July the 4th

It was a special day for us - our youngest turned one year old! So, we celebrated party style.

the festive birthday cake

i just love these star shaped ice cubes from the $1 aisle at target... also did not go with traditional stars and stripes this year... polka dots and checkers are more fun anyway (in the traditional colors, of course)
pigs in blankets - the kids' favorite

my family :)

And here are the one year pictures I took of Sasha! I'm photshopping them right now - doing some black and white with color in a few of them.

Come kiss the cook!

My son just turned 5. His latest interest has been cooking. What better theme for a birthday party? The children loved every minute of it! They were each greeted with a homemade chef's hat and apron. While waiting for other guests to arrive, they played around the kitchen table with pretend slice and peel food from Melissa and Doug and Hands on Fun. Once everyone had arrived, we began making a pizza. They each took a turn sprinkling the dough with flour and rolling it out. Then they took turns adding sauce and spreading it around. Ditto for sprinkling the cheeses and pepperoni... all the while dancing to fine tunes such as "Frim Fram Sauce" and "Papa Loves Mambo".

While the pizza baked we made salad on a stick: bamboo skewers, chunks of cheese, cherry tomatoes, and diced cucumber (snacking a bit as we went).

Then they played with sticker scenes from Hands on Fun, which gave us a great opportunity to discuss the basic food groups. And as the pizza cooled, they decorated cupcakes with their choice of icing, colored sugars, candy toppers, and a candle for Jonah to blow out.

We sang the birthday song to him and carried our feast outside to the picnic table, which was decorated with unbreakable/indestructable china and a floral centerpiece (drawn on a disposable table cloth with markers).



Each guest took home a small pizza box - decorated with these fun chipboards - filled with goodies and a "thanks for making my party really cook" note tied to a miniature rolling pin.

The sleepover cake

I've gotten a lot of questions about the sleepover cake from my daughter's spajama party. So, I thought I'd tell you how I made it, and offer the link should you want step by step directions. The cake was first frosted with orange icing (top 1/3). I then sliced twinkies lengthwise and placed them on the lower half. I sliced marshmellows lengthwise as well for pillows. The heads are nilla wafers. I frosted the "blanket" with pink icing (extending up and over the bottom 2/3 of the twinkies. I used Cake Mate decors for the eyes (stuck with icing) and florettes on the blanket. I found ruffle-y looking Fruit By The Foot for a bedskirt. I used Cake Mate writing icing for the hair. And the party hats are just Wilson Icing Decorations.

"Spajama" birthday party

For Adriana's 8th birthday party we did a "spajama" party. Adriana picked pink and orange as her colors. Everyone came in their pj's, but did not spend the night. And they got pedicures. They also decorated pillowcases (plain white that I put pink ribbon around to dress up a bit) with fabric markers.

The invitations looked like this:

The table was made to look like a bed.

We served pizza rolls (pillow shaped), sushi (rice krispy treats wrapped in fruit-by-the-foot with a jelly belly bean stuck in the middle), potato chips, lollipops and cake.

The cake idea came from Family Fun... I had so much fun decorating it.

Orange balloons scattered the floor. Hot pink streamers, lights and lanterns gave the room a lounge-y feel. I got a few magazines (Highlights, National Geographic for kids) for the girls to thumb through while they got their toe nails painted, and they watched "Charlotte's Web".

This was probably my favorite birthday party yet. A lot of prep work, but the party itself was so enjoyable... not stressful at all.