Category Archives: Family

Happy Grandparents Day!

There is nothing like the special time spent with grandparents.  My Grandma C. passed away this past spring, so I no longer have any living grandparents, but I still have all of the great memories of the time spent with them.

Grandparents Quote

A Trip Down Memory Lane

I never really knew my dad’s dad, but his mom, “Grandma W.”, will always be remembered for her incredible cooking.  She was Ukrainian and I will always remember her delicious perogies and cabbage rolls, and how she always had a chocolate bar stashed away for when her grand kids came to visit.  Grandma and Grandpa W. had 11 children (9 boys and 2 girls) and my dad and his twin brother were numbers 9 and 10 of the clan.  Can you imagine having 8 children and then finding out you were having twins? Ugh!  I have trouble managing my two.  There were 19 years between the oldest and youngest child.  My grandma was born in 1897, so she was already quite old when I was a child, but I can remember her actively participating in our family card games which was a regular occurence in our family.  We were all very competitive and usually played for money (nickels or dimes).  It is one of my best childhood memories.  To this day, one of my favourite things to do is have a round of Canasta with family or friends.

My mom’s parents were considerably younger than my dad’s, so I have many more memories of them.  Like my dad, my mom had a big family.  There were 4 girls and 2 boys, and my mom was the eldest child.  Grandma and Grandpa C. were farmers, but had retired and moved to “town” by the time I came along.  My dad coached a senior men’s baseball team for many years, and Grandma and Grandpa were regulars at all of their home games, so I saw them often even though we didn’t live in the same town.  My grandpa was a trapper, and I can remember spending time with him out in the shed looking at the pelts and learning tid bits about trapping.  He also etched leather as a hobby and I continue to carry one of his handmade wallets in my purse.  It has an “H” for Helen and was made specially for my Grandma (Helen). My Grandma loved birds, so he made a bird on the opposite side.  As a teen/young adult, I didn’t appreciate the workmanship or the signifigance of having something handmade to be passed on from generation to generation, but I was fortunate enough to get Grandma’s wallet when she recently passed away.  I will always treasure it and the memories it holds. They were both lots of fun and were all about spending time with family.  I can remember Grandpa’s great sense of humour and playing Scrabble with Grandma.  I have great memories of our huge family Christmases with all 21 grandchildren and a house full of laughter.

Lasting Impressions

My grandparents were not wealthy and we were never spoiled with gifts or money.  Their gifts to us always came in the form of family time with great food, laughter and lots of fun. It was all about relationship.  You were always greeted with a hug and knew you were loved. It was so awesome to go to my grandparents for lunch or dinner and just hang-out and spend time with them.  I used to love to ask them questions about what it was like when they were growing-up and learn about how much things had changed. They had so much wisdom and always had time for us, their grandchildren.

I know how much my own kids love it when their grandparents come to their concerts or to watch their games.  Shay will often ask “Is Grandpa coming?” before his hockey games, as he loves to know that Grandpa is there to watch.  Grandparents have the ability to really speak into the lives of our children and if you are fortunate enough to have the support and involvement of  grandparents in your children’s lives, consider yourself blessed.  Be thankful for that love and support.  Your child’s life is much richer because of it.

Eden and Shay know my mom, “Grandma Ruth,”  very well even though they never had the opportunity to meet her.  You would never know she is not a significant part of their lives, as we talk about her often and they know so much about her and the kind of person she was.  My daughter will often say things like “I play piano, just like my Grandma Ruth” or “Can you make Grandma Ruth’s pancakes?”  Despite this, they never got the chance to spend time with her….to bake cookies together or make crafts or go for a sleepover.  They have missed out on so much, that I know she would have brought to their lives.  If you are a parent and your children are fortunate enough to have the love, support and influence of a special grandparent in their life, be thankful.  Appreciate the special gift your children have been given.

