Strawberry Shortcake Gymnastics Themed Birthday Party!

My boo turned SIX years old!
She wanted a gymnastics party. I was whacking my brain on how to make the invitations. All of a sudden, a light bulb went off - gymnastics...Olympics...gold medal! I love how they turned out:



I got a few rolls of this Red, white & blue ribbon from Hobby Lobby:


I cut off a strip and used fabric glue to secure the end:





I cut out 3.75 inch circles out of this glitter paper from Hobby Lobby:




And super glued the ribbon on the back of the circles:


I designed the wording and printed it on pale yellow cardstock. I cut them out into circles and superglued them on top of the glitter circles. Make sure they are smaller so the glitter creates a border:


For party foods, these are my staples (not in the picture is the Chik Fil A chicken nugget platter):
On the gold plate are  jumbo marshmallows dipped in icing and in gold sprinkles.
In the silver star bowl are rolled up salami and cheese cubes on a gold star pick.


I just used the gold stars to fit the party theme...kind of perfect, right? =)

Cake time! This year, Miss Sugar wanted an ice cream cake. Which meant I would not be able to make her cake like I do every year.  I was kind of sad, but it was easier and less stressful this way. She picked out the coordinating Strawberry Shortcake ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins. We bought all the little figurines and she loved them. It's actually a busy book set that came with the toys, and they were exactly what we wanted:

I recently discovered Big Birthday Cake Sparkler Candles. You can get them from Amazon but I got the same thing on Ebay because of the quicker shipping.  I'm getting these candles for every birthday from now on! The "Elle" custom glitter cake topper is from HomemadeXOjules at etsy.com. It is even more gorgeous in person!


The sparkle custom green gymnastics shorts (for the Strawberry Shortcake colors) is from CathyKelly2 at etys.com. Super fast turnaround time, and A+ on communication as I requested a color that she did not make available at that time. She made it the day we spoke and shipped it out the very next day:


And lastly, something that is Pinterest-inspired! I drew this with sidewalk chalk in my backyard. <3


Happy Birthday, Boo! I love you.

Lotus Seed Sweet Potato Soup

This is a Chinese sweet soup. It's like a dessert, and it's super easy to make in a crockpot!

Ingredients:

 1 large sweet potato (not yam) - peeled and chopped

1 carrot - peeled and chopped

Rock sugar

Apricot seeds - rinsed

Lotus seeds - rinsed

I put it all in a crock pot, threw a handful of the apricot seeds and the lotus seed in, along with a few rock sugar. This is one of those recipes where there are no measurements at all, and you can't go wrong:

Fill the crock pot up with boiling hot water. Set it on low for about 4 hours:

And you are done!

Enjoy and good luck.

=)

Pies!

It really doesn't get any easier than this! 

I got everything from Mother's Market and if I can make it, so can you.

Sweet potato pie:

Pumpkin pie:

These are the cans I got. It only calls for a few ingredients and there are simple directions on the back.

You pour everything into a bowl and mix with a whisk:

Then I poured it into a pie shell, threw some pecans on top, and baked for 40 minutes. 

I made one pie at a time:

Even my husband approved and he is not a big pie person. 

Woohoo!

Good luck. =)

Teacher's Appreciation Week

Teacher's Appreciation Week was the first week of May. In addition to Boo making homemade cards for her teachers, we also planted basil plants in metal buckets and made chocolate covered strawberries.


I got two potted Basil plants from Home Depot for about $3.50 each. I knew I could separate the roots and get about 4 mini plants from each. The little metal buckets are from Target at the $1 Spot:


After we planted them, I felt that they didn't look quite finished. Something was missing but I wasn't sure of what:


Thankfully that same day, I was with a friend who mentioned she got a bag of little pebbles from Home Depot for her flower projects. Yes, I think this was exactly what I needed! This was about $4:




It made a huge difference:


Looks much more polished now, and I'm confidently in giving these as gifts:


Chocolate covered strawberries were so easy to make, believe it or not!

