Pink Peppermint Blogger

My Caroline is the princess-loving tough as nails variety of little girl. A sweet jumble of contradictions. The kind of girl you only get from having an older brother in the house. It’s hard to predict what she’ll come up with next, but when it came to her 3rd birthday celebration, she and I decided we’d combine two of her current faves–princesses and snow!

In case you missed it, here’s the invitation. We handed out the majority of them so I got a little playful with addressing them. There were Ladies, Dukes and even Barons on the invitation list.

Here’s the glitter embellishment on the envelope.

Guests were welcomed to Castle Touchet with these grapevine wreaths spray painted silver and flocked with snow.

Inside where it was warm, the royal banquet table stretched out underneath a sky of falling snow.

We had snowflake crowns for the boys and tiaras for the girls.

Princess Caroline’s birthday throne at the head of the table was all wrapped up in a bow and set off with her royal portrait.

Laid out on a blanket of snow down the center of the table were snow globes filled with a different royal and snowy scenes.

A royal crown, a snowy church, a silver slipper, and a Victorian ice skate among others.

The princess one turned out to be my favorite!

After everyone checked out our stash of toys, it was time to eat!

Our centerpiece was made up of sparkly winter branches embedded in a vase of snow.

We had simple breakfast foods like sausage balls, mini muffins, pigs in a blanket and fresh fruit on these snowflake skewers.

The crowd favorites were these donut snowmen.

And look. There’s our dainty little princess enjoying one now!

The kids also really went for these marshmallow pops.

They had juice from these sweet little cups that come with snap on lids so they don’t spill.

I decked them out in royal fashion with some ribbon and scrapbooking embellishments.

And for the adults we had hot chocolate and coffee.

The mantle was decorated with a glittery snow village and castle.

And since it was a surprisingly mild January day {naturally}, we set up a play table of snow outside.

We had a few scoops and buckets and those kiddos went to town!

Then everyone headed back inside for cake. The birthday girl was feeling unusually shy as everyone sang.

Then there was more playing in the snow before everyone said their goodbyes.

As party favors, everyone got snow powder so they could make their own snow at home.

We had a great time celebrating with the birthday girl and a sweet group of friends for her first big girl party. Happy third birthday sweet Caroline!

Sources:

Large/Small Ripple Cups, Clear Favor Boxes – Think Garnish

Invitations, Paper Crowns, Cup Wraps, Favor Tags – Pink Peppermint Paper

Cake – Dream Cakes

Can you believe Halloween is already upon us? Seriously. I don’t know where 2010 has gone. How could it be time already for my sister’s 4th Annual Neighborhood Halloween Party? She touched base with me several weeks back, and we used this Trick-or-Treaters invitation.

Little did I know at the time that I’d get to attend this year! I live outside of Jackson, Mississippi and my sister, Amanda, is waaaaaaaaay up north outside of Boston. Seems even more waaaaaaaay after air travel with two kiddos, but our Mother came too, and we had a great time!

They have a season there called “Fall.” Just the quaint sort of thing you’d expect from a small New England town. It was breezy and in low 60s. Sweet! {Please note that as I write this, now back at home it’s going to be 88 degrees. The Reese’s cup I just stole from my Halloween pantry stash was melted in the middle.}

You can imagine after three years of Halloween parties, that one would have amassed quite an assortment of spooky fun. Amanda had the house all decked out with ghoulish delights. Touches of Halloween were everywhere. This was one of the first things my five year old spotted.

This was the second. How fun!

And I was in love with the jack-o-lantern chandelier shades. Awesome.

We got to work stretching cobwebs over anything that would stay still and on planning the menu.

We made Bleeding Heart Brie, a delish dip with brie cheese and cherry preserves baked inside a crescent roll crust.

Also served were these adorable Crunchy Mummies made with celery, cream cheese mix and ham, and some adorable mummies on a stick–hotdogs wrapped in dough to look like mummies with mustard and ketchup eyes.

