DIY Flower Crowns for Under $1

Have you ever made a flower crown??

I've always admired them, but had never figured out how to make them for a crowd.

Olive requested that her friends get to make flower crowns at her birthday party and I got busy doing some research.  I quickly realize that real flowers were out (too fragile), we needed a version of this craft that would be fairly quick for little ones, I needed them to be really affordable and I probably needed to call in back up to assemble the flower crowns.  Made a quick phone call to my mom and my party helper was booked!

One afternoon Olive and I headed to Dollar Tree to scope out the silk flower options.  There were tons!  No surprise that she gravitated towards her favorite colors - pinks, blues and purples.  We picked out all the flowers that looked like they'd be easy to glue onto a headband and planned for each child to have 4-6 flowers on their crown.

Supplies for each flower crown:
4-6 silk flowers
1 headband
2 pieces of greenery
hot glue and hot glue gun
paper plate

All these supplies add up to less than $1 for each flower crown!!
Budget friendly flower crown success!

We decided on this pretty bouquet of flowers from Dollar Tree!  We grabbed two bunches of every kind of flower which left us with a good assortment.

We also grabbed these 6 packs of headbands.  They worked great!

We pulled all the flowers off the stems.  I originally thought we'd have to cut them, but they pulled right off perfectly.  We sorted them into bowls of pink, blues and greens.

We left the flowers like this so we'd have a little stem to stick down in the hot glue.

We put together a sample to show the girls.  They were all so excited about making them!

They sat in a circle and grabbed the supplies they needed.  Each child got a paper plate with their name on it to build their flower crown.  I told them they needed to build it like a rainbow with greenery on each end.  They lined up the flowers just like they wanted them and that allowed my mom to glue them together at her own pace while we moved on to gardening/building our Gnome Homes.

I let the girls pick out their headband color and then we left them to blue glued.  Each flower and greenery got a generous dot of hot glue.  My mom held them in place for a couple seconds and made sure each flower was facing the right direction.

She let them cool and a few had to be popped off the plates.  I love how different each flower crown looked.  The girls were so proud of them.  Here's a close up of how the flowers were positioned on the headbands.

Such sweet girls!  Some girls wore them up higher like a headband and others tilted them more for a flower crown.  They all looked beautiful and were thrilled with their creations!!

Birthday party success!!

It's time to link up with my favorite blogging buddies for High Five for Friday.  Join us with a few different blog posts and be sure to look around to find some new blog friends

Becky @  By BMG Blog
Della @ Della Devoted
Tif @ Bright on a Budget
Whitney P @ Come Home for Comfort

This link party is powered by Link Party Animal

Backyard Fairy Garden Birthday Party

Olive was so excited about her 6th birthday party theme - A flower garden fairy party.

She picked it by herself and had a great time helping me execute her vision for the party.  She told me I was a great party planner so my job is done.

We shopped around all over to find the perfect things - many of which came from Dollar Tree, Walmart and Amazon.  I'll try to find links for anything I can on Amazon.

We invited some of her favorite friends and missed a few due to sickness.  We felt so lucky to have a sweet crew of kids to celebrate with.  I was also thankful Kevin could come home early to help with her after school party and my mom came in town to help me execute all of our crafty projects.

I'll give you all the details on planting flowers and building gnome homes today.  Stay tuned for a DIY flower crown post because they turned out DARLING.

Happy 6th Birthday Olive!
Her real birthday isn't until May 29th, but it's a busy time of year so we had to fit her party in a little early this year.  I spent the last couple weeks prepping the backyard for a party.  There's nothing like hosting a big gathering to motivate you to get stuff done - right!?!   It feels so good to have everything potted and ready to grow for Summer.

I made a quick invite on the Canva app on my phone and texted it out to our friends.  Postage is so expensive that I decided I'd text out the invitations and mail out thank you notes to be a little more budget friendly this year.

I picked up 6 pinwheel flowers at Dollar Tree.  We lined the driveway with them to greet guests.

Olive requested her favorite sugar cookies for dessert.  She picked up the shapes and I got busy.

I was so excited to see rainbow sanding sugar sprinkles at Kroger.  These are my favorite kind of sprinkles for sugar cookies.  I think I'll stock up the next time sprinkles are on sale :)

I love putting together party supplies.  I pulled some things from my stash of party supplies and then the rest came from Dollar Tree or Walmart.

I kept the menu really simple and perfect for after school snacks.
Everything could be prepped and plated ahead of time.
I also provided smaller plates so they kids didn't feel like they had to fill up a big plate.

Grapes & apples
Cheese cubes and salty crackers
Carrots and cucumbers
Sugar cookies and Chocolate Chip cookies
Gummy Butterflies
Skinny Pop
Water & Pink lemonade

The kids were the most excited for the sugar cookies & the butterfly gummies.

The girls all made flower crowns!  They looked beautiful!!  I've got a fun tutorial coming up for you on these that's so easy.

Olive's favorite party game is Hot Potato so we played a couple rounds of it.

Time for the Gardening to begin!!
I picked up plastic pots at Dollar Tree, flats of Impatiens (Olive requested a shady plant) and picked up all the accessories we'd need to build gnome homes at Dollar Tree.  I filled the pots half full with rocks in the bottom and soil on top ahead of time.

All of the gnome home supplies came from Dollar Tree except for the tiny mushrooms.  I'll put the link at the bottom of the post for those.  They were my favorite item!!

