Curious George Birthday Party

As proof that this blog is only mostly dead, I'm going to attempt to resurrect Very Merry Events by posting here whenever I feel like it, whenever I have time, and as often as I like. I cannot promise any regularity, but I can promise some great ideas and inspirations!

Our oldest son turned 2 years old over the weekend, and here are some highlights from his Curious George-themed birthday party.

Though I did hire out the activities portion to a nearby kids' gymnastics center, I managed to home-make a variety of things to go along with the theme. The party place provided plenty of fun activities led by someone other than me, brightly-colored paper goods, juice for the kids, and, of course, plenty of space for our guests (our apartment is woefully inadequate for more than 4 people and the Clubhouse at our apartment is no fun for 2-year olds).

Here's what I contributed to the brouhaha:

I made the invitations to look like a Curious George book cover:
(If this is an actual Curious George title, I couldn't find it, so I made it up. I drew the letters, scanned them in, and added the image from one of the books we own.)


I shamelessly stole the easel image below from a card on this wonderful Curious George resource site, but I will have you know I added a disclaimer on the back of each invitation.



I also put together some party favors, which included a Curious George book (of course!), play-doh and bubbles, which are all three of Jacob's favorite things. I printed out more of the "book covers" to decorate the bags, and included a thank-you message.



And, finally, I made and decorated my very first cookie cake (thanks for the recipe, JL, it was yummy!). Jacob isn't really a fan of regular birthday cake, but he seems to tolerate icing and LOVES chocolate chip cookies, so it seemed like a perfect fit.



Though I love the original George, I think the PBS version is cuter, so I used a mask from this PBS Curious George website as a rough template and freehanded the cookie dough into the shape of his face before baking it.

I did not plan very well, so I did a lot of improvisation with the decorating portion of the cake. The eyes are white chocolate bark, which I had on hand from an ill-fated attempt at making holiday cookies. I used J's shape sorter to make them into ovals, but ended up carving them down to size anyway.

Some other things I learned about making cookie cakes:
1. A large round pizza pan works great for baking the cookie. (Thank you, Angelika, for giving this to me as a wedding present. It has been useful in so many ways!) I probably could've used the pizza stone, too, but I'm not sure how that would've turned out.

2. Watch your oven and don't leave the cookie unattended. We took the cookie out about 5 minutes early, but it still wasn't early enough. It didn't have that soft, chewy texture I like so much. And don't forget that they will continue baking if you leave them on the pan to cool.

3. Decorator's icing might have worked well for this, but seeing as I didn't have any cream of tartar or egg white powder, I went with some other recipes I found on the "pretty internets," as Mary says. I used a version of buttercream icing for the brown, which tasted great. I think I should've used buttercream for everything. Mmmmm.

4.For the outlines and detail work, I used a version of a shiny cookie decorating icing using corn syrup and made it chocolatey and dark by adding cocoa powder. It was the right color and consistency, but I think I should've used a bigger tip so the outlines would show up better. But, it was my first time decorating a cookie, and I didn't have many choices of tips to work with, so I think it turned out okay. Except for the non-existent nose!

5. Chocolate-chip cookie cake portions left undecorated make George look like he has smallpox.

6. If you are making a cookie cake for a large crowd, you might want to consider making one this size and then making another, plain cookie cake in a different pan. We served about twenty folks (5 toddlers included) and only had one tiny piece left at the end. Of course, we probably should've cut smaller slices... :)

(Illustrations by H.A. Rey © Houghton Mifflin. Company Curious George and related characters, created by Margret and H. A. Rey, are copyrighted and trademarked by Houghton Mifflin Company and used under license. Licensed by Universal Studios Licensing LLLP. All rights reserved.)

Cake idea and all pictures © Allison Redd. Please do not use these images without permission and give credit where it is due. I try to do the same!

Beijing 2008

In honor of the upcoming Olympics, I've seen a few Chinese-inspired party ideas floating around the web.

First up is from AT's Ohdeedoh, which highlighted a recent Chinese-Themed Birthday Party for kids.

