Under the Sea 2nd birthday party!!

My daughter recently turned 2 (Where does the time go??) and we decided to have an Under the Sea themed party! I usually start planning for my kids parties months in advance and really feel like I dropped the ball on this party with that. I had to cram everything into the week of the party, but I still think it turned out pretty good.

I am sure the first thing you notice when you look at that photo is the cake!! The cake was done by my friend Misty of Misty's Cake Box. I got to help a little with the cake and thought it was a lot of fun but that was only because Misty had done most of the boring base work when I started helping. We found some help on how to make this cake from The Artisan Cake Company. This cake was huge! Here is my daughter standing next to it so you can see just how big it is! 

Of course I had to have cookies... and I had a ton of them! I always do! I feel like you can't go to a party hosted by someone that makes cookies and not have a ton of them there! My family and friends love my cookies and they don't get them that often... so I try to make up for it at the parties. I had to try to keep them fairly simple and quick, so I used my airbrush for a lot of them.

If you have seen my posts before about my parties... you have probably noticed I like to have games. This party was no different. I had three. One was called Pin the Fin. I just took the image from my daughters birthday invitation and blew it up on a poster. I taped the posted to foam board and made a few fins. The older kids were blindfolded but we let the younger ones just put it on there.My daughter loved it! 

The prize for this game was a small bag of goldfish with a bag tag I made to match the poster.

The second game was Drop the Shark in the Tank. I found the idea for that game here. I couldn't find the pins she used so I just had to improvise. 

The prize for this game was a package of shark gummi snacks I found at Kroger. 

The last game was sort of a last minute thing (since I waited so long to get started on her party). I just found a little fishing game at my local Dollar Tree and let them play that. I called it Catch the Sea Creature. 

The prize for this game was a cup of water and 2 of those little capsules that disintegrate and have  those little sponges inside. I had the sea creature themed ones. 

The kids were also able to make sand necklaces. I have lots of different color sand and the kids got to choose which shape necklace they wanted to make. 

I made tags for all the food as well. I only got a chance to take a photo of the dessert table, but for the food we had Octo-dogs (hot dogs cut to look like octopus), Sand dollars (Chips for nachos), Shark Teeth (mozzarella cheese cut into triangles), and we even had boiled shrimp and crabs! 

The beverage I made for the punch dispenser was Ocean Water. Everyone seemed to like it and said it tasted just like the one from Sonic. 

Here are a few items from the dessert table:

and we of course had goldfish snack crackers too.

For the party favors, my husband and I made these

 they are soap with little fish in them. I followed the instructions from here to make them but ended up modifying a little as we went along since we found things that worked a little better for us. 

The party was a swim party and this suit just screamed mermaid so I had to get it! I got Kajun Monograms to personalize it for me.

I had taped sea creatures to the ceiling of the carport and also bought a small bubble machine and had that going throughout the party.

Overall, the party was a success and my daughter and all the other children that attended had a blast! 

If you want to check out last years Candyland party, you can find it here.

Mason's MASA Party

Well... my baby boy turned FIVE last week! Where has the time gone?!? We decided that his party should have an astronaut/outer space theme. While browsing ideas online, my husband and I thought it would be really cool if we used the NASA logo, but changed it to MASA (Mason's Aeronautics & Space Adventure).

I had Kajum Monograms make shirts with this logo on it for my children, husband, and I. Here is my little fireball modeling hers

I made cookies and his cake this time! It was my first time working with fondant and my third cake overall. I think it came out pretty good and my little astronaut loved it! 

I had to try to think of food that matched the theme.. so here is what I came up with

Mars Mix: Cheerios, mini M&Ms, peanuts, goldfish, pretzel goldfish

Saturn's Rings: Mini Donuts

Space Debris: Different kinds of candy

Astronaut Strawberries: Freeze dried strawberries

My husband built a space ship of out foam board that lead into "outer space"

We hung black sheeting from the carport and taped glow sticks, bracelets, and necklaces inside.

