(Not So) Spooky Halloween Pudding Cups

Elementary school in the fall means ... it's party time! The parent who planned this year's fall party sent out a suggestion to make these cute desserts for the second grade. 

I make little paper faces as a template. After dropping one into a cup, I stacked another cup inside to keep it straight, then traced with a Sharpie. This worked really well, especially when making them for a crowd!

While the dessert gets lots of oohs and aahs, guess what? Kids don't really like vanilla pudding (and I agree!) I tried to make it as yummy as possible by adding a top layer of chocolate pudding under the crushed Oreo cookies. But I'd say that 75% of the kids scooped off the top layer and the rest went in the trash. Which is kind of what I expected, so no worries.



Dora came up with suggestions for making faces on a chocolate version, like using stickers or googley eyes. My grade on these treats would be C for taste (unless vanilla pudding is totally your thing) but A for cuteness!

Neon Birthday Party Fun!

Jeff and I have conflicting opinions on birthday party favors ... he thinks they are unnecessary, but I think it's fun to give a little something to guests as a thank you. I DO dislike when the kids get junky stuff ... about 90% of stuff they get at parties and events goes right back out of the house. So when we do favors, I really try to give things that kids (and parents!) would be happy to have and use. 

However ... sometimes it's easy to get carried away! Like when Dora says she wants to find neon favors for her half-birthday party. Then we go to Five Below where there are SO many cute neon things to choose from ... AND she has a mom who is more than excited to tap into her 80's adolescence for inspiration!



The final assortment ... nail polish, bracelets, hair accessories and mini duck tape.



I was very tempted to get one of these stretchy braided bracelets for myself. I would have LOVED this in middle school!



Neon pony holders ... always useful ...



Okay, I admit, the tape was a total impulse purchase at the register. Very hard to resist!

Though I used it to tape name tags onto the cute neon party bags, also found at Five Below. I had also picked up neon office labels at Target and brought some pre-cut chipboard and scissors for the kids to make neon sticker bookmarks during down time at the party for another take-away. So fun!!

Theo's Video Game Birthday

Plus ... my new toy!

We had a party with our family and friends last week to celebrate Jeff and Theo's birthday. Theo made a trip to a local retro-arcade with a few friends one day after school as a birthday treat, so I decided to use the outing as inspiration for favors and decor at the party. I made wrappers for Hershey bars and ...



... teething biscuits for the little ones. See those Space Invader aliens up above? Those were made with my new favorite toy!! I've been electronic cutting everything I can think of, it's so fun!!

Theo chose ice cream bars and cookies for dessert ... they're pixels, can't you tell! #easiestcookiesever.

He and his friends had a GREAT time at the arcade. They played for an hour and we all went to Sonic for dinner afterwards. Theo has asked me about a dozen times when they can all do it again.

Oh, I also sent cookies into the classroom on his actual birthday (it's his last year for school birthday treats!) and he requested the same recipe as last year. However, he didn't want to do Star Wars two years in a row, so he chose the message cookie cutters this time ... and the message, of course.

I think we'll be having a lot more fun with these cutters as the kids get older!