A Toast to Grandparents

To all the grandparents out there…my wish is that you have a special day and know how much your love and devotion to your grandchildren is appreciated and how special you are.  You are never too old to make a difference in the life of a child!  Cheers to you and have a great Grandparents Day!

grand parents dayP.S.  I really wanted to embed this video in my post, but thought I better not.  Bill Cosby is one of my very favourite comedians and I have had the opportunity to hear him live twice. He does a “sketch” on Grandparents (and parenting) that is absolutely hilarious.  His humour is generally very clean and non-offensive, but I was uncomfortable posting beacause of the part at the very end of the clip (from 6:51 to the end). If you feel so inclined and are up for a great laugh, check out the video. Feel free to stop the clip at 6:51 if you wish.  Enjoy!

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Back To School Woes ~ Shopping for Supplies

Hey all! I am back to work and survived the first week – barely!  It was a tough first week for me, but at least I didn’t have to go school supply shopping for my own kids.  Many of the teachers were talking about school supply shopping and how difficult it is to find the items on their children’s lists.  I have taught first and second grade, as well as kindergarten (my current position), but there have been very few years, that I have sent out a list and had the parents do the purchasing.  I always collected money for supplies and did my own shopping, so that I could purchase in bulk and ensure that every student had the exact supplies I required for the year.  The shopping was quite a bit of work, but it was great to be able to colour code the subjects and have pencils that would sharpen properly!

Fortunately, my own children’s school has always purchased their supplies as well.  I have managed to avoid the dreaded “supply shopping”, but I thought all you parents out there who have just waded through “the list” might appreciate this video.  When I watched this, I couldn’t help but think this is truly how some of the parents must feel when they are going through the list and find items like “Hilroy notebook, 1/2 blank and 1/2 lined, item #1219”!  You’ll notice some of the staff are quite helpful as well. Enjoy!

Well, with the shopping out of the way and the first week behind us, we can all settle back into routine.  Here is to another great year of learning!!

Family Centre Memo Board

This simple DIY memo board was the final step in our Family Centre project.

Memo Board

For this project, I used one 12″ X 12″ scrapbooking frame from the craft store and more of the coordinating paper that I had used for the previous projects in our Family Centre: FAMILY sign, Weekly Calendar and the Chore System.  I used the paper to create “blocks” for the different sections on the board.  It is an easy way to keep track of important things and communicate between family members when we are all going in different directions.  I hand printed the titles and double mounted them to create some dimension.  I added a little embellishment to the middle just to dress it up a bit.  To use the board, you use a dry erase marker on the glass and simply wipe clean with a cloth or tissue.

memo board

Completed Family Centre

family centre

 

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September Preparations: Many Hands Make Light Work

Ha! Ha! Just kidding. We all share the load around here (or at least strive to).

Last summer, I searched the net to try to figure out a system for having the kids do chores around the house.  There are many great systems and ideas, but it’s important that you find something that will work for your family.  In my case, I sometimes find that the trouble with a system is actually me, not the kids.  When jumping into anything new, you truly have to commit.  I am often a great starter, but am not always committed entirely to the process and thus over time, it fails.  So, when considering a chore system, I wanted it to be manageable for the whole family, so that it would with stand the test of time.  I am trying very hard to be “a little, a lot person” instead of “a lot, a little person”. You know what I mean… “do little things” and make small changes, but make a big, long-term commitment instead of trying to do things in such a big way that you end up losing momentum and feeling like a failure.

Paying Allowance and Chores:

Originally, we planned to set up bank accounts for each of the children and then arrange to have a direct deposit come from our account to each of their accounts on a weekly basis.  My thinking was that this would avoid the issue of not having cash on hand to pay the kids on allowance day.  In the end, we never got our act together and decided that cash was preferable, so that we could teach them money management as well.

