Legoland California - Thoughts & Tips

So I noticed there wasn't many things out there when we were researching to surprise our little one for a "Holiday Snow Day" trip to Legoland. Also during Riley and I's first trip there we missed like half of my to do list just getting confused. It's not like Disneyland where everything is linked so it's easy to miss things, so here's some things we have learned during our recent visit.

First & foremost: NEVER pay full price for a ticket! There seems to always be a special. May need to search online, hunt down a cereal box, or a can of soda but there are always cheaper ways in.

Next, as mentioned above, this is not Disneyland! Even on it's busiest days it's nothing like the craziness of that theme park or even Sea World's. It is totally possible to do everything within a day during off season, which seems to be any time that isn't summer. This park has shorter hours and during off season and are even closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays so plan around that. We almost tried for a week day to avoid crowds which later seemed pointless in our worries and also not really possible since they weren't even open, lol. Instead we arrived just a few minutes before opening and were done and out of there about 2 hours before the park was to close (5pm that day). All was accomplished even a few repeats, park play times and a buffet lunch with time to spare. *Though I may mention we skipped a few things that were for the older crowd and one ride was closed for refurbishment.

Seems like most of the real Holiday fun was going down in "Fun Town." Here's a link of the activities and where to peak at: Snow Days Entertainment Guide. One item in the center of the town is what is being said to be the "World's Largest Lego Christmas Tree." When it came to the snow fun I was happy with how organized the park was. They allowed 10 mins to each group and they raked the snow in-between so it wasn't like the next group was stuck on hard block of slippery ice but some snow to pick up and throw. They had some really cute accessories for their snowman and some fun big Legos for the little ones not quite to the tossing age. I loved that because they did break up into sessions it allowed for sled sliding time if the kid wished. There also was a separate station for snow innertubbing and was pretty fun for the little one, but a pain for me, cause I was the one dragging the tube cause the rolling wasn't agreeing with me and my husband got left behind. Our Riley was much too small to roll it on her own, though seeing her smile and laugh made it beyond worth it. Also a fun little "snow flurry" hits the town, cute even if it's just bubbles. :)

The layout is best to imagine as a big circle with Lego Mini-Town & Star Wars Lego Scenes set up in the middle front. To the front left of entrance is Hopper entrance to their aquarium, Sea Life and beyond that is the toddler friendly zone. If you go right after entering you go to the Lego play areas and on to bigger kid thrill rides up to Adventure Zones. We didn't go far enough to the left or right last time so missed all the fun towards the back of the park, don't do what we did, make sure to see it all. We were much happier this time around. Also don't worry to much about devoting time to Sea Life Aquarium, it's cool but it really doesn't take to long unless you want to sit and stare at each fish for awhile, I would say it only takes about an hour.

There are things for the young and old, but the target audience seems to be 5-12 years. If there's a huge Lego fan or a inner nerd dying for a day of play this is perfect! But the "thrill rides" are on the not so crazy scale and there really is only 1 or 2. "The Dragon" ride is perfect for the little ones that are just starting to want to join in on roller-coasters and very easy on the stomach of those that typically can't handle such things.

Make sure to relax and let your kids run crazy on the playgrounds, it definitely takes a lot of the theme park stress away.

Just in case you haven't looked yet there are a few official Legoland resources and the honestly best one is the desktop Legoland page! By far the most helpful! But, because I was trying to be sneaky about it was trying on the mobile version and for some reason only wanted to list last years info. :/ An as for their app, well it was cool to have the map but it was also a little bit of lack. It lets you "plan your day" but I didn't really get it. While at the park I didn't even bother with it, but was totally over joyed when Instagram worked with no problems! Sounds dorky, but seriously one of my biggest annoyances when at Disneyland when I can't share our fun with family and friends.

