April Fools Day Food Tricks

April Fools Day is a couple weeks away! And April Fools Day is a special day in my house, because its also my son's birthday!

Last year we hosted his birthday party on April Fools Day, so we had to have a couple treats! Look at all of these yummy treats! Who doesn't love Cheetos, Tootsie Pops and Easter Candy!

Well this is all actually healthy food!!!

The Tootsie Pops are actually Broccoli - I opened the suckers and kept the wrapper. You need to also buy new sticks.

The Easter Candy is grapes, wrapped in the Easter Candy Wrappers.

The Cheetos are actually carrots. Carefully open the bags from the bottom, and add in a few baby carrots. I used a hot glue gun to VERY CAREFULLY glue them shut again. 

My kids are already dreading the treats for this years April Fools Day because they are expecting the tricks!!

Happy April Fools Day!!!!

Yet Another Frozen Party

My daughter goes through a faze where every January she becomes obsessed with Frozen, so when it comes time to talk about what kind of party she wants, its a Frozen party! Maybe it has to do with our wintery Wisconsin weather!!! But she has insisted on this theme two years in a row! And of course I did not keep any of the decorations from my last year party.

It doesn't look all that difference from last year! This year I tried to use a little more purple for something different!

I sort of threw it together the day before, I have been sick a lot this winter (see my previous post on my tonsillectomy!!) But Ava loved it, so that's all that matters!!!

Having a birthday right after Christmas makes decorating for a frozen party so much easier. All of these trees are Christmas decorations of mine, and my mother and mother in law!!! I loved the table skirt tutu so much from last year I made yet another one this year (seriously it doesn't take long to make at all, maybe 2 hours!!! and its so cute!!!) But now the big question is, do I sell this one or do I keep it for next year if she decides its got to be another frozen party!!!??????? I think I am going to sell it, its a lot to tulle and takes up a lot of space!!

I didn't realize these balloons were so big, but they turned out awesome!!! They worked very well over the Kids table!

Simple wand favors and tiara headbands also double as table décor!

What Frozen party would be complete without a life sized Stormtropper wearing a crown and a tutu!!! Ava LOVED that we dressed him up for her party!!!! She thought that was awesome!!!!

Check out the awesome cake that my mom made her!! I love how it turned out!!! And more importantly, Ava loved it!!

My daughter had a great 4th birthday party!!! So that is the most important part! I am glad I could make her day special for her!!! And hopefully she picks something different for next year, because I am all out of Frozen party ideas!

Simple Red Minnie Mouse Birthday Party

A couple weeks back I posted about my daughter's 3rd birthday, and realized I never shared her big 2nd Birthday Party. At the time this little girl was OBSESSED with Minnie and Mickey Mouse. So it was a VERY easy decision on what type of party she would have. But since she had an over the top PINK 1st Birthday, I decided on a red Minnie Mouse party.  I love the look of the primary colors in the red Minnie Mouse - and made for some easy party decorations!

The cupcakes were so simple. I ordered a couple dozens from Target and had them frost them in red and white.

                                                 
Mini Oreo's and little bows made some EASY Super cute Minnie Mouse cupcakes.

A few days before her party she decided she wanted a Goofy cupcake. I added little figurines to some of the cupcakes, so she got her Goofy cupcake!

As I have done for all of her birthday parties, we had a Hot Chocolate Bar. A must in February! 

I made all of the Mickey silhouettes with my Silhouette.

No party is complete without a Happy Birthday Banner! 

 The food with a Minnie Mouse Birthday party could not be any easier!!! A HOT BOG Bar of course! Check out my tips for a hot dog bar with a free printable!

Hot dog topping suggestions!

 Some simple table decor for the kids table!

And there you have a simple red Minnie Mouse Birthday Party!!! 

Frozen Inspired Birthday Party

I blinked, and now my little girl is suddenly 3! I am not sure how this happened! 

Well like most little girls, my little girl is Frozen obsessed! So when it came time to pick out a theme for her party she picked Frozen! With a February birthday, a winter theme is the perfect theme! As you may remember she had a Pink and Gold Winter Wonderland party! 

I love the sweets table! I love creating food for the sweets table! I made both chocolate covered Oreo's and Cake Pops.

What frozen party is complete without ice skates! My almost 6 year old son plays hockey, so of course my daughter wanting to be exactly like her big brother can't wait to play hockey. She just started skating lessons and loves them!

Her own mini cake! She was very excited about her little cake!

Her Happy Birthday Banner! For some reason this looks great in person, but did not photo well!!

I LOVE this tulle table skirt! It is amazing! I was tempted to make an adult sized tutu instead of the table skirt, but decided my original plan was best!

After the sweets table, I love putting together the kids table! The kids always find it fun to drink out of the special glass milk jars!

I made wands for each of the kids! They were so easy to make! And the kids loved them!

While making the tutu table skirt, my son thought it would be awesome on the back of a chair, so I dazzled up the birthday girl's chair!

 What Frozen winter party is complete without a hot chocolate bar!!!!

For toppings we had caramel bits, mint candies, white chocolate chips, marshmallows, chocolate covered marshmallows and chocolate spoon stir sticks.

Did you guess we were having a Frozen party when I gave tips on making chocolate covered marhsmallows and chocolate stir spoons?

