Free Airplane Birthday Party Printables

Posted by Nick in Party on October 9, 2012  ||  93 Comments

airplane party

So yesterday you saw how Ramona’s 3rd Birthday party turned out. Honestly, it was amazing. It’s her third time through and it’s official now: Amber can freaking plan a birthday party.

airplane party

This year, as usual, my main job was in the graphics department. Above is the invitation I designed (with address taken out). It was intended to be teal / red / white, but the teal ended up looking more light blue on paper (and on PCs).

The invitation and the Red Jett Sweets truck were the inspiration behind all the graphics I made. And since I stayed up late many nights last week and we only used them once, Amber and I thought we’d post the PDF files for free download and non-commercial use (just don’t try and sell them on etsy or anything, yes people do crap like that).

airplane party

Here’s what one side of the tablescape looked like. We had popcorn in the blue paper bags, airplane shaped sandwiches, and a cheese plate on a USA shaped cutting board (repurposed as art later).

airplane party

The IN-FLIGHT SNACKS banners are on an 11×17 PDF. We printed them off on card stock.

airplane party

The badges for the popcorn (could be used for anything) are in 8.5×11. These were printed on regular printer paper, cut out and glued to the blue paper bags from Target.

airplane party

The labels on our cheese tray were typed, but I set up an 8.5×11 of blank ones that can be used for anything (and written in).

airplane party

Here’s our drink station.

airplane party

I loaded the DRINKS banner with some extra labels, just because I’m a nice guy.

airplane party

The drink labels are set up to fit the 1/2 liter Ozarka bottled waters.

airplane party

I created little baggage check and baggage claim signs that let people know where to drop presents and grab their party favors.

airplane party

airplane party

Also, here are the labels I made for the party favors and left blank for you to write your little guests names in.

airplane party

For the photobooth, I added the clouds and airplane to the file.

airplane party

I made the banner more general to say “Happy birthday.” It’s 8.5×33. We printed it out on 3 separate pieces of paper and glued them on some poster board.

airplane party

For the pin the propeller on the airplane, I drew the plane on some butcher paper with a marker.

airplane party

And these guys got printed out on red card stock and subsequently cut out.

airplane party

Amber found airplane launchers at the Dollar Tree, so we made a game for the kids to land their plane in either Los Angeles, New York, or Orlando (places Ramona went this year). Then fly back to Dallas-Fort Worth. It worked better having them just throw the plane into their destinations hula hoop instead of using the launchers. Most of them were 3, so using the launcher was just past their skill level.

airplane party

So the distance and location of the destinations wasn’t quite geographically correct, but we let that slide.

airplane party

I took Ramona’s name out of the sign so anyone can use it.

Here’s all the PDFs in a zip file. Feel free to download and use them however you wish. If you do, send us some pictures! We’d love to see how they’re being used.

Airplane-party-free-printables

**Remember these printables are for personal use only. You may not sell them. Also if you blog about the party and use the printables, please be kind and reference back to us.

UPDATE: Some people have been having issues with the zip file, so I dumped all the pdfs into our media library so you can download them individually below:

ENTRANCE
BAGGAGE CLAIM
BAGGAGE CHECKPHOTOBOOTH
CLOUDS 3
CLOUD 2
CLOUD 1
BANNER
AIRPLANEOTHER
NAME TAGS		 GAMES
SIGN
NYC
LA
FLORIDA
DFW
BLANK PROPELLERSFOOD
WATER
SANDWICH / SNACKS
POPCORN
INFLIGHT SNACKS
DRINKS LABELS
BLANK LABELS
Tagged As , , ,

Ramona’s Airplane Birthday

Posted by Amber in Party on October 9, 2012  ||  10 Comments

We celebrated Ramona’s 3rd birthday this weekend. Since she is obsessed with airplanes, having an airplane party was a no brainer. I’ll share more about the table and craft details later this week. We made truffle popcorn, a cheese plate, airplane sandwiches, and chips.

*Update: You can read about how to make the clouds and other table craftiness here.

A little red plane carried our Drinks banner. We had Mexican coke, Jarrritos, and water (that we made a cute label for get the printable here).

