Ocean Birthday

Birthday time again! This time the request was an ocean birthday... lots of fish and sea shells. This party is for our daughter who probably should have been born a fish. She loves swimming, shells and mermaids. I was really excited about this birthday theme.

I was hoping to make a sandcastle cake, but the birthday girl really wanted cupcakes. So, I made chocolate cupcakes, frosted them with vanilla frosting and dusted them with graham cracker "sand." Then I added a picture of a sandcastle and some chocolate fish and sea shells. The picture is simply taped to a drinking straw and poked into one of the cupcakes.

We bought baskets of shells from the dollar tree and hung them on the walls, from the ceiling and scattered them around the table and the window sill.

I bought a deck of "Go Fish" cards at the dollar store and we hung all the pictures of the fish on the walls, along with some sea shells.

I managed to acquire the very last set of these fish decals that our dollar store had. This entire birthday party was a dollar store creation, but our girl couldn't be more thrilled with it.

She woke up to our creation with pure delight and wonderment. Decorating at night to have them wake up to it creates the anticipation of a trip to Disneyland.

Creating this ocean birthday theme was really fun and easy!

We All Scream For Birthdays

It's another birthday party theme! This time it was all about ice cream. The request was simple, "I want an ice cream birthday." My husband and I came up with this decor that put ice cream all over the room and had the distinct feel of an ice cream parlor.

We made giant ice cream cones using recycled brown paper bags that were shaped into a cone shape and taped an inflated pink balloon into the top. We also made small cones to stick on the walls. For the small cones we used a poke-a-dot brown wrapping paper from the dollar store and round wall decals for the ice cream portion.

Table decorations were simple, I bought a couple of sundae glasses at the dollar store and filled them with Baskin Robins ice cream flavored hard candies.

And last but not least, I made ice cream cone cup cakes. These were so easy to make. I have seen several variations, but I chose to make them by filling a standard muffin tin with my cake batter and then gently putting the cones on the top and cooking as normal. The rising batter filled the cones so that they stuck on well and then when inverted the cupcakes in the cones made a nice round shape.

Simple and fun, just the way we like birthday parties!

Bubble Gum Themed Birthday Party

We had a birthday party this weekend. This time the request was a bubble gum themed party. This really stretched the creativity. For the gum ball machine cake I baked a 9x9 square cake as well as a small round cake. I frosted the round cake in white and the square in red. Foil was used to give the allusion of a coin slot and gum balls were placed on the white round cake.

(my daughter got a "new" bike for her birthday that was a yard sale $10 score... it pays to hunt around!)

We hung bright colored foam circles on the walls and called them gum balls. I found a roll of pink trash bags at the dollar store and cut them into random "splat" shapes like popped bubbles. We had to use pink balloons to look like giant bubble gum bubbles.

My husband has had this gumball machine since he was a young boy and we set it out on the table as the the centerpiece. We also attached various bubble gum candies to her gifts.

And set out a small assortment of additional bubble gums. Check out those giant gum balls, it was interesting watching the kids try to devour those... and messy! The kids loved it.

I can't wait to see what my daughter thinks up for a theme next year, I'm sure she is already thinking about it. Each year we allow the kids to make a theme request and on the morning of their party they wake up to the surprise of how my husband and I have chosen to execute that theme. This was another inexpensive and fun birthday party.

Lego Birthday Party Theme on the Cheap

For my youngest son's birthday we created a Lego Themed Party. I enjoy creating birthday parties from inexpensive and homemade decorations. You won't often see Princess or Spiderman type parties at our house. We like to think outside the birthday box and create a birthday as inexpensively and creatively as we can. The Lego theme was very fun and inexpensive to create.

The Lego cakes were made from one solid 9x13 cake. Once cooled, I cut it into thirds and cut one of the sections again in half. I put the four sections on an inverted cookie sheet that was covered in foil. I then frosted the cakes with my primary colored frosting. The Lego "bumps" on the cakes were made from marshmallows cut in half and frosted to match the cakes.

Decorations were all primary colors and I bought the supplies at the dollar store. I used a solid colored plastic table cloth and blue and yellow streamers. To make the Legos that were hung on the walls I cut squares and rectangles out of colored paper and drew circles on them, inside each circle I wrote "Lego" as similar to the official Lego font as I could. I also bought small gift boxes at the dollar store and covered each half of them in primary paper. I then cut small circles from the paper as well as little rectangular strips of paper. I taped and glued them together to make raised Lego bumps on top of the paper covered boxes. My wonderful husband used poster board in three different colors to make three large Legos. He cut them in half and folded them into a box and made bumps using circles and rectangular strips. The last thing we did was hang real Legos from the ceiling using thread and clear tape.

Decoration cost= $7

While the party may not have turned out super "professional" in appearance, it was perfect for an 8 year old. In a child's eyes it was magical, and that is what truly matters for a kid's birthday party!



Thursday: Homemade French Bread

Snow Themed Birthday

In honor of being featured at my very first Penny Pinching Party, we're talking about parties today!

My youngest daughter requested a "snow" theme for her birthday. At first, I found myself a bit baffled by the request, but it turned out to be a fantastic birthday theme. This was the cheapest birthday party I have ever put together and made the most lasting impression in all of our memories. The whole family was involved in the decorations.

I started by hanging white crepe paper streamers around the room. The kids made paper snowflakes using computer printer paper and they each made a 12 inch tall snowman out of foam from the dollar store. My husband made the giant, 3-D, Paper snowflakes using the instructions that he found on www.wikiHow.com. We hung snowballs (cotton balls) from the ceiling using thread and used snowball flowers for the table center piece.

Her birthday cake was a simple round cake frosted in white and sprinkled with coconut. We put the cake on foil covered cardboard that my husband (the artist in the house) drew a snowflake shape on using honey and then we sprinkled over it with coconut.

We were able to wrap her presents in Christmas paper, which is always more readily available in our home than Birthday paper.

This is such a fun theme. The decorations cost $1; the only thing I needed to buy was a pack of white streamers. I highly recommend this for the next birthday party in your home at any time of year. Ours took place in the spring, but it would also be delightful for a summer birthday when everyone is so badly craving a bit of winter chill.