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..... :)

Would you like a cake garland...

... this one in particular?

It fits a 9 inch round cake wonderfully!

I'm doing a little summer cleaning for my etsy shop and revamping a lot of things.

I am feeling a little happy about everything so I want to give this to someone.

For free. With love. 

All you have to do is leave a comment with your name and

an email (if it isn't linked to your name). 

And then do a little dance. Because I like revamping things.

Stay tuned for a new look in the shop. I'll let you know when it opens up again.

Hurry and leave your name!

I'll announce the winner on Friday, the 5th.

-be sure to leave your comment in this post to qualify-

Another peek into the doggy party

I promise I'll get the rest of the photos up soon, 

especially some of the birthday boy. 

There are just too many good ones to sort through, 

but here are a few more until then. 

A friend of mine, Drianne, took the photos. Isn't she amazing!!!?

Cake Decorating Party

This would be a great party for a young teen... or even a grown adult 

(like me. I'd love this)

Make mini cakes for everyone and have plenty of piping and decorating ideas on hand. 

 

The Sweetest Occasion via Strawberry Chic

5 cakes please

Well, if you can't choose what flavor of cake you want for your birthday, just do what Heidi did with My Paper Crane.... make 5 cakes to please your tastebuds!

Flavors:
-chocolate with buttercream
-chocolate mint with thin mint girlscouts baked in, and then crushed and dusted over the frosting (would be my favorite)
-chocolate peanut butter
-yellow cake chocolate frosting
-white sprinkle mania

She also said instead of party favors to take home, each guests just took home some cake. YUM!

 

images from Heidi flikr

St. Patricks Day Lucky Charm cupcakes

Saw this on Betty Crocker.

Genius!

I'm sure they'd make a yummy rice krispie treat too- replace the rice krispies for Lucky Charms.

Cake Batter Pancakes and Cake Batter Bark

Got some left over cake batter? Just by chance?
lol.

 Create some yummy cake batter bark and cake batter pancakes with How Sweet It Is.

   
  

and while you're there, check out her whole wheat cherry vanilla bean pancakes. YUM!

 

Metallic Flower Candles

Dress up some birthday candles with metallic flowers made out of aluminum foil

by Martha

Can't get much better than cupcake fondue

This genius idea is from Bake it Pretty (details on Pint Size Social) makes me wish someone in the family had a birthday, stat!

Oh, wait! I just remembered it my daughters 1/2 birthday this coming Sunday!

wooohoo, we'll celebrate fondue style.

photos via sweetestoccasion via bakeitpretty

Fish cake

Normally here in Hawaii when someone says fishcake we think of this:

 source

or this

 source

but this time I am talking about this fun and adorable fishcake from Coco Cake Cupcakes

If I got that for my birthday I wouldn't dare cut it.
Too cute.

Stationary with coordinating cakes

Check out these gorgeous cakes that coordinate with the wedding stationary. 

I really love the chocolate brown with yellow.

Via The Finer Things