A Daisy Birthday Party

Gracie turned 6 and asked for a Daisy party for a small group of friends.

The Decorations

She decorated with a daisy garland.

I used this Flower Punch on tagboard, yellow pompoms and green chenille stems to make daisies for decorations.

Pretty balloon, plates and cute napkins!

The Activities

I wanted daisy colors so I separated them out from the bag of multicolored pony beads.

Ideas for daisy crafts jewelry.

How to Make a Daisy with Beads

A daisy made with beads.

We covered the coffee table with craft paper for the kids to decorate.

A butterfly flutters in the daisy garden.

Almost hidden beanbags in plastic pots, ready for a relay game.

Gracie asked for a piñata and so we bought this Flower Piñata...

And transformed it to fit our color scheme!

Treat bags for piñata goodies.

The Food

Gracie's plan for her cake.

Frosting from the beater is a great treat!

The daisy cake.

Cookies for favors.

Happy Birthday!

Felt Tooth Fairy Pouch

Gracie has a loose tooth!

I found a pattern for a cute drawstring pouch on The Purl Bee and used it to make this one for her. I added the embroidered face.

We're ready for The Tooth Fairy, and in a few weeks she'll make her first visit!

A Strawberry Birthday Party

My Sweet Gracie turned 5 this month! We celebrated with a Strawberry Party at the park.

I used the beanbags I originally made for Gracie's Ladybug Birthday Party when she was 2.

The kids put the "strawberries" in a bucket during a relay game.

I also made a strawberry bingo game.

We used dried "fiori" pasta for markers.

Here's the strawberry piñata I created using paper mache and a balloon covered with tissue paper. This post was very helpful for ideas to create the piñata, and this post was useful for figuring out how to create the trap door and the pull string feature.

 

I used a strawberry drawn by Gracie to create the artwork for these personalized goody bags for the piñata prizes. I printed them on large sticker paper and cut them out with my favorite paper cutting scissors.

We baked cupcakes, strawberry and vanilla with a simple buttercream icing, decorated with sprinkles by Gracie!

Our guests were invited to add artwork and sign Gracie's birthday poster card.

The Strawberry Cookies are for favors. You can see more about these cookies in this post and over at The Ginger Cookie.

The cookies are individually wrapped in clear bags from Karen's Cookies, ready for our guests to take home.

And finally, I made thank you notes for Gracie to send. I printed them on Avery postcards, and they fit perfectly into invitation size envelopes. 

It was a great party!

Happy Birthday, Gracie!

Felt Easter Toys

I love to work with felt! For these projects I used a wool felt blend from Wool Felt Central on Prairie Point Junction.

I found the pattern for these cute bunny finger puppets on The Purl Bee. The pattern template is available as a free download.

This reversible toy is an egg on one side...

And a chick on the other! It's an Abby Glassenberg Design pattern, available here.

I made the felt eggs in the basket a few years ago, using this pattern from Lola Nova.

Happy Easter!

Valentine's Day Puzzle & Tic-Tac-Toe

Felt Tic-Tac-Toe Game in a pouch I made for Gracie this year for Valentine's Day.

Love Always Wins!

Last year's gift was these puzzle cubes, painted with acrylic craft paints in six colors.

Rosebud Bunny

A rosebud bunny with pin dot ears, my second Baby Bunny using a pattern from Funky Friends Factory.

My girl approves and happily helped me wrap it up as a gift for a young friend.

Birthday Season

Early spring is a busy time in our family! All three of our birthdays are within 10 days of each other, so there is a lot of celebrating to be done. Easter often occurs in the same week and a half, sometimes falling on one of our birthdays.

An outing to celebrate Easter and my birthday.

We love wildflowers!

Yummy ice cream for my birthday dessert.

Gracie's birthday was next. I made these monogram cookies for her to share with her class. She chose the colors and design. To see more cookies, visit me over at Nina's Cookie Shop.

We had a party for her at a local park on a very windy day! I embellished the hat and made yummy pink cupcakes. It was a new recipe for me, Pink Lady Cake made with strawberries. Gracie chose pink icing and helped decorate the cupcakes with sprinkles.

The party had a garden theme, and this balloon flower was supposed to decorate the gazebo at the park. The wind interfered with the decorations, so it adorned our house instead. This tutorial from All Things Simple was very helpful!

The cute napkins are from Target, and I embellished a party store birthday hat with ribbon for the birthday girl. I made the flower cookies for party favors. You can see more flower cookies over at Nina's Cookie Shop.

Next came Art's birthday. Gracie and I made him a card and bundles of 50 things.

Gracie LOVES wrapping presents and picked out the paper and bow.  She also loves unwrapping presents!

We wanted a simple dinner that would finish well with apple pie for dessert. A DIY BAT (bacon, avocado & tomato sandwich) was perfect! I made mayonnaise from scratch for the first time. Thanks to this recipe from Alton Brown and these hints from Andrea the Kitchen Witch on using the KitchenAid mixer, it came out well.

Finally it was time for pie! I like to use a combination of apples; for this pie I used Lady Alice (which I just learned is a new variety) and Pink Lady apples. With a crumb topping and vanilla ice cream, it was a delicious finale to our birthday season!