For the adults, Kenmore has created a site with step-by-step instructions and tips for throwing a Chinese-themed BBQ! (HT to the Motherload, I think.) There are great kitchen tips, a plethora of yummy-sounding recipes, creative invitation ideas (some you can do yourself!), ideas on how to incorporate the kids, and --my favorite-- what to do with the leftovers! Brilliant! This site just begs you to throw a party!

We're going to be out of town on August 8th, but if we were here, I think this would be fantastic way to celebrate the Opening Ceremonies! If you can, set up a screen (or just tack a sheet to the wall or fence) and broadcast the opening ceremonies during your party! What a great way to bring the neighborhood together.

Do you have ideas on how to celebrate the Olympics? Please share them here!

Fruit Chews...on a Cake!

I'm back! We're (mostly) moved in to our new place. And I just had to blog this crazy, wonderful, delicious idea for decorating a cake with fruit chew flowers from the Angry Chicken blog ...that's right, Amy Karol decorated her daughter's birthday cake with Starbursts! I think it looks lovely and probably smelled fantastic!



Be sure to check out Amy's blog for more ingenious crafty ideas and hilarious tips on what NOT to do when making Starburst flowers...

"Little Mommy" Birthday Party

A few weeks ago I was looking around Flickr and found this twist on the classic Barbie-in-a-dress cake. Instead of a princess, make it a "Mommy" party for her four-year-old daughter, Emma! How cute is that? I contacted the photographer, and Laura agreed to share some of her ideas here. She writes: "This was such a fun party, I hope someone else can be inspired by it." I hope so, too! Thanks again, Laura!

For the invitations, she made miniature purses from scrapbook paper and slipped the invitations inside. They invited all the girls to bring their favorite
baby doll with them to the party. The even brought all the doll furniture into the living room and "set up a little nursery so the mommies would have somewhere to take care of their babies during the party." Awwww.

For the cake, she used the Wilton pan, but with only one box of cake mix, saying she "felt the shorter skirt really gave her a retro mommy look." I think her attention to detail is gorgeous! She covered the plate with about two inches of fondant decorations. I love the addition of the baby wrapped in a fondant blanket! Creative babywearing mamas could make a pouch or ring sling to hold the baby.


Emma's Mommy birthday cake
Originally uploaded by scottandlaurahilton

The party lasted about three hours, and there were 3 adults presents to help with the festivities. The afternoon was full of pampering and mommy time. I wish I had a party like this for me! Laura explains:

Once all the girls arrived we started with manicures. I had a friend of mine there so we could both be working on nails at the same time. And the girls who were waiting just continued to play with their dolls. I let each girl pick a nail polish to put in their purse and take home. Then they each got to pick a lip gloss that we helped them put on and then those went in the purse, too.

The party included the obligatory cake and ice cream time, and then the afternoon ended with a neat surprise scrapbooking activityy!

I had my husband take pictures of the girls the whole first part of the party (We took photo ops: each girl getting her nails done, each girl with their baby, all the girls with their rings, each girl giving the birthday girl a
present, and eating cake.) I then had him quickly upload and print about 6
wallet sized pictures for each girl. After cake and ice cream the girls gathered around the a table and did a little scrapbooking. We did the gluing while the girls stuck on stickers and colored with crayon.

Emma and her friends
Originally uploaded by scottandlaurahilton

It sounds like a fun, frugal time! Laura's resourcefulness included many homemade items. She got almost all of the manicure supplies from the Dollar Spot at Target, and she made the purses from some extra fabric she had on hand. She made mini scrapbooks by cutting down card stock and scrapbook paper and binding them with ribbon. Sitckers and other craft supplies were from the Dollar Store. She made the purses herself by sewing 6X8 fabric bags with ribbon handles.


The Birthday Girl
Originally uploaded by scottandlaurahilton

Happy Birthday, Little Mommy! It sounds like you had a great party!

Beloved Birthday Cakes

A few weeks ago, Apartment Therapy asked about readers' favorite birthday cakes, either made or received. There are some great responses in the comments if you need some ideas for a cake!

