Dora's Sweet Creations

Move over unicorns and flamingos, the Panda is making way! I just can not believe I have a 9 year old! Planning Avery’s birthday is especially sentimental because she is the reason I started this sweet journey.  As my first child, I quickly became inspired by celebrations and wanted to make them memorable.

The age of 9 is full of changes. I think it’s the age that they become a little too cool for some things, so when I asked Avery what theme she wanted for her birthday, she did not know at first. She’s had an art theme, a “bow and arrow” theme in which I turned into a bohemian/tribal party, a My Little Pony….. one thing is for sure, she did not want a “character” party per say.

I told her it could be anything! She has a love of stuffed animals. She has a panda eye mask, panda pajamas, and won about 3 stuffed pandas during our summer trip to Legoland.  She also has a love for asian food, so when she chose a Panda theme, it actually was quite fitting.

I wanted the invitation to be minimal, since she is maturing. I scoured etsy, and here is what we decided on:

For the location, she picked the aquatic center that her brother Ethan had his at, so that basically became the entertainment, along with a slime station because duh- slime craze!!!!

We also played Pin the nose on the Panda. It is a printable I found on etsy:

The winner of this and the slime contest received these cute mini pinatas:

The kids had a blast at the aquatic center:

For food, I kept the asian theme and wanted to serve it creatively. I came up with Bento boxes and Chinese food boxes to serve the food in:

And what is a kid’s party without the addition of pizza? Ha! I normally have pizza in individual boxes so that it is easy to grab and also for later in the day after the kids are tired from the water activities:

DESSERTS:

I made some panda cookies for Valentines day, and Avery absolutely fell in love with them. She wanted me to make a version for her birthday, so I made some with a little party hat, holding the number 9:

For the other desserts, it became really fun, keeping with the panda and asian theme, we made “sushi” with rice krispy treats, green tea kit kat and white chocolate kit kats, wrapped with a sour belt:

For cake pops, I ordered some bamboo paper straws and used those as the “stick” to the cake pop, and I attached a panda on there, as if it were climbing the bamboo:

When I think of Chinese food, a fortune cookie always comes to mind. I wanted to incorporate that somehow.  I’m sure you’ve seen these everywhere as a cupcake topper, but I wanted to add something a little extra, so I printed out these labels, cut them, and stuck them in my chocolate dipped fortune cookies. Another way to personalize the desserts and showcase Avery’s age:

I added some candy to the table to fill in the spaces too- an easy way to add to the dessert table without slaving away in the kitchen. In keeping with the theme, I added white gummy bears and labeled them as pandas, and green m&ms featured as “edamame” hehe:

For the cake, I wanted it to resemble a Panda. I made a Panda face with ears and a party hat for the top tier, and the bottom tier, I just frosted and covered in black and white sprinkles:

For the decor, it had to be something somewhat easy to transport. I used chicken wire and stranded all kinds of tropical leaves as the back drop and used an acrylic sign for showcasing Avery’s name and age:

I also did a balloon garland as a “banner” If you’ve read other posts, I of course did  not have a professional photographer, so this was not the finished banner. I actually included confetti balloons too, as you will see in other pictures. Sorry- these are real-life unstaged parties and we are celebrating aka running around getting stuff done! Ha!

For favors, I found these adorable polka dot bags at Michaels, and I thought of applying vinyl panda faces to them. I ordered the vinyl from Andrea of Mac Creations on etsy. I probably use her shop for every party. Once some one gives me great service and products, I tend to be loyal! She also made the vinyl letters for the back drop and the Adopt a Panda sign. She is awesome!

I included tags for the guests to adopt these pandas and insert them into lanyards to protect it:

The idea of adopting pandas was actually Avery’s idea, as I mentioned her love of stuffed animals earlier. I try to incorporate a lot of their current likes in every party to make it extra special.

Another way I like to be “extra” and incorporate the theme is in what the birthday girl wears, along with the family. We had too much fun with it this time. LOL!

When Avery first picked the panda theme, I really was thinking, what in the world??? But what I did was think of things related to the panda, and not have all desserts in a panda shape. It makes for a much more creative and fun spread. I also faced the challenge of not making it too “character-y”, and a little more “mature”. Yes- mature at 9. Lol! I can’t wait to see what she will dream up for her big 10! (time please slow down)

 

For Ethan’s 3rd birthday, we chose the cartoon and toy he was the most interested in at that time- Spongebob Squarepants.  When he watched the cartoon, he would rewind the theme song over and over again and dance and sing “Oooooooh”!  How can I not make him a Spongebob party after that?  Some people are opposed to character parties, because they can easily look like a “birthday in a box”, but you can make any theme more refined if you mix and match decor instead of over-using the character.

I wanted to focus on all things “under the sea” : fish nets, rustic plates and cake stands, nautical elements, etc which were all related to Spongebob and easy to obtain because it was summer.  I also brought in the pineapple element because, that is where Spongebob lives, and pineapples happen to be everywhere at that time, so those were also easy to find. Here’s the final product of my vision: complete with a certain modern day Spongebob as I like to call him.

After the theme is chosen, I always have my party hat on, every store or website I visit, and I get inspired by my findings. These are my initial findings and things I collected before I went on full on party mode.

The pineapple plates are from Shop Sweet Lulu, and I found those pineapple cups from OrientalTrading. The buckets were from Target one spot, and the rest were from Michaels.

