A Favorite Back to School Tradition

All kids love to make a wish and blow the candles out on their birthday cake!  Why not give them one more opportunity for a wish to come true?  Sweet Child O' Mine's favorite part of the back to school dinner is at the very end of dinner when each child going back to school gets to make a back to school wish for the year and blow out their candle.  The cute apples with the candles in them also look great sitting around your table.

Back to School Dinner Decorations

There are so many fun options for decorating for back to school dinners and the best part is that you probably have most of the things you need already sitting around your house.

I start with a fun table covering.  Black paper that looks like a chalkboard is fun because the kids can use chalk to decorate the table and draw during dinner.  White paper is another option with crayons or markers for the same effect.  I always write each guests name on the table so everyone knows where to sit and then just let them decorate the rest.  I buy my paper on the large rolls at Ben Franklin in Kaysville.  A bright table cloth is also fun if you don't want to go to the expense or effort of using paper.

The next step is your centerpiece.  For the above centerpiece I took a square vase and wrapped it with pencils.  I didn't want to glue all of the pencils on so instead I took masking tape and measured it around the length of the vase.  Then I laid it sticky side up lifted and lined each pencil along the tape so that they would stick. I then took the length of tape with the pencils stuck to it and carefully it and wrapped it around the vase.  Once you get the string of pencils around the vase just tie them with a ribbon to secure them and your done.  I put the vase on a a cake stand because I'm obsessed with cake stands! Doesn't everything look a little prettier and more put together when sitting on a cake stand? There are lots of other fun options for your centerpiece.  You could gather up some textbooks and stack them in the middle of your table (or on a cake stand).  Any traditional school supplies will look great!  I've used; glue sticks, bottles of glue, erasers, chalk, crayons, pens, pencils, notebooks, stickers, staplers, scissors, apples, brown paper lunch sacks, whatever you can find!

Back to School Dinner Ideas

Every year since way back when Sweet Child 0' Mine was in Kindergarten we have had a back to school celebration dinner on the first day of school.  This gives her an opportunity to talk about how her day went and share some of that back to school excitement with those who love her!  Sweet Child O' Mine gets to plan a menu of her favorite things and she invites her family and sometimes even best friends to join us.
Years ago I found the school lunch trays at Target and we reserve them all year to use only on this special occasion.  The kids LOVE using lunch trays at home!  I usually set up a "lunch line" on the kitchen island and the guests go through the line getting served by the "lunch lady" (me in a hair net, sorry no picture).  Of course you  must have the little cartons of chocolate milk to fit on your tray.
Tomorrow I'll write more about our back to school dinner decor ideas and Friday I'll tell you about one of Sweet Child O' Mine's favorite parts! (hint...it involves the apples with candles in them)

Blognappers

Okay, I'll be the first one to admit that I haven't updated my site quite as often as I'd hoped, so imagine my surprise when I went to my website to post something and I realized that my website had been taken over by someone else! What?!? I was not happy to say the least! Someone had stolen my idea for a blog name and started their own site using the blog name that I HAD THOUGHT OF! Obviously it is a little sore spot with me still! To make a long story short (too late) after a little investigating here is what I found out happened. When my domain name hosting expired (I think that's what it is called) it was supposed to automatically renew, but for some reason it didn't. Go Daddy the host can't give me a legitimate reason why because they claim that they can't log into an expired account history to find out what happened! So apparently when the domain name expired it went up for auction and somebody else bought it! So when you go to gluegunsnroses.com it is no longer my website! I am so bugged! Why couldn't they just come up with their own name if they are so "creative"?
Moving forward I will continue to publish my site under my blogspot name gluegunsnroses.blogspot.com so you'll need to just add the "blogspot" to the address. If you are one of my awesome supporters who put a button on your site, please remove that button, we don't want to give anymore undeserved attention to the blognappers! Sorry for the inconvenience! How about I try to make it up to you by posting more than once a year?

A Great Valentine Gift Idea for your Child

Don't be fooled!  Even though these look good enough to eat, they wouldn't taste very good.  I thought it might be fun to wrap a book to look like a candy bar for Valentine's Day!  This would make a great Valentine gift (especially if you gave a real candy bar along with it)!

