Hosting a Pink Party

 

Last year for my birthday I made myself a Barbie doll cake. The Barbie Movie was all the rage last summer and what can I say, I'm a Barbie girl. This year we ordered a cake from a family run bakery that I frequent. But I wanted to do something for me. This summer has been all about Hazel. Our vacation to the Cape included her friends. Then she decided to apply to an arts school for theater. After several weeks of doing the application, then interview and audition, she got in. July was a busy month with a lot of focus on Hazel. Now we are in the process of figuring out financing and gathering everything she will need for dorm life. I'm sending my baby away, but I know she is ready and so am I. Therefore, I wanted to do something for me around my birthday and I haven't had much time with friends, so I thought a girls' night at home was perfect. Since pink is my favorite color, I decided to do a pink themed party. I went to Greetings Island and made an invitation. (I shared about Greetings Island here.) I downloaded the invitation and texted it to my friends. I used the Inside Flower template, and it is a free one!!

Barbie Movie and a Barbie Birthday Cake

 

Have you seen the Barbie Movie yet? For my birthday this year, Hazel and I went to a matinee. I also decided to try to make a Barbie cake for myself. It is hard to hear some of the criticism of the movie from people who refuse to see it. For example, Rex Huppke's column in USA Today shares many of the things said about the movie. Now being a liberal and having many liberal friends, I have many friends who have different opinions. But I am going to begin by sharing a bit of my own background.

Celebrating Becoming a Teenager

 

I cannot believe it!! Hazel turned 13 last month!! Thirteen is such a big year. It is often when kids become young adults, as well as of course, they become a teenager! This year I wanted it to be extra special for Hazel. I came up with the theme of butterfly for her party. I told her it was because she is transforming into a teenager/young adult. She liked the idea of butterfly but did not like my reasoning. I began searching for 13th birthday ideas. I have a Pinterest Board for it if you want different ideas! I saw a printable that says "You have been loved for 13 Years..." I saw some on Etsy as well as some free ones, but I wanted to personalize it a bit. I had planned on having it printed as a poster and hanging it on her door for when she woke up, but that plan changed. Click on it to get a pdf so you can print it out at home.

New Year's Resolutions/Word of the Year for Tweens & Teens

 

Having a birthday around New Year's always makes for an interesting party. When Hazel was young we had a party on New Year's Day for all of our family and friends. Then we started having two parties, our New Year's Day for family and family friends as well as another one for her friends. Eventually we stopped the family and friend party. Themes for her friend parties have ranged from current favorites like Minnie Mouse, Harry Potter, and Frozen to generic themes like New Year's Eve. As she got older we started doing sleep over parties. That changed with Covid. Last year we did a social distant with a window open Paris themed party. We had multiple small tables for the girls to sit in pairs like a Paris Cafe. This year we are having a party on New Year's Day with a butterfly theme. I picked the theme. I chose butterfly since she is turning 13. I feel like 13 is a big birthday since she will become a teenager. Just like a caterpillar metamorphosizes into a butterfly Hazel will begin to metamorphosize into an adult. She likes the butterfly theme but does not like my explanation of it. 

Harry Potter Birthday Party

I took a bit of a break for the holidays. Christmas is often the only time we get to spend with one of my sisters and her son and then Hazel's birthday hits us. It is always a busy time and I decided to focus on family. It was wonderful. 

New Year's Eve Birthday Bash Ideas

Disclosure: Oriental Trading sent me these products in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

Hazel and I are always talking about ideas for birthday parties. Our big plans for this year's party was to do an American Girl Beforever Party. However with her new school she wants to invite the boys so we needed to change the theme. We came up with a New Year's Eve Birthday Bash. All of our planning was basically thrown away and we started fresh. We went to check things out over at Oriental Trading in their birthday section. We had fallen in love with these Pink and Gold Birthday Party Dinner Plates and planned the party around them. (We had chosen them for the American Girl party as well.)

