The Clothes
Boys are not much fun to dress. Girls get all the fun with the
frills and bows but hey I have to work with what I have!
I found some Very Hungry Caterpillar material panels at
Spotlight and waited patiently for the sale period (40% off woo hoo!)
I made a few shirts as practice and then went in for the
jumper. I was terrified I was going to stuff it up but I think it turned out
great.
I used applique paper to stick the material to the jumper
and then sewed zig zag around the edges so it looked a bit cheeky and rustic.
Of course, there had to be a number one on there somewhere so i cut out and
sewed it to the back of the jumper.
For the caterpillar’s antennae I knitted small, thin
tubes, stuffed with polyfill and
sewed it on. I think it looks gorgeous.
With the left over panels, I mounted one Caterpillar for the little mans bedroom wall and also made a snuggly pillow for story
time.
The Decorations
Ahh this was the most fun of all! Thank Goodness for
Pinterest for all the ideas and for my hoarding ways for the bits and pieces
that helped save not only the budget but also my time, as most of the decorations came
together in the wee hours of the night.
The flower caterpillar was the star of the show, hung right
in the middle of the party area. I’m so happy how it turned out! Here’s the
link in case you need directions....
www.marthastewart.com/how-to/tissue-paper-pom-poms-how-to
www.marthastewart.com/how-to/tissue-paper-pom-poms-how-to
I also put a few shades of green through the pile so it
looked a bit more textured.
Inside the house I decorated the walls with my party hat
pictures. The instructions are on my blog from April 28th.
I also wanted to show all the guests how much my little
fella has grown and changed so I decided to do a memory board starting from his
first week to his first birthday. This was really hard to choose what pictures,
I could have picked 10 for each month but I had to be brutal and just pick one.
I tried to pick the imperfect photo’s or the ones we had now put on facebook so
they were a bit new and different.
I covered the photo frames with wrapping paper and glued on the
photo’s. I also used Logan’s magnetic letters and numbers on a piece of felt to
do the labels. I just took a photo of it and printed it off.
I ended up with two big frames and then did one individual
photo for his One Year Old photo. I used the picture from after eating his
first piece of birthday cake.
Back outside the tables were of course covered in green tablecloths
with one round red covered table (geez pushing the theme here!) To highlight
the yummy party food i took a little inspiration mixed with budget thriftyness.
My plan was to make these....
But I had no luck finding the right plates and glasses at
the opshop so I had to use what I had....platic plates and plastic wine
glasses. This looked great but was a bit impractical as once some of the food
was eaten the plates got wobbly. Can’t win ‘em all!
I made food labels by scanning in the pages from the book
and pasting them onto recycled paper. Then I just sticky taped kebab sticks to
the back. In hindsight, i probably should have glued double sides but it still
did the job.
Last but not least was the party tent! The kids loved this
area so much and I really enjoyed decorating it.
I used my old market pop up tent and hung a mosquito net in the
centre. The lace draped over the sides creating a really cool little space.
Inside I put the ball pit (made from a baby bath given to me by a friend,
Thanks Carissa!) and baskets of water bottle shakers ( rice, beads and pasta in
water bottles) and a few soft toys. I laid down my pride and joy- a orange
paisley print rug I got from the Salvo’s for $5. Also added Logan’s play cube, bought from an Online Opshop for $30.
Tra laaaaaa Kids Zone was born and I must
admit I don’t want to take it down.
The Games
Every kids party has to have Pass the Parcel! Its an old favourite
and never goes out of style. I’m a fan of everyone winning something, so I put
lolly pops between the sheets of newspaper and wrapped a special prize- a lolly
bracelet- for the winner. We also did another classic, Pin the tail on the
donkey.
I had also planned to
do a Memory game, but most of the kiddies were a bit too little (and running
wild) to join in. The game was going to be based on the Hungry Caterpillar. The
first person was to name one item the caterpillar eats then the next person has
to name two and so on. Great game for older kiddles.
Now this is the point where i went a little crazy...The Felt
Story Board.
I decided that i wanted to tell the story of the Very Hungry
Caterpillar but just telling it wasn’t enough! I hand sewed the felt version
using left over scraps from the fabric box ( see my hoarding DOES come in handy!).
The red is from a Santa hat that was sacrificed! The board is just felt taped
to a photo frame. This was insane but it looked great and the kids enjoyed the
story. When Logan gets a little older,
he will be able to play with this again but right now its going in the
Childcare resource box for my studies.
While I was busy with the felt sewing I decided to make a “beanbag”
type game to play if the kids got too bored. I made throw the Caterpillar game
using the washing basket and it did keep the rascals busy.
This was made by machine sewing the caterpillar and filling
with rice and then sewing up the gap. Logan likes carrying it about now!
Last but not least
was the Toilet paper game. This was my favourite to watch...hilarious! (But
just a warning if you are going to try this game out..buy lots of toilet paper
because all the kids wanted a go and I didn't have enough to go around)
Split the kids into two teams and team leaders. The aim of
the game is to wrap the leader up as much as possible by winding them up in the
toilet paper. Grandma helped out with this one by counting out 10 sec intervals
and then the kids had to change over. So so funny to watch the kids run and the
leaders wrapped up like mummies!!!