As for money, there are cheaper souvenirs available so that is always a plus. You can get $6 or less little Lego packs for example. Some parents have said no Legos that can be found in stores or plan a budget. We stuck to end of the day pick, but if you want they offer kind of like "Pin Trading" a little Lego character trading. There is a store to the left or right when you first enter if you wanna get one and keep trading with employees as your day goes. They keep there's on their name badges so it's just something extra fun if your little one is into Lego characters, I believe they call them "Lego Mini figures" to be exact. Parking for a car is the typical theme park $15. Food wasn't crazy, but it wasn't exactly cheap.

When researching I keep coming across the "MUST HAVE" treat/snack of the park, Apple Fries found at "Granny's Apple Fries." Well, the husband and I were was sadly let down do to the hype. Riley really didn't care that much either. The funny thing is we had went to get it and the snack stand was still closed and actually went back. They kind of reminded us of a cross between apple chips and funnel cake fries. They're like apple pieces cut into fry chunks and fried then covered in sugar and cinnamon with a side of vanilla whip cream deal. They were good, but to say a must have is a little far fetched.

As for food, I'm sure there is a way to bring in snacks and such, but the site says no outside food allowed so we planned on shelling out for lunch in the park. (Though you can get a hand-stamp leave to eat and come back.) The first time I went there with our kiddo we ate at a sports bar kind of place, loved it, loved the food and the price wasn't to bad, but this time that place had been converted to a "Pizza & Pasta Buffet." It was about the price you would guess for  park, but I think it was the best bang for the buck. $15 Adult & $10 per kid. Employees were super friendly and helpful. Pizza was constantly being made so I couldn't really complain. :) It wasn't extravagant and the salad bar wasn't the most amazing, but it definitely meet our needs. The only thing my husband said was missing was like a soft serve ice cream or some kind desert offered like most buffets.

Here's one of the BEST things about Legoland, I felt like they actually cared! For those of you with physical problems or about to do the day with a child with special needs they actually offer assistance. They have what is called an "Access Card." It actually helps and they don't grill you or be little you for it. I feel like this is one spot Disneyland can take notes from. I believe if you have a hearing requirement their site requires a 2 week heads up, but they are really easy to call and talk to. Employees through out the park were not a let down.

It's fun and definitely worth it, but don't stress about not getting a membership, even with our 5 year old I don't see this being a must repeat through out the year, unless we lived closer to it. seasonal stuff may be fun to check out but I don't feel like the park changes that much or holds that much to make it a must on a regular basis. The only thing we didn't get to do that I really wish to check out is the Water Park, one day we're gonna have to try that. ;)

*Thoughts and photographs were completely our own. We were not given anything to visit the park or to write anything about it.

Holiday Season

Before I get into our fun and maybe some ideas for you, I just want to do the Mommy feeling vent thing-
In light of the recent terrible events we are extra attentive to our little one. Kids are sensitive to the world around them and as much as I'm trying to guard her from the news I know she has picked up on somethings. We had to speak of evils and what do if she should see "a non-police man with a gun," just lots of conversations we weren't ready for or even wanted to discuss. The event has made us look a little more at what a gift our child is. I didn't think we could possibly love her anymore then we do, but I think sometimes as a parent we take everything for granted. For every bath-time and repetitive story reading there's another parent out there missing out on such things or wishing and wanting for their little soul to come into their lives. So hug your little one a little more and try to make the most out of the moments we are so lucky to have.

Now down to business, SORRY! It's been far too long between posts, but we've been busy busy making the most of the Holiday Season.

Photo Courtesy of Maximo Photography

This year it's been us taking advantage of everything there is near us. We live in San Diego so we have plenty all year round, but I'm sure you can find enough free, cheap or worth the price things to get into!

If you live in our neck of the woods, check out San Diego Family Magazine, lots of listings of what's going on.

We must admit it's pretty awesome living near a ton of major theme parks. Thanks to radio and news stations there always seems a chance to win a few tickets here and there. The biggest key is have a Facebook and follow each, they normally do additional giveaways on there if you can't always be near a television or radio with your phone in hand.

