Abigail's Adopt a Beanie Boo birthday party: The Set Up

Originally Abigail was planning on having another My little Pony birthday party this year and then we saw a picture on Pinterest that showed an Adopt a puppy party using Beanie Boo stuffed animals. She fell in love and wanted to do an Adopt a Beanie Boo party using different kinds of animals. 

I thought that sounded like a lot of fun but the problem would be the budget. 

We would want to buy a stuffie for each guest to adopt but with their price just the cost of the stuffed animals would use up all of the party budget (we do $100 for birthdays, $50 for the party and $50 for gifts). We decided based on the average price of the Beanie Boo's how many friends she could invite and then brainstormed what activities she would want to do. 

And we lucked out. 

We wanted boxes to make into carriers for them and I just happened to have the exact amount we needed in a box in the storage room. I always make boxed cake mix cakes/ cupcakes so that would only be a few dollars for that and ice cream. We were set. 

We had her party at Doug's parents house just like we did with Maddy. 

I printed out a bunch of signs for the stations and then borrowed frames and tablecloths from his mom to make it look nice. 

This was the party room when I was finished decorating. 

To make the signs, I just used pictures of actual Beanie Boo's and then wrote whatever I wanted around it (in Word) then printed them out. 

Our first station was the Adopt a Beanie Boo station where the kids would pick out their animal and fill out the adoption form.

I found these adoption certificates on detailorienteddiva 

for free and printed them out. I was so happy to find them because most of the adoption certificates I came across were dog or cat specific. This was the only one I found that didn't specify a gender or animal and was still really cute. 

 

The animals all ready to be adopted!

The second station was the make your pet collar station. 

I was planning on having the kids use ribbons from my vast collection of random ribbons to make a collar but Abi really wanted to make loom band collars and then let them each pick out the charm to finish them off. I thought that was sweet of her because she used her own bands and charms. We didn't buy any new ones. 

The next station was to design your pet carrier. 

We laid out a bunch of markers, some stickers, and then they could choose their box and decorate it however they wanted to.

Next came the Visit the Vet station where their new pet could get an examination and a clean bill of health before going home with them. 

This was where I ended up going over budget a teeny bit. We were going to borrow my mom's doctor kit because we didn't have one. But... I totally forgot to get it from her so we decided to run to Walmart and see what they had. This one was cute and simple and only $10. So, 10 over budget but a cute toy we will have for a long time.

I fell in love with the Veterinarian's Checklist I saw on a post about a Beanie Boo party on Paige's Party Ideas here but she didn't have printables. So I used that as inspiration and made my own. 

We also set up the table with coloring pages as an activity while waiting for all the kids to arrive (just like we did at Madeline's party).

The last touch was adding balloons to the mailbox so that people would know it was the right house. 

And now we are ready for the party!

December Moments

December was Maddy's last month of dance. She has decided that although she loves it she wants to do something else. 

I took a little video of her through the class door.

I finally saw Mockingjay Part two with my mom and my Aunt Maureen. We loved it. 

After the movie, my mom and I stopped by Chick fi la to get some Peppermint Chocolate Chip shakes. The next day was my niece Mckenna's birthday. She is serving a mission for our church right now and we got these shakes because we were thinking of her. They are something that she loves and she calls them "Christmas in a cup". 

Maddy loved the Sweet tart candy canes. Me- not so much as her eating one would end with a mouth like this...

Doug's work had a Christmas party. Abi went as his date. 

My parents take all the grandchildren to a movie every December. Parents are welcome to tag along (we just pay for ourselves.) This month we went to the Peanuts movie. It was really cute. 

Then we went to lunch afterward. 

Abi started writing a story...

I moved their bunk bed this direction and like it SO much more. 

We enjoyed my favorite book club get together of the year so I was able to get out the Book Tree. 

And we had our fun book exchange. 

After Abi's birthday party (coming up in a separate post) I took the girls to the library. They had fun reading and voting on Beehive books. 

Maddy got really into Magic School Bus books. 

She sat by me reading this one while I was finishing up a book and she read the whole thing in one sitting. 

We had our first big snow storm. I called a snow day. The schools didn't close but it felt like they should and I didn't want to drive up the huge hill on the way to school. So instead we made a list of things we wanted to do. 

The girls played in the snow. 

We watched a Christmas movie in the dark with hot cocoa. 

We had a read-a-thon with popcorn.

And we finished the snow day off with playing our Rudolph game. 

We found a cool house nearby that plays musical lights. 

And I went down to my parents house one day while the girls were in school to bake some goodies. 

I had to take some pictures because I just love my mom's decorations. 

It has been a great December and I am excited to post about more things another day!

Lots of advent traditions!

Some more pictures of our advent streamer and tree...

 

We also started a new Advent activity this year. 

When I was a kid my mom made this advent tree....

 

It had all of those red ornaments on it and each day we took turns taking them off, putting them in their pocket, choosing another ornament out of another pocket and putting it on. 

I loved it. 

I have always wished I could make one for my kids. 

 

Then on Thanksgiving my mom told me she actually still had the pattern for it. 

I was so excited and had to borrow it to try to make for this year. 

 

I didn't finish by December 1st. I finished on December 10th. But then we played catch up and have been able to use it ever since. 

It is no where near as beautiful as the one my mom made as she took two years to make it while I did a rush job. Also, I couldn't get the blanket stitch to look good so mine just have normal straight stitches. 

But I am still mostly happy with how it turned out and the girls love it.