The Purrrfect Party

How do you throw a Purrrfect party? Have a cat themed party of course! 

My daughter is OBSESSED with cats so having a cat themed party for her sixth birthday party was a no-brainer. Finding reasonably priced cat themed party supplies, however, was a but trickier. This simply meant that I would have to do a lot of the work myself, which I didn't mind. This party ended up being one of the most successful and inexpensive parties I've ever thrown!

First, start with your favorite cat invitations. There are actually a ton available online from several different price points. I ended up ordering ours from Shutterfly. I just picked a basic design I liked and uploaded pictures of cats to use in the picture areas of the invitation. 

Next, I made most of the decorations myself! I went online and asked my friends to send me pictures of their cats for me to make a birthday banner. People are always willing to show off their cats so I ended up with more than enough pictures to make a few banners! To make the banners I cut a little triangle in the bottom of each 4x6 print to make it look like a banner flag. Then, using a hole punch, I made little holes in the top corners of each photo and ran a cute paw print ribbon I found on Amazon through the holes. I made an accent wall by securing solid black tablecloths purchased from the Dollar Tree to the wall. I then taped up four silver foil balloons spelling "MEOW" and hung some of the cat banners underneath. I even made up some simple signs for the bathrooms. The only other cat decorations needed were some fun paw print tablecloths from Oriental Trading.

Once the decorations were made it was time to plan the games. As soon as guests walked in the door they were greeted by a table full of cat ear headbands. Each guest got to pick out a pair to wear and take home. Next, they went on to our first "game." I always like to have an opening activity to entertain guests as we wait for everyone to arrive. For this party I made a cat adoption center. Each guest got to pick a little stuffed cat from a basket. I was lucky enough to score some Ty Beanie Boo cats from Claire's during and AMAZING sale but any stuffed cats would have worked fine! I then made and printed some basic adoption certificates with spaces for the guests to fill in their own names as well as a name for their new furry friend. Next, they got to pick out and decorate a box for their kitties. I found some plain and patterned gable boxes at Hobby Lobby that worked purrrrfectly. I also snagged a variety of stickers from the Dollar Tree that included sparkly hearts, foam animals, and letters and numbers and more for everyone to personalize their boxes as much as possible. 

After everyone had arrived and had a chance to pick out a cat and at least start on a box, it was time for our first game.

For our main game, we went on a mouse hunt! Basically, we had an Easter egg hunt with a fun cat/mouse theme! I scored a bunch of leftover plastic eggs on clearance after Easter in several bright colors. I then drew little mouse features on them with a Sharpie. They were a simple enough design that even the birthday girl was able to help draw them! Finding fillers for the little mice was easy and inexpensive. I was even able to use leftover favors like tattoos, stickers, and rings from previous parties. (Obviously, I did not reuse anything edible.) Since the guests would not be bringing their own baskets or bags for the hunt like they would for a normal Easter Egg hunt, I had to provide something for them to collect their eggs. To stick with the party theme I made cute black cat bags using black gift bags (3/$1 at the Dollar Tree), googly eyes, white pipe cleaners and foam heart stickers trimmed slightly to look like a cat nose. Since these mice were basically their treat bags, I saved back a couple dozen mice to top off the bags that were a little on the low side.

After our mouse hunt we headed inside for our next activity- the book "If You Give a Cat a Cupcake!" I love using books as party activities not only because it promotes literacy but also because it makes a nice, calm transition. Luckily, I had my mom there to read the book while I got things ready for the next fun activity. My mom read it through twice. The first time she read the story through like normal and the second time she had the kids try to remember the chain of events! As simple as it was, the kids loved it!

Once the reading time was done, we decorated our own cupcakes! I put a selection of sprinkles and cupcake toppings on little, plastic artist pallets with the plain cupcake in the center. I also provided little baggies of icing for guests to squeeze on top. (I used the fold-down sandwich baggies tied with tiny little rubber bands.) Before they began decorating, I requested that no one eat their cupcake until everyone was finished so we could sing "Happy Birthday" together. As an incentive, I gave everyone who waited a little yellow chocolate paw print to top off their cupcake! Everyone had fun decorating their cupcakes and some kids actually had a lot of decorating talent!

After cupcakes, we did the traditional present opening, which filled the rest of our party time up perfectly! However, since I am ever prepared, had we needed to play another game, I had one in my back pocket, just in case. Time permitting, we would have played Mouse, Mouse, Cat! which is basically my own made-up version of Duck, Duck, Goose. The guests would all sit in a circle save one person who would be "It." The person who was "It" would walk around the circle, tapping heads and saying "Mouse" with each tap or selecting one person to be "Cat." The person selected as "Cat" would jump up and try to tag the person who was "It" before "It" could run around the circle and take a seat in the "Cat's" spot- a fun Cat and Mouse style chase! This game would make a fun addition to a cat party if you wanted it to last a little bit longer!

And that, my friends, is how to throw the Purrrfect Party!

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Donut Worry- Be Happy!

It's summer in South Carolina which means it's hot and humid outside and the mosquitoes are buzzing around like crazy. This makes playing outside for more than a few minutes no fun at all. So, that means that I have to come up with fun ways to entertain the children inside and one of my favorite indoor activities is baking or cooking.

