Autumn and Myelle's Monkey Themed 1st Birthday Party

The twins 1st Birthday Monkey Themed Party was fun. The twins were obsessed with monkeys. We were also expecting our third little one at this time (I was 7 months pregnant).   So, our house felt a bit like a zoo!

 I had this monkey face cut out of plywood, painted it brown, then stuck the cupcakes on with a little hot glue on the bottom of the cupcake liners.  We had vanilla and chocolate cupcakes and tinted the icing with a touch of beige for the Monkey's face. The monkey's expression was piped on with black tinted icing. The finished product was heavy - I needed my husband and his Dad to carry it out from our house.

Kids Favours: custom made bubbles and wands. I used the same printables from Esty and glued them to the front of small clear containers. I attached the wands (made of pink pipe cleaners) with brown and pink polka dot ribbon. I loved the way these big boxes of watermelons brought out the green and pink from the party.

To stay budget friendly I picked up all the table covers from the dollar store and cut out white polka dots from construction paper. The centre pieces were made from clay pots that I painted white, filled with pink paper grass and topped with a custom made birthday sign. Check out etsy for birthday printables. It helps to put a little sand in the bottom of the clay pots to hold the signs secure.

We made light and easy food for our guests.  Menu: tomato, baby mozzarella and basil kabobs, (lower left),  mini BLT sandwiches (upper centre), fruit tray, and pinwheel sandwiches (right)

My little Myelle

This pink table set from Ikea was a gift from my Aunt when the girls were born.  It made a great spot to put all the favours

A nice fresh white tent would look great, but the budget didnt allow that year - we borrowed this small tent from family. I purchased the graphics for the bunting banner off of Etsy, printed them off at home and glued each piece to ribbon. Then hung from the edges of the tent. Weeks later a great idea hit me: use coloured paper streamers and hang from the top of the tent down to hide the colour of the tent! Next time!

Searching on-line I found a local farmer that sets up petting zoo for $90.00/hour. We paid for an hour and a half and it was just enough time for everyone to get some time with the animals. It was a great idea, even all the adults liked 'visiting' with the animals.

Amber's Tea Party Baby Shower

Last May, I hosted this Tea Party baby shower for my best friend Amber. She looked so adorable pregnant and now she has a beautiful baby girl named Styrling. Her sister, Alisha, is the owner of Mirus Photograhy. She does amazing photography, please check our her website www.mirusphotography.com or her blog www.mirusphotography.com/blog

 I had this vision of a shabby yet chic tea party with whimsy pink and lilac decor. Burlap was the perfect back drop for the 'shabby' and I hit up Micheals to create the pink and lilac bunting banners. For a tea party some essentials must be in-hand: french macaroons (pink and purple, of course), scones with jelly, sugar cookies, petit fours, and to add a modern flair; cake pops. A couple of my previous students (when I taught part-time at Fanshawe College's Culinary Program) created the tea-pot cake (pink velvet cake with cream cheese frosting, it was Y-U-M) and the beautiful petit fours. My friend Michelle and I made the cake pops together and tied little ribbons around the sticks.

The Buffet Table

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I love to have something 'extra'. I came up with the idea to have a manicure station at the shower. The signature manicure "Pink Sparkle" - I found the Essi polish at Wal-Mart.  No need to hire anyone, my cousin (in-law) Laura does great mani's and she offered to do all the manicures for the day!

Cake pops and French macaroons

Special touches - the babies name hung over a wagon holding little teddy bears

A special seat just for the Momma to be

Great shot of the table:

I found the mason jars at a local Salvation Army to make the flower centrepieces. To make the vases; find ribbon that matches your theme  (in this case pink sparkly ribbon and burlap) and tie around the jar. I used a little hot glue to hold mine on perfect. To save money on flowers I went to the local farmer's market 10 minutes before they were closing up. They were more than happy to sell me most of the flowers for half the price. I spent under $70.00 for all of centrepieces

I love to bake and I have an awesome recipe for sugar cookies. A week before the shower I  baked 50 of these 'one-sie'  sugar cookes and iced them with soft pink royal icing. Then adorned them with little pink sugar pearls like a pearl necklace (the Mom-to-be is VERY girly - I knew she would like it). Then I picked up these little pink favour bags from Micheals, used the same cookie cutter to stencil out the white onside glued to the front - and found the free "sweet baby girl" sticker template on the internet. I loved, loved, loved how they turned out!

Blaire's Bumble Bee 1st Birthday Party

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Have used expensive candy jars in the past..LOVE THESE..and they are $6-7 dollars each at IKEA

The BIRTHDAY GIRL! 

Bumble Bee Bunting Banner - Supplies from Micheals, "Bees" from Dollarama

Veggies in a cup - thank-you Pinterest!

It's my party and I'll CRY if I want to!

Now I get this whole cake thing...