I got a box of strawberries from Costco. The first thing is to wash them and let them dry really good. Then I used toothpicks and stuck them from the top as pictured below. I placed them all on a cookie rack:


Then I took some milk chocolate chips, pour some in a glass bowl with a tablespoon or so of Crisco shortening. I melted it in the microwave in intervals of 10 seconds, taking the bowl out each time and giving it a stir, until completely melted. Don't over heat or it'll burn. Add a little bit of shortening if it's still clumpy. It should be a smooth consistency. Then I took a strawberry by the toothpick and dipped it into the chocolate at an angle. I dipped each maybe 2 to 3 times, and rotating the angle to make sure all sides are covered with chocolate:


I laid the dipped strawberries on wax paper for them to set:


While those are cooling down, I made some melted white chocolate with the same microwave method. I poured the melted white chocolate into a zip lock bag and closed it. I cut a tiny hole at the bottom corner of the bag and piped in a zig zag motion onto the strawberries. It would be less messy if I used a pastry piping bag to do this, but oh well. This was still good and they tasted so good!


After the chocolate harden, I put each into a cupcake wrapper:


I had these clear cupcake containers, and I decided to put the strawberries inside. It worked out great, especially for transporting them:


Good luck and have fun!
=)

Easter Cupcakes

Boo and I had a blast making these for her class Easter party!

Ingredients:

* 1 box of cupcake mix
* Edible Easter Grass (made of potato starch)
* Reese's Pieces eggs
* Peeps
* 1 jar of white frosting

Directions:
1. Make the cupcakes and frost the top.
2. Grab some edible grass and break/bend/shape onto the cupcakes.
3. Cut the points at the bottoms of each Peep, making it straight across so they will adhere to the frosting better.
4. With more frosting, adhere the Reese Pieces eggs in front or around the Peep.
5. Done, and enjoy!

I got these super cute paper plates from the Dollar Tree! I love them so much...I should have stocked up! Doh.

Good luck!
=)

St. Patrick's Day Rainbow Cupcakes

Happy St. Patrick's Day!



These cupcakes were so fun and easy to make!

Ingredients/Materials:

24 baked cupcakes
Gold cupcake caking cups/liners/wrappers - from Sur La Table
Airheads Rainbow Belt Sour Candy - from CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid, etc.
Green frosting
White frosting - I used Buttercream
Small spatula
Piping tools or fill up a zip lock bag with the frosting, and cut a hole in a corner
Green sprinkles
White pearl sprinkles
  


I did the green frosting (with a spatula) and green sprinkles here:


Then I piped white frosting on like so, for the "clouds":


I added the Pearls:


I cut each sour rainbow belt in half, then bent and stuck the end in the "clouds". I put them all in the fridge to let the frosting settle and harden. They did really well, and the rainbow candies held their shape! I am very happy with the result:


Lastly, I put each cupcake in a gold wrapper and hauled them in this neat carrier to Boo's preschool:



Good luck!
=)

Boiled Sugar Cane Drink

Sugar Cane Drink! I used to drink this as a kid, and have forgotten about it until my mom came to visit over the holidays and brought sugar canes with her.  This is a nice refreshing drink that can be served hot or cold.



I used barley, rock sugar and sugar canes. All can be found in Asian Markets; you can find sugar canes in tall cans:


I boiled everything in a big pot:


This is what rock sugar looks like:



Ingredients:
10-12 cups of water
3 tablespoons of barley (or your preferred amount)
5 sticks of arm length sugar canes - (cleaned & chop peel off if fresh), and cut into smaller pieces to fit in the pot
2 chunks of rock sugar
Optional: carrots and water chestnuts, as many to your liking 

Recipe:
Boil water, add all sugar canes, and bring it back to a boil.
Add barley and stir.
Let simmer for 1.5 to 2 hours (until the liquid has reduced to half).
Add rock sugar and simmer for 15 minutes (until melted).

Wait for it to cool down and enjoy!

Good luck.
=)