And finally I give you a picture of the birthday girl and two of her cousins!!!! I can't believe this girl is 3! It has gone so fast! She is an amazing and wonderful little girl!

Hot Chocolate Bar Chocolate Stir Spoons and Marshmallows Tips

Anyone want to take a guess at what kind of party I am preparing for? I will give you a hint, it is for a 3 year old girl! 

So again this year I am doing a Hot Chocolate Bar, because what birthday party the first week of February would be complete without one!!! I love making the cute toppings for hot chocolate bars, including chocolate covered marshmallow stir sticks and chocolate covered spoons! Not only do they add a nice touch, but they are SOOO yummy in your hot chocolate. 

Aren't these cute plastic metallic spoons, I found them at Target. It works best if you place something under the bottoms of the spoons, to level out the top. 

A squeeze bottle helps to control the melted chocolate.

Sprinkle on toppings, and you are all set, if you can wait long enough for them to harden!

Oh wow looking at this makes me so hungry! The key to dipping marshmallows is making sure your marshmallow is very secure on your stick, as well as using less chocolate than you think.

 You want to do a very fast dip in the chocolate. And you want to let the extra drip off for a few seconds. This is a good amount of chocolate on your marshmallow!

To add sugar or toppings to your dipped marshmallow it works best to sprinkle on the toppings.  I used a spoon over my sugar bowl to add the toppings. This works a lot better than dipping. If you dip, you will get a lot of sugar on the bottom and it will become too heavy!

Completed marshmallows!!! See the marshmallow to the right in the front row, that is what happens when you dip your marshmallow in sugar instead of sprinkling it on like I suggested! It doesn't look as nice because all of the sugar clumped to the side.

Easy Hot Dog Bar with Printable

I have now planned 3 parties where I have served a Hot Dog Bar. You would think because of that I would remember the toppings and types of hot dogs served. NOPE!

Because I know I will be hosting a party in the future where I will serve a Hot Dog Bar, I am finally going to blog this, so next time I simply refer to this and a party is planned! Hot Dog Bars are so simple. Most people, including kids love Hot Dogs and adults like trying crazy different toppings on them! Plus you can prepare everything ahead of time so you can enjoy the party!

I usually serve the ingredients for guests to make Taco Dogs, Chicago Dogs, Tex-Mex Dogs and a Chili Dog. I usually serve nachos as a side because all of these toppings are also great nacho toppings!

The key to a hot dog bar, is good all beef hot dogs. They are a must!!! I always plan at least two hot dogs per adult. (If not 3) And its always nice to have a package of veggie dogs on hand too!

Create some simple labels to indicate your toppings, and your party is all set!

And here is the printable I used for my most recent party!

Hot Dog Bar Shopping List
The shopping list is everything on the above printable and All Beef Hot Dogs, veggie dogs, buns, Nachos and Nacho Cheese.

Happy Hog Dog Party!

Pink and Gold Winter Wonderland First Birthday Party

Back in February we celebrated our daughter's first birthday with a Pink and Gold Winter Wonder Land Party.

Since her birthday was early February a Winter Wonderland Party seemed appropriate, and being obsessed with gold and pink it was an obvious choice. I decided very early in January this was going to be our theme, so I was able to find a few after Christmas deals that completed the theme.

What's a long winter without a hot chocolate bar!!?? The hot chocolate bar was such a hit!

I decorated with a large gold "A" surrounded by several pictures of Ava's first year. We used our Keurig to warm up the water and displayed powdered hot chocolate mix in a glass jar with directions for those who might have needed them.

Our toppings of course included marshmallows, butterscotch chips, white chocolate chips, peppermint chips, and caramel pieces. I made marshmallow pops covered with pink and white chocolate and white chocolate covered spoons for mixing up this yummy treat. See how I made these in the past.

I had a lot of fun with the sweet table! 

I borrowed several gold and white Christmas trees from family members and made a couple pink feather trees by using a pink feather boa and wrapping it around a Styrofoam cone. I had a lot of fun making pom pom garland. I used various shapes of glass jars and modge podged gold glitter to the bottom half. I made a "Happy Birthday" sign with my Silhouette Cameo. 

Pink, gold and white sweets consisted of TONS of gold Rolos, white M&Ms, pink Hersey Kisses (a plus of a February party - Valentines Day candy!!!), pink marshmallows and white rock candy.

I also hand dipped Oreos in white chocolate and drizzled pink chocolate and gold sprinkles on top.

And then of course we have the pink smash cake!! It was not so obvious in person, but you can sort of see in the pictures I was going for an ombre effect in my frosting of the cake.

I spent so much time trying to brain storm a party favor for this party and I also procrastinated making party hats. The day before the party I had the brilliant idea of using a winter hat to cover both! Some how, I have no clue how I got so lucky, Target had the perfect winter hat on Clearance! Problem solved!

Most importantly, the Birthday Girl had a fabulous birthday!! She loved her cake! And loved all of the attention she got at her party! It also didn't hurt that she got like 5 baby dolls as gifts, her absolute favorite!!

I can't believe my baby girl is almost a year and a half!!! Where does the time go???

Thanks to the fabulous Danielle at First Moment's Photography for the fabulous photos from her first birthday party!!! Danielle does a fabulous job and it was so nice not to have to worry about taking pictures. I could just sit back and enjoy!!! If you are in Wisconsin, you should check her out! First Moment's Photography