Finding Nemo 2nd Birthday

As I was putting together this cute cake for my niece, I was thinking back and was actually surprised that between my two kids I have never had a Nemo party!

 My kids both watched the movies, but never really loved them enough to want them for a
birthday party.

 She had a cute party and enjoyed the cake! It's always fun when their old enough to understand that the cake is just for them!

I especially loved the bright blue against the oranges and greens!

It was a fun theme, I enjoyed making a bright blue colorful cake in the middle of a wintery snowy week!

It's always fun to watch toddlers try to figure out why everyone is staring at them and singing

I also enjoyed making the fun invitations and birthday whiteboard sign,

available also in my Etsy Shop

What a happy birthday to this little cutie

Baby 1st Birthday Jungle Style

My little niece had her first birthday this weekend and I was  thrilled to be able to make her special cakes, as well as her birthday sign and invitation! It was fun because i was able to think up cake ideas as i was designing the invites, and then create everything to match! She wanted a cherry buttercream cake, so tried to add in some green and brown to counteract all the pink from the frosting.

Sweet pink monkey jungle invitatoin

 sweet monkey matching  the invite!

 custom birthday whiteboard jungle theme sign

 Beautiful birthday girl Olivia!

 Proud parents!

Luau in January

I can't think of a better time to have a Luau birthday party than in the dead middle of winter! Haha, actually I can think of many better times, but my daughter always picks the most convenient themes for her January birthday party, so January luau it was! Luckily, its such a popular item in the winter (catching my sarcasm?), at least most of it was on sale! When it was all up, I loved having all the bright colors and tropical themes all throughout my house, while it was cold and gray outside.

I may say lets have a January luau every year!!!

Out in the front of the house we had 4 torches burning to set the scene. I had purchased a hot coals runner that I had planned on lining the sidewalk up to the house with, but it didn't arrive in time. Once the guests entered the house they were greeted with our tiki bar table and waterfall that I had created running down our entryway staircase lined with twinkling fairy lights. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of it, it looked really great against all the bright colors.

You can kind of see the side of it in this pic.

 The guests were given a party bag with a little beach ball, coconut cup with an umbrella straw, tattoos and flowers for the girls hair

then they were able to pick out a grass skirt and flower lei to wear during the party.I worried about the skirts fitting all the different sizes of kids because they were just children's, but with the elastic waistband and velcro it fit everyone up to the 11 year olds!

those were all for the kids, but every guest at the party was given a lei, you have to set the scene for it to feel like your really at a luau, right?

 They then got to catch a wave in front of our giant wave background while we took their picture to later put in their frame, which was the craft project. We also had photo props for the photos. They included this Ukulele, shark fin and surf board

 Each child got to pick out a fun paper border and glue it to their wood frame, adding stickers, drawings and wooden dolphins or crab embellishments to go with their picture!

The food is the best part at a luau, right? I made sure that color was the main ingredient on the dessert table, incorporating all different bright colors to be highlighted against the turquoise tablecloth

 Sea shells on the sand chocolate covered oreos

 flip flop nutter butters

 candy sea glass

 raspberry macaroons with lime and candied ginger filling

 chocolate covered flip flop oreos- I didn't want to double up treats, but these always go so fast and I loved the color combination!

 Must have pina coladas at any tropical suarez- Pina colada cupcakes

 Roasting "gummy" Pigs on a skewers

 Beach ball cake pops

 Marshmallow cut plumeria flowers

 Now onto the real food (unless your me, the real food is dessert- who are we kidding!) I just loved the ability to have macadamia nuts and pretty wood serving platters so I pulled out all the dishes from my travels and visited my local Hawaiian Hut!

 Dole whip Luau Punch- almost as good as Disneyland's. Recipe below

 One of the favorites- Bacon wrapped pineapple skewers. We tried to do almost everything in finger style portions so it was more like a luau buffet so people could snack on a little of everything. 

 super yummy fruit dip served in a hallowed out pineapple

 loads and loads of tropical fruits sprinkled with fresh orchids

and the pulled Kahlua pork..... oh the pork! it had an amazing sauce on it from the Hawaiian Hut, custom made made the Polynesian family that owns it, Throw it all in the slow cooker for 9 hours then shred the life out of it! Mmmmmm

 While the kids played, we had tattoo stations for them to visit as well

I usually try to make cakes my own design, but my daughter was in love and had to have this exact cake, so I copied it from a beautiful one she found on pinterest.

 Birthday girl and her bright pink hibiscus cake!

If you haven't had a luau party, I highly recommend one! Especially in the dead of winter! 

Dole Luau Juice

Ingredients: (this makes 2 big batches of punch)

2- 12 ounce cans orange juice concentrate (thawed a bit)

1- 12 ounce can lemonade concentrate (thawed a bit)

1- 46 ounce can Dole pineapple juice

6 cups water

2 cups sugar

6 ripe bananas  

2- 2 liter bottles of 7 up (add when ready to serve)