Looking For The No-Sew DIY Tooth Fairy Costume From Pinterest?

I'm so sorry for the inconvenience. It's been moved. Please Click here to find it. Have a great day!

Happy Halloween!

Looking for more DIY costume ideas and Halloween crafts? Click here!

Halloween Party Treats & Tips: Mummy Dogs On The Go!

My kids had their homeschool co-op Halloween party yesterday and there were some super cute treats!

I made Baby Mummy hot dogs. 

I decided to cut the hot dogs in half and make "Baby Mummies" since it was part of a lunch pot luck for kids grades TK to 4th and not the main course. However, we're making them again for our Halloween night dinner and we're leaving them whole and we're adding a slice of Colby Jack cheese before we wrap our mummies. 

These are the ones my husband and kids made with the cheese. He even added bacon to a few of them, and they were great right out of the oven. He cut the dough a bit thicker than I made them. I was really short on time and was making them incredibly fast. I was also dealing with a fussy baby who was eating in his high chair and throwing food on the floor. And I had a huge time crunch to get back before the kids started eating. 

Tips: I used a pizza cutter to slice the dough and I sprayed the cutter with cooking spray so the dough didn't stick. This worked out well. 

I sprayed the baking sheet with cooking spray and I sprayed the tops of the baby mummies too to give it a crispy top. You could also brush the dough with egg whites. 

I made some plain dogs too for the kids with gluten intolerance and I called them "naked mummies" and was met with many giggles. I realize it's hard for a kid to have food allergies, especially during holiday time at school and by calling them "Baby Mummies" and "Naked Mummies" the kids felt like they were included with the festivities and not just getting an after thought. 

I was short on time so I didn't add eyes. But no one seemed to notice. 

Transportation Tips: I realized that I was making a hot dish for a school pot luck and there wasn't a set time for the party, I wanted to keep them warm AND we live 25 minutes away from where the party was being held!!! So this was going to get tricky.

 I lined some glass containers with aluminum foil and placed a layer of mummies, placed another piece of foil and another layer of mummies, then topped it with foil and the seal tight lid. I then placed my containers into an insulated grocery store bag that is lined with a beach towel. 

After I added my containers in the bag I wrapped them with the rest of the towel and zipped it up. I was in the car in less than 10 minutes.

The food was delivered hot and the kids loved them! 

DIY Mama! No-Sew, Homemade Halloween Costumes Featuring: Rainbow Brite!

Remember Rainbow Brite from the 80's?  Me too!  She was Rad!  I loved how colorful and happy she was. She just brings a smile to your face every time you see her. Well, so does our next lil sweetheart, Miss Rainbow Brite made by DIY Mama, Allison.  She made her daughter's Rainbow Brite costume in a snap!

This was little sister's costume. Their Aunt made Sprite from a pattern she found online.

Total time: 30 mins
Total cost : under $20

Here are Allison's DIY costume instructions for Rainbow Brite:

Royal blue shirt (found at the thrift store.)

Two pairs of rainbow leg warmers one pair for her legs and a pair for her arms (bought online)

Tutu (I was going to use any color I found, but I was lucky enough to find this royal blue one at the thrift store for $2!)

Brite red shoes-(see what I did there?) - (Rainbow Brite can be seen wearing red or yellow shoes so take your pick. I didn't have any, so I found an old pair of sandals in our garage and painted them with some acrylic paint we had on hand. I think they turned out great!)

Red felt for the belt and suspenders (found this at JoAnn's Fabric Store but you can find it at any craft store.)

Wooden rainbow for her belt (found this at Michael's craft store already painted.)

Wooden star for her hair clip (found this at Michael's craft store. This came unpainted.)

Hair clips with yellow hair pieces and yellow ribbon attached  (found at the 99 cent store.)

Rainbow sticker for the cheek  (found at Party City, or you can paint one on if you're feeling artsy!)

Leggings or tights (Use whatever color you have at home since they will be mostly covered up with the rainbow leg warmers.)

*Allison Castellanos, mommy-of-two and owner of Allison Tutoring said, she was on a time crunch so she did not measure anything, she just made some fabric cuts however she thought it would look cute. She used the hot glue gun to add the rainbow to the belt, and the wooden painted start to a hair clip. She also hot glued the belt and suspenders to the t-shirt. 

Super simple and super cute!

