Lego Birthday Party

I'm so excited to share the Lego Birthday Party we recently had at our house (that consumed my life for several days, lol).  It's been a blast.  I didn't do anything super complicated, but it was fun, and super cute.

Here are the details!  Enjoy!

Decor:

Lego Monogram:

While search Pintrest, it seems like everyone does the child's age that they're turning.  Like with my Button Monogram, I decided I wanted the Lego Monogram to be my son's first initial instead.  My plan with this is to actually drill a hole in the top, and then glue the Lego's on to the board, and hang it in his room.  That's another tutorial for another day.  

Grab a 10 x 10 Lego board.  We got ours from Amazon, here.

Next, we just searched through our Legos for colors and sizes we wanted and went ahead and put the letter on there.  Since we hadn't drilled the whole yet we just used Command Strips on our door hanger.  It worked great (and still is because I haven't taken it down yet, lol).  Easy, and adorable.

Lego Banner:

Next, I wanted to do a banner.  I wanted to try to do the bricks and the Lego head alternating, or I thought about putting a Lego head in the center of the banner and maybe even putting my sons name on it.  Sigh.  That didn't happen.  So I did the bricks, and it was cuter than I expected.

You'll need:

Blue, Red, Green, Orange and Yellow card stock (I used 8.5x11 and 12x12)

Scissors

Glue Dots

What you'll do:

*Cut the 8.5x11 in half (so you have two sheets that are 8.5x5.5), and cut the 12x12 in quarters.

I cut two sheets of each color, and I 12x12 sheet.  

*Trace something that is smaller circle (I used the bottom of one of my kids cups).  I got 12 circles on one 8.5x11 sheet.  I was able to fit 4 dots on each quarter of the left over 12x12.

*Next use some glue dots (or puffy sticker things, lol) and stick the dots onto the brick you cut in the above step.

Punch 2 holes in the top of each brick, string some ribbon through, and wha-la!  You have a banner that was quick, easy and adorable.

Legos in a Jar:

I saw this idea, where else but Pintrest.  I thought it was adorable, affordable, and so easy.  I usually don't get balloons because I'm weird and OCD about them popping and my kids swallowing the popped balloon part (my little little kids) and then have tragic things happen ... anyways.  So, I bought some balloons, and used pint jars that I already had, and filled them with Duplo Lego bricks, and then tied the balloons to the jar.  Cute table decor, and simple balloon weight.

Lego Sets:

Our birthday boy got a lot of Lego City (his favorite) sets, and we decided it'd be perfect to set them up as table decor to show them off a bit, and to fill in the holes.  It was so easy and so perfect.

I also used regular Lego bricks all broken apart for decor on the tables as well.  

Cupcakes:

I like to find fun, yet simple cake ideas.  I love decorating elaborate cakes (and think I'm amazing with them, but they don't turn out anything like my head thinks they will).  I've learned that if I simplify, it's much better and easier and we're all happy.

I let my birthday boy pick his cake and frosting flavors.  He picked vanilla for both ... so that's what he got.  Lol.  To add a little color I used Lego Molds and Candy Melts.  I just melted down the chocolate, and spooned it into the molds, and then put them in the fridge.  They harden quickly.  I just frosted the cupcakes, then put a lego onto, and they were done.  Easy, but fun.

I had some left over chocolates, so I used them as decor on the tables an the cupcake plates.

Games:

Party games are party games, and I feel like there are just variations of the same games over and over, lol.  We tried to mix it up a bit, and the kids had fun.  Here are our Lego versions.

Guess the Lego Bricks:

I found a big-ish jar, and had my daughter fill it with Lego Duplos.  I figured with 4 and 5 year olds having a larger  Lego would be better for their guessing skills.  Although the guesses still ranged from 15-100.  :)  Gotta  love it.

Lego Bingo:

I found a great site with a fun Lego Bingo Board, and it had a whole bunch of different boards, so everyone doesn't have the exact same board.  Here is the link you can check it out.