Red Jett Sweets provided the cupcakes, the food truck, and the party colors scheme – red and teal. Even though airplanes are Ramona’s favorite thing right now, Red Jett was our inspiration for the party. Just eat one of their cupcakes you’ll understand. Not only can Christina and Natalie make a mean cupcake, but they are incredibly sweet. Visit them at the Fort Worth Food Truck Park or book them for your party. Totally worth it.

All of the cupcakes were delicious…yes I had all 3 flavors. Banana Nutella…ridiculous. What do you expect from someone who has been on cupcake wars?!?

I bought wooden airplane puzzles for less than a dollar a piece for the kids to paint. Don’t worry it was washable paint. Good thing because 3 year olds are messy painters.

We created a game based on Ramona’s travels this year called Ramona’s Birthday Getaway. You pick a plane and fly it (read: make it land in a hula hoop) to LA, NYC, or Orlando. Of course you have to take off from Dallas-Fort Worth. Download the signage here.

I found this Pin the Propeller on the Plane game on Hip Hip Hooray. It was just too easy to skip out on. Download the propellers here.

We had our baggage check and baggage claim in the entry. I got the favor boxes from Kara’s Party Ideas.

The favors were a cardboard airplane (Target), peanuts (slightly ironic since Ramona is allergic), compass, parachute man, candy airplane, and necklaces (for the girls only). I got the necklace with the star charm at Forever 21 for $1.50. I purchased the airplane charms on etsy.

The Arlington Fire Department saw the party and figured they’d stop by. It was a complete surprise, but the kids freaked out. Thank you Station 8 for making 12 little kids incredibly happy.

Of course no birthday is complete without a photo booth. We had some really cute props including this aviator hat. The clouds and airplane cut outs matched the invitations. We hung a teal sheet we found at Ross for the backdrop.

I cannot thank Jamie & Pete, my sister, brother-in-law, parents, and Grandma enough for all the help pulling it together in the 24 hours before the party. It always gets crazy in those last moments. I may or may not have been in a muu muu when the first non family guest arrived, but in the end we had a lot of fun. Also it didn’t hurt that I got to eat 3 Red Jett cupcakes for my trouble.

Stay tuned this week as we break down the details and get you resources and printables in case you want to celebrate airplane style.

Airplane-party-free-printables

**Update: All the signage is now on a zip file that can be downloaded here.

Tagged As , , , , , ,

September Goal Check

Posted by Amber in Side Note, Uncategorized on October 3, 2012  ||  Comments Off on September Goal Check

1. Complete at least 1 crafty project per month.

I wouldn’t exactly call my projects “crafty” per se, but I did get a TON (most I didn’t even share) done around here. The master bathroom got a coat of light blue to spruce it up. The outside nook off the master bath also got cleaned out and planted. It’s okay I am prepping for Ramona’s birthday now, so I will be over crafting in October. Stay tuned.

2. Read at least 1 book per month.

Disclaimer: I have not finished reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks yet. I started this book and couldn’t stop talking to people about it. It’s fascinating. Henrietta Lacks had her cervical cancer cells taken without her knowledge at a time when a scientist was trying to grow cells in culture. He couldn’t get any cells to live outside the body, but hers did. In fact, they flourished. HeLa cells are responsible for an impressively long list of medical advances.

I hate science, but this book reads like a story. A very compelling story. You need to immediately go get it and read it. I would have finished it weeks ago if life didn’t get so upside down.

3. Do more things with Ramona.

We randomly stumbled upon Arlington’s Ecofest the other day. I did not really want to stop (it was hot and I didn’t feel that great), but we did because we love our daughter. Ramona got to play on bounce houses, and there was a petting zoo. She had so much fun and will probably be talking about it for months.

4. Journal every day.

I stopped journalling mid September when I found out there were problems with my pregnancy. I could not bring myself to put into words what was going on. I did blog about it which helped me tremendously (probably should have been journalling the whole time), so Ramona will be able to account for most of the month through that post. I haven’t picked it up again. You’ll see how that works out for me on my next goal check.

