Painted lollipop: February 2008

Friday, February 22, 2008

Webkinz World

Birthday party theme: Webkinz (6 yr old, 2007)

I made the cake and Webkinz party hats for a friend.

I used fondant for the cake so it would not get on the Webkin. I also wrapped the Webkin in plastic wrap and created a box in the center out of foil covered cardboard to make sure Webkin fur didn't mix with the cake. This cake was huge!

No more monkeyin' around

Birthday party theme: monkey business (2nd birthday, 2007)

Less of a party, more of a neighbors over for cake and icecream. However, Cohen was a bit sick and cranky, so it was just our fam.

Stop yer pillaging

Birthday party theme: Pirates (6th birthday, 2007) The most fun to do so far!

Invitations/favor: Invitations were delivered by corked plastic bottle (OTC). They had the message, sand, tattoo, and a cute not scary skull ring. The favor consisted of treasure boxes full of gold coins and peanut m&m's (gold pkg), tattoos, pirate pencils, notepads, stickers, pirate finger puppets, pirate beads for the girls, and of course candy.

Decorations: We had this in the evening, so by the end it was dark which added to the pirate ambiance. The kids also thought it was very cool to be able to play outside while it was dark. I made an authentic sized jolly roger flag for the front of our house (again cute, not scary). The backyard was perfect being on the lake and all, we just put up a few tiki torches. We also built a pirate ship for a game. Yeah, yeah, crazy huh? It was just going to be a piece of propped up plywood painted like one, but I couldn't stop there. So we built one durable enough to climb on with a hoistable jolly roger flag. The food/craft portion was held in the screened-in porch so it was decorated with red and black balloons and streamers. The food table and kids picnic tables had black table cloths with red felt table runners and gold coins strewn about. Of course the cake also worked as decoration.

Cake and menu: pirate ship cake, pirate ship hot dogs, fresh fruit tray (to prevent scurvy), buried treasure pretzels (there were m&m's at the bottom of the bowl), cheese and crackers (I guess to finish off the food pyramid), and of course root beer.

Craft/games: As the kids arrived we put on tattoos, pirate bandanas, and they each made an eye patch. I had pre-cut the patches, they glued on glitter, sequins and gold ric rac. We had 3 games:
1. "Who sunk my pirate ship?" -This is where the pirate ship came in. Each team had a different color of cannon balls (ball pit balls spray painted) to throw through in the port holes of the ship. The team with the most cannon balls inside when time is up, wins!

2. "Plunder and Pilage" -This game was a version of freeze tag, stealing bandanas and using gold coins to be unfrozen.
3. "Treasure Hunt" - They followed rhyming clues around ours and a neighbors yard to find the treasure chest. Inside were all the goodie bags for each of them. Some of the clues had riddles on them and because some kids couldn't read yet, other clues were pictures. The pictures were zoomed in very close so you couldn't see what the object was, just a small part of it.

This party was so much fun for the boys and the girls too, and I had so much fun preparing for it.

Oh a camping we will go

Birthday party theme: Campout (twin's 4th, 2007)

Cake: two twin tent cakes (each using a full cake mix, so their bigger than they look). Also, I did campfire cupcakes. They use tootsie rolls for the logs, and flaming red (pretty sure that's the actual flavor) fruit roll ups, cut out for the flames. When cake and ice cream was served it had to be accompanied by tang, -maybe it's not the norm, but I remember drinking that alot while camping.

Decorations: two tents set up, camp chairs around a campfire (smores maker), picnic tables with gingham table cloths, some Christmas greenery with pinecones, lanterns, and of course cake. Most of the decorations we already had so it was pretty easy (well, we had to make another picnic table -we always have to build something).

Activity/games: I cut up a dowel and drilled holes in the center, then painted them white to make marshmallows. We had smaller dowels as sticks and the kids roasted the marshmallows... or painted them with beige paint. They also made smores, roasting real marshmallows over the "fire" (a bulb inside a plastic fire looking smore maker).
Game 1: sleeping bag relay -Just a sack race with sleeping bags instead. It was so funny to watch, being

that most the kids were 3 or 4 yrs old and the sleeping bags were pretty big on them.
Game 2: Bug hunt -the bigger of the two tents was filled with small plastic bugs, snakes and balloons covering them. There was one really huge bug that they were supposed to find (they saw it ahead of time so they would know what they were looking for).

Invitations/favors: I tied a stick to the invitation with a chalk shaded paper marshmallow (double sided marshmallow stuck with mounting tape). The favor was a tin camping mug filled with flashlights, compass, rubber bugs, hershey bars, indiv. pkgd marshmallows (only found at Walmart), trail mix and granola bar.

Out of This World

Birthday party theme: Alien/Space (5th birthday, 2006)

Cake: UFO with aliens (aliens were frosted rice krispie treat balls)

Games/Activities: Rocket launching with candy filled foam rockets, moon rock hunt (rocks spray painted silver), and free play with cousins.

Craft: Making alien hats with aluminum pie tins, styrofoam balls spray painted silver, pipe cleaners, and glow in the dark stickers.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Circus

Birthday party theme: Circus

(twins 3rd)

Decorations: Bright colored fabric penant banners, ballons, streamers and bright flowers.

Party favors: various circus themed novelties and candy

Games:

1. Peanut hunt: Help "Peanut" the littlest elephant, find his peanuts. The kids loved this because peanuts were everywhere, under couch cushions, window sills, they had pretty full bags when they were done -and a healthy alternative to candy that they loved eating.

2. Seal ball catch: I explained and showed pictures of seals balancing balls on their noses. Then they threw beach balls in the air until the circus music stopped and they had to hold onto their balls. And throw and catch when the music started again, and so on. Of course anything moving with balls at this age is a hit.

3. Circus obstacle course: They had to jump through the flaming hoop, crawl through the tunnel, balance across a tightrope (2x4) and then jump into a kiddie pool filled with ball pit balls and find the candy underneath.

Menu: corndogs, popcorn, lemonade, fruit and several cakes. In addition to the two fondant cakes, I made cupcake clowns baked in icecream cones. Added a scoop of icecream to the top, and turned over (for face and clown hat). Then I added m&m's for eyes, some red frosting hair at the sides, and licorice for the mouth. The party was so busy I forgot to take a picture.