Have you made your own Halloween costumes? What have you made? What are your kids going to be this year?  Let us know in the comments section below! 

Want more No-Sew, DIY Halloween Costumes?  

Click here to see The Tooth Fairy!

Have a fun, safe & Happy Halloween!

*heart*
Coco Cana

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Top 10-ish Reasons Why I'm a Crappy Mom's Blogger And Should Just Go Back To Being a Writer

UPDATE: OK, so I actually do some of these things now (like linky parties) in an effort to try to branch out and become a better Mom's Blogger, but I kinda suck at it - and here's why....

1.) My blog seriously has no rhyme or reason. Zero. It's all over the map. It does not fit into a cutesy decrative box I bought off etsy and then wrapped in an elaborate bow I made after reading a post,"how to tie cute bows"on Pinterest. One post on here will be about cooking or preschool crafting or DIY Halloween Costumes or kid's birthday parties ideas and earthquake kits for school/daycare, another will be about breastfeeding or postpartum depression or my water birth story, or a water birth poem or one about how time flies by so fast with little ones. Another will be a crazy, random rant about how I hate facebook and why I'm deleting my account the day my child starts kindergarten, then I'll write a silly parenting Top Ten, my attempt at giving parenting advice, about how to find the balance, or a love letter to my children and Spirited Child, and how we (finally) got our Spirited Child to sleep and nap advice in general, and then I'll send out a commentary on how we need to help the homeless, give thanks and appreciation to those who have sacrificed for our country and those who are less fortunate than us, even showing appreciation for what I have personally as well as trying to figure out how to make sense of a tragic world while protecting our babies. Oh, and I wrote a children's book, entered it into a contest and got it published too. ****

"Can you follow a script please? Geez!"  Umm......not..... really. Sorry.


2.) I'm long winded. I'm guess I'm just channeling my inner Hemingway. As you can see from the above post I kinda talk a lot and ramble - which translates into I write a lot which isn't really what people are into these days when they are cruising the interwebs for stuff to read. They want quick, they want in and out, they want 140 characters, they want Pinnable links that are all ready to go without needing to cut, paste and add a description and they want awesome, fabulous, creative pics. The average post these days is like 8 words long and filled with a zillion DIY pics that most likely took 3 weeks to complete. Mine are just filled with a bunch of words. And my grammar/spelling sucks. I realize this. I do try to change it and correct it if I see it but I am also aware that there are probably grammar nuts who are cringing while reading this. Feel free to red pen this mo fo. I'm ok with that. ...that is if you are still reading it.

3.) I don't write about celebrities or their crazy antics at awards shows or whatever they do to try to stay relevant. I also don't write about their babies because that is their private life and I believe that a baby and a child has the right to a private life regardless of who their parents are. That is a huge market for mom's bloggers/mom's message board blogs I've noticed but it's just too gossipy for me. Besides, I don't know these people. No one really knows them - unless you are actual friends with them in which case I doubt you'd be blogging about their crazy antics and still call them a friend. It's just not my thing. But I do know how hard it can be to be a new parent without being in the public eye with your every parenting decision under a microscope, like in this Top Ten Unfortunate Places For Your Toddler To Throw A Tantrum - nightmare! That alone makes me glad I'm not a celebrity mom! I also know that 99.999% of what you read on those sites is all BS. I don't think mom's should judge each other on how they parent or birth. Even when they are a celebrity. The child didn't choose that life and that is their mother who loves them with all of their heart and they will grow up and read the internet someday. Don't be a jerk and a lie spreader. That's just poor people skills and very lazy writing. Like my dad always used to say, "If you can't say something nice then don't say anything at all." Which brings me to #4.