Tagged As ,

On a Personal Note

Posted by Amber in Uncategorized on September 26, 2012  ||  10 Comments

So I am about to write a post that is extremely personal and unbelievably difficult to write. I’ve thought a lot about whether or not I should even share any of this. Ultimately I decided I would rather it be public knowledge than have to answer all the inevitable questions about if/when I am going to try for baby #2. Most importantly though, this post is for Ramona. The future Ramona who will one day want to know all about these things in life.

I am going to take the long route in this story because this is also for me. Nick and I barely had to try for Ramona. Seriously 2 weeks and my pregnancy test came up positive. You’ve seen us joke about it on our about us page. We were surprised, overjoyed, and extremely nervous. Typical new parent stuff.

Besides for a slight scare in the beginning (I had a fever due to a cold and they thought I might have an ectopic pregnancy), my pregnancy and her birth were storybook. No problems. I gained exactly 30 pounds which was the most I wanted. I got an epidural before I really had any pain. Ramona did have meconium in utero, but she didn’t inhale any of it. It was all so easy.

Fast forward almost 3 years, we have a handful of a toddler who is just as much fun as she is crazy. She is anything but easy. We are every bit as in love as we were that first day even when she becomes too spirited for mommy to handle. In February we decided to try for the next baby. I figured we would welcome baby #2 somewhere between Ramona’s 3rd birthday and the end of 2012, but every month we were disappointed. I couldn’t figure out how it could be so easy the first time and take months on the next go. I tried not to stress about it, but I did. In July I decided I was absolutely not going to stress about it anymore. Whenever we got pregnant next would be exactly in God’s plan even if I wound up having a summer baby (yes I worried about that…stupid).

We got back from Florida. I had been cramping on and off while we were gone, so I figured I would finally take a pregnancy test so I would just start already. Well it came up positive. I was floored. Unfortunately it was Monday (August 20th to be exact). I couldn’t tell Nick until Thursday night. I am the worst at keeping my own secrets, but I did. I told Ramona though because I couldn’t hold it in. She didn’t give me away even though she tried. I was on the phone with Nick and she was screaming in the background, “Mommy has a baby in her tummy.” He didn’t hear. Thank God.

I bought her a big sister shirt and book to surprise Nick with on Thursday. I was determined to have a better announcement to Nick than rushing out of the bathroom saying oh my God it’s positive (see Ramona’s announcement). I have an extremely cute video of the reveal that I won’t post, but the smile on Nick’s face while he held Ramona and put 2 and 2 together was priceless.

We told our families as soon as possible. Then I started telling friends as we saw them. I didn’t want to make an official announcement until we saw the dr. We were scheduled to go to Seattle/Portland on September 14-21, so my dr appointment was set for the 28th.

I started spotting the Wednesday before we were supposed to leave. I thought my body was just telling me to slow down. I did, but it got worse. I called the doctor Thursday, and she told me to come in immediately. I was 8 weeks which is the normal time you see the doctor the first time. I got an ultrasound. We could see the attached sac. They couldn’t see a heartbeat, but they could pinpoint where the bleeding was coming from. We weren’t sure if I just wasn’t as far along as I should have been (maybe I ovulated later) or if something worse was happening.

I was told to cancel the trip and return on Monday for another ultrasound. They said that if I had a fever or was in excruciating pain I should go to the ER. I laid in bed most of the weekend with a few trips out, but my lower back hurt in the worst way. At dinner time Sunday night, I told Nick we might have to head to the ER because I was in pain. I laid down with a heating pad for an hour then decided maybe a shower would help.

I got in the shower but wound up on the floor in horrible pain. I told Nick to get Ramona, get out of the bathroom, and call my mom. At this point there was a lot of blood. (Sorry to be graphic.) My body was clearly in labor, and there was nothing I or anyone else could do about it. I passed the sac at home. We headed to the ER because the physical pain was just too much for me. My mom met us and took Ramona to her house.

The physical pain has been the most pressing matter since the miscarriage. I’ve had several more trips to the doctor with ultrasounds, blood being drawn, and additional checkups scheduled. Just trying to make sure I’m recovering correctly and no d&c is needed. It’s been somewhat of a distraction from what actually just happened. We lost our baby.

I know I wasn’t far along, but when you see pregnant on a test things change. You see your life differently and make plans. The future becomes brighter and a little scarier all at once.  You’re excited to meet your new addition. You wonder how your child will cope with having to share you. Your head is constantly buzzing with thoughts about the next 9 months and beyond.

