Woodland Fairy Party: The Birthday Cake & Cake Topper...

Woodland Fairy from Hand Painted Love Boxes

Woodland fairy cake from Brides.com

Woodland Fairy Party: Costume...

Woodland fairies are wearing gorgeous crowns these days... like this one from ForestWhimsy

You can fly without wings... I love these from Atala

Fairies love anything bright and sparkly like this bracelet from foreverAndrea

Every fairy needs a magic wand like this one in beautiful woodland colors from whitney31022

Murder Mystery in Italy Party: The Game...

This is the game that we built our posts around, but full disclosure, we haven't played this one. There are several reviews on the Amazon listing that will give you a better idea of what this is like. But, you will want to get this about 3 weeks ahead of your party and give party guests a chance to collect costumes.. props etc..

Littles Halloween Party: The Decor...

If you need party decor, Halloween Birthday gifts or favors..

LovE BoxEs SHop.. can help you out. All of these things are available there.
and there are more Halloween Decorating Ideas posts & posts HERE...

Halloween Party: The Food...

Candy Corn popcorn balls are really fun. They are a team effort, but can be made the day before and packed in cute cellophane bags as a treat or a take home favor. Other ideas are just oreo cookies, they come in chocolate w/ orange frosting for Halloween or the regular ones work too. My mom always makes the kids soup served in tiny pumpkins and I love this Black Bean & Corn Salsa a friend of mine served it with those new Tostitos Multigrain Scoops.. Wonderful!

I can't tell you how easily Halloween can turn my stomach. I don't want to look at dead finger pretzels, spaghetti brains and the whole gammet of gross. I've never been a fan of Sweeney Todd. I don't like scary or sick Halloween. But, give me a line up of tiny trick-or-treaters in princess and fireman costumes and Halloween is sweet. I also wouldn't want to make the little party goers have any worries at all... just fun. This carrot platter is just my speed from InvitingSmiles..

Littles Halloween Party: The Craft Projects!

Make glitter pumpkins! You just give the child a cheap sponge brush and a paper plate w/ some elmers glue. They can paint the pumpkin anyway they want and then sprinkle glitter on to the pumpkin over wax paper. Beautiful! Photo and instructions at Farmer'sDaughter...

Make trick or treat bags. There are a million creative ways. This is a kit from Papersource which is a fantasticly fun party site. The kit was available last year and I hope it will be available again, but it has all the stuff so that the littles can just glue them together. But, you could pre-prep some of this stuff depending on how small your party goers are.

I realize this party is a little heavy on the crafting, but Halloween is a fun time to make silly things. I love these little shrink film pendants. If your party guests are quite small, then outline a pumpkin, witch or ghost etc.. and just have them color. Then, let them watch the magic as the shrink film does it's thing with the oven light on.. It's so fun! This is also a great way to save early artwork. Have a child just doodle, then put their name and date and save in a little box or jar.

image from hobbyloco.com by Cheryl A. Smith @

Back-to-School Party: Inspiration Board...

Inspiration Board and Vendor Links... HERE...

Back-to-School: Trinket Boxes...

These are two very fun Back-to-School trinket boxes that I've painted and they are available at

LovE BoXes ShoP...

Back-to-School Party: The Decorations...

I love to make bunting for every holiday. It's because I don't really sew and this is SO easy. You just need bias tape for the top.. that's it. That's the secret. I've tried a lot ribbon and other things and that doesn't work. But, if you don't want to make a bunting. There are tons of them available on Etsy for under $30. This one from SewSweetViolet is a favorite.

Decoration for this party doesn't need to be elaborate. A bowl of pretty red apples would be fun.

Back-to-School: Jump Rope & Sidewalk Chalk...

I love this photograph which is taken from DefeatDiabetes.Org a site with a lot of useful information. One of my favorite memories of school was jumping rope. A really fun party activity would be to get a jump rope, probably a nice long one like these girls have and teach the children some of the fun old jumping rope rhymes like this one... It would also be fun to have some printed cards of the rhymes so they could take those home.

Down in the valley where the green grass grows,
There sat (name the jumper) pretty as a rose.
Up came (name a cute boy in the class) and kissed
her on the cheek,
How many kisses did she get this week?
Count until she messes up.
There are lots of these fun little rhymes. Find many of them

HERE...

Dollar store ropes would be a fun party favor.

THEN... get out the sidewalk CHAlK!!!

Back-to-School Party: The Treats...