We got lucky this year and my sister also won tickets to SeaWorld San Diego's Christmas Celebration (lasts until Jan. 5th) so we all got to go as a family. It was raining and cold, but nothing a good jacket and some rain boots couldn't help! The whole night was tons of fun, lots of Christmas decor and characters at every turn. The penguins and Wild Arctic just made us feel that much more in the winter spirit. If you are close to one I really recommend trying, if you can swing it in your budget check into their Fun Card program, it's a price of 1 day but covers a year minus a few of  their busiest days. They also are offering a deal on a 2 year membership, but I really don't know the details.

One of the greatest things has to be "Holidays at Disneyland!" It lasts until Jan. 6th. Last year was not only my kid's first time seeing the park during the Holidays, but mine as well. Totally AMAZING! I must admit this year with Cars Land now open at California Adventure it's even better! But, my absolute favorite has to be the "Nightmare Before Christmas" take over of the Haunted Mansion. As you see from my shirt, I'm kind of a geek for that stuff.

The best of this season has to be another "Thanks to Groupon!" Every year they seem to offer discounted tickets to The Nutcracker Ballet and this year Riley was finally old enough to be able to attend. It was fantastic! We all got to dress up and head out to the Theatre and enjoy a show. As you see Riley even got to meet a few Ballerinas  Since that night it's been non-stop "Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker" music and a little dancer all over my house. I love it! I'm all about supporting her love of classical music and dance.

One of the biggies in this town is "December Nights" in Balboa Park, if you follow our Facebook page you may have seen a link for it. It's lots of fun but getting more an more crowded as the years go by, so the park has been trying to offer shuttles to help. But, to be honest we skipped it! I know the pics lead you to believe we didn't but we totally did. But, we couldn't be more fortunate to be part of a awesome Church that happened to have a Christmas event in Balboa Park, right before the "December Nights." 

It was a great night of hot coco, gingerbread men  Christmas decor, a Nativity Set, and Riley preforming her heart out to "Jingle Bells," and a little time with Santa. Up until this year I haven't thought twice about the whole Santa thing. I don't mean the telling of him, I mean the debate that Christmas is for Christ and has no room for Santa. Honestly, I never even knew this was a train of thought but as I read more and more of other people's parenting philosophies there are some things that take me by surprise. If you feel this way and it works for you, great, but it's not for us. I believe in letting Santa be. in my mind he s kind of a symbol of childhood. A symbol all about embodying the giving and loving spirit with a little bit of hope an magic, plus he was a real man once upon a time.

Art Project from her Sunday School

It's all about balance and letting the focus fall on the history and explaining why we celebrate it. Our Riley doesn't run around the house saying "I can't wait till I GET presents!!" But, she actually runs around the house saying, "IT'S ALMOST JESUS' BIRTHDAY!!!" She gets it! Also it may help that we put more emphasis on the giving, less on the receiving.

What we've been doing to make it more about the giving is for the past few days it's been a crazy mess of baking and lot's of hammered candy canes! Yesterday, we finally were able to package up all our goodies and drop them by some of our awesome neighbors, friends and family. The best part is that people don't expect anything from us and though it's not much everyone was so gracious and Riley just beams after every delivery.

One of our Christmas traditions is a gingerbread making night. Lots of fun, if you aren't already doing so, start tonight. Riley is becoming a pro at this, less and less messy as the years are going by. It's the fun of letting your kid do some more in the kitchen and as a family getting creative. It's great for kids to learn how to use tools and it works for some bonding time. The awesome thing about this year is we got to use these cookies for her class' cookie exchange, talk about killing 2 birds with 1 stone. 

Just in case you were looking for something a little less mess and extremely easy, but will occupy hands, get out your white coffee filters and scissors. Cutest snowflakes, hands down! Let the little ones go to town. We folded them down to a nice triangle and started with the cutting. My kiddo felt her's needed some color so I let her. They look great in the windows and were fun to make. I actually enjoyed doing and looking at these way more then the old paper way. It's also easier on little hands because it's thinner and easier to cut then paper.