Sharing Saturday 17-38

Happy Autumn (or Spring for those in the Southern Hemisphere)!! 

Be sure to check out the autumn lunchbox notes I shared the other day!! There are some religious ones and some non-religious ones. They are free to download!!

It is time again for Sharing Saturday! This is a link party to share all of your child-oriented crafts, crafts made for kids, activities and lessons as well as your parenting and/or teaching posts. So glad you joined us!!

On Sunday night we also host Crafty Weekends for all your crafts (done by any age), patterns, and craft product reviews! It is the perfect place to share your creative side!! And for all of your cultural posts come share them at the monthly Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop.

Sharing Saturday 17-37

It is time again for Sharing Saturday! This is a link party to share all of your child-oriented crafts, crafts made for kids, activities and lessons as well as your parenting and/or teaching posts. So glad you joined us!!

On Sunday night we also host Crafty Weekends for all your crafts (done by any age), patterns, and craft product reviews! It is the perfect place to share your creative side!! And for all of your cultural posts come share them at the monthly Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop.

Fairy & Ice Cream Party Updates

Disclosure:  Some of the links are affiliate links where I will receive a small percentage of any purchases made through them at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Crafty Moms Share!

I am finally stopping to catch up after the holidays and Hazel's birthday. Today I am going to share some of the details of her two birthday parties. First we always have a family and adult and younger kid party for her birthday. This year we decided on an ice cream theme. I made invitations with My Memories Suite.

Fairy Tales in Different Cultures & Fairy Tale Baking!

Disclosure: I was sent these products free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As always I am providing links to the book for your convenience.

Now I have been planning on reviewing these two amazing books from Crocodile Books USA. I had planned to write this review on Monday, but this week has gotten away from me, so here I am writing it on Wednesday. I am planning however on bringing back Fairy Tales in Different Cultures back in the new year, so stay tuned!! Our first book for today is The Crystal Mountain retold and illustrated by Ruth Sanderson. 

Advent, Christmas and a Tea Party Crafts & More! -- a Crafty Weekend Review & Link Party

Disclosure: I was sent these items to review free of charge from Oriental Trading. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

We are getting ready for our busy December which includes Advent (which starts next Sunday), Christmas and Hazel's birthday. Hazel decided she wants a fairy tea party this year for her birthday party. We recently received a few products from Oriental Trading to help get ready for all three things. We will go in order starting with Advent.

Horse Play! -- Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Be sure to check out my on-line Thirty-One Review & Party!! Get all your summer organizing essentials!! It ends this week!!

Disclosure: I was sent this book to review free of charge from Storey Publishing. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase from them.

Do you know a child that loves horses? Then you will love today's book or should I say she will. The book is Horse Play! by Deanna F. Cook and Katie Craig. 

DIY Wild Kratts Themed Birthday Party -- Product Review

Disclosure: I was sent these items to review free of charge from Oriental Trading. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to the products for your convenience but do not receive anything if you buy from them.

I have been promising a post about our Wild Kratts themed birthday party and here it is. The rest of the week I will be doing posts on New Year Resolutions and products that are helping with mine. But with New Year's come Hazel's birthday party. It is always over Christmas vacation, but this year we decided to have her party with her school friends after the vacation and we discovered many more people come when it is not on vacation!! But first our invitation.

Ducky Themed Birthday Party

This week we are getting ready for Hazel's birthday. Our tradition is to do a family/mostly adult party for Hazel on her birthday and then have a bigger kid oriented one later with her school friends since her birthday is always over Christmas break. This year she wanted her family party to have a ducky theme. I thought this would be easy. I had bought some duck printable paper ages ago so I used it for the invitations. I found a few cute ideas for wording on-line and combined the parts I liked.

