little heartstrings

For 24 hours Organic Bloom 5×7 single frames are discounted to $10 off retail. So for $32 you can pick your favorite colors and styles. You can send me an email for a link to the ordering site and for any questions. Shipping is free for the holidays.

I don’t post much about my own family, but I wanted to share some of these party favor ideas and give you a peek into my life when I am not behind the camera or editing.
For some reason when I was signing up for things at Riley’s school I picked the Pumpkin Party. It definitely is one of my favorite parties to decorate and plan for, but it is awfully close to Riley and Reed’s birthday which is already party planning overload.
Click on the link for the detailed instructions for the witch’s broom stick treat bags and orange jack o lanterns.

Click on the link for detailed instruction for the spooky juice boxes. I used white duct tape from Target instead of electrical tape and it worked great.

Riley liked decorating his cookie but never ate it. He was too busy moving on to the next craft.

We used tootsie roll pops, kleenex, black ribbon, googly eyes with self adhesive (these were awesome as we didn’t need to wait for glue to dry, found them at Target and used them on the juice boxes too) and random stickers for making the ghosts fancy! Super easy craft.

Riley loved the bean bag toss, he was excited to get home and teach it to Reed. I must admit I was a little proud of his excellent bean bag skills. $5 at Target and worth every penny.

These little watercolor pages came in handy when the kids were finished all the other crafts. The sheets come with watercolor panels at the bottom of each sheet so all you need is a brush and water. After the kids were done we cut off the watercolor panel and threw it away and hung up the artwork to dry.

Last but not least the party favors. Everyone got a special book, a handful of little play-doh containers, a bag of goodies and stickers….to go along with the orange jack o lanterns, witch’s broom goodie bags and lollipop ghosts. These kids had the heaviest backpacks ever.
And of course by the time it got to getting a group picture I took off my speedlite and wide angle lens, but this is a pretty good attempt at getting 9 kids to look at the camera in a room filled with distractions.

Thanks to some of my crafty colleagues, the other classroom Moms and the wonderful site that is pinterest everything looked great and the kids had a wonderful time. I love that the party was less about candy, treats and food and more about playing, crafting and painting…..not to say that I didn’t have their backpacks overloading with play-doh, books, stickers and other special treats.
I’m so thankful that Riley has an amazing teacher and a wonderful school.