Lego Birthday Party - Games - Part 2

The party was a hit and the kids had a great time!  I had plenty of games, in fact we didn't have time for one of them and there are a couple I wanted to do that I left out completely.  As the party goers arrived they went into the kitchen to decorate a Lego Figure Head.  It was just the head on yellow paper.  I did have this picture up on the computer to give them some face ideas.  These would be used later in the game of pin the head on the Lego Man.  After they did that they made a guess of how many Lego's were in this jar:

I had slips of paper with their name on it (in Lego font of course) so they just needed to write their estimation on it.  This jar and an empty jar to place their slips in were on the party table.  After most everyone arrived we played the hit of the party, especially among the boys!  

It is similar to Pictionary and they do sell it as a Lego game called Creationary.  I spent some time on YouTube checking it out.  First of all I wasn't going to invest more into this party (the game isn't cheap) and second, the reviews weren't great.  They said the idea behind the game was good, but there weren't enough bricks.  So I decided to create the game myself.  First we sorted our Lego bricks by color.  I used a party tray (veggie tray) to store them in.  Next I made the cards.  I made 9 cards in five different themes.  We had animals, nature, vehicles, buildings, and food.  I printed the pictures off on white paper and then I printed number cards on colored paper with each number having its own color.  I cut all the cards out and glued a picture to a number card keeping all the same theme with the same number/color of paper.  For example all of the nature themed cards were on green paper with the number 5 on the back. I then laminated the cards for durability.

These are the building cards.

When it came time to play I was able to let the kids know what numbers/colors went with what theme.  Nature is green 5, vehicles are purple 3, buildings are blue 6, etc.  We divided into two teams.  Each team rolled one die.  The number on the die was the card they picked.  So if they rolled a 5 they picked the card with a five.  Their team could guess as many times as they could in two minutes.  After two minutes the builder had to stop building and each person on their team got one guess.  If they guessed correctly they received a point.  If they didn't the other team could guess it correctly and steal the point.  The cards were numbered 1, 3, 4, 5, 6.  I left out 2.  If they rolled a 2 they got a chance for double the points and the other team got to pick the category.  Amazingly enough 2 was the only number that wasn't rolled.  The boys REALLY loved this game and wanted to keep playing it.  We let each person go once and that was all we had time for.  If you want to use the cards I made, you can download them at the bottom of this post.

I didn't give the winners anything special.  Instead after each child played each game they were able to go pick a Lego Crayon Man:

Sorry this isn't the best picture.  I went a little crazy in the crayon prep and made a whole bunch of these cute men.  We laid them out in rows of color and wrote their color at the bottom of the row. After each game was completed they picked out a new crayon.  So far two games were played - guesstemation (being a little creative with the words - estimate/guess) and the creationary game.

Next we played pin the head on the Lego man with the heads they created:

Using a projector at work I traced a Lego Figure onto a large piece of paper.  I brought it home to create our Lego Man.  First I took wrapping paper in red and blue.  Using spray adhesive I adhered the paper wrong sides together so it became double sided.  I cut out the pants out of blue, shirt out of red, and the hands and head out of yellow paper.  I drew on some details.  We gave the front of our Lego Man a face, but left the back blank.  I hung him on the glass door and taped some balloons in his hand (it turned out to be a VERY windy day so the balloons ended up getting taped in several places).  When the party goers came to the door our Lego Man was there to great them.  When it came time for the game you could still see him on the inside minus a face. If you look at the collage above you can see some of their artistic abilities.

We announced the winners of the guessing game and then had cake, ice cream, and presents.  Then it was back to more games.

For this game you had to use a straw and move all your Lego pieces off of your plate and onto the floor using only your sucking power.  You could also spread out Lego pieces on a table, set a timer and see how many pieces you could put on your plate using a straw and sucking in a set amount of time.  The birthday girl liked the first idea so that is what we did:

To make it more fun I took yellow square plates and drew Lego faces on them.  We also added the top part of the head by cutting it out of construction paper and gluing it on.  I used polka dotted straws and hot glued a Lego head to it.  I forgot to take pictures, but they are the same heads I used for the juice straws.  We put equal bricks on the plates, same size and amount on each plate.  They formed a circle with their backs to the center.  On go they moved those bricks off their plate as fast as the could.  After the game they could keep their plate and straw if they wanted.

