D.I.Y / Second hand Birthday Party

My baby girl has turned 6 and my Professor is almost a year old. Whoa.

It was a challenging to think of a good party that could involve both of the kids and be fun, as well as age appropriate, for both age groups. Oh, and it had to be inexpensive! My house is barely big enough to hold my own family, so I decided to do it at our community centre. They have a lot of awesome rooms to rent, but the one I picked, is one that is used for playgroups and has a few couches.

For the cake, I knew I didn't want to do two separate cakes, so I decided to do some mini cupcakes, and cupcakes inside ice cream cones (I don't think I need to tell you that I got the idea from Pinterest, but I will anyway!).

These are really cute, tasty and best of all - really easy to make! Honestly! 
I poured the batter directly into the ice cream cone, about half full, then placed them in a muffin tin, and baked them exactly like I would bake other cupcakes.

I also made Abby a personalized cookie...

...and just an X for the Professor.

And of course, I couldn't let the birthday boy go without a mini cupcake! 

I'm pretty sure he liked it!

It was very important to me to have most of the birthday items be second hand, so I brought as many craft things from my stash as possible... 

I used old colorful file folders that I have laying around for people to cut out... 

I also found some crafts from Abby's 3rd birthday so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to break those babies out. Mel brought some awesome temporary tattoos that you can color in, and the kids (big and small) really enjoyed them!

Needless to say, the craft table was quite a hit! 

After browsing Pinterest for many hours, looking for birthday ideas, I came across a variety of things to do with balloons and/pictures. I knew I wanted to do something fun with some old birthday pictures, more than I wanted to incorporate balloons, so a friend and I braided some yarn, then I taped the braids between 2 pictures. 
Each picture was actually doubled sided, since I wasn't sure where they would hang and I thought it would be a neat effect that way. 
We ended up hanging them from the posts in the room.

The pictures are in order of Abby's birthdays, with the last one being The Professor. 
I think this is just the beginning for me of incorporating pictures like this into a 
birthday party! 

The gifts were awesome! Abby was thrilled with the amount of Barbie related things she got! I was pretty impressed at the Professor's ability to unwrap gifts! 

Tada!

Instead of loot bags for the kids, I decided to get each of the kids a second hand puzzle or game. My idea was for them to potentially play with them during the party, but they were having too much fun! But they all got to take one home to play with, so I think that's a win!

All in all, it was quite a success and I would recommend renting a space like this to any family who doesn't want the chaos that comes with having a 
child's birthday party in your home! 
I can hardly believe that a year ago I was at my wit's end with my pregnancy, and now I almost have a toddler..

The first year is bittersweet, but I do love birthday parties!

{Daily Odd Compliment: From now on, all my birthday wishes will be about you}

Genius fix

One of my pet peeves is to organise something and then have a family member disregard my awesomeness.

I have recently realised, however, that maybe it's not their fault. I need to find better storage and organisation solutions. I am ALWAYS on the lookout for new ways to reuse or improve something! This may be my first post about specific organisational ways that improve my family life, but rest assured, it won't be the last! 

Here are my most recent 'ah ha' finds...

I know I can sometimes be a little picky, but I am especially picky about my towels. Who wants to use the same towel as their husband? I'm sure people do, and that's fine... but not for me! If I am ever unsure as to whose towel is hanging, I wash it - it's not worth the risk! What if I use a certain part of the towel to dry off my face?! Gross. 

Anyway, here is what I have come up with - clothespins with our names on it so we know which towel belongs on whose body! 

I am pretty proud of myself because I actually didn't steal this from Pinterest!

{ Side note (pun intended): I came up with this idea in the shower a few months ago, but because I had nowhere to write it down, I forgot about it as soon as I stepped out of the shower. My husband mocked teased me when I saw this shower note pad, but I really want one! A lot! }

This next one, however, is a modification of the tension rod under sink, which I did take from Pinterest. 

 The Professor currently doesn't have a closet because the closet space in this house was thought up by a bunch of nudists. Most of his clothes fit into his wardrobe, but there are still some pieces that I want to hang. So, I put a tension rod between the wardrobe and the wall - tada! I guess it's not the most original thing around, but hey - it works!

The last thing, really isn't that spectacular, but more practical. 

This bookcase is hiding (sorta) our billions of TV related cords. I put all the movies that were on the bottom shelf into a basket. I am just starting to get into hardcore babyproofing, so this is one of those things. Now, when The Professor is up and about, I can simply lift the basket onto the table and it's out of his reach. To the left of the bookcase, which isn't super obvious, but I wedged a mirror in between the wall and the bookcase to keep him away from the wires, and who doesn't love looking into a mirror?!

That's it for now! If you have some genius storage tips - please share! 

{Daily Odd Compliment: You're like Britney Spears before she married Kevin Federline. I don't think I need to explain myself any further.}