Small Fry's 6th birthday was this past weekend, and we celebrated it by taking a camping trip. It was cold and rainy, but a good time was had by all, eventually.

 I figure what better time to bring back one of the most popular posts from Straight Stitches. For his first birthday, we threw him a Dr. Seuss party! So here are the highlights from that post 5 years ago.

So I told you guys yesterday that making the Toodles decorations was super simple.

What's even better is that the can be made with stuff you might have around the house. I had all of this stuff around the house so at one time it cost me something, but I'm going to ring it up at $0 since none of this stuff was actually bought for this decoration. :)

So I started off with two pot lids, poster board, a pencil, scissors and some red paint.
I used the pot lids as the basis for the Toodles template. I really just eyeballed the design and then traced. Once I had one done and cut out, I used the template to create all the rest. Its that easy!
After they were all cut out - the red paint comes out. Luckily it dries really quickly so I didn't have to wait too long before being able to paint the other side.
Then I just hung them up with curling ribbon and then added some more curling ribbon to the end and called it a day. :)

See super simple!

So last week I shared a bunch of Mickey Mouse themed ideas for birthday parties, and here's why!

My little guy turned 2 this weekend. I can't believe that he's already this old. How did this happen? Sheesh, time does fly, but I'll tell you what - we've had a blast.

So here's our Mickey Mouse Clubhouse party for Harrison. :)

So here's the balloon wreath that I made a while back. I love how it brightens up the front door.

This is what our guests saw when they walked in. I made the sign and I think it turned out pretty durn well.
 This was the dining room, which most of the adults used, which was just fine, because I didn't go to crazy in here.
 My adventures in crepe paper have not ended. I ordered extra crepe paper just for the party. Good thing Dev's party will also use primary colors.
 Here's the table. Like I said I kept it simple, and I'm glad I did, because the adults had fun playing with the confetti, which was a surprise.
 Here's the rest of the house as they come further into the house. I went a little more crazy with the crepe paper and balloons. I found Mickey Mouse character balloons at Walmart, which I paired with the rest of the balloons that came in my party kit.
 Here's a close-up of the sofa table, and I had fun with this. I made the toodles head the night before the party while watching, Secretariat, with my mother-in-law, but I'm going to share those tomorrow, because they're super simple to make. I didn't even use a template.
 If you guys read my post from last week, you'll have seen a similar subway art as inspiration. I really loved that idea, so I put my spin on it for Harrison, but then I went a little further. I have had these glitter chipboard letters for FOREVER, and I needed to add more sparkle, cause I'm a girl and I like sparkle, but I do think that the letters add some more fun flair to the otherwise very boring frame.
 I received this short squatty jar from Dana a few Christmases ago. I killed the plant that had been in it and since thing it's be added to the rotation of apothecary jars. I didn't really want to put these out on the table for the kids, since I was cramming 12 little butts at a table built for 6, so the jar was the perfect solution and helped fill in the empty space of my table. You'll also see some more Mickey Mouse characters scattered around. I'll tell you what - just having all these characters sprinkled throughout the house really lent to the fun Mickey theme of the party.
 I had all of the treat sacks for the kids stashed in a banana leaf basket in the family room, unfortunately only about half got given out, because I forgot about them {again}. I do not seem to have good luck with handing out these favor bags at the kids' parties.
 Here's the mantle! Finally we're to some more of the fun decorating! I made the banner out of stuff that I had lying around. I also did a Google search on free digital scrapbook page Mickey Mouse and found a nice kit. Unfortunately I don't  remember where I found it, but thank you to whomever made it, because it really saved my butt! I also found some more Mickey chipboard letters to put on the banner. Devlin graciously donated all those Mickey's for the mantle. They're all his, and one of the small ones was even Stephen's Mickey when he was small. It was such a touching gesture when he came downstairs with them and told us to use them in the decor. He's such an AWESOME big brother.



 Here's the main event! The kitchen table where I fit 12 little butts at a table made for 6. Thank god for the bench I made for a coffee table a while back, because that thing held 4 of the kids right off the bat! You can see I went and decorated  the chandelier again, and I love the outcome. This was also the first thing I decorated when I started the whole process, and the kids loved that 1) I had started and 2) that the chandelier was so fun, and they could try and find which characters I had put up there. :)


So here's a close-up of the kitchen table, and I love the wonderful chaotic mess of this table. I told Stephen when I was setting it, that it was like I was flipping the silly switch and this was the perfect interpretation of it. I then got told that I'd been watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse too much. Ah well - it is Harrison's favorite TV show. :)

Here are the rest of my Toodles. I taped one to the lampshade on the sofa table, and then decided to hang the rest of them over the island and the food for a fun touch. I really like that there's a transparency to these decorations, but there's also the whimsy. And they are super easy to make. I'm going to share the easy peasy steps tomorrow. :)

Here's the cake! Remember all those cakes I put up as inspiration? This is what Stephen came up with and I think he nailed it! He made marshmallow fondant and then went to down on the cake. My only contributions to the cake were the candles and the white piped icing between the layers.

