#TheOnlyWayIsLove

Some of you may have heard about #TheOnlyWayIsLove party which was recently held in Essex, UK.  It was a fashion show held by my friends over at In Love With Fashion, where they showcased their newest LOVE garments and designs.  I wasn't lucky enough to attend, but those who did (including many celebrities) have raved about it, saying that it was the "party of the year" which makes me want to save up to attend one of the LOVE events coming up next year!

Lucky for us, LOVE is giving one person a chance to win one of the goody bags they gave out during #TheOnlyWayIsLove party AND £500 cash money, baby!  How awesome is that??!!  Uh, pretty DAMN awesome if you ask me!

All you have to do is fill out a form, and that's it!  You're entered.  BOOM!  No long list of bloggers to follow, no Facebook pages to like (though you could like ILWF anyway), and no hoops to jump through just to get a chance at winning.  Easy, peasy.  Lemon squeezy.

Click here to enter the competition!

Good luck!  And don't forget to stop by

Ice Cream Party Time!

So last week Aniyah, our eldest child, turned 10!  I'm honestly still trying to cope with the fact that she's getting older - I woke up in the middle of the night because I had a dream where she told me she wanted to sell her clothes so she could buy new ones because she wanted a boyfriend.  Talk about a nightmare!

Anyway, the last time she had a real party for her birthday was when she was 4 - the year before she started school.  Since then we've just been having small celebrations (Chuck-E-Cheese's, family dinners, etc.) because I told her that her next "party" won't be until she turns 10, so she was really excited for her birthday this year.

As you may have seen in my last post, she chose to go with an Ice Cream theme.  It kinda took a while for her to make up her mind about it, but in the end it was a really great choice - so much more original than a character themed birthday.

I found some free Ice Cream party printables on Pinterest and customized them on Pixlr.

I also ordered some Ice Cream themed goodies from Oriental Trading Co. to use for party favors and decorations.

These pink and blue lollipops were from Oriental Trading Co. and I just printed the cupcake toppers from the printable pack on sticker paper to stick on the lollipops.

 Aniyah and some of her friends before all the fun and craziness started.  The weather had been horrible all week and places of the island were flooded due to heavy rains so she was very excited when some of her classmates were able to make it.

 I saw this image on Pinterest and decided to recreate it.  But instead of using real ice cream cones (which may have gone to waste), I used these cute polka dot paper cones that I got from Oriental Trading Co.

Simple pink and blue paper bags are so much easier and cheaper than using those favor boxes.  I just attached the customized printable treat topper and they looked awesome!

Our menu was simple, with our Mongolian grill station being the main food item.  Guests were able to pick out their own vegetables, meats, and seasonings and watch it while it was being cooked by our awesome family chefs!

 Another Pinterest idea was put to use in our 10-foot ice cream sundae.  The original pin was a 10-foot banana split which used a carpet tube and some handmade stands for it to be lifted off the ground but we put our own twist on it.

Instead of a carpet tube, I just cut, folded, and taped the cardboard box from our Oriental Trading Co. order and created a trough which I then covered in tinfoil.  Instead of lifting it off of the ground, we put it on a tarp and had an ice cream eating contest!

 They all had to kneel down with their hands behind their backs and finish all the ice cream in their section as quickly as possible.  The winner got to choose a prize from the prize box.

It was so much fun for the kids and their families because we were all cheering them on and everyone got a kick out of it.  And thankfully the rainy weather was on our side because it helped to wash away all the stickiness!

 After the ice cream eating contest and the ice cream war, the kids rinsed off and sang happy birthday to Aniyah.  She not really a cake person - she prefers cookie cake instead.

Afterwards we continued with the rest of the games and I'm so glad that the kids weren't "too cool" to participate because they all had a blast.

They played musical chairs, had an egg toss, water balloon relay roll, and a water balloon toss as well.  It was really so fun just to watch them all enjoy themselves.  Some of the adults even got involved by throwing water balloons with the kids.