Pass the Brick:
I found this idea from the same site as the Bingo Board.  It was really fun.  I wrapped up a Hersey bar with green wrapping paper, then used a Sharpie to draw some circles to make it look more Lego like.  :)
Everyone sits in the circle, and you turn on music, and pass the brick.  Turn the music off, and the person holding the brick is off.  We had small tootsie rolls for those that got out.  In the end the person left not holding the brick wins.

Find the Lego Man:

I found a great little Lego Kirigami (which is a  fancy word for those cut out people that are like holding hands), which I found here.  The only problem I had was that I didn't use the right size paper, so I just got 4 little Lego guys.  Instead of redoing them all, I just decided to let the boys find the little Lego men.  I numbered them 1-8, and hid them (not in super hard spots, but enough so they'd have to kind of look).  We did this game twice.  The boys seemed to have a lot of fun with it.

Balloon Fire Fighters:

Since we love Lego City, and the Lego Firefighter sets, we  decided it'd be super fun to play a little firefighter game.  We drew a "fire" with chalk on our driveway.  We gave each child 3 water balloons and we counted and had all of them throw their balloons to get the fire out all at the same time.  They loved it.  

Party Favors:

This party was so so fun!  It was also so easy to pull together and I think it turned out great.  Do your kids like to build with Legos?

Fantastic Thursday Link Party

I am so thrilled to co-hosting the Fantastic Thursday Link Party from Five Little Chefs!  Have you been to their site, it's so so fun!  They have great ideas for cooking with kids, and crafting and creating with kids!  I love it!  I'm so excited to be working with them today!

Join in the link party fun!  Here is what you'll need to do before linking up!  

In order to have your link featured you'll need to:

Follow our awesome Host Five Little Chefs.  You can also join them on Facebook, Twitter, and Pintrest.

Follow Co-hosts: Jen, from Bakerette.  You can join her on Facebook, Twitter and Pintrest as well.

Follow Me as well at Simplistically Sassy.  You can also join me on Facebook, Twitter, and Pintrest.

Let's get started!  Link up and have a blast!

I need YOUR help!!

I would love some help from you all!  I entered my Pom-Pom Streamer into a craft contest and would LOVE you vote! Its super easy. 

All you have to do is click HERE. 

Mine is number 70. 

You click the "Vote" button ABOVE my photo.  

Only the top 20 get picked, so please help me get to the next round!

Thanks friends!!

Lego Birthday Party Invitations

We have a birthday party coming up next week!  I'm really excited about it (as long as I can get it all together, lol).  My 3rd child is turning FIVE!  What?!?  He LOVES Lego City so much, so that's the party.  We've done a Lego party before, but I wanted to make it slightly different.

I found the first idea for the invitations at Jessica at Zakka Life.  I e-mailed her for her  template, and I modified it a bit.  I was planning to do the entire thing, but life got busy, and so I simplified it do just the one side.  So my invitation doesn't open.  I just put the print on both sides.  We figured people would figure out it was a Lego head.  :)

You could easily trace these onto yellow card stock or construction paper and write on them, or print before tracing and cutting out. 

A couple years ago, my oldest son wanted a Lego party as well.  I was able to make these super simple, but fun invitations.  I just quartered a piece of paper, printed the word "Lego" and the various friends names on the paper, and cut circles (I'm honestly not sure how big they were).  As you can see, I did 3 that said Lego, and one that said the friends name.  To stick the circles on and make them more 3D like, I used the puffy scrapbooking square things (yep, technical), or you could use glue dots.  

On the back, I printed off all the information (that was before I cut them into quarters).  Super simple, but super cute.  :)

I got the Lego font from here, just make sure to use all capital or it won't work right. 