The whole issue of allowance is one we have gone back and forth on.  There are  many experts on the subject, all with varying opinions – to pay or not to pay – that is the question! We decided that we like the idea of the kids learning to manage their own money and to begin the process of tithing 10%, investing 10%, saving 10% and using the other 70% as they wish (within our family guidelines, of course).  This way, they will learn the value of a dollar and have the opportunity to learn about both good and bad choices. We have a little corner store at the end of our street and the neighbourhood kids love to walk down for treats.  I sometimes find it difficult to keep track of how often they go, especially during the summer.  This way, they can go if they have money left and will have to pass if they are “tapped-out”.  In the past, I would often say “no” when they asked to go, as I am always trying to avoid over indulging and spoiling our children.  As a result, I am always trying to keep the balance between being fair (and letting them get a treat) versus being a good parent and not spoiling them.  Thus, we decided to give them a little more freedom to make their own choices and learn from their own mistakes. They will receive 50 cents per year or an amount equivalent to half their age.  So, our 11 year old gets $5.50 per week and our 9 year old gets $4.50.  Not a huge amount, but enough to begin to make some of their own choices.  We don’t really pay our kids their allowance based on doing chores, but there is an expectations that they must pull their weight as a member of our family.

Our Chore System

I used a combination of ideas from several sources and this is what I came up with.

Chore Chart

Using a dollar store cookie sheet, I covered the surface with some scrapbooking paper, typed out a list of daily chores as well as a weekly schedule for each child and printed it out on cardstock.  I bought wooden letters to represent the kid’s initials and covered them with coordinating patterned paper.  I then used large glass beads to create magnets for both the dishwasher and the table.  The EMPTY/CLEAN and SET/CLEAR magnets switch each week.  So, in addition to the kids regular daily routine (make bed, brush teeth, clean sink, empty backpack, do homework/reading, empty “crap basket” from the stairs), they are also responsible for putting away their clean laundry, dishwasher duty and either setting or clearing the table. Our Garbage and Recycling are picked up on Wednesdays, and the kids are also responsible for taking both out throughout the week when needed as well as moving the bins out on Tuesday evening, so they are ready for Wednesday pick-up.

Chore Sticks

On Saturday mornings, the kids do their regular daily chores, but instead of making their bed, they strip the sheets/pillow cases for washing and I help them make their bed with clean bedding.  They are also required to “pick a chore“.  I got the idea from  whateverdeedeewants.com, but modified the chores to meet our family’s needs.  We started with just one extra chore per week, but the kids have been told that there are times when they will be asked to pick 2 or 3.  They still have an opportunity to “put a chore back” or “relax” and be chore free, if they pick a lucky stick.

Chore Sticks

I needed a place to keep the chore sticks, so I upcycled this creepy little clown box that I bought for a quarter at a garage sale specifically for this purpose.  

Ugly Clown box

I cut down the box to square it off and used the paper that coordinated with the rest of my family center (Weekly Calendar and Magnetic Chore Tray) to make a cute little holder for our Chore Sticks.

Chore Stick holder

Upcycled clown box, turned into a cute little wooden holder for our chore sticks.

I used some vintage clip art and printed little “icons” for both the dishwasher and table jobs. These were made from dollar store jumbo glass beads and craft magnets. They stick to the magnetic chore chart.
IMG_6892

We hung the chore system up below our Weekly Family Schedule.

IMG_6897

We used the above system all of last year and it worked well. I did find that Saturday chores were sometimes difficult to stay on top of because of the various activities that we are always running to. I have not made any changes to the system yet, but our kids are at the age where they are asking how they might be able to earn some extra money. I have a few ideas swarming around in my head, so I will keep you posted if I incorporate some of the ideas I am thinking about.

Remember the famous quote by John Heywood:

Many hands make light work.

I must admit, I sometimes find “chores” a hassle. I could empty the dishwasher in 2 minutes, instead of waiting the 20 until my daughter is out of the shower (or whatever). The garbage is bagged and ready to go, why not just slip it out on my own?  Remember…chores are not just about helping out, they are about teaching responsibility and learning valuable life skills that a future spouse will really appreciate.  I don’t demand that their beds are made perfectly or that the everything is done exactly the way I would do it, but as they grow and mature, I give them little tips that can help them become more effective and efficient with the tasks they do.   Good luck!