Last but not least. this year we lost a loved one and I wanted to do something a little special just to keep the memory of him. If you remember last year I made a few beach themed ornaments, well this was kind of similar. For this funeral we traveled to Chicago, my husband's hometown and where most of his family still is. Well it was that perfect time of year in the Midwest, when it was just starting to turn all the colors of fall. During one of the days with the family my husband grabbed a branch so my daughter could show her class all the beautiful leaves once we got back home. We keep them and they dried so nicely. Well I took a trip to the craft store, got me a clear plastic ornament and some white paint pens. I stumbled upon this quote and saved it before I knew what/or exactly how I was going to do something, "Because Someone we Love is in Heaven there's a little bit of Heaven in our Home." It was too perfect, so once I filled the ornament carefully with some of the leaves I wrote the quote on one side with a heart and the other side with "Grandpa Archie" and his birth year and parting year. I hope you didn't lose anyone this year, but if you did this maybe a great idea to hold them close. Just fill it with something special to that person or maybe some dried flower petals from the service, even pictures. Do what feels right in your heart.

Just remember this is, 

"Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas time." - Laura Ingalls Wilder  

On that note, Merry Christmas everyone! An don't forget to take advantage of any neighborhood light displays let your inner child run free. ;)

DIY Christmas Gifts

First let me start by apologizing for my absence. I may have the Facebook going for quick thoughts or fun links but I haven't got a post up in awhile. I actually have a lot I was dying to share with you guys but unfortunately I could not risk ruining the surprise for my Christmas gifts this year. But, hopefully this blog will get your brain churning for the next go around.

Here's a few awesome ideas I had stumbled upon thanks to Pinterest (btw, I am on that site to):

Today's Fabulous Finds Blog was full of cute little gifts with the perfect tag to make it all tie in. I just loved the "We 'WISK' you a Merry 'KISS'mas!" This one was cheap & cute, just perfect for my family's White Elephant Game. All you need is some scrap paper, a little plastic bag, ribbon, a wisk and some kisses. I went for a color theme so I got the Hershey's Candy Cane Kisses.

Now to my special DIY Ornament finds:

Your friends and family can't get to the beach, bring the beach to them. ;) Just felt like it was sending a piece of home to our loved ones. Check out Completely Coastal & One Art Mama Blog.  Honestly, there were a few versions I saw floating out there, but these two sites have generally what I did. I really just went off the images I saw an went for it. We had a fun family day walking along the shore collecting shells then letting my daughter sift into her bucket some of the best sand. Craft store plastic ornament made it a lot safer to ship and to handle the weight. We placed each ornament in one of my daughter plastic cups so we did not have any rolling accidents as we got started. I let her pour the sand into each with a funnel then we added the shells just right through the top. Now, this is where their instructions an mine may differ, I cut tape to place on the top part of the ornament. The very top, silver (maybe gold in your case), the part where the hook and wire is located. You may notice there are small holes where the wire goes through the top and I really didn't want the sand to escape. After taping it, I added some craft glue in a generous amount to make like a plastic coating. After it dried I painted on some more of the glue around the top rim of the plastic ornaments so when I would pop on the top it would help glue and permanently attach the top. Then used Fabri Tac Glue to hold my ribbon in place with the tag. In my case I did one side of the tag with the beach we went to, Mission Beach and on the other side the city, San Diego. 

Last but not least, for those Harry Potter fans on your list, A Golden Snitch. This was not the easiest. The ornament also required a lot more time. Each step required it's own dry time. I followed Tiny Apartment Crafts Blog's tutorial as close as I could. I also did lots of google images of the snitches. This was about as close as I could get it. Mine did not look like the blogs, but my cousin seemed to really enjoy it, so maybe your fan will to.

Remember gifts from the heart are sometimes more special. 

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Pin It

Gingerbread Men Decorations

QUICK & CUTE!

Your choice: ornament, magnet or BOTH!

We bought a little pack of foam gingerbread men, foam Christmas stickers, and googly eyes. To work on these little masterpieces we got out all our puffy paint and glitter glue. I just sat by and let my kid go to town, every once in awhile she let me put a sticker down. 

