We've Got Ears, Say Cheers!

In November, J had a rocket birthday. When E found out, she wanted a rocket party too. But not just any rocket party. It must be a RED rocket party. Whatever that means. Well, I wasn't really in the mood to repeat the rocket theme three weeks later for her b-day. So naturally, I went on the offensive. For weeks, I tried to convince her that she wanted to a have a Daniel Tiger party. This was an entirely selfish request, for I really just wanted to make a trolley cake. Wouldn't that be adorable?

Well, eventually I got her to cave. But not on the Daniel Tiger part. Instead, she said she wanted a Mickey party. With Mickey cupcakes and balloons. This I could handle.

And since E isn't really a fan of big parties anyway, we kept it small and sane. Not the way I usually do things, but I'm starting to see the wisdom in simplicity. (Namely, that simplicity = more sleep, and I LOVE sleep.)

So, we did a cupcake tower, some Mickey candy bowls, a Mickey banner, and some Mickey cookies. And considering her b-day party was two and half weeks before Christmas and two days before a big church event I was helping with, we managed to pull it off and stay sane. And have some Mickey fun in the process. Hot Dog!

The invites...

The cupcake tower...

The banner for the birthday girl...

 The Mickey candy bowls...

Because the Muffin Top is the Best Part

A while back I had the privilege of making some muffins for a friend's baby shower. Since the shower was in the morning, she didn't want the traditional shower cake. So, I whipped up some muffins and used some extra cake circles and tomato sauce cans to create a cute little tower.

This was really easy to do. I had some pre-cut cake circles (in the cake aisle at Hobby Lobby) and taped three together. I used 6-, 8-, 10- and 12-inch circles. If you don't have any lying around, you could use any cardboard or foam board. I just happen to be a girl who has this kind of thing waiting around for a raining day.

Use a hot glue gun to affix some ribbon to the edges. Then take the tomato sauce cans and cover them with scrapbook paper. Glue the cans in between each set of circles and you're all done. It only took about 10 minutes and I think it made the presentation look a lot better.

Oh, and the muffins were delicious. 

Blast Off! J is One!

In November, our sweet baby J turned one! (Or as E says, "He's not a baby anymore. He got big.")

A few months ago, I found some cute rocket ship invitations and party supplies on super clearance at Hobby Lobby, and we ran with the theme.

I have this genetic compulsion to go overboard on things, and for my own sanity, I'm trying to break the habit. So we went a little simpler than we did for E's first b-day. But of course, old habits die hard, so we did have a bit of fun!

First up... the food.

We made rocket and star cookies... (I didn't have a rocket cookie cutter, so we used a strawberry cookie cutter upside down.) 

 ...and cupcakes with little paper stars on sticks...

...and of course a cake...

... and some rocket shaped fruit kabobs... (on the left here - I forgot to take a better pic. The stands are dollar store floral foam covered in cardstock.)

And here it is all together.

 For decorations, we used E's candy machines and turned them into rockets...

...A garland with rockets and astronauts, similar to what we did for E (again, I forgot to take a picture!)

...And my favorite - a rocket ship photo backdrop so people could take a pic of the birthday boy in a rocket ship. (It is sitting on a music stand. Background paper from Hobby Lobby, hanging planets from Oriental Trading, the awesome rocket made by Maryke.)

And finally, for activities for the kids, we had a rocket building station where they could make their own rocket ships and birthday hats. There was lots of messy, creative fun going on!

 It was a great party and the birthday boy had a blast!