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The “Crap” Basket Solution

Do you have a two or three-story house ?  Are you constantly finding your kid’s belongings on the main floor instead of in their rooms?  This was a constant battle in our house.  “Take this upstairs.” (and many other variations of the phrase had me feeling like a broken record.  (Wow! That phrase ages me, I guess!)  I found this idea on Pinterest and just had to make my own version.  I think that I borrowed the original idea from www.haleymorgan.com, but I can’t remember for sure.

Is the Word “Crap” Offensive?

I hope not.  If I offended anyone, I apologize.  I’ll be honest, my mom was a Christian woman with very high morals, but she said the word “crap” and so do I.  As a kindergarten teacher, I am often hearing children say that words such as hate and stupid  are “swears”.  In my family, none of those words were considered “swears”, but were also never directed at a person.  There is a difference between saying “you are stupid” and “I can’t get this stupid thing to work”.  The words certainly don’t have a positive connotation, but I am not completely convinced they are “swears” either.  Of course, I would never tell my students this, but clearly not everyone is brought up banning those words from their vocabulary and thus we have “situations” in the classroom.  I have found the same to be true with the word “crap”.  I do believe the word is banned in some homes, but clearly not mine.  Just to clarify, I wanted to demonstrate that there is more than one definition and when I use the word “crap”, I am referring to this definition, so don’t get your knickers in a knot.

definition of crap

You will notice that this definition (taken from the New Oxford American Dictionary) does say “vulgar slang”, but I choose to ignore this because since when is “rubbish” vulgar?  I am not sure that my children necessarily agree that their belongings fit with the definition, but for me it works.  You could certainly make the baskets without using the word at all and just put their names on their baskets ~ whatever works for you.

Our Crap Baskets

Okay, now that we got that out of the way….we can actually get to the project.  I loved the original poster’s idea to use wicker, but thought that the baskets would probably scratch my painted stairs, so I opted for a little dollar store tote.  It looks like one of those canvas ones, but it is actually not…I think it is some kind of a nylon fabric (can be wiped).  I simply printed the words on my computer and used my Cricut machine to cut-out the tags.  I then used a stamp, eyelet, ribbon and hearts to embellish them.  They were super easy and have been very durable. The baskets sit on the stairs and it is the kid’s job to take up their basket, put away their belongings and return them to the stairs.  I find the baskets work really well.  Anytime, I find a bottle of nail polish, book, toy, etc., I just pop it in their “crap basket”.  I no longer have to hound them, but rather just pop their things in their baskets.  We have never found them to be in the way either.

crap basket

 

 

crap baskets

Eden and Shay’s crap baskets

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It’s a True Love Story

Before blogging, I often check-out what’s trending to see if there is anything interesting or great to share with my readers.  Today, I found this video and it really warmed my heart.  I lost my mom when I was 30.  My parents had been married for 35 years when she passed away.  I know how hard it was for my dad to pick-up the pieces and carry on after losing her.

After 75 years together, Fred’s wife passes.  While struggling through his loss, he begins to write the lyrics to a song in honor of her and their time together.   He enters the song in a local contest and his song is brought to life.  It really is a true love story.  I was so touched by Fred and his story. I just had to share.  I hope you enjoy the video as much as I did.

1 Corinthians 13:13

Three things will last forever–faith, hope, and love–and the greatest of these is love.

 

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September Preparations: Weekly Calendar

One week to go and a long list of “to do’s” in the days ahead.  I will continue to put the finishing touches on our 6 week menu plan that was mentioned in yesterday’s post, but today it is time to update our September calendar and get back to using our weekly calendar.  For us, late August is not only time for back to school shopping,  but it also involves fall registration for the kid’s activities.  This week, we will register the kids for dance, swimming and hockey.  Piano and Girl Guide registrations were done in the spring, so the times for those have already been set.  The registration process not only involves paying the fees and filling out the forms, but also examining the “family” schedule as a whole to see how we can juggle everyone’s individual schedules.  Like other busy families, this includes quite the balancing act to fit in both of our regular work schedules plus additional meetings and work commitments as well as all of the other activities that we are involved in.  For September, we are looking at juggling the following:

  • Tim’s work schedule and meetings as well as compulsory over-time shifts
  • my work schedule and extra meetings/school events like “Meet the Teacher” evening, Thursday night volleyball, volunteering at church
  • Shay ~ soccer (extended play from the spring) and hockey try-outs (swimming starts in October)
  • Eden ~ Girl Guides, dance and piano (swimming starts in October)
  • Eden and I ~ “Mother’s and Daughter’s in Touch” program
  • Additional events

General Organization and Planning

We purchase one of those large family calendars that have ample space for writing.  In late August, once registrations have been completed, I sit down and fill-out the calendar as far in advance as possible.  Generally, I will complete as much of the calendar as possible leading up to the end of December.  I go through the calendar and add in all of the kid’s activities, my activities/meetings as well as Tim’s.  Once the monthly calendar has been filled with those commitments that are not flexible, it is much easier to make decisions as to what other things we can commit to and when will work.  I am a very visual person and need everything organized and neat in order for it to make sense to me (hence the colour coded system in my classroom).  We keep our main calendar inside our basement door which is located in the kitchen.  It is very accessible, but hidden so it is not out in the open and messy looking.  You can see that the whole family writes on our main calendar.  It always becomes very cluttered and full of scribbles as schedules change and adjustments are made.  Here is an example of our April calendar.  Not one of our busiest months,  but still lots to keep track of.

monthly calendar

Weekly Calendar

Being a very visual person, I like to have a less cluttered version of the monthly calendar that gives us a “week at glance” instead of the whole calendar.  Every Sunday, I transfer all of the items from our monthly calendar onto our weekly calendar that is posted on the wall in our kitchen.  Like the menu board, the weekly calendar helps to give me an overall look at the week ahead and plan accordingly.  It helps my husband and I figure out who needs to be where and which one of us needs to be the “taxi” driver.  Here is our DIY weekly calendar.  I originally got the idea from Pinterest (not surprisingly) and then made my own version of their weekly calendar.  Here is the link to the original source for the idea.

DIY weekly calendar

Weekly Calendar Tutorial

This is an easy DIY project and the final look is “clean” and visually appealing.

  1. Purchase a multi-picture frame similar to mine.  I think I bought this one at Wal-Mart for around $15.  You need to have at least 7 frames to accommodate the entire week. I chose 8, but I have seen them done with more frames.  The additional frames can be used for titles (like mine), message boards or just embellished to look pretty.
  2. Purchase coordinating paper that will fit with the decor of the space where you will be mounting the finished calendar.
  3. Purchase lettering or use your Cricut to cut-out the letters you need (that’s what I did).  I chose to use a the initial letter only, to represent each day of the week.  You may want to use smaller letters and spell the whole day.  For the title, “THIS WEEK”, I used teal and black.  I cut the teal letters on my Cricut, but changed the setting to shadow for the black letters, to make them slightly bigger.
  4. Assemble your frame with your new calendar pages.
  5. Use a dry erase marker to print the date (top right corner) and add in your schedule for the week directly on the glass.  Use a kleenex, cloth or eraser to erase the board every Sunday and start all over again.

DIY weekly calendar

 

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September Preparations: Menu Board

September is crazy busy at our house and I know that I need to plan ahead in order to remain sane.  My job is always demanding, but September is generally off the charts in terms of work load. I tend to put in very long hours and bring quite a bit of work home with me as well, so I always need to try to get life at home organized in preparation for the pending mayhem that will follow in the weeks ahead.  I have found that menu planning really helps.

Menu Planning:

I must say, that for me menu planning helps to keep me organized and takes the stress out of deciding what we should have.  Often at the end of a long day, it is not so much the making of dinner, but rather making the decision about what to have.  With the menu, I know what groceries need to be bought and what needs to be taken out of the freezer the night before.  Sometimes I will even do a few make-ahead meals and freeze them for those evenings when we are on the run to activities and such.  Some simple make-aheads are cooked ground beef (used for tacos, soup, spaghetti sauce, etc).  I sometimes will make double batches when cooking the week before school starts and during the school year. By doubling things up, I always have leftovers to freeze for future meals.  I have to admit we don’t always stick completely to the plan, but it provides a great frame-work for most of the meals throughout the month.  We don’t use a monthly plan every month, but always in our busiest months of the year (September, December and June).  I have used several variations.

