Unicorn Birthday Party

The Cake: For Claire's 3rd birthday, she requested a unicorn cake. I figured since it would be very girlie and flowery it was a perfect opportunity to try to fondant a cake and make gumpaste flowers. I found a marshmallow fondant (MMF) recipe from Peggy Weaver, and it worked just as she suggested. It was very easy to make, store, and shape. I used it to cover the cake and to make the letters and unicorn. My  5 year old daughter made the flowers using the Wilton gumpaste flower kit. The sides were hand-painted using food dye thinned with vodka.

The inside of the cake was a layered rainbow. The kids loved it. Very easy to do, just divide the cake batter into six bowls. Dye each one a different color using food dye. Layer the first 9" pan with red followed by orange, then yellow. Layer the second 9" pan with green, then blue, then purple. Don't pour the batter or it will mix the colors, rather gently spoon each layer onto the other.

The cake flavor was pink lemonade. There are many recipes online, but the best one I found was from the Real Mom Kitchen.

 

The Entertainment: Luckily I am very fortunate to have a close friend who runs a small farm. She owns a miniature horse and graciously allowed us to dress it as a unicorn and give rides to the kids.  I made this unicorn horn from felt, ribbon and hot glue. The horn was attached to the bridle using double sided Velcro tape. I also made rope flowers for the kids to hold. Rope flowers are easy, just buy cheap silk flowers from a craft store. Remove bulky stems and leaves from flowers. Cut a 1/4 ribbon to 1 yard in length and tie the flowers every inch or so. Use hot glue at the knot to secure them permanently.

The Favors: I bought unicorn goblets from CelebrateExpress.com and gave one to each child, along with a unicorn horn-shaped lollipop.

Rubber Ducky Party (1st birthday)

The Cake:
The rubber ducky cake was made using the Wilton 3D duck pan. The bubbles were piped using a large round tip. To get the blue and white icing effect for the bubbles, I put a stripe of blue food dye up the side of the pastry bag and then filled it with white royal icing. As you pipe the colors will mix. The entire duck, including the eyes, were iced with butter cream icing.

The Favors:
When we threw this party, Julia had very few friends her own age. The age of most of the kids were 9 months to 6 years old, so I turned the dining room table into craft central and let the kids make whatever they could at their skill level. Each kid was given a metal pail and shovel that they could decorate with foam stickers, glitter glue, and rhinestones. I made foam birthday party hats and let the kids decorate those as well. The girls cone hats were turned into "princess hats" by gluing some tulle (mesh) netting from the hole on the top. I also found a bunch of used crayons and melted them into my silicone heart cupcake pan to make jumbo rainbow crayons. That was a surprisingly big hit across the entire age range.

Pirate Party

Thanks to Disney's Jake and the Neverland Pirates, my daughter Julia wanted a pirate-themed party for her 5th birthday. It's a cute cartoon that Disney launched as part of their Disney Junior lineup, and my kids really enjoy it. There were some cute ideas on the Disney website for a themed party, but I didn't have enough time to make the quantity required for the large number of children attending her party. We compromised on making generic pirate invites and party favors, and placing handmade characters of Jake and his crew on the cake.

The Invites:
I used the "Life's a Party" cartridge for my Cricut machine. This is probably my favorite cartridge offered by Cricut. It has lots of designs for child parties, including pirates, princesses, and jungle animals. The icons can be used to make invitations, party favor boxes, party favors, and even cupcake wrappers. I used the skeleton icon with metallic paper for the invites. I embellished the pirate scarf with pink flowers and rhinestones, after all it is a girlie-pirate party.

The Attire:
Pirate-Chic. A very easy way to make children's hair accessories is to attach silk flowers to headbands. I always get my silk flowers on sale, and then remove all the plastic stems, centers, and leaves. Once you have just the fabric portion of the flower, push a brad pin through the center. The brad can be used to attach the flower to a ribbon, which can then be tied around headbands, ponytail bands, or barrettes. For this hair piece, I found a girlie pirate decal in the sewing section of the craft store and just glued it to the center of a black Gerber daisy.

The Booty:

I found all these party favors on the internet at Amazon.com and Orientaltrading.com. Each kid will get a bandanna, pirate pouch filled with jewels and gold doubloons, pirate tattoos, Silly Bandz and the best snack food ever...Pirate's Booty.