4.) I will not under any circumstances sell out my children or husband for a laugh in a mean or hurtful way. I have said or shared some funny things about my kids that someday they too might find funny. But I will not degrade them, embarrass them, make fun of them, tease them, harass them, pick on them, call them names, laugh at the things they haven't learned yet or post naked pictures of them on the potty with a caption underneath telling the world from here on out the age at which they made their first big toilet poop. Jr. High/middle school is hard enough without the threat of finding your frenemy's old, old, old ass pic from their potty training days where their mom posted a pic of them pointing at the doo doo they made on the potty - which then gets printed up and shared all over school. Let's clarify - I do have pics like these because I'm a mom it's part of the job description, but they will never see the light of day on the internet. For this reason alone, I don't really relate well to some (most) of the other "mom humor bloggers" out there. I feel that sometimes it gets a little mean and bully-ish all in the name of a laugh and blog hits. It just reeks of jr. high to me. "Maybe they'll think I'm cool (funny) if I say this crappy thing about my friend (in this case, my own kid.)"  Not gonna do it.  I also do not feel comfortable in anyway plastering their faces all over my blog and tweeting pics of them constantly with their sweet lil baby faces. That is not to say that I don't have any pics of my kids on my blog. But some bloggers go above and beyond posting constant pics of their children.  To clarify, I'm not opposed to seeing pictures of kids online, I am a mom who loves kids - I'm just kinda surprised to see these children's faces posted so often online by their own parents to be honest.  People are weird and people collect pictures of children on their computers that they don't even know. (I have a cop neighbor who deals with catching child internet pedophiles and child porn freaks and weirdos. They collect pics from the internet even if you don't think it seems like it would be a pic they would steal. More on that later.) Also, bloggers don't realize how much personal info they share on their blog over the many posts they write, talking about where they live, etc and it's really easy to connect the dots if you are trying to. The "child shaming pics" (as well as "dog/cat shaming pics") are real hot right now too, like the "get along shirt" pics, give it 5 years and your child will hate you for posting that pic of them online looking pissed and embarrassed for fighting with their sibling. These pictures don't ever go away. ever. Especially if they have been pinned on Pinterest - which they have. A trillion times. If you did a search for first day of school pics on twitter you'd be shocked at how many people posted pics of their child standing in front of their school sign and gave out basically every bit of info on that child. Their full name, age, grade, school, teacher, school address and phone number, the child's face and if you just click on the parent's profile you'll find everything out about them in no time some way or another. Not too smart. Everything changes when you see a picture of your child after doing a search on yourself or when it's been posted/linked from someone else's blog or gets hacked on a pregnancy message board for a fake profile of someone who is pretending to be pregnant with her 3rd set of twins in 3 years. Some people are totally OK with giving their child to the internet. Call me paranoid, I can take it. I just want my kids to be their own person and not have someone come up to them someday saying, "hey I've seen you before on your mom's blog talking about...whatever."

5.) See #2

6.) I love my husband and am very impressed with his mad skillz as a 100% hands on dad so I don't complain about him via my blog on the rare occasion I am upset with him for something. And really, who wants to read about some lady who is gushing over her hubby 24/7. *gag*  So, it's kinda back to the point on #4. I don't sell my family out for a laugh and that is a huge market right now which is a sad commentary on our society I think. I realize that the blogger finds it funny and most likely harmless to poke fun at their kids so that other people can then laugh at them and share the post on their page so even more people can comment and laugh at them too and then ...well... you know what I'm going to say here. We don't need to go getting all "after school special" over here. It's just not cool.  However, I did write this Top Ten about husbands and guys in general.

7.) I do not have any type of blogging/posting schedule therefore I have no repeat followers coming back every week for my "Happy Friday Post," or my "DIY Tuesday Post," or my "Manic Monday Post" or my "Selfie Sunday's post,"or my"Weekly Recipe Roundup Post." I'm making all of this stuff up btw. If there are actually people doing these actual blogs I'm not actually picking on you. I'm just not that organized to do something weekly. I kinda envy those mom bloggers because they seem uber organized and...well...I'm not. This is a take it when you can get it kind of blog. Like a lending library or one of those little penny trays at the grocery store. Take what you need and leave the rest.

8.) I don't have anything for 8. I don't have a clever, ironic or extremely cute pic for it either. Sorry. I didn't plan this out very well.

9.) I worry about stupid stuff like, "how in the world do some mom's bloggers have 50 comments on a single post and I'm wondering if anyone is even reading anything?" Crickets. To be honest, I've actually gotten over that one...a bit. You know, that's why I've listed it as #9.

No, no, it's ok I'm not crying I just have an eyelash in my eye. It's cool. We're good here. I'm not really sad about not ever having any readers or comments. It's all good.