The Cake
Ahh the cake! This was a bit of a struggle for me to be
truthful. Cakes are just not my thing but I think I did alright!
First thing was the cake pops. Now these are some very
fiddly little suckers but once you get the hang of it, literally its a piece of
cake. Organisation is the key here. Here is the link for the how to’s or you
can probably follow my directions and then I will do my best to share the
tricks.
First step, make your cake. Seriously it doesn’t matter what
sort of cake you use. I used no name vanilla cake mix, costs 70 cents from
Coles. Once you have made it, blend it
up in the food processor with some icing. For the icing, i stir up about a cup
of no name icing mixture with a tablespoon melted butter and about half a
teaspoon of boiling water and vanilla essence. You don’t need to add much icing
just enough so the mixture comes together like a bit of a dough.
Then roll into balls around 20 cent piece size. Place on a
tray with non stick baking paper and stick in your sticks ( I used Kebab sticks
and then trimmed down to size later)
Most important step!!! Freeze the balls with the stick in
for at least an hour.
While you are waiting prepare for the cake pop making as you
have to work fast. Organisation is the key!!! (The Salvation Army collector
knocked on my door halfway through my chocolate dipping and I swore like a sailor
and then ran and got a handful of money from the change jar and practically threw
it at the poor girl hehehe).... Anyway
so get your sticks and a bowl with your
sprinkles or whatever decoration needed ready. I also used a piece of Styrofoam
to poke my cake pops into to dry. So get that ready too and clear some room in
your fridge to put them when you are done too.
After an hour at least, melt your chocolate in the
microwave. I used normal eating chocolate because I don’t like the taste of
cooking chocolate or melts. (Now I'm no expert so i don’t know if this is the
right way to do this, but hey?) Be careful to stir the chocolate frequently so
as you don’t burn it and use a metal spoon (again no idea why but that what i
know!). Once the chocolate is runny, it go time.
I used a tablespoon to pour the chocolate over the cake pop
and then twirl the pop in the spoon so it is covered. Keep twisting the stick so
the chocolate goes on evenly and not too thickly, decorate, then stab your pop
into your Styrofoam to drip and dry. Once you’re done, pop the Styrofoam block in
to the fridge to set.
Now remember this was my inspiration photo...
So I was planning to make one red cake pop and 5 green ones
to make my caterpillar and stick the pops into a slab of cake cut to look like
a leaf.
So i made my cake pops and was planning on dyeing white
chocolate with food dye.
FAIL! I don’t know what happened to the chocolate but when i
added the food dye it seized up into chunks. Panic Panic Panic mode to i basically jammed
the red clumps onto the cake pop until it was covered. It actually looked ok
but it threw me off. So for the rest i decided to stick with using plain white
chocolate and rolling it in green sprinkles.
I must admit i did cheat when it comes to the base. I bought
an un-iced slab cake from the Sara Lee factory outlet and Hubbie cut it in the
shape for me and iced it green (He was so cute and excited to be finally
allowed to help (Bossy much? Me? Bahahaha)
Ah then came assembling the cake. Another problem! Either
the cake in the picture is really thick or its Styrofoam covered in icing
because when i went to stand the pops into the cake they toppled over. Nervous
breakdown #2 for the evening! (This is like 10pm at night too!) So Hubbie came
up with the idea of taking the pops off the stick and here’s the end result!
Amazing right! Hubbie and I stood there looking at it for
ages, proud as punch.
The cake is sitting on an old picture frame that I pulled
out and covered with wrapping paper and contact paper. I iced the words with
icing from a sandwich bag with the corner cut out. Pro’s haha.
So if this wasn’t enough, I also made 30 more cake pops so no one missed out (and so there wasn’t a
fight for who got to eat the caterpillar!) I displayed them in a planter box (from
Chickenfeed $2.99) and covered the Styrofoam with crepe paper and cut up wool.
So all up I spent close to $240 all up and it took close to two months of planning and preparing.
So was it worth it...Hell Yeah! Loved every minute.
In the end it may not be for everyone and by no means is this blog meant for bragging rights. I write this blog to keep track of my ideas, projects and inspirations and mostly to share really cool ideas with whoever wants to listen.
Also, Its kind of an online diary to show my babies how much their Mumma thinks of them.
Night Night from this Mumma. I have a new Tafe subject to tackle, starting tomorrow. First subject is now done with Dictinction average yippeeeee!
So was it worth it...Hell Yeah! Loved every minute.
In the end it may not be for everyone and by no means is this blog meant for bragging rights. I write this blog to keep track of my ideas, projects and inspirations and mostly to share really cool ideas with whoever wants to listen.
Also, Its kind of an online diary to show my babies how much their Mumma thinks of them.
Night Night from this Mumma. I have a new Tafe subject to tackle, starting tomorrow. First subject is now done with Dictinction average yippeeeee!
