icarly cake

I have not posted in FOREVER.. I lost my passwords .. I am about 4 birthdays behind~ However.. today my daughter and I worked on her 8th birthday cake. She wanted an icarly cake. There were not a lot of ideas out there.. so we used a few we found and created our own. This year she was able to help with the fondant and had a blast~I let go a little of my controlling side also and let her design the label for the computer :) It is buttercream icing and premade fondant from Walmart that we colored ourselves. We used a biscuit cutter for the circles, wilton star cut outs for the stars.. the small circles are the top of an icing tip holder.. the computer is from her American Girl Doll Collection. I hope this helps anyone out there who needs help with an icarly cake.. I know we looked forever for things~ BEST OF LUCK and most important. have fuN~~ This was a slumber party full of painted nails, dancing etc. like on I carly. The main event was an art project since Spencer is an artist. I have also attached pictures of our art projects!

Pirate Birthday/ Water Park

Where we live it gets very hot during the summer. However, along with this hot weather comes some great places around town for birthday parties. We have a local water park that is great for all ages and the best part it is FREE!! So, this year we had decided to have a Pirate Birthday. What better place to have Pirate Party than a place with WATER!! To prepare for the big day we made invitations using clipart and made them at home using some wording I found in the internet. I had Kinkos run them on stockpaper to make them look nicer. I found so many items at the local dollar tree for activities and party favors during the party. I decorated the tables with pirate clothes from Target and plates from Target. They were very cute! I usually make the cakes, but when having a Pirate Party I just can't pass up the great deal Kroger has on their Pirate Cake. It is adorable and comes with a patch or the Party boy! Each child received a bucket and large soaker as they arrived to the party. They had free play with their toys for the first 1 of the party. We then had pizza, chips, cake and ice cream. Afterwards we opened presents and had more free play. As the children left I had GIANT Pirate coloring books from the Dollar Tree for them to take up. It was such an easy, inexpensive, and mostly cute party. If you do not have the local parks in your area you could always do a water theme in your yard with slip and slides, sprinklers, water balloons, etc. Hope you gained some ideas for a Summer Pirate Party.

Great Cake Toppers!

Great cake toppers are right in your bathroom! YEAP>> I said bathroom.. Save your kids old bath bubble toppers.. They make great characters for your little ones cakes.. They are larger than the little ones you usually get so they stand out more.. plus.. you probably already have a few laying around.. so start snagging them when the bubbles are gone..

Cakes

I have recently become very interested in doing my own cakes.. I am by no means a pro.. but my kids really love watching me do this and i recommend anyone who is interested to atleast try it..
Here are a few cakes I have made in the last few months.. I am currently working on designing a cake for a friend who is having a baby shower...

Dora the Explorer!

Rachel's 3rd birthday was DORA! Every 3 year old loves Dora! I almost did it for her 2nd, but decided to wait until her 3rd. This is the first party she really remembered and it started the love of birthday partying in her! I found a coloring sheet on the internet and pasted it into Word. I lined up the back for the writing and the inventation said this... Rachel's turning 3 on March 13th I'm the Map, I'm the Map, I'm the Map. The party starts at 12:30. I'm the Map, I'm the Map, I'm the Map. We will party on 4563 Corie Lee. I'm the Map, I'm the Map, I'm the Map. Please be sure to RSVP. I'm the Map, I'm the Map, I'm the Map. Dora, Rachel, and Boots hope to see you there!
I had each one copied onto purple card stock. I then cut them out around the backpack and mailed them out! So easy!
Now. . .preparing for her party was little more work! I made a map just like on Dora that had 3 stations. I had Rachel's cake set out on the table with a huge lock and chain holding it shut in the box. My brother made animal balloons while we waited for all the guest to arrive. Of course, everone kept asking why is her cake locked up? Well... my husband made the Swiper noise in the other room and said You'll never find the key now!... I cued in and said Oh no! Swiper took the key to the cake! After the kids ooh.. oh noed, etc.. I said who do we ask for help when don't know which way to go? All the kids shouted THE MAP! I pulled out the Map from a backpack and opened it. I read it and it said to find Rachel's key you need to go through the Candy Jungle, up the Bubble Tower, then you will find the key in the dark cave. I set each place up in a different bedroom. Before setting off to find the key each child got 1 drawstring backpack with a flashlight in it. Jungle Room.. I hung lots of green crape paper from the ceiling with scotch tape ( no damage that way) just straight down about 2 feet off the floor. Then I dumped lots of suckers on the floor for the Candy Forest. I told the kids to find all the red suckers. (ofcourse the younger ones that didn't know their colors just grabbed suckers). Then we got our map backout and read it together. My 4 year old neice was very keen on this she kept shouting the next place because she could tell from the pictures. Bubble Tower - I had my husband get this going while we went over the map. When we opened the door to the Bubble Tower there were Bubbles EVERYWHERE! I used my handy bubble machine (nec for so many parties) . The kids had to pop all the bubbles before we could leave. We stayed in there a few minutes.. when it was time I turned it off when they weren't looking and eventually all the bubbles were gone! I also gave each child a small container of bubbles for their bag. Again, we got out our map.. and went to the Dark Cave. I choose my darkest bedroom and kept the blinds shut with no lights. My husband, bless him for letting me give him such long HONEY DO list, spray painted two large boxes black. Each child used their flashlight to crawl through the cave .. At the end they got to pick one key off the floor. Then we lined up to see who found the key to the cake. I made sure it wasn't the birthday girl, I wanted a guest to have the honor. Once the cake was open we ate! We also had tacos, cheese dip, and quesdillas to match the Spanish theme.
I also put out an easle with a canvas I painted with different squares. Each child painted their handprint and put their name on it for Rachel to keep to remember her friends from her party. Their goody bags were the treats they had collect during our hunt. It was really an awesome party that went soo well!

