Here it is, finally - the Speckled Duck's newest collection, Get Campy, created for my son's fifth birthday party!

I always say this, but this party was SO fun. It really came together and the kids had a blast! We focused, of course, on camping - and lots of chocolate!! I made a 7 layer chocolate cake with malted chocolate icing, and toasted marshmallow icing – it was AMAZING! I also made s'more cupcakes out of brownie mix that had graham crackers and chocolate chips baked right into the middle... and topped with toasted marshmallow frosting. Yum!! 

I made tents for decorations/party favors. After the party each of the kiddos got to take one home. It was a bit of an undertaking, but SO worth it, they loved them! We also set up a fire pit for marshmallow toasting and s'more making. We served hotdogs with chili and all the fixin's for dinner. And because there can never be too much chocolate, we had a chocolate fountain too! 

My brilliant hubby brought out the kayaks and his home-made wooden boat into the yard for the kids to climb and play in. For an evening in late February, we couldn't have asked for anything better!! 

Enjoy the pics below - some of them mine, some from our awesome friend Nick at NME Photo! 

We just celebrated my son's fifth birthday with an AWESOME camping party at our home. (Pics soon, I promise!!) One thing I am trying to teach my son is to be grateful for the things he has and gifts he receives. 

We started him "writing" his own thank you notes at the age of three. He would draw a scribble across the card, or whatever he felt like, and I'll fill in the "thank you" part. Now that he's older, writing words still isn't quite on his skill list, but drawing pictures is. For each gift, he'll draw a picture - sometimes of the gift, sometimes just a picture and write his name. If he can, I'll spell out the recipient's name for him to copy as well. He is always so proud of his cards and loves to send them. We discuss why we say thank you and how we show our appreciation to others while he works on the notes. He usually has an array of markers and stickers to use as well. 

I know the "rules" of Thank You's is to send them three days after receipt of the gift, but I am betting it's okay to extend those rules when little ones are involved. We're now two weeks past, and still writing notes, just a few a day. So, if you haven't gotten yours yet, dont' worry - you will!! I hope that teaching him early to be thoughtful to these types of things will sink in and he'll continue to write as he becomes an adult. I've seen the generosity grow in his heart over the years, and it's a good feeling to have as a parent. I think the lesson runs so much deeper when you teach them that there is more to being thankful than just saying the words "Thank You." 

Nathan and his card for his friend, Cole. A drawing of the bug-catcher he received, complete with a bug!

As usual, First Dinner was amazing. We are truly blessed to fill our dining room table with such wonderful people. I wanted to share a few photos from the event. I am the master of budget parties (okay, self-proclaimed, but I love finding simple and inexpensive ideas to make even the simplest of ideas look grand!) First the invitations: a simple design that won my heart this year among the new cards I designed - I added a touch of red glitter for pizzazz. I carried the same design into the place cards and favor boxes. Each place tag was a circle mounted to red cardstock and tied to a candycane with blue ribbon. Foam snowflakes adorned the plates and under the vases, (found in the $1 bin at Target). I'm a bit partial to polka-dots and I seem to somehow work them in to just about every party I do! Here, in the napkins. 

The kid's table was fun to set up. My husband built a bench to give it more seating. Each place setting had a fun red snowflake cup with a twisty straw and an ornament they could color and take home. They enjoyed decorating the ornaments even more than I anticipated.

Of course, I can send no one home empty handed. My son and I baked and decorated buttery spritz cookies with red and blue sprinkles as a sweet little gift for each family. I found the perfect little boxes and bags by Martha Stewart (she has everything!) and added my own labels to match the invitation and place tags. 

Dinner this year was a huge success, and as always I am looking forward to this year and what it has to bring. Without a doubt, it will involve these 20 special people and even some who were unable to attend this year's First Dinner. Happy New Year!

We attended our first bazaar in November, the Cowgirl Handmade Bazaar. Thankful for the help of my dear friend, Jen. Looking forward to many more craft shows and fairs next year! 

A wonderful partnership with a dear college friend and her letterpress boutique, inviting. Working together gives us both a little boost and a helping hand.  

And of course my fabulous and supportive family. 

