Hanukkah party (flashback)

Tonight is our Hanukkah party and I'm in full prep mode!  

Don't forget my FranklinCovey weekly planner giveaway.  

Enter HERE!

Here's a look at our Hanukkah party last year!

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I wanted to share some of our Hanukkah party before next week...

Here are some highlights: 

all of the printables are from Frog Prince Paperie (love them)

 

 yes..dreidels (part tres)

chocolate chip cookies and blue candy canes = yummy menorah

jelly filled donut bites

ravioli, fried cheese and more donuts

Star of David made by the lizard (popsicle sticks and crayons)

the glass bottle (Starbucks coffee drink) filled with blue colored rice

all the kid's crafts.  

Noodle art/jewelry, coloring pages & crayons.  

White lunch sacks to make luminaries are there too.

We had a fun night. 

Ate way too many donuts :)

Next week, more holiday goodies..

I hope you all have a great weekend!!

if it's clear glass...I want it

I have developed a need love for any type of glass container.
It could be a vase, a bowl, a jar..whatever. 

Lately, I've been collecting Starbucks coffee drink bottles.  

I don't actually drink them, my mom does.  

She saves the bottles for me.  

I've amassed quite the collection.  

Today I decided to test out an idea - to turn them into treat holders.  

I saw a super cute idea at Random Thoughts of a Supermom.  

Kelli made the cutest display using bottles, vinyl and candy corn.

She had me at candy corn :) 

Anyhoo...I wanted to try and etch a snowflake onto one of the bottles.  

Fill it with candy and give it to the lizard's teachers for the holidays.  

Either candy or hot chocolate fixins...whichever works best.

I got out my supplies:

ignore the stencil in this picture..this was my second attempt.  

The first one ended up like this

angry tiki snowflake...not the look I was going for :)

Here's the second try....

if you've never used Armour Etch - DO!  It's so simple.  

Glop it on.  Leave it on for 5 mins (or longer if you need to change a diaper, break up a fight, get someone a snack and/or go pee).  Wash it off. 

I used contact paper, a hole punch and an exacto knife to make my stencil.  The contact paper works the best for me.  Just make sure all edges are sealed.

Much better results this time

I added a simple blue ribbon, a silver pipe cleaner and some kisses 

(all left over from our Hanukkah party).

I think this makes a cute (inexpensive) gift.  I also love how the blues and silvers are made 'winter-y' when you add them to a snowflake.

This could easily be done with any color ribbons/pipe cleaner.  

Reds and greens.  Reds and silver.  Greens and blues.  You get the idea.  

Having candy with colorful wrapping helps too.

There are lots of freebie gift tags around (make sure you 'like' my Facebook page, I've been sharing lots there) which would be great with these bottles.

 I hope you like this idea and are inspired to start etching :)  

Let me know if you do...I'd love to see pictures!

Our Hanukkah Party 2010

I wanted to share some of our Hanukkah party before next week...

Here are some highlights: 

all of the printables are from Frog Prince Paperie (love them)

 

 yes..dreidels (part tres)

chocolate chip cookies and blue candy canes = yummy menorah

jelly filled donut bites

ravioli, fried cheese and more donuts

Star of David made by the lizard (popsicle sticks and crayons)

the glass bottle (Starbucks coffee drink) filled with blue colored rice

all the kid's crafts.  

Noodle art/jewelry, coloring pages & crayons.  

White lunch sacks to make luminaries are there too.

We had a fun night. 

Ate way too many donuts :)

Next week, more holiday goodies..

I hope you all have a great weekend!!

dreidels (part deux)

so I made some treats last week.  

Here's the post - snowmen and dreidels.  

After I made my simple dreidels..Dawn at Not Just A Mommy 

(who has a fab new look, btw) 

showed me Martha Stewart's dreidels.  

Let's just say, they make mine look weak!

Fast forward to Monday.  

