New Year Cupcakes

I received a Cricut Cake for Christmas this year (yay!) and this was my first project with it. The numbers and the stars were the only things I cut out with the Cricut Cake.For the confetti I just rolled out the fondant and sliced it into thin strips.

I made these white chocolate fireworks by melting the chocolate and mixing in the food coloring, piping the melted chocolate onto a piece of wax paper, sprinkling it with sugar, and putting it it in the freezer to set. In retrospect, I should have either done just the chocolate or just the fondant. I got a little too excited and was trying to do too many things at once!

Survivor Girls Night

Okay, I hosted this girls night months ago and it was so much fun! It's taken me way too long to put a post up about it!Anyone who knows me knows how much I love Survivor. I had been thinking/planning this night for several months before it finally came to fruition.Along with a veggie tray, fruit tray, and drinks, I had some Survivor-esque food to go along with our theme. I bought fresh coconut that I cut up (I was shocked when I found out there were girls there who had never tasted fresh coconut before!), I made fried plantains (which were a little weird but went along with the theme), I made rice and put it in plastic seashell dishes, and, my crowning achievement, a volcano cake!

After we had eaten I had everyone draw a "buff" out of a bag to determine which tribe they would be on. Once everyone had a tribe, they all split off to decorate their "flags" (aka poster boards) with their tribe names that they made up. After the poster boards were finished it was on to the first challenge!The first challenge consisted of a map, phrase, and flag for each tribe. We tacked their tribe poster boards onto the deck outside and everyone stood on their tribe mats (just towels laid on the ground). I gave each tribe a map and, on my go, they opened them up. The maps led them to three different areas around my yard where they had to find three different bags with words to the phrase they all had to put together. Once a tribe had all three of their bags, they had to go back to their mat and then open them up and start working on their phrase.

United You Must Be

To Win Immunity

When they thought the figured it out I had to double check to make sure it was the right one (there were three different ways it would be put together) and once I gave the okay the tribe had to tape the phrase to their poster board, grab their tribe flag, run back to their mat, and stake the flag into the ground. The first two tribes to finish were able to move on to the next round!The next challenge was set up with each tribe standing in a line with each person being an arm's length apart from the person on either side of them. They had to blindfold themselves and then they were each given a small plastic cup. On each end of the line for each tribe was a bucket. On one end there was a large bucket filled with water and on the other end was a smaller empty bucket. Being blindfolded, and not allowed to talk to each other, they had to transfer water from the large bucket to the small bucket using their cups. The first tribe to fill their small bucket to overflowing won!

I didn't want anyone to feel left out so the tribe who didn't finish the first challenge still got to be involved. I split the losing tribe up and put half on each tribe doing the water challenge. Their role was to verbally help the competing tribes if they were having trouble finding each other. So, the competing tribe could talk, but the losing tribe members became "callers" who could help but only by talking, they weren't allowed to physically guide anyone's hand. (Phew, did that all make sense??)

After the water challenge was over we all went back inside for a Limbo competition! Originally it was supposed to be the tribe who won the water challenge competing against each other for individual immunity, but everyone wanted to participate and who was I to stop them from having a good time??The person who won was awarded with an Individual Immunity Necklace!

And then, it was outside for our Tribal Council! (And by Tribal Council I mean relaxing campfire in my backyard.)

Mario Galaxy 2 Party Hats

Along with the Mario and Luigi hats we already had, I made some more character hats for the kids to dress up in for my son's Super Mario Galaxy 2 party. I cut out all the patterns with my Cricut, traced them onto felt, cut the pieces out, hot-glued them together and then hot-glued them to the hat.I made a mini Princess Peach hat for my 1 year old daughter so she could join in on the fun!When I made the Mario and Luigi hats I actually sewed the white part onto the hat itself. With Wario and Waluigi I just glued it on and it was just fine.I had to be a little creative with some of the hats. This one is for Diddy Kong. He has stars on his shirt so I just put those on the hat instead.DaisyDry BonesKing Boo - This is one of my favorites for some reason!ToadRosalina! I totally had to make up my own ideas for this. I used a wand (since she has a wand), a "luma", and then I added the light blue tulle to give it a little something extra.

