DIY Dumbo Birthday Party

For my daughter’s fifth birthday, she knew exactly what theme she wanted to do: “Dumbo”. She loves the movie, music, and all things elephants! It was so much fun to create this theme, and she had so much fun helping me. This is ultimately what I did to make the theme come to life.

Photo Backdrop

Supplies You’ll Need:

• Pink & red construction paper
• Dark marker
• Scissors/hole punch
• Twine
• Yellow ribbon/fabric
• Tape
• Glue

Step-by-Step Guide:

1. Cut the red construction paper into big-ticket shapes by curving the corners. Use one paper/ticket per letter to spell out “Happy Birthday”.
2. Cut the pink construction paper into small ticket shapes by curving the corners. Use one pink ticket for each of the red tickets. Make the pink ones smaller to fit inside the red ones.
3. Glue the pink ticket into the middle of the red tickets.
4. Use the dark marker to write out “Happy Birthday” using one letter in the center of each ticket.
5. Use a hole puncher to punch a hole at the top of each ticket (you can also use scissors or a pen to poke the hole too if you don’t have a hole punch).
6. Weave the tickets through the twine in order.
7. Cut the yellow fabric/ribbon into strips. The fabric I cut was about 2 inches thick.
8. Tie the ribbon/fabric in between the letters on the twine.
9. Tape the twine strings to the wall.

Birthday Outfit

Supplies You’ll Need:

• White t-shirt
• Gray, pink, black, yellow, red, blue & purple fabric paint
• Paintbrush

Step-by-Step Guide:

1. Paint a gray outline of Dumbo’s ears and body on the t-shirt. I painted mine by looking at a photo on Pinterest that I thought was cute. Let it dry.
2. Paint inside Dumbo’s ears using pink. Let it dry.
3. Paint a yellow hat on top of Dumbo’s head. Let it dry.
4. Paint a yellow stripe on Dumbo’s color. Let it dry.
5. Paint the rest of Dumbo’s collar red. Let it dry.
6. Paint a black outline around Dumbo’s body, hat, and collar. Let it dry.
7. Paint the accent marks on Dumbo’s legs and paint his face. Let it dry.
8. Paint blue in Dumbo’s eyes and a blue ticket shape under Dumbo’s body. Let it dry.
9. Paint a yellow ticket outline around the blue ticket. Let it dry.
10. Paint a purple letter 5 inside the ticket. Let it dry.
11. Do any paint touch-ups as needed. Let it dry.

Cupcakes

Supplies You’ll Need:

• Cake mix
• White icing
• Sprinkles
• Cake topper
• Candle

Step-by-Step Guide:

1. Make cupcakes or use cake mix in cupcake shapes. I used whatever I had on hand at home.
2. Cover the cupcakes with white icing.
3. Put sprinkles on top of the icing. We used a mix of rainbow and green sprinkles.
4. Put a birthday candle on top of the cupcake.

Balloons

Supplies You’ll Need:

• Silver balloons
• Black Sharpie marker

Step-by-Step Guide:

1. Blow up silver balloons.
2. Draw designs on the balloons with a Sharpie marker. I did one Dumbo head, Dumbo ears, a trunk holding a feather, and a ringmaster stand design with stars and triangles.

Daughter’s Art

My daughter also painted a Dumbo picture she wanted to display, and of course, we had our normal numbered 5 balloon.

I hope these ideas help inspire you to create your own Dumbo-themed party. Happy creating!

21 Patriotic Movies for July 4th

If you know me, you know that I love any reason for a good movie marathon! And what better reason is there than the holidays? While most people think of Christmas movies for a holiday marathon, there are plenty of movies to get you in the Patriotic mindset/mood for Independence Day. While most that come to mind are military movies, there are also some fun rom-coms and family-friendly movies for the whole family to enjoy together.

1. 1776

Genre: Drama, Musical, Historical, Family. Rating: G. A musical retelling of the American Revolution’s political struggle to get Congress to declare Independence.

2. A Family Reunion

Genre: Drama, Family. Rating: G. A Hallmark movie about a sibling rock group that broke up and the family's reconciliation as adults. It is also known as “Star-Spangled Banner”.

3. A League of Their Own

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Biography. Rating: PG. I love this classic! All about the first all-female professional baseball league.

4. Air Force One

Genre: Action, Drama, Thriller. Rating: R. When hijackers take over Air Force One with the President and his family on board, he works to save the hostages on the plane.

5. American Sniper

Genre: Action, Biography, Drama, War. Rating: R. The autobiographical story of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, who became a legend as a sniper.

6. An American Tail

Genre: Animation, Comedy, Drama, Family, Musical. Rating: G. A young Russian mouse emigrates to the US and gets separated from his family, so he sets out to find them.

7. Apollo 13

Genre: Adventure, Drama, History. Rating: PG. NASA works to bring Apollo 13 safely back to Earth after it suffers damage.

8. Blake Hawk Down

Genre: Action, Drama, History, War. Rating: R. 160 US soldiers who dropped into Mogadishu in Oct. 1993 on a mission and find themselves in a heavy battle.
Info:

9. Captain America: The First Avenger

Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi. Rating: PG-13. During World War II, a rejected soldier turns into Captain America after taking a special serum that makes him a superhero.