I think it would be fun to serve a sack lunch at a Back-to-School party. Turkey Sandwiches, carrot & celery sticks w/olives on the ends of course, apple slices and a carton of milk... AND THESE PEANUT Butter BARS... Mmmm. Nothing reminds me of my school days like these. What a great day it was when they were served for lunch. When I was very little, the principal hired the cooks and our school lunch was delish!

Back-to-School Party: Craft...

Decorate a lunch box. These are available at Oriental Trading for $5 which is actually the cheapest I've seen them, but you'd have to look at shipping. They are available at craft stores everywhere as well. They can be decoupaged, painted.. whatever you can dream up. And, it would be fun to send home some fun school supplies as party favors. Everyone loves new Crayons and Target has them for around 25 cents right now. .. things like that.

If this seems a little advanced for your party goers.. how about a lunch bag?

Make a paper bag puppet.. You can be as simple as handing kids a paper bag and some crayons or as elaborate as the example above. I thought these lions were cute, but you have to see the elephant over at ScrapbooksEtc.com

Kokeshi Doll Children's Party: Inspiration Board...

Inspiration Board & Vendor Links HERE...

Kokeshi Doll Children's Party: Lots of Ideas...

I completely stole this idea from my friend Risa from RestlessRisa who has already created the Gold Standard of this party. Click over to Party Ideas to see photos from the party and to her post Kokeshi Doll Tutorial to lean how to make the little dolls. Now, if you don't want to drag out the drill, THIS option has become available recently. But, it is a bit more costly.

Kokeshi Doll Children's Party... The Party Favors

This is a set of 12 gift bags and stickers available for $3 from Cutecups on Etsy. Inside you can put the crafts made at the party, some Japanese candy and maybe one these cute Japanese erasers traded at elementary schools everywhere. :)

Kokeshi Doll Children's Party: Treats...

These Pocky cookies are lots of fun and available lots of places, but if you don't want to look around AMazon will ship them to you.

There are some fun Japanese Sodas available lately. These flavors are available on Amazon.com (Amazon.com doesn't pay me.. they should.. I just love them and give them free advertising) HInt.. have children open these sodas outside.. they spray everywhere sometimes.

I have seen several different versions of candy sushi, but I like this version by HappyHourMom because of the Swedish fish. However, if you wanted to go healthy, the California Rolls at Costco are a bit hit with the children in my house. They LOVE those things and they are relatively inexpensive. A tray for $6 serves 4 children if there are other snacks.

The Color Kittens Party: The Book...

Margaret Wise Brown, author of the beloved classic Good Night Moon, also wrote some other books. Color Kittens is my favorite.
These two little Kittens wearing train engineer/painters caps (available cheap on Amazon.com or Oriental Trading Co.) going around trying to invent the color green and end up with the whole rainbow in the end.

I always think it's fun to have a story near the end of the children's party... or use a story to wind things down if they get a little too crazy. I love this photo of the author and her cute dog Crispin's Crispian.

Color Kittens Party: The Party Favor GIVEAWAY!!!

I felt like the perfect party favor was one of these little paint buckets they have at the craft store filled with candy, little toys and decorated with rainbow ribbons. If you would like one to inspire your Color Kittens Party Here's your chance to win one.. Post a single comment below. A Winner will be chosen Monday at Midnight EST... Good luck!

Color Kittens Party: The Decorations...

These rainbow streamers could be part of the decor and one of the activities. You could make them yourself or purchase them for $10 each at RosieHippo.com

Ballons are easy and fun and can leave your home immediately as part of the party favors. :)

I love the idea of having flowers at every party. These are just white daisies that have spent a few days in water with food coloring. You could make about every color in the rainbow. You just have to plan about 3 days ahead on this one.

Color Kittens Party: The Food...

Anything with RAinbow Sprinkles is the perfect dessert for The Color Kittens Party! These cookies are from CookiesByMeEvents on Etsy. Check out her packaging.. a cute gift too.

Rainbow Fortune cookies by DevilishDesign on Etsy...
Fruit and vegetable are really great for this party. Haul out the cantaloupe, grapes & strawberries! This is a vegetable basket that I've make too many times, but it works when you need color. Get a basket and pack most of the bottom with newspaper. Hollow out a purple cabbage (for the dip) and line the basket with kale and other frilly greens. Then arrange your veggies in little piles. It's a bit of work, but your veggie tray looks like a centerpiece and can easily be one.. if you don't mind that it gets eaten.