Football Party w/ a Chic Twist

 

My dad loves college football! Mix that with being out of the country for the past three months and he was a bit deprived of his lazy game day Saturdays! So for his birthday we gave him just that! We got the idea straight from a "Better Home and Garden" Magazine.

 

Start by painting white lines on butcher paper that you've covered your table with. Measure them out, you need 11 I believe in all.

 

Next carefully paint your best football numbers! They don't have to be perfect, the goal is rustic.

 

Roll down some brown paper bags (you can add in white bags for variety) and add your best snacks!

 

Wrap up your gifts with remaining butcher paper and raffia.

 

Don't forget every one's bets on the games that day! Our winners won a candy bar.

 

Bring it all together and voila! Or should I say TOUCHDOWN!

 

Best part? Guests can make a huge mess and you just fold it all up in the paper afterwards and throw away!

 

My dad is from Ohio so the Ohio State game was kind of a big deal that day :)

 

Need a meal idea that's simple and easy to entertain with - chili bowl! Perfect for chilly days filled with football and cheering. Just set out all the fixin's and it's a relaxed buffet style meal.

 

Easy, yes. cheap, yes. So chic, YES! But still cool enough for the man (or little guy) in your life!

Cute laterns for any occasion!

About a month ago I found this cute craft idea in a magazine. It was for the 4th of July and had the cutest star patterns on them but since I found it AFTER the 4th of July...I let my kids just have at them!

Start by filling two aluminum cans almost full of water and put them in the freezer (remember to remove any paper before doing this).

Next pick any pattern you like, or in my case just freehand it, since this was a quick project to keep the kids busy for a bit anyways! Take a nail and a hammer and nail holes to make your pattern in the can. The ice keeps the can from denting or folding under the pressure.

I highly recommend holding this freezing cold can between your bare feet. It felt fabulous! (Just in case you didn't pick up on the sarcasm in that...note now that I was being saracastic and please do not follow my example)

Once you are done nailing your pattern leave out in the hot sun until all the ice melts. You may need to hammer the bottom back in if it popped out due to the freezing.

Once all the ice is gone dry it very well! On the outside! Do NOT stick your hand in the can - the nail holes are extremely sharp! My husband found this out the hard way when I was busy and asked him to please dry the cans.

Next get out some paint and have at it! Again if you want a 4th of July do red, white or blue with star patterns or fireworks perhaps. For fall time or Halloween do a pumpkin shape with orange and black paint...you get the idea.

But remember this was a project for me to keep the kids busy and entertained so they just went at it with all kinds of colors!

Obviously this was my boy's.

And this was my girl's. Isn't it funny how they naturally pick those types of colors??

Then when the paint is dry, place them on an outdoor table or by a fun family game inviting guests to play by a soft warm glow!

Tinkerbell Birthday Party

My daughter's 4th year birthday is one to remember! And all it took was some creativity and elbow grease on my part. So here is a complete breakdown of the Tinkerbell Birthday Bash:

You start with (of course it IS me you know) CUPCAKES! I chose a very simple yet VERY time consuming decoration idea - flowers. Birthday girl wanted Strawberry Cupcakes so that's what we started with. The next step is cutting mini marshmallows in half diagonally and then, if you so desire, dipping the middle part while it's still gooey into any color of sprinkles you desire. I did white, pink and green for our particular fairy party. Then simply place the "petals" on in three tiers. Each cupcake averages about 17 marshmallows, or 34 pieces. The result is a beautiful "Mum Flower"!

My daughter spotted the cupcake tier stand at Walmart and it comes with the Tinkerbell cupcake wrappers and the toothpick inserts you see in the center of my flowers. for about 9 dollars it looked great!

Next we added all the decorations! I printed out all the Tink Friends from the newest Tinkerbell movies, cut them out in detail and then laminated them. These adorned the edge of the breakfast bar where all the goodies were stashed.

I also printed out a cute picture of the fairies and decided to tape up a quick welcome note for the arriving guests on our front door.

Then when my bestie arrived to help I quickly gave her orders to help me hang up ALL the streamers and banners all over our living room! I had hung paper lanterns the night before. The lanterns and streamers gave it such a festive feel!

Who could forget the best part?! I printed in all the invitations for the girls to come dressed in "fairy attire"! Here is my little fairy - who went as Rosetta (since she just got the costume for Christmas).

Here is a sweet friend of ours daughter dressed as Tink herself. (Most of the wings had been ditched by this time)

May I also suggest for any little girl birthday party that you buy sidewalk chalk. My goodness I found a 52 piece chalk set at the Dollar Store and the kids had a blast! First thing the girls wanted was of course a Hop-Scotch board of which I quickly obliged.

Okay on to the games:

1. Ring Toss - for this game I took 3 paper towel tubes and painted them lime green (excuse me fairy green) and even added some glitter while the paint was still wet to give it that pixie dust look. Then my husband cut a piece of plywood into three rectangles of which we just duck taped the bottom of the tubes onto. They were extremely stable and cute to boot! And guess what I made rings out of? Weed eater wire! Hehe, yes I did. I made 3 rings the same size with our weed eating string, wire...not sure what it's called and even duck taped the ends together as well. Did I mention the wire was lime green in color? I love my ingenuity. I gave bubbles as a prize for making a ring.

2. Can Explosion - this one required painting 15 empty coke cans lime green (and adding pixie dust as well). After that you just stack them up pyramid style, find a cute small ball and mark a line about 8 or 9 feet back (more feet for older child) and let them go! Obviously they must knock the cans over with the ball. Knock them all down and Tinkerbell sticker sheets was your prize! This game was actually their favorite and they wore me OUT wanting me to continually stack cans over and over!

3. Pin the Wand on Tinkerbell - this one is self explanatory however with much trouble over trying to blow up a photo to poster size for this game my mom had to give a last minute ingenuity idea - cut the front out of a Tink gift bag (which I DID have). So that's what we did and it looked cute!

Last tips are never forget party hats, noisy horns and yummy punch! (recipe at bottom)

After the party was over and my bestie helped me tear everything down we had to celebrate with our own photo - for surviving the whole ordeal AND cleaning it all up in one day's time!

That's all folks!

Sherbet Punch Recipe

1 - 2 Liter 7-Up

1 - 2 Liter Hawaiian Punch

2 Tubs of Rainbow Sherbet

Pour in drinks first then scoop sherbet on top of punch. I like to drizzle a little punch over each scoop to give it that foamy look. You can also adjust to taste by adding more 7-Up or Hawaiian Punch - whichever way you like it best. Enjoy!