Tea Party in Wonderland

My niece, Reagan, turns 7 in a few days and we celebrated over the weekend! On Saturday, my sister-in-law had an amazing Tea Party in Wonderland birthday party for her! When I say the party was amazing I really mean AMAZING! My sister-in-law, April, always has the best birthday parties and I can never wait to see what she comes up with! Heck.. they are already planning for next year! They (April, my mother-in-law, and aunt-in-law… you get my point!) plan all year long and then stay up super late the night before finishing things up. This year they were up into the wee hours of the morning finishing the Alice dress my niece wore to the party.

As everyone arrived the girls grabbed their tea hats, and the boys grabbed their bow ties and top hats.

There were decorations everywhere. The party was at a local park which April picked because it had a few Wonderland themed items.

There is the Birthday Girl! Happy 7th Birthday Alice… I mean Reagan!

The Cheshire Cat even made an appearance!

Of course.. what is a tea party without sweets, tea sandwiches, tea cups and the oh so popular sugar cubes!

Of course – you cannot have a tea party without a game of croquet and a turn at the piñata!

Then I took pictures of all of the kids near the fountain. They came out SO good! I plan on printing and framing the one of my little man! I must say that I surprised myself with my photography skills.

At the end of the party all of the kids got to fill their favor boxes with goodies from the ‘Queen of Hearts’ table.

Wasn’t this amazing? Great job once again April!

Party Credits:
Design & Styling by April Sapp
Photography by ME
Cake & Cupcakes by Stephanie Mikell
Help from Carol Pendleton and Dolores Carpenter

The Tube

Here’s a simple activity that our toddlers love. We’ve found some long cardboard tubes. They are a little longer than wrapping paper tubes, but twice as wide. I’m sorry I don’t have any pictures. We had one teacher sitting holding one end of the tube and the other end was slanted down to the floor. It looked like a ramp. Then the toddlers rolled balls down the tube and chased them across the room.

One toddler wanted to see what would happen if we held the tube straight forward with someone at each end. One person to put the ball in and the other to catch it. We found out that it the ball still would role down the tube. Next, he wanted to see what would happen if he held the tube closer to his face. He’d laugh whenever someone dropped a ball in the tube. One little girl experimented with putting a dish at the bottom of the slanted tube. The balls would role down, but the toddlers couldn’t see them. A couple of them weren’t sure where the balls were going so we asked them to peak inside the dish. They laughed when they discovered that the balls stayed in the dish.

The new teacher has several of these tubes and she’d like to add them to the gross motor room. She wants to mount them to the wall at different angles so that the children can experiment with the balls moving in different angles and directions. She also wants to try tennis balls with the tubes so that Crawling Baby can use them. The small ones that we are using now can be a choking hazard for him. He spent some time in the toddler room today and he was very interested in the tubes and balls, but didn’t understand the rules of our game. At one point, he wanted to drag the tube away. I wanted to see how he’d use the tube, but the other teacher brought it back to the group to continue the game.
I have a feeling that the children will do lots of experimenting with these tubes and that we can use them for a variety of activities.

Farm Themed Birthday Party {Life is a Party}

Over at Life is a Party, Dannyelle and her family were invited to a Farm party. You may remember when I featured Dannyelle earlier this summer after she helped style a Cherry Blossom party. Thanks to Dannyelle once again for sharing all the party pictures (and thanks to Allie’s mom for putting the party together!)

Here was the food…with such clever names!

Then there were all of the activities…

What an awesome party full of fun preschool age games! To see parties Dannyelle has put together - check out her daughter’s Ice Cream Party post and her husband’s Oscar the Grouch themed party! (I think I should host an Oscar the Grouch themed party for my hubby too! LOL!)

Enjoy,

Baby Shower Games–with Printables!

I love baby showers! Please, please INVITE ME! I think my favorite part are the games! In my eyes the games make the party! Usually at baby showers it is a mix of people that the mom-to-be knows. It can be family, friends, co-workers and most of them usually don’t know each other. The games help to break the ice and get everyone laughing and talking. Even if they DO know each other – the games get everyone laughing! Therefore, I have compiled a list of fun baby shower games with a couple of printables!

Word Search and Word Scramble. Need I say more? These are fun games to get guests thinking in baby mode! I made printables for you below! Print, cut, and glue onto a larger piece of cardstock to coordinate with your theme.

• You can get the word search HERE
• You can get the word scramble HERE
• Solutions HERE

Guess the belly size. Create little bags with a piece of yarn or ribbon ready for when party guests arrive. Have them guess the size of the prego momma’s belly. 

I created a neutral Ziploc bag printable. Put yarn or ribbon in a snack sized Ziploc and then staple the printable over top. Hand out to guests as they arrive! Be sure to have a pair of scissors on hand for them to cut the yarn or ribbon to length.

• Printable is HERE

Baby Bingo. This games can always be found at a party supply store! I found a free printable HERE at Parties & Patterns. I just love the idea of using buttons as bingo markers!

Don’t Say Baby! This game truly is a challenge! Have clothespins ready by the door. When a guests come in they each get a clothespin to clip to their shirt somewhere. If they say the word ‘baby’ another guest can call them on it and take their pin. At the end of the shower, the person with the most pins wins! Way harder than you would think!

Picture from save-on-crafts.com

There are so many other fun baby shower games out there too! This post could go on and on!

I’ve been working on a few baby shower themes for my party printable store and can not wait to share them with you!

Enjoy,

The Pirate Party!

Today was the day of the infamous Pirate Party. The one you have all heard about and are probably tired of by now! Here it is – no words needed.

Enjoy,

I’m linking up here-