In the end, it was a very messy, very sticky, but very AWESOME 10th birthday party!  I'm so glad that the stormy weather didn't put such a damper on everyone's spirits and that they were able to celebrate Aniyah's birthday with us.

Thank you to everyone for all your birthday wishes in comments and shout-outs!  She was really surprised to find out how much love and support she has from all of you!

And I know I've been absent from the blog world for most of the month but October starts tomorrow and I'm really excited to share some of my DIY costume ideas with you again this year.  Last year's costume posts were such a hit that I figured I'd try to put together some requested costumes this month - so comment below with a request!

I scream for some ice cream inspiration!

Okay so before we get into the good stuff, I just want you to know how much I am FREAKING OUT about my daughter Aniyah's upcoming birthday. She'll be turning 10 - that's double digits, people! Holy frikken moly!  So for such an important day, you know that a party is bound to happen around here!

This year she asked for an ice cream themed birthday so I've been scouring the internet for some ideas and inspiration.  If you follow me on Pinterest, you may have noticed the abundance of ice cream pins lately.

Ice cream cone cupcakes!  They just look soooo delicious!

Colored popcorn in an ice cream cone - great way to incorporate the "ice cream" theme without going overboard with all the dairy and sugar.

So easy and inexpensive!

How epic would this be!?  A 10-foot banana split for a 10th birthday!!

And these ice cream scoop letters would be great to spell out her name!

Aren't those just awesome ideas?!  And that's just the things I found online - I haven't even gotten started on what I came up with in my head.

I plan on having a full ice cream bar spread - cups, sugar cones, sugar-free cones, sprinkles, almonds, macadamia nuts, Oreos, M&Ms, peanut butter cups, gummy bears, fruits, whipped cream, chocolate syrup, strawberry syrup, etc.  We're also going to have a fried ice cream station and I've already got a cotton candy machine ready too.

And if you think that's exciting, guess what I'm hoping to have as well... (I say hoping because I haven't cleared it with the hubby yet - fingers crossed!)

Have you guessed?  Oh alright, I'll just tell you:  An Ice Cream War!!!  (Not to be confused with the William Boyd novel)

Okay, you may be thinking that it's a little extreme, but close your eyes and pretend you're 10 years old again.  A tarp on the ground, a bunch of your friends, and some squishy ice cream - you know you'd want to dive right in and slide all over that.  AND before you turn back into an adult and start to lecture me about wasting food, I'll be using whatever left over ice cream had not been eaten from the 10-foot banana split.

See, you can have your ice cream and play with it too!

*Oh yeah, and if you've seen my recent pins of outdoor showers, now you know the reason for my needing one soon!

Well, that's my party plan for this month.  What do you think?  Like I said, I'm still in the "planning" phase right now but I'll be ordering the party favors and some other decorations soon so I'll share those with you later!

Sweet.

I really wasn't planning on posting today.  As I mentioned in Wednesday's post, I've been feeling a little uninspired lately and haven't had a real "aha" moment for my blog.  I think it's mostly due to the fact that March is normally a very stressful month for me.  Chloe's birthday AND Joey's birthday on top of other family and friends' birthdays (my Grandma, our neighbors' daughters, etc.) are in March and I'm usually stressed out about gifts, cooking, and other party woes.

This week has been especially stressful because I had been worrying about Chloe's bake sale, her party bags coming in on time, paying the bills, Joey's doctor's appointment, and the upcoming birthdays we were invited to (3 in one day) this weekend.

Thankfully, Chloe's bake sale went swimmingly.  We ended up making Cranberry-Orange Scones thanks to the recipe and help from my Auntie Lucy.  She's my mom's sister and a second mother to me.  My kids absolutely adore her and they always get so excited when we visit her.