The next game was memory.  I had a friend save baby food jars. I painted them like I have seen on various blogs.  I used spray paint, but it has been cold, wet, and windy here.  Unfortunately I don't have a garage so I tried to cheat and many of them didn't turn out well.  So I switched tactics (wish I thought of this first) - I put some yellow paint inside the jars, swirled it around and then dumped out the extra.  They were nice and smooth and pretty.  To make the faces I wrote on the jars with a sharpie. The jars that had paint inside were actually easier to write on.

On the bottom of the jars I put pictures of Lego pieces.  I had two of each picture.  The kids played just like memory.  Inside of the jars I had Lego Mini Figures.  I was going to use them for the next game, but we ran out of time.  

The last game ended up being fun.  We played it on Date Night.  (To see how we do Date Night see this post). 

This was an idea floating around Pinterest, but it was just a picture, no game.  I wanted to play the game so I created it.  You need one die, a mini figure (one per player), a board, and Lego bricks.  Above the kids used a 2x4 Lego block but a 2x2 or 2x3 would fit a little better.  I made a couple options.  I chose to print the first link (it used less ink) and trim it down.  I then glued it to colored card stock and laminated.  To play you roll the die and follow the instructions.  They always have one base block and can never lose that one.  They loved the game and played it several times. 

If you choose to download, please become a follower first (on the right).  I'm happy to share my creations with my followers.  If you would like to leave a comment too that would totally make my day!

Download the Creationary Game Cards Here 

Download the Lego Board Game Here 
and Here
and Here

Lego Matching/Memory Game

I link up with parties listed here.

Lego Party Part 3 Coming soon. 

3.14 = Pi = Pie

This is our second year of making pie on Pi day or March 14 (3.14).  To see last year's project and how to make pie on a stick click here.  This year the middle school didn't do their pie fundraiser (bummer), but we still wanted to give the teachers a little bit of pie.  We made pie on a stick again except this time I used a kit I bought at Target on the Christmas clearance.  ~I'll most more about it later~ These pies are smaller than using a cookie/biscuit cutter.  You can do them any size you want and and shape you want.  Just a little advice don't make them too big, last years pies were a bit heavy and some of the pies fell off the stick.
Since the pies were smaller I wanted to make smaller tags.  Here is what I came up with:

If you choose to download, please become a follower first (on the right).  I'm happy to share my creations with my followers.  If you would like to leave a comment too that would totally make my day! 

Download the PI Tag Here 

Thanks for stopping by.  To see who I link with check out the page tab above.

PI 3.14 Day, DIY Pie on a Stick

Pi day is March 14.  Why? Because pi = 3.14 and PIE backwards is 314.

My daughter's middle school has Pie day on 3/14 (March 14) and the parents make pies for the school to sell by the slice as a fundraiser.  So instead of making a traditional pie we made pie on a stick.  I also wanted to give a little treat to the teachers.

First roll out your crust.  I used Pillsbury frozen crusts and rolled them out.  Take a round cookie cutter or biscuit cutter and cut the dough - you will need 2 of each circle.  Place the circles on a cookie sheet leaving room for sticks.

Place the sticks on the circles.  I used the large sticks.

We used apple pie filling from a can.  Scoop it out - not too much, about two apples.  Place another circle on top and seal it closed.  We used the end of one of the sticks to push it together.

Spread some egg white on top and sprinkle on some cinnamon sugar.

Cook it according to the directions on the package of the crust.  Keep an eye on it.  Print out the tags, cut out, punch, and slide onto the stick.

Here is a closer look of the tag:

If you choose to download, please become a follower first (on the right).  I'm happy to share my creations with my followers.  If you would like to leave a comment too that would totally make my day!  

Download the tag here.

See my Link Party page to view Parties I've linked to.

