Boy’s parties are getting cuter and cuter, and this Airplane party created by Jordan of Polkadot Prints (from Australia), for her son’s second birthday is absolutely amazing!

Love the cute favour boxes, cloud lollipops, and cartons. So creative!

Lovely cake and dessert table. For more details, see Jordan’s airplane party post, and for more airplane party inspiration, check out the airplane party Amy Atlas created for her son’s birthday earlier this year.

These wallflowers, (made using paper napkins!), would make such gorgeous party decor, and are so very easy to make. If you’ve ever tried making tissue pom poms, these should be a breeze.

Aren’t they pretty?

And you can even make tiny ones, and string them together to make lovely flower garlands.

Find the tutorial here.

Many of you know that I’ve been forced to take a break from posting for the past 2 months, due to illness, and you could imagine the number of parties submitted during that time! I’m trying my best to feature as many of those I missed out as possible, and I just couldn’t pass up this amazing dinosaur themed party that Kim from The Celebration Shoppe designed for her son Cole’s 4th birthday! Such an adorable and fun boy party theme! Here are the details as told by Kim:

Well, it is official. My youngest son is four… FOUR. And of course we celebrated in true dino-ROAR style, his absolute favorite. I shopped for just the right fabric, props, gifts, favors and activities for months and here are a few of the things I came up with. Let’s start at the candy table, the kids’ favorite… and maybe a few parents’ favorite too.

I found this beautiful fabric in the early planning stages and it made me think of the undergrowth of an overgrown forest. Use your imagination a little and you’ll be able to see it. Let’s face it, my T-Rex is blue so why can’t my forest be elegant with a splash of whimsy. {wink}

So starting with the cake tier, the centerpiece for my candy table, I made a T-Rex and a Stegosaurus topper, both inspired by a fabulous tutorial at A Baked Creation.

 The table was teaming with treats, like:

salt water taffy,

licorice,

lollipops,

fruit chews (a.k.a. Skittles),

rice krispie treats embellished with the number four and his name (on the bottom tier of the cake display),

vanilla Oreo cookies in cupcake papers (found on Etsy at Hey Yo Yo) topped with our dinosaur cupcake circle pick and displayed on a piece of scrapbook paper that looked more like reptile scales than paper, and so much more.

Some of you might recall that my youngest son has severe food allergies, so as you can imagine I had a bit of a time pulling together a candy table that was both milk (at least “cow milk” as my son distinguishes) and nut free, but I’m a mom that is here to tell that it can be done and it can still be yummy! This is one of the primary reasons that I filled the containers with marshmallows instead of candies. Plus, it’s a cheap way to fill up your jars, so two wins in one!

As you can see here, my little guy liked the marshmallows as much as the lollipops!

As for the decorations on/above/around the candy table, there were many, but everyone’s favorite was probably the Pterodactyls flying overhead.

There were also large foam dinosaurs on the table that later became toys for my little boy. Those along with the Pterodactyls now grace his playroom. (I picked up the foam dinosaurs a few years ago from Step2 online, but I’ve not seen them around in a while.)

In addition to the candy labels, we also created a banner,

and signs/mats for each food station. In addition to the well known Herbivore and Carnivore, the latest Paleontologist find is the Sweetivore, the candy eating dino. And if you have doubts, I have two descendants, minus the scales and tails, living in my house! {enthusiastic giggles}

Here are the Carnivore,

and Herbivore mats too. All three are now in the shoppe along with the banner and candy table tags.

And once all the yummy food was gone we had a few activities planned for the kids. My favorite was the photo booth. At first I was going to hang a solid backdrop so that all the images would be uniform, but then decided to have them stand in front of my favorite out of control vines (that my late grandmother gave me) to the right of my pergola. They worked out perfectly. The kids looked like they were standing in the jungle… okay, again… a little imagination please.

They had about 12 dinosaur masks to select from and the only instruction was to ROAR! I just wish I would have had a video recorder with me too. They were hilarious!

This is one was just too cute not to share. My Cole and his little friend Nicole checking out each other’s masks.

I also had a little scavenger hunt set up with dinosaur skeletons hid around the yard, more like a hunt than a dig, but you get the picture. And, I had coloring mats for them. Something to do while they waited on lunch to be served.

Finally, here’s a picture of my little one blowing out his candle the day after the party. We served the cupcakes, and saved the cake for him. He really wanted the T-Rex on top! {I love you my little Coley Bear!}

And if you want to recreate this party for your little dinosaur lover, stop by the shoppe and see all the details.

Who doesn’t love cotton candy and who wouldn’t love cupcakes covered with cotton candy buttercream frosting, and topped with lots of yummy cotton candy? Um, I would!

So when I came across this recipe for cotton candy buttercream frosting via  Cakespy, I instantly fell in love!