Once she deemed it as done, I got my favorite scrapbooking hole puncher out, a star. I thought it was fitting for the Christmas spirit. I punched a little hole at the top of his head. If you are choosing to make a magnet do not add a hole, just let it dry. NO HOLE.

Once it is dry, you can either bend a Christmas tree hook to hold your man, or the way I preferred was to get out some of my Christmas ribbon. I left a little room so I could slide a branch through my circle and tied a couple little knots. Then curled the edges of the ribbon. 

If you were wondering how we decided which was what, well we thought the one with hair would look better as a magnet then a ornament. We didn't want to put a hole in his pretty hair.

Now for the other option. Once it is all dry get one of those ready to stick magnet strips and cut it down to a size you feel comfortable with. Peel and place hard, you want it to really be stuck (*TIP* - this also works for those cute gift cards that are to awesomely cute to throw away). I just added two strips to ours so it laid nicer against my fridge, do to size. They are extremely light so I am sure you can get away with one, if you wish. 

Have fun placing on tree, putting on fridge or giving as a gift.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Pin It

Cotton Ball Snowman

Fun Project with stuff around the house. Bust out some scraps of paper, some round objects, a few toothpicks, glue & lots of cotton balls.

This one I actually did some prep work. I personally love the foam sticker sheets we have so I cut out some shapes. I figured it would cut down on time and impatience. Honestly though, just cutting out the carrot nose, pieces of coal, and top hat would be just as easy & cut if you use construction paper. The fun thing about coal is I din't have to worry about tiny little perfect circles. The hat ended up looking plain so my daughter pulled out one of her Christmas shaped foam stickers an added to the top hat. Other then that we we're pretty prepared. I wouldn't had minded busting out some little bit of ribbon for a scarf, but she felt it was good.

I used one of my daughter's old scribbled up poster boards to trace. I found three small similar, but not exact same circle shapes.  In our households case a toilet paper roll and two of her snack bowls. I did that just so she had a easy reference of where we would be gluing all the cotton balls, but you can also just trace the circles straight onto the color of chosen background construction paper. I also did this just to give a little more strength encase my toddler went over board with glue it wouldn't rip up the paper. When tracing let your circles overlap a bit. i tried to remember a real snowman wouldn't have very perfect circles. Then cut out my snowman outline. After all that pre-cutting and gathering of tools I let her get to it. First she used that good old fashioned white glue to place the small poster board snowman shape on to the background color of her choice (the bigger one just served to be under the project just in case, I also wasn't sure what size she would want to do). After that as glued to the paper, then more glue on top of the snowman shape. This is up to your kid, mine is more into mess but yours may like placing glue on each cotton ball as he/she goes. Since the glue was there she dug right into the cotton balls and got to sticking. Covering as much of the dark blue as she could see. Next she got to sticking the hat on, followed by the eyes, then nose, next the smile. She chose to save the extra pieces of "charcoal" as the buttons. She then glued toothpicks to each side for stick arms. That's when she thought the hat needed more & we found the candy cane sticker. I put away the good old white glue when she went to work at ripping apart some white construction paper to use as snow. She used a glue stick to place those about. She said the small ones were like snow flakes and her bigger chunks she felt looked better on the bottom like a sign. In this project order doesn't really matter, so if you wanna cut the harder shapes while your little one works on the tearing and gluing that would work, well as long as your kid doesn't mind the snowman covering some of their background master piece.

We will probably be doing this project again on a smaller scale so I can turn it into a ornament. Instead of the background she can decorate both sides of the board with cotton. Where the hat is I will continue the board so I can add a hole punch an a piece of cute ribbon. 

Pin It

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

This is a terrific one! Super easy & really not much a a clean up or set up required. Especially great if you are a busy mom, like any of us aren't. ;)

Things you will need: 

Kids/Your choice of construction paper colors. (As you see my daughter wanted the normal brown, but wanted yellow antlers & a green background.) No matter what mix you end up with it's cute.

Pencil for tracing.