September Menu

2012 September Menu

 

When setting up a menu, I try to consider a few things:  our favourites, variety and a good balance of healthy choices.  (I am still following The Plan and have not done much food testing this summer, so I am planning family meals, but may not always be eating the same meal as the rest of the family.)  This year, I decided to make up a menu with no dates, but rather planned by week #’s. I plan to use the calendar grid and make 6 full week plans that we will work through (and tweak as we go). This way, we can just keep following the weekly rotation and then begin again when we’ve gone through all of the weeks.  I have a weekly menu board in my kitchen that I update every Sunday and follow throughout the week.

I am still tweaking the new 6 week menu plan, but it will be a combination of some of our meals from previous years as well as a few new favourites.  I plan to have “grilled chicken breast with salad” every Thursday.  This is a really clean, healthy meal.  I plan to place it on Thursdays because Friday is a bit of a fun food day at our house.  When we have salad and chicken breast, we use different variations of chicken (ie different sauces, BBQ, oven baked, etc.).  We also change-up the salads to add variety.  I also usually cook a pot of homemade soup on Sundays (especially when the weather gets colder).  I love having homemade soup on hand for lunches throughout the week.  The other thing that the menu does not take into account is left-overs.  I sometimes find that we will skip the pre-planned meal and just clean-up the left-overs in the fridge.

DIY Chalkboard Menu Board

In a previous house, I had two long narrow pieces of sheet metal cut for the inside two of my cupboard doors.  I loved this as it got all of our little notes and business cards off the fridge door and hidden inside the cupboard.  Unfortunately, the style of our new kitchen cupboards would not support the magnetic boards.  I decided to use one of them for a chalkboard/magnetic menu board in my kitchen.  I thought that the magnetic feature would be great, but in hindsite, we never use magnets on it, so it is a waste of a good piece of metal.  I wish I would have used wood and saved the metal for another use.  Having said that, the menu board itself is well used and works well.

To make this, I primed the metal and then gave it 4 coats of my homemade chalkboard paint.  You must let it dry completely and give it a very very light sand between coats.  After the final coat, let it cure for a full day or more.  In the mean time, I used my Cricut to cut out the lettering for the board out of white vinyl.  It is basically peel and stick vinyl, so easy to do if you have a Cricut machine.  If not, you could purchase letter stickers from the craft store.  I adhered the stickers to the board BEFORE priming the surface for using chalk.  This helped to ensure better adhesion of the stickers.  I then primed the surface using the side of a piece of chalk and then erased it completely.  I chose to mount my menu on the wall right beside my stove.  I really like it and it allows me to make modifications to the monthly menu for the coming week.  For example, if we are going to be out for dinner one night, our menu would reflect this.  Here is the weekly menu board.

Menu Board

 

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Pirate Birthday Party

When planning a birthday party, I work according to the following outline:

  • invitations
  • decorations
  • activities/games
  • food/snacks
  • cake(s) ~ plan, design and bake a cake/cupcakes (or save the hassle and order one)
  • loot bags

For a complete breakdown of party planning steps and organization, see my Birthday Party Planning post.  We did a Pirate theme for my son’s 5th birthday.  This was one of those over the top parties that took lots of time and energy to pull together, but it was great fun!

