Showing posts with label cakes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cakes. Show all posts

Monday

Our Strawberry Lemonade Party {Plus DIY Milk Bottles}

We had such a fun day celebrating our daughter's 7th birthday! It was so fun working with the strawberry lemonade theme and it was perfect for a hot summer day.
 
The party inspiration began when my daughter and I were shopping at Target one day. (Anyone else find it dangerous to shop at Target??) I spied this table cloth and chalkboard sign and she and I decided that would be a great theme for her birthday and so the planning began!
 
 
I'm so glad we were able to put this awesome little table to use for her party (more about that great find in our upcoming Vintage Classroom Big Reveal!). My sweet girl even made her own tablecloth for the table. She has become quite the sewer these days thanks to the help of our dear friend, Miss Leah.

 

Party favors were a no-brainer with lemon drops. We also had some lemonade colored nail polish too just because it's so fun! 


 

Pink lemonade frosting was a special treat for the birthday girl and I made the cupcakes in these super cute Wilton mini cupcake liners I got new in the package for .50 at a garage sale. (The cake stand was a garage sale find last year for $2 I think. I heart garage sales.).

 

My daughter and I were searching the internet for ideas for her party when I came across an idea for a skirt. Since she has been learning to sew skirts, we decided to switch it up a bit and this is what we came up with. She made this under the guidance of our dear friend and then Miss Leah surprised her with a matching outfit for her American Girl doll. I love, love, love it!!


My husband helped out by making his super awesome strawberry smoothie and it was amazing as usual. We served the smoothies in milk bottles that we made from Starbucks Frappuccino drinks. (Simply soak the bottles for a 1/2 hour in hot, soapy water to remove the labels and then run the bottles through the dishwasher to get the date stamp off. If there is any remaining date stamp afterwards, you can use a little nail polish remover to get the rest off.) It's much cheaper to get milk bottles this way than it is to buy them somewhere. Plus, someone gets to enjoy all of the Frappuccino before you use the bottles!

 
For dinner, we had a taco bar. To keep with the strawberry part of the theme, I used the containers we got from strawberry picking, lined them with wax paper and used them to serve the food in. Serving the food this way made it super easy.
 
I was able to get all of the strawberry containers lined ahead of time and then a little before the party, put the toppings in each one and stored all of them in the large strawberry box in the fridge. When it was time to serve the food, I simply pulled the whole box out of the fridge and it was ready to go!
 
 


 


All in all, this was a pretty easy party to plan. I loved the theme for my little girl and she did too.

For more Lemonade Birthday party inspiration, be sure to check out my Pinterest Board. You might find some other ideas there that you like!

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Friday

Our Gone Fishin' Birthday Party



Of course it's hard for me to believe that my baby is nine years old and I've been doing this Momma thing that long. We had such a great time celebrating his birthday last weekend and I wanted to share some of the party ideas that helped give it that extra touch.

I worked with Nina from Everyday Enchanting for the party printables. Our son wanted a fishing themed party so we went with the Gone Fishin package. What I loved about this the most was that it was a DIY download.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/EnchantDetailsEvents?ref=l2-shopheader-name

This allowed me to customize as necessary, but it also gives me the freedom to edit the printables in a few months when it's our younger son's birthday. Because, being the fishing boy that he is, he also wants a party like this. It's a win-win for me!

It's going to save me so much time getting ready for the next party because there are only a few things I will need to switch up. The fact that I laminated most of the printables will also save me money.
 
 

I kept the food simple, but also theme related as much as possible. Since there were a lot of kid-sized cousins at the party, I served fish sticks, which they loved. I wanted a dip besides ketchup (because every kid likes to dip food in ketchup) that the adults would also enjoy. I found THE BEST tartar sauce recipe on pinterest.  Be sure to grab the recipe from my Paleo Board. The recipe is super easy and tastes amazing! It is definitely one I'll be using again.

As a few other side dishes, we did carrots and ranch and I tried a new paleo-friendly coleslaw recipe.

For treats for guests, I jarred up some edible Lures and Worms!

 
 

I was very pleased with how the party favors turned out. To go with the outdoors/fishing theme, I gave each child a S'more Kit. I LOVED the printable from Everyday Enchanting that gave it the perfect finished look.

 
 

I was also completely inspired by Everyday Enchanting's idea for a Bait Cupcake. These were ultra easy to make and inexpensive as well. I used craft wire for the bucket handle, crumpled up "oreo" cookie on top of a chocolate cupcake and added a couple of worms for good measure.

My kids thought these were the coolest cupcakes and really enjoyed them. I made a few grain free ones for one of our sons and used this incredibly awesome recipe from Against All Grain. You must try them!!




Our son had such a great time at his party and I love that I was able to so easily create a fishing themed party just like he wanted. Thanks Nina from Everyday Enchanting for making it possible! And be sure to take a look around her Etsy Shop for other fantastic party packages that won't break the bank!

For more Fishing Party ideas, be sure to check out my Pinterest Board. I hope you will find  inspiration on there that will help you with your next party.

