Pirate Mermaid Brother Sister Joint Birthday Party

Yes I know!! It's been FOREVER!! I just had to come back on and blog about my two kiddos birthday party we just had. I think it turned out fantastic and wanted to share with you all my theme and how I pulled it off.

 Since my husband is deployed I wanted to do something a little more low key than last year (hahahahahaha-I'm not entirely sure I even know what low-key means!!) so I decided to combine my two kids parties. They are only 11 months apart and both have birthdays in September. My daughter Ashlyn is turning 5 at the end of the month and Hayden turned 4 the 2nd. I knew I wanted to do a Pirate Mermaid theme but I was having trouble finding print-ables that I liked. I just didn't have time to make them myself so I found these one here at Simply Sweet Parties. I wasn't overly thrilled with the colors but once I convo'd her she said she could change the color scheme to whatever I needed. I had her do a teal and pink theme. They are just so cute! They were exactly what I had in mind. I asked her to change the wording on the invite and she did that as well. She was very easy to work with and I got so many compliments on the invites!

I glittered the whole tail of the mermaid and a star in the center of her flower to add a little extra cuteness. I had them printed at mpixpro.com and for the back I had a picture of my two lovies so they were also on the invite.

I did a small food/snack table and a dessert table. I got netting and shells, chocolate gold coins, small treasure chest, and burlap to decorate with. I added touches of glitter to the banner and hung that on the netted backdrop, then glued some shells and pirate coins to it.

For the food/snack table I did the same theme, but no backdrop since it was a round table. I just added a few hanging decorations.

I tried to name all the food to fit the theme. We had sushi sandwiches which were really good! You just cut the crust off a piece of bread, spread some cream cheese on it, then for the filling I used julienned cucumber and cheddar cheese, and a little turkey lunch meat. Then just roll it up and cut it in two pieces. Stand them up on the plate for a "rolled sushi" look.

We also had chips and gold fish I named "fish and chips", cheese balls named "cannon balls", little smokies in bbq sauce named "dead man fingers", cheese cubes named "gold nuggets", and for the punch I used the blue hawaiian punch and added sprite. We named that Mermaid Punch. I tied some twine around the jug to decorate it a little bit.

For the dessert table I have to brag a little about the cake because I ALWAYS stress out about the cake. The night before I almost decided to not do it because we already had cupcakes and I just didn't want to worry about it, but I had already baked the cakes and made the fondant treasure map so I went ahead and did it. I really love the way it turned out! I did an ombre ruffle cake I saw on Lori's Bakery for the top tier and added seashells and sprinkles. For the bottom tier its just white buttercream with black fondant stripes, then I added the treasure map that actually broke before I got it on the cake, but I liked it that way, lol. And the mermaid, ship and pirate hat are decorations I found at hobby lobby. :) It really pulled the table together I  think so I'm happy I didn't get lazy and not do it.

I made cupcakes to showcase the adorable cupcake toppers from Simply Sweet Parties, and we also had pearl pops and fishy pops that were oreo pops, and I made some cute little pirate pops from marshmallows. They were quite possibly the easiest thing I made! you just stick a lollipop stick in melted candy melts, insert the marshmallow, dip the top 1/3rd or so, stick them in styrofoam and let them dry. Once dry use a food coloring pen and draw on a pirate face. For the pearl pops I used the oreo pop recipe of one package of oreos to one package of cream cheese. Grind the oreos in a food processor until fine and combine with the package of softened cream cheese. Roll into balls. Dip them in candy melt and for the sprinkle ones, add the sprinkles while still wet. For the sparkly ones I let them dry first and then brushed them with edible luster dust. For the fishy pops I did the same technique for the sparkle pops, but for the fish I waited for them to dry then took melted candy melts in an icing bag and piped the blow fish mouth and fins on the side. Once that dried I added two dot eyes with the food coloring pen. For all the plates I dusted with brown sugar for "sand" and then added the food.

Other food items on the dessert table were rock candy lollipops we called "mermaid crystal wands", the chocolate gold coins I ordered from ebay, rice krispie treats we cut out using a star cookie cutter and drizzled some candy melts on called "krispie treat starfish", and I can't forget about the super yummy sugar cookies that I ordered from Sunshine Bakes off etsy. I convo'd her a picture of the invite and she made the most adorable mini fish and starfish to match the party colors. They arrived 2 days before the party fresh and completely in tact! Not even ONE broken cookie!! I was amazed. They were packaged very well and very cute! She even wrote me a little hand written note saying she hoped the party went well. Great customer service. I definitely recommend Beth for any of your cookie needs! And did I mention they tasted great!!??

