Favor bags on the cheap...

Party favors are by NO means required, but I for one love doing them. For Elaina's first birthday party, which was safari animal themed, my mom crocheted 6" animals for each of the kids and attached them to a chinese favor box filled with animal crackers. They were a huge hit.

This year, I decided to do a favor bag, but wanted something in it that the kids would actually use/enjoy. 

Here's an example of what each kids bag contained. First off, the bag itself is reusable. They're a Target $1 bin find. I got 4 different designs, each Sesame Street themed. Inside were 3 books, 1 was another Target $1 bin find and the two write-n-wipe books were from Dollar Tree. Crayons were purchased at Wal-Mart for $0.25/pack, crazy straws were 6/$1, snack size ziploc bags were filled with Sesame Street themed snacks (Goldfish crackers & Cookie Crisp), and the two coloring sheets were printed for free from online sources.

That brings each bag to a total of...less than $5. I'm gonna say around $4.50 - $4.75! THAT is a bargain in my book. And the good part is that this isn't $5 worth of trinkety (made up word?) junk that's going to get tossed within a couple of minutes. 

Moral of this story? Dollar Tree & $1 Bins are your friend!!!

MIA apologies

So, I've been MIA lately. I don't know why honestly.

In the past month I've been working on Elaina's birthday party (this weekend!), starting Weight Watchers (7.5lbs gone! woohoo), and working (boo)!
Elaina is quite the chatterbox now. She's constantly asking "Whasdat?" which is her way of saying "What's that?" She's started composing small sentences/questions, which I love. She's also saying "Wuv you mommy/daddy/papaw/nana/mamaw". THAT melts my heart like nothing else. Even if she doesn't understand what she's saying, it's still so sweet to hear.

As far as the birthday party is concerned, we're pretty excited. Elmo himself will be making an appearance. Yeah, can't wait for that! Elaina is going to love it! I promise pictures soon.

Now some randoms from the last month...