Cotton Candy Buttercream Frosting

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 6 to 8 cups Confectioners’ sugar
• 1/2 cup Milk
• 2 teaspoons Vanilla extract
• 1 handful cotton candy (we used this prepackaged kind), broken into small pieces, plus another handful for garnish

1. Place the butter in a large mixing bowl.
2. Add 4 cups of the sugar and then the milk and vanilla.
3. On the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat until smooth and creamy, about 3 to 5 minutes.
4. Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition (about 2 minutes), until the icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency. You may not need to add all of the sugar.
5. Add a few drops of red food coloring and mix thoroughly til it’s a desired shade of pink.
6. Stir in the small pieces of cotton candy, stirring until incorporated. It may melt a little bit into the frosting; this is ok.
7. Use and store the icing at room temperature because icing will set if chilled. 
8. Optional topping: tear off chunks of cotton candy and use as garnish your favorite cupcakes; do this last step  immediately before serving, because it will wilt if left out.

Images via: {Cookies & Cups, Becoming Lola, Cakespy, Manic Mother}

Jennifer from Shutterbug and the Sweet Life was excited to share pictures of her son Noah’s recent 3rd birthday party. Noah’s nickname from birth was “Monkey”, so Jennifer thought it was about time she threw him a party with a sock monkey theme. Here’s how it turned out:

Jennifer used red and black as the theme colours, and set up a treats table with red and black candy, and cupcakes decorated with sock monkey cupcake toppers. The table was covered with sock monkey patterned fabric, and sock monkey themed bunting hung as a backdrop to the treats table. Guests got the ’monkey munches’, as they took home cookies in a jar, created from  Bakerella’s “Cowboy Cookie” recipe.

And of course the sock monkey watched as Jennifer’s monkey blew out his birthday candle! Great job Jennifer!

Glory from Glorious Treats sent me some pictures of a beautifully laid Luau dessert table that she designed for her friends’ annual summer luau party.  The hanging paper lanterns, at varying lengths, add an exciting burst of colour and visual interest, which is carried through to the lovely tropical flower arrangements, that Glory made herself. I love the way she laid out this table, using very simple vessels, and even boxes decorated with gift wrap as cupcake stands.

Custom printables were from Littlebeane Boutique, and Glory made all the yummy treats, including the pretty (and very creative), Hibiscus cookies.

I found this awesome idea for transforming empty old wine bottles into pretty centerpieces via Ruffled.  These would make lovely party centerpieces, and would look great around the home.

Here’s How To Create Them:  

What you will need:

- wine bottles
- liquid soap
- alcohol swabs, rubbing alcohol, Goo Gone and/or hard dish brush
-spray paint
- quick drying high gloss white spray paint or white primer spray paint (like this one)
- quick drying high gloss spray in whatever colors you desire (like this one)
- old sheet, drop cloth or any sort of covering for the surface you will be painting on

Instructions:

Step 1: Submerge wine bottles in warm soapy water until labels easily come off (this can take anywhere from 10-20 minutes).

Step2: If you are having difficulty removing labels, try holding the bottles under warm water and use a hard dish brush to scrub off excess label/glue. Using alcohol or Goo Gone can help with this as well.

Step 3: Make sure soapy water is rinsed out of bottles and let bottles dry.

Step 4: Cover hard surface outside (away from anything you might damage with spray paint) and place bottles on the surface. Spray one thin, even coat of white spray paint or primer on each bottle (note, this does not have to be perfect). Make sure you are not holding the can too close to the bottle or the paint will get on too thick and start to drip. Let dry for about 15 minutes, then you can test the bottles by touching them lightly; if the paint is sticky they need more time to dry.

Step 5: Repeat this step about three more times with the colors you choose. If you are having trouble getting the paint on evenly, put your finger into the bottle opening to pick it up so you can see the bottle at a better angle and spray where needed. Because you are doing several coats, it will not be completely even until your final coat. If you need to do more than three or four coats, that is fine, just make sure they are not too thick.

Step 6: Pick up bottle and spray around the bottom edge so no glass is showing through. Then do a quick spray at the very top of the bottle. Leave bottles out to dry in a shaded place.

Voila! You now have beautiful vases for your centerpieces.

Kelly from The Party Dress sent over some adorable pictures from the sweet and colourful Elephant Parade Circus Party that she recently worked on. The 4 yr old boy, and girl twin subjects both love the circus, so Kelly created the cutest custom elephant parade collection, and set up a candy/dessert table full of colourful treats and sweets.

Yum!

Two of my favorite elements were the colourful circus canopy (from Ikea), which hung over the dessert table, and the adorable favour boxes decorated with cute little elephant stickers from Whhostess.

All so very charming, and colourful! Thanks for sharing Kelly.

I found this really fun idea for displaying candy via, the lovely french blog Sweet Girly Mommy. The Candy Cake Display was created using styrofoam bases of different sizes, decorated with fabric, then stacked on top of each other, to look like a tiered cake. The ‘cake’ was then decorated with assorted candies, attached using tooth picks, to create a beautiful display. What a fab idea!

This very pretty hand-painted castle cake would make a lovely centerpiece at a princess party. Via Neviepiecakes.