Pool Party!

My two oldest girls recently celebrated their birthdays.

This was a big deal not just because my babies are growing up, but because they decided NOT to have their party at our house.

At first I was sad about the party scene leaving our place, then it hit me.

 The mess would be someone elses ..... and I was liking the sound of that. 

There was just one problem.

How would I set up a cute party in 30 minutes??? 

The answer:  keep things simple.

Using some scrap plywood and ripped down 2X4's, M built me a tiki hut that I could set on top of our six foot table.

I stained it, painted on some surfboard-ish stripes, added at thatch roof {made from Dollar Tree grass skirts} and styled it up with a mix of store bought and homemade decorations.

I made this chalkboard menu with an old calendar holder and a scrap piece of wood.

It's super easy.

Just spray paint the frame any color and use chalkboard spray paint {I picked mine up at WalMart for less than 4 bucks} to spray paint your scrap wood.

That's it!

We made the drink stand with a galvanized tub and an old wrought iron table base.

Just attach them together with some nuts, bolts and washers.

I picked up the tub and table base at Digger, so my drink stand only cost me a total of $3!!!

Can't beat that!

Follow these simple guidelines, and even the cutest of swimmers won't be able to resist your food table :)



 Used my homemade cupcake stand, yet again.

This thing has REALLY come in handy.  Everyone needs one of these babies.



Our first 'away' party went great!

The girls had the best time and so did I.

Coming home to a clean house was a major gift to myself.

Thanks for reading!

I'd love it if you'd follow, share and pin :)

Have a great holiday weekend!

Pirates and a SNOW DAY!!!

What is it about snow days?  Don’t know about you, but around here we LOVE them.  And lucky for us, it doesn’t take very much snow to get school canceled.  They really should call them 'Slush Days', or perhaps 'It-Looks-Like-It-Could-Maybe-Possibly-Snow-And-I-Don’t-Wanna-Drive-In-It-Day'.  Call whatever you want; as long as we get to sleep in, I’m good with it. 

Last weekend my dear friends twin boys turned 3.  Her sons and my youngest daughter are a little less than two months apart, so we got to be pregnant together. This meant I had someone to go through the McDonald’s drive-thru with me and order 20 piece McNuggets.  Don’t judge me.  I’ve heard ALL about how they make McNuggets, and frankly when those pregnancy cravings are calling, you just don’t care. 

I offered to help her with the tablescape for G & B’s party.  The theme was Pirates, so of course I immediately had visions of pirate ships.  With help {a lot of help} from M, we came up with a really cute design.  Using $7 worth of dowels from Home Depot, some FREE wood I’d picked up awhile back {you just never know when you’ll need some 2X4’s, plywood, picket fencing, etc.} and some left over wood stain, we had ourselves a ship!  I made the sails from some misc. fabric I’d picked up at Digger and the table cloth was a striped one my mom has had forever.  I revamped the cupcake stand he built me this summer {used both here and here}, and we slapped together some “crates” using paint stir sticks {which the sweet gal at Home Depot gave me for FREE! Whoop whoop!!}  A basket made the perfect crow’s nest, some cute pirate bunting and this FREE printable finished it off.  Some of the pics are a tad blurry {sorry bout that.  I think I’m still having withdrawals from my recent break-up with coffee}, but take a look at what I came up with.

She had this cute Sock Monkey pirate already.  How perfect was that?!

I can't take any credit for this treasure chest.  The birthday boys' grandma made it from an old diaper box.  Yep, she's that good.

Treasure chest cupcakes.  Make the sand by crushing up graham crackers and dipping frosted cupcakes in them.

Just because you're serving pizza doesn't mean you can't make it look cute.  We arranged the different varieties on platters and it looked great!

I picked up this cute wooden treasure chest at Craft Warehouse for $1.50!  Score!!  Fill it with gold candies from the bulk section of the grocery store and you've got yourself a tasty little treasure.

Well, that's it for now.  Hope everyone has a great day, only two more days till the weekend!  Yay!!