Fabulous Fall Fun

I was in charge of putting together the crafts and games for the Fall Festival at our church today. Now as you probably know, there is no budget for church events, it's all about the donations. So I put my thinking cap on and pulled my resources to come up with some Fabulous Fall Fun!

I started by contacting my good friend with the pumpkin hook up. I got 24 small pumpkins donated {for some tasty treats in return}, displayed them in my wooden crates, used the the tempera paint from the preschool classroom, borrowed some paint brushes from school, made a cute label and craft number one was done.

PUMPKIN PAINTING

The beautiful finished product. The little ones just loved painting all over the pumpkins. I must caution you however, this is NOT a project for anyone who has diversion to paint mixing! The poor teenager in charge tried so hard to keep the brushes in the right colors, bless her heart!

For craft number 2 my friend and I raided closets and collected all the pants and shirts that our little ones had outgrown. Then she collected newspapers, I grabbed some brown lunch bags, cut out face pieces from felt scraps and made more cute labels. Finally I sorted everything out into tubs and buckets so we could form an assembly line.

Scarecrow Making

How funny are these? You know they make you smile! It was so much fun to watch the kids very carefully pick out the pieces of clothing that they wanted. They were so proud of their creations! My own wild things things came home and took naps with them. :)


Now for the games. I put together 10 games from the the game show Minute To Win It. The games are all based on household items so I collected what I needed, assembled a few items, then placed each game into a bucket with the directions, added more cute labels and ribbon, and the games were ready to go!

Game Time

The games were a big hit! The kids had a blast and of course they enjoyed the candy they received for participating. :)

It was a great day filled with fun and lots of memories! What more could you ask for?

The Bucket List

Sunday was my mom's 65th birthday and I knew I had to do something special for her. I mean 65 is a pretty big birthday and I always celebrate the big birthdays. :) 
Now you need to know that my mom is no sweet little old lady. She is a feisty little thing that works really hard and loves to have a good time. I knew I couldn't go the traditional route because that just doesn't fit her. I needed to come up with something fun, outside the box, and of course I wanted it to be personal. It also needed to be different than any of the other crazy parties that I have done for her over the years.
Let me share a quick recap of a few of her other big birthday parties:
For her 50th birthday we had a tattoo party where she got a pink flamingo tattooed on her ankle. {I actually got a free tattoo because the tattoo artist said he couldn't charge me for my teacher clip art ladybug! LOL} 
On her 55th birthday we took a trip to Napa and danced on a bar. We told the owner that we used to be Coyote Ugly Dancers! {I'm pretty sure he didn't buy it but he was kind enough to play along. LOL}
Then for her 60th birthday I took her to the Paris hotel in Vegas. {I couldn't afford Paris, France} We dressed up in red berets and French attire and had our picture taken at the top of the Eiffel tower. People were so impressed by our appearance they were stopping us and asking us to take pictures with them, they wanted to know where we got our outfits, and we didn't pay for a thing all day! :)

After a conversation with my mom where she mentioned that she was planning a sky diving trip because it was on her bucket list, I knew I had my theme! I had her give me her top ten items on her bucket list and I ran with it.

I had the Amazingly talented Natalie of The Knock Knock Factory create a wreath to welcome the guests and set the tone for the party!

My Aunt found this great sculpture for under $10!

I used paper lanterns and favor boxes to create hot air balloons

that hung over the dessert table.

 

I had to add an extra table at the last minute so my food table had to be relocated and the backdrop had to be ditched.

This was the make shift table that I came up with.

The food was all inspired by places that are on her bucket list. I served Australian Meat Pies, German Potato Salad, New York Hot Dogs, Italian Meatballs and Chips and Salsa from Mexico.

  

The list includes Hot Air Balloon Ride, Zip Line, and World Travel.

I created a zip line for the favor bags that really worked!

What party would be complete without a signature drink?

I called the drink "The Panama Canal"

Finally, the photo booth was the big hit of the party!

Mom's #1 item on her list is Sky Diving so that was my inspiration

for the photo booth. I used a parachute, backpack, streamers and a fan

to create the sky diving effect.

The birthday girl! :)

I was so pleased with how everything turned out. Everyone had a great time and most importantly my mom LOVED the theme and how everything was inspired by her!