TEEN PARTY: Neon / Glow in the Dark Sweet 16

Many moons ago, I was a 16 year old girl who, when at my friend Michelle's house, would play with her baby niece Ariane. I carried her, played with her and even danced her to sleep a couple of times. Fast forward to 2011 and Ariane is turning 16 and I am signed on to help with her party. Wow, did this party make me feel old.

Ok, back to the party. Ariane told me she didn't want a sweet look to her party. She wanted it to feel more like a school dance or club. She decided on a neon / glow-in-the-dark color scheme and I had so much fun helping out.

Our friend Ana baked all the cupcakes and made all the frosting. I was in charge of icing the cupcakes. The cupcake flavors were chocolate, vanilla, cookies n cream and classic white. All the cupcakes were frosted with buttercream frosting that we colored neon blue, neon purple and neon green. I also made red velvet cake pops, dipped pretzels and lollipops.

The cupcakes were displayed on three cupcake stands and on inverted martini glasses

The candy table was covered with a black tutu tablecloth. We hung silver streamers behind the table and poms above.

Marsha, Ariane's mom, ordered LED candles, tea lights, glow bracelets, glow drink sticks, light up serving trays and fiber optic centerpieces from Windy City Novelties.

Buffalo wings, egg rolls, meatballs and parfaits were served on mini plates from Smarty Had A Party

Happy Birthday Ariane. It has been such a joy to see you grow into a beautiful young woman. May you have many more birthdays to come. More photos are up on the facebook page

KID PARTY: Go Lakers

I can't believe this day came so quickly. My baby Jacob's first birthday was something I started thinking about very early on, but it still felt like it came too fast. Jacob loves balls, especially basketballs so a ball theme party came naturally. My husband's birthday falls on the same week as Jacob's and I decided we should also throw that into the mix. Sine my husband is a Laker fan, the basketball / Laker theme party was pretty much a done deal.

We started things off with this invitation from 4LeafBoutique

In designing the candy table, I wanted the focus to be more on Jacob and not on the Lakers. This party was all about my baby ( and my husband). While the party and table were definitely Laker inspired, I didn't want to go overboard so the only thing that said Lakers was the banner we hung behind the table.

I designed party circles which I used for cupcake picks and lollipops stickers.

I also printed larger circles that I hung from the ceiling, made into centerpieces and put out in the from lawn to welcome guests.

Cupkits Edible Creations made an awesome Rice Krispy basketball cake. Everyone loved how the ball's texture looked so real.

Cupkits also made Ube cupcakes. Ube is a popular Filipino dessert made of taro ( similar to Hawaii's poi).

I made white chocolate crunch basketball pops and hard candy pops, purple and yellow striped cupcakes, giant dipped marshmallows, mini white chocolate cupcakes and dipped pretzel sticks.

The candy table also included Jell-O, , blueberry wafer sticks, lemon bites, lemon drops, dark chocolate Kisses, golden Oreos and polvoron ( a Filipino candy).




I don't usually have pinatas at my party. I never understood the concept of loving a character so much that you'd have children whack it to its destruction. For this party, I stickers with the rival teams' logos crossed out and stuck them onto a basketball shaped pinata. Now doesn't it make more sense to beat the rival teams' logos than that of the Lakers?

Favors included these adorable towel sundaes made by my cousin Carla, books, and Laker pens, notebooks, pencils I found at the 99 cent store.

Happy birthday to my boys!

More photos of the party are on the Facebook page

Rainbow cupcakes

I was introduced to rainbow cupcakes last year when one of the moms in my oldest daughter's preschool class brought some in for rainbow day. The kids just loved how the colors were layered and biting through each cupcake was just pure joy for each child.

One year later, it's time for rainbow day again, this time for my second daughter and just as I was thinking of making them, Tip Junkie posted a tutorial on how to make them! The most time consuming part was layering the batter.

I opted to put a small cloud of icing instead of adding a full thick layer because preschoolers and icing are not the best combination, on so many levels.

My girls really enjoyed making them and they are well worth the effort. I have to figure out how to pour each color so that it layers more evenly.

We will probably make them again for St. Patrick's Day.


I could repost the tutorial here but you can just head on over to Tip Junkie or Family Fun for complete instructions.