A big rock star Celebration

My little man turns 6 this Thursday and we decided to celebrate in style. Since he was a little boy he has loved to dance, play instruments and sing so what better way to celebrate his special day then with a rock star theme!

Some of you may think that Justin Bieber has only affected the young girls but that's not true! My son and several of his little guy friends think he is the greatest. There is no better way to get my son to light up them to mistake him for a young Justin Bieber....! So to start the party off we created a 'step and retake' like at the Hollywood premieres. We had a red carpet, Hollywood stars with all the kids names in them, a backdrop and of course Justin.

After the kids had their photos taken they were given an all access VIP pass which guaranteed them unlimited candy and entertainment.

It is August so of course we had lots of swimming going on along with custom order snow cones for the kids.

No child can ever leave a party without lots of sugar so we made sure to cover our bases along with some fun items to remember Alex's party like Rock star lip gloss and pencils. My son also LOVES Jones Soda so I had custom labels made for him that turned out awesome!






Over the dessert table I got these great 36 inch balloons (thank you Shop Sweet Lu Lu) and also made two newspaper pom poms.


Of course what is a party without cupcakes and cake. I made the guitar cake with the help of Duff's cake kit and found this fun idea online for microphone cupcakes that turned out pretty cool!

Alex loved his cake so all the time to make it was totally worth it....


The centerpieces also turned out pretty cute! I ordered a pick punch online and made custom guitar pics with Alex's face on them and from pieces of the invitation. They made perfect confetti for the tables!


Thank you to everyone who helped make this such a memorable party for Alex. Lots of work went into this party from family and friends. A special thanks to all the vendors who made it possible and were so helpful. If you are interested in finding certain items from this party here are the main vendors I used:

Invitations, labels, VIP passes and soda labels done by DeanWorks on Etsy. (Kara from DeanWorks was extremely friendly and helpful!)

Balloons, cupcake holders, straws and goody bags are from Shop Sweet Lu Lu

The pails and containers holding the candy are from JoAnn's.

Rocker duckies, tattoos, and blow up guitars were from Oriental Trading Co.

Lipgloss and rocker pencils from Michael's.

Guitar pics were made with the help of Pick Punch.

I made the cake and cupcakes with help from Duff's cake kit at Michael's.

All of the amazing photos are from Sarah B Photography and my sister in law Cristina DaSilva.

Happy birthday to my beautiful baby boy!!!!!!

4th of July treats!

We are slowly recovering from an amazing 4th of July weekend. I'll say it again, we have an amazing and very fun neighborhood. We had a block party both Sunday and Monday....giving me a good excuse to make lots of fun treats.

My sister wife Erin made these little sammies. So easy yet so yummy! Toasted some bread, spread a mixture of cream cheese, fresh dill, sour cream and mayo and then topped it with red onion, cucumber and tomatoes. Perfect fresh treat!

I continued on with my new found love for whoppie pies and made red velvet whoppie pies with a cream cheese filling. Added some blue sparkles to be festive and they were a big hit! I found the recipe through an online blog that has become one of my new favorites, check it out here!

I also did some funfetti cupcakes with a buttercream frosting. I got the cupcake wrappers and decorations on sale at Sur La Table, they were so cute!

For Monday I did a different variation of the rainbow cake I had made for Amelia's birthday and did red, white and blue. I did a lemon buttercream frosting and it was yummy as well as really cool when we cut it!!!

The kids had a great time all weekend....us adults managed to fit in some fun time as well!

Between all the sugar, swimming and fun the kids were exhausted (as am I!) but had a great holiday. Hope you and your family did as well!

Whoopie Pies!

I have been seeing a lot of Whoopie pies around lately. They have been gracing the covers of many food magazines, Sur La Table sells whoopie pie pans, and many famous chef's have been promoting them, like Bakerella and Martha Stewart. So I gave them in decided to give it a go, I always have my handy taste testers around and knew they wouldn't go to waste.

You can make the batter and drop them onto a sheet of parchment paper or buy the Wilton Whoopie Pie pan, I opted to buy the pan at Sur La Table this morning since it was on sale and because I thought it would help me keep the size consistent. Yes, I really struggle with keeping size proportionate....it always start off good and by the end of a batch I've usually doubled the size.

