Party time...Part 2

Here is Part 2 of the Party Time.....

The Clothes

Boys are not much fun to dress. Girls get all the fun with the frills and bows but hey I have to work with what I have!

I found some Very Hungry Caterpillar material panels at Spotlight and waited patiently for the sale period (40% off woo hoo!)

I made a few shirts as practice and then went in for the jumper. I was terrified I was going to stuff it up but I think it turned out great.

I used applique paper to stick the material to the jumper and then sewed zig zag around the edges so it looked a bit cheeky and rustic. Of course, there had to be a number one on there somewhere so i cut out and sewed it to the back of the jumper.

For the caterpillar’s antennae I knitted small, thin tubes,  stuffed with polyfill and sewed it on. I think it looks gorgeous.

With the left over panels, I mounted one Caterpillar for the little mans bedroom wall and also made a snuggly pillow for story time.

The Decorations

Ahh this was the most fun of all! Thank Goodness for Pinterest for all the ideas and for my hoarding ways for the bits and pieces that helped save not only the budget but also my time, as most of the decorations came together in the wee hours of the night.

The flower caterpillar was the star of the show, hung right in the middle of the party area. I’m so happy how it turned out! Here’s the link in case you need directions....
www.marthastewart.com/how-to/tissue-paper-pom-poms-how-to

I also put a few shades of green through the pile so it looked a bit more textured.

Inside the house I decorated the walls with my party hat pictures. The instructions are on my blog from April 28^th.

I also wanted to show all the guests how much my little fella has grown and changed so I decided to do a memory board starting from his first week to his first birthday. This was really hard to choose what pictures, I could have picked 10 for each month but I had to be brutal and just pick one. I tried to pick the imperfect photo’s or the ones we had now put on facebook so they were a bit new and different.

I covered the photo frames with wrapping paper and glued on the photo’s. I also used Logan’s magnetic letters and numbers on a piece of felt to do the labels. I just took a photo of it and printed it off. 

I ended up with two big frames and then did one individual photo for his One Year Old photo. I used the picture from after eating his first piece of birthday cake.

Back outside the tables were of course covered in green tablecloths with one round red covered table (geez pushing the theme here!) To highlight the yummy party food i took a little inspiration mixed with budget thriftyness. My plan was to make these....

But I had no luck finding the right plates and glasses at the opshop so I had to use what I had....platic plates and plastic wine glasses. This looked great but was a bit impractical as once some of the food was eaten the plates got wobbly. Can’t win ‘em all!

I made food labels by scanning in the pages from the book and pasting them onto recycled paper. Then I just sticky taped kebab sticks to the back. In hindsight, i probably should have glued double sides but it still did the job.

Last but not least was the party tent! The kids loved this area so much and I really enjoyed decorating it.

I used my old market pop up tent and hung a mosquito net in the centre. The lace draped over the sides creating a really cool little space. Inside I put the ball pit (made from a baby bath given to me by a friend, Thanks Carissa!) and baskets of water bottle shakers ( rice, beads and pasta in water bottles) and a few soft toys. I laid down my pride and joy- a orange paisley print rug I got from the Salvo’s for $5. Also added Logan’s play cube, bought from an Online Opshop for $30.

Tra laaaaaa Kids Zone was born and I must admit I don’t want to take it down.

The Games

Every kids party has to have Pass the Parcel! Its an old favourite and never goes out of style. I’m a fan of everyone winning something, so I put lolly pops between the sheets of newspaper and wrapped a special prize- a lolly bracelet- for the winner. We also did another classic, Pin the tail on the donkey.

I had also planned to do a Memory game, but most of the kiddies were a bit too little (and running wild) to join in. The game was going to be based on the Hungry Caterpillar. The first person was to name one item the caterpillar eats then the next person has to name two and so on. Great game for older kiddles.

Now this is the point where i went a little crazy...The Felt Story Board.

I decided that i wanted to tell the story of the Very Hungry Caterpillar but just telling it wasn’t enough! I hand sewed the felt version using left over scraps from the fabric box ( see my hoarding DOES come in handy!). The red is from a Santa hat that was sacrificed! The board is just felt taped to a photo frame. This was insane but it looked great and the kids enjoyed the story.  When Logan gets a little older, he will be able to play with this again but right now its going in the Childcare resource box for my studies.

While I was busy with the felt sewing I decided to make a “beanbag” type game to play if the kids got too bored. I made throw the Caterpillar game using the washing basket and it did keep the rascals busy.

This was made by machine sewing the caterpillar and filling with rice and then sewing up the gap. Logan likes carrying it about now!

