I am so excited to share with you my daughter’s Princess Garden Party themed 3rd birthday party. For the second year in a row, we were very fortunate to have wonderful weather for her birthday party which meant I was able to have everything out in our backyard as planned.
When it comes to Disney Princesses, it can be hard to pick a favorite – especially when you’re two!
Since going to Disneyland in February, my 2 year old daughter’s fondness for all things princess has turned into a full fledged obsession. I won’t lie, it totally makes my heart swell and I can’ help but oblige her obsession when I see how happy it makes my little girl. Our Disneyland trip was amazing all on it’s own, but to see it through her little eyes and experience her excitement truly made it magical for my husband and I.
When it came to picking a theme for her upcoming third birthday, it was pretty obvious. But, there are many directions one could go when it comes to princesses. Last year I did a Snow White themed party and my husband suggested I just stick with one princess again this year to keep our options open for future parties. While it is a very wise suggestion, when it came to nailing down Keira’s favorite Disney princess it wasn’t a clear cut answer.
I finally came across these paper plates at the Dollar store and decided I would use them as the inspiration for my party planning. I decided to work with Cinderella, Rapunzel and Belle as my princesses, throwing in Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) for good measure!
I didn’t want the party completely over-run by the princess theme so I am incorporating a lot of flowers and garden aspects in to create a more of a Garden Party theme.
I am hoping to host the party in the backyard and am keeping my fingers crossed for good weather. At this time last year our yard was nothing but bare dirt, and my husband has worked incredibly hard to create a space we can enjoy. His latest project was building the kids play structure and I am hoping it helps to keep the kids entertained at the party! It has been up less then a month and you can see by the worn grass under the swings and slides it has already been well used by our kids and their neighborhood friends.
I still have a lot of DIY details to tackle, but I am too excited about the way my princess inspired flowerpots are turning out to not share a sneak peek of a couple of them:
I have a couple more weeks to finish up all my crafts and have everything ready to transform our backyard into a garden party worthy of my favorite little princess! I am excited with the way everything is turning out and can’t wait to share all the party details with you after the big day.
Have you ever planned a princess party? Please comment with your favorite party detail or ideas!
One of my favorite party purchases last year has to be these Aladdin brand mason jar style drink dispensers from Walmart. I bought them on a whim last year before my daughters birthday party and will admit that I was a bit skeptical of quality for the $10 price tag. I even kept the receipt on hand just in case I experienced leaking spout issues like I have had with other inexpensive drink dispensers I have purchased in the past.
After a full summer of use, I am happy to report my two are still holding up well. I love the smaller size of these jars which makes it easy to offer a few different drink options at smaller gatherings, and they fit nicely in my fridge to keep iced tea or lemonade on hand during the hot summer months. With the addition of some fresh citrus slices or cut fruit, they also make a beautiful addition to any party table.
If you are planning to host any barbeques, parties or gatherings this summer I highly recommend these dispensers. They are in this weeks Walmart flyer and I am tempted to go buy a third to have on hand as a back-up. I look forward to using ours this summer to keep the kids hydrated while playing outside and maybe to try a yummy sangria recipe or two for myself!
When my good friend asked me to help with her daughter’s baby shower it was an easy yes. I knew she would be undergoing back surgery just a few weeks before the shower so it was a good way for me to lend a hand during her recovery period. She also gave me plenty of months notice which always makes it that much easier to agree to.
It was nice to be able to help out a friend by doing something I love, and lucky for me she trusted me enough to pass full creative control over. I had attended the gender reveal party so I knew the baby was going to be a girl and spent a lot of time perusing pinterest to try and come up with the perfect girly theme. I had seen these chevron printed tablecloths at Target that I loved, so I decided to pick a couple of them up to use for the food table. The baby is due in April so my mind went to April Showers which helped me settle on a rainbow theme using the color scheme from the tablecloths.