I also decided to try making some from scratch and also some from a mix to see the difference. For the mix I bought StoneWall Kitchen's chocolate whoopie pie mix. Their mix is for the chocolate outer cookies and for vanilla filling. However I decided to add some peanut butter to StoneWall's filling mix to make a chocolate peanut butter whoopie pie.....because how can you go wrong with the combination?! Then I used Wilton's recipe for vanilla whoopie pie and their filling recipe, which I added cocoa powder to.

The verdict.....

I really liked how the cookies turned out for both. I liked Wilton's recipe from scratch a little more, it seemed more moist and made more. Also, from a cost perspective the Wilton recipe is a lot cheaper since the StoneWall Kitchen mix is $10 at Sur La Table. However in regard to the filling I did not like Wilton's filling recipe at all. It was really runny and too sweet - which is saying a lot with my sweet tooth. I want a thicker, more frosting like consistency. Wilton's recipe calls for marshmallow creme, which many don't. Think I will steer away from that in the future.


I'd never had a whoopie pie before today and I definitely love them. I'm excited to keep experimenting with new recipes and trying out new things. Thinking I'll try out a red velvet version next....!

A colorful birthday celebration

My baby girl turned 3 this past Saturday and even though her big party (which of course I'm going over the top for) is this coming Saturday, I had to mark her big day with some fun.

I saw this beautiful rainbow cake on several blogs and Martha Stewart's website and I knew my princess would love it! Turned out to be quite a hit and was actually pretty easy!

To start, I took the easy way out and just bought some white cake mix. I bought two boxes knowing this would be a six layer cake to represent each color of the rainbow.

I made the mix according to the box and then divided it into six bowls, coloring each bowl a different color. I baked them for about 10 minutes, and presto - had my layers!



After letting them cool I made a lemon buttercream frosting and started stacking my cakes, putting a layer of frosting between each layer. I don't recommend this cake if you are watching your sugar, fat or carb intake.



After frosting the entire cake I decorated it with some rainbow sprinkles on top and around the bottom. It looked quite large and exciting!



Slicing it was so beautiful. The cake looked amazing when sliced and looked beautiful on each plate. My beautiful baby girl just loved it.






Happy birthday my darling girl!

Low Fat Lemon Creme Pie

Wondering what to do with all those beautiful lemons? Well instead of making lemonade, I say make lemon creme pie! Due to my obsession with Pioneer Woman I've had to re-join Weight Watchers to shed a few (10) pounds. This recipe was featured in their Weekly brochure they give you at your weekly meeting. I love a nice lemon pie so I of course ran home and made it right away! For any other Weight Watcher enthusiasts out there - each slice is only 4 points!

The recipe is very simple! Here it is:

6 reduced fat graham crackers
2 tablespoons of butter
11 ounces of non fat sweetened condensed cream
2 eggs
the juice of one lemon
lemon zest of that lemon

That is it! Can you believe it??! And the results are delicious! Here's how to make you own lemon creme pie.

Crush up the graham crackers either in a Cuisinart or by a rolling pin and then mix with the melted 2 tablespoons of butter. Spread it out into your pie pan and set aside.


In a bowl pour the condensed cream and whisk in the two eggs into mixed completely.



Next zest your lemon. When zesting a lemon, stop when you get to the white of the lemon as the white part is bitter. Then roll the lemon gently on your counter to get the juices flowing and juice the lemon into the bowl.



Pour this mixture into the pie pan and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.



After the pie cools from the oven, chill it completely in your fridge. I topped mine with some fat free cool whip and strawberries. A great spring or summer treat!!!

Snow day!!!!

Alex has been begging us to visit the snow since the first day of fall. Today we took advantage of the holiday and took the kids up to the snow with some friends. It was a great time, and the kids were exhausted when we got home!

Before we went to the snow though I started off the morning with some homemade cinnamon rolls (thank you Pioneer Woman!) They turned out awesome and yes, my kids started off the day with a little bit of a sugar high.

Here in the valley we haven't seen a lot of sun, but as soon as we got up into the mountains we could see the cloud cover that has been over us this past month. What a cool shot this was!

The kids were so cute up in the snow! Amelia had never been up to the snow before and had a blast. The kids were so cute. Alex's little girlfriend Makayla was so sweet sledding with him. Miley and Amelia were little snow buddies as well.

With all the craziness in our life lately, it was nice to take a little time and just enjoy mother nature today. :)