Danika's Birthday

So I wanted to get a jump start on her birthday, since I want to do a budget. Her birthday falls on Easter this year.. But, we will celebrate it the weekend after. For the last couple of weeks, I have been talking to Danika about ideas she wants to do for her birthday and then looking up party ideas. Today, I went and printed up all my research, made a "rough draft" of my budget & it comes to about $1,000..
So now, here is my idea: MAKE IT CHEAPER!! I am going to see if I can find ideas I want to do and make it cheaper. Stay tuned for weeks to come to see what I can come up with. That $1,000 is including a bouncy house & petting zoo, food, favors, invitations, the whole shabang! Also, my idea is to keep track of what I buy, how much I spend, etc.. so I know years to come. Last year, my man thinks I spent about $1,000 and I thought to myself- uhhh maybe. But, I really thought close but not that much!! Now, that I looked at everything all together on paper for this year- I said OK probably!

~Starting to look good!! I can print up my own invitations, so no need to buy anything there. But, I do need stamps, which I have already bought. I will do some evites, but I still like the whole concept of mailing an invitation. Kids get excited for mail and then it is on the fridge and they bug their parents to come!!  :)


UPDATE: We did Rock Star Party, I made badges for all the kids that RSVP'd and laminated it. I hung them on a cardboard that I painted. Print up pics and the badge. Glue them together and laminate and I added a necklace.

Blue Badges for boys & pink for the girls!

Iced Coffee

I think I saw this on Pintrest- but not 100% sure. This is the greatest idea ever and I am so impressed that I do it all the time now!
I love Iced Coffee, I did not mind that regular ice cubes watered it down- I do admit though this is great! The girls asked what I was doing with the leftover coffee I was pouring into the ice tray.. It was funny.



I put it in a bowl and put it back in the freezer, in the way
back so no one else that comes over grabs any.
Then I can leave the ice tray for the real ice, also.

Treats for SuperBowl & just because..

I was going to do this project with the girls, months ago. The problem is the recipe or picture I saw had round pretzels and I have been hunting for them for months. I finally gave up about 3-4 weeks ago & figured I would just buy regular pretzels. I just lagged on getting the treats. So bored at home one day with one of the girls, I decided we could do the treats to pass time and to eat a little bit. We can make enough for the game, we made these on Saturday 2.2.13

We ran to the CVS down the street, to grab the essentials.
Now we started putting them together: Pretzels down on baking sheet- 350 degrees- I figured out after the

first batch only put enough so that the 2 of us could put the m and m's  on top before the kiss or rolo start to cool. So pretzel down and whatever chocolate piece next (rolo or kiss), then put in the oven..
Once you see the chocolate melt, you pull them out and add the m and m on top- pushing the chocolate down a little...

I did not really have the timer set, I just watched the chocolate melt. 

I would just make sure to check it every couple of minutes. The first batch was maybe 8 min- due to the oven not warmed up yet.

 
The picture is sideways, but you get the idea of what  they are suppose to look like! Hailey is grabbing them off the baking sheet and putting them on another tray I got out. This way I can put them in the fridge or freezer and cool them down pretty quickly. Also all the guys like them from the fridge. Hailey liked them warmed up, though.. So during the game I told her to put the one she wanted to eat in the microwave for 5 seconds. I have to say I am not a chocolate lover by any means, but those were so yummy! I thought I would like the rolo ones better than the kisses, but I was wrong. My boyfriend I thought would be opposite of me, because he loves chocolate- but he preferred the rolo ones. Very interesting I must say! What a fun way to spend a little time and make some delicious treats!