A lot of the other ideas I had came from a blog called Life Frosting. She had some awesome ideas! I had over 20 kids at the party, so I couldn't do everything she did, but the kids still loved what they received! 

When they arrived they had to check in at headquarters to receive their id badge

I got the pictures for each child off of their parents facebook page. I wanted it to be a surprise for everyone!

Next they entered through the space ship into outer space. While inside they had to collect some moon rocks. To make the moon rocks, my son and I collected and painted rocks from our driveway. They were lime green and glowed from the black light inside the black sheeting (outer space). 

Next the kids had to crawl through the black hole

I just covered a tunnel from their tent with black garbage bags. 

Lastly they had to launch the rocket

Once they completed all the steps, they received their certificate of completion

Here was the food table

We used a space ship he had gotten for Christmas as decoration as well. 

The kids received cookies as favors.

Everyone had a blast! Especially the the astronaut of the hour!! He said his party was AWESOME!!

Guess I better start planning for next year! ;)

Candy land first birthday!!

I am a little late blogging this, but my family and cookies have to come first. My daughter turned 1 in June and I knew what I wanted her party to be before she was even born. It turned out just as I had imagined and I couldn't be happier!

My husband, sister, and I worked for a couple weeks before the party to make each character from the game. I borrowed an overhead projector, bought foam board, sharpies, and dowel rods... and this is what we created!

I wanted a dessert for each character so here is what I came up with

Chocolate Cupcakes

Lollipops with personalized stickers

Peppermint meringues

Melted Ice Cream Cones

Candy

Peanut Butter Fudge

Big Turk

Gumdrop Cookies

I always like to have a little "activity center" at each of my parties, so this year I let them decorate their pails for the prizes. I saved a bunch of the small formula cans, took the labels off, covered them with card stock, and attached a ribbon.

My friend Samantha ordered some adorable banners for me from Shannon at Sweet Bug A Boo's! There were three total. Here is what one of them looked like

My parents happened to have some wooden lollipops that they used to use for Christmas decorations, so I used them for her party. Would have loved to have repainted then, but time just ran out. The cotton candy was made using some gathered pink mesh, a poster board, and a dowel rod.

Her outfit was so cute and came from Golden. I made her tutu and it was actually a lot easier than I thought! 

I thought it would be cute to have something on her bottom, so I got Kajun Monograms to add this to her outfit

My sister even dressed up for the occasion. Her shirt also came from Kajun Monograms

I bought a bunch of pieces of 12x12 card stock at Hobby Lobby. I punched a small hole in each corner and tied them together with fishing string to make a path 

I always like to have games at my parties as well. This one was pin the snowflake on the wand

The next one was pop the plum. I just used little water balloons and added a piece of paper in each. They had to pull one off the tree and pop it to reveal their prize

I also had a bowling game called Strikes and Stripes. I had saved the containers that those little puff snacks come in and then wrapped them with red duct tape.

The last game was Gumdrop Drop. I had a small step ladder and a jar. The kids had to drop the gumdrop into the jar.

I have only made one other cake in my life, but decided I wanted to make her cake this year. It isn't technically correct in anyway, but I was still proud of the outcome. 

With all the other stuff I had to do, there wasn't going to be much time to make cookies. I know, I know... how could I NOT make cookies for my kids birthday when that is what I do?? Well when you have an amazingly talented friend offer to make them for you... you take them up on the offer! They turned out so adorable! I couldn't have done a better job than she did! Samantha is the owner of Flour-De-Lis! Make sure to check out her facebook page, website, and Etsy store! Yep... this is the same Samantha that sent me the banners!! How awesome is she!?! 

I also made her smash cake. It was nothing special, but I topped it with one of the cute cookies to dress it up!!

I had TONS of candy at the party! How could I not?? For the kids favors, I let them fill little boxes with the candy to take home. I was at least nice enough to send a toothbrush home with them as well :)

Well... there you have it! Weeks and weeks of work... well worth it!! Everyone loved the party and I was so happy that my little princess had a great day! 

If you have any questions about how I made anything or where I got anything from... feel free to ask!!