My mom bought the party bags for Chloe's classmates and it finally came in yesterday.  I was stressing out about it because I wanted to get the invitations out to the kids by today so that the parents would know that we'll be providing lunch and snacks for their kids on Tuesday so they don't have to plan lunch for them on that day.  We were able to pick up the box yesterday afternoon and Chloe took her invitations with her to school today to pass out.  This is her first year in school so she's super excited to celebrate with her class.

Joey had his appointment yesterday and he is finally cast-less!  He's not 100% yet and has to go to rehab (..but I said no, no no!...) for another three weeks but at least he's not hopping around with that dirty thing on his leg anymore!  And I'll be able to take a much needed break from doing EVERYTHING for him soon. (Love you, honey!)

And the icing on the cake was this little package that I got from Rachael!  It put a smile on my face and really lifted my spirits!  She's such a sweet person and I highly recommend that you go visit (& follow) her blog!  Plus she's got a pretty sweet giveaway going on right now that you should definitely enter!!!

Cheers to the freakin' weekend!

♥ Duckie.

Simple Sunday + Party Planning

Hey bloggers! I feel like a crack addict right now because it is 10:45pm right now on Guam and I'm blogging. I don't usually post at all on the weekends, so it is a bit weird for me.

The reason I'm up and on the computer right now is because I'm trying to get all my homework done. I actually just finished my 7 page paper on the gender movements of the 1960's for my social science class (whew!) and now I'm trying to tackle 20 days worth of payroll for my final project in my Payroll Accounting class (yikes).

Anyway, so today was a pretty simple day for us. Spent some time getting some horses done (halfway there!), cleaned the house up a bit, and Joey and I barbecued some steak for lunch while the kids swam in the pool. It was a really relaxing day and we all enjoyed it. It'll probably be the last relaxing weekend we'll have for the rest of the month though due to Chloe's birthday coming up.

So if you didn't already know, my outrageous/funny/candid/diva daughter Chloe will be turning 4 on the 19th of March. This is her last birthday before she starts pre-k in the fall and it'll be her last REAL birthday party until she's 10. She usually has 2 parties every year (spoiled brat), one mini gathering on her actual birthday and then a party party on the weekend immediately after.

With all the double birthdays she's had, she's gone through a lot of different themes. This year, she asked for a Cowgirl party (wtf??). So UNFORTUNATELY the horse ranches here on Guam will NOT bring a horse to our house for the kids to ride (I still don't understand why not since Guam is so small anyway!) so that idea has been scratched.

But not to worry, I'm awesome at party planning so I've got a lot of other ideas to make up for the lack of a horse. I had looked online for party bags and found this:

Now its cute and all, but with the price of those bags (I'll need about 100pcs) and the cost of shipping to Guam, I really wasn't too excited about it. So I've decided to get my own paper bags, print out boot cutouts on cardstock paper, and have the kids decorate it themselves. I'll be setting up a table with crayons, markers, stickers, glitter, etc. for kids to decorate their boots, and then glue them on to their own goody bags. Cool huh? Well, I think so.

And I've already gotten started on the hobby horse idea that I found here:

But I'm sure mine won't look nearly as good or as normally shaped as those.

Now I consider myself to be a pretty good baker, I mean I love to bake and the things that I bake are delicious. But as far as icing is concerned, I definitely need help in that department. But here is something that I'm going to TRY and recreate:

Aren't they adorable!!?? Cactus cupcakes! So cute, but I'm sure it'll be hard work considering the spikes on these babies need to be put on with tweezers (you've GOT to be kidding me) but hopefully Chloe's godmother (who used to work in one of those cool fancy shmancy cake shops) would be willing to take on the task (*crossing fingers*).

And we'll also be setting up a s'more station which ties in to the whole cowgirl/western/home on the range kinda vibe:

Aren't these photos/ideas so awesome?! I'm still thinking of other things to add so if you have a cool cowgirl idea, please let me know! Her party's just 2 weeks away!!!!

And btw, I still haven't gotten the supplies for "So Frikken Crafty #3" yet so just hold tight. I'll get it this week, I promise!