Princess Rapunzel party

 {what I did during my summer vacation}

3 little dresses for 3 little girls... here is the second birthday party we celebrated this summer... my daughter turned 4 years old, has very long hair since she's never had a haircut & she enjoyed the Tangled movie, so a princess Rapunzel party is was...

 simple homemade invitations (I used a hot glue gun to attach the flowers to the braided ponytail)

 inside the invitations:

Hear Ye, Hear Ye. You are cordially invited to a Princess Rapunzel party to celebrate {girls name} 4th birthday. The party will be held at the Castle {last name} in the Kingdom of {city}, on {date} at {time}. Come and be a princess for a day with a princess dress-up and princess luncheon. If you would like you can come dressed in your best princess attire, but there will be princess dresses provided. Princess {girls name} can't wait to see all of her princess friends.

 4 pompoms for the 4 year old

 pink ruffle paper baking cups were bought at Michael's

 can you tell my daughter's favorite color is pink ?

 I sewed all the 3 girls a dress (this took me 1.5 weeks) using this free Rapunzel dress pattern (I blogged more about the dresses here)

 I knitted & wet felted my daughter this purple princess Rapunzel hat using this free felted princess hat pattern. I knitted a pink one for my daughter's first birthday :)

during the birthday party we did braids in the hair, painted finger & toe nails, putting on little flower stickers that go on nails, then we did a few little crafts. the girls were thrilled playing tea party in the shade of a big tree with a pink chandelier. it was a very hot day, so later after they put on their swimsuits they ran through the sprinkler & threw water balloons.

if you plan on throwing a princess birthday party here are more ideas:
from books:
Pink Princess Cookbook by Barbara Beery

 Pink Princess Cupcakes by Barbara Beery

on the web:
Rapunzel hair that could be used as a decoration

medieval princess bag

cardboard Rapunzel photo booth

Tangled Tower Cupcake

Tangled inspired birthday party

PS next summer we're planning a ballet theme, I plan to sew all the girls a tutu

octopus themed 8th birthday party

 {what I did during my summer vacation}

in our family we have 2 summer birthdays... here was the first party we had this summer & be sure to come back tomorrow for the second...

so when your child's favorite animal is the octopus, you just have to throw them an octopus party for their 8th birthday, right ?

it was my second son who turned 8 and his favorite colors are yellow & red as you can probably guess from these photos

 simple homemade invitations & wall decorations

and lots of yellow, red, & octopus food:

hot dog octopus, banana octopus, octopus legs (white cheddar cheetos), potato chips, fruit kebobs, white cheddar cheese shell pasta, fish crackers, Swedish fish, yellow punch (in a fishbowl shaped punch bowl), yellow cupcakes.

more octopus ideas I came across: octopus bell pepper in dip, apple & grape octopus, and a craft of an octopus made out of a toilet paper tube.

PS next summer we're planning a LEGO theme... I'm already getting so many great ideas here, here, here, & here.

gluten-free homemade popsicles

 {what i did during my summer vacation}

we had a hot & humid summer, did you, too ?  so to help manage the heat I bought popsicle molds at this store and here are some of the gluten-free homemade popsicles we enjoyed during the heat...

 coconut pops from "Pops! Icy Treats for Everyone" by Krystina Castella recipe can also be found here

 chocolate Oreo pudding pops (i used gluten-free Oreos)

 leftover punch (frozen strawberry mix, lime juice & 7UP)

 chocolate kiwi popsicles

 popsicle made out of the leftover chocolate/coconut oil mixture from the chocolate kiwi popsicles

 lemon yogurt with cut up fresh raspberries

 cantaloupe from "Ice Pops: Recipes for Fresh and Flavorful Frozen Treats" by Shelly Kaldunski

more ideas:

books:
Pops! Icy Treats for Everyone by Ktystina Castella

 looks like this one uses graham cracker crumbs ?  so if you are gluten-free, then be sure to use a gluten-free substitute

 Ice Pops: Recipes for Fresh and Flavorful Frozen Treats by Shelly Kaldunski

 so frosty

 so pretty

 I really want to try dipping some in dark chocolate, then chopped nuts

 more frosty ones

and another thing I'd like to try is putting a cinnamon stick in as the popsicle stick

on the web:
check out this blog post about the "Ice Pop Joy" book
50+ Homemade Popsicle Recipes

just a few tips from my gluten-free kitchen to yours...

have a great weekend mes amies ~ see you on Monday =)

summer vacation

{what i did during my summer vacation}

:: right off the bat, I started my summer with cutting my oldest son's jeans into shorts, these pair of jeans had holes in the knee anyway (I noticed it's always the right knee that gets the hole), it's so easy 'sewing' boys a summer wardrobe isn't it ?  the leftover bottom pant legs were added to my ever growing pile of denim, I really should get around to counting how many jeans & denim pieces are in that pile AND finally decide what I'm going to do with it all...

:: my kids discovered Lucky Charms cereal for the first time, such fun colorful marshmellows :) Lucky Charms cereal is not certified gluten-free, but gluten-free enough for my oldest son & I

:: I baked smores cookies & they were a big hit

:: I tried macarons (a lovely French confection) which are fancy sandwich cookies, AND they are gluten-free thanks to almonds, for local people, you can buy them here

:: I knitted some washcloths for Knit for Japan 

:: we have been enjoying a few of Minnesota's 10,000 lakes (actually there are more than 10,000, but who's counting?) which included 4 weeks of swimming lessons, one case of swimmer's ear, & a little bit of sun burn

:: I came across this library savings calculator & it is fascinating !  how much do you save by using the library ? check it out !   our family saves $1160 per month !!!  (that's $290 per person per month), isn't that unbelievable & fabulous all at the same time !?!  and we're not even officially a homeschooling family...  we do use the library A LOT, go there twice a week, & have 70-some items checked out all the time. I check out a ton of craft books & cook books, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised by how much money we're saving.

:: I hope you have had a good summer & continue to enjoy it before it ends

hungry caterpillar

{what I did during my summer vacation}

it feels good to be back after a blog break... I'll share more tomorrow & the next couple of weeks of what I did during our summer vacation, but for today here is the result of my idea of turning these caterpillar photos into a stop motion video with my husband's help :)
I got the idea thanks to my oldest son who is really into making stop motion videos, he makes ones much much better than this one, btw...
but anyway, my children found this caterpillar at the beach & took it home. it was on my second son's arm eating a leaf & I just kept shooting away with the camera.

enjoy & see you tomorrow !