10. Independence Day

Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi. Rating: PG-13. Humans work to fight off aliens who come to Earth to take over and destroy.

11. Lone Survivor

Genre: Action, Biography, Drama, War. Rating: R. The true story of Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell and his team who work to capture a Taliban leader and find themselves in the firefight of their lives.

12. National Treasure

Genre: Action, Adventure, Mystery, Thriller. Rating: PG. A historian races to find a legendary treasure before a team of mercenaries.

13. Night at the Museum

Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Family, Fantasy. Rating: PG. A new security night guard at the Museum of Natural History discovers that a curse causes the animals and exhibit characters to come to life after closing time.

14. Pearl Harbor

Genre: Action, Drama, History, Romance, War. Rating: PG-13. The story of two lifelong friends and a beautiful nurse who find themselves forever changed by love and the events of a Sunday morning in 1941.

15. Pollyanna

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Family. Rating: G. The Disney classic is all about finding the good in everything and creating your own family. There is also a festival and singing of America the Beautiful.

16. Saving Private Ryan

Genre: Drama, War. Rating: R. A group of soldiers go behind enemy lines to save a paratrooper whose brothers have already been killed in action.

17. Sister of the Bride

Genre: Comedy, Romance. Rating: G. A Hallmark movie about a couple who gets engaged after dating 6 months, only to discover the Bride-to-be’s sister is also engaged and planning a July 4th wedding.

18. Stars and Stripes Forever

Genre: Biography, Comedy, Musical. Rating: G. The true story of the composer John Philip Sousa from his early days in the Marine Corps band through the Spanish/American War in 1898.

19. The Patriot

Genre: Action, Drama, History, War. Rating: R. After a British officer murders his son, a peaceful farmer joins the American Revolution and fights.

20. Top Gun

Genre: Action, Drama. Rating: PG. A daring pilot races to win top pilot at an elite Navy fighter weapons school and the attention of his beautiful professor.

21. When Sparks Fly

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance. Rating: G. A Hallmark movie about a big-city journalist who is sent back to her small hometown to write about their Fourth of July celebration.

What is your go-to patriotic movie, and did I cover it here? Let me know in the comments below!

Creative Ways to Announce Baby #3

After a couple of kids, how do you keep pregnancy announcements fun and creative? Having one of each gender with my first two, I knew a long time ago I’d want to do a tie-breaker announcement for Baby #3.

If you are in need of some ideas or know anyone who is – look no further! Even if you don’t need it now, save this post for future reference, as many of these can be used for any baby announcement. I’ve done plenty of browsing and research to find these cute ideas, and here is what I’ve come up with for creative Baby #3 announcements!

Tie Breaker

If you have one child of each gender already, then this is my favorite. You could use a letter board, chalk, a picture, etc., to make a scoreboard with Girls: 1 and Boys: 1 and tiebreaker coming soon. This is the one I used. I had my kids hold a chalkboard, and then I put in the text graphic after.

Outnumbered

I’ve seen some cute ones using this theme where the parents are tied up or looking very overwhelmed. You could go with an “outnumbering mom and dad” message or an “officially outnumbered in DUE DATE MONTH”, etc. You could really get creative and funny with it!

Party of 5

I love the party of ___ announcements. It’s cute, like a restaurant reservation. You could also do a cutesy Party of 5 TV show reference or font, etc.

Three’s Company

You could play around with the TV show “Three’s Company” to incorporate this one. Or just use it in reference to the three kids.

2+1=3

This cutesy numbered announcement is always cute. You can have the kids standing beside your belly and add a graphic.

Balloons

You could have each child holding a numbered balloon (1, 2, etc.) and then have mom holding a 3 balloon by her belly. Or you could simply have everyone holding a balloon that says Baby.

Third Times a Charm

You could play off this popular saying. You could make it sweet or funny.

Big Sibling Training

You could have shirts made, have the kids reading big sibling books, or have the oldest child teaching the younger and call it Big Sibling Training like a school setting.

T-Shirts

T-shirt announcements are always cute. You could have the older kids in Big and Middle shirts and have a Little onesie for the baby. I’ve also seen ones that say Original, Remix, Encore. There are so many options for t-shirts, and you can find so many cute sayings to go on them.

Ages & Pregnancy Weeks

If the ages of your kids line up with your pregnancy weeks, this can be super cute. For example, with my son, I was able to take a photo of my daughter at 9 months and me at 9 weeks pregnant. Even if they don’t line up the same, you could still do it (example: 4 years old, 2 years old, 12 weeks).

Feet & Ages

Take a photo of everyone’s feet and place a pair of empty baby shoes beside the youngest. You could write everyone’s ages,  year of birth, month of birth, etc., and then put the new little ones beside their shoes too.

Keep it Classic

If you prefer to keep it simple, you can stick with the classic letter board, calendar, or baby out flat lay. Come up with a simple or cute saying and simply put “Baby #3 due XX”, etc.

Here We Grow Again

I did a “here we grow again” announcment with my 2nd pregnancy and still think its so cute! You could also play it funnier with a “what’s one more?” message.

I hope these ideas brought you some inspiration for any future announcements you may make or others you know who are looking for fun ways to announce. What is your favorite Baby #3 announcement? Let me know in the comments below!