Mustache Valentines

Mustaches are all the rage.  This is actually the third year my daughter(s) has been into mustaches.  Our first mustache project I shared was for Valentine's Day 2011, last year she went with chocolate covered marshmallows and this year we are back to mustaches.  We had all sorts of fun with her birthday party last summer too.
I created a bunch of mustache themed Valentines.  Some we will use and some are just for you!  Two sets were inspired from some great Amazon deals: adhesive mustaches (you can find these anywhere, even at the dollar store) and mustache earrings.  My original plan was for Boo to give the girls in her class mustache earrings and the boys adhesive mustaches, but much to my dismay I learned that there are a lot of 8-9 year old girls who don't have their ears pierced yet.  So her class will receive the adhesive mustaches and the teen will give the earrings to her friends.
Here is what I came up with for the adhesive mustaches:

I intended the first mustache saying to be used with the mustache earrings, but work well with the adhesive mustaches.  The saying just is used a lot, but that is all I could come up with for mustache earrings.  They were less than $1 each on Amazon with free shipping.  They take a long time to get here so if you want to do this order them for next year. 

You can also use the "stick" one with a stick or package of gum. Or even a package of paperclips or staples for your teacher.

I also made one that you can just print (no earring, gum, adhesive mustaches required).  These are designed to go on the jumbo craft sticks.  These sticks can be found in any craft store.  I bought a large box at Wal-mart.

For some reason I couldn't get the chevron background to print correctly on most of them (and of course I didn't find this out until working on them for hours).  They will print from Microsoft word, but not from a PDF file.  Unfortunately if you don't have the same fonts on your computer they won't look right if you try to print for word.  I tried changing up the background for you, but I still had problems.  So I decided to take out the background and print it on colored patterned paper (it is actually cheaper this way because it saves a lot of ink).  I picked up a package of 12 sheets of paper in the Valentine dollar section at Target:

Here are all your downloads and as always: If you choose to download, please become a follower first (on the right).  I'm happy to share my creations with my followers.  If you would like to leave a comment too that would totally make my day!
 

Stick With Me - Pink

Stick with Me - Red

Mustache You a ? - Pink

Mustache You a ? - Pink & Purple

Mustache You a ? - Red

Disguise I'm glad we are friends - Pink

 Disguise I'm glad we are friends - Pink & Purple

 Disguise I'm glad we are friends - Red

Disguise - Be my Valentine - Pink

 Disguise - Be my Valentine - Pink & Purple

 Disguise - Be my Valentine -Red

Mustaches for the craft sticks

Craft Stick Saying 

If you have and questions, problems, or comments, leave me a message!

Here are a couple more downloads for the craft sticks:

I like you

I love you

Our Friendship

I'm out of magenta ink so I haven't printed all of these.  If there is a problem, let me know.  If I was selling them I would triple check everything, but since they are freebies I'm relying on you for feedback.

Scroll down for last year's Valentines.  That post also has a link to the Valentines made the year before!

I linked with

Skip to My Lou

I heart nap time

DIY Valentine's Gifts

I never posted the Valentine's gifts I made last year so in case you are looking for ideas here is what we did:
I made some salt dough (play dough) for my first grade class that I go into.  I dyed it red and I rolled it out.  Using a cookie cutter I cut it into heart shapes.  I put one heart into a snack size baggie (there was room that I could have put two in each bag) and stapled a Valentine's Topper over the zipper of the bag:

Actually, I cut out a topper out of cardstock, folded it over the bag, stapled.  Then printed off the saying onto regular paper and used a tape runner to place it over the cardstock.  That way you don't see any staples.

My youngest gave out hugs and kisses:

First I took some Valentine kisses and wrapped them in red saran wrap and tied it with valentine ribbon (don't cut the ribbon yet):

Slide on the tag:

And tie it around a Hug barrel drink (I bought them at Walmart):

Slide in the straw, trim your ribbon and you have a gift of Hugs and Kisses!

If you have the mini zip top bags that you can find in the craft store you can use those.  You can use those two ways: 1- fill with hugs and kisses OR 2- fill with kisses and attach to a hugs barrel drink (like above).  These are cute, but I didn't have enough left for the whole class.  I made these the same way as the dough. 

