Harry Potter Birthay Celebration

Missing Harry Potter? 

We are! We went to Universal last fall and we are halfway through the audio books this summer!  Our kids are all fans and we have a couple weeks of mellow, well, mellow for us anyway, so we are going to celebrate Harry Potter's birthday! July 31st is a Monday this year so we will be doing a bit of it during the day while hubby is at work and the biggest Potter fan is at football camp.  

I've got a scavenger hunt for after lunch. 

I just picked up some horcrux and other Harry Potter inspired items. Some we already had, it doesn't have to be expensive! 

A plastic snake, a goblet, an old book, a necklace, a wand, a piece of silvery fabric left over from a project, I really like the little plastic animals because our little one loves them. You can find a  Badger, Griffin, or a Raven. I found a little tri wizard cup, a lavender unicorn horn, Nevil will probably need help finding his toad a few times, and the bones of an Acromantula. 

We do some harder clues and some that are easier because we have a bit of age range for our Potter fans. 

I don't love butterbeer to drink because it's too sweet. This year we are either going to make butter beer fudge or butterbeer caramel corn, I will be winging that, if it turns out I will share :) 

After visiting the 3 Broomsticks at Universal Studios and having THE best roasted chicken ever, seriously the best, I am pretty sure we can do something like that with baby potatoes that is easy enough for our middles to do a lot of the work, they love to help!  We also have an owl muffin pan and they can make some corn bread or something in them. 

I will pick up some dry ice for the table and goodies for snack mix to make for movie watching! 

Here are some other things we have done in the past, none are to hard! 

What do you do to celebrate?

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Gold & Pink Party Inspiration

Usually this time of year is full of Birthday planning. But being in a smaller place and we weren't sure if we would be here or in the middle of moving etc. We decided to do things super simple this year. We are having a joint party for our oldest 2, their birthdays are 1 day apart. We rented the local swimming pool and I am getting a Costco cake. It's really whats best for us this year but makes me a little sad. I wanted to do a pink and gold party. I don't like gold that much but I love it on party supplies!! Just sharing some ideas I had floating around and some great sources for cute stuff!

I have a feeling I won't be so eager to do Gold and Pink next year. 

I always start with decorations, stuff like a banner or picture.

This DIY one is nice and basic

This one is more my style. I prefer less straight lines and more whimsy

But THIS is my favvvvvorite!

And outfits, ahh soo many!

Everything from over the top to super casual and super adorable

Supplies, things like silverware, napkins, think of everything you can do with some gold glitter!
And SO many cute treats and cakes!

Sad that we probably won't get to make this one happen, but if your little girl loves gold or pink and glitter, check out my Pinterest board  HERE for all of these links and more :)

Can't wait to see where we are for next years birthday parties! I feel like I am running out of themed parties for these big kids, they are growing so fast!

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Homemade Marshmallows~ Fun Treat and Gift

Friday is usually my least busy day, last Friday I had just enough time to whip these up!

We are packaging some up for a couple of friends and enjoying the rest. They are SO much better than store bought! This particular recipe doesn't use corn syrup, that was a plus for me!

I found the complete recipe here

Pretty basic ingredients

Water

3 Packets of Gelatin

Sugar

Evaporated Milk

Vanilla

Powdered Sugar

Corn Starch

I did add something, it really makes all the difference! This 1 little ingredient makes them so whimsical and perfect!

Edible Glitter! If only the pictures showed all the sparkle!
You can see a little but not nearly as much as in real life!

These would be perfect at a princess of FROZEN party! 

 

 *Olaf Approved Snow Bricks

We just packed some in a mason jar, perfect for your hair lady, neighbor, get well soon, etc. Easy and homemade and who doesn't love marshmallows?!

You can alter the flavor by swapping vanilla for other flavors. I wanted basic vanilla this time.

You can add some food coloring into the first step for colored marshmallows too!

 

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Shabby Country Fair 7th Birthday Party

Sharing the pictures I was able to get before my battery died of our girly's 7th birthday!

I wanted to go with a Shabby Country Fair Theme. Not carnival, but old fashioned fun!

I got these lights for a steal at Target on clearance a couple years ago, I knew I needed them for this party. 

I made this pinata, was hoping it would look like cotton candy!

Used some buffalo snow and spray food coloring. Both purchased on clearance!

Love love love the easy to make and inexpensive doily banners!

I started collecting paper and flowers that would go with what I had pictured a couple years ago! These little paper flowers were just right!

Pink Caramel Corn

Pie Fries, just pie crust, sugar and cinnamon and some edible glitter

Mini Pie Pops and cotton candy cookies

Ferris Wheel! I stalked this thing on Amazon for well over a year, just waiting for a deal!

Party Hats, with added pretties!

Cake, and favors to go!

We used the little plastic eggs for a egg race, on a spoon. Girls are cute!

We had a ring toss, so the girls could get a drink.

I used an old fashioned bottle crate, some of the cute drinks from World Market and some clearance glittler bracelets for rings!

Winner Winner!

Then we played BINGO. Bingo was always one of my favorite parts of our little county fair growing up!

Used little rhinestones as markers.

Then we made lipgloss! I think this was the favorite part!

We used little jars like this, and fabric to decorate the top.

For the lip gloss we used coconut oil, kool-aid and edible shimmer dust or edible glitter!

My sweet girly got a diary (she loves) for her birthday, and I don't think her friends were gone 5 minutes before she had this written down 

That sure makes all the insanity (and sometimes expensive) parts of birthday weekend worth it!

Next year.. I have NO IDEA. This is the first year that I don't already know what birthday's will be next year. I am hoping we can convince them to do a weekend birthday trip somewhere, the coast or something that requires less planning and less hot glue :)

My friend Michelle is amazing! She is super with a camera, even on a phone. I totally stole this from her instagram!

You can see the mini jam jars a little better in the center pic,

and the ring toss pop bottles!

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