Despicable Me Minion Party

Boogie just turned six. Seriously?? Where does the time go??  For this party, she wanted to go the Despicable Me route. We love those movies - so fun! And the minions? How cute are they?

Despicable Me Minion Party

As usual, I tried to fit the theme while keeping costs low. Here are some photos of the food and decorations for your viewing pleasure. I designed the food labels myself in PowerPoint and then printed them on photo paper. Always a cute and fun touch, I think.

Despicable Me Party - El Macho's Salsa

Despicable Me Party - Agnes' Caterpillars (Cheese Puffs and Carrots)

Despicable Me Party - Shrunken Moons (Powdered Donut Holes)

Despicable Me Party - Fluffy Unicorn Fur (cotton candy)

Despicable Me Party - Cookie Robots and Coco-nutties

And of course, the cake. I was inspired by a cake I found HERE and modified it slightly for my skill-level. First I cut a homemade sheet cake to form. Next I colored some vanilla frosting yellow and blue and used cherry-flavored black licorice for some fun details. The buttons and eyeball were upside-down Hershey kisses. And the large part of the eye was a frosting covered peppermint patty. Finally, I used silver sprinkles along with some black tube frosting for the goggles. I have to say, I think it came out pretty good if I do say so myself! :)

Despicable Me Party - DIY Minion Cake

I bought plain yellow and purple balloons and decorated them with some free printables I found online (can't remember where).

Despicable Me Party - Evil Minion DIY Balloon

Despicable Me Party - Minion DIY Balloon

The table was decorated as a giant minion. I used a blue and a yellow plastic table cloth layered over each other for the body and pants. Black poster board made the goggles along with a piece of aluminum foil, tissue paper and construction paper. So easy but such a fun detail!

Despicable Me Party - Minion table

Since we decided to do a viewing of Despciable Me 2 on BluRay, we only had one organized activity. A "Pin the Goggles on the Minion" game. I bought a piece of yellow poster board and free-handed a minion on it with a black marker. I added some scrapbooking paper for the overalls. And then used a free goggle printable I found HERE for... well... the goggles. :)

Despicable Me Party - Pin the Goggles on the Minion Game

There were a few other decorative details around the room such as:

THIS free printable banner which was hung in the dining room.
THESE free printable wrappers which went around Twinkies as a 'thank you' giveaway.


Overall, I think it was a big success and so much fun to pull together.

Puppy Party!!

When SweetPea turned seven (what?!?) we went with a PUPPY PARTY theme. It was definitely a fun party to pull together. As usual, it was all DIY and I tried to keep costs down as much as possible. The concept was that the guests would be able to adopt a puppy and, of course, there were plenty of puppy-related snacks!

It's time for a PUPPY PARTY!

Here are the highlights...

I was able to score a dozen dog beanie babies on eBay for about $5 - bargain!! These were used for the adoption center and each guest was allowed to choose one to keep. I designed the sign in Powerpoint and printed on photo paper. The puppies were placed in cute plastic buckets that were left over from Boogey's Rainbow Party (see here).

Puppy party adoption center

I found these super cute (free!) adoption certificates over at Chickabug and we filled one out for each guest and placed in a plastic sheet protector for safe keeping.

Free Puppy Adoption kit from Chickabug

Then the kids went over to the Puppy Spa where they groomed their puppies and placed a collar on them. The "tub" and brush/comb set were from the Dollar Tree. The "collars" were actually bracelets that I found on amazon (12 for $9). They were a little big for the beanie babies, but worked ok. Some kids actually just wore them as bracelets themselves.

Puppy Grooming Station

Bracelets acted as Dog Collars 

Next they went to the "vet" where they picked up a packet of Puppy vitamins. These were simply fruit snacks that I placed in small plastic containers purchased in a 10-pack from the Dollar Tree. I printed up some small tags on photo paper and taped to the top of each lid.

Puppy Party Vitamins (Fruit snacks)

I don't have any photos of the last puppy "station", but I had a bunch of white sandwich bags which the kids could decorate with markers and puppy stickers found in the dollar spot at target.

