Shopkins Birthday

Yes my daughter has been bit by the Shopkins bug.  Those tiny little plastic things that have faces, sorta weird but what can you do.  She has a ton (aka I've spent a fortune on them) so a Shopkins birthday party was in the cards for the big number 8.

cheeky chocolate cake

I basically followed the direction here on how to make the cake. I also usually use her recipe for buttercream frosting also. 

Kooky Cookie

What can I say, it's a chocolate chip cookie in a cast iron pan....with eyes....

Another DIY piñata  D'lish Donut this time.

super easy but time consuming

The birthday girl with her cake

 

Jurassic World Party

I took my son to the newest movie edition to the Jurassic franchise, Jurassic World (I really did want to see it too, Chris Pratt...yum) so it should have come to no surprise to me when the usual question "what kind of birthday do you want?" was answered with JURASSIC WORLD!  So off I went...

I started with the cake, or as it turned out cupcakes. I'm pretty lacking in the cake decorating arena, fondant what? So, although, I saw some super cute ideas I decided to keep it simple. I got these dinosaurs to go on top of the cupcakes and I think they turned out pretty cute.  I did have trouble finding green only sprinkles so I suggest getting them on line somewhere.  The dinosaurs were pretty reasonable and if you can't find them in your local Party City like I did, the store will order them for you with free shipping to the house if you go in.

I wanted to keep the dino theme slightly mature, he's 10 not 5 years old, think scary not cute but the trend seems to be more Barney than T-Rex at the store so I decided to make my own decorations.  I got a cheap brown table cloth from the dollar store and used this dino foot-print printable to build a theme through out the house

I was able to just use static to stick them to the wall and I made a foot print "path" through out the whole house, going through all of the major rooms.  I am definitely not allowed to use an adhesive on the walls, hubby no-no.

 

I made dinos out of balloons also using these templates . They turned out pretty cute but I think they would have been cuter hanging as I saw others do.

A piñata always goes with out birthdays and once again couldn't find what I wanted so I made it.  It's supposed to be a T-Rex skull, not sure that it's too recognizable but my son was good with it.  My piñatas are always made out of cardboard, which I split the layers to make thinner (learned for the Mickey Mouse head mistake when no one could break it).  I then covered it with white crepe paper.

 

 Treat bags for the piñata were super were super easy.  The dino foot print again, traced on paper lunch sized bags.

 

He looks pretty happy with the whole thing, but then again he sitting in front of cake!

 

I recently received the SweeTARTS Soft & Chewy Ropes from Smiley360 for free. They are advertised as " a new mouthwatering licorice rope with the electrifying flavor fusion of sweet and tart."  So, on to test the merits of this statement.  I'm not really a candy person, so who to get to test it for me?  Hm....of course, I have children, how silly of me.  The outside of the "rope" is a gummy type texture with an interior of fizz.  There are 4 ropes to each package, which is plenty for my kids (no sugar high here please).  The kids enjoyed the mix of sweet and tart cherry flavor just what you would expect from a name like SweeTARTS.  All in all I think they were a hit with the kids and we'll probably get them again.

Olaf Birthday Party

My daughter, like every other girl child in the country is crazy for Frozen....or more specifically Olaf. I can't really blame her he is kinda cute and has a great attitude. There was plentiful Frozen decoration but I was looking for Olaf centered things.  Since he really has a simple outline it was actually easy to make some myself.

First the pinata because it usually takes me the longest to make. I free drew the head which was a big step for me because I can't draw. The two circles for his body are just two nesting bowls I had that I traced. Made it easier to make sure the sizes would be graduated. Paper cone for the nose and real sticks for his arms.

As you can see I really probably made it too big (expensive to fill, lol) it

s about the size of my daughter

DH got a bunch of these size plastic cups for free so I try to use them when ever possible. I printed a picture of this and then placed it in the cup to trace.

White balloons which Olaf face, which I again free handed but he has a  really easy shape

Cupcake cake, on tin foil cover Rubbermaid bin lid (because I don't own a cake platter). Oreos for eyes, licorice for the mouth and a cone filled with Reese Pieces for a nose. I drew the arm directly on the foil with Nutella because that's what I had in the pantry

She looks pretty happy with it!

Hello Kitty Birthday

I took the easy way out this time, I ordered these cup cake toppers off of ebay.  The came out super cute but half the ones I ordered arrived broken.  I think they were more fragile than the shipper thought they would be.

I bought a couple packages of temporary tattoos from the dollar spot at Target and the kids loved them. 

Yes, a store bought pinata.....what can I say I got lazy :)

Minecraft party

For my son's 8th birthday he told me he wanted Minecraft.....after I said "what?", I looked it up.....

 This is what I came up with

Creeper balloons, put in odds places to give everyone...well, the creeps. I just added the black electrical tape.

Spiders out of balloons, streamers and red construction paper

Large wall decoration. I used dinner sized plates from the dollar store with a foam backing (DH would have had a fit of I'd have tried to mount it to the wall like I saw people do on Pinterest). With the foam backing I could prop it against the wall. It ended up being pretty large. For smaller areas maybe use dessert plates?

TNT licorice bundles 

 

Creeper cake. I am by no means a baker so I needed simple. I used green jimmies, green sugar sprinkles and coconut (died green with food coloring) to give it the appearance of being pixelated.  Hershey bars gave me the "face" 

I used this video to make a Steve head pinata.  My Son's birthday is in November so I just buy Halloween candy on clearance and stuff it full. 

Ladybug birthday

My husband had access to some ladybug decorations (for free!!!!!!!!) so my daughter decided to have a ladybug birthday......with no coercion what-so-ever.

yes, I do own a cupcake tree...and yes I have to store it the other 364 days of the year

hubby was able to pick-up the cupcake wrappers and picks. I decided to use green frosting as "grass".  I cut a hole in a zip-lock baggie and squeezed for  the  tip effect

These are the favor bags hubby got for free.  I cut them out (they were a cellophane variety) and use plain old static to make them stick to the walls.  Hubby abhors tape on the walls!

 Again, the center piece was a hubby freebie, I added red and black licorice as a treat

The treat baggies again adhered to the window with static 

and again

I wasn't originally going to do a piñata but my daughter was aghast at the thought.  I figured that I was saving so much with the hubby freebies that I would just buy one.  Walked into the party store with confidence and money....no ladybugs.....nothing even spring-ish.  Cut to me Friday afternoon (party Saturday) making yet another piñata. Circley-oblongy card board, red crepe paper and black napkins (because I had them).  Didn't turn out too bad.

My Special-Special (that is what I call her) in her ladybug out fit.  I got luck that I found this on sale as a Dollie & Me outfit for about $8.00.

I painter her nail to match the ladybug theme.  Thank God I have a night job.

I used Baby Bell cheese and cut ladybugs.  The circles where easily made by the sharp end of my hand slicer

Piñata in action.

Almost there

All in all, pretty much a success!!!