Puppy Birthday Party

Back in May my oldest turned six.  She is my animal lover, all things horses, kitties and puppies!  She wanted a puppy party and loves pink so it started out as a pink poodle party but morphed into a puppy party after we found these darling TY puppies at Hobby Lobby.  

This is Alexandra.  She is a very curious child, always thinking deeper than I would expect.  She is always asking thought provoking questions.  For example, today she asked me what was more "importanter" a dog or a jewelry box, a horse or a car?  Well, I told her, it depends on the person.  Get what i mean?  I love her so much, she learned how to whistle 6 months ago and now she whistles ALL. THE. TIME.  At night I have to tell her that she's met her whistling quota for the day.  She is such a great helper and a pretty obedient child (less since she turned 6).   Oh and she is completely boy crazy!!!  Yikers.

Her birthday party was a complete hit with her friends.  To decorate the table I used the same idea for the place settings as I did for Sam's Mermaid party, layering with paper and doilies.  

The girls were SO excited when they showed up and found a puppy at the table that they got to adopt.  

This is Samantha, she is so in love and look, they have the same eyes!  After they adopted their puppy they gave them a name and made a dog tag.

Puppy vitamins.  Another fun idea.  I am totally into making things exciting for kids parties but I also love quick and easy!  I'm not that great on the computer and I didn't have time to figure it out so I just wrote all the tags by hand and added some embellishments to make it look pretty.  Lame, I know.  But they didn't care so neither should I.  Speaking of easy, for an activity I gave them all sparkly bouncy balls to take their new pets to the "park" aka my family room and play.  They could have played the rest of the party, running around acting like dogs themselves - it was perfect!

Cocoa Puffs.  Brilliant I know, but it wasn't my idea.  I got the entire party idea from this cute blog.

I used candy molds from Hobby Lobby to make the paws.  A simple way to carry the theme out in the cake/cupcakes.  I'm all about simple these days, refer to here.

In fact, I used a birthday garland I made two years ago for her pony party and the black, white and pink fabric garland hangs in her room as decor.  I love re-using stuff like that.  

I had to tweak the wording from the invitation that inspired me to rhyme with Alex's age.  I think they turned out really cute and they were so easy to design in Word and stick these cute stickers on them that my daughter had picked out at the store.  All in all I think I planned some great details for the party but didn't feel overwhelmed putting it all together!

Here's to making parties fun and easy!

xo

Melanie

I'm a patriot

I love holidays.  As a kid I was the first to get out our holiday decorations and set them out.  It brought me pure joy to have our home decorated for the holidays.  And now with my own home I go a little overboard and deck out alot of spaces in my home with holiday decor. 

 It warms my heart.  

I made this pendant garland for the month of July and love it hanging over my front porch!  These garlands are super easy.  Make a triangle the size you want, double the fabric and cut out, sew the sides together right sides in, then turn right sides out, iron and sew them into double wide bias tape.  I swear I have garlands for almost every occasion, easy, inexpensive and really festive!

I love seeing it out my front windows, it makes me think there is a party going on inside my home.  Which there usually is.  

I hope you all have the chance to sing the Star Spangled Banner this week, I did on Sunday and by the 3rd verse I always get a little choked up.  I am so proud to be an American and grateful for the Founding Fathers and their wisdom in writing the Constitution and for the freedoms we enjoy.  

God bless the USA!!

I hope you all have a happy Fourth of July!!  

Melanie

So...I've been building a float

Well, it's been a couple of months of pure craziness around here.  I've been building a float for the Days of '47 Parade that takes place on July 24th which is Pioneer Day here in Utah.  As a Mormon, I belong to a large congregation in my neighborhood called a Stake.  Our stake has been assigned to participate in the parade with a float.  My "calling" or area I give service to is the Cultural Arts in my stake.  The float falls under my calling.  So, since last September we have been working on this float.  It all started with a few design concepts and we narrowed it down to "The Family Dream Machine".  We started actually building it in February and it has taken ALOT of my extra time.  I am so thrilled with the finished product and am so grateful for all the people that gave so much of their time and talent to this project!  We couldn't have done it without them.  Anyway, after the 24th I will post more pictures of the entire thing with the amazing costumes that the youth will be wearing while walking in the parade.  I'm on the home stretch and then will be back blogging regularly, yay!

                                                                                xo
                                                                            Melanie