There was plenty of puppy-themed food. I made the cake myself simply cutting a sheet cake with a hand-made template. And I designed all of the food labels myself in PowerPoint and printed them on Photo Paper. The dog bowls were purchased at the Dollar Tree.

Puppy Party Milk Bone Cake

Puppy Party Dogs in Blankets

Puppy Party Go Fetch Sticks (pretzel Sticks)

Puppy Party Frisbees (Pizza Bites)

Puppy Party PUP-corn

Puppy Party Puppy Chow (Cocoa Puffs)

Puppy Party Puppy Treats (Scooby Graham Snacks)

Puppy Party Water Bowl (Blue Jello)

Puppy Party RUFF-age

All of the kids had a great time! This was a fun party to pull together and I was pleased at how low I was able to keep the costs. Another success! :)

Pin the Pot of Gold on the Rainbow

So it just dawned on me that I never posted the details about how to make the "Pin the Pot 'o' Gold on the Rainbow" game from Boogey's Rainbow Party (seen HERE).

Pin the Pot of Gold on the Rainbow Game

I won't claim that this was my original idea, but as mentioned in my original post about the party, I was inspired by this post over at Chickabug and decided to do my own take on it.

First thing I did was track down the same piece of foam core that I had used for SweetPea's Rock Star Party {HERE} where we played "Pin the Guitar Pick on the Guitar". Then I simply turned that {used} baby over and prepared the nice clean back side of it for this project! {Have I mentioned I'm cheap frugal?? I like to re-use and re-cycle party materials as much as possible!}

Next, I used a piece of pinned-down-string tied to a pencil to draw the perfectly shaped arcs for the different colors of the rainbow. Since I was going to enlist the kiddos for help with this project, I crudely colored in each section with the appropriate color so they didn't go too crazy with their "artistic license".

Rainbow Sections Marked Off

I happened to have this big container of pre-cut paper squares from my old scrapbooking stash so I weeded through it to find a variety of representatives for each color family. I picked out 3 patterns for each color to create a nice varied look (but you could keep them identical if you prefer).



Pre-cut Paper Squares in every color of the rainbow!



Then I gave each kid a glue stick and let them go to town gluing the squares onto the appropriate row. I didn't ask them to follow any sort of pattern and just told them to put the right color in the right row. I have to say they did a really great job keeping the squares in a nice straight arc  on their own! ("Straight Arc"? Is that an oxymoron?!? LOL)



Glue the paper pieces in the appropriate row.



Here is the rainbow after all the squares had been placed. I really like how the variety of colors and paper used for each row came out - really adds some nice visual interest!



Paper Squares form a Pretty Rainbow!



The final step was to add the clouds at the base of each end of the rainbow. I gave each kid a pile of cotton balls and some Craft Glue and, again, just let them go to town. It was interesting to watch them take different approaches with how they applied their cotton balls (again, no guidance from me) and I was surprised that they both took the opposite approach of what I would have expected for each of them. SweetPea just piled hers on in no particular order. Boogey applied hers in nice, neat, straight rows. I really expected them each to do it the opposite way! Shows how little this Mom knows about her own childrens' personalities! Shows how much your kids can always surprise you! ;)



Adding Cotton Ball Clouds to our Rainbow



Since the "pinning" area was so small, I deliberately purchased the smallest "pot of gold" stickers I could find at Michaels (using a 40% off coupon, of course). Then marked the spot with a black marker. The kids had a lot of fun making this and the guests had a lot of fun playing!

Finished Pin the Pot of Gold on the Rainbow Game for Rainbow Party

See Boogey's nice straight cotton ball lines on the left and SweetPea's big pile on the right? So funny as I totally would have expected them to do the opposite based on their normal personalities! Crazy kids! Always keep ya guessing! :)



Rainbow Birthday Party

Warning... Lots of pictures!! Bear with me!!! :)


So Boogey turned 4 a few weeks ago. It feels like I just posted about her 3rd Birthday Party! (A Mod Monkey Party seen HERE). Darn, these kids grow up fast!

