We will pretend it's all our birthdays in Primary. We will take turns singing birthday songs to a group of kids for each song we review or each time we run through the song as if it is their "birthday". We will make sure everyone has a chance to get sung to.

Here are the songs that I'd like to review:


If you don't already follow LDS Primary Choristers Facebook page, join! So many great ideas out there. Since I've been planning this "unbirthday party" I have found some really great ideas to make these birthday songs more fun.

One chorister posted an idea for "Your Happy Birthday" (CS #283) that I love!! For "zip-a-dee-ay" and "heigh-dee-ho" she substitutes nonsensical funny words. She has a cute jar with 2 sets of different words- one set to substitute "zip-a-dee-ay" and the other set to substitute "heigh-dee-ho". She has come up with some pretty awesome words. Click HERE to see her original post. She was so kind to write up all her fun words for others to print and use. Click HERE to access her post with the document of fun words. This will be a hit for sure!

For "You've Had a Birthday" the same talented chorister posted another idea. Click HERE to see her post. She created different "personalities" for singing the song. When the song says, "You've had a birthday, shout hooray" she substitutes "hooray" for a word that one of the "personalities" might say. For example, if the personality is a cowboy, he shouts "yee-haw!" I just love this idea! The children will have so much fun choosing the different personalities.

For "Happy, Happy Birthday" all the primary kids that are singing to the children in the front will act as "birthday candle flames" where they sway and move. At the end of the song, the children being sung to get to blow out the "candles" and all the "candles" fall into their seats.

"Feliz Cumpleanos" needs some real teaching. The pronunciation of the foreign words deters the Primary from really learning it, I think. So we will practice the pronunciation really well so they will feel comfortable with it.

This would be a great Singing Time to hold in August when the first Primary was held on August 25, 1878. Then it would be a real Primary birthday party.

I hope this goes well because I really want to do a "Visitors Day" too where we practice welcome songs.

A couple of days ago I posted my birthday gift idea for my Primary kids who will be turning eight. You can make an "all white" necklace or adapt any way you'd like.


Here is a quick tutorial on how to make these cute necklaces.



Here's the list of supplies you will need to gather:

• 24- 1" Gumballs (I ordered these on Amazon.)
• 6 feet of 2" Poly tubing (You can order this on Amazon as well and you will NEVER run out. The roll is gigantic. I split the roll with my sister and it will last me forever. You can purchase it HERE.)
• Ribbon, colored elastics, or loom bands

NOTE: I have used curling ribbon, colored mini hair tie elastics and loom bands. My favorite is loom bands, which I have used in the picture above. The hair elastics are too little and hurt my fingers. The curling ribbon takes more time than I wanted. The loom bands are awesome because they are stretchy and don't hurt my fingers. I also LOVE the look of them.

I hope this was helpful. These are cute for graduations and other celebrations as well.

This year I want to give my Primary kids a birthday gift from me. I just love these kids and want them to know that I am thinking about them. I came up with this bubble gum necklace for my eight year-olds. The song lyrics printable for "When I Am Baptized" came from Larcie Bird's blog. It is just darling! Visit her blog for a free printable.
I love these bubble gum necklaces. I will post a tutorial on how to put them together in the the next couple of days, if you're interested in making them at home.

It was my daughter's 4th birthday last weekend. She wanted a flower-themed birthday party. It's a little tricky to decorate outside but at least we had a flower cake. I got a quick picture of it before it disappeared.


This cake was fun and easy to make. The center is a regular 9" round cake frosted with yellow frosting and topped with Hershey kisses. The petals are Twinkies cut in half. I liked how the sunflower turned out.


Next time I think I'll do a daisy- leave the Twinkies long (maybe cutting off just a little on one end to give it a flat edge) and frost them white (or whatever color). I'll probably use candy melts for the center, since they come in all sorts of colors, or just pipe it with frosting. 

My daughter's birthday is coming up and she wants a flower-themed party. (I'm sure the boys are going to love it.) Anyway, I tinkered around with making paper flowers and came up with this bloom. I think I like it. 


If you like it, you can make it too! Click HERE to find out how to make a simple paper flower. 


You're going to do the same thing with the tissue paper flowers but using 6-8 full sheets of tissue paper. I also stapled the middle instead of using a pipe cleaner (of course). I fastened a balloon to the center and then tied on a couple of tissue paper "leaves." Voila! 


TIP: Dollar Tree has tissue paper in packs of pink or blue along with multi-color packs. All the tissue paper seen here is from Dollar Tree.

I've been wanting to make chalkboard placemats for months now. I finally did it. I decided that I would follow the directions from Sew 4 Home. However, I wanted to have waterproof fabric on the back instead of regular fabric so I grabbed some oil cloth. When it came time to put the placemat together, I couldn't press anything with an iron or use too many pins. I didn't want to melt my fabric and once the fabric is punctured with pins, the hole stays there.


I decided to do this thing a super basic way using bias tape.


What you'll need:

• Chalkboard cloth (found in the "utility fabric" section of your fabric store)


• Oil cloth (also a "utility fabric")


• Bias tape (extra wide, double fold bias tape- 3 yd. Plan on one package per placemat just in case)


• Jean needle (strong needle to sew your fabrics)


• Scissors


• Sewing machine (with jean needle)

What you'll do:


1) Cut one piece of chalkboard fabric and one piece of oil cloth the same size. Cut it to the size you'd like your placemat to be.


2) With wrong sides together, line up your bias tape on one edge of the chalkboard side! This is important! I found that the chalkboard fabric is quite slick and thick and doesn't grab onto the feed dogs well. So, having the oil cloth on the bottom allows for easier and nicer sewing.


3) Sew your bias tape on. See the following tutorial.

















I followed the instructions in the video almost exactly. The only change I made was that I lined up the edge of my bias tape with the edge of my fabric. The woman in the video, Amy, lines up her bias tape a little below the edge of the fabric but, don't do it! You need that space when you're using the thicker fabrics.


So, unfold your bias tape, with the thinner edge up. Sew along that first fold. I tucked in my sides like Amy did too.

Writing thank you notes are important when someone has done something nice for you. With Christmas just ending, it is time to bust out the thank you's.