Discount Party Supply sent us the Brave Standard Party Pack with some additional invites and paper supplies for me to review here on the blog.  They were just PERFECT for the party.  The standard party pack included 8 dinner plates, 16 lunch napkins, 8 9-oz cups, 8 invitations, a 24 pack of green plasticware, lavender streamers, green streamers, 15 lavender balloons, 15 green balloons, a lavender tablecloth, and spiral birthday candles.  I also purchased the Brave banner, stickers, horse favors, green favor bags, and thank you notes in addition to the promotional package they sent me.  I was very pleased at how user-friendly their website was and ordering was very easy.

So, now for the party details!

The Invitation

The Decorations

 I kept the decorations pretty simple.  I hung the Brave party banner over the buffet and draped the buffet with some plaid material that my mom purchased for the party.  I used the plastic lavender tablecloth for the dining room table and placed a long strand of fake ivy along the center.  At each place setting was a plaid sash for each guest with a personalized monogramed “brooch”.  (My dear friend, T.S. Lamb, created the brooches!)

And … In our foyer I had my son’s large brown bear stand-in for Queen Elinor.

Party Activities and Games

When the girls arrived (there were 7 including Honor) I helped each of them put on their sash and brooch.  We then sat together in the living room so I could read them the story of Brave (I used the Little Golden Book version, which we already had and was perfect for this occasion!).  Honor thought this would be a really good idea since some of her friends had told her that they hadn’t seen the movie or knew anything about Merida/Brave.  They all ended up being very interested in the story!

After the story, it was time for some archery.  I purchased a great Brave bow & arrow set, but it was a bit tricky for Honor to do on her own and I was pretty sure they other girls would get frustrated with it too.  So, instead of play archery … we played:

 We used the target that I purchased when I bought the bow & arrow set, but then cut out arrows out of purple paper.  In hindsight I would recommend making the arrows a bit wider because it was hard for the girls to hold on to the arrows to “pin” them (especially once they were blindfolded).  I used a small roll of tape so that the arrows would adhere to the target.  I used an extra sash as the blindfold.

Once we had all chosen our own fate and successfully completed “pinning” the arrows on the target, we decided we needed to do a little fishing.  And by fishing I mean playing “Catch the Fish” – which was my Brave party rendition of Hot Potato.  I had the girls all sit in a circle and pass around a plush fish while I played music from the movie’s soundtrack.  When the music stopped that meant that girl “caught the fish” and she was able to sit up on the couch and cheer on the others.

The final game we played was …

My friend (the very same one that made the personalized brooches for the party) just happened to have a knit haggis.  (I know, right?  Who on earth would have a knit haggis?!? She would!).

This was the easiest game and the one that the kids enjoyed the most.  I would hide the haggis in the front yard while the kids waited in the backyard (and vice versa for following games). We structured it as a group effort rather than competitive.  It was hilarious seeing the kids running around yelling, “Where’s the Haggis?!?  Let’s find the Haggis!”

The Food

Some of the menu ideas I got from my party “research” I did on Pinterest.  I found these super cute Bear Claw cookies, so I made my super easy version using chocolate chocolate chip “break & bake” cookies and slivered almonds.

Honor picked out a beautiful custom cake at a local grocery store bakery that had an image of Merida/Brave on it.  Unfortunately they waited until the day before the party to inform me that they longer carried that cake.  (urgh!)  So, we went to another bakery and she picked out this cake.

Although it wasn’t a Brave cake, it was pretty and VERY yummy … so it made a pretty good stand-in for a “spell cake”.  (Luckily we didn’t all turn into bears!)

Along with the “spell cake” we also had some “Blue Wisp” ice cream (aka Blue Moon ice cream).  And also had a bowl of fresh strawberries for the ladies to munch on.

To wash it all down we drank some Magic Potion out of the witches caldron.

Merida’s Menu ended up being a great dessert buffet for all the Brave party guests!

The Goody Bag

Each guest went home with a goody bag filled with a snack size baggie of chocolate teddy grahams, a snack size baggie of goldfish, and a small plastic horse favor to represent different parts of Merida’s story and the party.  I used the small stickers to embellish the snack bags and the larger stickers on the outside of the green goody bag.