Well this year, we went with a RAINBOW theme and it was so much fun pulling it all together!

First I designed my own invitations using free clipart and Powerpoint. I printed the images on plain copy paper and pasted them on to pre-made blank notecards from my "stash". Here are samples with names/dates/info changed for privacy purposes.

Rainbow Party Invitation - Outside

Rainbow Party Invitation - Inside

I wanted to try and have as much rainbow-inspired decor as possible so we really went to town! First in the dining room... I purchased packs of plates and napkins in every color of the rainbow at Walmart. Obviously I had WAAAAY more supplies than I needed but they were only 97 cents a pack and the extras will certainly be used for future parties so really no waste there. I laid out a plastic balloon-design tablecloth over a plain white cloth one to protect the table - 4 year olds are messy folks! [Now, I have to be honest that the balloon tablecloth isn't really my style but I decided to just work with it since it had been given to me for free a couple of years ago from a relative. And, well, we all know how cheap frugal I am - free is good! ;)  ].

Helium balloons of every color were tied to the chairs and chocolate gold coins were scattered across the table. Plain white paper cups from the party store ($2.99 for 24) were jazzed up with some homemade stickers I made using a freebie file I found HERE at Paper Glitter. I simply printed the images out on sheets of sticker paper that I already had in my stash (previously purchased at Staples), cut them out using a 2-inch circle punch and had Boogey stick them onto the cups. Plastic straws from our regular stash were placed in each cup. (TIP: I always trim about an inch off the bottom of straws so they aren't quite so tall. Then there is less chance of a tip-over when you're dealing with shorter cups and pre-schoolers!)

Rainbow Party Table SetUp

Across the back window, I hung some streamers in every color of the rainbow to add some fun visuals and movement.

Rainbow Streamers were hung from a string across the back window

The goody bags were purchased individually from the party store (25 cents each, I think) and lined up along the sideboard. First I added some interest by cutting the straight tops with my scallop-edge scissors. Then I had Boogey add some of those homemade stickers to each of the bags.

Rainbow Party Goody Bags

Inside the bags I put a rainbow pack of paints, a fun rubber bracelet (saying things like "Awesome"), some chocolate coins, a pixy stick, a small bag of Gobstoppers and a rainbow slinky. The paints and bracelets were purchased at the party store for less than $1 each. The pixy sticks and gobstoppers were also from the party store and something like 5 cents each. The chocolate coins were from HERE but didn't actually cost me anything since I "bought" them using a gift card I won in a recent giveaway - score! And the slinkies actually didn't cost me anything either. Side story... last year, when I ordered some things from Oriental Trading for Boogey's 3rd Birthday Party, they accidentally sent me the wrong order. Instead of making me ship it back, they said I could keep everything! There was a TON of stuff in the box - seriously, at least $150 worth of cheap crap fun stuff - so we have been dipping into it every so often. The slinkies were one of the items in that box - score!

Goody Bag fillings

In the kitchen, we had the drinks and snacks. I made some punch for the kiddos and served it in the awesome drink dispenser the Heela gave me for Christmas. I decorated it with some of the ribbon from the balloons (they always make them way too long!) and a printout from a file I won for free (squee!) last fall from Birds Party's Blog (found HERE). {See my punch recipe HERE)

Punch always tastes better in one of these fun drink dispensers!

Since the party was at 2pm we didn't really need to provide much "real" food for everyone, but we did serve some bagel pizza bites, pretzels, rainbow goldfish and Sun Chips. The sweet treats were abundant though and I am sure the other parents were cursing me all night! LOL.

First we had a RAINBOW fruit salad...

Rainbow Party Fruit Salad

Then we had some Marshmallow Cloud Pops (made by SweetPea and Boogey following the same method we used HERE for SweetPea's Rock Star Marshmallow Pops) - in every color of the RAINBOW, of course.

