The Colbert Clan: Decorating

Showing posts with label Decorating. Show all posts

Dinosaur Birthday Party

My little guy isn't so little any more. Yesterday Tyler turned 7 years old. I know that he really is still "little" but such a big kid too!
He is loving first grade and I love to watch him grow. His reading and writing is so great and I love having him read stories to me. And he asked for notes cards and envelopes for his birthday so he can write notes. He is so my child.

For his birthday he asked for a Dinosaur birthday party and as soon as Summer's Mermaid Party was over I got to work on a few things.

I really wanted to keep food more simpler than I have before. We did food for Carivores: Chicken nuggets and pigs in a blanket. Herbivores: veggies and ranch. And Sweetivores: Dino footprint cookies.

We also had Dino eggs which were grapes. Dino bones that were pretzels and Dino teeth that were Bugles. We also had green Din-o-mite punch!

These plates I use are awesome and I use them for every party I have! I just get a can of spray paint and give them a fresh color for whatever our theme is! check out how I made them in this post from Summer's Tea Party.

We had several games that we played. The first was just "Pin the head on the skeleton" and I picked that up from Party City for just a couple of dol1ars. It came with 12 skeleton head stickers, a blindfold and the sheet to put up on that wall. The kids could see out of the bottom of the blindfold if you weren't paying attention. The we had a couple of non cheaters! (Ha!)

We also played another game where we tied a string to a balloon and tied the other end around the kids waist. Then once they were all ready we let them loose and they had to stomp the other kids balloons to pop them without getting their own popped. The last balloon standing wins. I think we only had three kids that cried..... The others seemed to enjoy it!

The last game we played was called Feed the dinosaur. Zachary drew this Dino for me and cut out the mouth then we just put a bucket behind it. We had a bag of plastic golf balls from a game we played over the summer that worked perfectly and the kids seemed to love it. They each took multiple turns!

Then it was time for presents and cupcakes. Tyler got tons of legos, which he loves so he was super excited and couldn't wait to get building!

And next was chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting and I used candy corn to make spikes on the back of our Dino!

To make the leaves I just cut them out with my cricut. Such a time saver!

I also made shirts for my family. Getting a 15 year old boy to wear a shirt that says "brothersaurus" isn't easy, but he wanted to stay the night at his friend's so I told him only if he wore the shirt for the party. #noshameinmygame So here we are: mamasaurus, daddysaurus, brothersaurus, sistersaurus and Tylersaurus.

Tyler had such a fun party and I think all the kids had a fun time too! You can see the "binoculars" we made using toilet paper rolls, tape and string. Makes for a pretty inexpensive party and the kids enjoyed the time!

Summer's Mermaid Birthday Party

Last weekend my little girl turned FIVE years old!

We went back and forth a little on what type of party she wanted, but ultimately settled on a "Mermaid Birthday Party".

Thankfully Pinterest is always my friend and guides me to the best of the best crafters with awesome ideas to create a great party. Here are some shots from the day. And by "some" shots, I mean, I am sorry for an extremely picture heavy post.

Welcome Mermaid sign for the front door.

Summer helped me "design" her very own birthday shirt. She did a pretty good job.

One of my favorite things in our house has always been our chalkboard wall. The kids play on it all the time and it always gets used for birthdays and holidays.

Our party was mid day so we just did some finger sandwiches, and snacks.

I was going to make my own rock candy, but for real, after reading how to do it and that it can take a couple of weeks for the crystals to grow I decided to bag it and just buy them!

How fun are these marshmallow pops? They are super cute and the were really delicious!

The clam shells were also a big hit. It is just frosting in between two nilla wafers and a sugar bead for the "pearl"

Love my sweet birthday girl!

Everyone loves mermaids-- What is your mermaid name? Mine is Mara Aqua Rain

I got these hula hoops on clearance a while back so I grabbed them for "party gifts" for the girls!

Last minutes I decided I didn't want to make cupcakes myself. I was swamped with other things and was just running out of time. Walmart to the rescue and the colors were exactly what I wanted. I made these adorable little cake toppers to go with them.

A pinata was really the only "game" I planned and the kids all left with bags of candy!

Look at all these sweet girls (and one boy!)! I am so grateful for all of our amazing friends that gathered around my girl to celebrate!

After presents and some cake and lots of playing with friends it was time to wrap up our day of fun!

This little Mermaid was as happy as a clam! Happy Birthday sweet girl!

Redneck BBQ

A while back we were sitting around with friends, talking about the summer months ahead and somehow we got on the subject of a Redneck BBQ. Travis and I had talked about how fun something like that might be, so when we were talking with friends we decided we needed to do it!

I headed to Pinterest and did some google searching and found tons of fun ideas. I took ideas from several invitations and made one of our own to fit what we were looking for. How fun is this invite??

We wanted to make a fun photo booth but was struggling on what exactly I wanted. I thought about making a "mugshot" back ground so people could each hold their own sign for why they went to jail. We also thought about using a piece of plywood and stringing up tin cans, etc. But ultimately just decided to use a backdrop that looks like wood and make some fun signs. Cardboard signs and sharpies make everything a little more redneck.

No redneck party would be complete without "Redneck Win Chimes" and a "Redneck Dream Catcher"

Games really keep a party going so I made "drinko" which is a fun drinking game. Who doesn't want to Take a Shot or Give a Shot? I also did a Ping Pong toss, an antler ring toss (not shown but we did attach actual antlers to the side of our house and threw rings at them) and a toilet paper toss (also not shown but we used a toilet seat that was attached to a metal bar and we tossed toilet paper rolls into it.)

