Ice Cream Clowns with First Street Ice Cream #firststreeticecream

Did you know the third Sunday in July is National Ice Cream Day?! So, it's the perfect time to post about our little ice cream party during our summer fun playdate. The kids had so much fun with this! We got all of our supplies at Smart & Final, using their First Street line (super great prices!). Here was our spread, with one example clown out as an example:

  

I got the cone hats and ice cream ready the night before. While it may have been fun to let the kids create their own hats, it was MUCH easier to just do a couple a varieties in advance!

Here's how:

 

1. Melt 2-3 squares of vanilla bark/candy coating (or white chocolate) in the microwave. Stir every 30 seconds until fully melted. Do not overheat.

2. Dip and roll the open end of the cone in the melted coating. Have the coating go up about 1 inch on the cones.

3. Gently tap off any excess.

4. Dip the coated cones into sprinkles of your choice. Tap off excess.

5. Refrigerate to harden.

For the ice cream, we chose two flavors: 

 

In the especially hot temperatures here, I wanted to make sure that the ice cream scoops were really frozen, enabling the kids to have a little extra decorating time before their clown heads melted away. So, I got some little individual plastic containers and put individual rounded scoops in each one. Then, I put the containers on cookie sheets and placed in our freezer until we needed them. That way, each scoop was pretty solid for making our creations.

 

For making our clowns, I had a variety of options (marshmallows, cherries, frozen blueberries, chocolate chips, chopped nuts, sauces, whipped cream, sprinkles, and colored coconut). I used the colored shredded coconut for the hair. It was perfect for a fun pop of color and SO easy to do. Just put some shredded coconut in a baggie with some food coloring and mix it up! Easy peasy! 

Since I had all of that ready in advance, doing a little ice cream party during the playdate was a breeze! So, after lunch, everyone came inside to make their clown creations (with a lot of help from the moms, of course).

It was so cute to see what they chose, and that they didn't just try to copy my example exactly. Here's what Big Brother made:

One of them even came up with using the marshmallows as ears, so then the rest followed suit. Super cute!

It was hard to get pictures though, because they were SO eager to eat their clowns!

It's definitely clear that they enjoyed themselves immensely and even Little Brother was thrilled with a special treat! :) Mmm.....

We loved our ice cream party and all of the First Street products! When price and taste/quality are both great, it's a win-win! Since we had so much fun with our clowns, and some really great leftovers, we had some more ice cream fun!

Now, how would YOU like to have a First Street Ice Cream Party of your own?

If you visit www.firststreeticecream.com by July 26th, you can enter for a chance to win one of fifteen $100 SmartCash cards (5 winners per week).

And, that's not all! In addition to the above, 3 Grand Prize winners will receive their choice of "The Ultimate First Street Ice Cream Party!" for up to 50 people or a Gift Card in the amount of $1,000!!!! Wow!  

So, make sure and enter to win at http://www.firststreeticecream.com!!!!

Disclosure: This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for #CollectiveBias #firststreeticecream. All opinions and experiences are my own.

Ultimate Harry Party Fun Foods & Parties Roundup

July 15th, 2011. The day is here--the last of Harry Potter on the big screen. I'm dying with anticipation to see it--in the days before kids, I would have been last night. So, in celebration (and to keep me occupied waiting until I can see the movie), here is my ultimate roundup of totally awesome Harry Potter themed food, activities, and parties!

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Magical Parties:

1. Mom Outnumbered 2. Martha Shmartha 3. No Fuss Fabulous 4. All for the Boys 5. Spicy Green Mango

 

Catch My Party has a great round up of party pictures and ideas too! So, be sure to check there if you're looking for ideas!  

The AMAZING party cake award goes to the adorable Darla at Bakingdom. 

 

What?! You don't know why? You're not seeing why I would give an imaginary cake award to a white cake? Well, just wait until you cut it open...seriously, WOW!!!! All Houses of Hogwarts represented! So cool!

Of course, you need an invitation to get into the party Hogwarts, so you might want to check out these handcrafted beauties from the Lettered Set.

Don't forget wands, either. The Instructables has great directions for making wands from paper!

For additional party decor and activity ideas, check out Hostess with the Mostess! She's got two Harry Potter posts full of adorable ideas (here and here).

Sweet Treats:
No Harry Potter party would be complete without some sweet treats. This is one of the many creative touches that JK put into the books that I absolutely adore. All the fantastical sounding foods & treats. There is a soft spot in my heart for the first movie and one of my favorite scenes is when all the food magically appears in the Great Hall. So fun! 

