone, which I played during all the games.
• I found little and big plastic bugs at the dollar store, which I used for games and favors In all about $10. I bought little green bags for the kids to keep there bugs in, 8 for $1 at Wal-Mart.
• I really wanted to have the kids search for plastic bugs out in the yard, but we were rained out, so I had to improvise. 
• Game 1: I put easter grass in two plastic bins. In the grass I hid pieces of the Cooties game. I split the kids into 2 groups and the played a relay race. The kids had find a piece in the grass and put together the cootie bug one piece at a time. So the first child found the body, then the next found the head and so on. The first team to finish the bug one.
• Game 2: My 5 year old really wanted to buy butterfly nets (from the dollar store) for his party, so I had to come up with a game to incorporate them. This is what I came up with. Still in teams, one child held the butterfly net while the other children took turns throwing the big bugs into the net. The team that got the most bugs into the nets won. 
• Game 3: We did a caterpillar crawl. I ripped up green construction paper into small strips, which I called leaves. Still in teams, the kids took turns scooting down to the leaves in a sleeping bag. They had to make sure to keep the sleeping bags as they went down to the leaves. Once they reached the leaves I let them stand and carry the sleeping bag to their team mate. This first team to all get the leaves won. This game was hilarious.
• After every game I gave each child a bug to put into their bag.

My youngest modeling the antenna

Tip of the Day

Don't be afraid to ask guests to help with food. Most are happy to help out in some way.

Mermaid Baby Shower for under $75

I am going to start out with not a birthday shower, but a baby shower. I planned a baby shower for my sister, she loves ocean creatures. So naturally we had an ocean theme. Here is a break down of what we did.

Decorations Total cost $15

Decorations were very simple. I took green and blue streamers, glued little ocean creature confetti, I found on clearance at Party City, and taped them to the ceiling. To look like ocean waves. Total cost about $3.

I also bought twirly decorations to hang from the ceiling 3 for $2.50.

For my centerpiece, I made a simple diaper cake. I used diapers that were already given to my sister. Three bottles for the center of the cake, which I already had since I have a one year old. I bought the ribbon at Michaels for $3.99. I found a very Cute My First Mermaid Doll at Wal-Mart for $2.99 for the cake topper. And I decorated it with the same confetti I used for the streamers, $1 a package. I also bought a cake board for about $1 and covered it with blue tissue paper for the base. Total cost on diaper cake: Less than $10.

 One last thing I did was I bought favor boxes that look like treasure chests and placed them around the living room. I used these as favors at the end of the party and included them in the favor budget.

Food Total cost $30

• For food I made little sushi rolls out of bread, tuna, cucumber and carrots. I made some with tuna and some without. Here is the recipe I used from Happy Little Bento. These sandwiches cost about $5 to make, but they were a lot of work. I put the sandwiches on teal plastic trays that I bought for a $1 a piece. If I were to do a party like this again, I would use tortillas instead. I arranged to have guests bring fruit, vegies, and spinach dip.
• For beverages I provided, Tropricana juice 2 cartons at $1 a piece, coffee and iced tea which I already have in the house.
• For the cake I adapted a mermaid cake I found at Family Fun to look like a pregnant mermaid, by using a 6" round cake cut in half. I find most of my cakes at Family Fun, they are pretty simple and they look great. I used 3 box cakes, three batches of frosting, and 4 packages of Neco candy.  To get the skin color for the mermaid, I added one drop each of red and green food color until I got the shade I wanted. The base is a cardboard box, I had laying around the house covered with a dollar store table cloth. Cake total: Less than $10.
• I bought generic heavy duty paper plates and clear plastic cups for the refreshments (about $5). I bought a ocean themed table cloth and desert plates and napkins ($3.50 for table cloth and $5 for plates and napkins) for cake. I added confetti around cake and on table.

Games and Favors/Door Prizes Total $27

• I downloaded a fun ocean play list onto my smart phone. Absolutely free. The music set the mood and many people commented on the songs I pick.

1. Yellow Submarine (The Beatles)
2. Sea Cruise (Frankie Ford)
3. Under the Sea (Little Mermaid)
4. Les Poissons (Little Mermaid)
5. Baby Beluga (Raffi)
6. Come Sail Away (Styx, Finding Nemo)
7. Octopus's Garden (The Beatles)
8. Hymn of the Sea (Titanic)

• All the games I found here. We did four games. First we played baby bingo (this game I did purchase for $2). 
• Second game was guess the tummy size. Each guest took an amount of toilet paper they thought would go around the mom's stomach. The person who was closest won.
• Third, we took paper plates put them on our head and drew a baby with a color crayon. The mother got to pick her favorite for the winner.
• Fourth, we wrote the baby's name down on a index card. Each guest searched their purses for an item that started out with each letter of the baby's name. This game was great. It was so much fun to see all the junk woman carry in their purses. 
• Other than the $2 I spent on the bingo, I didn't spend anything on games, since I used things I just had around the house.
• We also had diaper raffle. Each guest was told to bring a package of diapers or wipes (if it was the gift it still counted) to have their name entered to win a door prize. The door prize was $10 and consisted of little things, I picked up, chocolates, pens, lotion, notepads, magnets. This was wildly successful, every guest brought diapers or wipes.
• The prizes for the games were $1 notepads/magnets, I picked up at Michaels. Total $5
• I also filled the little treasure boxes with Swedish fish, which I gave out to the young girls who came with their mothers. This was $10.