French Open: Ping Pong Takes Over the World

It's that time of year again...time to polish your ping pong paddles in attempt to win the acceptance of your peers and complete that plan for world domination!  It's the French Open!  

What is the French Open?  It was started by my wonderful friend, Chris French, and it allows a bunch of old friends to get together and get their "pong on."  Essentially, when RSVPing, you select a number.  The number corresponds to a randomized list of the nations of the world.  Your job then is to dress the part, bring a themed snack, and represent your assigned country in the tournament.  

 Lawn flags welcome the participating countries.  

Paddle in Peace, yo.  

 The winner's trophy.  Alas, I don't think I'll be bringing this bad boy home once again.  

All participants receive a trophy so you don't have to feel bad about your lack of hand/eye coordination.  

The totally legit bracket.  It's huge!  

Upon registration, each country receives a plastic name tag holder filled with copies of their country's flag to place upon the bracket using push-pins.  Much easier than trying to keep moving your flag from place to place.  Cleverly, the host provided a list of each country and the participant's name.  This was key for trying to find your next opponent when a table opened up.   

The Opening Ceremony always starts with a blessing from the Vatican.  This year it was in Italian, no joke.  I need to brush up on my Latin to make it even more authentic.

Them be the rules.  I just say, "O.K." when I've been told I lost. 

David rocked my favorite costume of the year.  

The host and ponger extraordinaire, Chris.  

Since it was a trillion degrees, most traditional clothing was substituted for breezier attire.

French Open Champion 2027.

Looking for a little more inspiration?  Check out last year.

Popsicle Making with the Zoku

Have you seen this yet?  It's a Zoku, a super speedy popsicle maker.  I received one for my birthday, and the girls and I are loving it!  Like an ice cream maker, you it in the freezer for 24 hours.  Once frozen, you add your yummy ingredients.  The popsicles freeze in around 7 minutes.  Soooo much better than waiting for hours and hours.  The recipe book I received shows some incredible popsicles, like art in frozen form.  

We went for something a little bit more low-key and made lemonade popsicles using lemons from our back yard.  Such a fun treat for a hot summer day.  

Tooth Fairy Ideas

The Tooth Back Story:

Lots of things in my world as a mama I'm totally ready for.  Recitals, potty training, bedtime.  Something I just so wasn't expecting was a loose tooth!  Georgia is four and a half, four and a half!  

She mentioned it was wiggling, but it didn't really hit me that it would fall out any time soon.  We were hanging with our super sweet friends, Riley and Logan, and their mama at Disney's California Adventure when a pack of fruit snacks began our adventure.

Here's the big girl missing one on the bottom row.  There's a total grown-up tooth back there.

Tooth Fairy Preparations:
So I then had the late afternoon and evening to get my act together and get ready for the arrival of the Tooth Fairy.  I knew I wanted Georgia to have a special place to put her tooth, so I found some adorable options online.  Since I had hours, not days, I got busy making one myself.

I simplified the tutorial for a Tooth Fairy Pillow because I have limited sewing skills.

Now, I have a tendency to go a little overboard, and, thankfully, so does the Tooth Fairy.  She commemorated the event with this special free printable certificate.  What I particularly adore about this version (she has so many available online) is that her name is Flossie which was my grandmother's name.  Maybe grandmas get to be tooth fairies, who knows!

Here is the link to get your own.

The Tooth Fairy also brought a super fancy new toothbrush, toothpaste, and the traditional monetary gift.  How much is the T.F. giving out these days?  Georgia got "two monies" and was elated, but that might not suffice as she gets older.  

As the dentist predicted at her check-up, the other bottom tooth is due to fall out soon.  Got to get ready for Round 2!   

In case you've got a wiggly tooth in your house, here are some other cute ideas:

*  How Does She had a super special idea of leaving a glass of water out.  The Tooth Fairy colors changes it to the color of your princess dreams when she comes to retrieve your tooth.

*  T.F. uses hairspray and glitter to make money sparkly.

*  Since she's so fairy-tastic, she might just leave behind fairy dust as she flies through the house.  It looks a lot like fine glitter.  

*  We wrote a letter explaining how the tooth was lost and thanking her for her gift.  I made sure to photocopy for Georgia's scrapbook.

Rainbow Unicorn Party

It was a magical day at Harper's Rainbow Unicorn Party.  Big props to our family and friends for making it such a great day for her.  Here are some of the highlights:

Rainbow Unicorn Decorations

Paint chip rainbow...Not tricky & super inexpensive diy project.  I made a foam board covered with paint chips and finished it off with two white pom pom clouds. 

Keeping with the paint chips, I made some cupcake toppers & wrap keeper togetherers.  Yup, that's a word.  

                                 

                                               

Paint chip utensil holders...two paint chips hot glued together with a white unicorn were free since I had the utensils and white card stock at home already.  

 Using crepe paper streamers from the Dollar Tree, I fancied up the tables.  My helpers supervised from below the table.

 Melted crayon art...it was our first attempt, but it ended up super cute!

Unicorn handbands...just in case you don't have a rainbow t-shirt in your closet.   I found Ashley's Crafts which has a bunch of cute templates for animal headbands.  I used those as a starting point to sketch a horn and ears.  

Rainbow Unicorn Party Activities

Using leftover baby food jars as crayon holders, guests were invited to color their own rainbows using half of a paper plate.

Unicorn races...I have a tendency to make other work for people.  This was no exception.  My mother in law made these super amazing unicorns and ponies for our races.  The pattern came from Craftsy for only $6.50!  

The racers lining up.  

Remember how I said I made work for other people?  Got my mom and aunt sewing gold medals for the race contestants!

 We modified a medal idea I found here.  The posting was all about Olympics which is totally perfect timing with the upcoming games.

Now just some super cute pictures I love...

Doc McStuffins Party

It's a Doc McStuffins marathon over here.  If you aren't hip on the current Disney Jr. line-up, Doc McStuffins is a sweet little girl who fixes up all things stuffed and huggable.  

Since she's so popular here, I thought you might have a fan in your house too.  Here are some super cute things I've found online for a Doc McStuffins party.  

Get these free printables from Disney Family.  Cupcake toppers too!

Customizable Water bottle labels from Pink Pea Paperie on Etsy

Super cute party crafts from About like this tote bag.

 Stethoscope tutorial from American Felt and Craft

I'd also make a two-layer cake with a bottom layer covered in pink fondant and the top covered in purple and white stripes.  Check out my Pinterest board for more ideas!

DIY: Crayon Art

My first attempt at crayon art.

Harper's 3rd birthday is coming up and since I'm on vacation I should have lots of time to get all of my projects completed.  Ha!  Guess who else is on vacation...my two fabulous helpers.  Today we worked on some crayon art for the upcoming Magical Rainbow Unicorn Party.  

The almost birthday girl rocking her Christmas jammies in June.  

Here's how we made ours...

Spring Recital: Check!

Today is the first official day of summer break for me...and since my daughters' recitals were yesterday it actually feels like a vacation.  Here's a picture of each of them in their costumes.  So cute, right?  

Harper danced to a song from "Music Man."  Note that I said Harper danced!  Typically she stands and plays with her costume, tries to talk to the teacher about world economics or something else random, or just watches the other girls.  Even at the dress rehearsal she stood like a wooden soldier.  Maybe it was the large audience or maybe the promise of a cupcake if she performed, but she danced!

Georgia's dance was to "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang."  This is her second recital, and she's a pro.  Getting fancy and being allowed to wear make-up make her so incredibly happy.  Georgia rocked the recital!

Family who couldn't make it, the DVD viewing parties will be scheduled shortly.