My main decoration was a large rainbow and clouds I crafted to hang on the wall. The clouds were simply cut from white foamcore and I created the rainbow by winding colored streamers around tubes of foam plumbing insulation. I was able to find the foamcore at the dollar store and the insulation tubes were reused from the Olympic Rings I had crafted for my sons birthday party last year, making it a very inexpensive party decoration.
Guests were greeted into the hall with a simple sign I designed to match my rainbow decoration. Inside, they were invited to make their mark on a fingerprint guestbook and help create a lasting reminder of the day for the sweet momma-to-be. I have always loved the idea of a fingerprint guestbook and I thought fingerprints lent well to becoming little raindrops under my rainbow and cloud graphic.
Alongside the guestbook were cards where everyone could write their wishes for baby, and then place them into an adorable pink mailbox I found on clearance after Valentine’s day.
The guest of honor’s best friend also set up a Guess Mommy’s Tummy game where guests cut a piece of yarn to the size they thought would fit around the mommy’s waist. Her sweet 4 year old niece ended up being the closest and the consensus was that it was a direct result of how much time she spends hugging the little cousin growing in auntie’s tummy. 🙂
I found some cute watering cans at the Dollar Store and filled them with a fake rose arrangement to use on the food table. The baby’s name will include “Rose” so it seemed fitting. I also did some quick subway art with the phrase “Love makes good things grow”.
The heart and raindrop shaped sugar cookies were baked and decorated by myself. They were a bit time consuming, but I was really happy with the way they looked piled on the small platters throughout the table.
The cupcakes were ordered through Walmart and finished off with cloud shaped toppers I baked out of meringue. They fit perfectly with the theme and I was pleasantly surprised just how darn tasty those Walmart cupcakes were! I normally bake my own, but I might have to keep them in mind for my next party.
The fruit was displayed as a rainbow and served with clouds of white chocolate creamcheese dip from heart shaped bowls I bought at Dollar Tree. I tried to keep to my color scheme and used strawberries, blueberries, red grapes, watermelon balls and fresh pineapple.
One other fun detail I “borrowed” from Pinterest were these tiny umbrella’s from half a round of Babybel cheese and a plastic bendy straw. I had the straws trimmed down ahead of time so it was easy to cut the cheese in half and assemble them right before the party.
I always find shower games tricky so I decided to reuse one of the ideas from my sister’s Elephant themed baby shower. Everyone there seemed to enjoy the baby version of Price is Right, so I decided to revamp my artwork and use it again at this shower.
The printables were designed with the color scheme in mind and I think the best part of the game was watching the momma-to-be try to match the price tags to the right products. She did fairly well, only mixing up a couple of the prices.
It turned out to be a lovely afternoon and I loved the way all my details came together to give a bright pop of color and remind us that Spring and other good things are on the way!
Momma-to-be was beyond spoiled by all her close family and friends and should now be more then ready to welcome that sweet baby girl into the world in the upcoming weeks. I can’t wait to meet her!
My little guy’s love of all things Mario has not faded in the past few months, so when it came time to start planning his 5th birthday he was very confident in what he wanted for his party theme. I grew up playing Mario on original NES and knew it was something I could have a lot of fun with so I was more then happy to go along with his request.
The invite was a simple 5″X7″ single sided card that incorporated a picture of the birthday boy in his Mario costume and the bright graphics seen in the Super Mario video games.
The party ended up being just 4 days after we returned from our Disneyland trip so I had to be organized and do a lot of the decorating and DIY projects before we left.
To try and keep costs down after the trip, we ended up hosting his party in our home this year. I still wanted it to be special so I used it as my motivation to complete some of the half finished projects in the basement and create a fun space for the kids to play during the party.
One big project was the painting of the racetrack on the cement floor. Our house is plenty big enough that we don’t need to finish the basement as another living area, but I did want to make it a fun spot for the kids. I still have touch-ups to complete, but the painted floor makes the basement feel so much more inviting and finished.