I have not even begun to emotionally process the loss. I have started but I can tell you I am in the very beginnings of working through things. Ramona came home from school with this family artwork she did. She asked me about the baby in my tummy. I hadn’t told her anything yet, not because I thought she would forget (the child remembers EVERY thing) but because I didn’t know what to say. I guess all the talk about brothers and sisters in class made her want to know about hers. I told her there wasn’t a baby in my tummy anymore. She wanted to know where it went. I just said it went away. (I was not prepared for this.) She wanted to know who took the baby. I told her Jesus did. She asked if Jesus was a bad guy. My heart was just broken. The Lord worked it out for me though because while I was silently crying trying to drive and find the words to tell my only child that she wasn’t going to have a brother or sister anymore Ramona just said the baby loved Jesus. That was it. End of discussion. She figured it out on her own and moved on.

When I look back on everything that Nick and I have gone through in our marriage and life, I know everything happens for a reason. I can honestly say that everything has worked out for the better. We have been through some pretty traumatic things together. More things in the last 11 years than most people deal with in a lifetime, but God knows exactly what he is doing. He knows how much you can handle and gives you the grace you need.

Even though I know this is true, I am even more sure the road ahead is going to be difficult. Grieving. Recovering. Questioning. Do we try again or not? Can I handle another pregnancy – physically and emotionally? How will we feel when my would be due date comes? What’s next?

 

Tagged As , ,

Mini Update, Bedroom Windows edition

Posted by Nick in Bedroom on September 24, 2012  ||  4 Comments

So last week you saw Amber’s mini-update on the grossest bathroom in the world right? (Side note: I’ll actually miss the saloon doors. Sometimes I like to jump through them, with my hands in the shape of guns, and yell at Amber “I just peed!” No real reason why I think that’s so funny.)

Today’s update is even mini-er than last week’s. The subject is the blinds in the master bedroom. If I used one word to describe them, I’d say “gross.” If I used two words, “really gross.”

Above is the before photo (it’s difficult to photograph blinds, do forgive). I know they don’t look too bad here, but let’s zoom in…

There’s tons of 1980s metal miniblind crinkle action happening here. On top of that, though I believe at some point they were white, white is definitely not how I’d describe them now.

The blinds in the sitting area were in just as rough shape. Side Note: Yea we have a sitting area (that we’ve never sat in) with a fireplace (that we’ve never, uh…. fired) in our bedroom, what’s up America? Side Note 2: Who is that handsome human reflection in the mirror? I must find out.

So, you can probably guess what happened. We went to Home Depot and bought some new faux wood blinds. I put them in and voila… no more ghetto window action! Just so you know we had already done this in every other room in the house, we just like to neglect the entire master area. Honestly, we just close the door when people come over so it’s the easiest room to forget.

It made a huge difference. The room now just looks like it needs to be decorated. Oh well…. we’ll get to that soon enough.

So what do you think? Have you ever put off changing blinds because you wanted to do the whole room at one time? Do you miss the saloon doors in our bathroom as much as I do? Let us know!

Tagged As ,

Mini Bathroom Update

Posted by Amber in Bathroom on September 19, 2012  ||  4 Comments

Okay you are about to see a room that has remained virtually untouched since we moved in 4 years ago…the master bathroom. (Prepare yourself for the mid 80’s idea of a luxurious bath.)

The lighting doesn’t help the yellow in the marble. To be honest it doesn’t matter what light you use, it’s still not an attractive look. I kind of lied when I said this room was untouched. We had the popcorn ceilings scraped before we moved in, so technically we have updated the ceilings in here. You’ve already seen the update to the outside space that’s off the bathroom.

The shining feature has to be the saloon doors to the toilet. Who thought this would be a good idea??

We’ve had some serious conversations about this bathroom lately. It’s a very large space. Someone could really make it incredible even using the outside space like this. However we are not those somebodies right now. It’s taken me 4 years to realize just because the whole space needs to be updated doesn’t mean you have to live with it at its most terrible i.e. purple walls and saloon shutter doors.

