4th of July Blowout Bash!

Both mine and my husbands family's are insanely patriotic. Mixed with that, and the fact that our daughters birthday is on the 5th of July, I guess it became inevitable that we celebrate by throwing an enormous bash. This is our third year and running on this party and it is loads of jam packed, Star-Spangled fun! It's exhausting but always worth it in the end to celebrate so many things we love and be with those we love as well. After having returned from a third world country just 1 day before this party, let's just say we truly appreciated the meaning of America this year. Here's all the fun we had for memories sake and to benefit anyone out there looking for some fun party ideas. First up; The FOOD

Mini Jello

Our traditional cookie hamburgers. Also pictured; food baskets and patriotic lining for the grub

RWB Fruit Salad

Layered punch & Cracker Jacks make you feel real patriotic!

We grilled up Hamburgers, and hot dogs and after we ate, we started playing some games/activities. I had a service project for the kids to write letters to our troops and we collected items that they requested, and sent a whole bunch of toothbrushes/toothpaste/floss from all of these kids dads.

Package for US Troops

Next we got into some serious All-American game playing! These kids were true competitors

After, we played Messy Tug-of-War, which was basically a disgusting mess of pudding and every type of Red, White, and Blue gummy that could be found on the store shelves.

One of our favorite things to do in the summer is blow up Diet-Coke with Mentos. A huge waste of $$, and a major mess. The American way. Each kid got to take a geyser tube and pack of Mentos home. If you have not checked out the Steve Spangler Science website yet, you need to do it ASAP. The Halloween party kit is killer too!

The fun didn't stop there...

Look at this cute baby!

No doubt, one of the kids favorite things we did was rent this dunk tank. It makes me so sad that I couldn't get better pictures from this party. I feel like there was so much fun on this, and all over, that I missed. Being in charge of everything and trying to take photos is not recommended. Next year, I need to hire some help if we do this again!

Pretty table setting

Probably the crowning "piece of fun" from the party was this waterside and slip-n-slide. I couldn't help but giggle out loud watching everyone go down it. Insanely fast, maybe a bit dangerous, and the ultimate toy for a kid. Definitely my favorite part of the night was watching my mom go down it with her dog! The kids didn't quite know if that was weird, or completely awesome! hahah Major win for the slip-n-slide. #godblessamerica

We also had Sno-cones, complete with a menu made by the Birthday girl...

A piñata filled with glowsticks, kid fireworks, poppers, and all things 4th of July. Thank you Summer!

 And a pie-eating contest for the books. It was hilarious! Thank you Holly!

And let's not forget the dad's that participated in the pie-eating contest now. Yes, this happened.

Here are some of the party favors, however this picture is awful, but don't want to forget the idea. A friend of mine made up these firework fun bags. Probably the coolest things in them were these 3D firework glasses. I found them at Hobby Lobby, and I saw this same link on Amazon prime before the 4th. I bet that will come back up next year. They were INCREDIBLE! Let me tell you! So much fun and made the firework show total 3D. Mix these bags with a Playlist from the party, and some poppers, and we had the ultimate take home loot!

And let's not forget the whole reason we even had this party. For this sweet girl here. This Ice Cream Sundae cake was something we made for her last year, and she really wanted it again, so we made that happen. The firework candles are the finishing touch and I got those on Amazon Prime.Really make the "wow" factor.

Happy Birthday to the All-American girl

We finished the night off strong with kids fireworks…and then the big show that will be even better next year. I'm a little scared to see it! lol. Happy Fourth of July! I love this beautiful country we live in.

& GOD BLESS AMERICA

Camping Party

Our sweetbaby turned 2 yesterday! To celebrate, we invited all his favorite friends over and had a CAMPING PARTY. As a disclaimer, I just want to say that when I put a lot of work into something, it is all made worth it to have awesome pictures to remember it by. I'm really REALLY sad we didn't get any awesome photos of the night. So many details I missed, but the other key to getting good photos of the event is to photograph the set up BEFORE people get there. I was snapping these photos as fast as possible. I would give yourself at least 20 minutes to photograph a party before guests come. At LEAST. That's just my advice though. Back to our fun little party...