Easy Homemade Stain Remover

Tuesday Tip is finally here today!  It's been a crazy busy morning making party invitations, cutting vinyl for an upcoming post, cutting watermelon for the hungry kids (those are giant ... and take a lot of time to cut, just sayin'), picking up breakfast messes, and making sure kids got sent off to school.  Not to mention the random stuff that always comes up when I sit to do anything.  Lol.

Anyways!  Oh the the tip of the day.  Alright, when I had my first baby (almost 8 years ago ... crazy), my mother-in-law gave me a little recipe for a great stain remover.  I've passed this on to friends and it's worked great for them as well.  :)  I use this for pretty much anything.  Everyone once in a while I do have to use it before washing, wash, then apply again and wash.  Sometimes I let it soak for a while depending on the stain and how long it's been working on staying in the clothes.

What you'll need:
Ammonia
Liquid Dish Soap
Water
Bottle of some sort (I used that little bottle that they give you in the hospital after you have a baby, lol, and since I have 6 kids, I had a lot of them ... I think a spray bottle would work find too)

What you do with what you need:
Combine 1 part of each ingredient into the bottle.
For instance, my bottle is in ounces.  I do 2.5 oz of each part and get 7.5 oz.  Easy.  :)

For use:
Just spray it directly on the stain and scrub the fabric together.  Try to remove or lessen the stain with the scrubbing.  You can add a little water and scrub again, or soak if needed.  After scrubbing, add to your laundry load.  Make sure to check on it after the wash cycle is done.  I usually don't have a problem with it coming out after one wash. Every once in a while I'll repeat.  Spray, scrub, wash and then it's usually out.  :)

Best uses:
Blood (like when you find out your kid had a blood nose in the middle of the night)
Clothes that have had a diaper blow out on them.  :)  Gotta love it.
Spit up from those cute little babes
Other random stains ... :)  Try it and see what you can get out.

The Day of the Missed Poem

Last week there was one day in particular that was fairly busy.  My preschool aged son had a field trip.  I was planning to go along since it wasn't too far, it was right by my husbands work, and I could take some of the older kids, and drop the little girls off with my husband during his lunch break.  However, the field trip was at a different time than preschool normally was.  I'd been forgetting about it off and on, and was very concentrated that morning about remembering the field trip.

I was getting my 4 younger kids loaded up into the car to pick up my kindergartner, when I noticed I had a next a message from my friend.  It was a picture of my kindergartner receiving a little award. You see, I'd been so concentrated on remembering about my preschoolers field trip .... that I'd totally forgotten about this big deal of a day for my kindergartner.  It was Author's Day.  They had worked so so hard on these poems (she wrote like 6 poems, and drew pictures for each one of them, and it was bound into a book, and everything!), and they were having the parents come, and their child would read their book to them, and then they'd kind of make their way around the room listening to other kids.  When I realized that I'd totally forgotten about it, I stopped shuffling kids to their seats.  I stopped trying to get buckles done up, and I just cried.  I knew that I had totally missed a very important moment for my kindergartner.  I got myself back together enough to finishing loading everyone in the car, and drove to pick her up.

When she came out of school, I put my arm around her and apologized, and cried.  She cried, and asked why I wasn't there, she was waiting for me to come.  What happened?  I told her the truth.  I told her that I had forgotten about it because I was so concerned about missing the field trip (that she was going to come on with us, so she knew about the time difference and such), that I had just totally forgotten.

Through out the day, she would ask me again several times, "Why did you forget to come?"  I just had to reply back with telling her it was an accident, and reminded her that sometimes she forgets things too.  However, I made a deal with her.  While our family was gathered together later that evening, we would have a special poetry reading by her.  I promised we'd all listen to her and that it'd be super special for her.  I knew that since she was #2, of 6 young kids ... it wasn't going to happen so nicely.  Lol.  I also decided to take her out on  special little date.  She didn't have homework, and I knew she needed a little extra love that day.