I would highly recommend reading the original inspiration, an entertaining NY Times article titled "The Birthday Cake as a Milepost." An excerpt:

There is an irresistible charm to these flight-of-fancy cakes, and fueling children’s imaginative rides in the early years is part of a parent’s job. But I think the real reason we bake far-fetched cakes is because we hear in our children’s birthday-cake requests, whether spoken or not, this: "You can do it. You’re Mom."

My husband's paternal grandmother has always been the family cake-baker. I think she took some Wilton classes and helped out a professional cake decorator once, but however she honed her skills, the entire family still talks about "Bobbie's cakes." She even has entire photo albums (not one, mind you, but many) of her creations! I think the first cake she made was for her oldest son, when he was very young, but it soon spiraled out from there to include other family members, and she even made birthday cakes for her friends' children as they were growing up. The ABC cake featured on this post was one of her famed caramel concoctions.

One of the most-fondly remembered cakes is a computer cake she made for my husband when he was 9 or 10. It was modeled on an Apple IIE, complete with caramel squares for the keyboard letters! I don't have a picture of that, but I did find this old snapshot of the carousel cake at his 2nd birthday many, many years ago.



If you have a favorite birthday cake you have made or received or made, please share with us in the comments!

Scooby-Dooby-Doo Double Birthday Parties for Two

Scooby-Dooby-Doo, Where Are You?
We got some work to do now.
Scooby-Dooby-Doo, Where Are You?
We need some help from you now.

My longtime friend Jamie Lyn sent these photos of her recent Scooby-Doo themed double birthday party to me a few weeks ago. Her two children, a boy and a girl, celebrate their birthdays close together in April, and she always has a separate party for friends and family, so this year she hosted TWO parties for TWO kids within a few days. Way to go! She's graciously allowed me to share her advice here. Hopefully, some of you with children close in age and birthday will be able to benefit from her creativity!



On this amazing Scooby-Doo cookie cake for her son:

Scooby was a free coloring sheet that I found online, then blew up on my scanner. I used that to make a template out of wax paper, then cut out the cookie with a knife before I baked it. I decorated it using my coloring sheet as a guide, but there was some element of freehand to it.

On the small daisy cakes, pictured above, for her daughter (I love how the flowers keep the groovy Scooby Doo theme, yet make it girly!):

The daisies are obviously just seven mini cupcakes arranged together. This size was ideal for the 2-4 set, who get a little crazy on even the smallest amounts of sugar! You could use the same idea for other, more "sophisticated" events, though...petit fours or cheesecake bites would be cute for a shower or tea party.

On the table decorations and being frugal:

I did spend more this year on "themed" goods than I have in the past, but considering we served 42 people over the two parties (and the second included a meal), it was still very reasonable. I only bought a few "high-impact" items in the pricier themed versions (tablecloth, invitations, one small package of cups for the kids, one package of napkins), then interspersed them with less expensive solid colored goods (plates, cups for everyone else, more napkins). That crazy centerpiece thing was there only because I found it on clearance at the party store for less than $2; I would NOT have paid the $12 that it cost normally. I also skipped Party City's Scooby Doo themed goodie bag items, except for one thing that I found on super clearance. That kind of stuff is just so much cheaper elsewhere, and half the stuff doesn't survive the trip home anyway.

We already had the special Scooby Doo plate and cup that Will used. I've discovered that if you're doing a theme because your child is into something, you usually have a lot of that stuff around your house.

It's true! Before you go all-out for a kid's themed birthday, think of all the character toys, plates, cups and other items that you might already own.

As an added bonus, JL dispenses some all-around good advice on cake toppers:

A friend of mine taught me that you can be creative and frugal even if you don't make your own cake. A couple of years ago her little boy was into tractors, but the bakery was going to charge her an extra $5 just to add a couple of cheap, plastic tractors (that looked like they came from the quarter machine) to the farm cake she'd ordered. She told them to skip it, and instead added a couple of small tractors they'd planned to give their son as gifts once they got the cake home. The cake was very cute, and her little boy was super excited to actually get real toys to play with, rather than those cheap things with plastic sticks on the bottom. You could do the same thing with cars, Polly Pockets, Little People, etc.

