A Party for my Peeps

I love the idea of PEEPS = Friends, so I decided what a fun playdate this would be for my youngest and her peeps! I immediately started looking for fun ideas to incorporate peeps into the food, decor, and activities, but not over doing it! Also the key to this party is that I wanted it to be budget friendly and something that anyone can do with out breaking the bank. So I am pleased to show you some details from our day and also all the tutorials will follow throughout the week so you can create your own Easter/Peeps Party!

Here is our snack table, wanted to keep it simple and fun. Everything on here is all do it yourself and very inexpensive! To start our I just got fabric from Hobby Lobby that was on sale for the backdrop and table cloth. The cake stand and plate were items I already had. Always check to see what you have on hand and how you can use them to save money from buying new things, you will be surprised at what you will find and can do!
DIY Peep bunting
DIY Peep bird nests - yummy!
DIY candlestick jars
I filled them with Robin Eggs, M&M's, and Jellybeans
DIY Bunny Peep display
This was such a cute way to display the peeps and I loved that they were on sticks, so the kids could just come up and grab one out (then just pop another one in its place)
DIY 'Hatch a Peep' party favors
These were fun (and a little messy) to make, but the kids sure loved them! Chocolate eggs filled with a baby peep and some candy that they got to break open.
DIY Peep sugar cookies

DIY Floating Peeps drinks
The kids LOVED these!

'Painting with my Peeps'
We had a fun little art craft for the kids to do.
They each painted there own little peep! The peeps were just wood cut outs. You can find an outline or pattern online and trace and cut them our yourself if you have a scroll saw. If not, check around for local wood shops to see if they can do it. Mine were a little over a dollar each, pretty cheap. Each setting also had a basket (from dollar store- fancied up with some colored grass and a bow) with a t-shirt so they don't get their own clothes all dirty.
Foam brush, bottle of paint, jewel stickers (for the eyes and nose), paper plate and paper place mat
DIY Peep T-Shirts


So darn cute!


We had a little Easter egg hunt for our activity. All the mommies brought a dozen pre-filled eggs to share, another great way to break up the cost. We hid them around the back yard for the hunt. This was nice because there was plenty to go around and all the kids were about the same age so there wasn't any one kid that just buzzed around and got them all either.

Thank you for checking out our Peeps playdate and hope that it inspires your own! Check back for all the tutorials for everything you have seen here, tomorrow I will be posting all ones for the treats and drinks. Hope you have a Happy Easter!

St. Patrick's Day Party

In past years we have never really celebrated St. Patrick's Day, other than just wearing green. But after reading about it more, there are so many fun things that you can do! So this year we decided to make more fun and have a little party. My son invited a few friends over for some treats, games and activities. Let's start off with always my favorite... the treats! I wanted to create a mini snack table that the kids would find fun and colorful.

A large pot of chocolate gold coins was the centerpiece for the table, then we had shamrock cupcakes, wax lips, little leprechaun cookies, rainbow jello, and green juice to drink.














All the kids built Leprechaun traps for our activity. There are TONS of fun different styles and designs available online. My son picked out one that he liked and we built a sample one for a test run. When you lift the pot of gold, the cage falls down...

For the party, I pre-cut and assembled all the bases for the traps. Then the kids glued on the grass, cut out trails, and made the tissue rainbows.
All the kids had such a fun time building their own and talking about how they were going to catch a leprechaun and what they would do with all the gold he would give them! Here is my little cutie with his finished one...
One of the games the kids played was 'Don't Eat Lucky'. The game was a free printable and instructions found here.
The kids went on a little scavenger hunt to find their party favors, little pots of chocolate gold coins.
We also had some little fun photo props for the kids, my favorite was the leprechaun disguise kit...
Needless to say it was way fun and a huge success. This may become a tradition every year!
I will let you all know if the trap worked and we caught something... so check back later to see what happens!