Googly eyes. (I found a 125 count mix sized pack at the Dollar Store)

1 Red Circle, now we used some of the sticker foam sheets, just cut out a circle, but you can use paper, a pom-pom, whatever you have.

2 types of Glue. Although, this is up to you and your kid's abilities. I had regular squeeze out white glue for her to dot the back of each eye. Also a glue stick for the back of the paper. I chose that so she wouldn't over glue, but she could feel freedom in the project. Also so it would dry fast & have the right amount of hold.

Your choice of item to label child's name & year.

First trace foot on color chosen for head or let your little one trace it themselves. Then trace both hands on color chosen for antlers. In my case I let my daughter, Riley loves to trace, so I jumped in at cutting out the foot while she traced the hands.  Start with the foot so your little one can assemble the face as you cut out the hands. She got to dot glue on the back of her chosen eyes with the squeeze glue. We chose toes on top heel for snout. Really as long as the eyes are semi by each other & the nose is placed below it will work out. But it is up to you how much guidance your little one needs. Sometimes showing them a image of what they are doing ahead of time helps a little to. In our case she next peeled sticker back & placed. This may be a glue step for you, depending on nose choice. I let her get at glue sticking the back of the hands and placing on chosen background color. In our case her hands were small enough were the background could be horizontal or vertical, but like everything else I let her make the call. Now the foot, just had to remind her to be gentle while adding glue to the back since there was eyes and a nose on the other side. Last of all she placed the foot on top. You can flip the order on that to, but it will hide a little of the foot instead of palm area. Up to you. Time to label...or not. Lots of choices in a little cute quick little project. Have fun, before you know it, it'll be DONE!

Pin It

Nightmare Before Christmas PARTY!

My daughter is in full on Jack & Sally mode, but I know not all parents think this is the most appropriate movie and not all kids have no sense of fear like her, so for my birthday last month I got the great idea to have myself a Nightmare themed party. The only down fall is there are a lot of us, Nightmare Before Christmas fans out there, but there really isn't really a lot of stuff. Now try to factor in party items. :( But here was my solution:

There were some great websites that I picked & choose a few items from (really recommend you to peek at them to):
*Polish the Stars*  - Awesome Zero Idea!!! Plus a few great ideas, especially if party is for a kid.
Hostess Blog - Really cute, gave me great ideas even for it being a Bridal Shower.

First after searching around, I picked colors that I felt would highlight items, so mostly black & white with a little purple thrown in. As I started shopping I tried to stick with "Halloweenish" items that could tie back to the movie and weren't overly Halloween/Horror, hence why most items ended up on the simpler side. I didn't want to buy anything that would take away from the few Nightmare Before Christmas items I did have.

Ebay & Amazon.com became my best friend. Amazon actually had items from the movies original release, I feel in love with the Mayor Party Hats.

Ebay was my savior when it came to the cake. I found Jack & Sally action figures an I worked them into a standard grocery store Halloween cake. I'm not gonna lie, I was a little disappointed with the store's work, but the figures fit in and all is well that ends well, right?

As for everything else, Micheal's & the Dollar Store were a huge help. I was a little disappointed in Spirit Stores, but I did find cute magnets from them.

*TIP*- Sign up for coupons! Micheal's ALWAYS has coupons & they were extremely use full. Even Spirit had a email coupon. So do your homework, look around on websites sign-up, it pays. Also if you allow yourself enough time you can always wait for the stores themselves to have deals. Since my party was in September I had all the intro Halloween deals to wait for.

I ended up doing a lot of the decorations myself, like I mentioned not a huge amount of items out there, but I really wanted it to be more to the movie then Halloween. So I did a lot of google image searching. I found great ones of Jack & Sally on Spiral Hill and some really cute coloring pages.