Nick changed the beige switches and outlets for white which has been done in the rest of the house. You will notice we’ve also lived with that nice white swatch in the toilet area where we had some dry wall patching done. Neglected is really an understatement when we talk about the bathroom.

So this update isn’t life changing, but we brightened up the entire space by painting a very light blue. It was Sherwin Williams Quicksilver colormatched in Behr. The picture is a little dark here, but it’s a very white blue. I didn’t want to go dark or anything with too much yellow because a bright color enhances the sunlight we get from the outside nook area.

Oh yeah Nick replaced the toilet when we moved in too. It was beige and didn’t work all that great. I took the doors off because let’s face it they didn’t provide privacy anyway. We finally added a toilet paper holder.

Did you catch our CB2 vases above the toilet? I had the billy buttons for the man vase and found the berry greens at whole foods. I wanted something I wouldn’t have to change often because I know I neglect this room. If I can have something in those vases that will last for months, then I won’t have to worry about constantly changing the flowers out in there. I know I won’t do it, so I might as well decorate accordingly.

So there you go our vases are up, and our master bathroom is painted. I hate the space significantly less than I did before. It was a $30 update (paint) since we had all the outlets on hand. It makes me wonder why in the world did I live with it like that for so long? Although I will admit painting a bathroom is the absolute worst especially when you have to paint the ceiling too.

There are no tags for this post

Our Outside Inside Space

Posted by Amber in Bathroom on September 12, 2012  ||  4 Comments

So our house was build by legit French people. Weird way to start a post, but it’s relevant I think promise. They designed it to have a space off the master bath similar to courtyards you see in Europe. (I know you all watch House Hunters International.) The lady was apparently really into gardening – a trait the previous owners and I do not share. Hence the downfall of this weird unique outside inside space.

I will start with the outside. This is the view of our outside nook from the street. We have had these awful, vicious vine growing on everything. They just took over. You can also see the lovely black mildew that’s grown. For the record I’m insanely embarrassed to show this, but this is home ownership at it’s finest.

I pulled that horrid vine off the brick and wood beams. It was extremely difficult. I have no idea what type of vine it is, but it attaches itself to a surface every quarter inch with 6 suction cup like feet. It was the worst. It’s also thorny which makes it all the more fun. Nick pressure washed the outside to get the mildew off. (Sidenote: How cute is it that he pressure washes in swim trunks and a button down? The answer is very cute.)

Ta-da! The outside was cleaned up in a couple of hours. Ignore the rest of the landscaping out there. We will get to that later…(seems to be a motto).

Now to the inside…well the inside outside off the bathroom. This is what we looked at every morning when we woke up.

Well actually it was worse because at this point I had already cleaned the outside up. You can see that some of the vines were already shriveling up and dying (insert maniacal laugh here).

I took down the rest of the vines. It was amazing how much more sunlight we got in the bathroom which it is only reason why I tolerate this space to begin with. You can see there is some mildew on the brick. Nothing like the outside, but it’s still there.

I couldn’t really drag the pressure washer through the house even if that’s what I really wanted to do. I decided I would use a scrub brush and some Clorox outdoor bleach. Technically you are supposed to hook the Clorox to a hose, but I didn’t want to snake a house through the top of the nook area. Well that lasted all of 30 minutes. Scrubbing was completely disgusting and the tub of water got black fast. I brought the hose in and sprayed it down.

I bought 6 begonias and 2 bags of garden soil. I figured might as well use this space like it is intended to be used. I don’t see any major renovations in the near future for our bathroom space, so it can’t hurt to pretty what’s there now.

While I was at prettying it up, I added a chair, rug, and pepper plant. I had 2 bags of mulch on hand to throw on my newly planted bed.

Ramona is already enjoying the space. She actually helped me plant the flowers, so it took  exponentially longer than normal to complete. Here’s the budget breakdown.

Plants & Soil; $52 (Home Depot)
Chair: $14 (Target)
Rug: $19 (Target)

Total $85

Worth every penny.

Not a life changing transformation, but it was necessary to rid the jungle from our daily view.

