First Christmas party - done!

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For the past three days I have been busy helping with our Church Christmas party. It might've just been the most anticipated party of the season because we found out that we would be some of the organizers only three weeks ago. Yikes! I've never helped to throw a get together for more than 200 people before, especially in such a short time span.

It was not supposed to be a religious occasion, it was a social gathering, just to hang out and have fun together. But our main focus was on the kids - we wanted them to be busy so that their parents could have a break :)

We decided to go with a Grinch theme. Unfortunately, our "Grinch" bailed on us at the last minute... But it still turned out OK. I wanted to share with you a few pictures but for the privacy of the participants, they were taken before the party.

We decorated the room in a fun way:

We didn't go completely with traditional seasonal colors because, after all, Whoville is a fun place to live in, right? :) It looks simple but, believe me, it took us quite a few hours to pull it all together (considering there were only four of us organizers).

You might see a small Grinch on the right. Yours truly tried her skills in drawing the Grinch for the first and, maybe, the last time in my life :)

The kids were "pinning" hearts on it. It was a lot of fun!

We had lots of other awesome activities like creating Xmas trees, picture frames, coloring the boxes for Food Bank deliveries and even making Who-hair with all these colorful supplies:

Because we did brunch, our food was breakfast food potluck like bacon, casseroles, hash browns and the cocoa bar (unfortunately, I was a little too late to snap some pictures). But at the end everybody got a little treat to take home instead of a traditional candy cane (inspired by this pin):

I used bags of seasonal M&M's for these treats. And don't ask how many hours it took me to separate the greens from the reds. You don't wanna know:) I wanted to buy just solid green from a specialty store but they were $8.99 a pound! My frugal heart just couldn't do it. With shopping sales I got these bags for half the price, and that's if you don't even count red ones which were actually an awesome addition to the cocoa bar.

We had a lot of fun but I also think that this party was a great example of frugal lifestyle. You don't have to spend a lot of money to have fun and enjoy yourselves!

Now it put me in a little bit of a much needed Christmas mood (with all the sickies in our house, it just wasn't coming..) Now it's time to finish decorating our own house. I think...

How was your weekend??

Crafting with kids.

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In the last few weeks we've been working on some projects in our kitchen. I can't wait to share them all with you (when I take good pictures of some and finish others :)

But today I want to show you my favorite one so far. Why do I like it so much? Because it's something I did with my son :)

We needed a new wall piece of decor for our eating area of the kitchen. Something bright and fun (you know, two of my favorite). And I had an idea that we could do together. And here's what we got:

Here's how we did it. You need:

• One canvas in any size you want (we did 24x30 in, got it during Michaels 50% off sale.)
• acrylic paints in whatever colors you want
• pool noodle
• disposable plates
• a finish to protect your project
• a very eager 6-year old (5-8 year old would do too :) 

Cut a few pieces of pool noodle (as many as you have colors). These are the colors we chose (plus a yellow one that didn't make it to the picture for some reason):

Pour some paints on plates and dab your noodle "tool":

And then let your kids go to town on the canvas. I promise you, they'll have a blast (and yes, you can help them :):

We did paint after paint, didn't even wait for them to dry. Kid was so excited to help me (oh, he thought I was helping him :). You really can't go wrong with it! Do whatever feels right, have fun with it!! After you are done, you can call it "Modern art" :)

Here's a close look at "ours":

Isn't it fun? :) And it makes Kid so proud that he "almost" did it himself :)

Have you done any fun projects with your kids/grand kids recently? Please, do share :)

I'm sharing this post with these great parties:

The Shabby Nest
My Turn (for us) Freedom Fridays
Tatertots and Jello 
Chick on a Shoestring Decorating 
Six Sisters' Stuff 
DIY Show Off 
Homemaker on a Dime 
Monday Funday 
Under The Table and Dreaming 
Craft-O-Maniac 
Pinkapotamus 
Love Bakes Good Cakes 
The REAL Housewives of Riverton 
Wow Us Wednesday