1. Sorting Hat Bread 2. Cockroach clusters 3. Chocolate Frogs 4. Snitch Cupcakes 5.Pumpkin Juice  6. Licorice Wands 7. Honeydukes Cupcakes 8. Butterbeer Cupcakes

If it's a Harry Potter party, there must be some butterbeer, right?! here are 4 awesome recipes to choose from.

  

1. Dine and Dish 2. Heather Bailey 3. Cook like a Champion 4. Bakingdom

And, last, but certainly not least, these are beautiful! No way I could ever dream of making anything so awesome, but they HAD to be included!

1. Bake at 350 2. Clares Cupcakes 3. Bake at 350 4. Firefly Confections 5. Bakingdom

If you need any more Harry Potter inspiration, there is always Pinterest! :) Feel free to check out my board devoted to all things Harry!

 

If you have any Harry Potter posts, feel free to link them up in the comments! 

Winnie the Pooh Crafts & Fun Foods Roundup

Winnie the Pooh returns to theaters tomorrow, so here's a little roundup of some fun crafts, foods, and parties from around the web:

First up, Disney is sharing a family activities file with you! Download the file here. You'll get directions for a whole series of adorable Pooh activities--some of them edible too!  

In addition, if you head over to Disney's Family.com, you'll find a whole round up of cute Pooh inspired ideas there too, like these adorable paper bag puppets! 

And, if you're planning a Winnie the Pooh party, or just want to whip up some cute treats, these parties are a must-see:

Pooh inspired sweets table on Hostess with the Mostess

Adorable bee-hive cake!

 Winnie the Pooh Party on Celebrations at Home

Have fun celebrating that willy, nilly, silly old bear! :)

Disney's Winnie the Pooh Returns to Theaters

Walt Disney Animation Studios returns to the Hundred Acre Wood this weekend with "Winnie the Pooh" and we're thrilled!  We have "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" on DVD and it was one of the first movies we let Big Brother watch. He loved it (loves it still) and loved spending time with his favorite Pooh characters at Disneyland!

Needless to say then, we were really excited to be invited to an advanced screening of Disney's new "Winnie the Pooh". 

This newest installation of Winnie the Pooh is inspired by three different stories from A.A. Milne's books, combining them all into one honey-filled Pooh adventure. Everyone's favorite silly old bear is reunited with Christopher Robin and all his other cuddly friends, including poor Eeyore who has lost his tail.

   

"Ever have one of those days when you just can't win, Eeyore" asks Pooh.

 

In the midst of a quest to find a new tail for Eeyore (Bud Luckey), Owl (Craig Ferguson) sends the whole gang on a wild quest to save Christopher Robin from an imaginary culprit, the Backson! It turns out to be a very busy day for a bear who simply wanted to find some honey! 

Our Thoughts:

Winnie the Pooh is a return to the classic childhood innocence that most PG and even G movies are missing these days. Unlike Cars 2, there is no adult language or innuendo, no toilet humor, no guns and violence. Just a boy, his favorite bear and friends having imaginary adventures together! And, the animation helps with that wonderful innocent feeling, as there is no CG or fancy modern updating--the animators kept with the simple sketched/watercolor feel of the original.

While I think the story line could have been a little stronger had this film stuck to having multiple chapters instead of one story, I am thrilled that the stuck true to having a narrator and  Pooh interacting with the pages of the book. John Cleese does an excellent job with the narration and the storybook/letters play a rather key role in helping Pooh solve a big problem!

The only real downside for us was the running time--at just over an hour, even Big Brother was surprised that the movie was already over. He has been to about 5 movies in the theaters and has always done really great sitting through entire movies, so for us, the time was a little disappointing. That said though, if you have a little one who doesn't sit still for long or one who you are hoping to have a first movie theater experience with, I think the time would be perfect!  

Make sure you get to your seats on time, as there's a little extra treat at the beginning!  The Ballad of Nessie is an adorable tale (with an old-time animated feel) of a cute dragon who gets run out of her home with nowhere to go. After a good cry, she discovers just what she's been looking for!

 

And encourage those kiddos to sit all the way through the end of the credits, as they just might catch a Backson! ;)

While Winnie the Pooh certainly isn't the biggest or best "blockbuster" of the summer, and definitely won't win top spot at the box office (after all, it's got Harry Potter to compete with and even spoofed it), it is by far the most adorable! Perfect for the young at heart, no matter what their age! 

Who is YOUR favorite Winnie the Pooh character?