Thanks so much for visiting Purposeful Homemaking. I'd love for you to stay connected through the following social medias such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest. Don't forget to sign up for emails on my right sidebar so you don't miss anything!


Purposeful Homemaking received one or more products mentioned in this post at no cost in order to conduct a thorough and honest review. All opinions expressed are my own. Additionally, this post may contain affiliate links for which I will earn compensation should you choose to make a purchase. I am disclosing this information in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR Part 255, Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. Thank you for your support of Purposeful Homemaking.

Sunday

Hello Kitty Birthday {Happy 6th Birthday, Carlee!}

So I'm a little behind on posting about our daughter's birthday, but life has been a bit of a whirlwind these days with a new baby, homeschooling, homemaking and just life!

However, I mainly wanted to get a post up to show you the Hello Kitty cupcake toppers I made in case anyone wanted them for their daughter's birthday. Maybe it will save you $5 from buying the file on Etsy. :)

Anyways, as you can see from the picture, all I did was print them on cardstock, cut them out (actually, my husband, bless his heart, cut them out for me), put a candy stick on there and plunk it into a cupcake. Pure Simplicity.


We kept the birthdays extra simple (cake and ice cream) and inexpensive this year. With a new baby it's just what the Doctor ordered. Next year we'll be partying it up because it will be the year for "friend parties". I'd better start getting ready now for all the craziness.

If you want to get some ideas from past parties, then check out these posts:

If you want the Hello Kitty Cupcake Toppers, email me and I'd be happy to send you the file. Free of Charge. Happy Labor Day for all you Mommas out there who Labor Day and Night every day of the year!


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Tuesday

Simple Ideas for a Bug Birthday Party

 
 
 
This year, in honor of the birthday boy, we had a small Bug Hunting party. Since the kid has loved all things related to Bug Hunting for as far back as I can remember, I thought this was a no brainer. And it was a very simple party to plan!

To set the theme in motion, I came up with this invitation. 
 
The Food

It was easy to incorporate the bug theme into the food at the party and I did thinks like Cucumber Caterpillars, a Veggie Variety, a Fruit Critter Salad, Ants on a Log, Bug Juice and Dirt Cake.




 
In the past I've done fun cakes as the central theme for the birthday child, keeping the rest of the party to a minimum. (Well, except for this year and this year...I couldn't help myself. However, those two parties were still done without much expense!)

For our bug theme, I did a simple "dirt cake" (although still a fun cake--just an easy one!). Rather than putting it in the traditional flower pot, I put it in a glass bowl so it looked more like a dirt pile. That was my son's idea because he thought it looked more boyish than putting it in a flower pot. :)


Dirt Cake
Ingredients:

1 large bag Oreo cookies
1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese
1/2 stick butter
2 cups milk
2 large boxes of chocolate instant pudding
1 (8 oz.) container Cool Whip
gummy worms
fake bugs (I washed and soaked these in vinegar to disinfect them before adding to the cake!)
Directions:
  1. Crush the cookies in a blender or food processor and set aside.
  2. Cream together the butter and cream cheese.
  3. In large bowl, mix the vanilla pudding and milk. Add cream cheese mixture and the non-dairy whipped topping. Beat together until thoroughly mixed.
  4. Pour the mixture into a flower pot (or glass bowl like I did). Sprinkle the crumbled Oreos on top. Add gummy worms and fake bugs. (Option: you can freeze this and your guests will love this and think it's an ice cream cake!)
The Decorations

Having a party outside works great for decorating when doing a Bug Theme. I decorated with some plastic bugs on the tables, bug glove puppets and displayed a few bug books on the food table.

 



The birthday boy with his bug hunting vest.

Party Activities

To entertain the couple of "critters" (okay, our three kids) that were there before the party got started, the kids put together a large Very Hungry Caterpillar puzzle. 


Once the guests arrived, the kids got started on a caterpillar craft.


 
The kids also got to go on a bug hunt. Each child was given a bug net as part of their party favor and then got to hunt around the yard for the 50 bugs I had hidden. This was a huge hit!




Butterfly Tent

The butterfly tent was really exciting for the kids too! If you recall, I shared with you that our son had received some caterpillars from his Aunt for his birthday so we could watch the metamorphosis of a butterfly.

Well...it just so happened that the butterflies emerged the day of the party! How perfect!! So, each child (that wanted to!) got to sit in the
tent and hold a butterfly. It was very, very neat. :)
 


Thank you Note

I made each child a thank you note and placed it in the bug net with their bugs when they were done so I could remember whose was whose. :)


It really was a fun party in spite of the rain! Here are a couple pictures from the evening.





And here's a little photographic trip down memory lane of the birthday boy.

2005

 
 2006


2007

 
2008

 
2009


2010

 

2012

Another successful birthday party--thankful to the Lord for all His help!
 

Thanks so much for visiting Purposeful Homemaking. Stay connected so you don't miss a thing:
 

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This post may involve product that was received in exchange for a review or contain affiliate links for which I will earn compensation should you choose to make a purchase. I am disclosing this information in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR Part 255, Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. Thank you for your support of Purposeful Homemaking.
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