And for the activities - well I went SUPER easy and rented a 30 foot inflatable slip and slide. I got a GREAT deal from living social and the kids all thoroughly enjoyed it!! They didn't want to leave! That's a party I call a success! ;) So happy my two kids had a great party! It made all the work totally worth it!

Both the kids shirts and my daughters mermaid tail skirt were made by me! I don't sell these but can always do them as a custom. Check out my etsy shop here - Ashlyn's Bowtique 

And the made to match OOAK (as of now, lol) headband was made by Knottyfrog - she also does crochet items and the most adorable necklaces for little girls!! Go check them out, I promise you won't be sorry you did...unless you become addicted like I have and buy your little lady a ton of them!! Don't say I didn't warn you! ;) 

I hope I was able to help anyone else out wanting to do a pirate mermaid party! It was great to do something that all the little boys and girls enjoyed. And I loved the outcome. I think this might be my favorite party I've done so far!

Homemade Coffee Creamer and Pumpkin Cream Cheese

Today my friend pinned a recipe for Pumpkin Spice Creamer!! I was so excited to see this because pumpkin spice creamer is my favorite and for some reason I haven't been able to find it in my local grocery stores.

I went to the blog and found a source for many more coffee creamer recipes! Deliciously Organic has a list of great sounding coffee creamers, and I believe they are all organic! I decided to try the Honey Vanilla Creamer and share it with you all today.

Here's the recipe I used

1 cup whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup raw honey
2 tsp vanilla extract

Combine the milk, heavy cream and honey in a pan whisking until it starts to steam. Pull off the heat and add the vanilla extract. Pour into a jar and chill in the fridge.

That's it! Can you believe it, so so simple. I also made the pumpkin spice creamer from her blog and they both turned out so delicious!!

Next time I make them I'll try and cut out some of the fat by using skim milk, etc. I'm not sure how it will turn out, but I love being able to make my own creamer. It's a huge MUST have in our house so any way to make it fresher and cheaper I'm all over it!

Another recipe I wanted to share with you all was also something I came across on pinterest. It's called Pumpkin Cream Cheese!

I saw this recipe and had to try it since my husband and I both love anything pumpkin. This is definitely a keeper. It almost tastes like pumpkin pie filling on a bagel. Goes great in the mornings with a pumpkin spice coffee! I originally got the recipe from this blog. Here's how I made it.

8 oz of 1/3 less fat cream cheese softened
1/2 cup pumpkin puree - not pumpkin pie filling, make sure you get the plain puree
1/4 cup granulated sugar (I used a little more after tasting it. I wanted mine sweet.)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg

Combine cream cheese and pumpkin puree in a mixer (or use a hand mixer) until uniform in color and there are no more cream cheese clumps. Add sugar until dissolved/incorporated. Then add the rest of the spices. Make sure you scrape the sides of the bowl and give it another spin. Chill in the refrigerator until ready to use.

I love to eat mine on those bagel thins toasted lightly. So good and tastes like fall!!

I hope you try some of these yummy fall recipes before Winter sneaks up on us!

Strawberry Shortcake Inspired Birthday Party

Well hello again! It's been a couple weeks since my daughters Strawberry Shortcake party so I figured I better get to blogging!! It turned out fantastic and was so cute.

To say my daughter is a little obsessed with Strawberry Shortcake is an understatement. She knew about 7 or 8 months before her birthday she wanted a SS party. Mommy however isn't all that into "commercial character" parties. So I came up with a way to please us both! ;)

 

I started planning this party about 6 months ago really. My first step once I knew the theme and my general idea was to contact my friend Christy over at Itsy-Belle to design me some party print-ables. She has many adorable party themes already made up but we knew SS was what we needed. Now you might remember from my son's party that I also do design work, but I'm really a hobbyist at it. Christy is a pro and I knew she could come up with exactly what I wanted. All I told her was I wanted SS theme but not really too characterized. That's basically it. She came up with the most adorable set. It's got stripes, polka dots, daises, strawberries (of course) and is just so exactly what I had in mind. It's like she plucked it right from my brain and made it better. You can see the whole set here in her shop. So once I saw her work I got really excited with all kinds of ideas!

First item I made was these adorable little favor bags filled with Hershey Kisses. She made me some cute 1" circles that I printed on sticker paper and cut out using a 1" circle cutter. I placed one on the bottom of each kiss and added 8 to each bag. I then took the folded card/topper and typed "thank you for coming to my party" on it. Printed them, cut them out, folded them and stapled them to the bag tops. They were a huge hit. Almost everyone asked how I made them and said how cute they were.