And last, but not least, Bowser! This one is also one of my favorites! The horns are made of two pieces of felt hot-glued together. The flame mohawk is made of flames alternately glued together and then glued to the hat at the bas of the flame. This is the hat my husband wore for the game when all the kids had to defeat Bowser.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 Birthday Party

This year for my son's birthday party, I decided on a Super Mario Galaxy 2 theme (that's quite a mouthful!).For table decorations I made some Piranha Plants. They were really simple, just styrofoam balls, paint, green pipe cleaners, green and white foam, and little wooden spools.I also made some coin and brick blocks. Yes, I drew all the lines on the bricks by hand!I made green and red mushroom cupcakes. The white circles are just Wilton's white chocolate melts.Now for the fun stuff! I made hats for all the kids to wear. I was so excited to make these and I think they turned out great (yes, I am patting myself on the back...)!

For the party games, I chose actual names from the levels in the video game and went from there.The first game was Luigi's Purple Coin Chaos! I found dark chocolate Hershey Kisses, bought 100 of them and scattered them all over the room. The kids had to collect all the "coins" that Luigi dropped.Next, Sneaking Down the Creepy Corridor. I taped some Halloween-esqe decorations in the hallway and on the bedroom door that the game was taking place in. When they opened the door they discovered......a room full of Boos!There was a Comet Medal hidden in the room full of "Boos" and the kids had to find it!Then we played Silver Stars Pop-Up. I put together a scavenger hunt to find the five Silver Stars that were hiding around the house. (Side note - I used Sheriff badges that I found at a party store but then found actual little silver stars the next time I went back! Grr!)


The final level was Bowser's Big Lava Power Party! My husband wore the Bowser hat and the kids were supposed to throw water balloon "fireballs" at him until they defeated Bowser. Unfortunately, it rained and we had to move the party inside so we had to improvise with balled up plastic bags. It worked out fine, none of the kids cared as long as they got to throw something at an adult!I made a poster with outlines of everything the kids needed to collect in each level.

Once they defeated Bowser, the kids were awarded the Grand Star for completing all the levels. It was the sweetest reward they could have gotten!

"The Office" Beach Day Party

We hosted the Annual Scranton Beach Day this week! I made sure to watch the episode and take notes so I could follow it as closely as possible. It was supposed to be a completely outdoor party but the weather didn't cooperate, so I had to improvise inside a little!Every party that the Party Planning Committee throws has a printed banner hanging on the wall, so I had to make one, too!
When the guests first walked in the door they were greeted with the Coal Walk! (I didn't think it would be that safe to have an actual coal walk, but this did the job.)
I just glued red and yellow crinkly paper to a red poster board. If you actually wanted to do a "coal" walk some other ideas would be a "Crunch Berry" walk or "Tin Foil" walk.I decided on a blue and white color scheme since those are the Dunder Mifflin logo colors. And it what Office party would be complete without an office supply encased in Jello??
We started the night off with a blindfolded egg-on-a-spoon relay race! Each team had an egg, a spoon, a blindfold, and a tiki torch that each member of the team had to walk down, around, and come back from. The other members of the team could verbally guide the blindfolded person so they knew where they were supposed to go.
The second "funtivity" we had was Sumo Wrestling! Since it would've cost several hundred dollars to actually rent the sumo suits, we decided to skip that and make our own. The pillows in the front of the picture are for the arms. I just folded them in half and wrapped duct tape around the middle. Then, we used a rope to tie another pillow around the chest. I used more of the rope to make a wrestling ring and the object of the game was to push your opponent out of the ring! SO much fun!
After the Sumo Wrestling we headed inside for the hot dog eating contest! It was low-key, I wasn't sure how many people would actually want to have a full-out contest!
Then, after everything was over, we tallied up the scores! (The team names are from the show, too.) One point for each member of the team who didn't drop their egg during the relay race, one point for winning your sumo wrestling match, and one point for each hot dog every team member ate. The prize for the winning team was a Schrute Buck for each person and an "Assistant to the Regional Manager" pin for the team captain.

Right before I handed out the prizes to the winning team, we received a "memo" from corporate telling everyone from the Scranton Branch that a new Regional Manager had been chosen to replace Michael Scott.

The party was a total hit and was actually pretty easy to put together!