Easter Chick Lantern

Last year you might remember me creating this Easter Bunny using a paper lantern. This year my youngest son, who has assumed the role of creative director of this blog, strongly suggested that I create an Easter Chick so that the bunny (and I quote) "would have a friend". Was there any way I could say no to that? Exactly, and here's the result...

Club Shamrock

My kids have recently become super fans of wrap sandwiches, so I thought it would be fun to make them something in honor of St. Patrick's Day. Oddly enough this also became the perfect opportunity to invest in another cookie cutter - I mean doesn't everyone need a 5" shamrock-shaped cutter?

Using a spinach and herb tortilla wrap, I simply cut out the shape and filled it up with club sandwich ingredients.

And finally I topped the sandwich off with a homemade toothpick...

Yum! I think I'm going to have to make an adult version of this that's paired with a glass of green beer!

My March Madness

It happens every year on March 17th...both of my sons' birthday (this year my oldest is turning 8 and my little guy will be 6). So why I didn't start planning their parties until the last week of February escapes me! Typically I start party planning right after Christmas so I won't be completely stressed out come March. However, the threat of madness somehow wasn't enough of a deterrent for me to start planning early - hence the reason I'm a little scary to be around right now.

My first big task was to convince my boys to have one big party versus individual parties like last year. It took about 1.2 seconds for that idea to get shot down. My oldest son had already decided to have a painting themed party and my youngest was dead set on having a cooking party. Score: Kids-1, Mom-0. Fortunately after a few hours of research, I was able to locate and book venues for both parties.

Next task - invitations. I believe that invitations set the tone for a party, so I always like to create something that will get the kids excited for the main event. I came across a ton of ideas on the Internet for invitations. With the little time I had I combined some of those ideas and came up with the following invitations.

For the painting party...a watercolor set. Here's the front of the invitation:

and here's the back with the details of the party...

For the cooking party...a recipe card.

I found the most adorable little oven mitts in the dollar section at Michael's craft store that served as envelopes for the invitations.

I finished off the invitation by putting each child's name on the pot holder...

I haven't planned any other details yet (food, cake, decorations, etc), so I should be good and crazy by the end of next week - pray for me!