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Jamie

We decided to turn one of our unused offices into the escape room, and since it was under construction at the time, we incorporated that into the theme, “CLOWNSTRUCTION ZONE”. The “clown” component came in because it’s one of the only things I know of that genuinely freaks Clark out. He always jokes about how creepy clowns are, so I took the idea and ran with it! My parents also happened to have clown costumes left over from Halloween in the 90s, so it was a no-brainer. Below I’ll break the party prep into two categories: decor/setup and game play. If you’re planning your own party, you can come up with any theme you like, and still use the kit I purchased as it has no specific theme attached to it.

Decor/Setup

Because we own a construction company, and the party was at our offices, construction-themed decor was easy to come by. We used traffic cones, construction tape, tools, and other random items to enhance the experience and create a realistic “construction office” look. Adding in party items and clown paraphernalia made for the most interesting and intriguing look. It turned out even better than I expected!

I started by building the escape room from empty. I first added ONLY the items required to complete the puzzles and clues laid out by the kit. I did it this way to ensure none of the “extras” interfered with game.

Game Play

After the game was completely built, my mom and I tried it out so that it made sense. It was during this process that we realized most of the clues were going to be a little too difficult for the boys (age 11) to figure out in the one-hour time frame we were planning to give them. Luckily, included in my kit purchase was a “modified” set of clues for ages 7-9 (although I would say these are perfect for ages 9-11). We easily swapped out the standard clues with the modified ones because the game itself stayed the same.

Once we knew it would be perfect for them, I added random board games, puzzle pieces, dominoes, playing cards, confetti, lots of clown things including wigs, costumes and accessories. I intentionally focused on using things that seem chaotic to me so that the room felt fun and exciting, but also gave them tons to look at and throw them off of the clues. I also included a large countdown clock for them to keep track of their time and to add to the intensity of it all.

As I mentioned before, the Escape Room Kit includes everything you need to play, but suggests you use a storyline to get the kids engaged and excited. You also need to provide your own locked box as the end goal. Inside you can hide the actual key to unlock the door, or some sort of prize or treasure. I created this silly story to hang on the door to start the game off, as well as the “key” for the locked box at the end. I’m linking them here if you want to use them for your own escape room.

When the boys arrived and it was time to play, they were so excited and did so well working together through the clues. The girls and I were able to watch over the wall and I only had to offer them a few prompts along the way (prompts/hints included in the kit too!) to keep them on track. I definitely recommend being able to see and communicate with the players. You could use a baby monitor with mic or open a window if you’re room is fully enclosed. They ended up finishing in 37 minutes and were so proud of themselves!

Overall, I am so happy with the party as a whole and can’t currently think of anything I would do differently. If you would like to see some behind the scenes of our diy escape room, check out the Instagram highlight here and to see the boys in action here’s an Instagram reel of the party. If you have any questions, feel free to message me on social media or email me at mybloomcreative@gmail.com. Thanks for stopping by, Jamie xoxoxoxoxox

Ok… let’s talk about this casserole. I know, I know, you’re either a casserole person or you’re not. Growing up in the south, casseroles were way overdone. Way! This delicious Broccoli Cheddar Chicken and Rice just so happens to be cooked in a casserole dish! Trust me, don’t skip it. It’s put together by the fabulous Half Baked Harvest and is a modern take on a classic. I suppose there’s not much about it that makes it “fall”, it just feels cozy to me, so I included it.

If you’re needing a fall-inspired side dish, these Roasted Carrots with Candied Pecans and Goat Cheese by Inspired by Charm are so bomb! My husband does not care for cooked carrots ever, but I’ve taken them to friend’s homes several times and they’re always a hit! They not only look beautiful (especially if you can find rainbow carrots), but they’re super flavorful.

Lastly, I’m including a new recipe I pinned to try this fall. This Autumn Wild Rice Soup by Gimme Some Oven looks absolutely divine. Let me know how you like it if you get a chance to try it before I do!

If you’re looking for a great dessert or cocktail to pair with one of these delicious meal ideas, checkout our favorite fall drinks and desserts too! Let me know if you try any of these this fall. Leave a comment so I can see how you like them. Thanks for stopping by, Jamie xo

Speaking of favorites, the kids always love Monster Punch around Halloween. It’s complete trash when it comes to ingredients lol, but so fun to drink! I add a little vodka to ours when my momma is over and it’s so fun and festive.