DIY Splash Balls

With it being SO crazy hot in most of the country right now, (seriously, I can't believe that it's been hotter in many places than it has been here in Phoenix!) water play is almost a MUST if you're going to play outside. And, these DIY splash balls are perfect for playing in the water!

 

We actually learned about this fun little craft at Chick-fil-A a few weeks ago. They have family-themed nights on certain days of the summer and it just so happens to that the night we went was "craft night" and made these fun water sponge balls--great for the pool (or the bathtub)! 

I knew they would be perfect for our summer fun playdate, so I headed off to get supplies. I was SO pleased to find all of the supplies I needed at Dollar Tree--this one is not only super easy, but super inexpensive--a true dollar store craft! :)

Here's what you need:

 - sponges and zip ties!

I found 10 packs of colored synthetic sponges and 2 packs of colored cellulose sponges, so decided to do a mix. Then, there were packages of colored zip ties that almost perfectly matched the synthetic sponges. Perfect! The amount I got was enough to do at least 8 balls (making them less than $1/ball)

To make:

1. Cut sponges into approx. 1" strips

 (you will have A LOT of strips)

2. Set up an area to do the craft & make sure 1 year olds are not left unattended.<oops!>

 

 3. Let the kids pick out 9 strips (in this case, 3 cellulose and 6 other the other) and line them up.

 

4. Gather up all the sponge strips and place a zip tie in the center. Pull tie as tight as it will go, then cut off the excess.

 

That's it! Super easy & then the kiddos can have tons of fun splashing around a toy that they made! Love it!

 They were so eager to go try them out and had so much fun learning how the balls worked by soaking up water! There's a good science lesson to be had there too! :)

What are YOUR favorite water play crafts/activities?

*Linked to: Hookin Up with HOH, *I'm Lovin' It , *Get Your Craft On, *Show and Share Saturday

Summer Fun Playdate #playdateplace

As a Kmart Playdate Place Showcase Blogger, I've been sharing some info about the Playdate Place site for the last couple weeks. Then yesterday, we finally got to have our summer fun playdate! It was a blast and Big Brother was thrilled to have some of his best little friends over! 

With it being an outdoor/summer-fun theme, we opted for a morning playdate with a start time of 9:00am. This was good for the heat and for sun exposure. And, yes, even in super hot Phoenix, we were all able to stay outside rather comfortably (thankfully, our backyard has lots of morning shade, but we have a large covered patio with misters!)

When each little guest arrived, they got some bubbles, bubble wands (part of the Bubble Bonanza pack), and some cute animal squirters we found at Kmart (froggies for the girls and sharks for the boys!). 

With new toys in hand, the kiddos all headed over to the new kiddie pool & sprinklers! The water toys were definitely a big hit! In addition to the animal squirters, they especially enjoyed the Nerf Super Soaker Scatterblasts, Max Liquidator Monster Blasters, and  Max Liquidator Eliminators.

We even made a water-play craft: Sponge splash balls! (Full tutorial here!) Here are (almost) all the kiddos showing off their creations (and sitting on our awesome new couch from our Kmart backyard mini-makeover)!

There was plenty of other outdoor fun to be had though too--baseball, soccer, bikes, sand, and slides! Even the babies got involved! :)

 

Here's a highlight of some of our favorite new playdate toys from Kmart:

Little Tikes Get Out 'N' Grill Backyard BBQ

Nerf Super Soaker Scatterblast

Fisher-Price GrowtoPro Triple Hit Baseball and the Fisher-Price GrowtoPro Super Sounds Soccer
We got something especially for Little Brother too! The Little Tikes 3-in-1 Trike! This may just be my favorite of all the things we got! We've tried out a lot of trikes and this is by far the best I've seen for the littlest guys (and super nice for parents too with the push handle)! You can see that Little Brother approves! :)

 

After all that playing, an early lunch was definitely in order. We had some fun dinosaur chicken nuggets, chips, veggies & dip, and some watermelon served up on cute animal plates! It was so nice to have some easy foods, so that we could just stay outside & eat.

With it being one of our little guest's actual birthday, after lunch and a little more playtime, we ended our playdate with a fun little ice cream creation party! The kids really enjoyed making their special party clown treats!.

What a great day!

And, remember, you can get a lot of ideas from the Kmart Playdate Place website for planning your own summer playdate. You can also register for their newsletter to get specials and win cool prizes; like right now, there is a sweepstakes for a chance to win $250 towards your playdate party!

What kind of playdate would YOU have?

 

Disclosure: This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias #playdateplace. All opinions and experiences are my own.