Ice Cream Party

An ice cream party is one of the funnest and easiest parties to throw.  And tastiest, of course.
We have done one 2 years in a row for my oldest daughter’s birthday she liked it so much!
I’m going to share my tips so you can do this super simply!
I’ve done this making homemade ice cream or using a tub from the store.  If you make homemade just be sure to make it a day ahead so it can firm up.

For the toppings.  Go to the grocery store and pick out some fun things.  If you have a Winco or other grocery store that sells bulk that works nicely so you only have to buy what you need.  You may have things in your pantry all ready too.

This is a good chance to mix homemade with purchased items.  I made the sauces myself along with the waffle bowls but I’ve also done it where I didn’t make anything but one sauce and it was loads of fun still.

Cute dishes for serving are fun, but even some mason jars are cute.

Since this was for a birthday I made an ice cream themed cake.  Super easy.  When you level off your cake rounds save the scraps and mix with frosting to make a big cake ball.  Put on top of frosted cake and pour ganache over and while wet place cone on top of cake ball.

Topping ideas:
Sauces (purchased or homemade)
Marshmallow cream
Salted Caramel
Hot Fudge (serve in mini crockpot?)
Chocolate
Butterscotch
Strawberry
Pineapple.. you get the idea.  Just pick a few sauces 🙂
Bananas
Strawberries or other berries
Chopped nuts
Mini Reese’s PB Cups
Sprinkles
Whipped Cream
Cookies
Oreos
Pop rocks (This one is always the most popular!)
Crumbled Sugar cones
Mini marshmallows
Pretzels
Mini Chocolate chips
Chocolate dipped dried bananas
m and m’s
Whipped cream
Waffle bowls
Seriously, just have fun with it.  Even gummy worms are fun!
Oh, and don’t forget the ice cream!!! I always just do vanilla since we have so many other flavors with the add ins but if you wanted to go all out you could do chocolate too of course!

The ice cream bowls and spoons are a set from Amazon and we still use them all the time! We ended up using them for the toppings and our big Corelle cereal bowls for serving since the kids could fit a waffle bowl inside them and all the toppings their hearts desired!

Teddy Bear Tea Party

If you have littles, a teddy bear tea party is something you need to do.  Some years ago my daughter wanted one for her birthday.
I wondered if her friends were getting a little old for one but what ensued was pure magic.  We sent each girl an invitation with a miniature invitation to her #1 teddy.  They were so excited and it was just the sweetest day.

Each girl was given a simple handmade bear.

The menu was simple and just what a teddy would want to have with his favorite girl.

Gummy berries, teddy grahams, and some bit of honey (This really was some years ago! My daughter is now allergic to tree nuts so these would be a no-go now!)

Muddy bear parfaits.  Just some chocolate pudding, whipped cream, and teddy graham crumble.  Topped with a very muddy (chocolate dipped) gummy bear.

You can’t have a tea party without fairy bread.. or fairy bears rather!

And of course some honey cake.

The cake was my favorite.  I made the decorations with marshmallow fondant.

This bear particularly enjoyed the treats!

 

Art Party

This was lost in my “pictures for the website file” that seems to be a pit of things I haven’t gotten to! A few years ago we did this for our oldest daughter and I think it’s time to do another one.  She loves art and so an artsy fartsy birthday was perfect.  She also loves bright colors so I used primary colors to decorate.
Her cake was so simple and cute!

I made 6 layers and colored each a color of the rainbow.  I used a white frosting in between each…

Frosted the outside and then went to town with primary colored sprinkles.

On top I added a rainbow made from marshmallow fondant.  (Use a skewer on each side to give structure and place into cake)  I set this out to dry a couple days ahead of time to firm it up as well.
Then I added some “clouds” with more white frosting on top

It looked pretty cool when we cut into it.

I made pizza and also some colorful whoopie pies.  Just use your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe.  Just use white chocolate chips and add some sprinkles, sandwich with frosting and roll sides in sprinkles.

“Paintbrushes” were pretzel rods dipped in brown candy melts, then the tops in a colored melt.

Rice Krispy treats made great paintbrushes too!