For silhouettes I ended up pulling up my favorite images and zooming into a much closer size. I didn't want to lose the details. I grabbed my painter's tape, some light white 12x12 paper, and a pencil. I lightly taped my paper to the monitor and began to trace the outline of the image. Doing it lightly just makes it easier to remove without ruining anything, just make sure it isn't going to wiggle around while tracing. Once that was all done, I carefully untaped the paper from my computer monitor, leaving the tape still on the paper to retape, but this time to my big black poster paper. I did each image starting from a corner. This maximized poster use, plus it made it easier to just fold over the corners with the tape. Then on a safe surface I used a exacto knife to follow the outline on the white. All done, peeled CAREFULLY don't wanna rip black. Looked at my silhouette & cleaned up the edges that I felt were a little rough with regular scissors. They just gave the room a little more nightmare feel. (This is fully explained on the Silhouettes page.)

Another project we did was black glitter pumpkins! (See above pics, center of tables & 1 on cake table.) Of course stores started to carry them as soon as we had finished this project, but I felt mine were better...& cheaper. ;) Dollar Store pumpkins were my base. I already had a bottle of Plaid's black paint & I used a Micheal's coupon for the black glitter (a little bottle goes a long way). We have a wonderful shower curtain we use as a painting drop cloth, so I spread that across the living room floor to give us space to make this into a fun family project, since really you can do no wrong on this. We each had a pumpkin a paint brush an a plastic cup with black paint ready. Pretty simple do your best to paint the whole pumpkin black cover any and all surface (don't have to stress so hard about the very bottom, but we still did it). Once all covered, but while the pumpkins were still wet we let our three year old shake some of the black glitter on the top of each. I thought it gave the pumpkins a more interesting look, almost dew like just having glitter on top, but it's a preference thing.

Of course I had to have party favors, I did a little something extra for the kids & a cookie bag for the adults.

As I mentioned above while I searched I came across some great images for a coloring book. I found a few more then this site offered, but these were what gave me the idea: Drago Art. I used a printing program on my computer. For the coloring pages I put 2 images per page & printed. For the cover I used the same image I had used for invites and just changed the words. This image was another found online & I downloaded Burton's Nightmare Font for all my items that needed text to once again tie it all in.when printing cover I switched to a heavier, tan construction paper an made the layout like it was still going to have 2 images, yet I left the left side blank and positioned cover on the right side. Once all was printed, cover on top-facing ceiling, coloring pages images facing down-towards table. Then folded in half. The unprinted side of the construction paper served as the back of the book. I then hole punched in 2 places. Grabbed paper brads. I was going to use string but thinking of the age of the children the string probably would had ripped the paper when the kids forced the book open, so brads were much easier. So the little ones didn't hurt themselves on the pointy back part of the brads, also so they didn't slide around I covered & secured them with tan masking tape, blended right in with the paper. Very easy no cutting needed.

Party City offers little individual boxes of crayons for less then 50 cents so I bought those and of course had to grab some Halloween themed candy to go with. For the kids I just went with what says Halloween fun? Because let's face it kids just like what is fun and can careless if it fits a "theme" to a T. The bags and ribbon themselves were the same as for the cookie packaging. Both from Micheal's the bags were in their baking section and the ribbon I used was actually like a hard black paper strip, was close to the baking bags.

Cookies were just a sugar cookie mix and a cookie icing in the baking isle of a grocery store. I am into cheap, fast and easy. Sally isn't exactly perfect for a round shape, but oh well it made a good touch & Jack was spot on, plus they tasted good. It was a little more of a pain then I planned just because we ended up decorating 50 cookies way ahead of party time so I was really worried that taking short cuts would mean that my cookies would go bad, but they didn't. I let them sit out over night (although the icing instructions said 'sets in 4 hours' glad I did, they needed the extra time for sure). The next morning I packaged each one (a Jack & a Sally for each). Tied tight with paper ribbon and tried my best to get all the air out. Placed all in big ziplock freezer bag, once again tried to get air out. Put them all as flat as possible. Day of the party I took them out about 6 hours ahead of time and added to each bag a little "Thank You" tag I made. Same Burton's Nightmare font used.

Best word of advice: When you have your own party, whether you use any of these ideas or tie them into a Halloween or even a non-traditional Christmas party, just remember to HAVE FUN! :)

Pin It