Lacey is officially a teenager!

 Who wouldn't jump at the chance to do a Hello Kitty party!  Lacey, my niece, wanted a blue teal and red (which look great together) party.  I think I pulled this one off for about $100.  You probably have noticed that I use some of the same pieces in most of my parties.  This 3 tier stand and the cupcake stand get a lot of use at my house.  I think they were about $30 total from the Christmas Tree Shops.  I think if you stay with a white or beige you can use them more often than if they were a color.  I add the color with ribbon, food or cupcake liners.

 I got the cookie cutters from Michael's.  I had to make one with a "stache" for Lacey.

 The cake pop idea came from http://www.bakerella.com/here-kitty-kitty/

I think she used  the markers on the face, which is much better than the gel.  The gel drove me crazy because I had to transport them to her house and they were rolling all over!! Uggh.  

 Jenni Bowlin punch used for the cake banner.  I had leftover straws from Quin's party.  This was my first attempt at a ribbon cake.  I had to scrape the icing off only one time.  But once I figured it out it wasn't so bad.  

 Spellbinder's and Martha Stewart's Scoring board were used for the banner.  I used Spellbinder's to make the labels for the goodies.

 I made cake batter muddy buddies aka: "kitten chow"  with the recipe from 

http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2012/02/cake-batter-muddy-buddies.html

 I filled the urn with plain granulated sugar and added this edible Easter grass that was leftover from Easter.

 Lacey got the flower balloon idea from Pinterest too.

 We made some coffee filter flowers.  I added some Glimmer Mists to punch up the colors.

 We printed some images to fill the photo spots on this piece.  The large clothespins came from Michael's. I used the Cricut machine to cut out the numbers and added glitter.

 Stache Kitty!

Lacey's party actually was one of the easiest to set up.  Their dining room made the set up fast.

Mom turns 60 party

 Of course for Mom it had to be a wine themed party.  We had fun just hanging out drinking wine and eating.  I think we also got a little scrapbooking done.

I made a nice fruit display and the champagne grapes were in season and they were yummy.  I made a little veggie buffet using old canning jars and a wooden box from my kitchen.

 Any time I can find a reason to buy salmon, I do!  My favorite little indulgence. I found this great Bacchus wine cooler at work.  And the cute little grape press.  It made a cute backdrop for the party.  Plus Mom can take it home and put it with her wine in their basement.

 Aren't they so cute?

My idea of a party...............Cheese!

More Parties!

 I so love Pinterest.  I can store all of the cool ideas and then use them when it is time.  This was one from Pinterest and I loved it because it was inexpensive to decorate with.

 My first attempt at cake pops.  It was quite interesting.  I think I have done enough research to see where I failed miserably.  They tasted really good.  We had Italian creme cake, chocolate covered banana and strawberry cheesecake

 This is the Mario salad idea from pinterest.  And of course pasta!

 His cake was a last minute put together.  Thank goodness he is a boy because he didn't mind how messy it was.  The cake was too moist and didn't have time to get refrigerated.  So we stuck a stache on it and a marshmallow and called it a cake.  Surprisingly there were no poo references.

This was Liam's party.  I didn't go overboard on Liam's because he has had his share of big parties.

Quinten's Candyland Party!

This was Quin's Party.  He saw a picture of a Candyland cake on the back of an old Taste of Home magazine.  I knew at that moment how much fun this party was going to be.  The hardest part was buying all of the candy.  The cake was pretty easy, I just used the past cake as a reference and then added artistic interpretation to the design.  I made the gingerbread cookies early in the week and froze them.  We set up a decorating station for them to decorate a gingerbread man or house.  It was cute, but I didn't get any pictures.

The Dumdum sucker arrangement took almost 200  suckers to make.  Lacey helped with this one.

 I tried to find candies that I grew up with.  I also tried to find some     that my parents liked when they were young. 

I set up a table and asked everyone to write down their favorite candy.  I asked the adults to write down their favorite candy memory or story.  We all have them and they change from generation to generation.

 The lights around the window were an idea from Pinterest.  It is neat, but it was miserable to make.  I won't make any more of those ever.  I had to go and buy more ribbon to finish it.  It looks cute but it took forever to make.  I had my husband print out the candy font and bought cheap paper from Hobby Lobby to finish the candy land banner.  With the remainder of paper, I wrapped the water bottles to carry over the look.