Dragon Training Picnic (#StreamTeam # Netflix)

Thank you to Netflix for sponsoring this post. As part of the Stream Team I get to talk about a theme each month.  This month Theme: Dragons!

Netflix has a new series Based off the the hit movies: How to Train Your Dragon 1 & 2 called Dragons: Race to the Edge, and my kids are loving it! It is easily their favorite show to watch now.  I mean what is not to love about Hiccup and Toothless?! 

As part of the the Netflix Stream Team, I got a box full of goodies to help celebrate the new Dragons series!  It came with all sort of fun stuff, but the map is my kids favorite.  It is so cool to see them play with the map creating their own adventures. 

To join in on their fun I decided to have a dragon picnic. 

After consulting my mom and sister (my creative team!), I came up with a fun menu.  All super simple- because I do not have time to sculpt Toothless out of brownies!  I made ship sails out of paper and toothpicks. 

The kids (needless to say) LOVED it.  The thought it was so fun to eat picnic style on the floor.  We ate on our Dragon blanket (part of our box of goodies) 

And because no picnic is complete with out a game, we made up a Dragon Racing game. 

In the 2nd movie they have Dragon races where they collect sheep for points and the black sheep is worth 10 points.  In our game we hide square legos (Use what you have) as our sheep.  The Golden lego is the golden sheep and it is worth 10 points.  I hide the legos around the yard (think Easter Egg hiding).   I hide the golden "sheep" harder since it is worth more.   The kids decorated their stuffed animals to be their Dragons and they race around the yard finding the "sheep" and bringing them back to their buckets.  We play several rounds.

My daughter named her dragon: Fireball and my son named his dragon: Tornado Fire. 

Have your kids checked out Dragons: Race to the Edge yet?  Have you had any Dragon adventures? 

Not every Party needs to be Pinterest perfect!

Ok- lets talk birthday parties!  It's so easy to look on Pinterest and think that every party you throw has to look like this or it is a failure:

source

Don't get me wrong - this party is beautiful and there is nothing wrong with having a pretty party. I am just saying that in real life, not all my parties are worthy of being on Pinterest.  And just because my parties don't have fancy-pants decor and photos doesn't mean that my kids didn't have fun! And I have done the big themed parties and over done it on the actives (check out my Buzz Lightyear Party and my Princess party).  I am just saying that not every party you throw has to be a big deal. 

We celebrate birthdays around here, but to simplify things we do an every other year party.  On the off year we have the kids invite a friend or 2 to do something fun with them.  

This year my son turned 7 and he wanted to go to a movie with a friend.  So that is what we did.  We invited a friend over and went to a movie, had some snacks at the movie and then dropped his friend off at home:

Fun was had by all and I spent less then half the money!  And I didn't really have to plan that much, we picked a movie and invited a friend.  

Our Daughter turned 5 this year and she wanted to make a craft.  So we invited a couple friend to go to a craft store (A super cute on in Minneapolis called Heartfelt- if you are in the area you have to try it)  Heartfelt has "ready to make" crafts you can just drop in and make anytime.  So that made it super easy, I didn't have to make an appointment and rush to make it on time - just show up when we get there and the pick a craft.  I brought the girls (and my son tagged along) and we crafted for about and hour and then we dropped her friends off at home.  Again it was little planning but still super special and fun.

And I have to say that her felt blossom tree turned out so cute! 

And we spent less then half the money on this one too. 

So I am not saying that it is bad or a waste of time throwing a big themed party with beautiful decor... I am just saying, maybe not everyone has to do that... or maybe you don't have to do that every year.  Give yourself permission to enjoy a party that may never end up on Pinterest!  

And I see the irony of this because I will probably pin this! :) 

Sick Day Movie Party with #Super4onNetflix

Thank you to Netflix for sending all the fun supplies for this Movie Party

This little girl had her tonsils taken out last week. 

So we have had lots of time at home eating popsicles and ice cream with limited activity as she recovers.  To make the time go by faster we had a Sick day Movie day!  Netflix has a new series by Playmobil: SUPER 4.  SUPER 4 will follow the fun adventures of Alex the Knight, Ruby the Pirate, Agent Gene and Twinkle the Fairy as they explore distinct island communities, fight evil and save the planet.  The perfect setting for out movie party.  

We kept things low key so that the sickie could participate in everything!  Here is how you can have your own Sick Day Movie Party:

Dress the part:

To add excitement to the movie party we dressed up like the characters.  Even just a hat or small prop can get you in the mood.  

Some easy actives to get you in the mood:

All of these could be done from the comfort of a couch or bed. 

To get the excitement up for the movie we had some simple low key activities for the kids to do.

1. Complete the story:  One person wears the crown.  they get to start a story (about anything but we kept it in the SUPER 4 theme).  They then stop and pass the crown to the next person who continues the story.  Keep passing until everyone has a turn.  You can decide if you want to finish the story or keep going for another round. 

