Ballerina Birthday Party

~thehopefulorganizer

Skinny Chicken Stroganoff

RECIPE COMING SOON

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~thehopefulorganizer

Library Book System

How to Organize your children's book collections

We are a family that loves to read and loves books.  Grandparents are also avid readers who like to gift my children books.  Our collections seem to grow and grow.  I try many different systems to keep them organized.  We are starting a new system with our books. Each child gets to keep a defined amount of books in their rooms.  The remainder of the collection goes into storage containers.  We will then have a library day (probably once a month) where they can switch out books.  This system may not work for everyone, but can be adapted to what works best for you.

First we gathered all the childrens book into one place.  Some of you might be more efficient or refined in the way you accomplish this.  For us, it was carry and dump in a large stack.  After we gathered them all, I then divided them into meaningful groups. 

The type of groups that I divided the books into were specific as to the needs of my children.  My son is in a matching phase as well as numbers and letters.  My daughter is in kindergarten and is learning to read, so books that have repetitive phrases and simplistic sentences are perfect for her. 

DEFINE your space.  I selected spots in each kids rooms where the books will be kept.  Whatever remains once those spots are filled will be stored in our library.  The following two pictures are designated book areas. 

I selected two storage containers for the remainder of our books.  I like clear containers for things that I may access more frequently.  I use solid colored containers for seasonal items.  You can see the difference in the two boxes.  One box, I just threw in the extra books and the other I placed them all the same direction.  Taking a few extra minutes to do this saves us lots of time when we are ready for new books.  The kids can now pick a handful of books and come switch out in our storage container library. 

~thehopefulorganizer

Ballerina Cupcakes

There are numerous ideas and images for Ballerina birthday ideas.  Princess has always been a staple little girl party, but these days there are variations that all allow pink, tiaras and tool.  Fairies and Ballerinas have increased in popularity.  Using items from my craft drawers I made my first attempt at a sipmle ballerina cupcake.

You can do this with any type of cupcake and the color combinations are endless.  Storebought, boxed mixes or from scratch cupcakes will all become a little girls dream with a simple ballerina addition. 

These cupcakes were from scratch; a basic white cupcake recipe was used.  Cream cheese frosting tinted pink added the girly charm.

The ballerina's were made using card stock, wooden sticks, and tissue paper.  The tissue paper came from my tissue paper box.  Its a running family joke at party time to hand over the tissue paper to me.  I fold it up and keep it in a plastic storage container.  The tissue paper I used for these ballerinas actually came from baby showers. 

~thehopefulorganizer