10.) For the most part I'm kind of a say-what-I-feel-without-mincing-any-words kind of gal. Especially if I'm protecting my children or my family. I'll go all Mama Bear on you in the blink of an eye if I feel that my kids are being threatened in any way. So I think I offend people and make them defensive because for one I'm very sarcastic and in person it comes off hella funny (No, I'm not from Nor Cal but my hubby is). However, sarcasm in the written word is tricky. If people know you, they they know you, so they know you are being sarcastic so they will laugh. When people don't know you which is pretty much 99.989% of the world of people online - they read something that is supposed to be sarcastic and just think, "Wow. Well aren't we just a miserable b!tch all chalk-full of bitter sauce?  Bitter, party of one your table is now available. Bitter, party of one?"  Another reason why I'm a crappy mom's blogger and piss people off is I talk about stuff like #4 and I write things about how I hate facebook enough to delete my account 100% from my life!  and boy, some people get crazy defensive about their reasonings for liking facebook, for staying on facebook and why they "can't ever" delete their account and honestly, I'm not asking you to delete your account. I'm not judging you if you spend 8-12+ hours a day on facebook because you are most likely judging yourself on that one. What I am offering is a different way to look at something. I feel like it's my job to ruffle some feathers a bit every once in a while because when we're all ruffled up and fired up and feeling saucey we make changes. Changes are good. Changes are healthy. Changes are necessary. But that doesn't mean I don't feel like the black sheep over here or the lone wolf of the mom's blog world. "Hey ladies, am I right? Can I get a retweet over here?!  Woop!  Woo-- Oh, you all went home?  That's cool..."  Crickets.

11. I think I could possibly be anti-social on some level. I'm not a good "mom's clubber/playdater" kinda person in real life either. My family marches to the beat of our own drum (as documented here) and we find that doesn't usually fit into any type of early morning schedule (or any schedule actually) that most mom's club type groups fit into. We've tried oh-so-many times to make a group like that work over the 6+ year span I've been a mom and it just doesn't work. It never has. I don't know about you, but I find it really hard to plan things too far in advance because my kids are in such different places in their own lives right now that I never know "where" we'll be at that exact day and time. It's usually in our jammies playing at home with our wooden trains, legos or our Calico Critters. I'm cool with that. Some of the ladies I've met are really nice and I'd love to hang out more, we just can't ever seem to make it work during mom's club hours. My bad. And some of the moms I've met are just like the social groups in high school where they spend most of the time at the picnic table locked into a gossipy chat with other moms about the moms who didn't come that day while their children are off killing each other in a Lord Of The Flies showdown on the playground. Inevitably you'll see a kid about to fall off the top of the slide or someone has another kid in a headlock pouring sand in their face and if you say something to the mom or call their attention away from their TMZ session then all of a sudden YOU become the helicopter parent as they attempt to completely downplay what was just going on with their child when they weren't paying attention. Why are parents so easily put on the defensive by other parents? Instead of saying, "Thank you for letting me know my 18 mo old was about to fall off the monkey bars!" you'll hear, "he's fine. I saw him. I don't hover over him like that because I let him learn the hard way. He'll only do it once if he falls and gets hurt."  I got a mom's attention once in Costco when I noticed her infant was licking the handle and the side of the dirty shopping cart like an ice cream. The mom was bending down getting something lower than the cart and I did what I would want anyone to do for me (fellow mom or not), let me know that my baby was having a germ sickle of a time on the nasty cart and she got totally offended. "I saw her. She's fine" and then of course as she walked away she told the baby not to lick the dirty yucky cart because it has germs and she'll get sick. After you have interactions like this it makes you gun shy to help anyone out and I know where we lost sight in, "it takes a village to raise a child." However, we are firmly grounded in our convictions that we know everything and we know what is best in every way and you better not dare to give any help or advice when it's not asked because you'll get told off.

Am I still doing a top ten?  Oh crap I am. OK sorry...

12. Most of the time I don't have a picture for a blog post and I have no desire to go create one or go searching for one either. Which now makes the article in no way "pinnable" I guess which makes it pretty much obsolete in our world today. The End.

