Carnival Birthday Party

It's finally here! The big party Gavin has been dying for!

We had a little carnival!

Including games - and of course a candy buffet!

Delicious yellow cupcakes with white chocolate toppers, all made my me!

cookie lollipops - which I heard were yummy, they were eaten before I got one! Next time I make these, I'll use a harder cookie dough, because I had a hard time keeping them on the stick. Also, they probably would've stayed up better if they were smaller. 

Mini "caramel" apples - really made with peanut butter! More kid friendly, healthier, and oh so good! I probably ate half of these... 

I used a stamp of a lion with a party hat throughout the party, it helped tie everything together!

Including the cups

and napkins!

We gave out tickets, which the kids totally disregarded and played the games forever!

We had four games:

Pick a Dizzy duck

Crazy Kiddie Can Crash

Birthday Boy Ball Toss

Trigger Happy Toddler Target

The last one was Gavin's absolute favorite. He demanded to play it over and over!

There were balloons galore!

Party hats! (made by me!)

Jared was perfectly content to just play on the swing set!

and collect prizes!

It was a perfect sunny day, thank goodness because the actual party date was the day before and it poured all day!

The food was wonderful!

We had:

hotdogs and brats

french fries

potato salad

all kinds of fruit

veggie tray

deviled eggs

People kept asking "where'd you get all the circus stuff?"

Honestly, I had a lot of it, and the rest I either got at goodwill or the dollar store!

I made a photo clothesline of pictures of the boys, labeled with their ages. This was probably my favorite decoration, and everyone commented on it. Plus, my boys are just the cutest little things ever - who doesn't want more pictures of them???

And boy, were there a lot of presents - I've never seen so many! It pays to have good friends I guess... There's a lot of thank you notes in my future... 

I hung pictures of the two of them together outside

Gavin was so excited (So was Jared, but he's a little more subtle.)

Oh! And the cake!

It took me forever to make, but it was beautiful! (and yummy!)

The cookies around the sides had "G" and "J" on them, the bottom candies are pretzel mnms, and the top is a big gumball!

Jared loved it, but Gavin didn't even take one bite! If only he knew how long that cake took to make... 

Fake mustaches!

Isn't this the cutest thing ever?!?

We all had the best time!!

Minnie Mouse Birthday Party

On Saturday I threw a Minnie Mouse Birthday Party!

Desert Table - 

Minnie Mouse cupcakes 

Marshmallow pops

Red and white lollipops

Red velvet cake

Hugs cookies

Chocolate dipped Oreos

Pop Shop soda

Red Vines

Red Punch

The cookies were sugar cookies I dyed red and rolled in red sugar. When they were still warm from the over I pushed a Hershey's Kiss in the middle. I also dipped Oreos in red chocolate - they were to die for.

I made the centerpiece by yarn wrapping a cardboard heart and put a black Minnie head in the middle!

The popcorn was coated in white chocolate and had Mickey Mouse sprinkles on it.

Mike and Ikes (the birthday girls favorite candy) in the custom thank you bags.

Foam Mickey and Minnie Mouse ears

Custom Birthday banner.

I followed Martha Stewart's direction for making tissue paper balls - can't go wrong with Martha! I will note that the smaller balls turned out better, if I had to make these again I would use extra paper in the larger ones. I used craft foam and scrapbook paper to make the hanging Minnie heads.

The punch was sooo good! It was red Koolaid, gingerale, and pineapple juice.

The cupcakes turned out so cute! I was lucky enough to find polka dot cupcake liners locally, but they are easy to find online. These were white cake with white frosting. I separated Oreos to just use the cookies as ears. For the bows, I used Fruit-by-the-Foot, it's sticky enough just to wrap on itself in the shape of a bow. I used organic strawberry so the color wasn't as bright, but they tasted great!

I made a custom stamp to personalize the napkins.

I photoshopped Minnie ears on pictures of the birthday girl and spelled her name with them.

The plates were made by gluing a big plate to two small plates and adding a paper bow.

I cut all the triangles and Minnie heads by hand. I really wish I had a Cricut! After I had all them cut, I stapled them to a long piece of yarn. This was probably my favorite decoration!

Paper straws with flags. I ordered the straws on Amazon, then I cut a bunch of small triangles, wrote the birthday girl's name on them and used invisible tape to attach them.

I used a extra piece of scrapbook paper inside of a mason jar to make a festive silverware holder.

Cheese in the shape of Mickey Mouse heads! I ordered a small cookie cutter on Ebay, had the Deli slice the cheese thinly and then cut them out - these were a big hit!

Veggie cups! The perfect way to portion.

Yarn wrapped number 2! I had my husband cut the number out of a piece of cardboard, and then just wrapped it with yarn. I added the Minnie head and flowers to make it more girly. 

I made the cake toppers by cutting out the shapes and letters from scrapbook paper and taping them to lollipop sticks. 

To make the ears, I cut out circles of craft foam, cut them to fit on on the headbands and then got glued them. I added big ribbon bows to make them Minnie!

The cake was red velvet with white frosting. I decorated it with Oreos around the middle and raspberry gummies around the bottom.

I made the pinata out of cardboard and tissue paper. It was opened by pulling strings - much safer for the younger kids!

I wish I had taken a better picture of the sign to the party, but I only got when when I left.

I made the head out of black foam core and the arrow with red poster board.

There were balloons attached too, but it was too windy to get a good picture.

Our invitations!

I designed these on my computer, you can find the Disney font free online.

Then I added a ribbon bow and lined the envelopes with polka dot scrapbook paper.

Everyone loved them!