We've had our tree up for about a week now at the Speckled Duck household. This tree is debuting its seventh Christmas in our home, and every time I set it up I think, "Gosh, I love this tree." Last year I finally perfected my color scheme. I've been a huge fan of the light blue / red combo for a couple of years now, last years find of blue ornaments really amplified that love. (You'll notice plenty of my Christmas designs in red and blue.) 

Seeing everyone's tree photos on Facebook really shows how Christmas trees are a sort of memory book and history of a family. When we got married, my Aunt Mary and Uncle Rey gave us a set of Bride's Tree Ornaments from the Inge Christmas collection. Since then, I have kept all of my ornaments to the blown glass style, adding a few each year to remind us of milestones and memories, our tree has become a bit of our own family history. 

This angel, part of my original 12 Bride's Tree Ornaments, still hangs on our tree. I love that even with so many different ornaments, I can change up the "theme" by adding solid color balls. You can see one of my newest loves, the red and white polkadots!

Santa with a blue hat from the year my son was born. 

The sun, because my favorite song to sing to my son is "You Are My Sunshine."

These big graphic snowflakes are my new favorite - I like to add some ornaments that tie the whole tree together. There's lots of these! Plus, I have a slight snowflake addiction! 

We like to get some silly reminders too. One year our fish tank became infested with snails, and we didn't know where they came from! This is the only snail surviving! We also have an ambulance, for the midnight ride my hubby took after a serious allergic reaction to ant-bites. He LOVES that there is a reminder of that incident on our tree. 

I love taking these ornaments out each year, remembering the event behind each one makes setting up our tree that much more special. 

This weekend you can find us a Fox Run Elementary in San Antonio for the first Annual Cowgirl Handmade Bazaar! We'll be there with lots of cards for gifts and thank you's, and we're offering free shipping on orders placed at the Bazaar! What a great way to get a jump on your Christmas shopping with over 30 vendors! Support your local artisans and buy local. Small business is best for the economy, see you there!! 

Okay, okay. I know you want to have a cookie party of your own, but you're just not sure. You're not ready to commit. Well, here is your chance to WIN a FREE Hollie Jollie Cookie Party collection to host your very own cookie party! Time is of the essence, so you need to get to planning very soon! You have until Wednesday, November 2nd at 8 pm CST to post a favorite cookie recipe right here on the Polka-blog for your chance to win a complete party collection. One winner will be chosen at random November 2nd after 8 pm for this fabulous prize worth $30!! 

The Hollie Jollie Cookie Party complete collection includes 12 fill-in invitations with envelopes, 12 recipe cards, 12 place cards, and 4 cookie awards! Find your favorite cookie recipe and leave it for us as a comment on this post to win. One entry per person, please. While you're at it, make sure you're a friend of ours on Facebook! 

This weekend my family hosted our first pumpkin carving party. Yes, I said first... we will definitely be doing this again! We invited a bunch of our friends to join us for an evening of carving from 5-8. We figured this would give us enough sunlight to carve and a little darkness to get photos of our creations all lit up. I prepared some dinner and snacks, just a few simple items. I made some delicious tortilla soup, mummy hotdogs and some brownies. Friends brought festive drinks and an amazing 7-layer dip, along with their pumpkins to carve.  

We laid out a big tarp in the grass for carving. It kept little bits of pumpkin out of the grass and gave everyone a good place to sit and carve with their families. We purchased some carving kits to share and this fabulous new scoop I found this year with a serrated edge (highly recommended!). It made pulling out goo so simple! We even tried Martha Stewart's tip of using metal cookie cutters to punch shapes into pumpkins and it worked like a charm! We set out a few buckets to collect all of the pumpkin goo, and there was plenty! My husband and a friend kindly sorted through buckets of muck to pull out the seeds for roasting. All of the rest of the pumpkin innards went into our composter and will make some great dirt for our spring garden. 

If you have young kids, and a lot of friends with young kids, I highly recommend hosting a pumpkin carving party! Okay, you don't even need young kids! The adults had just as much fun! This was a great fall party, and required little planning. The best part is doing something fun with your family and people you love to be around.