I used my “Monster Munch” recipe but used m and m’s instead of reese’s and all white chocolate.

Some white tulle bunches and primary colored streamers made a fun rainbow and cloud backdrop. White balloons would work well too.

The activity was fun and pretty messy! I put an example up of what each station was for.
Spin art is popular in our house.  I just use a cheap salad spinner from IKEA, paper plates trimed to fit it (or construction paper, but you’ll want something thicker), and watered down paint in small bottles.

Marble painting got messy fast but they had so much fun.  Just use washable paints, a container for each color, marbles, and a tray that your paper fits in.

I made the invite myself on Microsoft Word as usual.

If you have a little one who loves art an art party is a fun inexpensive idea! Just make sure to have fun doing things together for the party and be prepared to clean up a mess! 😉

Scooby Doo Party

My youngest LOVES Scooby Doo so for her last birthday we of course had a Scooby Doo theme.
I have a few rules about birthdays:
1. We’re not breaking the bank, a kid’s birthday party should be fun, but also inexpensive.
2. If we’re going to have a “theme” it’s because we’re going to spend time together making fun things.

We thought of some pretty fun things for the Scooby Doo theme, and had lots of fun making them together.
First up, hamburger “cake pops”.  Directions here.
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And of course Scooby would want some hot dogs to go with the burgers!

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Orange Soda.. I mean, Jinkies Juice.

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The cake was probably her favorite thing to make.  We found some ideas on pinterest for making a fondant scooby.
We used our trusty Marshmallow fondant of course.

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More directions on making it here.

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For activities they make their own pizzas.

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And played the “mummy game”.

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And pin the tag on scooby.

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Baptism Treats and Ideas

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This was a very special day for our family and I wanted to share some of the fun things we did.

Before her baptism we made a trip to the Portland Temple for some pictures in her special dress.
I used fabric from my wedding dress and made my own pattern since I couldn’t find what I wanted.
The buttons are even antiques from my Grandmother’s button jar she had given me.

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I made the flowers for her hair and sash with some soft pink specialty fabric (just gathered and sewed in onto a felt circle, some more antique buttons for the center and attached them to alligator clips.
And you have to have sparkly gold kitty shoes to top everything off!

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I made a special scrapbook for her day, including a page to tell her about her dress.  I included scraps of the fabrics and some more of the special buttons to save for another special day.  I printed this frame from the Graphics Fairy for journaling.
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And some of the favorite pictures taken at the Temple.

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I printed more of the frame (I added a little banner that says “A message for Lucy”) and had them at the baptism for friends and family to write messages to her.
Afterwards I added them to her scrapbook.

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For the treats…
Basically we did cupcakes and cookies.  Lucy really wanted blues (for water) and doves (for the dove that appears when Christ was baptized).

I’ve had this cookie cutter set (at least the temple and angel moroni) for many years.  Originally purchased at Deseret Book.  Lucy really wanted a dove and luckily I had one from a set, and used a small scalloped circle as well.
I topped them with a glaze and some luster dust and some marshmallow fondant decorations.

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You can find these cookie cutters at Deseret Book.  After baking I added a bit of blue coloring to clear vanilla extract and used a small food paintbrush (you can find them with cake decorating supplies) to paint details.  Painting after baking will give a brighter color.

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If you don’t know this tip all ready, the best cupcake liners are mini souffle cups.  I buy mine at United Grocer’s Cash and Carry but any restaurant supply store should have them.  You can get them in a range of sizes, from teeny tiny to regular cupcake size.  You just put them on a cookie sheet, no cupcake pans needed.
I frosted with blue and white swirled frosting.

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I didn’t catch a better picture! The banner was made with my Silhouette, she really wanted a dove and the CTR symbol.   I placed her memory book with the pictures we took at the Temple and the shadowbox I made her for decoration.

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I had to share this too.  She received this special Baptism charm bracelet for a gift.  It is so sweet.  She doesn’t love wearing jewelry but she hung it over her desk and looks at it all the time.