13. I don't know the lingo for blogging or for the internet in general. I might as well be my husband's 90 year old grandmother. (Sorry Nanny. Don't tweet that, OK? You have more followers than I do and I don't want anyone getting offended and deleting me. Love you!)  So I'm not participating in any weekly mash ups, join ups, link ups, jam ups or tweet ups or you post mine and I'll post yours kinds of things. It seems like so many articles I read anymore are things that have been taken from another blog with a link to the original blog but no real credit to the original author/poster. So if you are a lazy reader then it will be assumed that that person wrote it which they didn't and that's just not cool!  I feel like I'm a detective on a manhunt or some modern day internet Robin Hood trying to find the original author of a blog post before I pin it in order to give the original person credit, and if I'm the one doing the pinning I'll always try to give the original blog credit in the caption of the post. I spend way too much time caring about fairness like that I guess. But I just can't stand the half-written post that offers vague commentary reminiscent of a high school book report on a book where they only read the jacket cover, then gives the link to the original post at the end that is always way more artistic and well thought out - all in the name of traffic and hits. And the thing that sucks is that the Impostor Poster will always have a ton of hits and links and tweets and pins on the post they didn't even write and the original blogger won't hardly have any on the same post. Call me old fashioned but that isn't cool. It's lame and it's stealing someone else's well thought out idea and passing it off as your own in some way. This has gotten so bad I saw a post on a recipe where the lady supposedly "cooked" the thing herself yet used every single picture the original lady took and posted yet gave no credit on each picture of course, she even copied the recipe verbatim complete with the original lady's comments about her family preferring it a certain way, and then at the very bottom in small print the Impostor Poster said here's the link to the original recipe! And yes, it got pinned, liked, shared and tweeted a gazillion times via the Impostor Poster's page. Even some pinner's have given the Impostor Poster full credit for the recipe. That is just lazy, irresponsible steal blogging. It's Stealogging.

15. Oh and I don't give away free shit. Mostly because I never get anything free to give away to readers. I think you have to actually have readers to give something away to them. My bad. I did give away a Starbuck's card once that I paid for myself but that was about it. If you want free shit go to the Pioneer Woman's blog. Free shit for days. Plus she has an awesome blog. Beautiful, creative, smart, artistic, funny, awesome and inspiring. And she's even on TV and in cookbooks for goodness sake!  We don't have cable because we're on one income since I stay home so I have never seen any of her shows but I bet they are as fantastic as her blog. Utter perfection. Everything my lil blog ever dreamed of but isn't. In fact, you know what? Here you go. Go check it out for yourself. The Pioneer Woman in all it's spectacular glory. You don't belong here. This post doesn't even have a picture for heaven's sake! Save yourself. In fact, eff this I'm heading over there now. I'll see you in a few.


OMG. Tears. Seriously. It's gorgeous.


Anyway, that is probably enough reasons why I'm a crappy mom's blogger if you haven't already been making your own mental list while reading this. Now for my next post...hmmm, should I write about renewing my license at the DMV and how I was the only person in the entire place of hundreds to offer up my seat to an old lady with a cane who was trying to prop herself up against the wall for the 2 hour wait or about my attempts at trying the save the world through teaching my children to have nice manners and do good deeds?  Actually, those might be similar posts. Scratch that. Maybe I'll blog about my BBQ pork and coleslaw baked potato I ate the other night at Disneyland and it was so friggin' good it deserves it's own blog. You'll just have to come back I guess.

****About #1. Yes, that was a shameless plug of what I write on here to get more readers a reader. I admit it. I had to make myself just. stop. linking. to. so. many. posts.

So, I ran it by my editor, who is amazingly awesome btw and is totally my #1 fan and I asked her if #1 was too shameless, (because of course it was shameless but was it too shameless?) and she said, "You don't have any readers. It doesn't matter what the hell you do on here." And when I peered over her shoulder after I pretended to walk away I noticed that she was pinning things like crazy from The Pioneer Woman's blog and tweeting to everyone that they should just go there if they wanted to read anything of any quality. Then I wept and opened a box of French truffles. 

Hark! I know what I'm going to write about!!  I'll write about how I think I was a farmer/Little House on the Prairie type girl (but in France with lavender fields making goat cheese) in a former life! See, and you thought all that talk about The Pioneer Woman was pure snark and jealous sarcasm and it was quite the opposite actually. I read her blog more than I read my own. 

BTW my complete and total facebook deletion is real and it's spectacular! 

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Death By Chevron Print Overkill

Ladies, we need to chat.

Ummm...Chevron Print.

Thanks to Pinterest, DIY blogs, Pinterest, and all things cute and crafty (Pinterest), we have a bit of an overkill going on over here regarding the trend du jour, Chevron Print.