Bug Birthday Party Ideas!

Hunter's 2nd Birthday was so much fun to plan! I knew I wanted it outside because the weather is really starting to get pretty around his birthday. I thought bugs was perfect for him since he was at the age he began noticing the differences in animals, fish, and CREATURES! I made the inventations on my computer. I found some cute kiddie clip art of a jar with bugs in it. I wrote Let's Bug Out and Celebrate Hunter's 2nd Birthday! I cut the jars out so the inventation was the shape of the jar and put stickets of bugs on the envelopes. I had a lot of trouble finding a good cake so I had to get creative. I went to Dollar Tree and Walmart and found huge plastic bugs. I order a chocolate on chocolate cake. I put the big bugs all over the cake. I also made cupcakes since the kids were younger so they could grab them and eat them. The adults at the big cake. For ice cream I took chocolate ice cream and put them it in clear cups. I then crushed up oreos and poured them on top and place gummy worms coming out of the cups. The kids LOVED THEM! All around the back yard I had bugs and garden bug items I found cheap at Walmart and Dollar Tree. The main table had green on it with bugs all around too. I even put some in the chips and stuff. The kids had bug juice to drink too (green Kool aid). We played in the backyard and had 1 craft. I only did 1 craft because most of the kids were soo young I knew the parents would have to help. I bought concrete and decorative stones. each child got to make a garden stone with their hands/feet/ and the gems to put in their garden with the bugs. For party favors I found bug containers that came with magifying glasses, and bug tongs. I put stickers and plastic bugs in them also. The kids also took home their garden stones. I wrote a thank you note and put it in each container that said Thanks for bugging out with me! Love, Hunter
It was a very cute theme for a little boy! I still love looking at the pictures of the cake!

Little Mermaid/Ocean Party Ideas Pump it UP

There were soo many ideas out there for this party I had trouble! Luckily, Rachel really wanted a pump it up Ariel party .. So some of the activity decission making was elimanated when we decided to PUMP IT UP> At this point my goal was to make sure it was apparent that it was a Mermaid party. Since Rachel was going to be jumping she couldn't dress up.. so I bough a light blue shirt from Walmart and my mother in law embroidered a Ariel on her shirt. I also bought her a Princess Tiara from a party store to wear while she ate cake and opened presents. During this party planning I was off work and recovering from major knee surgery. I wasn't allowed to walk on my knee or bend it for about 8 weeks, so I got to search probably every sight on the internet. My main obsession was the cake and cookies. I fell in love with some beautiful cakes that were tiered, but knew there was no way I could afford them. SO . I decided to take up a new hobby.. cakes.. Again, I had the time to play on the internet to see how to smooth the icing, tips, etc.. I was pleased with my version of the cakes I saw, however, it def. didn't look like the professional ones I saw.. HOWEVER.. if you ever consider making a cake.. I say do it.. You wouldn't believe how neat my daughter thought it was I made her cake. She thinks I am the Queen of Cakes, which I am not, but I loved seeing her bean when I finally showed her the finished product.. you could just see her thinking WOW>. my mommy did that for me!.. and she didn't notice any of the flaws I obsessed over! I also decided hey if I can take on a cake, I can take on cookies... and let me say.. they are HARD!! They did turn out cute, but I slept very little that night.. I wasn't pleased with my Royal Icing Recipe because it dried too fast.. so if anyone has a good recipe for cookie icing please let me know! I made starfish and fish cookies. I wrapped 3 for each child and put them in a big beach bucket for display. For party favors I picked a tropical flower print for the bags (didn't think the boys would want Ariel bags) from Oriental Trading. For the favors I tried to keep them more gender neutral verses Disney Princess Mermaidish... Okay on this next part - nobody got it-- I blame it on the heavy pain meds if noone else gets it - i choose jump ropes , and I did that because Ariel got her legs and could do fun things like jump rope.. okay then I had starburst, bubbles, beach balls, and the cookies.
I wanted it to be obvious Ariel was the theme, but I was NOT allowed to decorate the room. What do I do? Well you buy 2 HUGE Ariel balloons, put a few colored heart balloons with it and put them in the middle of the tables where the kids sit.

During the party the kids jumped, then ate cake and opened presents. So simple, yet very memorable!