Another delicious option is this Thanksgiving Punch by Thyme and Joy. It can be served with champagne or ginger ale, making it a great option for kids and adults alike. It’s not only beautifully festive, but it’s easy to throw together and everyone always loves it. I’ve served it at Friendsgiving and even at Christmas.

The last mention goes to one I’m adding to the list this year. It looks beautiful and I have a feeling will taste even better. This Vanilla Chai Old Fashioned is by Half Baked Harvest, and since I’m a fan of so many of her recipes, I’m assuming this one will also be top notch!

Read about our favorite sweet fall treats and our savory favorites for fall here!

I’d love to hear from you if you try any of these out this year. Leave a comment and let me know how you like it! Thanks for stopping by, Jamie xo

Check out my Instagram Reel here. Thanks for stopping by, Jamie xo

1. Mix home decor with party decor

Using a splash of themed party decor here and there throughout the space is the easiest way to create a unique experience for your guests. For example, changing out wall or mantel decor and centerpieces to compliment the party theme or color scheme is a great way to create a cohesive look.

2. Know your audience

What I mean by this is simply, create for the specific age and interests of the guests. If it’s a kid’s party, they’re ONLY concerned about what the party has to offer them! Activities and favors need to be the focus for kids. “What did I do and what did I get?” will be the only two questions on a child’s mind when they leave a party. It’s how they’ll rate their whole experience. Make it count! For adults, they’ll focus on the food (and drinks) and how the experience made them feel. Focus on the menu, flow and overall atmosphere (smells, sounds, space) for adult parties.

3. Stay organized (FREE party planner download)

One way I stay organized on party day is by keeping all my info in one place. I use this printable to keep track and am sharing it with you as a FREE download!

4. Personal touches

I love to use the name of the person that is being celebrated as much as possible! Creating a diy sign or message board is simple and meaningful, while ordering a custom banner or customized party favors is an option for a more elaborate event. No matter how big or small, making something meaningful by adding the guest of honor’s name, will always make them feel special!

5. Be flexible

Nothing always goes exactly as planned, so plan to be FLEXIBLE! Sometimes weather won’t cooperate (see video), or a vendor will be late, or a menu item flops, cakes fall… trust me, things happen. At the end of the day, the party must go on, so being open to change and being able to adapt, will make it more pleasant for everyone involved!

I hope these tips help you when planning an event for you loved one. We ended up having a great party regardless of the terrible weather!

Watch the full video to see how it all turned out, plus more party tips! Let the party planning begin!

Thanks for stopping by, Jamie xo

Download your FREE Party Planner

Thanks for stopping by, Jamie xo

This year, Clark and I decided on a Dude Perfect themed party. We love Dude Perfect and knew we could find some fun things to add along that theme. I immediately knew the color scheme of teal and black (DP logo colors) wouldn’t be the easiest to pull off, so I added in accents of lime green and got to work on the games!

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.

Jamie

We chose 6 games: “Basketball Trick Shot, Frisbee Trick Shot, Air-tail Trick Shot, Ping Pong Trick Shot, Water Bottle Flip Shot, and Nerf Trick Shot”. The boys received a lanyard with a name tag made of card stock when they arrived. Each time they scored 100 points, they earned a sports-themed sticker on their name tag. The boy with the most stickers at the end of the party won a Dude Perfect Frisbee! I ordered just about everything from Amazon to make it easy and convenient. I’m linking the supplies needed for each game, as well as sharing how we organized them.

Basketball Trick Shot

This was simple! The boys had to shoot a basketball backward from a chalk-drawn line on the concrete. They each got 5 shots. Each time they made a basket, it counted as 100 points, or 1 sticker. I used our basketball goal and ball we already had. Dude Perfect also has a cool logo ball if you need one!

Frisbee Trick Shot

I wasn’t thrilled with the quality of the Dude Perfect equipment for this game. I would recommend using a low cut box or barrel instead of the “containers” that came with this set. It was virtually impossible to make the Frisbee in the slit, so we just made that a bonus shot worth 300 points. The object was to land the Frisbee in the top of the “container” and earn 100 points/1 sticker. They each got 5 throws. We used the NERF Dude Perfect Disc Game, but you could use any large container and Frisbee.

