Sprinkle Party with Friends

We hosted Olive's friends for a little sprinkle party this week.  

I grabbed every sprinkle we had in the pantry, two boxes of Funfetti cake mix, personal sized loaf pans and made homemade buttercream icing.  We put the sprinkles in the middle of the table.  Gave each girl two loaf pans to decorate with a huge scoop of icing and a knife.  They had a great time making pretty sprinkle cakes.  Some girls divided their cake into layers and others just decorated the top.

I baked all of the little loaf pans a couple hours in advance.

The boys made their own sprinkle cakes before the girls arrived.

I sprayed the cake pans with Pam and the cakes slid right out.

I did some sanding sugar flowers on my cake.

The girls sprinkled and ate.

Look how cute they turned out!  The girls ate some of their cake and then I gave them to go lids so they could take their cake creations home.

Some girls did tons of sprinkles and others just did a few.  But everyone was happy with their sprinkle party creations!

You'll have to plan a sprinkle party of your own this Summer!  It was a hit with the teens.

Olive Celebrating with Friends

Olive turns 13 at the end of the month. I can hardly believe it.  She found a date that worked for all of her friends and we planned the perfect sleepover to celebrate her a little early.  

Pasta bar, volleyball, crafts, candy, treats and a fun night together.

Olive and I made to do list of tasks, the menu and the activities.  Then we got busy.  She is old enough to be really helpful which was wonderful because I worked all day and came home to help her throw a party.  She reqeusted pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and cookie bars.  Her colors are pink and red with some cute mice decorations.

We ran by Dollar Tree to grab all the blue candies we could find.

She set the table.  I added the bows.

I got home at 3:30.  The girls arrived at 5:30.  We did one pasta, one sauce, meat, two salads and sour dough bread.  The girls loved it.

Everything was so sweet.

I'm always excited to host.

The gift giving was one of my favorite parts.  Each girl hand picked things they knew Olive would love.  They had stories behind their gifts and plenty of things with inside, friends only jokes.  Olive felt so loved.

Volleyball in the street, side walk chalk, a walk and chatting with neighbors. I'm so thankful Olive has such sweet friends.  Some of them were the very first friends she made in 3rd grade when we moved to Evansville.

Olive planned a really fun craft - name key chains, rubber duck key chains and a Fuggler for each girl.  I helped a little and then they planned and beaded out their own key chains.  They have big plans for matching key chains the last week of school.

Hosting the girls is always a good time!  Everyone went to bed early - May seems to be wearing us all out and we had an assortement of cereals for breakfast.

Quality Time with Teens

I have some fun ways for you to spend time with your teens today!

Olive is just days away from turning 13 so I'm changing my posts from preteens to teens.  How is it possible??  I know many of you have been here since she was a baby living in Utah or BEFORE.  Thank you for that!

Olive had the day off on Friday and no one else did.  I shifted around some things and was able to take the day off with her.  We had so much fun making a to do list of things for our girl's day.  The boys were a little jealous, but quality time together is important.

I put practical and fun things on our list and she added in lots of fun.

We got the boys off to school and then enjoyed a slow morning at home.  We took inventory of gift cards I had in my wallet from students and from gifts, looked over our list and made a plan.  We grabbed breakfast at Panera and coffee at Honeymoon all thanks to gift cards.

Then we did some practical things - picked up my new contacts, went to Hobby Lobby for craft supplies for her birthday and went to the bookstore for some inspiration.  Everything was overpriced so we prompted placed an Amazon order.

We ended up at the mall to try a few things on at Old Navy and AE.  We found some good sales and grabbed lunch at the mall food court.

She had my undivided attention all day and enjoyed talking to me about all the things.  We reviewed friend situations, talked about how to fix some things and how to back away from some things, talked through Summer stuff and talked about the highlights of 7th grade.  It was wonderful!

So if you get the chance to spend a chunk of time solo with your teenager, do it!  Let them make a list of things you want to do.  Add in some practical stops to their fun stops and enjoy being together.

You'll both have a great day!

What would your teen put on the to do list for a day with you?