I wanted the invitation to be fun. I found an adorable printable on Etsy from LilGiggs. I thought of adding a little extra and purchased pocket envelopes and I cut out and glued a tie, a shirt collar, and part of his pants, so it would look like his full outfit. I loved how it turned out

I tried to incorporate all of the birthday boy’s favorites into his party. Ethan is a major foodie and LOVES cheeseburgers. Sometimes I wonder if this is what attracted him to this cartoon- the krabby patties!!!! Lol Along with BBQ and a big spread, we also offered “krabby patties” aka In-N-Out burgers:

For beverages, we offered all things spongebob and under-the-sea related: pineapple juice, “ocean water”, “fresh water” and a flavored lemonade bar. I decorated the lemonade dispenser with tropical leaves to mimic a pineapple:

I also decorated plastic cups with vinyl pineapple cut outs that I got from Mac Creations from Etsy. Andrea always does all of my custom vinyl cut outs and is always so accommodating!

ENTERTAINMENT:

A requirement from my kids is always to have a piñata. I found a spongebob piñata but also a cheeseburger one at Target.  After purchasing, I customized it with cut out letters that I cut out with my Cricut machine, and labeled it as a Krabby Patty.

Ethan also loves water balloons and bubbles. I made a water balloon station at “Jelly Fish Fields” and sadly did not get a picture of my bubble station that was filled with various bubbles, and huge bubble makers. Sorry, these are real life parties people! I may do a lot with my kids’ parties, but I don’t hire a professional photographer, and I don’t stage them to a point where kids are scared to play with things or eat the desserts hehe…. but you will get a glimpse of it later. Stay tuned.

Aside from the dessert table, we also made ice cream “krabby patties” with various cookie flavors from chocolate chip to snickerdoodle……coupled with popsicles, they were a hit in the hot July sun. I made and packaged them myself and then filled up the ice cream cart I rented:

Birthday boy was definitely a fan 🙂

(And there is the glimpse of the bubble station- to the right lol)

FAVORS:

Of course, we had to do Chum Buckets as favors. I purchased these buckets at the infamous 1 Spot at Target, then used my Cricut to cut out letters with vinyl paper:

I filled them with all things Spongebob: his flute that he plays during the theme song, “ocean water” bubbles, bubblegum tape that I made look like Gary, and I also made my own candy kebobs. I found a how-to on the Gary bubblegum tape on daneesdelights.blogspot.com. She’s so creative!

For the candy kebobs, you’ve seen these around…..but $3 a pop was out of my budget (yes, I do have a budget, kind of lol), so naturally, I found a way! I rolled up my own sour belts and painted the pineapple stripes with food coloring. Yes, it was a little time consuming but it was fun, and I didn’t do them all in one day.

I displayed the chum buckets in a boat that I had purchased for his first birthday, which was a Nautical Mickey Mouse theme. It currently houses toys and figurines in his room, but I was glad to be able to use it again for this party:

We also gave out these picture snow globes I found, but I made them “under the sea” by incorporating blue sand, and spray painting the bottom aqua. I left out my polaroid camera, and guests took pictures and inserted them in the globe and took them as favors- so fun!

On the other side of the dessert table, I did a pineapple display, made to mimic a palm tree. There’s a lot of how-to’s out there, but I found the easiest one on makelifespecial.com. I lined up these pineapple cups, both for filling with beverages and also with all the sweets from the dessert table so guests can take some home.

DESSERT TABLE:

I made most of the desserts myself. I recently started making simple cakes…..by simple, I mean baked and frosted with buttercream, and adding some fondant elements, toys, whatever I have on hand that will add a cute touch but not take me days to do.  I added a toy spongebob that was supposed to be a gift to Ethan, but I needed it for the cake! lol besides, its his anyway after we clean the frosting off right? Right.

The sign and life saver are actually decorated cookies that I made. And this is only my second cake that I’ve ever created- it’s definitely going to take some practice, but the birthday boy enjoyed it!

Aside from that cake, I also made a couple pina colada cakes and added these cute rustic cake toppers that I purchased from Alexis Mattox Design. Her toppers are made very sturdy and a great value, a lot lower in price than all of the other calligraphy toppers you find out there.

As I mentioned before, I started out this sweet journey with making decorated cookies. Character cookies are so time consuming, but my primary reason for learning was so I can make them for my kids’ parties, so I did not hold back- Spongebob and all his friends made an appearance:

I wanted to incorporate Krabby Patties in there again, so my talented friend, Anna San Pedro, who I order my macarons from, made me these amazing macarons:

Aren’t they fun?

I also made cake pops shaped like pineapples and in keeping with the tropical theme, I made some passion fruit panna cota:

I also filled up the dessert table with various candy, all relative to the theme, of course:

Here is an aerial view of how it all came together:

Everyone enjoyed the sweets, especially the birthday boy!

For the table decor, I purchased the wood paneling at Home Depot, painted it, and staggered it to bring some depth to it. I then hung all these tissue honeycomb balls in various shades of blue that I purchased  from Shop Sweet Lulu– her shop is so cute and has all kinds of unique party goods.  If you’re not sure how to decorate or can’t decide what to do, her shop offers tons of inspiration!

I really enjoyed planning and executing this party because Ethan is my youngest, and I can still do cutesy things and not really have any parameters because he just lets mama do it all at this point. I think I still have free reign for at least a couple more years, no? 🙂