We started the night off with a little hike. My nephew was in town and assembled all these adorable stick lunches. I wish I had a photo of all the kids holding them over their shoulders because it was just the cutest! They all found a spot on the ground to open up and eat them once we got to our destination. Afterwards (not pictured) we picked BLACKBERRIES from the bushes behind them. So fun! The kids all got a kick out of that!

Picnic-ing

One of my favorite elements of the party was this TRAIL MIX BAR. The kids (especially the birthday boy) thought this was pretty cool. I decorated some pork-n-beans cans with camping scrapbook paper and labeled each of them for the individual kids. They found the one that belonged to them and then filled it up whatever they wanted before we left on our hike. 

After we got back from our hike I gave the kids one of these bags with a pencil in it. This is one I pulled out of the trash because I forgot to snap a picture. I couldn't believe how long they were gone off looking for things. It was so fun to watch them come back with full bags of "treasures"

Could a camping party be complete without fishing??

Or taking a dip in the good 'ol pond? Also not pictured were dirt bike rides ...

Here's the Birthday Boy playing in his birthday present

And here is the how the cake turned out! I totally winged it and it ended up being great. I love when that happens! Not to often for me. The recipe was a mix of Creed's sisters famous chocolate cake, and my all time favorite frosting (a good friends' recipe) Also the candles in the fire and #2 sparkler in the back were insanely adorable!

And last, we finished the night with a big bonfire and s'mores. Notice the sneaky boy inside the s'mores bar….

Happy Birthday you sweet little camper boy of mine! HAPPY TRAILS to you all year...

Halloween GROSS PARTY!

Being a mom has brought out a whole new side of me when the holidays come around! I bet lots of moms can agree, really. My husband always rolls his eyes when the last week of September comes around and I am barreling down the attic steps with my 9 bins of Halloween decorations. I try to explain to him why it takes priority over all the things he needs help with but he never understands. haha. But seriously, what can be funner then having little kids discover the "magic" that comes with this time of year? 

I have been wanting to re-create this "Gross party" I had done several years back, so I collaborated with some of my friends and we put this fun night together for our kids. Coming up with the ideas was probably the funnest part of all if i'm being honest; barfing in my mouth every time I saw a picture or came up with an idea…(I was tempted to make THIS) I think if we ever do this again I will include a urine sample cup in the mix! Gag!

The whole idea of the night was to have the kids sample all types of gross foods. We lined them all up like so:

And then they got a prize for everything they were brave enough to try. (Prizes were found at Michaels & Target)

Here's a line-up of our "GROSS PARTY" foods. My favorites were the ashtray cupcakes, (complete with the candy cigarettes we all used to LOVE as kids…they blow real smoke),worms, real crickets (ordered HERE) and kitty litter

The reactions were priceless really. See for yourself:

Eating a real frog leg

We added name tags to the traditional pumpkin pale for them to collect all of their prizes in

Here's a picture of my buddy eating crickets. He is not as brave as his sister who prides herself in trying every.single. thing. that night. (Although she did bring some of them to eat by the toilet in case she barfed! haha) The only reason he ate these crickets was to get a Star Wars Pez. I found that they are getting older, which means they are getting smarter, and we had to buy some serious prizes as incentives.

Even the dads ate some!

And here is a disturbing picture of my baby INHALING earwax Q-tips. He must have had at least 13. no joke!

Washing it down with "brew"

We finished off the night with A Piñata, donuts on a string, and bobbing for apples.

P.S.  Have you met the bobbing for apple champ? She doesn't mess around! These pictures kill me!

So grateful for a fun family night and wonderful friends that made this possible!

May your Halloween be "GROSS" as ever!

Piñata

Donuts 

Apple bobbin'