Yes, I admit. I have seen a few chevron-y things that are kinda cute. But it's gone too, too, too, oh-so-far, far. I've seen entire walls of rooms c-o-v-e-r-e-d in Chevron print complete with matching bedding and DIY curtains and accent pilows. (And no I'm not linking to it because you'll pin it to your "All Things Chevron" Pinterest board!)

Ladies and Gays, hear me out - it's venturing into this sort of obsessive/compulsive, life of it's own, pre-teen-puppy-love-OneDirection-JustinBieber-OMG!-JenniferLawrence-just-cut-off-all-of-her-hair-Beyonce's-secret-album-drop-is-that-a-Jennifer-Aniston-baby-bump-ten-year-reunion-rumor-Black-Friday-Deals-starting-in-the-summertime-and-lasting-all-month-gotta-have-it-gotta-have-it-gotta-have-more-stuff-more-stuff-more-and-more-and-more-more-stuff-can't-function-until-my-life-is-totally-utterly-completely-plastered-in-some-crappy-Charlie-Brown-T-shirt-zig-zag-print-from-the-70's (minus the drab colors of course.)

Not that I really have any issue with it, of course.

A Crafty DIY: "I'm Over You Chevron Print/You Can Go Now" Picture.

Let's move on people. There's nothing to see here.  

BTW: if you make a youtube video of yourself reading the above rant in one breath I will make you a chevron print decorated sugar cookie that will be totally Pinterest worthy. 

Love,
Coco Cana

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My Most Popular Ecard On Pinterest To Date: Memo To Smokers

So I have been having a little too much fun creating those funny, terribly sarcastic someecards. It's kind of right up my alley right now because each picture is like a perfect little writing prompt. Great for when I have writers block and need a lil fix o' funny.

So tonight I wrote this card and in a little over an hour it has been pinned like a whole bunch of times which is crazy and makes me crack up. I think everyone knows someone that fits this very attractive mold of a lovely smoker.





If sarcasm is your jam then check out my other someecards on my Pinterest board called:
My Funny One Liners

Simple Snacktime Solutions for Kids

Kid food.

This can rule your life if you let it. Sometimes we think it's "easier" to buy a bunch of prepackaged "kid meals" like lunchables, toddler meals in the baby food isle, etc., to have quick meals ready to go and those do have their place for once-in-a-while meals, but for everyday eating it's best to make stuff at home. Small children are still growing and the last thing they need is to be pumped full of sugar, sodium, chemical pesticides, GMO, non-organic foods (meaning foods that are full of chemical pesticides.) Almost everything you will buy in a package that is designed to sit on a shelf for any period of time will contain most if not all of these yucky things listed above.

A tiny, growing body doesn't need any of that. In fact, it's hurting them in the long run to be honest.

I will be adding to this list of snack ideas so please check back!  A lot of it is homemade, most of it is organic and some of it will be store bought items like crackers, animal cookies, cereal, bread items, etc. But the majority of the snack ideas listed will be fresh, organic, homemade goodies.

Your child will thank you someday.  ;-)

1. Toddler TV Dinner! 
This is a simple snack version. I used some cold, organic chicken bites we BBQ'd earlier in the week, sliced organic apples, sliced organic colby jack cheese and a side of homemade ranch for dipping. Place everything into cupcake cups and turn an ordinary snack into a picnic! My mom found these Cars movie cupcake cups and we've been using them for snacks ever since. I LOVE using cupcake cups for snacks. It's fun, festive and it helps to keeps things separate for your little one. Toddlers love groups and stacks and rows. They will like this! (EDITORS NOTE: My lil guy just turned 3 so he can eat large slices of apples, etc. as well as use a "big boy fork" like the one pictured. It's a dessert fork so it's the perfect size for little hands. Make sure you use what is best for your child.)


**Blog post in progress... Please check back!** 

In the meantime check out my board on Pinterest all about kid food called:  Play With Your Food!

DIY Mama: Sea Turtle "Honu" Birthday Party & Children's Party Planning Tips!

When my son turned 2 we threw him a sea turtle themed birthday party. Of course since our family lived on Kauai for a few years we can't call sea turtles anything but Honu. When our lil guy was taking swimming lessons we'd say, "Swim Baby Honu, Swim!" (We still say that actually, haha.) So when I saw the most adorable Sea Turtle party decorations at a party store I knew I had to get them!  It's a good thing he was still technically a year old when I was shopping for party stuff and he didn't have a set opinion on them. That all changes at 3. 

