Warm Up Your Walls House Party

I had the chance to host a Warm Up Your Walls House Party last weekend. Like the other House Party I hosted, it was a spur of the moment thing. With so many other activities going on the past month, I decided it was better to keep it lowkey for everyone involved since I’m sure they had a busy month too. I hosted 3 mini-parties on Friday and Saturday…and by “mini” I mean, 2 of them only had 1 person attending. 🙂 That is really how I like to throw a party anyway!! #introvert #partyanimal <– I’m told I can use hashtags anywhere I want. :p

Pre-party Prep – These two might grow up to be event planners because they have got it down. Anytime there is a holiday or a birthday coming up, they want to plan out who is invited, what food to make, etc. I’m so glad they wanted to help because it saved me some time from doing it myself. They were rewarded with the extra lip balm that were provided for the goodie bags. The lip balm are great by the way…especially as it gets cold and my skin and lips are chapped!

DIY Photo Shoot – We typically are more capture-the-daily-moments picture-takers, so we haven’t had a family photo shoot before. I went back and forth on what we wanted to do because we don’t really have a decent photo to use for our 16×20 photo canvas that we got for hosting. We decided to DIY it! And, while it was interesting and fun, it also didn’t go according to plan…esp since the first thing that happened was Emily needing to use the restroom, and we had no idea where the restroom was at that park! Oh, yes, we are adventurous. We forgot to take into account that Daylight Savings just happened and the sun was glaring down on us. It was also super windy too! We ended up with a few, but none that we really liked. Oh well. You live and learn. The photos below aren’t the photos from the shoot, by the way…they are just from my phone. :p

Walmart Kiosk – We got a chance to place an order online using walmart.com, as well as using the kiosk at the store. It was a little frustrating to have placed our orders, and was told that they didn’t have the materials for the 8×20 that was promised. I think it was a new size, so not all the stores received the materials? The 5×7 was ready when I went for the pickup, but I forgot the SD card/USB to upload our other photo. We ended up at another store to get our 8×20, and it was the done within the 1 hour that was promised. (Note: If you place an order online after 7pm-ish, they might not be able to have it done before the photo center closes for the day, so make sure to do it early if you want it in 1 hour.) The 16×20 photo canvas was done in less than 2 hours. It is also getting close to holiday time, so it is getting busy for all photo centers. Everything is pretty straightforward once you are logged in…choose what you want to make, upload, select orientation, size, etc., place order.

Here is the photo of our family that I emailed out the night before the party. The sign says “See you tomorrow” if it isn’t clear. :p

I think we were all wrapped up in enjoying our time chatting and being together, because the only photos we got were of the kiddos who were there. They also enjoyed the party!! I didn’t even get a pic of the refreshment spread (company was just that great!). We will have to recreate it because Trader Joe’s mini pies were super yummy.

Photo Props Fun! – This was the highlight of the party for most of the kids. These particular kids had way too much fun.

Goodies – No freebies this time, but still lots of great coupons!! There was even a fantastic tip sheet on how to decorate for the holidays, which was helpful to me since I have no clue about that kind of thing.

Craft – All the kids had a super fun time coloring the clothespins for the Roll Out the Ribbon decor! (see below) I wish I had a photo of all of this. :p

Decor – These decoration ideas were from the tip sheet that came along with the party pack. Without the ideas, I would be at a loss, and repeat what we did in previous years. (Check out our Dollar Tree Christmas post.) The first is just a garland, Command hooks underneath the island counter, binder clips (plus whatever jewels, stickers, etc you want to bling it up with), and whatever lovely photo cards are sent your way. The second is the craft that the kiddos got to make. All you need is a roll of ribbon, small clothespins, and markers (and again whatever you want to make it fancy). We used another Command hook to those the ribbon up on the other side of the door. (We love our Command hooks, and have heard to use the Command strips for items that are lighter than what is recommended for the weight limit.)

Party continued onto the Monday afterwards when family visited!! 🙂 This is something “normal” that we would do anyway.

Final Products – Here’s how our products turned out…not the best in terms of our actual photos, but I am pleased with the quality of the actual products, and the process of getting it done is pretty simple and very convenient.

Have you hosted any parties lately? Tell us about it.