I have all of these ideas (and more) pinned to my “Brave Party Ideas” Pinterest Board.  I also highly recommend checking out Discount Party Supply on Pinterest to find party ideas of all kinds!

The ABCs of

And now for this week’s Kids Co-Op Linky!

The ABCs of 

And now for this week’s Kids Co-Op Linky!

My daughter LOVES princesses.  Anything and everything to do with princesses.  She is well-known (on this blog and in real life) for regularly wearing a princess dress … or at least clothes with princesses on them.  With that being her passion we read a lot of books about princesses.  Here are some of her favorites:

Disney Princess Books

• Sleeping Beauty, adapted by Michael Teitelbaum, (Disney, Little Golden Book)
• Cinderella, (Disney, Little Golden Book)
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, (Disney, Little Golden Book)
• Brave, (Disney-Pixar, Little Golden Book)
• Tangled, adapted by Ben Smiley (Disney, Little Golden Book)
• Beauty and the Beast, adapted by Teddy Slater (Disney, Little Golden Book)
• The Princess and the Frog, adapted by Victoria Saxon (Disney, Little Golden Book)
• Princess: The Essential Guide, by Naia Bray-Moffatt & Catherine Saunders (Disney)
• I Am a Princess, by Andrea Posner-Sanchez (Disney Princesses, Little Golden Book)
• Good Night, Princess!, by Andrea Posner-Sanchez (Disney Princesses)
• Polite as a Princess, by Melissa Arps (Disney Princess)
• An Invitation to the Ball/The Next Princess, adapted by Andrea Posner-Sanchez (a 2 in 1 Cinderella book)

Other (fun, wonderful, and sometimes delightfully surprising) Princess Books:

• Do Princesses Wear Hiking Boots?, by Carmela LaVigna Coyle
• The Paper Bag Princess, by Robert Munsch
• The Princess and the Dragon, by Audrey Wood
• The Very Fairy Princess, by Julie Andrews & Emma Walton Hamilton
• The Storytelling Princess, by Rafe Martin
• Dora Saves the Crystal Kingdom, adapted by Molly Reisner
• Princess Potty, by Samantha Berger
• Princess Party, by Joy Allen
• A Gold Star for Zog, by Julia Donaldson

And for even more suggestions on Princess Books, check out …

• Positive Princess Books for Kids, by No Time for Flashcards
• 17 Books for Preschool Girls, by Giving Up on Perfect
• The Worst Princess, by Here Come the Girls

Did we miss any?  If so, I’d love for you to share any princess books that you love to read with your own princesses!  Please leave a comment below!

Henry’s first grade class had a homework project to go along with their unit on insects.  They were instructed to make an insect out of “anything” they wanted.  Henry told me that he wanted to make a wasp .. and he wanted to make it out of paper.

He started with a yellow piece of paper, which he crumbled up and then made some markings on it with a black Sharpie.  This became the abdomen.  Then he got a black piece of paper and crumbled it up too.  He found some yellow sticky tabs and placed those on the black crumpled paper.  This became the thorax.  Henry taped the “abdomen” and the “thorax” together … being quite liberal with the tape.  Next he got another piece of black paper and started making cuts in it.  He then took a second piece of yellow paper and crumpled it into a ball and placed it in the center the black paper with holes.  This made the head … which he taped onto the thorax (again, no shortage of tape).  He added white paper wings (including drawn in details), sparkly gold pipe cleaner antennae, 2 google eyes (we just happened to have some in yellow & black), and 6 toothpick legs.

Part of the assignment was to learn more about the insect and write a short report on the findings.  We found a great kid-friendly site to get the research done … PestWorld for Kids.  The site has lots of information and ideas for lesson plans, science projects, and even games.  From the site we learned …

• There are 4000 kinds of wasps in the United States.
• Hornets and Yellow Jackets are both wasps.
• Wasps are  3/8″ to 5/8″ in size.
• Wasps are most active during the day.
• Most wasps live less than a year.
• Wasps like to live around humans.
• Wasps eat spiders, insects, and human food.  They especially love meat and sweets.
• Wasps can sting many times.
• Wasps build nests underground or in trees, shrubs, or in holes in walls.