Here are some of our simple ideas for the party:

This pattern also had alternative napkins and some decorations that said "Baby's 1st Birthday!"  I usually buy one pack of plates in each size of the birthday pattern and then plain colored plates in the party color theme at a party or discount store. I make sure all of the children have a party theme plate. They are the one who notice those kinds of things. All of the dads, grandpa's and your own husband/sig other would be happy just eating off of their hands or putting food directly on the table. They could care less what the plate looks like. So don't feel the need to pay extra for every single plate to be in the birthday pattern. I got plain cups and added some Honu stickers on each cup (which for some reason none of the stickers are showing in this pic!  LOL!) We also had a sharpie marker and wrote each child's name on the cups.

Photo wall for the birthday boy and guests. 

I made the "banner" myself out of construction paper. I traced the letters of his name with a stencil and added some Honu stickers that I bought with the decorations. I love buying the stickers that come in the pattern of the decorations. You can use them for so many things!  The "banner" isn't even strung together. I just taped them close together. I bought the Honu picture and the palm tree at the Dollar Store (they are seasonal items.)  I made the tissue pom poms myself. The woody is a one-of-a-kind item though. My mother-in-law is a talented artist and she painted that for his bedroom. We have a surfer/beach/honu theme in his room as well.

You can move the girl off the island...

Anyway, so my MIL found a woody and took a picture of it and painted it on that thick foam poster board and then used a razor to cut around it. She was like, "it was no big deal. Just an easy little art project."  Right!  I'll leave it up to the experts. But it was a big hit for our guest picture wall and now it hangs in his room. We think it's awesome!

We booked the party room at an indoor play place and they had a king's chair for the birthday kid. It was HUGE! You can't really see the sign I made but it has my son's name and the #2 as well as some more Honu stickers. We got some star balloons in the green and blue party theme and then big sister choose the other two. She was so excited that she got to choose two of his balloons. We get them at the dollar store for $1.00 each. It's a cheap way to get a bunch of balloons!  Cheap works for me! 

Absolutely adorable craft idea I found online by talented author and artist Tammy Yee. 

Living on Kauai we saw her beautiful children's books all the time and read many of them when our daughter was a baby.  Here is the direct link to the Honu craft. She also makes a beautiful paper bag owl craft which we made for my daughter's 5th birthday party. It was a nature party with a nature hike and these two paper bag puppets were a great addition to our other nature themed crafts. Our guests raved about them at both parties. I followed along with her simple instructions on the link to the craft. 

We wrote this on the back of each paper bag so they were sure to go home with the right mommy or daddy who adopted them. 

Even the parents wanted to color!

Because we were at an indoor play place with a million things to do the little ones were way too busy to color during the party, so they finished them at home.
Plus most of them were just barely 2 years old so they didn't sit for too long!  That is why I only had this one simple craft and no games or piñata. The venue provided enough entertainment.  

Grammy baked and decorated all of the super yummy, homemade vanilla and chocolate cupcakes and the "Big Boy Cake" too, as our lil guy was calling it. For other parties I have made my own cupcake toppers but I couldn't resist buying these lil guys. They were just TOO cute!  

Next time I set up a photo op wall I'll be sure to stage the kids in front of it first so I can make space for all of the decorations. However, if you have ever booked a party room at a children's location you know your time is very limited and all of my elves were working fast to set things up and get the party rolling behind the scenes so the kids didn't feel too rushed. We ended up booking an extra 2 hours which sounds very expensive but it actually wasn't. We technically only had the party room for 2 hours (we eeked it out a bit though, it wasn't very busy that day) and we booked the total play time for 4 hours. It ended up only costing us an extra $2.00/$3.00 per child for the extra 2 hours of play time!  Crazy, right? I'm glad I asked about it and we were so glad we made that decision. This gave people a cushion if they were running late for the party (which parents with toddlers ALWAYS are - we are anyway) and we didn't want to feel rushed during the actually party time which is only 2 hours. How are you expected to play at the place and then have a birthday party with food and cake, games, etc. in only 2 hours? And we wonder why so many people have ADD!)
This way no one felt rushed and the kids had plenty of time to play before and after the actual party portion of the event and most of our guests stayed for about 3 1/2 hours or so and we were ready to go. It worked out well if you can fit it into the party budget. I put a few refueling snacks like raisins, juice and crackers in the goodie bag so there weren't too many tantrums in the car ride on the way home. 