Air-tail Trick Shot

I think this was my favorite game! Every boy earned points on this one and it was really exciting for them to watch where their air-tail would land! The Dude Perfect Air-Tail Game comes with plastic rings to lay on the ground, but we used sidewalk chalk to make our own, over sized target. The boys earned 100 points for landing on the outer part of the target, and 200 for the bulls eye. They each got to throw all four air-tails, then totaled their points and got their stickers.

Ping-pong Trick Shot

This was hard y’all! Only one boy made it in. It was fun, and intense, but hard. They had to toss the ping-pong balls and try to make one in the Pringles can. The ball had to bounce at least once, and their points were totaled based on the can. 100 points was the closest, then 200 points, then 300 points for the can all the way across the table. They each got ten shots. I printed the adorable backstops from Pickle Monkey shop on Etsy, and labeled the points with cut card stock.

Water Bottle Flip Shot

This game board was made first, and really before I had a good idea of how I was going to track the points. If I was doing it again, I would label the target in hundreds instead of 10, 25, 50 and 100. I ended up counting their points and then rounding up to the nearest 50. That way I could tear a sticker in half. Also, the boys had 20 chances and it ended up taking them longer than I anticipated. I would give them 10 tosses each next time. Overall though, they loved it and all earned points! I made the board out of black foam board and chalk pens. The small water bottles were labeled with this adorable printable tag from Pickle Monkey Etsy shop.

NERF Trick Shot

This was the finale and what all the boys were looking forward to since they had arrived! I made a balloon shooting range using teal balloons, black plastic tablecloths and thumb tacks! We also filled the balloons with confetti I made using the leftover scraps after cutting card stock for decorations. We pre-loaded large NERF darts with straight pins to use in a NERF pistol. I was responsible for loading the gun and watched each boy closely as they operated it. They felt very grown up and cool shooting darts with straight pins! When the balloons popped, confetti flew and it was awesome!

Decorations

Decorating for parties is one of my favorite hobbies! I love planning everything in my head and then seeing it come to fruition. It’s so dang rewarding! Boy party decor is never as fun, but I was happy with the way things turned out. To jazz up the mantle, I added a few touches. I made the logo on Canva and cut it out of teal cardstock. I used more black foam board for the backing and placed a few party fans at the base to make it more festive! The white banner was a cute personalized touch that kept the design clean and simple!

I made small balloon clusters to place throughout and kept with the color scheme. I also made our brown paper roll a focal point by lettering a Dude Perfect quote in black. “Tall guy, beard, twins, purple hoser” is one of their most popular tag lines. It was Clark’s idea and it was a great one! The only other major decorations were the signs I created to label each game. I bought them at Lowe’s and they came in the perfect lime green color, that was a lucky find! I used Canva to create game symbols and logos that I cut out of cardstock. These were functional, cool looking, and added so much to the party decor!

The cake was from the delicious Pronia’s Bakery as always, and it looked and tasted great! Our favorite flavor is white chocolate raspberry. I ordered it fairly plainly decorated and added the silhouettes of “the dudes” as cake toppers.

I got inspiration for the favors from a photo shared on the Pickle Monkey Etsy shop‘s page. I used glue dots to stick a backstop and ping-pong ball to an unopened can of Pringles for the boys to take home and play with. This was simple, inexpensive and a hit with all the boys!

Overall, it was a great party! I stayed in budget, enjoyed planning it, nothing major went wrong and most importantly… everyone had fun! Comment below any questions you have and feel free to email me or DM me on social if you’re planning a Dude Perfect party. I’d love to help!

For all the “behind the scenes” and detailed “DIY videos” head to the Bloom Instagram profile and check the “Dude Perfect” highlight. It’s full of tips! Scroll down to see our surprise visitor that took the party to a whole new level!

Thanks for stopping by, Jamie xo

Last year we hosted a “kid-friendly” New Year’s Eve party and had a blast. I’m sharing some of the things we did, as well as some new ideas you may like. My husband and I are going away this year (I surprised him with a night away as his Christmas gift), but I’ll definitely be using some of these party ideas again in the future!