I listen to some of the kids read at the lizard's preschool 

then I read a few books to the whole class.  

I brought in a book about Hanukkah today.  

It was the perfect chance to 'fancy' up my dreidels.  

Here's what I came up with..I just added sprinkles.  

The kids loved them & that's all that matters.**

**We are having our annual Hanukkah party on Thursday... 

there may be a part tres :)

Speaking of our party, here are a few peeks of the prep work.  

Since most of my parties are geared toward the under-10 crowd, 

I like to come up with things to keep them busy.

food colored pasta..good for making 'jewelry' and/or works of art.

Star shaped crayons (made from broken bits).  

I'll have coloring pages too.

Our dreidel 'board'..

I made this last year to give the kids a confined place to play.  

Just posterboard with glued on big dreidels.

If you haven't checked out apples4theteacher.com - you should.  

It's a great resource!  For all holidays and occasions. 

Plus you can add color to their coloring pages then print.  

I've even customized the dreidels with everyone's favorite football colors :) 

These are milk cartons from Frog Prince Paperie.  

These are filled with gelt (chocolate coins) and a dreidel.

The entire Hanukkah set is great - can't wait to get it all set up.

I hope everyone is having a great week so far...

it's finally cold in Florida (and I'm already complaining - haha)

a few things from around our house

I mentioned yesterday that I was in need of jelly beans..

well, I got them today.  

Phew..crisis averted.  

(I tend to get tunnel vision when I have an idea in my head)

Here's what I started with - 

$ tree vase, $ tree tealights & Walmart jelly beans

Add 8 more vases and you've got yourself a menorah!

Here is it after lighting candles (day 2)

I'm all for using candy to decorate for pretty much any holiday

I'm still deciding what else, if anything, to add to our mantle. 

I'll keep you posted :)

For my wreath, I wanted something simple (and easy).  

I used 3 things - grapevine wreath, cheap bows and my glue gun.

I kinda dig how you can see the reflection of the flag.

 obviously any color bows would work...

I like the combo of blues, turquoise and silver. 

Here's 'kitty' (his name is Clifford but everyone calls him Kitty). 

He's MY cat (especially when he needs food or is scratching up the furniture).  

He's not 'holiday' related.  

He just happened to be awake when I was taking pictures :)

I also wanted to share our family holiday card.  

We've used various places in the past but this year I picked Shutterfly.  

I posted about their great deal a while back - well, this was the payoff.  

 

I'm really happy with how they turned out!!

Now I just need to address all the envelopes - ugh!

Have a great Friday!

*Don't forget..join me on Facebook*

I have been posting lots of goodies lately 

(as soon as I find something I like, I share it over there). 

'gumball machine' - Hanukkah style

During October, I saw several 'gumball machine' crafts...

using clay pots & bottoms and bowl vases.  

I even started one but was stuck for what to use as the handle on top.  

Here are some of my pictures from before Halloween.

 

Stacked (but not glued) and ready to go....

well..it didn't go far.  

Until today (yesterday)...I decided to use it for Hanukkah.  

I spray painted it blue and found the perfect knob!

'HAY' it's a dreidel :)

It's filled with jelly beans (that were to be used for another Hanukkah project) 

that the husband apparently is addicted to.  

Let's just say I will be getting more jelly beans today!!!

And since Hanukkah involves eating, gifts and parties..

our annual Hanukkah party is next week - here are the invitations.  

My standard Microsoft Word invite printed on labels on top of cute card stock. 

I'll be sharing some of the treats we'll have at the party.  

One of those goodies will be the dreidels from yesterday's post.  

Dawn at Not Just A Mommy was sweet enough 

to add them to her Happy Hanukkah post.  

Check it out, you may see the printables from Frog Prince Paperie again :)

I'm still working on our 'holiday' mantle 

(once I get more jelly beans, it will be done) 

and a festive wreath for our door.  

I share it all with you soon.

Happy Thursday!!