Here is what you'll need:

a book ( the closer to a "big candy" bar size book you find, the better it looks)

Tin Foil

Cardstock

Computer or markers

First you wrap the book with your tin foil just like you'd wrap a present, folding the edges over to form a triangle then folding them over and taping them.

You'll want to measure the height of your book.  Your book cover will be 1 inch shorter than the height of your book to leave a little foil showing on the ends.

For my book covers I used colored cardstock and photoshop to print out a Valentine message.

Make a Valentine Box for Girls

For this fun idea I need to give credit to my mother who came up with this unique valentine box when I was little!  I couldn't wait for the first time that Sweet Child O' Mine had to make a valentine box for school!  I knew exactly what was my favorite valentine box growing up and was so excited to help her make one!  Here is what you'll need to make one for your daughter:
-An empty round gallon ice cream container
-5 coordinating sheets of 12x12 scrapbook paper
-4 straws
-pom pom trim (or something similar)
-four die cut carousel horses (die cuts were not invented yet when I was growing up so my mom actually had me use carousel horses that we cut from real valentines!  Those may be a little hard to come by so here is a website I found with a silhouette of a carousel horse that you could print and trace onto your cardstock to cut out)
-letter stickers for name (optional)
-toothpick or a cut straw for flag on top
-scissors
-glue gun
-exacto knife

First you'll need to cut a long skinny rectangle out of the ice cream tub.  This is where your valentines will go so be sure that you make the opening big enough.  Take the lid off of the tub and save it for later.   This finished box will have the lid at the bottom of the tub, so as you're working, be sure to keep the tub upside down. Next, you'll need the two matching sheets of 12x12 scrapbook paper that you will be using to cover the tub.  In mine pictured above, I used the large striped paper.  Measure the height of your tub and then measure and cut your paper so it will fit exactly the same height as the tub.   You then need to take one of the sheets of paper and trace the opening that you have cut in the tub for your valentines to go in.  I laid my paper on the counter and then laid the tub on top of it with the hole pressed against the paper.  Then, I kind reach my hand inside the tub and trace from the inside onto the paper kind of rolling the tub the length of the slit.  After the hole in the paper is cut then I line it up to the hole in the tub and glue in on.  Then glue on the other piece of paper on the other half of the tub, completely covering the tub with paper.  For this, a glue gun would work but I like to use my "Tombo" glue roller that I use for scrapbooking, I think it is easier to work with.  Any scrapbooking glue that has a strong permanent hold should work well.

After you've covered the body of the tub, trace the bottom of the tub (which actually ends up being the top) with a coordinating color of 12x12 paper, I used the plain purple.  Cover the top of your lid the same way.  For the scalloped trim around the lid I just measured a 2 inch strip of a coordinating scrapbook paper (the little striped paper) and cut along the top of it with my scalloped scissors.  (I did this with two lengths of the 12 inch paper so I had two 12 inch strips)  Then glue the strips around the lid of your tub.

Glue your 4 horses onto straws and then use your glue gun to glue the straws onto the top of your tub (which is really the bottom).  You'll need to use a substantial amount of glue because these horses will need to hold up your roof!

To make the roof, cut a large circle, about an inch larger than your ice cream tub.  I used a big plate to trace mine.  Then cut a slit up the circle to the middle of the circle (see little example below) this will give you a slight cone shape.

Glue your roof onto your straws.  Then you can decorate your box however you'd like.  We used pom pom fringe to trim the roof and top and made a little flag.  Sweet Child O' Mine's name was put on above the slot so the kids knew whose box it was when passing out Valentines. (I edited it out using my handy clone stamp, that's why is looks a little awkward, safety first!)  She of course insisted we bedazzle the horses with some stick on jewels!  Have fun!

Our Favorite Valetine's Day Book

Pucker Up, Buttercup is our all time favorite book for for Valentine's Day.   Each page has a flap that has something for Princess Buttercup and you the reader to kiss!  Unfortunately when you open the flap you realize that you have just kissed something terribly disgusting (like some stinky feet)!  It's great for the whole family, older kids will find it hilarious and little kids like it because of the short rhyming prose and textured pictures (yes, the lips on the front are fuzzy)!