Vendor Credits:
Event Styling and Photographs: Sweeten Your Day
Rainbow Backdrop: Backdrops by Splash
Leprechaun cookies: Katie Duran
St. Patrick's Party labels, bottle wraps, and other printables: Blissful Nest Studio
Trap design and instructions, scavenger hunt clue printables, and leprechaun disguise kit printable: Disney Family Fun
Shamrock cupcake toppers: Sweeten Your Day

Pirate Party Pt.4 - Activities

Before I mention anything else about this party I have to say THANK YOU SO MUCH to Black Bird Studios! I never really understood why people have professional photographers take pictures of birthday parties and smaller occasions, but now I do. My husband's sweet cousin is trying to start her own photography biz and she said she would love to come take pics at the party for practice and experience. I was like HECK YA! It was so nice having someone there to do all the pictures while I could host and be with the guests and not have to worry about trying to get a picture here or there. Not only was it a big stress-reliever, but she did an amazing job! She got so many cute pictures of the kids and all the little details! AND there were SO MANY (that is why there blog posts are so long, there was just too many to choose from)! Anyway, thanks so much Jocelyn! You can check out her work here for your own event or family photos.

I had a lot of fun with this party and the games were one of the best parts. I mentioned before that when the kids arrived they got all dressed up with pirate accessories like bandannas, sashes and swords, tattoos, hooks, eye patches, mustaches, and were given a pirate name. I was really excited about the pirate names! I came up with some lists using previous pirate names, nouns, adjectives, and other various pirate words. Then I separated the words into three lists for the first, middle, and last name. I cut up each word and put all the first names in one box, second names in another, and last names (boy & girl names were separated) in another. They each drew one name from each box and then I put them together and wrote them down on little name tags I made from clipart I found online. Here are some of them... Other names that also came up with were Black Plank Dooley, Bilge Beard Helga, Peg Strap Roberta, and Shark Teeth Patty, but my personal favorites were Shifty Breath Harvey, Dead Dog Bertha, and Sea Legs Gertrude. Everyone had a good laugh at their names! I saved the lists so if you ever want to try this for your party, just let me know.
Anyway, after all the kids got dressed up they all started to sword fight. It was so cute watching them play! The next activity was Walk The Plank. The kids played this while poeple were eating and Jack was getting the pirate ship setup. I found some red buckets and a swimming pool at WalMart and had David drill some holes in the bottom of the buckets. Then got some rope and a board from the hardware store. Then tied each end of the board to the bottoms of the buckets with rope.
I painted "walk the plank" on the middle of the board. For the game it was placed over the swimming pool and the kids had to walk over it as fast as they could without falling in. They all had a blast, and by the end they were jumping in! I found this amazing Jack Sparrow character online here, and he was local! So I asked Mason if he wanted Jack to come, he was beside himself! Jack is his favorite, and with his excitement I couldn't refuse (insert wink).
BONUS: He also has a giant pirate ship that he can bring with him that the kids can play on. The ship had a ladder to climb up and a slide off. The ship also had little cannons that had smoke coming out. Here Jack is showing the kids how to properly steer a ship. What can I say, Mason loved it! This guy was great! Never broke character, his language and his mannerisms were spot on! He posed for pictures with all the kids with all those facial expressions. After the kids were all done with the ship, we played the last game called Cannonballs Away. I got some large refrigerator boxes from the hardware store. I turned them inside out and painted them to look like ships. I even let Mason name them, of course he went with Pirate of the Caribbean. I also found black water balloons at a party store. Poor David spent like an hour and a half filling up about 150 of them! The teams were divided boys against girls, and Jack explained the rules. They had to throw cannonballs to try on sink the other team's ship. The first team to sink the other ship won. And away we go! Ship going down... (Oh and do you see Captain Jack hiding behind the tree) And it's sunk! Victory to the girls! The whole game lasted about 5 minutes, but was so worth it.
We had a kids from ages 1 to 11 at the party, but there was a little something there for all of them to enjoy. And what can I say about Jack... he was truly fabulous! Everyone loved him, even all the adults! They all just raved about how great of a job he did! And he was all about the kids, he even sat right next to Mason when he was opening his presents and talked with him about each gift. Again, you can find him online here.
This is him giving his farewell speech about "how this is the day we will always remember as the day...."