 

 

Tagged As , , ,

Small Purchase Crush

Posted by Amber in Side Note on September 10, 2012  ||  Comments Off on Small Purchase Crush

If you ever read our blog and think they are always buying stuff, then here’s yet another post to prove you right. So I was reading Young House Love the other day when I came upon this post.

Even though Ramona doesn’t technically have a doll house yet, I figured why not buy these cute little egg chairs. I mean they were only 50 cents. I knew if I didn’t get them I would regret it later. What’s a dollar?? CB2 has flat rate shipping on most items, so it was going to be $4.95 to ship. Still a good deal for a pair of egg chairs for a nonexistent  future dollhouse.

But you know me instead of walking away with 2 doll chairs for $5.95 I had to see what else I could buy. Seriously though I was already paying for shipping, so it was the smarter financial move at that point. (Don’t judge me and my online shopping habits.) I found these vases for…$3.95 each.

They are awesome. Who doesn’t need flowers hanging on the wall in quirky vases?? This girl certainly needed them. I already have them up on a wall. That can tell you how bad people need these in their house. I, Amber Wills, hung them up almost immediately after I received them. (Okay so technically Nick hung them up, but my fellow procrastinators out there know what I’m talking about.)

So I shop a lot for my house. Whatever. I only paid $14.97 for all that awesomeness. You can’t blame me for wanting to share it with the world. I promise to show you the vases in all their glory this week.

Tagged As , , ,

August Goal Check

Posted by Amber in Side Note on September 5, 2012  ||  Comments Off on August Goal Check

1. Complete at least 1 crafty project per month.

I finished Ramona’s beach cover up after a year of stashing it away. It’s incredibly cute, but of course not as cute as Ramona. I made another nursing cover too, because it’s my go to for baby showers now.

2. Read at least 1 book per month.

So I can’t hide my love of young adult books. Whatever. You can’t make me grow up. I read Divergent and Insurgent. It’s very similar to the Hunger Games series. It took me a while to get into it because of that. It’s futuristic with a strong female main character. There’s no love triangle which is a huge plus, but the boyfriend/girlfriend thing is pretty dysfunctional. Maybe I am just too old to read books for teens, but seriously those kids have some communication issues they need to fix before they get together.

Overall I would say the books are pretty addictive and make you want to stay up late to find out what’s going to happen, but I wouldn’t classify them as a must read. They are somewhere above average but below Hunger Games. Best review ever?

3. Do more fun things with Ramona.

Ramona was a little spoiled this month with the beach and a trip to Disneyworld. It seriously is the happiest place on earth even when you have a fussy toddler.

Ramona rode her first official roller coaster. She absolutely loved it. She can also do a pretty sweet reenactment of how it went with her hands (sound effects included).

4. Journal every day.

August means the end of summer (not the end of heat though). Ramona had her first day of mother’s day out on the 30th. I really am going to miss being with her everyday, but I’m glad we can start having a clean house and projects done again. She loves school and was so excited to go back.

 

There are no tags for this post

New Family Photos

Posted by Nick in Style on September 4, 2012  ||  10 Comments

Family portraits are kind of a necessary evil to me. Being completely honest with you, I have no interest in them. When it was time to get some new photos of us done, I was hoping to get someone who doesn’t really do family portraits (makes complete sense right?). I didn’t want standard, posed at a park photos.

When I saw that Ethan Luck was doing some photoshoots while he was on tour this summer (he’s the drummer for relient k), I immediately shot him an email and told him that we were in for Dallas.

When the day came, we picked him up post soundcheck at the House of Blues and booked it over to Oak Cliff. The first place we wanted to go was actually closed, so we settled for Oddfellows. We did some candid shots in there, as well as Dude Sweet Chocolate. The rest were from us just walking around the Bishop Arts District.

Overall, we are insanely happy with how they turned out. They were exactly what we wanted. As for Ethan, he’s pretty much the nicest guy I’ve ever met. Don’t let the sleeves fool you, the dude is a sweetheart. Also Ramona is obsessed with him. She is constantly talking about Mr. Ethan and drums and pictures. It’s insanely sweet, and officially commits the Wills to every relient k concert in the Dallas area permanently.

The only problem now is that we’re gonna have to start acting a lot cooler than we are to live up to these photos. Enjoy!

 

 

Tagged As , , , , ,