The kids each got a Plasma Car for Christmas and they just happened to be red and green so I decided to add on the red Mario “M” and a green “L” for Luigi so the kids could have Kart races during the party. These work great on the cement floor and I will admit to even have taken one for a spin around the newly painted track.
The basement walls were also a blank canvas so I also decided to paint two of them with blue and green and then cut some bush shapes and printed Mario themed figures out of paper to stick overtop. The final additions were large white clouds cut from sheets of foam core and the Mario item boxes I constructed to hang on the wall. It turned out better then I pictured and I love that our basement now looks like something straight out of a video game!
The brick and item boxes on the wall read out “Camden is 5”. These were built from foamcore and contained a fun activity and surprise for the party. I made each box as a separate box with tissue paper access for our guests to punch through and their loot bag items to spill out of.
The loot bag items included K’nex Mario figure mystery bags, Mario themed fruit snacks, chocolate coins, bubble gum tape, finger lasers and some other small Mario candies I found in the Valentine’s section at Dollar Tree. I also gave each guest a card game set as they were leaving.
To collect all the items that spilled out of their punch box, the kids each received one of these mushroom bags I made by gluing a paper mushroom top and eyes to a small paper bag.
For the food table, I used a pre-printed tablecloth and partyware ordered from Birthday Express. The centerpiece block was created from foamcore and I made piranha plants by inserting cut-out paper images into flower pots I picked up at Ikea.
The party started at 1pm so I wanted some light snacks, rather then a full meal. I decided on pizza rolls, pigs in a blanket and other simple kid-friendly finger foods.
One of my favorite food details was the idea I came up with to turn the Babybel cheese into Mario hats.
The firepower veggie platter was easy to put together and a fun way to get some veggies into the kids. Mine included yellow bell pepper, baby carrots, grape tomatoes, celery, broccoli and cucumber. Having now planned quite a few kids parties, I have learned that the cucumber always is the first to go and I make sure to include it in any kind of veggie platter I might be making for kids.
The piranha plant fruit skewers were simple to make and went over well with the kids. I filled my flower pot with honey dew melon balls to stick the skewers into and threaded the grapes and strawberries onto wooden coffee stir sticks so there were no sharp points for the kids to hurt themselves with.
For sweet treats, I had originally intended to make star shaped sugar cookies, but the Rice Krispie treats were easier and still turned out pretty cute once I piped on melted chocolate eyes.
I have become obsessed with meringue cookies and included them on the food table for my last few parties. They are easy to whip up with just a few ingredients and can be piped into a variety of shapes like the clouds I made here.
Chocolate Cadbury Mini Eggs labelled as Yoshi Eggs and gummy bananas with a Donkey Kong label also made for some quick and easy Nintendo themed treats on the table.
For your own printable copy of my food labels, click here: mariopartyfoodlabels_dolledupdesign
And, of course there was birthday cake! For the cake, I decided to use my giant cupcake pan and try to make a mushroom. I was intending to make the top red, but the birthday boy requested his favorite color green and I didn’t see any good reason to convince him otherwise. To make the white spots on the mushroom top, I simply took my rolling pin to some large marshmallows. It is not perfect, but I was pretty happy with the end result.
One final fun detail were the Hawaiian Punch drink bottles I transformed into Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach with paper labels. They were a hit sipped up through moustache and crown drinking straws. To see more pictures and print your own free bottle labels, please visit my Mario Party Drinks guest post over on Moms and Munchkins.
This was a fun party to plan and I love how excited my boy got over seeing all the small details. I am afraid I am creating a bit of a party monster, though, because as we were food shopping for the party he began picking out items and telling me how I could transform them to fit the theme. “Just add a Luigi hat and me and my friends can have these yogurt drinks at my party!” I absolutely love his enthusiasm and it definitely makes all the planning, painting, crafting and baking worthwhile.
Happy Birthday Camden!