This just popped into my brain: how fun and simple would it be to spell out "Happy Birthday" using Legos on an elementary-aged kid's sheet cake!? (Of course, you'd have to wash them or any toy before AND after using them on a cake, but that could be easily done by putting them in one of those baby-stuff baskets or a mesh bag in the dishwasher.) I might even enjoy something like that on my birthday cake, to make me feel like a kid again! I think I still have a box of Legos in my parents' house I might just have to go recover. :) And I know a grown-up friend who would probably love a Transformer on his June birthday cake.

If you have a good idea, please share with us! You can e-mail me or leave a comment on any post. Thanks, all! And thanks Jamie Lyn for sharing your inspired birthday ideas! More birthday ideas coming soon!

Pirate Birthday Party

One of my favorite blogs, Ohdeedoh at Apartment Therapy, recently featured a pirate party! While some of the ideas are a little out of my price range, perhaps (store-made custom cakes and cupcakes, a pirate bouncer in the backyard, etc.), there are plenty of other ideas to spark your imagination. I love that she made the invitations look like treasure maps by tea-staining them and burning the edges! How fun!

The Pirate Party post is here, while the creator, a crafty mom, blogs at Pigeon Pair.

Have you found party ideas on the web you'd want archived/categorized here? Please let me know!

Connor's Frist Birthday Bash

Okay, so it's not a real party, but a virtual one! But this one is even better because you can win cool stuff! Go check out Connor's First Birthday Bash at Seven Dogs and a Baby. This Alabama mom is celebrating with a week's worth of prizes!

Party Inspirations from Children's Books

Our homes are filled with books of all kinds! What better way is there to find inspiration for a party than in the charming illustrations and events of your child's favorite stories?

Over at plumpudding, Megan blogs about her unusual carrot cake inspired by the delightful book Shall I Knit You a Hat.

She draws all sorts of ideas from her bookshelf, listing the work that inspired each one, ranging from bite-size cookies, a face-painting station, a pinata, to, of course, a book corner! Plans were in the works for a craft project, and I think it was a fantastic idea. I only wish I'd had a party like this when I was a little girl!

To read more about Megan's party and her many book-ish inspirations, click here. Her blog, plumpudding, is a crafty resource on its own, so be sure to add it to your regular reading!

This reminds me of a party I didn't attend but only heard about: a friend threw a Dr. Seuss-themed first birthday party for her son, Sam, complete with Dr. Seuss books as party favors. Of course he wore a custom tee with "Sam I Am" on the front, from the infamous Green Eggs and Ham. A similar idea could work well for twins, especially if you get those "Thing 1" and "Thing 2" onesies and perhaps make a Cat in the Hat Hat cake.

Some of my favorites children's books that I think might make great party themes:

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

The Real Mother Goose

Where the Wild Things Are

The Little Engine That Could

The Tale of Peter Rabbit

Not to mention the many books for older kids that could spark imaginations, from Harry Potter to The Chronicles of Narnia. I could write a whole series of posts on this. Perhaps I just might!

What favorite books would you use for your kids' party themes?

HT: The Motherload.

Jamie Lyn's First Birthday Balloon Cake

My longtime friend Jamie Lyn sent me a series of amazing pictures from her children's birthday parties. She is especially talented at making her own cakes! I'll start with the first and include more pictures and ideas in subsequent posts. Believe me, you are going to love her latest frugal kids' party ideas! She reminds me that the first birthday is easy, but by the second, the kids usually want to have some say in their theme!

This balloon cake was for her son Will's first birthday three years ago:



Simple, cute, but also very creative! The balloon "strings" are actually licorice strands. She tells me she found affordable balloon napkins and plates at the Dollar Store. I could even imagine making a small balloon cake just for the birthday boy or girl...though they would probably have too much fun with the licorice to even get started on the cake! And wouldn't this be cute for triplets or other multiples?

First Birthday Party Ideas and Beyond

Over at the cradle, a website for new parents, the Hostess with the Mostess shares three theme ideas for a first birthday party. She includes great ideas for using pictures of your child as well as tips on how to tie it all together.