Invitations:

These invitations were so much fun to make.  I wrote the invitation and then tried to “translate” it into pirate language.  I Googled pirate words and even found examples of invitations others had made that I could use as a guide.  After figuring out what I was going to write, I had to search the web for an appropriate font.  I often pick a font that is specific to my party theme and this was no exception.  Unfortunately, I can’t share the name of the font, as I now have a Mac and my computer doesn’t recognize the font in the original document.  I have several places that I download fonts from, but dafont and fontspace are two that I often use.  I can’t be sure by I think that Rapscallion and Treasure Map Dead hand look familiar from fontspace.  I changed the fonts and then printed the invitations off on my computer.  I then dipped them in tea to dye/age them and then set them out flat to dry completely.  The mock treasure map was actually a map to our house, with the X marking our house.We rolled the map and invitation together, scroll style and added them to an old bottle with some sand and a seashell in the bottom.  We corked the bottle and added a personalized tag to each bottle.  My son and I delivered our “message in a bottle” to each guest.

Treasure Map and Pirate Party Invitation
Message in a Bottle


Decorations:

For this party, we had lots of decorations to pull the theme together.  The guests were required to “walk the plank” on our front sidewalk before entering.

Walk the Plank Sign
Walking the Plank

As they stepped up on our front porch, they were welcomed by a skeleton and sign on the front door.  The skeleton is one of those milk jug skeletons.  I made it for the party and then kept it for a Halloween decoration, so it served a dual purpose.  Click the picture for a tutorial on how to make them.

pirate party milk jug skeleton

The big ship poster was on our front door.

pirate party door sign

I made my standard Happy Birthday Banner.  The parrot was made with my son’s handprints for the wings.

pirate theme party banner

I made a palm tree from an old cardboard carpet roll and set out an old trunk for the gifts. I wrapped the gifts from us in brown paper with raffia ties to go with the theme.  I made several signs that were posted around the house.  You can see this one says, “Loot Goes ‘ere!”  You will also see some pineapples and a coconut next to the trunk.  The coconut is real, but the pineapples were made for my daughter’s “Aloha” birthday party by applying paper maché over 2 litre pop bottles.

palm tree and chest

The buffet had a few decorations as well.  I covered a small box with paper maché and made a custom lid that had the rounded top like a trunk. I used a heavy cardboard that had the flexibility to bend (not corrugated).  I then filled it with treasure from the dollar store and around the house (brass wine glasses that we received as a wedding gift, fake gold coins, beads, shiny pennies (soaked in vinegar and salt), etc).  I also spilled out one of the invitation bottles and covered the edges with two grass skirts from the dollar store (much cheaper than purchasing an actual table skirt).

pirate theme buffet

There were several little “vignettes” set-up around our dining room and signs dispersed throughout the house and yard.  We also purchased a pirated themed cd for background music.  Here is a gallery showing more of the decorations.

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Games and Activities

  1. Pin the Patch on the Pirate (I bought a commercial poster for this)
  2. Pineapple Bowling with paper maché pineapples and a real coconut
  3. Pass the Cannon (like Hot Potato) used a coconut as the cannon ball
  4. Walk the Plank
  5. Hook the Pretzel (How many pretzels can you hook?  No hands!)
  6. Swab the Deck (One on one contest to “swab” the balls across the deck with mops)
  7. Treasure Hunt/Scramble (had to find the chocolate coins hidden around the yard/house)
  8. Face Painting & Tattoos
  9. Paper Bag Pirate Puppets (to fill time while some kids were getting their faces painted)
  10. Dig for Treasure  (We hid shells in a large sand box and had a contest to see who could find the most)
  11. Shell Race (place a shell on your nose and race)
Pineapple Bowling
Swabbing the Deck
Pin the Patch on the Pirate
How Many Pretzels Can You Hook?

Food and Snack

This party was jam-packed with activities, so I did not put out much food.  The only theme related food was Goldfish crackers.  We also put out some watermelon, pretzels, chips and salsa.  We also served a homemade punch.