Are you planning a Mario themed party? These adorable treat filled mushroom favors are enough to excite any Nintendo-loving fan.
Check out the full DIY Mario Mushroom Favors tutorial as my guest post over at Moms and Munchkins today.
I am so excited to share my all the details from my Rudolph party with you today! I love bringing my ideas to life and seeing a party vision come together.
For this party, I had hoped to do something in the weeks leading up to Christmas but found it incredibly hard to plan something with all the other parties and obligations people have at this time of year. As Christmas day approached, I still really wanted to execute some of the ideas I had come up with in my Rudolph Treats inspiration post and decided to put some snacks and treats together to enjoy with my family on Christmas Day. My niece had also just turned one just a few days before Christmas, so I thought it was the perfect excuse to subject my family members to my party planning craziness.
For Christmas day, I had already planned to put out some light snacks to munch on in the afternoon and tide everyone over until it was time for turkey dinner. Putting a Rudolph spin on everything wasn’t that much extra effort and the little details really helped add to the excitement of the day.
The turkey pinwheels were made the day before and simply had to be sliced and arranged on the plate. Using green tortilla’s and finishing the stack off with a star cut from a yellow bell pepper made for a cute little Christmas tree next to my stuffed abominable toy.
Then, with the help of some pre-made tart shells, my Bumble-Berry Tarts were another clever tribute to everyone’s favorite abominable monster.
We also enjoyed a variety of sliced cheese, meat and Christmas shaped crackers to snack on. The Santa belts around the Babybel cheese were a little over the top, but they were a huge hit with the kids.
My maraschino cherry “dirt covered red noses” and reindeer hooves went over well, but one of the most popular items was the cranberry baked brie. You can’t go wrong with melted, gooey cheese and the touch of cranberry and pecans gave it that festive touch.
My fruit and vegetable platters got a holiday spin by arranging them into a Christmas tree and a wreath. The tree shaped pan for the fruit was a foil cake pan I came across at the Dollar Store and filled with red and green fruits.
These meringue hats were my second attempt at meringue cookies and they are surprisingly easy thanks to the help of my KitchenAid stand mixer to effortlessly whip the egg whites. My first batch were labelled as dwarf hats for my Snow White Picnic Party and these ones were layered in red and blue as an ode to Hermey the elf’s iconic hat.
I had planned to bake and decorate a cake, but ended up cutting it out for the sake of my own sanity. Between everything shown here, and an entire turkey dinner to cook Christmas day, it just ended up being too much.
Since we were celebrating my niece’s birthday I still wanted some type of cake, which luckily cake in the form of the Rudolph themed cupcake decorating kit I had tucked away after getting it on clearance after last Christmas.
My punch ended up a lot less white/clear then I was hoping, but it still worked as Sam the Snowman. My original plan was to use a plain round glass vase, but I found this great glass cookie jar that couldn’t have been more perfect to add the mustached face to – the lid even works as his hat!
I also was happy with the way my tissue paper wrapped glass vase turned out looking like a Santa sack to hold Yukon Cornelius’ silver and gold wrapped chocolates.
And, if all this wasn’t enough of my favorite red-nosed Reindeer for one day, I also had the joy of unwrapping a Build-A-Bear Rudolph from my son and a stuffed Clarice from my daughter on Christmas morning. My son was so excited to give the gift to me and I love that my husband took the effort to go to the mall with the kids and have them each build a reindeer for me. |He let them pick out the clothing and I think they really show each of the kids personalities. I look forward to having these guys out on all our Christmases to come.
I hoped you have enjoyed looking! This food table was a lot of fun to plan and hopefully I have given you some easy ideas for your party planning next holiday season.
And, to host your own Rudolph the Red Nosed themed Christmas or Holiday party, I have made things easy by providing all the free printables. Just click on the link below to take you to the goodies!