2. Create a sticker book.  We got themed stickers and the kids got to create a book using the stickers.  They could just do a sticker/picture book or turn it into a story (depending on the age).

3. Coloring sheets.  You can never go wrong with good ol' coloring!  

Enjoy the show! 

Here is the little sickie watching it on my Ipad mini.. her favorite.  Since she is sick I let her use it.

Thats what I love about Netflix - it is so portable since we can stream it on almost anything!

Be sure to check out Netflix for SUPER 4! Here is a peek of all the fun!

*Disclosure: I am part of the Netflix Stream team.  However all opinions are 100% honest! 

Puppy Paw-ty (Easy Birthday Party idea)

We had a Puppy Paw-ty.  This weekend.  I have done some big themed parties at my home (Buzz Lightyear and Princess Party to name a few) but this year I just didn't have it in me to put on a big production.  So, we went to an indoor play park.  That way all the kid entertainment was taken care of.  But I do love a theme.  2 of my kids have birthday's in April (and so is my birthday!).  It gets to be busy.  So this year we combined the party to include both kids.  And both of my kids LOVE puppies, so that was the theme!  

Here is our invite.  I created it in PicMonkey and I just emailed it out to family.  But I could have had it printed out as a photo.  This is my favorite, cheapest way to make customized invitations. 

The Food

I got a little carried away with the food

Puppy Chow 

I made 2 kinds

Chocolate Covered Strawberries Puppy Chow

Cake Batter Pupper Chow

Pup Corn

Cheese and Caramal 

Hot Dogs and Cheese and Lunch Meat

I used cookie cutters to cut the cheese and meat into bones and puppy paws

PupCakes

I just ordered from my grocery store

Fruit Kibble

For the decorations I kept it ever simple with a Puppy "Happy Birthday sign" that I got from the party store and added some small stuffed puppies that I got from the thrift store.  Most of them still had the tags on them!  As the party favor, I let each kid pick out a puppy to adopt.  I printed out pet adoption certificates to make it seem more official and I decorated a brown gift bag with a dog bone with the kids name on it. 

We kept the party pretty simple in the fact that the activities were just playing at the indoor park.  I did not plan and puppy crafts or games.  But I did find some cute ones that I am sharing with you! 

Here are some other fun Puppy ideas/crafts you could do too: 

1. Sock Puppies 

2. Cardboard Tub Dog

3. Puppy Balloon

4. Wash Cloth Puppy

5. Puppy Ears Card

6. Footprint Puppy

7. Puppy Craft

8. Paper Bag Puppy

Easy Minecraft Party Decor

We always decorate the house for each kid's birthday. Even though this year was the "small" birthday party (i.e. take a friend to a movie and that's it!) we still decorated the house with my son's latest infatuation: Minecraft.  If you have a boy between the ages 5-12 you know what I am talking about!  But I also wanted to keep it simple!  So here is what I did to make a big impact with little effort.  I am also including the Minecraft faces at the bottom as a free printable so it will be super easy for you! 

I got this party banner at the dollar store and taped Minecraft faces to it.

These swirly decorations used to be angry bird decorations :

I saved them from the angry birds party we had last year, and just removed the angry bird part and taped 2 minecraft faces to the bottom back-to-back. 

My hubby came up with this idea and it turned out so cute.  We taped Steve's face to the school pictures of the kids to turn them into minecraft characters.  My kid LOVED it!

I got some paper plates from the dollar store, (I wanted the green ones to be a square too but they only had circles and it worked out fine) and taped the Minecraft faces to them.  For the spider I draw the face with metallic Bic permanent markers, cut out the legs out of another paper plate and taped them to the back.

I also made this super easy Creeper Shirt.  Just some heat transfer vinyl cut in the creeper face shape onto a green shirt.  I used my silhouette but you could totally cut this out by hand too.   

Here are the Minecraft faces for you to use (PERSONAL USE ONLY!!!))

Just right click and download.

Princess Party

We threw a princess party for my daughter's 4th birthday party! OhMyGoodness - it was so fun!  This is my first really girly party that I have planned and I had a hard time reigning it all in (pun intended!) 

Here is what we did:

First off I made 8 of these Princess Aprons.  As the girls arrived to the party I let them pick an apron to wear during the party (This was also their party favor... I thought it would be better then candy or the cheap party favor toys)

I also had 3 Jr. High girl helpers.  I work with our youth group at our church and I know these girls from that.  They were amazing helpers!  The little girls looked up to them so much.  It was awesome to have the extra help during the party too.  I could be in the kitchen with the food and these girls were helping the little girls. This was by far the best idea I have had for a party!  (they each got a Princess Apron too!)