Happy Birthday, Cupcake! Book Review and Play Date

Disclosure: Penguin Kids gave me a copy of these books free of charge for this review and are providing the book for the giveaway. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Today I am sharing the next book after Peanut Butter and Cupcake by Terry Border. The new book released earlier this month is Happy Birthday, Cupcake! It has many of the same characters as Peanut Butter and Cupcake as well as the same type of pictures. Hazel and I were introduced to Peanut Butter and Cupcake at a story time at Barnes and Noble. In Happy Birthday, Cupcake! Cupcake tries to plan her birthday party. She wants to invite all of her friends. She asks her friend, Muffin, to help. 

Jonathan London's Froggy Series Themed Birthday Party Ideas and Giveaway

Disclosure: Penguin Kids gave me a copy of these books free of charge for this review and are providing the book for the giveaway. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Have you been following the fun challenge Penguin Kids gave this month? It all started because Froggy's Birthday Wish by Jonathan London and illustrated by Frank Remkiewicz was released on March 10th! We were lucky enough to receive a review copy as well as two other Froggy books, Froggy Builds a Tree House and Froggy Gets a Doggy. Have you discovered the Froggy series yet? They are so fun. We are going to provide some general Froggy birthday party ideas as well as ones from each book. For even more Froggy birthday party ideas check out my Froggy Birthday Party Pinterest Board!

Ladybug Girl Themed Birthday Party Ideas

Disclosure: Penguin Kids gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Have you discovered Ladybug Girl yet? Lulu loves to dress like a ladybug and she turns into Ladybug Girl--a brave girl who can do anything. She and her dog Bingo go on all sorts of adventures and learn many lessons along the way. Ladybug Girl is a series of books written by Jacky Davis and illustrated by David Soman. There are picture books, board books and easy readers as well as a few sticker/activity books and gift sets. We were sent the board book, Ladybug Girl Ready for Snow to review and for inspiration for a birthday party. (Penguin Kids challenged me and anyone else who wants to join to come up with some ideas for book-themed birthday parties and create Pinterest Boards for them.)

 Now I will admit I did receive an apology for being sent this one with all the snow Massachusetts got this year. Hazel however enjoyed the book. It is very simple and perfect for the younger set. I find it hard to believe a mother would let a child wear a tutu over her snowpants let alone wings and antennae, but it is a book, so we will go with it. The book is about Lulu and Bingo going to play in the snow. 

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Birthday Party Ideas

Disclosure: Penguin Kids gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. They also sent me a copy to giveaway! As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Penguin Kids challenged me this month. They sent me some popular books and asked me to come up with some birthday parties themed on the books and/or series and start a Pinterest Board for the party. Really they challenged me to do any favorite books as the theme. We posted one on My Garden by Kevin Henkes. They sent me the ever popular The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Now I do not know a parent or teacher who works with young children who has not heard of this story. Gymboree even sells a line of baby clothes based on this and others of Eric Carle's books. Hazel loves this book. Her kindergarten classroom started with The Very Hungry Caterpillar theme and the cubbies are still labeled with caterpillars and butterflies from the theme. Now Hazel is very excited to own a copy of the book since she loves the story and can pretty much read/remember it on her own. She loved the idea of a party with this theme. 

Sharing Saturday 15-11

Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week!! Once again I am amazed to see such creative ideas. If you have not had a chance to check them out, you definitely need to. They are so inspiring!! The features are just a small sampling of what there is. This week's features are Party Foods, Kites and Easter, Raising Girls, Art, Lessons and Crafts.

My Garden Birthday Party Ideas

So Penguin Kids challenged me (and you) to come up with some birthday party ideas based on favorite books this month. They will be sending me some books to do this with and also wanted us to use our own favorites. I decided our first party idea would be to the theme of the book My Garden by Kevin Henkes. This is one of my favorite books and Hazel loves reading it still. We shared it a couple years ago with a few different crafts and ideas as part of the Virtual Book Club for Children. This story is about a girl telling us how her garden would be different than her mother's. The girl is very imaginative and it includes things like growing jelly bean buses and shells and having only chocolate bunnies. We decided to start with the table settings.