This Holiday Season the classic Christmas tale of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is celebrating it’s 5oth anniversary. It is my all time favorite Christmas special and the anniversary this year just gives one more reason to whip up some holiday treats and enjoy the movie with family and friends! Here are some of my favorite food ideas inspired by the Red Nosed Reindeer and his misfit friends.
1. These Reindeer Paws and Noses Christmas Treats from Oriental Trading are an absolute must. They would be so simple to make and are adorable displayed out on a platter.
2. Speaking of Reindeer noses, one memorable scene from the movie is when Donner tries to cover up Rudolph’s shiny red nose with mud. I love chocolate covered cherries this time of year and think they would make the perfect mud covered Rudolph noses!
3. How cute are these Laughing Cow cheese reindeer from Project Denneler? It is always nice to have some savory options amongst all the sweets at this time of year and these couldn’t be easier thanks to a couple pretzels and some olives.
4. Another fun idea with cheese, these Santa Belt Babybel over on Cute Food For Kids would be something you could make up well ahead of time. Babybel’s always seem to be a hit with kids and adults alike.
5. What better to serve with cheese then some festive crackers? I love these Ritz Holiday Crackers and Snowflake’s from Christie and have a few boxes tucked away in my pantry for upcoming holiday gatherings.
6. Dips are always a hit on a party table, so why not try this festive Cream Cheese Cranberry Dip from Julie’s Eats & Treats.
7. This Mexican inspired Triple Layer Guacamole Creamy Cotija and Confetti Salsa Party Dip from SoupAddict looks as tasty as it is beautiful with its bright holiday colors.
8. Looking to get your veggies in? This Christmas Wreath Vegetable Platter from Divine Health couldn’t be any cuter!
9. The wreath idea could also be used with fruit, or you could try an easy Tree Shaped Platter as seen on Little Wonders’ Days.
10. Pinwheels make for the perfect party food. This towering stack of Southwestern Pinwheels from TiramiSusie’s reminds me of the scene near the end of the movie where the Abominable places the star atop the large Christmas tree in Santa’s workshop.
11. Yukon Cornelius spends the movie searching for silver and gold, so why not put out a selection of silver and gold wrapped chocolates? This idea was inspired by the platter of gold and silver chocolate Sweet Cheeks Tasty Treats had at their Goonies Party.
12. Sweet Cheeks Tasty Treats also has these amazing Bumble Cake Pops on their site. I really wish I had the time and patience to create amazing cake pops!
13. With my basic cake decorating skills, I think I could pull off a Snowglobe Cake like this fabulous one on Taste of Home. With a few Rudolph figurines and a small round glass bowl, it should be simple enough to pull off. My adorable new Rudolph ornament from Target might work perfect.
14. We also can’t forget Hermey. These Santa Hat Meringues on Frugal Coupon Living could be made as is, or you could layer red and blue to recreate Hermey’s iconic elf hat from the movie.
15. What is a Christmas get together without candy canes or peppermint? These Mini Peppermint Cream White Chocolate Cheesecake Tarts from Lauren’s Latest just looked far too delicious to NOT include on my list. They are sweet and dainty like the girl elves on the movie.
16. As an ode to the misfit Water Pistol who shoots grape jelly, you could make these Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer Sandwiches as seen at made from pinterest.
17. One other Misfit inspired idea might be to label Chicken wings as Ostrich wings in honour of the Ostrich riding cowboy on the Island of Misfit Toys.
18. And there’s always room for J-E-L-L-O! The Pioneer Women’s red and green layered Christmas Finger Jello looks so festive and fun.
19. For drinks, an ice cream based white punch would fit the bill. The punch bowl could even be given a mustached face reminiscent of Sam the narrating snowman following this easy tutorial The Style Sisters have provide for their Olaf punch bowl.
20. A hot cocoa bar is also a good choice at this time of year. How cute is this one from Amy’s Party Ideas with the Rudolph shaped marshmallow Peeps?!
