Some Fun Parties I've been to

I've been to some super-cute parties over the last few weeks. I wanted to share some pictures from a couple of them. The last Party, thrown by my friend Lyndee for her daughter Emily, I unfortunately didn't get pictures of because our camera died, and I left the charger up in Coeur d'Alene... where it still remains. Hopefully I can grab it before i have more to post about!

The First party was a birthday party my friend Alyssa threw for her daughter, Kardynn. I had previously posted about the invites for the party, which was a "Candy Shoppe" theme. My kids really had a blast at this party. In fact, here we are, a month later, and they are STILL going around singing happy birthday to Kardynn! Everytime we get ready to go out, they ask if we're going to Kardynn's party.

If you feel like you've seen that cake before, you probably have! On Make it and Love it "Make a Cake Series". Our friend Brittany, here in Moscow, is the one who does that series. Yep, we're that cool... ;)

The Second Party was a bridal shower of my dear friend, Mikelle, who I have been friends with for 12 years now. We've lived through many fun and interesting memories together, and now we are able to celebrate the blessed event of her upcoming marriage this month!!! This party was so stinkin' cute. Her sisters put it together, and they did an awesome job! Mikelle got engaged in Disney Land, so the theme for the shower was Disney. I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked, because my camera started dying, and as we all know, I then left the charger up in Coeur d'Alene, so my camera is still dead.

My friend Chelsea made this cake, which she has featured on her blog.

We all got the little black ears to wear, while Mikelle wore her Bride ears!

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

I recently threw a baby shower for my friend, Allison, who is having a baby boy in less than a month! It was a fun theme, "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". The color scheme was a deep purple and light yellow, with silver accents. All of the food was on silver platters. Here are some pictures, and I'll explain some of the details as the pictures come up.

Here are the invites

Here is the main area

Here is the top of the piano -- the side table area. I used batting to resemble clouds

Side table. The CD player is playing a soft instrumental version of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"

The favors

The ice cubes - star shapes!

The main table - I always end up taking the picture when there's something left undone. This time, I have the big ol' gallon of milk sitting on the table. Argh. Oh, and you will NOT be seeing a close-up of the cake... talk about cake wreck!!! I had intended on giving it the "rough" look like plaster on a wall, but it ends up looking intentional and nice...well, i definitely got the rough look, but without the "looking nice" part. I ran out of time, and there wasn't much left I could do. Oh well, better luck next time right?

Milk and cookies sans milk, which as pictured earlier is sitting on the table unused. In the background are homemade star chips and salsa.

So I looked for weeks for star fruit in the store, but for some reason, as it usually happens, when you actually go looking for what you know you've seen over and over, it's nowhere to be found. But I improvised, and cut pineapple with a star cookie cutter.

 This was a fun and inexpensive shower to plan. I'm thinking about doing a post about throwing cheap showers and parties...at least things that I, personally do to save money while planning parties. So stay posted!

Alyssa's Invites for Kardynn's Birthday

My friend Alyssa (alyssabittybowtique.blogspot.com) has a daughter who is really close to Sienna's age. We were privileged to be pregnant together, welcomed our little girls together, then have gone through the stages of our little girls' lives together. It's been a blast. Since Sienna just turned two, Kardynn, (Alyssa's daughter) is coming on two in a couple of weeks. She came by yesterday to drop off these invites, which I just had to post on here, because I just about died when I saw them! She made them for her daughters "Sweet Shoppe" birthday party. So cute!!! Anyway, here they are:

Sienna's Watermelon 2nd Birthday Party!

Lots of fun, and pretty simple this party was. It was a bright, summery theme, and worked out perfect for my fruit-loving little girl! Here are some of the details:

The main table

The cake and cupcakes

Deviled watermelons - I hard-boiled the eggs, seperated the yoke from the whites, then dyed the whites in green food coloring over night. Meanwhile, I added pink food coloring to the yokes, though in the picture it looks orange. I then sprinkled coarsly ground black pepper over the top to resemble seeds.

Watermelon jell-o bites: Cut limes in half, gut them out, then pour in pink jell-o, and refrigerate. Once hardened, cut halves in half again.

The favors, goody bags, and personal watermelons to take home

Cake pops

The 2nd table

The spread of table #2, including watermelon salsa (and no, there are absolutely NO tomatoes in it!)

The drinks

The craft table: making watermelon music makers (shakers, with watermelon seeds on the inside)

Outside: The activities - First was this contest...

then this one. I used the rind rings for the ring toss, but if you do this, make sure they get used almost right away. Ours were sitting out for awhile, and got soft and soggy, and fell apart after tossing them.

The invites

The inside