Monsoon Season Is Here…

One of the many reasons I love living here, is the monsoons.

The lightening, thunder, rain, wind, all of it. I love all of it.

I took some video during the storm last night, which was insane, and got some cool stills from it!

Enjoy!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Birthday Party

My son turned four recently and we don’t like to do the conventional pizza place and spend a ton on games, that are most of the time broken.

We’re blessed to have this gorgeous pool, so we use it.

He asked for a Ninja Turtles birthday, and I couldn’t say no. So I did my best to make it fun for both the adults and the kids, on a really, really tight budget, since everything is going towards the wedding right now.

I didn’t get to take very many photos just because I was busy playing hostess, but I did snap some vital shots. What I DID leave out, is the pizza toss game. It looked really cool and I’m SO sad we didn’t snap a photo of it. Basically, we got a few pizza boxes, varied them in distance and open-ness, assigned them points, covered three Frisbees in a pizza photo and whoever could score the most points with their three tosses, got a super cool Ninja Turtle ribbon! The kids loved it.

The invitation I made myself on Picasa with the help of Pixlr.com. I used graphics I found online and downloaded the fonts. I printed them at Office Max. Easy peasy.

I know it’s hard to see, but the backdrop of the cabana is one of those “scene setters” that you can buy for theme parties. The sun was setting behind it as I was trying to get pictures and it just didn’t show up that well. It looked MUCH cooler in person. Plus, the pillars on the right and left that aren’t pictured have the rest of the pieces to the “setting” on them.

All the themed decorations I bought at Party City, they were really cheap, then again, we only had around 10 kids that came.

Like I said, we did this party on a budget!

I’m not too proud of the napkin display, it kept getting pulled apart by my curious 4 year old, rightfully, as it was his party, but it didn’t stand a chance. It’s just streamer and googly eyes, on a big coffee can, obviously.  

The cup dispensers on the right are small coffee cans, with green streamer and this other, special Ninja Turtle streamer that was too short to actually decorate anything with, so it was used for scrap.

The cupcakes are homemade as is the icing. They’re “toxic” cupcakes, silly for kids, but actually toxic for adults, especially women, because that butter cream frosting is addictive.

Like, I’m the Heisenberg of icing.

The left photo is just a little snap to show you how the background looked without the Arizona desert setting sun blazing on it. Hence the disarray. (My plates aren’t straight and there’s trash. For me, the parties over once people touch my stuff, man.)

Jokes. I’m totally kidding, lol.

We got pizza as the main food for the event, also as a party favor. Come, eat pizza, take a whole one home for later. It was a really delicious local place too Oliveos Pizza. We’re not “hot and ready” kinda folks, we appreciate PIZZA.

The “Happy Birthday” sign is also, part of that scene setter from Party City. It had SO many pieces and was only $6!! How cute is that tablecloth, btw?

This was an idea, straight from the pages of Pinterest. Oreo cookies as sewer lids. Everybody thought it was adorable, Oreos actually stood up to the heat, too, so, there’s that.

The little red baskets behind it, with the wax paper were for popcorn. I didn’t snap that, but whenever we have kids over at the pool, I make use of my giant corn popper. It air pops the corn so you can add fatty goodness or leave it plain and corn kernels are SO cheap. Get some kitschy little PopCorn containers and you’re set.

These were cool, with a dry sponge… Great picture taking skills, I really CAPTURE the moment… lol

Don’t worry, we got water and it was a huge hit. Even with the adults! I always throw some kind of temporary tattoo out at the parties and everybody loves it equally.

These super exclusive, way cool ninja masks are just shirts from Goodwill. Washed, first, of course, then expertly cut into masks fit for hero’s in their half-shells!

The adults really loved this one as much as the kids, I think I was the only one without a mask on at one point!

 

I hope this sparks some ideas of how to throw a great party for just a little cash, it can be done!