I love making food creations with my kids for a few reasons. For one, cooking is a basic life skill. Sure, the things they're making in the kitchen right now aren't going to score them a spot on Master Chef but they're stepping stones. Another reason I enjoy baking with them is because it's something I'm relatively good at and I like imparting my knowledge. And one more reason is because not only do you find a way to keep kids entertained for a bit but you also get to eat a delicious treat when you're done!

So, today we made some simple, easy donuts. This recipe is very basic so my kids can actually do a good bit of the work. 

First, gather your ingredients. For this recipe all you really need is can of crescent rolls, some icing (any flavor would really work but plain vanilla tends to work the best), sprinkles, and oil to fry them in (or you can choose to bake them).

Not Pictured- Oil for your fryer

I always choose to fry my donuts in my fryer because its fast and I like that crispiness you get from fried donuts. I suppose you could easily make these guys in the oven as well, though. If you choose to make them in the oven just follow all the steps like normal but preheat your oven and bake according to the normal instructions on the crescent roll package instead of frying them. Which ever method you choose, make sure it is preheated and ready to go before you start making your donuts so you "donut" have to wait. 

1) Open up your crescent rolls and take two of the triangular roll pieces still connected and pinch them together along the seam to make one larger rectangle.

2) Cut your rectangle in half horizontally to give you two longer rectangles. 

3) Roll each half piece into a long "worm" as my kids call it!

4) Loop the dough around so that it makes a circle and pinch the ends together to make your donut shape.

5) Once all your donut shapes are made, it's time to drop them in the fryer (or bake them if that's your preferred method). Frying them only takes about a minute per side. Since my fryer is smaller I only drop in about 2-3 at a time to keep them from sticking to each other. Flip the donuts over when you can clearly see the golden brown creeping up the sides. Your donuts should be a nice golden brown when they are done. AS you remove them carefully from the fryer, place them on a plate with a paper towel to help soak away the extra oil.

6) Melt a couple of spoonfuls of your icing in the microwave for about 10-15 seconds. You want the icing to be liquidy but not super runny.

 

7) Drizzle the icing over the donuts and then add your sprinkles.

   

8) Eat and Enjoy!

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Let's Catch Up

After a nearly two-year hiatus from blogging, I'm back! So why was I gone in the first place? Well, one reason was that I am pretty sure that my old laptop was possessed by demons. Every time I turned it on it would scream at me. It got to the point where I could hardly use it all without having the strong urge to call in an exorcist. Another reason I stopped for awhile was because the craziness of life got in the way. The content little baby turning turned toddler became a handful and finding a few minutes every day to write became harder and harder.

But now I'm back with new determination. I missed blogging, even if hardly anyone every read my blog. But you're here, now, reading this, so let me catch you up.

My family has grown from just Thing One and Thing Two to add little Thing Three. Thing Three (I promise I will come up with better nicknames in the near future) was added to our family in February the day after his brother (Thing Two) turned three. So this is where our family now stands.

All 3 kiddos at Thing Three's One Month Pictures

So, let's catch up with Thing One. She started and completed kindergarten this past year. I'll confess it made me feel a little old having a school-age child. We had considered the homeschooling route but decided that our little social butterfly would thrive in a normal school environment and we were right! We were lucky and she got an amazing teacher with a wonderful teaching assistant. This past year she learned to read and write and, very much like her mother, loves to do both. Math is another story. This past year she also began losing her teeth! So far she has lost both her bottom teeth and is racking up gold dollars (which is the currency of her tooth fairy). Every day I swear she grows smarter and sassier. Her current obsession is everything cat related. She read over 48 books this summer as part of the library's reading program and I'm pretty sure at least 75% of them featured cats.

Now, on to Thing Two who is now that infamous middle child. He's turning out to be quite the adventure. He is currently undergoing evaluations to see if he has anxiety or some other similar disorder. It turns out he is especially sensitive to sounds despite having a normal hearing range. He is also struggling with his speech and will begin speech therapy in the fall. Despite being behind in those areas, he's a smart, active, typical three-year-old boy who loves dinosaurs, trains and cars. He's obsessed with Blue Clues and everything to do with video games, specifically Mario. I will be attempting to home school him this upcoming school year as I did with his sister. Let's hope that works out.

And now for the newest addition to our family! Thing Three arrived in February via a planned c-section just like his siblings. He was a big boy weighing 9 lbs 4 oz! He was overall very healthy but did have some blood sugar issues for the first couple of days due to his size. Thankfully, everything leveled out quickly! Now he's growing like a weed! He's just starting to sit up unassisted, scooting on the verge of crawling, and, judging by the amount of drool and his extreme level on crankiness, is working on cutting his first tooth! He recently started solid food and is a big fan. Unfortunately, it seems he has some problems digesting dairy so I'm currently going dairy free! And it sucks. I miss my pizza and cheese in general. There's a possibility that my going dairy free won't be enough and he may have to go on a special formula but that's yet to be seen!

So, that's where we are! Hopefully, I will be able to stay on top of this blogging thing this go-round and will be back shortly with more rants, crafts, recipes, and all sorts of fun stuff! Until then, enjoy this picture of my kids getting along for two seconds! 

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