I was pretty skeptical on how it would come together (a wasp?  out of paper???), but I’m thankful that I sat back and let him go forward with his idea.  I was also very surprised that he chose a wasp.  He HATES wasps!  And for good reason; he got stung twice the summer he was 3.  However, I think the project helped him work through some of his fear. (fingers crossed!)

You make an …

Like most kids my sweeties are always picking wildflowers and giving me bunches of them.  I saw this cute idea from the Red Chair blog on Pinterest and just had to give it a try myself!

All you need is leftover marker caps (ya know, from all those dead markers because your kids keep leaving the caps off) and a glue gun.

The kids helped created some of them … bunching the caps together in a certain order and then I would use my hot glue gun to adhere the caps together.

Once they were all glued together …

all we had to do is add the flowers!

I was really happy how they turned out and think they will be a great gift for Mother’s Day and for the kids’ teachers!  And, I will definitely be using a few of them for myself to hold the precious little flowers I know my kids will be bringing all throughout the summer!

The ABCs of

And here is this week’s Kids Co-Op Linky!

I decided to create a Motor City Hen.  Living in suburban Metro Detroit almost my entire life I have a very special love for the city.  As the starting ground for the automotive industry, the birthplace of automation alley, and still the headquarters for the Big 3 (Ford, Chrysler, and GM) … Detroit is strong, tough, passionate.  It is the Motor City.

My hen is made from the template from MollyMoo. I used newspaper and a homemade flour/water paste for the paper mache.  After my hen was dry I painted her with acrylic black paint.  Once dry again, I used washers and nuts for her eyes and foam for the beak and waddle.  I printed out a photo collage of cars from Google to use for the wings and tail feathers.  I also printed out the classic Old English “D” which I adhered to her chest using Mod Podge.  I gave the hen a coat of the Mod Podge to give her a polished shine … like she was just rolling out off the assembly line.  Speaking of ROLLING … she needed to have some WHEELS … so I inserted a toy truck in her “belly” to give her some MOtor City MOtion!

T0 check out all the hens created for the challenge check out the Hen Gallery on Pinterest! AND … if you’d like to link up your own Hen you can do so right here!

The ABCs of LalyMom

And here’s this week’s Kids Co-Op Linky! (ooops … due to technical difficulties I had to remove the linky.)

Everything you need is including right in the container!  You get …

… 3 colored glue packets, 3 liquid starch packets, 2 monster molds, 2 sets of small google eyes, 4 monster accessory pieces, and 2 stirring sticks.

To make the putty, first you need to empty one colored glue packet into the container (yup, you get to make it right in the packaging it comes in!) …

And then, add the starch packet …

Next, STIR!

The concoction begins to gel together … but it’s still pretty slimy and runny!

So the next step is to remove the mixture from the container and mix it up in your hands.

Before ….

After you are done mixing it in your hands for about 2 minutes, the putty is no longer sticky-slimy … it’s a stretchy, very pliable substance!

Now that the Stretchy Putty is made there still ALL kinds of FUN to be had!

You can use the molds and accessories that come in the kit to create your own putty monsters!

These monsters are fun to make and kids can enjoy to make them over and over again.  The putty is still a liquid so that after a few minutes the monster loses its shape.  You can also create your own faces with the putty …

And don’t forget there’s always just the pure stretching, pulling, breaking, tearing sensory play fun that you can have!

When playtime is over all you have to do is put the putty and the accessories back into the container to store it! (I decided to store each different color putty in a separate snack size sealable bag, and then put them back into the container so that we would still have 3 separate colors … but who knows how many times that will last before the kids decide to mix them together!)

I highly recommend this kit from ALEX Toys … it was fun to create the putty together and a great learning experience too.  My 7 year old was able to read and follow the directions giving him the sense of mastering in creating something new.  He made a comment while he was stirring the liquid packets together that combining the two was making a solid.  He’s learning about different states of matter in school so it served as a great experiment to go along with his knowledge.  My daughter, who’s almost 4, enjoyed helping out in the process of creating the putty … but really loved playing with it after the putty was complete.

I also can see myself using this kit in my work as a play therapist.  It would be great for kids who need help with self-esteem (mastering a simple creation), kids who have trouble following directions (step-by-step directions), kids with sensory needs, and also in talking about emotions because the putty can easily be created into a variety of feeling faces.  It would be a great addition to my play room!