 
Last year owls were all the range and I incorporated them into my son's Valentine's.  His class didn't really do an exchange, but we made some anyway.  I had come across a great deal on scented pencils (a bucket of them) over the summer and bought them.  My kids loved them so I knew the 5th graders would too.  I used my cricut to cut out owl shapes (you could use clip art).  I had two ideas:

We ended up using the first one (click on the pictures to enlarge).  I cut out the owls and then printed the saying on labels and stuck them on the back.  We taped on the pencil towards the bottom - we wanted it to be like a branch.  The second idea was shaped more like a traditional valentine with the saying at the top and a branch at the bottom.  I cut slits into the paper to slide the pencil in on the branch.  Here is a close up of the saying - he didn't want it lovey dovey, he is a 10 year old boy (you could use valentine instead of friend, but he chose friend):

Download Dough Valentine Here

Download Hugs and Kisses Circles Here
Download Hugs and Kisses Toppers Here

Download Owl Label Here

Download Owl Card Here (no owl, just saying)

If you still need ideas check out this post for fun saying/tags or the post from the year before here.  You can view instructions/download tags for:

 

You could also use mini flashlights or glow sticks for this tag.

Linking up here:

Bulletin Board Make Over {Teacher Appreciation Week}

I have to preface this post.  I had the whole thing typed up and when I published it, it disappeared.  I had spent hours on it, twice, and I lost everything but my first paragraph and picture.  I was so frustrated I couldn't work on it. It was put off to work on later.  I guess now is later.  It may or may not be as long/detailed as before. 

For Teacher Appreciation week I saw some cute door make-overs over at Skip to My Lou.  I thought that it would be fun to do for my kids' teachers.  I decided to use their bulletin boards and make them over.
I loved the Recipe for Success idea and I had to use that one.   

This picture doesn't do it justice, it turned out much cuter than I can show you.  My plan was to buy a red and white checked table cloth, but I forgot to hit the party store to see if I could find one.  I did have red and white wrapping paper so I used that instead.  The title was cut out with a die cut machine (or cricut or silhouette would do the same thing):

I

If I had to do it again I would have put plain paper behind it so that it would be easier to read.  I then put on the recipe.

The top says Mrs. Yawberg has the recipe for success!  The recipe says: Take 11 boys and 16 girls. Sprinkle liberally with laughter and enthusiasm.  Marinate with creativity, knowledge and love.  Mix gently in a classroom.  Let simmer for 9 1/2 months.  This recipe make 27 students well prepared for Middle School.
I asked the students to write their own recipes of what make Mrs. Yawberg a successful teacher.  I photo copied their recipes and put them on the board:

 

I stapled paper plates, plastic cups, and utensils wrapped in napkins around the board. 
The original recipes I put in here:

 

To make the holder I purchased a 4x6 photo holder from Micheals.  I mod podged paper onto the front.  I attached a coordinating ribbon with a tape runner.  I left a little gap to attach the bow. The bow on there is actually a barrette that I made.  I liked how it looked on it plus if she wanted to stack it she could remove the bow and have more room (or she could even use it in her daughter's hair).  I also put the year down in the corner.
To go along with the board I had the kids sign an apron.

I wrapped it all together with another teacher gift for the week:

 

The tag says 'We have to Ad-MITT, you are a great teacher!  Thanks for all you do!'  It was tied onto an oven mitt filled with cooking utensils and the apron wrapped around it.

We were going to get all the kids' pictures taken in an apron and chef's hat, but I didn't have the opportunity to go in there to do that.  I wanted to put their pictures on the board next to their recipes.  It would have been so cute and added so much more to it.

The other board we decorated (for our second grade teacher) we used the M&M theme.  I have used this years ago, but it is pretty popular now.  I found a cute poem to go with it.  
Here is the board:

The center of the boards says:

To make the boarder I cut out large circles (as large as I could get on 12x12 paper) in the color of m&m's.  I put part of the poem in each circle:

In between the large poem m&m's I put small ones.  In the center are m&m's that say 'Ms. Millson is magnificent because' and 'Ms. Millson is Marvelous because'.  The kids in her class each filled two of these out and then we hung them up:

For her treat we made her a bucket of M&M's complete with the poem. I found a clear paint can bucket and filled it with m&m's.  I tied ribbon along the side in the colors of the m&m's.

 I also slid in a copy of the poem.

Both teachers loved their boards!  It was a great end of school year board too.  I think there may have even been a few tears.

 To download the Ad-Mitt tag click here. 

Download the M&M's used on the boarder here

Download writing M&M's and more boarder m&ms here

Download M&M's to write on here

Download the poem for the board here (in M&M's)

Download the poem for the board here (as I used)

Download the M&M poem here (as seen in the can)

If you choose to download, please become a follower first (on the right).  I'm happy to share my creations with my followers.  If you would like to leave a comment too that would totally make my day!