So why tell this story?  As I was crying my tears, and waiting for my kindergartner to come out of school, I realized something.  I felt like such an awful mother.  I had missed this big deal of a day for her and just felt so so so bad (and I still do).  However, in the moment, I realized that I wasn't a bad mother at all!  I was sincerely sad that I had missed this day.  I wanted so badly to be there for her, and mad a mistake.  I wasn't trying to be mean, and I didn't miss it on purpose and make up and excuse.  I feel like because I wanted to be there for her and was so sorry that I had spaced it, that is the part of me that didn't make me an awful mother that day.  It meant that I cared about her, and what she cares about and the hard work that she puts into the things she cares about.

I love the quote at the top of the post.  I think it's perfect for this situation   I had made a mistake, and I knew that making excuses over and over was not going to be okay.  My daughters feelings were far too important, and my relationship with her was far too important to lie, or make excuses.  In any situation we need to remember that!  People are ALWAYS more important than things or problems.

I hope next time you're not feeling up to par as a mom, you'll remember that too.  As long as you care and are trying, you have no failed, you are not failing.  Do your best, and it is enough.  It doesn't mean that you or I will be the perfect parent for our children.  It means that we're doing out best to be the best for them, and as long as they see and know that, and we're honest about our mistakes to them, and try to fix them, then they will see that we love them, care, and are trying to learn just like they are.

Bloggers My Favorite Things Giveaway

Hi friends! I have been so excited for today to come, and it's finally here!! I have teamed up with several other bloggers to bring you this amazing giveaway today! We have put together the Bloggers Favorite Things Giveaway!

Here is how it's going to work. First, you can check out all the awesome girls that are participating. Their blogs are all linked in the image below.

Here is how it'll work.  One winner will get a Kitchen Aide of their color choice from the options in the image. In addition to that, they're also going to win a Bloggers My Favorite Things Basket. Basically that means you'll get a basket full of awesome stuff that we bloggers love. Each of our items will be right around $5! Once the giveaway is done, and the winner has received their basket of goodies, I'll make sure to post all of our favorite things (we will extend the date of our party so you can all know the cheap, amazing items we love). The giveaway will go until May 31st! So exciting, so awesome!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

How to Tweeze your Eyebrows

You might be asking yourself why I qualify to teach you such a thing for today's Tuesday Tip.  Well, it just so happens that I am actually a Master Aesthetician.  I know, awesome right?  It is fun ... or was probably.  I recently started waxing eyebrows every once in a while for friends.  It makes me miss it though.

Now that you know that I'm qualified (professionally) to teach you this, there is one more thing we need to clear up.  This was one of the first things I learned in school, and now it totally drives me crazy when I hear it.  We are going to learn about tweezing your eyebrows today.  We are NOT plucking your eyebrows.  See, the thing is, chickens are plucked ... not people.  Deal?  Great!

First, you'll need to make sure that you have the proper tools to tweeze your brows.  You'll want a good pair of tweezers.  I know it's not always a fun thing to spend a little more money on, but I'm amazed at the difference between a cheap pair and a good pair.  You'll be able to grab onto those tiny hairs so much easier.  The next thing I recommend is a double ended eyebrow brush, along with some little eyebrow scissors.

Before I tweeze, I like to trim  the eyebrows a bit.  Brush them down trim and also the opposite direction they lay and trim any hair that is extra long.  It will leave you with a cleaner look.

Next, you're going to figure out where you need to tweeze.  You'll take the handle of your eyebrow brush, or something similar to aline the eyebrow right. This will help you not to over tweeze, and get a good shape for your eye.

1. Aline the handle at the base of your nose on one side, and hold it straight up.  That is where the brow should start.

2.  Aline the handle at the base of your nose on one side, and hold it so it matches up slightly off from the middle of your eye.  That is where the arch should be. My eyebrows don't have a super huge arch in them, but that's where it kind of thins out the most.

3.  Aline the handle at the base of your nose on one side, and hold it so it matches up with the corner of your eye.  That is where the eyebrow should end.

