Seminary At Six AM: Christmas Candy Ball Game

Seminary At Six AM: Christmas Candy Ball Game: What does this have to do with Seminary, you may be asking.  This was an ideal alternative to a class Christmas gift exchange. I did not ...

Love this idea and I think I am going to try it with my teens at their summer event!! I might hide gift cards in there too!!

Event Planning: I am an Event Planner and I plan Special Events

Event professionals, a thought: Post 9-11 and post Boston Marathon 4-15

I didn't get into this profession to read through Homeland Security manuals, to "brainstorm" about potential threats, worse-case-scenarios and train my staff/volunteers in triage or mass evacuations.

I wanted to give people a reason to celebrate, to come together and feel a sense of community. To experience new things to celebrate culture, diversity, history, music, food, talent and each other. To push limits; to create "Wow", to "take it up a notch", to make memories, to make children laugh, smile or expose them to something new, and make traditions. I want to give families a chance to do something together - outside of their TV's, out of their SUV's...away from technology. Furthermore, I want them to "get out" into their parks, community centers, city streets, and out of their comfort zones. I want to create opportunities for people to challenge themselves, and challenge others. I want to improve their quality of lives, by providing quality, safe experiences that foster their appreciation of the arts, sports, and tradition.

It is well known in our industry that you follow the first two rules of event planning: 1) SAFETY FIRST 2) Plan for the worst and hope for the best...

And as far as I am concerned I will continue to do that, and although I will always be as prepared as I can be! I HOPE that the only thing I have to worry about - is rain on my parade!!

 

I am an Event Planner. They call them "Special Events" for a reason. Smile, dance, sing, play, run, swim, cheer, compete, perform, Enjoy!

Piece of Cake Desserts - My daughters LEGO Cake!!

Piece of Cake Desserts Is making my daughters LEGO Cake - can't wait!!

DIY - How to make LEGO Crayons

How to make your own LEGO crayons:

This is how to make or DIY Lego Crayons for a birthday party. I made these ones for my daughters party for the gift bags. I bought the LEGO trays on Amazon.com for $4 - $8 and made candy and crayons. The crayons were old crayons we had collected from restaurants and broken ones around the house, so it didn't cost me anything in supplies.

Your little one can help you by peeling off the wrappers (or I use an exacto knife to make a cut the lenght of the crayon and then just pull off the wrapper in one move), they can help break up the crayons, pick the colors and place them in the molds/trays.

This silicon tray worked very well. I placed it on a broil pan with foil underneath to protect it from the heat. I preheated the over to 275 degrees and put the tray in the middle of the over for 8 - 10 mins. Use a timer so you don't forget!! When the crayons get too hot - they boil, singe and smell burned.

To cool the tray I placed it in the freezer for 20 mins. Then I let the tray get to room temperature before trying to pry out the crayons. The best way is to just completely pop out (inside out) the mold of each crayon then carefully pull out the knobs of the LEGO block. TIP: make sure the cooling surface is level or you will have slanted and uneven crayons. To even out any corners or imperfections, I simply just "colored" down the edges on some paper and it was proof that they worked :)

Have fun and enjoy!!

Here you can see the finished product!!

DIY - How to make LEGO Candy

How to make or DIY Lego Candy for a LEGO Birthday Party or for fun! I bought the LEGO Candy making trays online at Amazon.com Both the "Ice Tray" and "Candy Tray" to make decorations and treats for the Lego Birthday Party for my little girl. Only about $4 - $8 each, and the candy was $2.50 a bag at Walmart.

 

Here you see the finished product. I bought BLUE, PINK and YELLOW Wilson Candy Melts. I used about 8 - 10 candy pieces per square and placed the tray in the microwave for a minute. I pulled out the tray and checked for holes. I used additional pieces to squish the candy into the holes and a toothpick to spread the candy around. Then I microwaved it for an additional 30 - 45 secs.

 

 

Once the candy was completely melted, I again used the toothpick to fill in the corners and holes of the LEGO shapes. Once it was filled in, I held both sides of the tray and taped it lightly to tap out any bubbles or air pockets. Once all the bubbles came to the top and the surface appeared smooth, I placed the tray in the fridge to cool for about 20 mins.

Once the candy was cool, I flipped the tray over and lightly tapped the tray and the candy pieces just fall out. It was a lot of fun and I might do some more colors since it was so easy!! One bag of candy will do about 3 trays of candy or 24 pieces of each color.