After we got our princess aprons on we did some princess training.  I broke it up into 2 sessions.  In the first session we:

Practiced our balance by walking with books on our heads

Curtsied to each other

Learned royal words like: Your Highness and Forsooth 

In the second session we:

Practiced our princess wave

Blowing kissing 

Princess twirling

After the first session of  princess training we did our craft: Make Your Own Princess Crown

I ordered these crowns and jewel stickers from Oriental Trading.

It was super easy... they just stuck the jewel stickers to the crowns. 

After the craft we had our second training session. 

After the second session of training we painted the girls nails.  

The girls loved it! 

Then it was time for a snack.

We had pink fruit and fishy crackers (in honor of Ariel) on princess plates.  For cake we had mini-cupcakes.   The mini-cupcakes were the prefect size for the 4 year old girls. 

Next we had the gift opening.  As we open the gifts, I have each girl who gave the gift sit next to the birthday girl as she is opening it.  It keeps all the girls interested and it helps the birthday kid know who gave what to them!  I then take a picture of them and send it in the thank you card. 

After the gift opening we had a dance party for the girls. It was the perfect way to wait for their parents to pick them up!   I just played Frozen radio station on itunes (similar to pandora but for apple).  It was so cute all the little girls singing "Let it Go" from the bottom of their hearts.    

It was so fun and all the princesses had a grand time! 

Family Easter Event {Walk With Jesus}

It's Good Friday and I am sharing with you an Easter Family event we did at our church.  Pin it for next year! 

I helped plan a family Easter event at our church.  We wanted to go deeper with families on Easter then the normal Easter Egg Hunt {which we also do}.  We wanted to provide parents a way to share the Resurrection Story with their kids.  We used Group's Walk with Jesus (I am not affiliated with Group) as a base... but we changed it up a bit.  Group's version is more large group story telling and we wanted it to be more one-on-one with the parents telling their kids the info.  

We set up 5 stations... kind of similar to Stations of the Cross but made for families. Each room was decorated like the places Jesus went on his way to the cross and resurrection.  We provided a scrip for the parents with the verses, a short narrative, some questions to talk about and also an action to be done at each station.  Most of our narrative and questions came from Groups Walk with Jesus so I will not be sharing that part of it since it is copyrighted. 

Station 1 - Palm Sunday

Decor: A path - could use butcher paper - some rocks and trees.  We set tables on the side of the room to decorate the palm leaves. 

Verses: Luke 19:36-40 

Action: we had the kids write praises to Jesus or draw a praise picture on the palm leaf.  They then laid it on the path and said "Hosanna!"  

Station 2- The Lord's Supper

Decor: table set with plates, bread, cup of juice and other table decor.

Verses: John 13:1-17 

Action: we had chairs set around the outside of the room and wet wipes set on the floor.  We had the parents wash their kids feet and say "Follow Jesus because He loves you!"

Station 3 - Gethsemane

Decor: Trees, bushes, twinkle lights. We had the lights off since it was supposed to be the middle of the night. 

Verses: Matthew 26:36-56 

Action: We had groups of chairs set up for families to pray about a tough situation the kids may be going through.  We also had them talk about hard times and how God helped them through it. For older students (middle school and adults) we had them pray for the people suffering around the world. 

Station 4 - Good Friday

Decor: Cross at the front of the room. 

Verses: Matthew 27:32-44

Action: Write a sin down and tape it to the cross.  

Station 5- Resurrection Sunday

Decor: We had large stone walls (made from Styrofoam panels) from an early VBS event so we used those to create the tomb.  We used a kiddie pool wrapped in paper to make the rock.  I also created a small indent into the room using more stone walls. we placed a small bench inside with some cloth to show that it was empty.  

Verses: John 20:1-16 

Action: We ordered the dissolvable paper from Group.  We had everyone write down their sin from Good Friday on the paper, put it in the water and watch it dissolve.  

Some hints to help you set up your own:

• Use what you have:  Our church had a lot of props that we used to help set up the rooms.  I bet yours does too! 
• Have groups of chairs in each room so that there is a spot for the families to sit together and read the script.  We did this in a few of the rooms but the rooms that did not have them it was hard to talk as a family
• Have a host for each room.  We didn't this year but it is in the plan for next year.  Some one to help families get started, keep them moving, and keep the supplies in order.
• We had some back ground noise in each room to help so that you are not hearing everything the other families are saying.
• Use a Bible version that is family friendly, like the message or New living, something that the kids can understand when you are reading it to them. 

This was  a great event to get families to talk about the real meaning of Easter/Resurrection Sunday.  It was a great way for the kids to see and experience some of the stories they have heard about.   We went with our kids and it was a little over their heads (we have a 6, 4, and 1 year old) but it was still good to start the conversation.  My 6 year old has heard all the stories but it was good to get him to think about how to apply it to himself.  I also liked that these stories were coming from me and not just the Sunday school teacher.   It is a good thing for your kids to hear your faith from you too!