A few tips to help things go smoothly:

• Don’t set your party to start before 7:00 pm. 5 hours is enough celebrating for anybody!
• Keep the kids busy. Time flies when you’re having fun… and it crawls when kids are bored!
• Safety first. I know this may be obvious, but I have to say it… a crowd of little ones doesn’t mix well with powerful fireworks or parents that have had one too many drinks. Adjust your celebrating so that it’s safe and fun for your kiddos.

Activity Balloons or Bags

I absolutely love doing this! At our party, I labeled balloons for different times of the night starting at 7:30 pm. I knew we would eat from 7-7:30, so I planned the first activity to start after that. The kids took turns popping the balloons each hour, confetti flew and they got a new idea for an activity. You could do this by making bags or a paper chain too. Some of the activities were:

• snowball fight
• New Year’s resolution party hats
• make a time capsule
• walk down memory lane with parents
• scavenger hunt for sparklers

8:00 Snowball Fight:

Snowball fighting is a fun, inexpensive way to get kids moving and excited. You can buy “fake snowballs” (I’ll link some below), use leftover wrapping paper and make “snowballs”, use real snow (if you’re lucky enough to have it), or order snowballs from your local snow cone/shaved ice stand. Many of them sell snowballs by the dozen in winter. Put the kids in teams by counting them off and then doing even numbers vs. odds, having them draw a color, etc. Set a boundary line, kinda like dodge ball and go for it! You can play inside or outside depending on the snowballs you choose!

9:00 New Year’s Resolution Party Hats:

Before the party, print this pattern on white card stock and gather up crayons, markers and pencil colors. Depending on the ages of the children, you could also include glue sticks with sequins and/or confetti, stickers or glitter. Have everything in a basket/box so it’s ready when the kids are. These are great because they’re festive and meaningful.

10:00 Make a time capsule

Time capsule kits are a thing, so I’ll link one, but I just used a few free printables. Again, I had these ready ahead of time with craft supplies. This kept the kids busy for a while. You can take this as far as you like. You could send the work home with each family, bury an actual capsule in your yard with everybody’s information (a 2 liter soda bottle works great), or let the kids share by taking turns reading aloud, depending on their ages. Kids love writing and talking about themselves!

11:00 Walk Down Memory Lane

At our house, we had the adults pick 20 photos from their phone to describe their year. Each family took turns and air-dropped their photos to the TV in our living room and shared their memories as a family. An activity like this can be done other ways too. You can make it simple and gather around an iPad, pass around a phone (depending on the group size), project it on a blank wall or side of the house, tell parents ahead and have them bring printed photos to share… etc. If you don’t think the kids in your group would enjoy this or sit still, you could pull out some board games during this time as well.

11:30 Scavenger Hunt for Sparklers

Scavenger hunts are always a blast, I don’t care how old you are! These generic scavenger hunt cards can be used to make just about any task a little more fun. You could plan to have the kids hunt for candy, a snack, etc. At our party, the “prize” was a pack of sparklers! It worked out perfectly because they found them just before midnight and made the countdown extra special!

Other ideas: board games, a dance party, cookie decorating, Pictionary, charades

Noon Year’s Eve Countdown

If your kiddos are small, I’ve heard of parents having a noon countdown. This is a cute idea and honestly could be done either on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day. It would be easy enough to modify the times on all the activities to a.m. Also, you could make the countdown at their regular bedtime and just back up the activities from then.

There are so many options and ways to include your kids in the celebration of the new year!

Thanks for stopping by, Jamie xo

In this blog post I’m sharing some of my favorite looks for lots of different tablescape styles. I’m even linking the items from Amazon to help you create it at home and I’m offering a few DIY tips to finish things off!

Like any small business, Bloom Creative Co. earns money when you shop here. Your price is never affected. Thank you for your support.

-Bloom Creative Co.

The Farmhouse Table

The Glam Table

The Outdoorsman Table

The Homegrown Table

The Casual Table

Download a FREE editable Thanksgiving Menu Card HERE!

The Kid Table

I hope one of these looks inspires you when you think about styling your table for Thanksgiving this year. Comment below what your favorite look is for your table at home. Also, follow me on Pinterest to see a lot more Thanksgiving Tablescape inspiration.

Thanks for stopping by, Jamie xo