Monster Jam Pit Party Photos + Free Printable AUTOgraph Book

We have received tickets in exchange for this conversation. Additionally, Feld Entertainment is providing four tickets to giveaway to one reader. Opinions are my own.

Another successful Monster Jam Cleveland has come to pass!

This year, we partied in the pit with the drivers and their trucks before the show.

We joined hundreds of Monster Jam fans for a chance to see the giant Monster Trucks up close and to meet the drives and get autographs.

These trucks are so big! All the drivers dwarf in comparison, but their love of the sport and the fans is HUGE and genuine.

The kids stressed to me that this year, their goal was to get as many autographs as they could manage to get during the pit party. Wanting to help, we made mini autograph books with a Monster Jam theme. Download and print it for free!

The Pit Party was packed! The kids were able to get three autographs before we called it quits and headed out for lunch.

Since we made the autograph books, next year they can add another title page to divide the signatures they already have with the new ones they will get.

There is enough of a break between the Pit Party and the big event, that we headed to a local restaurant for a quick bite to eat.

Back at the Q Arena, the kids were ready with their noise canceling ear muffs, their snacks, and smartphones open to the JudgesZone.com to vote during the fan favorite events.

Check out MonsterJam.com for dates and arenas near you!

Spongebob's Guide to Hosting a 2015 Kid's Choice Awards Party {free printables} #KCAParty

I recievied a free party pack from HouseParty.com to host a  Kid's Choice Awards Party

You don't need a magic book to know that Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award 2015 is March 28 and Nick Jonas will be hosting. You also don't need a secret formula to host a fun party for your kids to watch the event live!

If you are like me, I take over the family TV to watch the Oscars, the Emmy's, the MTV Awards, and on occasion, the CMAs so why not let them have a turn? 

Last year, the kids and I got to host a HouseParty viewing party and it was a blast. 

This year, I planned to do it again so I applied to be a host, and invited the kid's friends. I didn't think we would be picked to host another party but - we were!

Nick, nick, nick, nick, nick, nick, #Nickelodeon - guess who's hosting a Kid's Choice Awards live viewing #houseparty March 28. Printables #ontheblog now. #gotitforfree #kids #party #partyfavors #kcaparty #momblogger #fun

A photo posted by Mary Johnson (@mryjhnsn) on Mar 13, 2015 at 3:50pm PDT

In honor of Spongebob's new movie, I was thinking of recreating this Spongebob cake I made for my eldest's fifth birthday party. 

Game Night Fun plus Printable Invites and Scorecards! #HasbroGamingParty

Right before Thanksgiving, I was picked to host a HouseParty.com party for Hasbro Games. Every so often I apply to host a party and I have been coveting this one since I got denied the previous year. I have been applying on off to HouseParty.com since before I started blogging. What's not to love? You don't have to be a blogger, you get free stuff, and it's an excuse to throw a party.

Hasbro Games, Duracell batteries, Ring Pops, and a Paper Mate pen
was provided, for free to host a party

Needless to say I was pretty pleased to get this hostess pack with Scattergories,  Sorry!, Twister, Taboo Buzzd, and Yahtzee Classic. These are all affiliate links to Amazon and all are under $15 except Taboo Buzzd which is $17! Such a bargain!

My official party date was mid-December but since my package arrived before Thanksgiving, I had two unofficial game nights before the official one. We broke out Twister and Yahtzee for Thanksgiving and when our niece and nephew (twins) spent the weekend we broke out Sorry and the kids played a few rounds of Twister.

Playing Sorry for the first time and lost both! #HasbroGamingParty preview #gotitfree #family #love

A photo posted by Mary Johnson (@mryjhnsn) on Dec 13, 2014 at 7:53pm PST

There's No Party Like a #GoGurtParty for the Kid's Choice Awards {printables}

In case you don't watch Nickelodeon or can tune out the constant commercials (which I must admit are pretty funny) the Kid's Choice Awards are this weekend!

As it happens, the iNeed a Playdate household will be playing host to a Go-GURT® & Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards House Party from House Party! The fine folks sent me (and whole bunch of other families) a party kit plus cash to get Go-GURT!

Not only are we a Nick watching family we are also a yoplait  family so this was a perfect match. As a bonus, for me anyway, Mark Wahlberg is hosting. Sure he is no Josh Duhamel but I can live with this choice.

Hosting a Chili Cook-Off in 5 Easy Steps with Printables

This post contains affiliate links

For the last six years, I have helped organize a chili cook-off in my office.  It is always around Valentine's Day and the proceeds go to charity. 

This is my pet project every year.  The first year that I suggested it we had no idea if it would work but eight people brought in chili and it has grown every year.

Check out new chili cook-off printables - invite, scorecard, award, and crockpot tags!

This event goes so smoothly every year that I wanted to share it - in five easy steps!  I even have some handy printables for you to use or use as inspiration.

Cure for the Office Blues: Hot Chocolate Bar and some printables

This post contains affiliate links.

Winter is here, snow has finally coated my corner of Northeast Ohio and to help ease the pain of the winter blues in our office we hosted mini hot chocolate bars set up all over the office.

Hot cocoa bars are all over Pinterest. In fact, it is hard not to scroll through Pinterest this time of year and not see at least one pin dedicated to hot chocolate. And, if you follow me on Pinterest you know I have been pinning those types of pins to my kids’ annual cookie party board. When the opportunity to do something like this in the office came up, I could not resist. Who doesn't like hot cocoa? (Well, I had them covered too with hot apple cider, but that is another post.)

The lovely Ali with her fantastic (and fun) creation.

I work for a fairly large office with four coffee stations so we loaded up the fun stuff on trays and set them up near our coffee machines. Each tray had: marshmallows, candy canes, nuts, sprinkles, chocolate chips, pirouettes, candy, mints, cinnamon, whipped cream, and of course – hot chocolate.

Putting everything on trays made set-up and clean-up uber easy.  Also, the coffee stations are pretty tight on space and the trays are easy to move.  It occurs to me now that it would have been way more interesting to have different toppings at different stations to encourage everyone to see different parts of the office but, I'll save that for next year.

Prepping for four coffee stations was more work than I thought it would be but judging from people’s reactions and creations – it was absolutely worth it. And, it was a lot of fun. The hard part was keeping it a secret! As a bonus, I can save all of the printables for next year and can easily recreate this for the big cookie party. Two for the price of one!

Thanks, Brett for the photo of your hot cocoa!

If you would like to do this in your office or home click here for the spoon signs and here for the sign. They are free and have no watermarks.

The spoon signs have guidelines to cut on but will not line up with any labels. I folded the cutouts in half and cut small slits above the words and below the words to thread a spoon through, taping the back.  Goodies that don't need spoons I taped the signs to large candy canes.





Cheers!