Stamped Pumpkins

With school back in session full time and a very busy after-school schedule, The O'Regan's have been on the go all September! We are taking some time to slow down and enjoy the season, which for me and the kids means spending time working on seasonal projects and crafts.  Yesterday afternoon we painted, stamped (and Connor washed...) mini-pie pumpkins to kick start Fall.

I set up the kitchen table with a few colors of paint, acrylic blocks and PSA Essentials UBU Happy Halloween stamps and Inks, and let them get creative. Molly chose to paint a stripped pattern of black and white, add various UBU Happy Halloween stamps and draw a "scary face" on her pumpkin. Connor chose to mix all the colors up, paint it solid, and then wash off the paint with a sponge. Cleaning is one of his favorite things to do...  Here's a peek at our afternoon of stamping and painting pumpkins!  Looking for an after-school toddler/little kid project? This was a lot of fun!

Quite honestly, the "after" shot of the pumpkins aren't necessary. I bet you can tell how they turned out.... the important thing is the activity, not the end result - and they had a great time. So we have some really ugly painted/washed pumpkins lying around but who cares?

Happy Fall! I look forward to sharing more stamping adventures this season!

Lemonade Stand

The Oriental Trading Company catalog gets me every time. They really have my number! A few weeks ago, I received a summer catalog that contained 2 whole pages of a lemonade stand party. This was how the idea of a O'Regan lemonade stand was born. The sparkly marketing of that catalog and also that my daughter, Molly, has been saving for a Barbie Dream House since the beginning of the summer. We required that she choose a charity and donate half of the earnings to that charity.  With guidance, she choose to support hungry children so we are making a donation to Feed America.

Like all parties or events with my kids, we do a lot of prep activities to support the event.  We worked on painting a sign, assembling fans (because holy cow, it was a REALLY hot day!), making lemon cookies, wrapping some store-bought lemon loaf, practicing with our cash registers and making change for customers, and making some decorations.  You know we incorporated PSA Essentials Peel & Stick Stamps into the mix, too!

We only had about 4 actual neighborhood customers but are thankful for sweet friends and family, The Bradfords, Eccles, Yaccos, Golsons, and Evanisko's for coming by to support the cause.  What fun! Here's a photo recap of the O'Regan Lemonade Stand!

(Please excuse my son in underwear, honestly, at least he has undies on. He mostly likes to run around naked... yikes!) 

Mike was so happy with me and having to put together the Lemonade Stand I purchased from Oriental Trading Company.  I honestly had no idea so much assembly was required.

So nice of the Eccles boys and Parker to come help out! (I had to get Parker a special apron, too. Love that little girl!)

What an awesome afternoon! Thanks again to our friends who were able to support the cause and join the fun.

Train Theme Birthday Party for Kids

What an amazing weekend with our family!  We are so incredibly blessed to have been able to celebrate my son, Connor's, 3rd birthday with a "train themed" party at my parents house on Hilton Head Island, SC.  The day was spent with my in-laws, brother and sister in-law who were visiting from Massachusetts, and a handful of very close friends who are truly like family to us now.

We got in touch with Carolina Choo Choo, a fabulous company who was willing to travel all the way from Clinton to make the party extra special. Mr. Joe and Mr. Gene (twin brothers) were spectacular engineers and conductors and were just like part of the family.  It made Connor so incredibly happy and all the kids loved riding the real train.

We took advantage of the pool and the very warm (hot!) day and alternated between swimming and riding the train. As usual, Gma & Grandpa (my parents) were gracious hosts and put up with all my party decor and crafting.  I made a "3" canvas with photos, party hats using my PSA Essentials stamps, music CD's and cover art using my PSA Essentials stamps, and I purchased a party pack from Etsy (check out OWLIE POWLIE).  The awesome cake creation was from Ronnie's Bakery in Bluffton. Thanks to Lou for a beautiful, memorable and delicious cake!   Here's the photo recap!

I made a "ticket" booth out of a cardboard box. I painted it red and used an X-acto knife to cut out windows. The printable party pack had all sorts of fun things to stick on like the "ticket booth" sign and "happy birthday connor" bubble.  Very homemade but cute, right? We propped it up on two side tables and the kids were able to crawl under and sell their tickets. See the one below of Connor, it's priceless! 

Pictured above are Mr. Joe and Mr. Gene.  What nice gentlemen!  Connor was so excited for his cake. 

Obviously I had to put it away until it was serving time! We are so lucky to have my parents who are such close friends with Mike's parents. And Mike's sister, Meghan, who married his best friend from college (and our best man at our wedding) almost a year ago. It was such a family day for us! So blessed. 

The kids started arriving and it was time for some train riding fun right away.  We wasted no time at all.

My very sweet cousin, Ben, was home from Clemson for the weekend and was nice enough to come to a 3 year old birthday party! He took Connor on a ride inside the train. 

It got really hot! So it was time for some swimming in the pool.  We feel so lucky and thankful to have this spot to share with friends and family and celebrations like this.  Connor loved swimming with cousin Ben. 

I love these girls! How sweet that they would choose to spend Mother's Day with us. Now time for cake. I love how Molly's best friend, Parker, is front and center in all of these photos. Too cute!

Time to hop back on the train! I ensured kids wore some party hats for a PSA Essentials stamping photo opp! (I used the "3" from PSA Vanilla Peel & Stick packs). 

Awesome, awesome, awesome day.  Again, we are so thankful to those that chose to celebrate Mother's Day with us and that we were able to have such a great party with family and friends. Happy 3rd Birthday, Connor-man! We absolutely love you more than words can say.