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!!!!!!

Girl's Night Out

My good friend Mellissa just started selling for 31 Gifts so I offered to host a party so I could get some great hostess gifts, and what better excuse for a wine and dessert party!

If you aren't familiar with 31 gifts I highly recommend you check them out, I know have accumulated quite the collection and have 3 or 4 bags in my car at all time. I especially like the bags that double as a cooler to have in the car or when I take Alex to soccer practice.

Lately several of the blogs I follow were discussing desserts in a jar so I decided to give it a try. I made triple chocolate brownies in 4 ounce mason jars and topped them with a buttercream frosting with salted caramel. These were the hit of the party and looked so cute! The 4 ounce jars were the perfect serving size and also very convenient for the girls to take one home for their hubbies. When searching for recipe ideas I came across this site that has 15 different idea for desserts in a jar, I took their idea for the salted caramel brownies and tweaked it just a bit.


I also whipped up some pink champagne cupcakes that turned out pretty but taste wise just couldn't compete with the salted caramel brownies. I also found a beautiful apothecary jar at Michael's that I filled with dark chocolate wafer cookies from Trader Joe's. It was definitely a night full of my favorite things - sugar, chocolate, wine and great friends.

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!

Yo Ho Ho and Once Upon a Time

We rang in Amelia's 3rd birthday with a fun fairy and pirate's theme! Amelia loves Tinkerbell but lots of boys were attending the party as well so I threw in some pirates to balance things out.

I was extra lucky this year to have my friend and neighbor, Melissa Garcia, take all of these beautiful photos! She did a great job capturing this fun day and my darling girl enjoying her special party.

Instead of a bounce house this year I decided to try out the company A Wish Your Heart Makes. This company has characters you can hire for your party so of course I had to get a Tinkerbell and Pirate. I was very happy with the characters and the kids loved them! They told a story, sprinkled fairy dust on the kids, played games and face painted. So much fun!

I made Amelia's cake for the party and was thrilled with how great it turned out! It also tasted delicious!


In addition to the cake I made lemon fairy cupcakes and chocolate pirate cupcakes.

I sent all the boy's home with pirate goodies (pirate hook hands, eye patches and suckers) and the girl's went home with wands, crowns and Tinkerbell crayons and notepads. I made some beautiful rose flower balls (that I discovered on the blog House of Smith) and I attached the silhouette's of some fairies to them and hung over the goody table. I also added a Tinkerbell centerpiece I crafted using my Cricut machine.






As usual I went over the top for this party and always have to thank those that support my often overly ambitious ideas. My mom came down early to help decorate and contributed some amazing food, as did my wonderful mother in law. My favorite girls came over the night before to help with the cupcakes and set up. My sister wife Erin especially was a help in keeping my head screwed on straight and did the amazing fairy wands! My cousin Sarah assisted with the banner and of course my loving husband supported me the entire way. Thank you to everyone who helped!

And a happy, happy birthday to my princess! We love you so much!