For the birthday banner I wanted to jazz it up a bit so I used my cricut to cut out scalloped edge circles. I then glued each piece of the banner to one scalloped circle and used brads to keep them together. To add a little SS herself to the party I made two with SS on them and flanked her name with them.

The ruffle background you see behind the dessert table are the same ruffle streamers I showed you how to make in this blog post here.

And of course I made this cute ribbon topiary I blogged about here.

For the table cloth I ran out of time and just got a white plastic cloth, but I wanted to have a cute runner so I got green fabric from Hobby Lobby and just cut it using pinking shears to fit the middle of the table.

The cake I made myself and couldn't have been happier with it! I found one I liked on CakeCentral.com and used that as inspiration. I added a little SS cake topper to the side for Ashlyn. She loved this cake! The Happy 4th Birthday Ashlyn was a printable ink label I had printed at Albertsons. It came back bigger than I had planned but I made it work.

For the treats I kept it simple since this party was at a local Gymnastics gym and they provided pizza and icee's for the kids. I still wanted to make cute things for the table, so I decided to make these things I found called "pie pops". I had made cake pops for my son's birthday and other times before so I wanted something different. I found the tutorial on how to make them here. And since then have seen MANY bloggers blogging about how to make them. They are so cute and fun. I've even seen some new pumpkin pie pops! Might have to try those for fall!

Anyway, I decided to make mine in flower shapes to fit the SS theme without going too overboard on SS or strawberries in general. I added pink and white ribbons to the sticks and stuck them in a jar I filled with light pink tulle. We added a fancy label from ItsyBelle and look how cute they turned out to be! :) I made Strawberry flavored and Blueberry flavored for "Blueberry Muffin" of course! ;)

I also made these DE-freaking-licious Oreo Truffle Balls that - wait for it - I FORGOT TO BRING TO THE PARTY!!! Can you believe it. I'm such a dork. My hubby stated that was fine with him because he got more to eat for himself, lol. Anyway, the recipe for these is SO easy!

I think I found the recipe originally on tablespoon.com but I honestly can't remember. I made them last year for Christmas using mint oreos and oh man, let me tell ya....so yummy!

These I just used regular oreo's and they were just as good. For the recipe you just

Crush 1 package of oreo's (I like to use my food processor)

combine with 1 8oz cream cheese

Chill for about 10 min

roll into 1" balls

dip in candy melts or melted chocolate

let sit to harden

So good! you could also use these to make cake pops. They are harder so they hold up better and just my opinion, but they are better!!

For items on plates like this I got place card holders I found at hobby lobby in green and stuck a fancy label in them.

And the last thing I made was Strawberry Shortcake Cookies!! Oh yes, they are as good as they sound! Not the easiest cookie to make, but totally worth it. I found this recipe on Pinterest and you can go directly to the recipe blog here.

And for the candy jars, I just had two and I put green and white mints in one, and strawberry malt balls in the other.

I also used ItsyBelle's waterbottle labels and had water there for thirsty kids and parents. I thought they were so cute, I wish I could make labels for Ashlyn's waterbottles she takes to school for the bus everyday, lol. I bought the waterproof labels at this etsy shop here. Just convo her for a custom listing, she's great. :)

I decided to get some balloon boquets with Strawberry Shortcake on them but didnt' want to spend too much and knew exactly what I wanted. So I looked on Ebay and found a pack of SS balloons. I got one HUGE SS shaped mylar, 2 circle mylar with SS on them, and 7 polka dot pink and green latex balloons. We blew them up right before the party and flanked the tables with them. The bigger boquet is on the gift table which I forgot to photograph of course. ;)

And for the party table I just went to Party City and got SS table cloths and found some pink and green paper plates at Hobby Lobby. I wrapped silverware in napkins all color cordinating and used the party circles tied on with ribbon for the silverware. We got SS paper cups to serve the icee's in.

And last but definately not least - I made Ashlyn a Strawberry Shortcake inspired outfit. She loves it!! In fact she made me make her the hat to match, lol. The girl has an eye because it really pulled the outfit together. I made the hat, the shirt, the skirt, and the leggings. She had the shoes, lol.

You can find custom outfits like this, or other original clothing items and accessories at my etsy shop Ashlyn's Bowtique! If you don't see what you need convo me for a custom!

And I'll leave you with a few more pics from the party. It was certainly a fun theme for me to do because I loved SS when I was little. All the colors were fantastic to work with and it ended up being so worth the work. I hope Ash's party can inspire some of your own Strawberry Shortcake party ideas! ;)