Strawberry Shortcake Party

I was sooo excited when my Sister-in-law asked for my help planning my niece's 7th Birthday party. 

On the front door

Strawberry balloons at the end of the driveway.  I got this idea and some other inspiration, from PartyPlanningMom

 

Gift table early before many guests arrived. The giant strawberry was a random find at our local Party City. 

For favors, we made strawberry boxes using this template . inside were some strawberry candies, some fruit shaped silly bands, some stickers and a tattoo. They were tied to SS coloring books from Dollar Tree. The boys got more boy-ish coloring books. My sister-in-law put together some prizes for the Orange Blossom game with SS bath products.

The birthday girl made this little strawberry family. On the back she wrote Dad, Mom, and her and her siblings names in order of age. 

The kids table. We bought the table runner here. We took some fresh strawberries, poked them on to skewers and inserted them into vases full of greenery.

Balloons the girls (birthday girl and her sister) drew seeds all over tied to bushes in the yard.

Honeycomb strawberries tied in various places

Sign the birthday girl made. She is quite the artist.

Strawberry chandelier and banner. 

Dessert table

Strawberry punch. I cut hearts out of leftover black sticky vinyl with my Cricut, cut them in half and stuck them to my drink dispenser. On top is a flower design cut out of green cardstock for a stem. Under the strawberry is some grass cut from a few different colors of green cardstock. 

The girls drew seeds all over red Solo cups. I cut stems out using a templet from the strawberry boxes. 

We bought a few licensed products to tie in the theme. We supplemented them with some leftover pink and green plates and napkins I had. 

we served chocolate dipped strawberries and Oreo truffles. 

For the green and white stripes, we put out a vase of mints (with a ribbon around it)

And of course we had to have classic strawberry candies. Under the vases I put a little scrap of strawberry fabric that came pre cut into squares with a set in the canning aisle at Wal-Mart, intended to be used over the top of a jar. 

Strawberry Shortcake House Cake by Pink Princess Cakes

The girls helped decorate heart shaped strawberry cupcakes.  I had some heart shaped silicone cupcake cups but not enough. for the rest, we used these instructions I wanted the tip a little pointier so I pulled a bit of the paper away from the cake, inserted a white chocolate chip and frosted over it. 

We served fresh strawberries of course. I found the felt strawberry clips at Michael s  In the background you will see we had some strawberry Twizzlers too. 

The strawberry labels were in the canning section of Wal-Mart with the jars. 

This darling white dessert holder was my sister-in-laws. We put leafs from the floral arrangement under the truffles. The next level had red paper under it and the bottom had some green and white wrapping paper my sister-in-law used for gifts. 

 Strawberry Shortcake has some friends. To have some variety in the crafts, I designed a craft or activity with some of her friends in mind. The girls decorated plain pink bags using a strawberry stencil and some Sharpies. We used more canning labels for to give each one a name tag. In this picture you can see the kitchen counter (conveniently red) with a table runner and some SS confetti.

 There was Huckleberry Pie's skateboard design station, since he rides around on a skateboard.

Her friend Angelcakes is a cake decorator. I got some coloring cupcake magnets from Oriental Trading company and put one in each cup of a muffin pan, so it was like you take the cupcake out of the pan and decorate it. 

I downloaded different fonts for the different friends' signs and got images from wikipedia of each friend. 

The most popular activity was Gingersnap's Cookie Decorating 

 I got some clearance gingerbread cookie decorating kits and added some stickers from my collection. Everyone loved making paper gingerbread cookies. 

We also had a table for "Strawberry growing" which was a felt strawberry and gem seeds but most of the kids just took that craft kit home with them so I didnt get a picture of them using it. 

 Strawberry Shortcake has a friend name Orange Blossom. I got some ping pong sized oranges and we had an Orange Blossom's Orange Balancing race. The kids got 2 rounds, they balanced the orange on a plastic spoon along the driveway to a finish line. Most of the kids got strawberry shortcake theme prizes.

