The littlest Mermaid Party

 

(Crowns here)

My little KaiKai turned 5 in July and for weeks she has been planning out (along with my giddy self) a mermaid party. I tried to steer clear of the commercialized "mermaid" and successfully did so until the day of the party. I showed Kai the cake and she said, "Where's Ariel?". Dang it! Almost did it. So I quickly printed off an Ariel and plopped her in the cake somewhere. It turned out great though. More important, the birthday girl loved it. 

 The cake was easier than it looks. I baked two cake mixes; one in a 9x13 pan and the other in 2 loaf pans. I trimmed the 9x13 and then stacked the 2 loaves on top each other. With the extra trimming I added the two square pieces on top. I also used 5 ice cream cones. For the sand I crushed 2 different colors of cookies (graham and pepperidge farm chessman cookies).
Coat everything in icing, including cones, and add the crumbs all over. I also made some glass candy for the sea glass arch. The purple fringe cake bunting can be found in my ::Party Accessories:: shop here :)

 This little pinata was fun to make. I bought a "hula" girl, luau, party pinata and transformed her legs and hair. It turned out better than I had originally planned.

Some of the favors: a pocket mirror and a "Dinglehopper"

The table decor included a name card, mermaid head crown, a 'scale' table runner and some other shells and sand decorations. It helps to live near the ocean. I found almost all thecoral, shells and sand.

Blue Ocean Juice (my daughter called it Mermaid Water) was made of blue Powerade and some sprite. 

After the party I always ask myself why I do such crazy things...  as I'm left exhausted. But when the next day comes I'm already thinking of what we can do next year. I'M CRAZY!!!

Kai loved it and her friends had a blast.

Thomas the Train birthday party

I'm alive! Yes.

I just wanted to check in with the www and post a few pictures of my son's 3rd birthday. He is obsessed with Thomas the Train so we decked out the house with painters tape and made a train track for him to actually ride with one of his ride able push cars. He was in heaven.

I also made a Thomas the train cake. It was fairly easy, just really time consuming. You can find out how to make any type of number from cake on this website (thatslife).
After making the cake I covered it in frosting and made the tracks with hershey's chocolate bars (only took about 2 regular bars) and some black frosting. 

I also lined the cake with his favorite candy, M&M's. It took a little bit of work and time but it's all worth it for my little boy's face of complete happiness. :) The things we do for our kids..... :)

December is here!

 easy advent calendar by martha stewart

It's December 1st tomorrow and I couldn't be more happier. If you don't have a countdown to Christmas calendar planned, then you better get crackin'. You have one day left.

We like to do Christmas activities for our Advent calendar. Here is our list for this year (in no particular order)...

1. Set Pandora station to Christmas 24/7
2. Make chocolate dipped gingersnap cookies (recipe + dip in melted chocolate)
3. Ward Christmas party
4. Walk the city lights
5. Christmas town parade
6. Make sugar cookies and decorate
7. Pearl Harbor lights tour
8. Send off Christmas gifts and Cards
9. Ice Skating
10. Make snowflakes
11. Decorate gingerbread houses
12. Make hot cocoa/mint tea
13. Ride the local mall holiday train
14. Read a CHRISTmas book
15. Donate canned goods
16. Christmas ornament exchange
17. Bake treats for neighbors and friends
18. Progressive dinner party/White elephant exchange with friends
19. Make reindeer food
20. Family Christmas party
21. Christmas movie and popcorn night
22.  Check out Christmas books at the library
23. Go Christmas shopping as a family
24. Build a "Sand"man on the beach
25. Christmas breakfast

Have a wonderful countdown!!!!

Thanksgiving and Christmas favors

 

Printable Holiday Chocolate Wrappers are in the shop!

Get them now before the holidays sneak up and pass you by. 

Halloween wrappers

You know those Hershey Nugget chocolates... the ones with the toffee chips and almond bites in them?...  don't tell my daughter that I scan her Halloween candy loot and confiscate them before she even knows about it... Well, they are my favorite and they look even better with these fun personalized wrappers on them. You can get them here to dress up your Halloween candy or Halloween party favors. 

Favorite Things / Hot Hula Baby Shower

This is well over due. There is this thing called Hot Hula Fitness. It's a work out routine, it involves dance, and movements of the Polynesian islands. If you haven't heard of it or tried it I suggest you DO. IT. NOW! haha (see video here). Anyways, I am instructor and one of my friends, Crystal, is as well. Actually all of us instructors here are really tight and came together to throw Crystal a baby shower.
The theme was "These are a few of my favorite things". We came up with a list of Crystal's top 10 food cravings (which have been chocolate and sweets), and ate them all with her (along with some other healthy stuff).

Some of her cravings... rice krispie treats, cocoa rice, nutella, candy, banana bread, cake, hot chocolate, chocolate chip cookes.... basically anything that has chocolate in it or any baked good. Oh, and sushi. ha!

The adorable cupcakes with a little hot hula baby!

 

They day also involved an impromptu Hot Hula session in the back yard. See those golfers in the distance..?.. upper left hand corner? 

Yeah, they are from Japan and gave us a round of applause afterward. haha!!

I'm happy to say that Crystal had a healthy baby girl (in her van on the way to the hospital!) and she is adorable. 

Back to school!!!

The moment I saw this cute little pencil treats on Pinterest, I knew I was going to make it. Well, today was the day. My little KaiKai will be hopping off to preschool tomorrow with these in hand for her teachers. She I am so excited.

Because what teacher wouldn't want a little chocolate on the first day of school. 

Bonus points for my daughter too!

Here is the tutorial on the pencils from thriftyandthriving

Dinosaurs and Monsters

My little boy is officially a two year old. (sniff, sniff).

He is loving scary things lately, and loves to RAWR at everyone so I thought it was fitting

to have a dinosaur and monster themed party for him. 

It was simple and fun and most importantly, the birthday boy loved it. 

The minute he saw the cake, he wanted to snatch that dino off of it. 

We had to hold him back until after the happy birthday song. 

Happy Birthday, to my little dinosaur.

Red, White, and Blue

 

Summer time is here and the 4th of July is quickly coming up. 

I just added the perfect detail to your picnic party 

in the shop.... Red, White, and Blue Chevron Printed Party Hats!!!

In actuality, you can have them made in any color combo you prefer, but I love them in red, white, and blue. 

Happy Summer Festivities!!!!!

Pinterest challenge

It's been a while since my last Pinterest challenge post.
So here are the latest ones from the past couple months....

Biko! It's a yummy Filipino dessert. If you like mochi and coconut, you'll like this easy dessert. 

These pizza quesadillas were delish!

These Parmesan knots were a hit too. 

 And I finally made one of these.