Someone had been playing dress up and was refusing to let me see her face for the picture!   ;-)

Thank you for coming to our party!

Our simple lil Honu birthday party for our Baby Honu turned out super cute and a lot of fun for the kids!  

Kids Party Tips:

I'm a firm believer in keeping parties small and only inviting the kids your child sees often and enjoys playing with. This takes a lot of restraint on the parents part. Mainly mama. When the babies are a year old you can get away with inviting everyone on your list (all of the family members, friends and adults who don't have kids as well as all of your friends with kids all various ages.) When your child gets older 2 and 3 and above you should really try to stick to close relatives (grandparents and close cousins) and children your child already knows as well as kids in a similar age bracket (unless they are the sibling of your child's friend.)  For very little children I recommend sticking to a 2 year age bracket if possible. This usually means for a 2 year old it's ok to go up to 4 years old. An 8 year old will be totally bored at a party for a 3 year old regardless if it's your very best friend or not. And trust me, they will want and expect to be entertained!  Not kiddie games either. The difference of only 1 year even can make a HUGE difference with a group of very young kids playing together. This is good to keep in mind when you are planning to have age appropriate games (geared for the birthday child) and a piñata, etc.  A 5 year old will dominate everything at a 2 year olds party (and probably knock kids down as well) and it won't be fair for either child. Don't put children in this situation and then expect them to be perfect angels. It will end in tears.

Unfortunately, we went to a party once where my child no longer 'knew' the birthday child because it had been so long since they had seen each other (even though they played a lot as babies) and without going into detail, it didn't really go well because we were the only ones the birthday child didn't know really well. So it was crazy awkward for everyone. It wasn't their fault, they were just a child, but I should've listened to my gut when I was having doubts about going. 

The hard thing about that is that (thanks to Facebook) every single person who is a friend of yours with a child will expect to be invited to your child's party. This doesn't mean you should invite them. Less is better - for you and especially for the birthday child.  Birthday parties for children are overwhelming because there is a lot going on, it's usually a sugar free-for-all and it's total party overload so try to think of ways to make it easier for them. 

Hectic isn't fun. 

And having to stop playing with kids you do know to come over and give hello/goodbye hugs to kids you don't even know or don't remember isn't fun either (even though you've known the parents for a million years and you have pictures of the tow of them hugging and playing. They don't remember it. Invite them to YOUR party!) 

However, there is always going to be the, "I feel obligated to invite (fill in the blank)" maybe even a few - and that doesn't have to be as negative as it sounds. But ask yourself this: Would you invite this person and their child over for a one-on-one playdate with just you and your child?  

If the answer is no then you have your answer for your guest list. 

If you don't quite know how to let your friends know and you plan to share your child's party pics on facebook, etc., then you can blame it on the family budget why you are keeping it small. EVERYONE should be able to relate to that one. If not then I'd like to know your secrets. 

You can then say, "due to our tight family budget we have decided to keep the party very small so we are only inviting the kids we see all the time in his weekly playgroup/swim class, or her best buddies from school, etc."

We are in the process of getting ready for another birthday party around here and we are keeping it even smaller this time. Thanks to Pinterest children's birthday parties have gotten really out of hand lately. It inspired me to write this:

Remember, less is more. Children will entertain themselves with a few good buddies and an open space to run, some chalk and some bubbles and toys you usually bring out when friends come over. You don't need to provide them with fabulous entertainment every minute of the party.  There is a saying to keep the guest count the same number as the age of the child. When they are ages 2-4 this can be kind of hard because you might have some really good friends you see weekly at a playgroup or something, but still try to keep it small if possible.  I hate to be harsh, but the total spaz kid who is a tyrant at playgroup becomes 10 times worse when there is sugar, excitement, overstimulation and another child's brand new toys involved. (Which brings me to an important point: Open all gifts after everyone goes home. Parents will understand.)

Remember this motto: Would you invite this person and their child over for a one-on-one playdate with just you and your child?  If the answer is 'no' then you have your answer for your guest list. 

Have fun and party on!  Oh yea, I'm on Pinterest now. I have been pinning ideas for our next birthday party. Can you guess what our theme is going to be?  Check out my Pinterest party board called,

  "Party Like A Kid"  

And always you can follow me at twitter too.

Thanks for stopping by.

xo,
Coco Cana