21. And, finally, the adult guests might appreciate these Rein-beer as seen on The CreativiDee Workshop.
22. Or, perhaps, one of these Reindeer Games Martini from Bar Products.
I hope you have enjoyed my roundup and I have been able to give you some inspiration for hosting your own Rudolph or Christmas themed party. As always, you can see more great ideas compiled on my pinterest board.
I love any excuse for a party. Unfortunately having only two kids means only two birthday parties to plan during the year, and I now find myself looking for ways to fill that lull between their birthdays.
Cue the playdate!
As mentioned in my Foam Ball Teddy Bear Craft post, my daughter and son both ended up having Teddy Bear picnic themed days in the same week for her dance and his preschool class. I love the teddy bear picnic theme and already had quite a few party supplies I could reuse so I decided to take advantage of the theme and host a lunch playdate after preschool on a Thursday afternoon.
To pull off my theme, I didn’t need to look much further than my party supply closet and the kids toy box. The grass print plastic tablecloth and cardboard picnic basket were leftovers from my daughters 2nd birthday, the trees and white picket fence were used at my sisters Gnome themed bridal shower, and the teddy bears were the kids. Other items such as platters, jars and baskets were all things I have slowly added to my collection over the past several parties.
Besides food, the only party supplies I really ended up buying were a couple blue and green checked tablecloths and foam balls from the Dollar Store, some brown and cream paper plates, plastic cutlery, a bit of scrapbook paper and the adorable bear shaped treat containers I used for favors.
To Doll Up my plain paper plates, I cut ears from scrapbook paper and stapled them to each of the plates. For a quick and inexpensive banner, I embellished a few of the plates with blue paper bows and strung a them up on a ribbon behind the food table. For more color and interest, I folded some quick pinwheels from the same blue paper and alternated those with the teddy bears on my banner.
My adorable “Please Feed The Bears” sign was a bit of a last minute addition and I am so glad I took the little bit of extra time to create it. All it required was a bit of acrylic paint to handpaint the words onto strips of kraft colored cardstock. From there, I simply glued them onto a dowel and inserted it into a small flower pot I had on hand.
The foods were each labelled with some quick tent cards I made up using the cute bear graphics from the invitation.
I tried to keep the menu simple and kid friendly while sticking with the Teddy Bear Picnic theme. We had bear shaped peanut butter & jelly Cub Sandwiches, Honey Bear Ham Buns, Veggies with Dip, Chocolate Pretzel Twigs and Fresh Bearies, Bear Paw cookies, and Teddy Grahams. For drinks, I made up a quick Very Beary punch.
My favorite food item by far was the Toffee Apple Cheesecake Dip. The dip was easy to prepare the night before and it paired deliciously with granny smith apples I sliced up right before the party. Get my recipe here.
I also finally made this recipe for Ham and Cheese Sliders that I have pinned forever from The Girl Who Ate Everything. I loved that I could have them prepared ahead of time and just pop them into the oven for a few minutes right before my guests came over. They tasted great and, as a bonus, I even had leftovers for dinner that night! If you are looking for food to serve at your next party or even a quick dinner idea, I highly recommend these.
I like to send my guests home with a little something and when I remembered seeing these adorable bear shaped containers I knew they would work perfect with the theme. They came in packs of two in the baby section at Dollar Tree for just $1.25 and made the perfect little favors once filled with mini gummy bears.
It was a great afternoon. I finally got to show off our lovely home to some of the ladies have been hearing about for the last year and a half, the kids played so nicely together and I actually got to enjoy some adult conversation.
Thanks to things I already had on hand, this is one of the simplest parties I have thrown together but I think it is one of my favorites because it turned out so cute!
For more tips on how I pulled off this cute party without breaking the bank, check out my guest post at Moms & Munchkins.
And be sure to head on over to Pinterest to check out all kinds of other great ideas on my Teddy Bear Picnic Board.
