Birthday Party Ideas-Mermaid Party

Birthday Party Ideas-Mermaid Party

This Little Mermaid party was Queen Bee's first friends party.  We wanted to make our living room feel like it was "under the sea".  To create this effect we hung a fishing line across the living room ceiling and then hung streamers in various shades of blue from the fishing line.  This created a wall of streamers that the girls could walk through to enter "the sea" on the other side.  Once "under the sea", we had a bubble machine filling the room with bubbles and clear balloons blown up all over the floor to look like giant bubbles.  I hung printable fish and sea creatures from The Little Mermaid all over the ceiling with fishing wire and had plastic shells and sea creatures all over the floor.  There was a giant treasure chest with Little Mermaid crowns and necklaces for the girls.  I wish I would have taken more pictures.  

I wanted to think of a way to make the girls feel like they were a mermaid so I came up with the idea to wrap their legs together with green plastic wrap.  It was perfect!  They had so much fun waddling around like mermaids.  We played different relay games waddling and swimming back and forth across the room, they loved it! 

Here are some more great Mermaid party ideas I've found around the web.  Click to enlarge and click on the links below for more info.

1.  Aren't these jellyfish darling?  Find them here.

2.  I love these message in a bottle invites.  Click here for more info.

3.  This gorgeous treasure tablescape can be found Catch My Party.

4.  This is the perfect centerpiece idea!  See more by clicking here.

Birthday Ideas-Bowling Party

Birthday Ideas-Bowling Party

This week my baby girl turns 18 years old!  I am in shock, denial and a deep depression .  This can't be happening.  It went by WAY TO FAST.  Help me.  Tears.

I'm trying to work through some of my emotions, so I thought it might be fun to share some of The Queen Bee's past birthday parties this week.  Hopefully they will give you a little spark of inspiration.  Please keep in mind that these all happened MANY, MANY years ago.  More tears.  Part of me wasn't going to share them because they aren't anything particularly special, but I'm keeping it real here.  These are long before Pinterest, Blogs, and Instagram.  I can only imagine how much more overboard I would go these days. More tears.  Why can't they just stay little????

Let's start this week off with the Sassy Strikers Bowling Party.  This was such a fun party.  I designed a "bowling shirt" for each girl.  The girls bowled and played arcade games and we ate cake and greasy bowling alley food.  How could this not be a party?

Below I've shared a couple of pictures from our party and some other sites that I've linked to with other great bowling party ideas.  Click on image to enlarge.  Click on links below for more information.

Miniature Garden

I know that I've mentioned it before, but it's worth repeating.  I LOVE MINIATURES!  They just make me happy!  If there is a miniature version of something, I must have it.  I have issues.

 Because of my miniature obsession, my very favorite ride at Disneyland is the Storybook Canal boats.  You ride a boat through all of the miniature scenes from Disney movies like the house from Alice in Wonderland, or a miniature Castle for Cinderella.  I could ride this ride over and over and never get tired of it.  I love noticing all of the details like the size of the miniature trees and landscape, which are all real of course.  My dream is to one day have lots of miniature gardens and cottages all through my back yard.  But not with boats or anything for people to ride through it, I'm not that crazy.  (Please don't tell my husband, I'm pretty sure he won't be on board).

I've decided to start small.  Here is my first attempt at a miniature garden scene.  Isn't it the most precious thing you've ever seen?  It makes me giddy with excitement.  (Uh oh, I think my husband can tell I'm up to something, he sees that I'm giddy with excitement and he's worried)  Oh well, he'll come around eventually.

Before the reveal, this gives you an idea of the scale of it.  I made the miniature tire swing out of one of Baby Bumblebee's toy truck tires and a strand of jute.  

This is the mini flag garland I made from washi tape.  It was super simple to make and rain proof.

Isn't is cute?  I just love it!

Meaningful and Useful Graduation Gift for Under $2

Meaningful and Useful Graduation Gift for Under $2

Can you believe that it is only weeks before high school graduation?  I have a senior graduating this year (tear) and I am pretty much in denial that this it happening.  If it has to happen, I guess I better get prepared.

 This is a great graduation gift idea if you have to buy gifts for a group of graduates like your teens friends or a church class or youth group.  You can buy the cheap little photo albums at Michaels Craft Stores or a lot of the dollar stores carry them.  They are nothing fancy just simple little brag books.  You can easily pull out the cardstock cover already in the book and replace it with the free printable cover below.  I mounted my cover on scrapbook paper and then cut a square of that same scrapbook paper to insert in the back.  Then you can fill the book with 3x5 recipe cards (you can download our matching recipe cards below) of your favorite simple recipes that would be great for a college student, missionary, or kid living on their own for the first time.  This makes this gift meaningful because you put the thought and effort into compiling the recipes.  If you don't have a lot of simple and easy recipe ideas, check out Our Humble Hive on pinterest.  I have compiled a bunch of recipe links perfect for this gift on my "College Kid" board. 

Sweet and Inexpensive Mother's Day Gift Idea

Sweet and Inexpensive Mother's Day Gift Idea

If you know me, you know I'm obsessed with anything miniature.  Obsessed!  So imagine the excitement I felt the other day when I was in the Hobby Lobby party isle and I ran across the cutest little easels and tiny canvases.  I had to have them and I immediately knew what they would be perfect for.  At $4.99 for the package of 4 wooden easels and $4.99 for the package of 4 little canvases (even cheaper if you use your 40% off coupon) they make the perfect inexpensive Mother's Day present!  Moms love gifts that are from the heart.  Something that our child made is more precious to us than anything we can buy at a store.  Dads, if you're reading this, and I know many of you are, (just kidding).  Round up the kiddos, break out the paint and paint brushes and have them create a masterpiece just for mom.  Trust me, she'll love it!