Life is Beautiful

Motherhood, Sewing, Family

Ana’s Power Ranger party

~ PARTY

Our girls have been into Power Rangers as of late so it was no surprise when Ana asked for a Power Ranger birthday party.  I’ve always told my daughters that there are no such thing as “girl toys” or “boy toys”, and if you like playing with trucks or tools, go right ahead.  If you like princesses and dolls, go right ahead also.  I tell them to not let anyone tell you what’s weird or appropriate to play with if that’s what you’re interested in. So I was more than happy to plan this birthday party for Ana.
rice krispies sushi as a party favor
power ranger cupcakes
fruit swords
spam musubi
healthy veggie & fruit juice
sandwich sushi w/ pickles, ham & cheese
rice krispies sushi on a platter
After everyone ate lunch, we started a Power Ranger training camp.  There were 5 training courses, each course representing a member of the Power Ranger and their strength/talent.   In order to become an official Power Ranger, they had to complete each course.
Training course #1 was STRENGTH which is the green Power Ranger, and they had to compete in a tug of war to prove their strength. 

I forgot to take pictures of the next two signs because I was too busy running the party but training #2 was LOYALTY which is the blue Power Ranger, and a bad samurai came to the party to recruit any bad
guys/girls to join his team.  All the trainees had to prove their loyalty and pick which side they were on.  Fortunately, they all picked my side(the good side of course;), and threw water balloons at the bad samurai to chase him away.
his appearance alone made two little girls cry and they wanted to go home.  oops….
he would catch some of the water balloons and kept throwing them at me! bad samurai!  
but in the end we conquered.

Training #3 was LEADERSHIP which is the red Power Ranger, and for this game we played Simon Says.

Training #4 was POWER which is the yellow Power Ranger and a sensei came and taught the trainees some karate moves.  He had a little helper too.

Training #5 was LOVE which is the pink Power Ranger, and not pictured, but for this course they had to complete an obstacle course.  They had to climb under a chair, then grab a ball that was sitting on the chair which they had to kick or hold while they ran to the trampoline.  Once they got to the trampoline, they had to jump as high as they could 10 times, then climb up and down two slides in a row, then run to the kitty pools that were filled with water floating with many “bad guys”.  There was one “good guy” that was drowning in the water and they had to find it and save it by scooping it up with a net.
after they completed the training camp, each trainee received a Power Ranger certificate, a sword & a belt.
then time for some cupcakes!

For the kids birthday parties I always set a budget of $100, and I went $30 over the budget with this party due to the high number of attendees(every single person we invited came to celebrate with us, all 15 of them!).  But I tell myself since I bought bulks of ingredients to make the food and snacks at Sam’s Club with lots of left over ingredients that we will use, it winds down to roughly $100. 😉  

Ana’s sister Adi told me after the party that for her birthday party she wants a yellow Power Ranger birthday party.  So I might be doing this same exact party all over again, but in yellow!

Links/tips: Rice krispies sushi, sushi green grass from ebay, sushi box from a friend who owns a sushi shop, power ranger cupcakes from Walmart, sandwich sushi.

*disclaimer: I googled “power ranger certificate” and found an image that I just printed for the certificate and the training camp signs my husband made with Photoshop.  I no longer send the certificate because I have no copyright of the image and feel dishonest if I send it out.  I get emails frequently about this and I had to turn down every single one, so please understand and I apologize about that!

Jay’s surprise half birthday party.

~ Etc.

We didn’t celebrate Jay’s 30th birthday last year, oh maybe because we were in a fight and we didn’t make-up until the next day, so I’ve been feeling really, really bad ever since.  I mean, it was his 30th birthday, for goodness sake!  So in my effort to try to make it up a little bit, I threw him a surprise half birthday party where we played dodgeball and ate a lot of food.

picasion gif maker
After we all played together, we, the girls wanted to watch a game played by the boys only.  And oh boy, was it entertainment!  It was like a battlefield!
picasion gif maker
picasion gif maker
Happy 30 1/2 birthday to my incredible husband.  I will never miss another birthday of yours ever again.  
p.s. so you didn’t really mean it when you said you weren’t going to celebrate my next birthday, right?  
p.p.s. ……..right?

ariana’s snow white birthday party.

~ Etc.

ariana wanted a snow white birthday party because her favorite disney princess is snow white.  all the girls were invited to wear a princess dress and upon arrival, they each received a basket with a red bow headband.  each girl got to put on some princess make-up with pink lipstick, pink sparkly eye shadow, and pink blush.  then we ate “dwarf foods” which was all mini finger foods(for easy eating) of meat balls, sweet potato fries in a cone, pigs in a blanket, cheesecake bites, rainbow fruit kabobs, veggies in a cup with ranch, pie-cupcakes, and lemonade.  i planned on making these candied apples but i completely forgot!  then we made caramel apples and the girls helped unwrap the caramels which they loved, and got to decorate it with m&m’s and a variety of sprinkles.  then we played pop goes the apple where they got to pop the balloons with a toothpick and candy was inside the balloons.  then ariana opened her presents(she told me opening presents was her favorite part, she hugged or kissed every present she got).  each girl left the party with a basket full of candies, caramel apples, and a red headband.  
*special thanks to my husband and my awesome friend rachel and her sister noel for helping out so much!  the party would not have started on time if it wasn’t for you.

mermaid: under the sea birthday party.

~ PARTY

 

we had adalie’s 4th birthday party over the weekend.  the theme was a “mermaid: under the sea”, requested by the birthday girl herself.  princess ariel came and paid a visit and all the little girls invaded ariel’s personal bubble the whole time from the moment ariel walked into the house until the moment she left.  they just loved her and smothered her all over!  ariel read a story to them, sang some songs, made princess crowns with them, and taught etiquette on how to be a true princess.  one of my favorites moments of the party was when ariel finished the little mermaid storybook and ended with, “and they lived happily ever after.” and one of adalie’s friends yelled out, “just like the three pigs!”  my other favorite moment was seeing adalie hop around in her mermaid fin that she wanted me to make for her birthday.  she refused to take it off and just hopped around as if she was in a potato sack race.  it was pretty darn cute.i think it’s safe to say all the girls had a lot of fun at the party, especially the birthday girl.

*for the treats i used a rice krispies on a stick recipe, dipped pretzel sticks in chocolate and sprinkles, blended graham crackers for the sand and put gold chocolate coins in a star shaped bowl,  made blue raspberry jello and stuck swedish fish in the jello and topped it with an umbrella, and used a towering sand castle cake recipe and added mermaid dolls and white chocolate sea shells and starfish i made using a mold.  and we hired ariel from a party company called pirate & princess parties.

my birthday

~ Etc.

i had a lovely birthday yesterday. i woke up to my favorite breakfast(french toast at magley’s fresh), adalie started preschool which i will post later, and i just wanted to do something simple and something fun for the kids, so we went bowling. turns out, jay made an appointment to go on a date the day before my birthday to the roof restaurant at temple square but he couldn’t find a babysitter so we didn’t end up going. but i thought it was so sweet and it’s the thought and the effort that counts. he got me beautiful roses and threw me a party later that day and as soon as he got from from work he went into his closet and found a shirt that matched mine. everytime people say to us, “oh you two are matching!” he tries to blame it on me but no one ever believes him. i think we’ve got to be the only couple where nobody believes it when the guy says it was the girl that tried to match.(when we were dating i used to get so embarrassed but now i think it’s absolutely adorable.) thank you hun for a wonderful birthday!

and to celebrate my birthday, i’m having a 20% off sale at S.T Collection.
it’s valid until january 6th, thursday.