We have been in our new house about 6 months now and while I adore our beautiful new house, it is the neighbourhood that I have really fallen in love with. We are in the perfect little cul de sac filled with young children. Most of our summer has been spent with the kids running around outside and getting beyond dirty while playing with the neighbour kids. Camden loves all his new friends and the older kids have all been amazing with little Keira.
We have met all the neighbours individually, but I really wanted to do something that got everyone out together and socializing at once. Since we, and the other neighbours, all seem to plan to be here long term, I want to try and foster these relationships and keep things as positive as possible between us. The typical block party potluck and barbeque seemed like a lot of hassle and I do love a good sweets table, so I came up with the idea of hosting a small Ice Cream Social right on our front driveway.
To begin, I designed some cute invites I could print off at the Walmart photo centre as 4×6″ photos. I had already bought some paper sundae cups in red and blue so I decided to use that as the beginning of my color scheme for the invites and the party, adding in touches of pink and chocolate brown for accents. I chose to have it on a weekday evening since most people tend to be busy during the summer weekends.
Other printables I ended up making included a couple framed signs for the table, stickers for the topping jars and paper toppers for the chalk favors I made up for the kids.
I wanted to keep the decorations cheap and simple so I made up some quick tissue puffs in the party colors and added cardboard waffle cone bowls to make them look like sundaes. They added a fun touch to our garage door and helped make the driveway festive.
I was also kind of proud of my brilliant idea to hang the decorations using magnets hot glued to the back of each one. This made it easy to throw them up right before the party and take down right afterwards.
To try and keep party costs down I looked to the closet full of supplies I have amassed from other parties. The picture frames, crates, tablecloths, cake stands, trays, jars and berry baskets were all items I had used on previous sweet tables and was happy to find use for again.
I wanted to offer a wide variety of toppings so that there would be a little something for everyone. My final menu included chocolate and vanilla ice cream, sprinkles, mini M&M’s, Skor bits, gummy bears, crushed oreos, fresh strawberries, mini chocolate chip cookies, brownie crumbles, maraschino cherries, whipped cream, and three types of syrup; chocolate, caramel and strawberry.
The kids favorite by far was the mini gummy bears, but I think they all tried to cram a little of everything into their tiny sundae bowls.
Most of the toppings were bought at the bulk foods or grocery store, but I did decide to also do a bit of baking. When I found these Chocolate Chip Cookie Bites from Cooking Classy, I knew they were too cute not to have on my table.
The cupcakes baked into mini cones are something I have done in the past and knew would be a cute addition to the table. I simply poured confetti cake batter (prepared from a box) into mini ice cream cones and baked as I would a mini cupcake. They were frosted with homemade buttercream I flavored with a packet of Cotton Candy flavored Duncan Hines Flavor Creations.
It was a perfect evening. The adults all seemed to have a good time and I know the kids loved every moment of it. Most of them were around outside as I was setting it out and were counting down the minutes until 7:00 when they knew they could dig in. Once the kids were happy and fed, they took off running around and the adults were able to actually sit and enjoy a conversation. Some of the neighbours had just moved in so it was the perfect opportunity to really get to know them and introduce them to everyone else in the cul de sac.
My 4 year old was beaming with pride earlier in they day as the kids all discussed coming over to his for an ice cream party and he had a giant grin that evening as he sat between his two friends enjoying his sundae. I know a lot of people don’t think they notice or care about all the little details, but they are all part of the overall experience that makes it special for the kids. To see the joy in my kids and everyone else’s face is all I needed to confirm that my little bit of effort was worth it.
This was an easy party to pull together and I highly recommend hosting your own ice cream social if you are wanting to do something to get to know your neighbours better or want a fun idea for a playdate or birthday party. If you hop on over to Moms & Munchkins, you can find tips I have put together for How to Host an Ice Cream Social and it evens includes a handy supply checklist based on the items I used here.
I am already in planning mode for next year and am continually adding ideas to my Ice Cream Party Pinterest board. If you have any great ideas, please feel free to share win the comments below!
dolledupdesign.net 