Amanda also served an assortment of dips including a yummy Cajun corn dip. Soooo good!

Amanda filled her cauldron punch bowl with Brew Ha Ha punch, complete with eyeballs and for the adults, there were soft drinks and Blood Orange Sangria!

It’s no wonder everyone asks for directions to the bathroom! Just follow the bloody footsteps!

And what Halloween party is complete without sweets?

There were witch hat cookies, ghosts in the graveyard–a tasty pudding dish decorated with ghost Peeps–brownies, candy, and a fantastic three-tier cake!

Lots of the neighbors brought goodies. One even whipped up this awesomely spooky candy house. How fab is that?

The kids had a blast in their costumes eating and playing in the Pirate-themed bouncy house. The neighbors had a chance to socialize while the kids were otherwise engaged, and enjoyed a sunny, but blustery Fall day. Amanda had just the right mix of spooky and fun.

Horror highlight of the party? Power goes out 30 minutes before the start time. Three dozen raw wieners on a stick and one deflated bouncy. We thought the bouncy had blown the whole house. Turns out it was the neighborhood, and power was restored a few minutes into the party. Good thing it was during daylight hours! Great job A on another fab year of Halloween fun!

Be a deary and leave a little comment, my pretties. I’ve got my eye on you.

I’m giving Lauren a much-needed break, so I’ll be the one to tell you about her son’s second birthday! Quite frankly, there’s some gushing to be done, and it’s much easier to gush about someone else’s party than it is your own. The party was so very cute, and I have so many pictures that I don’t even know where to begin, but here goes…

Pink Peppermint Parties has been all abuzz over the details for Lauren’s son’s 2nd birthday. No flies on us, for sure. For those of you who don’t remember or weren’t following me very early on, this is the adorable party she worked up for his 1st birthday.

This year’s theme was Bugs, and the challenge was to make it a party any boy would be proud of but also keep it sweet for a birthday boy still knee high to a grasshopper. We set the mood with this invitation design.

The munched edges turned out to be one of my favorite little details! Lauren even munched the flap on the envelope. Love it.

Party goers handed over these sluggy buggies to gain entrance to the Museum park. Now onto the BIG day!

The festivities were held at an outdoor pavilion. Each table had a sweet, grassy centerpiece complete with all types of creepy critters centered around these pint-sized, colorful arrangements of fly swatters and a butterfly net–all planted like flowers in large Mason jars.

Every kiddo had a place set with these stinkin’ adorable bug boxes that were personalized in buggy fashion with their names.

Also, waiting for them were butterfly nets, magnifying glasses, Build-A-Bug gummies, and these bug-eyed party hats.

There were bug-themed coloring sheets and crayons too!

How sweet is the little ladybug on that bunch of crayons? Swoon. I ran to get my camera when I saw them. I am SUCH a sucker for little details like that.

There was also an adorable game table with bug-themed puzzles, a bubble machine  (aka “the Fogger”) and COOTIE! Remember that game? Ahhh, memories…

Before lunch and cake, everyone enjoyed a bug hunt on the lawn. The kids grabbed their nets and had a great time searching for all the different kinds of bugs. Here’s the birthday boy in action.

Then it was time to munch. Note the hand sanitizer in that adorable buggy dispenser. Lauren really thought of everything!

I love the munched plates and the napkin rings too. I held one out to my two-year-old to take and she jumped a foot when she saw that spider on her napkin.

There were Slug Sliders, Roly Poly pinwheels, P, Bee and Js, Ants on a Log, Grub Worm Fruit Skewers and Bugs in a Rug.

.

On such a hot summer day, the kids cooled off with what else but Bug Juice!

The adults enjoyed their drinks from these adorable homemade bug jars.

I designed the butterfly, bee and ladybug straw critters and cut them with a newly acquired piece of equipment. I was so excited by how they turned out! Rest assured there is much more party stuff along these lines shaping up!

