Our Candyland Party

 

As I mentioned during the Dare to Share Party yesterday, we had a Candyland party at work yesterday.  As the days lead up to the party, I helped with a lot of the prep work.  I created games and decorations online, I crafted several crafts and games, and helped decorate for the party.  While I did get some pictures, I was too busy during the party to take more than a couple of pictures while the party was taking place. I will share what I have so far, with more to possible come early next week, because we plan on leaving the decorations up for a bit. 

One of our parents is a talented balloon artist. She made the rainbow balloons in our entryway in the picture above, and at the entrance below.  

As you entered it felt like you were in a real Candyland. Each of the rooms were a different land. We had Lollipop Woods, the Ice Palace, Chocolate Swamp, and Gingerbread Land.

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I took these photos while I was setting up during naptime, so they are a little dark.  As you entered one of the preschool rooms Princess Lolli and several giant lollipops greeted you.  

In that room we had a cookie chair walk game.  It was a combination of a cake walk and musical chairs, but we did not remove the chairs after each round.  The kids and some parents walked around the chairs to the music, and when it stopped sat down in one of the numbered chairs.  If their number was called, they won a bag of cookies and some game tickets to use toward a big prize. 

The chocolate swamp mural was not completed yet in this picture, we were still working on it.  In the chocolate swamp room the kids had a chocolate matching game, and a maze.  

At the last minute I threw together this ice cream sundae.  We had hoped to play pin the cherry on the sundae, but ran out of time to finish making it. We will have the kids play it in class during a school day next week.  

In the second preschool room we had the Ice Palace. There was a big mural on the wall, and snowflakes all over the walls and hanging from the ceiling. 

In this room we had the punch cup game, and the penny toss game.  The kids won tickets and candy with both games.  I made these games by hot gluing regular size and mini red cups onto Dollar Tree foam board. 

I don't have pictures inside Gingerbread Lane room, but the kids who entered were greeted by Jip the Gingerbread man which I made for last year's party.  

In the center area, I play picture Candyland Bingo with a Bingo game I created that will soon be in my Etsy Shop.

At the end of the party the kids could turn in their tickets (hopefully they had a lot of them) for a variety of prizes.  Almost all of the prizes came from the Dollar Tree.  This is only half of the prizes.  There were just too many to get them all in one picture. 

Candyland is one of the parties we do for the kids yearly. We got a lot of good feedback on this year's party, so will have to wait and see what next year's party brings.   

  

It's Time to Dare to Share!

It's Friday night and you know what that means.. 

It is time to Dare to Share!

Well today was the Candyland party.  Aren't these balloons amazing?!  I did not make them but I did help put the up.  They were put together by a talented parent of one of our students.  

I did not have time to post anything this week, because I was so busy working on the party after work. I have also been working on a couple of listings in my Etsy shop.  I will be posting about the party in the next couple of days.  After the party we left for Michigan to celebrate a good friends birthday.  I will also be spending some time with my grown up kids this weekend. 

Over on Etsy I added a new Valentine Scavenger Hunt to my shop. 

I also added some new Bee Valentine Candy Wrappers to my shop.  I did take some actual photos that I will be adding to my listing this weekend.   

Well it is getting late so I want to get this party started so I can get some sleep. :) 

Link up and Have FUN!! 

 

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It's Time to Dare to Share!

It's Friday night and you know what that means.. 

It is time to Dare to Share! 

How is the weather where you live?  It's been very cold here.  While I am used to cold weather from when I lived in Michigan, I really don't like it!  Early in the week there were school closings for sub zero wind chills (though not the district where my day care is) and then today pretty much the entire area was off because of the snow storm hitting during rush hour.  Just a few more cold days, and then we are having a big warm up next week.  I can't wait! 

Today we were supposed to have our Candyland party, but because our center was closed for the weather, the party is postponed. On my blog this week I shared a post Making Candyland Party Props. In that post I share props from last year's  Candyland party and holidays.  I will be sharing more props in the upcoming week. 

This week over on Instagram I found so many great new items at the Dollar Tree.  They have items on the shelves for several upcoming holidays (Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, and Easter) and spring items like these bees, fairy gardens items, and flower pots. 

Over in my Etsy Shop it's Valentine's Day. I had to work on several items for our upcoming Candyland Party, but have some new listings that will be in the my shop in the up coming week.  Through Saturday at midnight I am having a 20% off Snow Day sale on my entire shop.  

If you are interested in joining my newsletter/email list, make sure to sign up in the upper right hand corner of my blog.  I am currently sending out emails once or twice a month, but hope to make it a weekly newsletter. 

Now that you know what I have been up to, I would love to see what you have been up to. Link Up and HAVE FUN!! 

 

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Making Candyland Party Props

 At my work we are having a Candyland themed party this week.  While I do not have pictures of this year's decorations yet, I do have some pics of candy and treats I have made in the past that would make great Candyland Party Props. 

**this post contains affiliate links

Where to start? I think I will start with cupcakes.  I have made two very different kinds of cupcakes.  

I made the cupcake in the top photo as a Christmas decoration. I used a flower pot I had from last summer, a clear 14 inch plastic plate, a large red ornament from Dollar Tree, and expanding foam.  

I sprayed expanding foam on the plastic plate and added the ornament before the foam dried. The plate was the perfect size to fit in my Dollar Tree flower pot from the Plus section. 

You can see how to make the other cupcake from the Dollar Tree laundry basket in this post here.   Also in the photo are pool noodle lollipops.  I made bigger ones this year with two noodles, and rolls of cellophane. 

While we are not using these faux lollipops and cotton candy for our party this year, they would make perfect party props or  Valentine's Day decor.  You can see how I made them in this post here.