Cake and Ice Cream

I don’t have specific tutorials to direct you to for the cakes.  I tend to use Google images to get ideas and visit the sites connected to those images that interest me the most.  I gather ideas from several sources to come up with my own versions.  For the pirate ship cake, I was able to find little pirate action figures at the dollar store and the treasure chest originally held small candy.  The pirate ship cake was sitting on a “treasure map” in the center of the table. The pirate cake and hat cake were basically fancy cutting.  The stripes on the shirt are “fruit by the foot”.  I often pre-cut ice cream to fit the theme.  I  bought vanilla cartons of ice cream and peeled the box off.  This allowed me to cut the rectangular shape into 1″ slabs.  I then used the skull and crossbones cookie cutter to cut the ice cream.  I then lay the cut-out pieces on wax paper on a cookie sheet for quick and easy serving.

Loot Bags

When the guests arrived, they each received a bandana, eye patch, “pirate” face paint and a pirate style tattoo.  Some of the loot was in their actual loot bags, some they received and wore for the duration of the party and other loot was received throughout the party.  The birthday boy and his sister were in full costume and my husband and I sported bandanas and eye-patches.

pirate birthday costumes

pirate party loot

  • Bandana
  • Eye Patch
  • Tattoos
  • Chocolate Coins (hidden in the yard)
  • Money (in the cake)
  • Skull and Cross Bones Cookies
  • “Ocean in a Bottle” with thank-you note attached (bottle with blue water/vinegar and a variety of ocean things like tiny plastic fish, shells, sand, etc.  Place them in the bottle and kids and shake the bottle and watch the fish swim)
  • Package of Goldfish crackers
  • Glow Stick
  • Playdough
  • Dollar Store Pirate Action Figure and Boat Set
pirate theme cookies

Skull & Cross Bone Cookies

This was one of the very best parties we did.  The ideas were endless and it was so much fun!  I would highly recommend a pirate theme party ~ it is guaranteed to be a big hit with both boys and girls!

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Simple Party Pennant Banner

I love the look of those triangle pennant banners.  I have made paper ones before and they are so cute, but thought I would make a fabric one that I could use over and over again.  This was super easy and I probably had the cutting and sewing done within an hour or so.

Pennant Banner Instructions:

Materials:

  • Coordinating fabric (or paper)
  • Ribbon to mount the triangles on
  • Sewing Machine/thread
  • Measuring tool and scissors or rotary cutter

fabric
I ended up with 5 different fabric patterns and purchased .2 of a meter of each, for this project.  This enabled me to fit 2 double-sided triangles per piece of fabric (ie I would have 2 completed triangles from each fabric for a total of 10).  To be honest I didn’t even measure these.  I had a paper pennant banner from another occasion and just used one of the triangles as a guide.  The originals were cut from 8 1/2 X 11″ paper with the top of the triangle extending the whole width of the paper and the point coming down to the middle of the bottom of the page at 4 1/4″.  When making the fabric triangles, I set down the paper triangle guide and used my rotary fabric cutter to cut through the double thickness of fabric (with wrong sides together).

wrong sides together

The photo makes this look a little lop-sided, but it actually isn’t.

I simply sewed a zigzag stitch down the sides of the triangles to the point, and left the top open. I was not concerned about the stitches showing, so I kept the wrong sides together and sewed on the “good” side.  I wanted my triangles to have two “good” sides so that when they blew in the wind, there was no back or “bad” side.

sewing triangles

After all 10 triangles had been sewn, I laid out my ribbon and pinned the triangles on about 6 inches apart.  I then sewed the tops of the triangle to ribbon.  (I did not sew the tops together before as I really didn’t see a need to double-stitch them.)  My finished banner stretched about 12 feet or so, with some swag.

Finished Pennant Banner

pennant banner

Finished Banner

The fabric banner was super easy to make and much more durable than paper.  To be honest, the $8 cost (got the fabric and ribbon on sale) was not much more than fancy paper and it will obviously last for many years.  I actually tried to pick colours that I thought were a bit more neutral, so they could serve different purposes and would look good with the strange colour of our house (not my pick).  Happy sewing!

Pennant Banners Continued…

You can do some really cool things with these banners.  When making paper banners, it is fun to add lettering and coordinate for a birthday party theme or other celebration.  We used one at our teacher appreciation lunch this year.    There is a great tutorial at Plucking Daisies.

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