Her first inspiration, Modern Tyke, includes bright colors and soft toys. Using your baby's favorite playthings are always good starting points for themes or centerpieces.

My Variation: Construction Toy Party I'm thinking next year we might use a dump truck as a centerpiece to hold candy or flowers or even a little mini-cake. Just wheel it right up to the birthday boy! I would scatter a few more construction-themed toys around the yable or decorations. You would have the added bonus of being able to use the centerpieces for playtime after the party is over!

Her Bedtime Story sets up tables to look like colorful, made beds with bright place settings.

My Variation: The Un-sleepover Party I think this setting would work well for a sleepover party for little girls, even if you didn't actually sleepover! The girls could come in PJ's and bring their favorite stuffed animal, enjoy a meal "in bed" and then gather on blankets to watch a movie before their parents come pick them up. Probably good for ages 6-8 when they might not be ready for a full night's sleepover just yet.

The Modern Zoo chocolate/pink theme she describes would work equally well for a baby shower! The idea of using animal cookies is just too cute, and with the modern twist, it adds just enough sophistication for a grown-up fete!

More ABC Block party ideas

From the small object, this wonderful alphabet ribbon. She uses it to label cloth napkins, but it might also be nice on a shirt...just spell out the child's name letter by letter! You could use iron-on transfer paper or just good old hot glue. Very cute! As seen on sk*rt.

Something else I thought about for the block birthday party, but didn't execute (because I left the blocks at home!) was using wooden alphabet blocks in cylyndrical vases on the table. You probably have both (or at least a large glass bowl) available already, and it would make a quick and easy (and cheap) centerpiece for almost any kid's party.

(Photo from jek at flickr. Love her photos! Go check them out)

Birthday Decorations: ABC Block Theme

Here are some more photos from our son's first birthday party.


Inspiration: Homemade Caramel Cake from Great-Grandmother

I have no idea of the recipe, but I imagine you could use these ABC block cake instructions.


Napkins, from Target

I chose brightly colored squares to imitate the "block" theme and incorporated the same colors throughout the party with brightly colored plates, forks, spoons, and streamers from Party City/Hobby Lobby. I also used a rainbow blanket (thanks, Jen!) as a table runner to add color.


ABC Block Decorations

Aunt E made these cute oversized blocks using free boxes from target, lots of packing tape, the back side of some wrapping paper, brightly colored foam, and hot glue. She used our little guy's initials and varied the size of the blocks. A very inexpensive, fun idea for block party decorations!

Pretty Parties

Design Mom recently threw a Pretty Blue Party for her daughter.


I especially liked the mini strawberry shortcakes.

She also includes this photo of these water bottles from a recent family baby shower. These labels could be adapted for almost any party and made on the computer! Brilliant idea!

DIY Birthday Shirt and Bib

Just a few weeks ago, our son celebrated his first birthday. In honor of the occasion, my sisters-in-law and I came up with some crafty projects. Here are the first two, with basic intructions that you can adapt for your own use.


First Birthday Shirt
Materials:
Long-sleeve 12 month tee, $1.99 from Target clearance rack
Fabric from old shirt, free from Aunt Amy's closet
Needle and thread, free from Grandpa

Draw the number or shape you wish to use on a piece of paper. Trace onto fabric with pencil. Cut fabric 1/4" larger than design all the way around. Iron the edge so there is a crease all the way around. Sew on using embroidery stich of your choice, beginning from underside of fabric. Even for a novice seamstress like myself, it will at least last through one wearing and possibly at least one washing!



Cupcake Bib
Designed by Amy Redd

Materials:
Plain bib, $1 from Hobby Lobby
Colored felt, from Hobby Lobby
Needle and thread, again, free
Hot glue and glue gun

Trace out the design you would like to create on construction paper as a guide. Then, cut out the shapes and trace onto felt. Cut out all the assorted felt pieces you will be using and include a backing piece that it about 1/4" larger than the total design. Stitch the pieces to the background piece, and use hot glue to attach the design to the bib.

Amy created a simple cupcake design by putting a white icing shape and yellow cupcake paper shape on a bright blue background. By adding a candle, colored "sprinkles" and decorative stitching, she really made it festive.