When we first decided to do a Redneck BBQ we started talking about what we were going to wear. I immediately knew I wanted to have a "pregnant belly", cans in my hair, a black eye and a fake cigarette. I also wanted to get a fake ankle monitor but they were $20 on amazon and I didn't want to spend that much on it!

We found Travis' wig right away and knew he was going to do cut off shorts, an armband tattoo and another tattoo with names crossed out, but the shirt was a late edition the week before the party. We just had a do it! Thanks Pinterest for that one!

We really weren't sure if our friends were going to dress up, or to what extent, but when they started showing up at our house it confirmed why these people are our friends!

These three ladies here with me are some of the best of the best. And this picture makes me laugh every time I see it.

Almost everyone dressed up! And it was 95 degrees that day so we were all on fire. That belly I was wearing was a heat magnet!! And my beer can rollers weren't staying in after a while so I finally had to just take them out!

How awesome does my husband look!?! I can't stop laughing over his look!

When my friend and her husband showed up we couldn't believe it. Travis and DJ had never met, but they dressed almost identical! We told no one what we were wearing so it was awesome that they were twinning. Right down to the same wig, cutoff shorts, arm band tattoo and a tattoo with names crossed off. One of the funniest parts was that on their name tattoo, DJ had the name "Daisy" crossed off and Travis had Daisy as his uncrossed off name!

It was such a fun day! Even though it was so darn hot we all had a great time!

Everyone voted on the King and Queen of trash. And Dalton and Faith won! Dalton won a "weener kleaner" and a back scratcher made with beer bottle tops. and Faith won dual back scratchers!

I think everyone had a pretty great time! We eat a ridiculous amount of food, ate twinkies, ding dongs and zingers for dessert, drank Coors light, margaritas and juice for the kids, of course! And visited and played antler ring toss late into the night. It was a party for the books!

Showing our Appreciation with a DIY Glitter Dipped Mug

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #OneTreeOneBag #CollectiveBias

The school year's end is right around the corner. But before that can wrap up we need to share our appreciation for the school staff. Our school’s Staff Appreciation week is coming up and I wanted to find something fun for Tyler's teacher. For me, there is nothing better than coffee so I basically always include it in some way when I am giving gifts.

Tyler's teacher is really fun and outgoing and I remember her saying once that her family loves to camp. So I immediately thought of a glitter dipped mug and coffee as part of her gift.

I headed to the store to get a few things, but before that I ran to Safeway to grab a bag of Starbucks® Pike Place® Roast. It is my favorite roast and I love to share it!

One of my favorite things about Starbucks is how giving they are.

For every bag of Starbucks® 10-12z & 20z Ground or Whole Bean coffee purchased at participating Albertsons Company stores in the U.S. from May 1st through May 28, Starbucks provides one disease-resistant coffee tree to a farmer in Mexico, Guatemala or El Salvador,

Starbucks® will donate 70¢ to Conservation International for every bag of coffee sold at participating Albertsons Company stores in the U.S. from May 1st through May 28 to foster thriving coffee communities.

To learn more, visit conservation.org/onetree.

Check out the special Starbucks "One Tree One Bag" commitment display in the coffee aisle!

I have only made glitter dipped cups/mugs a couple of times before, but they are super easy and add a touch of fun to your cup!

Take some painters tape and tape around your clean, dry cup. (Make sure it's even!)

Use a decoupage glue and a foam brush and paint the glue on the area your glitter will be.

Quickly sprinkle on the glitter. I used two paper bowls and held my cup over one bowl and poured the glitter from the second bowl. I turned the cup as I poured to make sure everything was covered.

Wait about 15 minutes and sponge another layer of decoupage on the glitter. You don't want to "paint" this layer on but just lightly sponge it. If you need to add another layer of glitter you'll do it now. Wait another 15 minutes and sponge on more decoupage.

Wait another 15 minutes and carefully peel off the painter's tape.

You want to wait several hours to let the glue completely dry before touching.

After I had let my mug completely dry I added the cute little decal I made for it.

Now our fun mug is all ready for staff appreciation week and ready to be full of a delicious cup of Starbucks® Pike Place® Roast.

I am hoping our teacher is a "Happy Camper" when she gets this fun gift!

What are some of your favorite ways to celebrate the staff at your local school?

American Girl Doll Closet

There was a time when my life only knew boys. I had two sons and we didn't find out what we were having with baby number 3. We were going to be done after 3 no matter if we had a girl or a boy and while I was secretly thinking I was having a girl I told everyone I thought I was having a boy. I think I was trying to convince myself I was having a boy so that when I had another boy, I was mentally prepared.

I wasn't sure if a girl was in my future. But luckily that day I had Summer my life changed for the good. There are so many fun things I get to do with Summer, like painting our nails, doing fun hair styles and playing with dolls.

For Christmas, Reese joined our family. Summer was so excited to get Reese and plays with her every single day. She has lots of clothes for her, but that hasn't stopped me from buying more fabric than I need to make matching outfits for Summer and Reese.

It has also opened up so many opportunities to make fun things like this doll closet.

It couldn't have been easier. I bought one of these crates for $10, a rod for .29 and the plank for $2. And I also just used some paint that I already had from DecoArt and some hot glue!

Because it was a little rough I did use a piece of sand paper to sand down my box a little, but it only took a few minutes.

These were Summer's paint choices! Bubblegum and Purple Cow!

She wanted the inside to be pink, so that is just what we did!

Then the outside was purple! And I used a glossy clear coat to give it a shine!

I cut a couple pieces of the peg off and painted them pink, and one longer piece purple. Then, using the hot glue I put the "rod" in to hang the hangers on, and the smaller pegs I used to prop up the board on the side for a shelf.