Here is my cake contribution to the party. These are spice cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, because I don't so super sweet cakes, and there were like 36 people at the party and we had maybe 6 cupcakes and 1 layer of the cake left over for us. Not too shabby I think.

Here are the cookies I made. My boys actually like cookies better than cake, so I had to accommodate them. BTW - black frosting is possibly the best idea for a toddler's birthday party, NOT! None of it got on clothes, but the faces of kids - well there were lots of wet cloths pulled out to clean those faces. :)
We also had corn dog nuggets for the kids, along with various dips, chips and veggies. Not surprisingly none of the children hit up the veggie tray.

And last but not least......

Here's my birthday boy! He had a lot of fun with all of the kids and the tissue paper from the gifts. Luckily he did get into the gifts the next day after all the excitement had died down, but during the party he really liked that tissue paper.
Thanks for visiting today guys and thank you so much sharing my little guy's special day! I had a lot of fun doing this for him, and I had so much fun looking at everyone's ideas for Mickey Mouse birthday parties!

OhMyGoSh! Seriously, I am so excited about today's post! I loved all of the trees that were linked up! Some of the trees spurned inspiration for a 3-D decoration for Dev's birthday party this last weekend (more on this later in the month) , some made me go......I wish I'd thought of that! And some of them were just too lovely for words.

So without further ado, let me show off mine and the kids favorites. :) These are in no particular order.



I hope you guys have a terrific day. I have to get a wiggle on and get sewing....Oh if only the fabric pre-washed itself. ;-)

Well this is a bit bittersweet - the Open House is over. Well after today it will be, but I am excited about seeing all of your lovely Christmas trees!

Well let's get to the meat of it. The last Christmas tree. This guy is just a wee thing, but he's still apart of our tree family. The kids really like this one, because its usually the one that gets put up first.

I also like to add some Christmas cheer to the kitchen, besides all the baking that gets done. So here's my little addition to the counter top.
I want to thank you all so much for joining me on this tour. I had a lot of fun and I hope that you all did too. I'm including links to the other days, for easy navigating. :)
Day 1 - Outside Decorations and Living Room Tree
Day 2 - Dining Room 
Day 3 - Family Room

Oh, another thing I wanted to mention - Modern Country Style is having a Wreath Linky Party tomorrow. You guys should definitely pay her a visit and link up those wreaths!

So lets get down to the party! Its an easy party - no buttons, no need to follow, just share those trees. Pass the word along, if you like, but its not required. I'll keep the linky party open until 11:59 PM EST on Sunday, Dec. 12th, and then the following week I'll be sharing the favorites!



Have a terrific day guys!

Saturday was Harrison's very first birthday! Yay!

For his birthday we had a Dr. Seuss themed party for him. We didn't snag the photos that Steve's father took. Doh! I'll have to bug him for them :) Here's what we got though.

This is the view from our front  door. We have some trees from the Lorax. I made the pom-poms from Martha's site, but I alternated colors of  tissue paper since I did not have enough of any one color.






Walking into the kitchen, we had one more tree.

The hats did get put around each setting, eventually. :)

Here's the banner that Dev and I made early one morning two weeks ago. He was so proud of it.


The food is waiting to be served. I wish we had a picture of the island with all the food on it.

I had a little too much fun with the crepe paper. I don't have a picture of it, but the dining room's chandelier was also done up with crepe paper.

I found all of the gift bags stuff in the $1 at Target a few months back. They turned out so cute!


Here are the cakes. Steve made the Hat cake, which Harrison was oh so excited for when we pulled it out. The 'clover' cake balls proved to be a bit of a pain, but ended up tasting good regardless.


An appropriate movie for the theme :)

Here is the center piece over the island was a lot of fun to do. Even if I did have the hubs take the pictures while I was writing this post. :)



Here are my guys, waiting for the guests to arrive. Hopefully I can get the other pictures to share with you guys. In the mean time....Here's a guy that knows this cake is for him!

Such a handsome pair!

The hat last about 1 second after this picture was taken and H started using it as a spear. :) Oh on the day of the party, he learned to stand up from a sitting position without using anything for support, and his walking skills have improved so much over the weekend!

Dev was the hat-patrol during the party. He was the only kid to wear his hat and he gave hats to all of the adults and he made sure that they wore them the whole party.

I hope you guys had a good weekend. We ended Harrison's birthday with three of us coming down with a stomach bug....ugh. Hopefully it passes soon, because I am so excited to clean up the party decorations (yes, they're still up, remember I'm sick) and get Halloween going!

Have a great day everyone!


Linking up to Polly Wants a Crafter!