Rainbow Marshmallow Pops

Rainbow Marshmallow Pop

Sunchips, pretzels and rainbow goldfish were placed in colorful buckets found at the party store for only 89 cents each! See my secret trick HERE on how I make snacks go further!

Rainbow Buckets willed with goodies!

We also served RAINBOW treats made with Fruity Pebbles. (see my recipe post for how to make these HERE}

Rainbow Fruity Pebble Treats

And then... the candy... bwahahahahahahaha! Skittles and M&M's were sorted by color and stored in super cute dispensers. These mini candy dispensers were another one of the items I "bought" with that gift card I won and can be found HERE. {Squee - don't you just love giveaways and free stuff!!}  I found the candy dots at Michaels and grabbed them on a whim (about $3, I think - and I didn't use them all). I cut them into smaller strips so they wouldn't be too deadly. ;)  The RAINBOW twizzlers were from Walmart and I cut those in half so they would go further and, again, not be too much sugar at one time (haha!) (again, less than $3 for the pack and I didn't use them all).

Rainbow Candy Spread

Even more rainbow candy

You can see my food label tents in the various photos above. I have to brag that I designed them myself and was quite proud of the end result. Not bad for an amateur, huh? I designed them in Powerpoint and printed them out on cardstock. A nice little added touch, I think. (if you're interested in using my file, I'm happy to share - just shoot me an email).

Self-made Food Label Tents added a little flair to the tables

Lastly... the RAINBOW cupcakes... these were a HUGE hit and I was really pleased with how they turned out (much better than this semi-fail HERE). You can find my full tutorial on how to make these in this post HERE. I made the cupcake toppers using the same freebie file (found HERE at Paper Glitter) as I used for the stickers on the cups and goody bags.

Rainbow Cupcakes

Yummy Rainbow Cupcakes

Activities included playing RAINBOW Bingo which I designed and created myself. I gave each of the kids a bag of pennies to use as markers. They had a really fun time with this! (again, if you're interested in using my file, I'm happy to share - just shoot me an email. It includes 15 different bingo cards - all the same images on each card, but in different locations). I called out the images such as "Who can find the Green Car? Who can find the yellow corn?" - the kids loved it!

Homemade Rainbow / Color Bingo Card

And lastly, we played Pin the Pot of Gold on the Rainbow. (I was inspired by THIS post over at Chickabug but decided to do my own take on it). The girls helped me make this and the guests had a lot of fun playing this game. You can see my full tutorial HERE, and here is the end result after the 'pot o gold' stickers had been added by the kids.

Pin the Pot of Gold on the Rainbow

Oh and last but not least, I hung a paper flag bunting across the fireplace. The flags were included as part of that file I won from Bird's Party Blog. I didn't even print them out on cardstock - just plain old printer paper - and strung them with some plain old kitchen string. But it added just a little bit of fun and a nice pop of color to the mantle.

Flag Bunting adds some color and fun to the fireplace

(In case you were wondering the "i love us" printable was a freebie from the fabulous blog Eighteen 25 - you can find it HERE in a variety of colors. I love it.).


Well, there you have it! A 4-year old's dream rainbow party! Boogey and her friends really had fun (as did we parents!) and I am pleased to call it a SUCCESS! :) If you have any questions or would like me to email you my food label tents or the Bingo cards, just shoot me an email (see "contact me" tab above).

{This post was featured! Thank you! Be sure to check out these fabulous blogs!!}

Linking up to these fun parties - be sure to check them out!
A Turtle's Life for Me
The Frugal Girls
While he Was Napping
A little knick knack
Keeping it Simple
Under the Table and Dreaming
C.R.A.F.T.
Polish the Stars
These Creative Juices
Someday Crafts
House of Hepworths
Not Just a Housewife
Somewhat Simple
Kitchen Fun with my 3 Sons
Truly Lovely
Bird's Party
Lady Behind the Curtain

The CSI Project's Birthday Party Challenge