After lunch, everyone made a beeline to the dessert table, which was highlight by delightful mosquito netting that had caught paper butterflies and ladybug hairclips, handmade by the birthday boy’s grandmother, for the girls to take home.

We also made a birthday banner with our new equipment and hung it with grosgrain ribbon behind the dessert table. It’s a little hard to see here, but it read “Happy Bday” and had a cutout of a bee in place of the letter.

The cake was a yummy chocolate bumblebee. How cute is that? I loved the antennae.

We did these cupcake wrappers with a sweet little plaid bee buzzing along for the delicious vanilla cupcakes.

And what dessert table is complete without a few grub worm gummies?

The birthday boy made his wish and everyone dug in. Look at that big boy in his buggy outfit. Too cute!

When kids and parents were all bugged out, they all headed into the Museum to cool off and have some more fun before heading home. Here’s the sticker they got before leaving.

Happy 2nd Bee-day sweet Wright!

It’s hard to believe that the end of the school year is upon us. In fact, here at the Pink Peppermint house, school’s already out for summer! They both really loved their preschool classes this year, and I know when we relocate later this summer that they’ll miss seeing those friends. So, we gave everyone a little something fun to get them ready for summer time.

Our two-year-old friends got a set of these fun sand tools from Target. I think they’d also be great for summer garden fun.

The tag said, “I really DIG being your friend!”

And the four-year-olds in the Monkey class got this super cute polka dot sidewalk chalk. I remember having one chalk holder when my sister and I were little. Seems like both of us always wanted it, and I’d never seen a chalk holder for fat chalk, so I thought this was extra fun.

The tag says, “Chalk it up to another great year!”

I think either of these work well for a sweet and inexpensive take-home from a summer time party too. But, I have to say my most favorite summer party favor is this:

How about gifting a roll of these sliding popsicles at room temperature? They come stuck together and perforated to separate.  Just freeze and enjoy. What a fun way to ring in the summer season! This is about the most fabulous idea ever, and I so wish I could take credit. The truth is I saw a boy at my son’s preschool toting one of these last year, so there’s some other mom out there who gave birth to this fantastic idea. Hats of to you, whoever you are! Our tag read, “Stay cool this summer.”

Hopefully these ideas will spark those of you who are planning to entertain kiddos this summer or who are looking for a little something to give to classmates as the end of school approaches. My kids aren’t old enough yet for me to be relieved that there’s no homework for three months. Instead, the pool’s not open yet, and we are looking for ways to entertain ourselves. Wish me luck!

I know a lot of Mompreneurs. Whether you rep a kids’ clothing line, sell cosmetics, toys, jewelry or paper goods like me, there are a lot of us out there. And at least a couple of times a year, there are trunk shows or holiday-driven events we want to promote. The way we do that around here is usually a flyer in the kids’ book bags at school or maybe a take one by the sign-in sheet at Mother’s Day Out. You reach lots of people in your target audience for a relatively low cost.

The last time I did a bag stuffer at school, there was another mom stuffing bags with her own flyer on the same colored paper. Yea me. Way to stand out. And there’s an occasional bag that you can guess hasn’t had anything taken out since the beginning of school. With my message competing for attention in a sea of papers, I wondered if there was a better way to stand out. So when I’ve had something really important to say, I think outside of the box. I mean bag.

It’s hard for me to believe, but I launched my online paper store a year ago! For obvious reasons, I was going fast and feverishly to get it up before school let out for summer. One was that there was no way I’d finish it with a then 3- and 1-yr-old home with me every day. The other was that I didn’t want to miss the chance to tell all those moms my news! I was looking for something that would be bright and sweet and that I could quickly and easily attach to the outside of the kiddos’ bags.

I bought multi-colored precut foam flowers, printed a 3-inch circle sticker with my message as the flower’s center, hole punched them and attached them to the bags with beaded keychains. It says, “Look what’s sprouted up online” and has a peppermint swirl flower and my web address.

