party planning obsession

Knowing that weekend in June was coming where I would have lots to do for G&G's 50th anniversary and Harper's 1st birthday to prepare for my life became completely consumed with crafting project, baking, party planning and preparing (view post on my life consumed).  In fact, I started creating my decorations for each party about 6 weeks ahead of time.  I know that I promised lots of pictures (in this post) and never really delivered but I am now going to fulfill that promise.

1st
 baking: Growing up my mom was always the mom who would stay up until the wee hours of the morning baking and frosting homemade cookies for my brother and I to take to school because she hated the thought of us bringing store-bought goodies.  At times it was slightly embarrassing and as a kid in school with lots of much, much more wealthy kids all I wanted was to bring store-bought cookies or cupcakes.  Now as a mom myself, store-bought cookies, cupcakes or cakes just will not do and will never make an appearance at any of my kids' parties.  Starting with Cayden's 1st birthday when I painstakingly frosted his monkey cake with a tiny little star-shaped decorating tip and now starting to include minor holidays and no special occasion at all.  Here are my best creations:





Cayden's 1st birthday - awesome monkey cake (with my own buttercream frosting)

Baby shower cake for Becky's alphabet themed party (made from scratch cake with my buttercream frosting and covered with my own white fondant and Brenda's homemade chocolate letters)

 

Cayden's 2nd birthday - race car theme complete with my own little race car driver and a yummy Lightning McQueen cake (made from scratch yellow cake with my own buttercream frosting and red fondant).

Cayden's 3rd birthday - dinosaur theme everything (cake with my own buttercream frosting)!

St. Patrick's Day (made from scratch yellow spice cake with my own buttercream frosting)

 

Celebrating spring...just because I wanted to try a new recipe (made from scratch white cake with fresh strawberries baked in and my own cream cheese frosting topped with chocolate shavings and a whole fresh strawberry) 

G&G's anniversary cupcake tower.  I made all of the cupcakes (made from scratch red velvet with my own cream cheese frosting and gold sprinkles and made from my special recipe chocolate with my own brown sugar cream cheese frosting and gold sprinkles) and I made all of the signs as well as the topper for the stand.

Labor Day BBQ with friends (made from scratch yellow cake - three layers colored and then cut in half to make double layers - and my own buttercream frosting)

 2nd
party decorations: Harper's birthday party brought with it a whole new obsession with respect to theme.  I do have to say that Cayden's 2nd and 3rd birthdays also carried a pretty heavy theme and I stuck to it well (as you can probably tell by his race car driver costume with his Lightning McQueen cake) but I definitely took it to a new level with the ladybug theme for Miss Davis.

 

Ladybug invitations complete with movable wings

 

Ladybug cake (made from scratch white cake with my buttercream frosting and covered in white fondant - same for ladybug minus the fondant)

 

There were 4 flower pots each with three photos and one more flower. The pots had ladybugs all around them with ribbon around the top and green grass inside.



 

The birthday banner complete with a glittery lady bug in the middle.



Harper's ribbon wreath (thanks to my Gma for all the help finishing it)




The red and black themed food table complete with a cheese and a chocolate fondue.

Harper's favorite candy in the appropriately themed black, red and white colors for the guests to fill their goody boxes with. 

Goody boxes!

Juice for the kiddos appropriately labeled

 3rd
the giant numbers: thanks to my mom's great idea for my graduation and 18th birthday and my Gpa's fine craftsmanship the giant numbers have made an appearance at more than a few family functions including, and most importantly for me, my kids' first birthdays.

 

Now that Cayden's birthday is coming up in October and I only have about 6 weeks until it's party time and Halloween again I have already started thinking about what I am going to do and create for his party.  He decided on a theme so Mama is off and running...stay tuned!