Wednesday, July 20, 2011

A Perfectly Pink Party! Part 3 (the end!)

I promise that this is the last installment of the Perfectly Pink Party posts!  I didn't realize that there was so much info to cover when I started writing the 1st post - it kept going and going just like the Energizer bunny, who happens to be pink too:)

So the only details left to cover are the food and drinks - unless I have forgotten something, which is quite possible since I seem to be absent minded lately.

Food!  Such an important part of any party, but over the years we have wasted a ridiculous amount of it.  I'm talking whole pizzas, sandwich trays that were never uncovered, and enough snack mix to last for at least 3 months.  So I have learned that less is more when dealing with kids because the excitement of the party usually seems to override their desire to eat (until the cake is served and/or once they get home later).  How many times have you been to a party where there was TONS of food yet when you get home your children are starving?  Kids just don't seem to understand or appreciate the value of good party food!

I don't know that I have ever hosted a party without serving a nugget tray from Chick-fil-a.  It's fast and reasonably priced, and the kids ALWAYS devour every last nugget.  In addition to the nugget tray I made pb&j sandwiches with strawberry jelly to keep with the "pink" theme and we served a fruit bowl with watermelon, grapes and blueberries.  I also filled cute little pink treat boxes with popcorn for the kids to munch on.  And that was it for the food (aside from cake of course).  Basic yet filling and kid friendly!

For drinks we served pink lemonade and strawberry milk.  I gotta tell ya, I was heartbroken that I couldn't afford to serve the drinks in those adorable little milk bottles with pretty striped straws that I keep seeing, but it just wasn't in the budget and I'm not sure that glass bottles are all that practical for 3 year olds anyway, so I sucked it up and served the drinks in pink paper cups with plain old white straws.  Finding plain white bendy straws was a chore though!  It seems that most straws these days have colored stripes on them and that just wasn't going to work with the pink theme I had going.  Some people call this being obsessive but I call it being detail oriented.  So after searching high and low I finally remembered that the kid's straws at Chick-fil-a are not only bendy but also plain white and I grabbed a handful from the lobby and put an end to that debacle.  Not only were they just what I had been looking for but they were free!

Cute treat boxes from Wal-Mart were made even cuter with circle tags that read "Addyson loves Pink".
 The white drink bucket from Target held small plastic bottles of pink lemonade.

Chicken nugget tray, pb&j sandwiches and a fruit bowl along with drinks and popcorn to munch on.
And now on to the really good part!  My favorite part of any birthday party - THE CAKE!  And cupcakes in this case.
Once again the budget kept me from ordering the usual amazing cake from Edible Art which saddened me, but I was pleased with what I was able to do on my own.  I knew from the start that I would be making cupcakes and I also knew that for the first time ever I was going to make homemade buttercream frosting (so glad I did!)  But a few weeks before the party I started to feel guilty that Addyson wasn't going to have her own cake, so I purchased the Big Top silicone cupcake pan (on sale at Toys R Us for only $12.99) and decided to make a giant cupcake for the cake.  She was soooo excited, but I was nervous that I was going to somehow ruin it.  I'm happy to say that I did not ruin the cake and that my buttercream frosting was delicious!


The homemade cake and cupcakes complete with homemade buttercream frosting!

The decorating wasn't perfect but it was my first attempt so I was pleased.
The party circles added a fun touch to the cake.

Buttercream Frosting recipe (adapted from Wilton)
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine softened
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons mile
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cream butter and shortening with electric mixer.  Add vanilla.  Gradually add sugar beating on medium speed.  When all sugar has been mixed add milk and continue to beat on medium speed until light and fluffy.
One last party detail that is food related!  I have been dying to create a dessert table a la Amy Atlas for a very long time but (yet again) I knew that such a table would eat up (no pun intended) my entire budget, so I adapted the idea to create a small "Take Home Treat" table.  This was another party favor for the guests to take home.  Everyone received a pink favor bag and guests were encouraged to fill their bag with pink marshmallows, pink wafer cookies, strawberry milkshake flavored Whoppers (who knew such a thing existed?), Oreos with pink filling and tiny boxes of pink Nerds candy.  I had such grand plans for this table including paper cones filled with pink cotton candy, pink cake pops, marshmallows on a stick decorated with pink sprinkles, pink jello jigglers, pretzel rods dipped in pink candy melts, and so much more, but there was no way to make it all happen, so once again I had to minimize.

My dinky version of a dessert table - the Take Home Treat table.

An Amy Atlas feature dessert table!
So that should pretty much cover the Perfectly Pink Party!  I would like to mention that party planning on a tight budget is challenging but it can be done with some patience and a lot of effort.  Almost everything that I bought was from Wal-Mart, Target, the Dollar Tree and Hobby Lobby, with the exception of a few small items.  The pink party circles that were used as cupcake toppers, Thank You tags on the butterfly nets, and on the popcorn treat boxes were only $10 and came from a great little Etsy shop called Paper and Pigtails.  Party printables are everywhere these days and it is a very inexpensive and creative way to customize your party.

I would also like to mention that while I do get most of my ideas from the internet I adapt them to suit my taste, style and budget.  I spend hours upon hours searching for party inspiration and ideas, then I take my favorites from various sites and combine and tweak them to create a special event that has some of my own touches along with many borrowed ideas.  Here are a few of the sites that I checked out when planning this party:

Amy Atlas
Hostess with the Mostess
Bella Grace
The TomKat Studio

1 comment:

  1. AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hope u get hired off this! if i find myself with some extra cash at birthday times, im totally hiring you!

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