Last but not least was the Toilet paper game. This was my favourite to watch...hilarious! (But just a warning if you are going to try this game out..buy lots of toilet paper because all the kids wanted a go and I didn't have enough to go around)

Split the kids into two teams and team leaders. The aim of the game is to wrap the leader up as much as possible by winding them up in the toilet paper. Grandma helped out with this one by counting out 10 sec intervals and then the kids had to change over. So so funny to watch the kids run and the leaders wrapped up like mummies!!!

The Cake

Ahh the cake! This was a bit of a struggle for me to be truthful. Cakes are just not my thing but I think I did alright!

First thing was the cake pops. Now these are some very fiddly little suckers but once you get the hang of it, literally its a piece of cake. Organisation is the key here. Here is the link for the how to’s or you can probably follow my directions and then I will do my best to share the tricks.

http://www.kidspot.com.au/omofunzone/Cook-Cake-pops+3044+569+sponsor-recipe.htm?gclid=CKPCsf_Jzq8CFcgopAodazuxEw

First step, make your cake. Seriously it doesn’t matter what sort of cake you use. I used no name vanilla cake mix, costs 70 cents from Coles.  Once you have made it, blend it up in the food processor with some icing. For the icing, i stir up about a cup of no name icing mixture with a tablespoon melted butter and about half a teaspoon of boiling water and vanilla essence. You don’t need to add much icing just enough so the mixture comes together like a bit of a dough.

Then roll into balls around 20 cent piece size. Place on a tray with non stick baking paper and stick in your sticks ( I used Kebab sticks and then trimmed down to size later)

Most important step!!! Freeze the balls with the stick in for at least an hour.

While you are waiting prepare for the cake pop making as you have to work fast. Organisation is the key!!! (The Salvation Army collector knocked on my door halfway through my chocolate dipping and I swore like a sailor and then ran and got a handful of money from the change jar and practically threw it at the poor girl hehehe)....  Anyway so get your sticks and  a bowl with your sprinkles or whatever decoration needed ready. I also used a piece of Styrofoam to poke my cake pops into to dry. So get that ready too and clear some room in your fridge to put them when you are done too.

After an hour at least, melt your chocolate in the microwave. I used normal eating chocolate because I don’t like the taste of cooking chocolate or melts. (Now I'm no expert so i don’t know if this is the right way to do this, but hey?) Be careful to stir the chocolate frequently so as you don’t burn it and use a metal spoon (again no idea why but that what i know!). Once the chocolate is runny, it go time.

I used a tablespoon to pour the chocolate over the cake pop and then twirl the pop in the spoon so it is covered. Keep twisting the stick so the chocolate goes on evenly and not too thickly, decorate, then stab your pop into your Styrofoam to drip and dry. Once you’re done, pop the Styrofoam block in to the fridge to set.

Now remember this was my inspiration photo...

So I was planning to make one red cake pop and 5 green ones to make my caterpillar and stick the pops into a slab of cake cut to look like a leaf.

So i made my cake pops and was planning on dyeing white chocolate with food dye.

FAIL! I don’t know what happened to the chocolate but when i added the food dye it seized up into chunks.  Panic Panic Panic mode to i basically jammed the red clumps onto the cake pop until it was covered. It actually looked ok but it threw me off. So for the rest i decided to stick with using plain white chocolate and rolling it in green sprinkles.

I must admit i did cheat when it comes to the base. I bought an un-iced slab cake from the Sara Lee factory outlet and Hubbie cut it in the shape for me and iced it green (He was so cute and excited to be finally allowed to help (Bossy much? Me? Bahahaha)

Ah then came assembling the cake. Another problem! Either the cake in the picture is really thick or its Styrofoam covered in icing because when i went to stand the pops into the cake they toppled over. Nervous breakdown #2 for the evening! (This is like 10pm at night too!) So Hubbie came up with the idea of taking the pops off the stick and here’s the end result!

Amazing right! Hubbie and I stood there looking at it for ages, proud as punch.

The cake is sitting on an old picture frame that I pulled out and covered with wrapping paper and contact paper. I iced the words with icing from a sandwich bag with the corner cut out. Pro’s haha.

So if this wasn’t enough, I also made 30 more cake pops  so no one missed out (and so there wasn’t a fight for who got to eat the caterpillar!) I displayed them in a planter box (from Chickenfeed $2.99) and covered the Styrofoam with crepe paper and cut up wool.

So all up I spent close to $240 all up and it took close to two months of  planning and preparing.
So was it worth it...Hell Yeah! Loved every minute.

In the end it may not be for everyone and by no means is this blog meant for bragging rights. I write this blog to keep track of my ideas, projects and inspirations and mostly to share really cool ideas with whoever wants to listen.
Also, Its kind of an online diary to show my babies how much their Mumma thinks of them.

Night Night from this Mumma. I have a new Tafe subject to tackle, starting tomorrow. First subject is now done with Dictinction average yippeeeee!