Another picture of the dessert table. 

 I love the look of wonder on Sophia's face. We got the SS tiara party hat at Oriental Trading Company.

Everyone had a great time. Sophia says it is the best party ever. 

Pokemon Birthday Party

I wanted to make a big deal about my kid sister's 13th Birthday. So even though we were hosting a Halloween party the next day, I planned her a Pokemon Birthday Party. 

At the edge of the driveway I hung a sign for guests to know they were at the right place. 

I traced a large mixing bowl onto leftover red poster board, cut the circle out, traced it onto 2 poster boards, cut the red circle in half, drew a black line and added a white circle cut from card stock. The name was printed in a free Pokemon font I downloaded

I bought a Pokemon party kit for 8 and spread the decorations out for a party for 30 people. 

The middle food table was half red half white with a Poke Ball button thingy in the middle. The black line is crepe paper. 

Ritz cracker + cream cheese + cut in half pepperoni and an olive slice.

(I dont recommend making too far in advance, ours got kinda soft.)

Similarly to how I did the Super Mario birthday, I tied the theme in by finding foods that I could label with characters. Some of the ideas I got/adapted from this FUN Pokemon Party The labels were printed with the same Pokemon Font. 

Flaming Hot Cheetos

Recipe HERE

Apples and store bought caramel dip.

We also served some $5 hot and ready pizzas and salad and my mom brought some bean dip and chips. 

I apparently didn't get a good picture of the drinks. We had Squirtle Spit punch (blue Hawaiian punch) we had leftover Sprite from a party before and since they are blue and green, I added a case of orange crush since most of the decor was Orange Blue and Green. 

I loved how Pikachu turned out. I wished I would have done more than one, but it was just an afterthought to do the one. I used store bought frosting and gel food coloring. the ears are Mike N Ikes with some gel icing on the tip, they each had half of a toothpick poked into them and into the cake to make them stay up. The eyes are gel icing and a pearly sprinkle in each. The mouth is Wilton's Sugar sheets. The cheeks are Red Hots.

 The Poke Ball cupcakes were a box cake mix and frosted with can frosting. The red is Wilton Sugar Sheets cut with a circle cutter from my scrapbook supplies, then cut in half. The black is gel icing and the dot is half of a mini marshmallow. I gotta say, I was wondering how the sugar sheets would work. I had thought I could cut with a cookie cutter, but it was a real pain so I recommend the the scissors or paper punch. The sheets are really stiff but after sitting on the frosting awhile, they softened nicely. They didn't taste particularly good but didn't taste bad. I will use them again.  

I bought white fudge Flips and dunked them in red melting candy disks. The fudge coating on the pretzels came off a little and seized up the candy. I ended up spreading the melted candy on most of the pretzels. The middle line is dark chocolate melted in a Wilton candy melting squeeze bottle. The white dot is a white chocolate chip. 

There was no issue dunking the marshmallows. 

THE CAKE. I got the idea for the dome cake from this AMAZING Harry Potter party 

The white is canned frosting and the red is canned frosting with a ton of coloring added. The black line is black licorice. The white dot is about a third of a regular marshmallow. The black around the marshmallow is gel icing. 

My idea was to put some Pokemon toys inside with the skittles but when they came in the mail they appeared to have been painted with very chippy lead paint from China, so they toys went in goody bags instead. 

The decorating kit came with one very busy tablecloth. I cut it into quarters lengthwise for table runners and used solid colored plastic tablecloths under. 

My sister, the birthday girl helped paint the balls in the vase. The decorating kit came with confetti and we added a bunch of cheap Pokemon cards bought at a local game store. 

Opening gifts. 

Pikachu Charm bracelet. 

Simple Ice Cream choices. 

I love how happy Lenna looks here holding Ellie! 

Lenna and some of her awesome friends. The tablecloth was covering a book case still from previous parties, we added balloons and some Pokemon cards to make a place for photos. 

Me and my TEENAGE sister!