Alexis' 6th Birthday

Another big week. This time for Alexis.

Her actual birthday was filled with school, a trip to Disneyland and cake and ice cream with just the 5 of us. We got her a "look I can swim doll" which she loves.

In an effort to save I made the two other gifts. They turned out quite nicely.

First up, a sleeping bag since she is always trying to carry her baby bassinet everywhere.

Next, a baby doll baby bjorn.

Last Saturday we had a party for her. We put on:


You walked through this: (Idea from "Blue Cricket Design")


and into this:


The workshop tables:


As the kids got settled my friend, Jillonnie, decorated their faces with a little bit of face paint.

For the first activity the kids had to pick 3 Jolly Rancher candies from the center of the table. Unwrap them and line them up. We baked them for 6 minutes and they turned into these...JOLLY POPS! So cute and yummy. Recipe and idea from "The Decorated Cookie."

Then the kids used permanent marker to draw their names on Shrinky Dink Plastic. I haven't done those since I was a kid. So fun. I had pre-cut rectangles and hole punched them so they could make key chains or necklaces. Fun to watch them shrink up in the oven.
Then one table came to the kitchen and made their rainbow cupcakes. We made two batches of yellow cake mix and separated it into 6 containers. Then added food coloring. My mom wrote their name on the bottom of the cupcake liners. They picked the colors and order they wanted as my parents spooned it in their cupcake liner.
Meanwhile, the other table made their own bubbles with Chad. The secret ingredient for successful bubbles: Karo Syrup. Recipe from "Homemaking Fun." We added food coloring. I pre-cut "monogrammed" initials for them to glue to the top of their bubble container.
Alexis opened presents and they came back to the table to make their own lip gloss. Recipe from "Not so idle hands." Just cool-aide, water and petrolium jelly.

Wal-mart sells face paints for less than $3. 12 of these little flip lid containers come attached together. We cleaned them out after we used the face paint and cut the plastic bar that joined them all. I'm still putting it on. It taste so yummy. Just don't use sugar free Kool-aide. Buy the Kool-aide with the sugar already in it...not the little packets.
Then the kids frosted their own cupcakes. While Alexis was opening her presents I threw some pink lemonade into the ice cream maker. They gobbled down their swirly rainbow cupcakes along with pink lemonade slushies. The pink lemonade was made from a frozen concentrate and made according to packaged directions. Found that out from "The Idea Room."
Then the kids finalized all their projects. Added a string to their shrinky dink. Put a wrapper on their jolly pops and collected all their goodies in their cup and went home.
The whole party was super cheap. The entry drapes and the sign were made out of wal-mart plastic table clothes. Tinkerbell was cut from a box from the dollar store and taped to the sign. The cups were just flowers cut out of cardstock and slipped onto a paper party cup. They stayed without glue.

The kids kept busy and I think they had a ton of fun. It required a lot of help. I definitely couldn't have done this alone. There was a lot of cooking that needed to happen all while the kids wanted to move onto the next thing.

FYI: I saved the sign and drapes anyone is welcome to use them.