We put down two rectangle table cloths and all the planting supplies on top of it.  Everyone loved this part of the party.  The moms were so nice to jump in and help pass out flowers and help plant.  It wasn't really very messy at all.  No surprise that Fletcher was covered in dirt, but most kids didn't get dirty at all.

I read our favorite Backyard Fairies book to get the gets excited about building their gnome homes.  No one had read the book before so it was fun to introduce them to a new book.  There are fairies and gnomes hiding on every page which made it a fun read aloud.

They all turned out SO CUTE!!  The kids were really proud of them.  They each wrote their names on the popsicle stick to claim their garden.  I sent them home in plastic grocery sacks so they'd transport easily.  Everyone loved them!

 It took a team to pull off this cute backyard party :)

 Here are the Amazon *affiliate* links to the cute garden party supplies:

8 Road Trip Hacks

If you're like us, you've probably got a road trip or two planned for Summer.  We have gotten pretty good at road trips over the years.  Kevin does the driving, navigating and reserving of hotels.  I do all the shopping, packing, food, entertainment and kid related stuff.  It works for us.

I am happy to share all the things that work for us in the hopes that it might make your road trip a little easier.

1. Pack Snacks & Drinks
The Dollar Tree is my favorite place to stock up on good candies.  They're much cheaper than gas station candies and they carry a ton of those movie theater type candies in boxes.  I usually pack a cooler full of drinks and then pack an extra tote with drinks to refill the cooler as needed.  It's amazing how much cheaper drinks are in bulk than buying a single drink at a gas station.  Sometimes, if we're all needing a pick me up on a long trip, we'll let everyone go in and pick out something at the gas station.  It's more of a rare treat so it's a fun surprise for the kids when we offer that.

On our recent trip to Chicago, I knew there wouldn't be a great place to stop for dinner when we'd need to stop.  I planned ahead and packed everyone a meal to eat in the car.  It saved us at least $20 and was a much healthier, filling meal than we would have gotten at a drive through.

2. Entertainment
My kids love to color, watch DVDs, get fun little surprises, snack and play I Spy or car Memory in the car.  If we're going on a long trip, I pack each kid a bag of things to do.  I like to include those Magic Ink marker sets where the markers only work on the special paper and can't make a mess, little toys like Happy Meal Toys or Match Box cars.  Did you know restaurants like McDonalds will sell you just a toy for $1?  I try to pay attention at McDonalds and stock up when they're giving away a really cute toy.  Last Summer it was ocean beanie babies.

Kevin and I like to listen to the radio when the kids aren't watching a movie or we give them the headphones and have them listen that way so we can still listen to music.  We like to chat, snack, enjoy the scenery and catch up while we drive.

3. Remove Trash at Every Stop.
I keep a stash of plastic grocery bags in my door and every time we stop I throw away a bag of trash.  We usually end up with trash from little entertainment prizes, snacks and such so it adds up quickly.


4. Have a Place for Everything
Toys, snacks, headphones, cooler, toys, etc - make sure they all have a spot to go.  It'll help you stay organized in the car and it'll help you manage the chaos of people in a small space.


5. Get Out of the Car Regularly
Everyone gets out at gas stations, gets some fresh air, browses the silly stuff they sell at gas stations and uses the restroom.  Stops aren't always the fastest or super easy, but the change of scenery and fresh air really helps boost the mood in the car when we get back on the road.

6. Moms and Wives - Your Attitude is Contagious
You set the ton for your family or your spouse.  This is true in day to day life, but also true on trips.  If you're frustrated, angry or have a bad attitude when things don't go your way, it will spread to others.  I'm not naturally a silly person.  I've had to really work on upping my silly factor since having kids.  My kids LOVE when I'm silly or when I have a silly reaction in the midst of difficulties.  So when we get stuck in traffic, have to make another potty stop, am cleaning up a car sick mess, can't find a hotel with an open room or I forgot to pack something important, I just try to roll with it and come up with a solution.

7.  Food, Toys and Stuff in General is going to be cheaper at home than buying it new on vacation.
If you have room to pack it, stock up on shelf stable grocery items (cereal, granola bars, pretzels, fruit snacks, peanut butter, nuts, crackers, bagels, bread, etc) at your regular store and then bring them to your destination with you.  It's also cheaper to throw your scooters or frisbees or tennis rackets in your suitcases instead of renting them at your destination.  We try to pack a couple toys (bath toys, outside toys, beach toys) with us so that we don't have to pay tourtisty prices when we arrive.

Of course we've had to buy last minute flip flops when mine broke or a swim suit for Kevin when he forgot to pack his.  I'm just saying don't rely on buying everything when you arrive.  Plan ahead and pack what you have at home.  I looked ahead at the weather forecast for our Chicago trip and saw some chilly weather was coming our way.  I packed hoodies, hats and heavier jackets for everyone just in case.  I didn't want to go have to go out and buy that stuff out of town.  It came in handy and we we wore it all.  That's doesn't always happen, but I was glad I was prepared for any weather.

8. If anyone in your car deals with car sickness, 
Bring a barf bucket/barf bags, have wet wipes, water bottles and a spare outfit on hand at all times.  You could also try medicine for motion sickness (beware they make you sleepy) or Sea bands.  They've all worked well for us.  Both kids have dealt with bouts of motion sickness.  They have done much better since we got our van.  Not sure if it's because they can watch movies or if it's the arrangement of their car seat that helps, but I'm thankful it's getting better.

What road trip tips do you rely on when you travel??

Our favorite road trip items from Amazon *affiliate links