Now, when I recently launched the party planning arm of my business, I truly felt like doing a flyer would be a snore. “Hey, y’all! Here’s this boring flyer about my business. If you want you can throw straight in the trash without even reading it. Wasn’t that exciting? Don’t you just want to line up to see the fabulously creative party we can throw for you?”

I can’t say why, but we liked the idea of using a toothbrush because it implied that our party ideas were so sweet, you were going to need one. I found some sweet but inexpensive toothbrushes in bulk, spruced them up with coordinating ribbon, printed tags with our information and attached them to the bags with coordinating seamless ponytail holders.

The message read, “For a party so sweet we’ll make your teeth hurt” and included our web address and starting price. At my son’s school, the kids’ bags hang on hooks lining the hallways. They come and go, putting craft projects away, going to wash their hands and so on. I don’t know why it surprised me to see the absolute wonderment over these toothbrushes. NEVER underestimate the power of colored plastic to delight a child! They were SO excited about these! One boy asked whose birthday it was. Awesome.

My kids are both preschool age or younger so there are quite a few occasions to give classroom goodies. We got candy last year. Lots. Starting with Halloween and keeping steady pace straight on through to Easter. So much candy that I ended up having to throw some out. And I love candy. My oldest was saying things like “Mom, I finished my breakfast. Now what can I have?” expecting me to reward him with candy at 7:30 a.m. Nice.

It’s even trickier when you have really young ones on your list because, let’s face it, none of us needs any more little trinkets in our house, and it’s hard to find age-appropriate and inexpensive gifts. I personally like to go for consumables–paper, food, things that get used up. Recently, I was discussing options for Halloween with my friend. She reminded me of some pastel chocolate candy carrots that we made for Easter treats using cone-shaped cello bags and of another mom who made carrots the same way out of cheese balls–genius! She mentioned candy corn and voila! We had our fun idea for edible but mildly nutritious Halloween goodies. Just add super festive Pink Peppermint gift enclosures or stickers to taste.

I tried recreating the look of both traditional and chocolate candy corn layers, mostly just because I had to work some chocolate in there. These use yogurt-covered raisins, Kix TM cereal and Goldfish TM crackers–both cheddar and chocolate graham. My kids are foaming at the mouth for me to fork them over. The trick, I found, is to twist, flip up and tape the bottom inch or so of the bag–the very tip end of the cone–or it still just looks like a carrot. Be sure there is enough color differentiation between your white and yellow layers too. Yes, I do realize I sound disturbed. Promise I’m not. OK, maybe a little, but only about stuff like this.

What You Need:
Cone bags: I searched online for “cone-shaped cello bags” and found them sold in quantities as low as ten.

Gift Tags: You gotta let people know who they’re from, right? I designed the ones shown.

Good Eats: Some thoughts for the different layers

White: Yogurt-covered raisins, Yogurt Burst Cheerios TM, mini marshmallows, M&Ms TM or other white candy

Yellow: Original Goldfish TM, Kix TM, Corn Pops TM or other cereal (aside: for some reason King Vitamin TM just popped into my head. Anyone? No? OK.)

Orange: Cheddar Goldfish TM, Cheese Balls, Cheez-Its TM, M&Ms TM or pumpkin candy corns

Brown: Chocolate Graham Goldfish TM, Whoppers TM, M&Ms TM or chocolate-covered raisins

This is a fun project for including kids preschool aged and up. If there’s one thing my son likes almost as much as getting a goody bag, it’s making a goody bag. Seriously.

My other bright idea was individually wrapped store-bought popcorn balls tied up in orange tissue paper with green curly ribbon.

Cut and paste a jack-o-lantern face or if you’re good draw one on with a marker. I myself cut and pasted after attempting to draw. This would be cute for candied or caramel apples too.

Halloween? Check.