I made this Princess Lolly out of poster board.  Instead of using flat lollipop cut outs like in the picture, she could be holding the 3-D styrofoam lollipops. 

Last year I made this gingerbread man out of cardboard for the party.  He was the the leader of smaller gingerbread characters the kids had made. 

This year for Christmas I made a 5 foot gingerbread man for the corner of our dining room. He is very easy to make and all of the supplies come from Dollar Tree and Hobby Lobby.  I bought the brown poster board from Hobby Lobby.  You can see how to make him here.

A fun craft for a Candyland party are these party boxes made with paper mache boxes and craft foam. While I bought this kit from Oriental Trading  with every thing you need to make 12 boxes, it can also easily be made with supplies from the Dollar Tree. 

I will be adding more Candyland props after the party! 

It's Party Time! Let's Dare to Share!

It's Friday night, and you know what that means.. 

It is time to Dare to Share!  

We made it to the weekend :) 

So I had a bit of a dilemma this week.  As many of you know that I went to Ohio State, and I am  a die hard Buckeye.  While we did not make it to the National Championship this year,  Michigan did. If you know anything about the Ohio State/Michigan rivalry you know it is very hard to root for the other team.  I was torn between rooting for Washington, or rooting for Michigan so we had a Big 10 win.  I'm curious, which team would you root for in this situation?     In the end, Michigan did win, and we had a Big 10 win.  

On the blog this week, I shared how we made Valentine's Day Heart Pops for my daughter's class when she was younger.  If you still find any mini candy canes on clearance, pick them up because you can use them to make these heart pops. 

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Over on Instagram, I shared some new Easter finds and a few hauls.  I will be stopping by my local store this weekend if the weather does not get too bad, because one of the assistant managers told me that they got a ton of new items in and on the shelves.  

In my Etsy Shop, I have started to sell some of my St. Patrick's Day and Easter hunts. :)   This makes me really happy. I did not have the chance to add a new listing this week, because I have been working a lot on the Candyland party at work.  They have asked me to make several printables for the party, which will eventually end up in my shop. The party is next week, and I will be writing a blog post about it.  We have been decorating all week, and it is looking very festive and fun. 

If you are interested in joining my newsletter/email list, make sure to sign up in the upper right hand corner of my blog.  I am currently sending out emails once or twice a month, but hope to make it a weekly newsletter. 

   

Now that you know what I have been up to this week, I would love to see what you have been doing.  Link up and HAVE FUN! 

 

 

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Valentine's Day Heart Pops

It is now the perfect time to re-share how to make Valentine's Day Heart Pops.  We are still a month away from Valentine's Day and you might also be able to find the candy canes you need to make these on clearance. 

When my daughter was in 4th grade she wanted to bring a special treat to her class for their special read in party. 

To make heart pops you need mini candy canes, lollipop sticks and some melting chocolate.  

Unwrap the candy and flip them in opposite positions so that they make a heart shape on a piece of parchment paper.

When making the pops, you will be using  a lollipop stick in the middle of each set of the  candy canes. 

You can use any chocolate you have on hand.  We had some red Wilton candy and decided to use it for our pops.    

The best way to melt the chocolate is in the microwave using the 30 second method.  Place the chocolate in a glass bowl and place in the microwave for 30 seconds.  Take it out, and stir. Continue melting your chocolate for 30 seconds at a time until it is completely melted. Be careful and use an oven mitt while doing this, because the glass bowl does get hot.  The chocolate is usually melted by around 90 seconds. 

Once you fill the heart with a little bit of chocolate, add the stick and pour on a little more on top to cover to stick.  Adding the stick in the middle of adding the chocolate will help to cover the stick completely. 

We added a little bit of sprinkles to our hearts before placing them into the freezer for 10 minutes.  The freezer hardens the pops, and gives the chocolate a bit of a shine. 

We placed each of the pops in a small red cellophane bag, and tied on a white curling ribbon.  She wrote each child's name on in fine tip mark to the pop stick to make sure each child received one. 

The kids loved the pops, and we had a lot of fun making them.   

 

It's Time to Dare to Share!

It's Friday night, and you know what that means.. 

It is time to Dare to Share!  

Last Friday seems like such a long time ago. I have done a lot in a week.  On Saturday we saw the movie Wonka and LOVED it!  Timothee Chalamet does such a great job as young Willy Wonka, and he is easy on the eyes.  LOL! 

 

On Sunday we made a quick trip to Michigan to celebrate New Year's Eve with my friends, and spend some time with my kids who I was not able to see over Christmas on New Years Day.

On Wednesday I went back to work, and have been trying to get back into my usual routine. I did not get a lot done on the computer, but have plans to catch up on things this week. This weekend we might be hit with a winter storm, but it looks like main part of the storm will miss us. I guess we will find out over the next couple of days. 

* This post also contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links

 At work we are planning a huge Candyland party that will be held later this month.  Last year we had the party in March, and I made this Dollar Tree Cupcake.    I have since made a lot of other candy props for my own Christmas decor that I may be using as decor at the party we well  I will be sharing a blog post next week on how to make Candyland decor and our party preparations. 

I have been sharing a lot of Dollar Tree Valentine's Day finds over on Instagram.  This year's finds are really good, and you can find some really good gifts.  They are also starting to get in  a lot of Easter items in the Plus section this year that are really worth the money.  You can see many of the items over on  Dollar Tree's Website.  Remember if you are not able to find  something at your store, you can always buy online and have it shipped FREE to your store.  Some items need to be bought by the case, but many are available in small quantities. 

Well it looks like it is almost time to get this party started.  Link up and HAVE FUN! 

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