The Cake:
The cake was made using a pirate ship cake pan. In order to make the icing easier, I made a chocolate ganache and poured it over the cake. I used store bought gumpaste to make the crew of Jake and the Neverland Pirates. Painting detail was done with food dye thinned with Vodka and a fine paint brush. The netting, anchor and wheel were made by melting semi-sweet chocolate chips and piping it into shape. The children loved it.

 

Little Einsteins Themed Birthday

For Julia's third birthday we held a Disney's Little Einsteins themed party. My favorite part about the Little Einsteins is how they introduce children to classical music. It's very easy to host a party centered around music.

The cake was the iconic "Rocket" from the show. The top of the ship was a cake baked in a bowl. The bottom was an oval cut from a sheet cake. I used fondant to make the windows and lights. 


 Party Favors

I love getting favors that children will play with beyond just a few days after the party. For the favors this year I turned to my favorite store, Lakeshore Learners. They sell educational toys and teaching tools to teachers and the public.
I purchased egg shakers and rhythm sticks. I was able to buy a teacher's kit (20+) and divide them among the goodie bags for an inexpensive party favor.

The advice I'm always giving when hosting a party is to visit discount stores regularly, and when you see something worthwhile buy it and put it away.  Many months before Julia's party, I was at Ocean State Job Lot and they had a shipment of discontinued Little Einsteins books. They were only a dollar, so I bought twenty and put them away for her party. The children each got a very useful and fun party bag for less than $3 worth of items.

Toy Story Themed Birthday

In 2010, Toy Story 3 was THE summer movie, so of course the kids requested a Toy Story themed party.  The Disney magazine Family Fun had an article about making alien cupcakes. They were cute but I wanted to take it up a notch. I wanted something I could make ahead of time, and using gumpaste for the eyes, antennae and ears was a great solution.  Michael's craft stores sell Wilton's pre-made gumpaste and fondant in their cake decorating section.

I shaped the eyes using a melon baller, and when they dried, dotted them with a toothpick using black food dye. The ears were cut from gumpaste using a small leaf cookie cutter, with the endspinched so they could be inserted into the cupcake. The day of the party, I made the cupcakes, quickly frosted them green, and then attached all the pre-made decorations.  For the display I used a simple cupcake holder to which I attached a wooden dowel covered with aluminum foil and attached a claw (also aluminum foil). I centered the aliens around the claw so it appears like they were awed by the mysterious claw from the sky as they were in the movie. The kids loved it.

For the party bags I kept it really simple. I used cellophane bags and filled them with lollipops; toy story stickers, toy story sillybandz, and a toy story figurine. Sillybandz are a silicone bracelet that keep their shape. Being a rather marketable fad, they are sold in pretty much any theme now so they make great and inexpensive party favors. The figurines are also another inexpensive but great party favor. If you are having a Disney themed party, the Disney store sells figurine sets for around $10 and usually contain 8-12 related figurines. I purchased two of the Toy Story sets and allowed each child to pick their own toy as they left.

Under the Sea Theme Birthday

For Claire's first birthday we held an "Under-the-Sea" themed party.

I found the perfect cake pan at Williams-Sonoma. I recommend following the cake recipe that comes with the pan, since it is such an odd shaped pan.

I used brown sugar for the "sand". Not only was it yummy, but it made hiding the cake board easier. I used fruit-by-the-foot for seaweed accents. I like to involve the kids as much as possible when planning parties, so I bought some Marzipan and had the girls make sea figurines. Marzipan is an almond flavored dough, that molds easily. They made fish, shells, and mermaids. Even Julia (age 3) made an under-sea rock for her cake. They "painted" the figurines by dipping q-tips in food coloring.

For the party favors I found the cutest gift bags with fish on them at The Christmas Tree Shops. I always recommend searching the discount stores for party ideas. I filled them with fish-shaped bath toys, snack packs of Pepperidge Farm gold fish crackers, and Swedish Fish.

The activities were simple. It was the middle of July so we had a pool party. I filled a big plastic tub with water and miniature squirt guns. The tub makes it easier for the little ones to fill them by themselves without leaning precariously over the edge of a swimming pool.  Water balloons were also a big hit.