Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Sesame Street Birthday Party


Here is part 2 of the Dinosaur/Sesame Street Party that my friends Rachele and Emily threw for their kids.  This part is focusing on the Sesame Street half (to see the Dinosaur part go here).  Emily asked me to do the cake for her little girl who was turning 2.  She showed me this cake for an idea, and this is what I came up with.


It was an 8 inch cake covered in sky blue fondant and decorated with white fondant clouds that I cut out freehand.  I did a Mickey head-shaped cloud that was in the back just to see if anyone noticed, but no one said anything, so I guess I hid it pretty well :)  The sign was also cut out freehand except for the letters for Addie's name which I used my Cricut for.  


I molded Grover, the presents, and the balloons out of a fondant/gumtex mixture, but did Elmo out of modeling chocolate--anytime I need red, I usually use modeling chocolate now--easy to make and so much cheaper than buying red fondant (and I don't think I could make a true red fondant myself).


I love how Emily used her Sesame Street Treasury book set to put the cake on.  What a fun touch.  She had so many fun elements to her dessert table, including little Sesame street characters and buildings.
Her Happy Birthday Adelaide banner across the table was darling and added so much to her table.


She had such a fun idea for the favors bags.  Each one had the first letter of each kid's name taped to the front, and inside she had made crayons in the shape of the child's first initial and age (for example: my oldest got a bag with an A on it for Abby, and inside there was an A and 3 crayon since she is 3 years old).



Stickers, bubbles, and playdoh helped finish off the favors, and the kids loved them.

 At the party, Emily and Rachele had set up a "build your own lunch" bar, complete with uncrustables sandwiches for the kids, chips, apple slices, crackers, and chicken salad sandwiches.  The kids loved being able to pick all the parts to their picnic lunch.


The birthday girl wasn't too keen on the idea of everyone looking at her and singing to her.  Her reaction to the birthday song was priceless.

It was such a great party--being able to celebrate both Addie and Beckham's birthdays.  I'm glad I was able to help out by making both birthday cakes.  It's not any day you get to go to a combined Dinosaur/Sesame Street party :)

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Dinosaurs and...Elmo?


My two friends Rachele and Emily decided to throw a double birthday party for their kids Addie (turning 2) and Beckham (turning 3), mainly because they needed to do it the same weekend and would be inviting all the same people, so they just joined forces for one great party--2 themes--but one party. Beckham wanted a dinosaur party, while Addie loves Sesame street, so there were 2 different dessert tables decked out in the different themes. This post I'll focus on Beckham's dinosaur theme, and do a second post on Addie's Sesame Street theme (too many cute things to show in just 1 post :)


Rachele found the exact cake she wanted me to make (found here)--I was grateful when she said I could just do 2 tiers instead of 3 (we still had tons of cake left over with just 2 tiers), so I modified the design a bit. I made the dinosaurs out of fondant/gumtex mixture and allowed them to harden for a few days on the outside of my big stock pot on its side so they would have a slight curve to them.

I did the same chevron design on the letters as on the example cake but wasn't sure where to put them since I had one tier left to deal with. I ended up sticking them behind my Tyrannosaurus Rex--I decided it kind of gave it a camouflaged appearance which was fun. I piped on the grass with my leaf tip--super quick and easy.

Rachele did an amazing job with the table. I was in awe with how cute everything turned out that she made.

She had got a new Silhouette machine and had fun using it to make her letters, invitations, and other decorations for the party.
Aren't these little rice krispy treats adorable?!

The favors bags that the kids got were too cute--I almost wanted to keep it for myself instead of let my daughters have it :)

Seeing all of her cute decorations made me want to buy a Silhouette too. It was the perfect dinosaur table for a fun dinosaur party.


The birthday boy with his family (that's my talented friend, Rachele--so sad she's moving to Florida and us to Iowa in a couple months for residency--too far away to plan parties together:(

The boys fought over the dinosaurs. They each wanted one. I was surprised how well those dinosaurs hardened up--they didn't break easily, even with a bunch of 3 year olds running around with them.

These kids had a blast. It was a great party--more pictures to come of the food and activities in my next post. So glad we could be a part of it! Thanks, Rachele.