Another trick I've heard (and tried before) is putting ice on your brow between tweezing so that it doesn't hurt as badly.  It's great if you've got a lot to tweeze.

So, do you love or hate to tweeze?

Bead Monograms and Words

I am in the (long) process of making our master bedroom, a place that I love and isn't piled with my kids stuff everywhere, and where everything has it's place.  It'll be a process, but I'm excited.  I came up with this idea, and have loved it.  It was tricky to figure out, but turned out awesome!  I'm SO excited to share it with you.

Okay, to start out, here is what you'll need:

*Quick Dry craft glue (this was like $3)

*2 packages of tiny beads

*Canvas (whatever size you want)

*Pencil

*Mod Podge

 First, you'll start by using your pencil and drawing on your letter or word.  You could also print off a letter from your computer, and trace it on there.  

Here is a close up of my L.  I tried to not do it too dark, but obviously wanted to see it.  I also wanted to be able to erase if I made any mistakes. 

Next, I used my craft glue and outlined my letter.  I started by just doing my L, and then my o, then I did the v and e at the same time.  Depending on the length of your word you'll want to be careful not to do too much at the same time so you can tend to any mishaps that may happen. 

I put my canvas in a pan (as best I could) and just poured the beads on the canvas.  I left them there for a couple minutes.

Then I dumped the beads into the pan (so they wouldn't all go everywhere, although a few did still).  Then check out your letter.  Try to fix any mishaps that may have happened.  If you have a super lumpy spot, you can use tweezers to move things around, or your pencil eraser to just push things around a little.

Just continue to do that.  Between letters I poured my beads back into the bowl I was using. Then poured them out again.

Make sure to grab loose beads, and be careful not to push the other glued beads too much since it's all not dry yet. 

I let that dry over night.  I wanted to make sure it was nice and dry before starting the next step.

Alright, the reason I wanted to use Mod Podge, was because I didn't want all the beads to randomly start dropping over a week or so of having put this all together.  I wanted to ensure that those beads were STUCK!  :)

What you'll do is grab your paint brush (small-ish one), and your Mod Podge, and just brush it over the entire thing.  Make sure to do it on all sides.  Remember it'll dry clear, so no big deal that you can see it when you're putting it on. 

Here is my sign all Mod Podged.  I again waited a full day (the full 24 hours) for this to dry.  I wanted to ensure that it was dry all the way through before hanging it up.

Here is a close up of part of my L all dry and ready to hang. 

Here is the whole thing dried and ready to hang!  

I found some ribbon I liked and stapled some on each side. 

Try to get both sides even when you do this (I probably was doing it too quickly and didn't do the best job with that ...). 

All hung and lovely above our bed.  :)  Love it ... it'll be perfect with the room when we're finished (someday).  :)

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How to tell if you're Crocheting Inside Out

A while back when I was getting into crocheting a bit more, I realized that I might have been making my hats inside out.  I was really confused.  I wasn't sure if there was a right or wrong, and had to search around a bit to figure it out.

Today's Tuesday Tip is for any crocheters out there.  :)  Is there a right way to crochet?  Can you actually crochet inside out?  YES!  You totally can.  Let me show you a visual of the difference.

First, let's see the right side out.  It's not totally "smooth", with a slight texture (this is all assuming your not using a fancy stitch you'd other wise be able to obviously distinguish the different between right and wrong.  This is half double crochet).

If you look at the inside of this hat, you'll notice that it's pretty smooth looking.  There isn't any slight texture to the stitching, and the stitches blend together more.

I know it's a little tricky to see the different, but hopefully that's somewhat helpful to any that may run into the this problem, or have questions about it.  

As a side note, something like an afghan obviously isn't the same.  When making a hat, or something along those lines, that's when something like this will matter.  :)

I hope this has been helpful!  Do you crochet?  If you do, what is your favorite thing to crochet?