DIY - Office Decorations/Gingerbread House

This is a fun idea, for either DIY - Office or Home Decorations or a in my case a Holiday Office Prank!! I made a large (almost life size) Gingerbread house in their office. I just used cardboard from our Office Depot orders (you know the "packaging" that comes when you order a large calendar or poster paper?), tan and brown duck tape and some images I printed off the computer! Oh yeah, and a strand of lights - it's hard to tell in the photo but it has working lights on the roof. Also, the joke is - he has a building permit on his gingerbread door. This was placed in the office of Building Licenses and Permits...wish I could have done more, like a pool or an "addition" because that is what they deal with alot.

Actually, people asked me if this took me a long time.

Nope, some tan duck tape, cardboard and I can go to town!! Wish I could of done Special Effects and model building for movies or the theater...always a passion of mine - so I can throw something together rather fast. You can't really tell but the "house" has lights too!!

No matter what, your office deserves a laugh - so have fun and enjoy!!

DIY: LEGO Decorations - Birthday Party for a Girl

This is how to decorate for a Lego Party. A couple of ideas using DUPLO Legos, Legos and paper!! Mine was for a little girl and we called it a "Block Party".

My 3 1/2 year old just LOVES Legos - all shapes and sizes, and she plays with her, mostly all male cousins for hours. So I wanted to have a simple low cost birthday party (i.e. No bouncy thingys or clowns or petting zoos) with a great theme and enough entertainment that could keep 10 kids of various ages entertained. Legos and Duplo Legos and Mega Blocks would be my answer. She mostly has pink sets, but she has sets of animals, and brightly colored prime colors too. So, even boys would feel welcome building with them. Anyway, when I googled "Lego Party", or "homemade Lego decorations"...I found they were almost ALL primary colors and geared more towards the boy parties. So instead of making it all PINK - how did I incorporate pastels and primary colors and look good. Here how. But since pictures are louder than words, take a look!

First I made a LEGO Frame: So here is the illustration on how to make your own picture frame out of LEGO's. I used various sizes of flat legos to make the back. Then I used skinny flat pieces to make the inner frame and secure the flat pieces (back of frame) together. Then I added "brick" legos around the outside to make a frame for the photo to go in.

As you can see I left an opening at the top of the frame - by NOT filling in with skinny flat legos, so it would work like a real frame.

I then had to really "hunt" for some pieces that worked like "hinges" or would allow me to connect legos to the back of a frame and position it so it would stand up. Luckily I found these hinges and another flat pieces to use. However, my back up was going to be placing 3 - 4 block legos, one or two rows up so it would stand in an "L" shape.

This is what it looked like without the photo, you can see that it looks like a quilt and I was able to incorporate "pastels" with a couple primary colors. My suggestion for a girls party anyway, is getting at least one PINK Tub of legos (ie. Lego.com or Target). I got the "Large Pink Box" and it came with these wonderful colors; pink, maroon, yellow, orange, light blue, light green (lime), and some of the primary colors making it a great mix and buy for the money! But Lego's are cheap I have decided.

Here is what I did for the LEGO Invitations:

First I made out of regular LEGOs that were various 1 row sizes and colors a block invitation. They eventually equalled 10 X 1 maximum and 7 blocks high - seemed to be the easiest and most workable size and would fit in the bubble envelope with the paper invitation.

Then I used the computer, a LEGO looking font and clear labels to create the words on the invitation.

Then I put them in with the paper invitation that had more information!

Here is a photo of all 8 invitations before I put the words on them. I wanted them to have equal colors and pieces of 1 X 2, 1 X 4 etc.

Here is a look at the inside of the invitation. I used a computer to create the BLOCK looking letters and fonts that I liked that complimented the look of LEGOs.

I made a LEGO Heart Centerpiece!!

I also made a couple of blocks for the buffet table. You can see it's made out of little boxes and tops from prescription bottles and construction paper.

Then I got really creative and made a chandelier out of DUPLO Legos to hang in the front doorway.

Another view of the DUPLO Lego chandelier, with a tea light in the top. I used hot glue and clear Scotch tape to keep the pieces together, so it would fall once we hung it.

Another view of the DUPLO Lego chandelier.

A closer look at the tea light. These DUPLO Lego's were from three of the sets of Princess sets. Cinderella, Belle, and Snow White. Enjoy!