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A Very Un Birthday Tea Party

A Very Un Birthday Tea Party

 

I recently threw a cousin’s party for my girls and their cousins.  And of course it had to have a theme.  If you question why you probably don’t know me very well 😉  We’ll just say it’s a problem of mine. 😀  We went with a Un-birthday tea party (Alice in Wonderland style, of course!).

A Very Un Birthday Tea Party

If possible, I like making a menu to go on each plate, it’s just a fun touch.

A Very Un Birthday Tea Party

 

Since my sisters were coming with the kids I made some sandwiches for the adults (and older cousins).  Using rye bread works well for making the “black” clover and spades.  I filled them with radish sandwich spread.  I bought some card suit cookie cutters on Amazon to use for these and the cookies coming up.  I also made Curry Chicken Sandwiches and just cut them in triangles.

A Very Un Birthday Tea Party

 

The same cutters were used for making fairy bread (bread spread with frosting and coated in sprinkles) and a bunny cutter was used to make peanut butter white rabbit sandwiches.

A Very Un Birthday Tea Party

 

Fairy bread is a staple around here for parties 🙂

A Very Un Birthday Tea Party

 

I was going to make hot tea, but did Iced cherry berry herbal tea instead, along with strawberry milk for the younger kids.

A Very Un Birthday Tea Party

 

Queen of heart scones, made with a tiny heart cutter.

A Very Un Birthday Tea Party

 

Mad Hatter hats.  We just had to.

A Very Un Birthday Tea Party

 

They are just oreos dipped in green candy melts, then jumbo marshmallows dipped in melts as well and put on top of the cookies.  (Work quick so the marshmallow doesn’t melt!  Don’t ask how I know that… 🙂 We used fondant to make the band and card, and a food marker to mark the card.

A Very Un Birthday Tea Party

 

We piped green leaves on half the mini cupcakes and on the other half put a fondant rose.  A few with red fondant, and on the others we made them white and painted some red on them.  To do  this mix some red food coloring gel into a little lemon extract and paint on.

A Very Un Birthday Tea Party

 

And the teapot cake, of course!

A Very Un Birthday Tea Party

 

A better look at the cookies.  I did a simple glaze instead of royal icing for my sanity’s sake.

A Very Un Birthday Tea Party

 

Rice krispy playing cards.  I was going to make them look like the soldiers but they looked good so I left well enough alone.  We made rice krispy treats and spread them into a large baking sheet so they’d be thinner.  Spread the tops with white candy melts, then added some fondant shapes and such.  I have this mini cutter set I used for the card suit symbols and this is the set I have I used for the numbers and letters.

A Very Un Birthday Tea Party

Cheshire cat tails 🙂 I don’t know what it is, but anytime I make decorated pretzel rods for a party they are one of the most popular things.
I dipped pretzel rods halfway in pink candy melts, then dipped the very end into purple sprinkles.  While holding the undipped end of the rod (work over a tray) I sprinkles more purple sprinkles around them to make stripes.

A Very Un Birthday Tea Party

 

 

We made giant card suit shapes out of construction paper and used mini clothespins to hang them from twine we strung around the room.

A Very Un Birthday Tea Party

I put out a Alice In Wonderland pop up book, and a white rabbit puppet, a big hat, some fun keys, and an alice in wonderland teapot I found at home goods.

A Very Un Birthday Tea Party

 

My girls love using that teapot.  Oh, and I borrowed hubby’s pocket watch for the rabbit.

A Very Un Birthday Tea Party

 

For an activity the kids painted little teacups with porcelain markers.

A Very Un Birthday Tea Party

 

It was such a fun party and I hope all the kids will have special memories of it.  I know my girls really enjoyed helping me make all the food and decorations for it!  Now, what to choose for a theme for next years?….

 

Mary Poppins Themed Party

Mary Poppins Themed Party
My oldest turned 12 and is OBSESSED with Mary Poppins.  Some may say that’s because she has Autism.. but I think she’s just more in tune with what awesome is. 😀
We had a whole Mary Poppins themed party, it was so fun!
I made her a carpet bag, hat, and costume, and a sweet friend made her the scarf.  The gloves were a thrift shop lucky find.
Mary Poppins Themed Party
A sweet friend bought her the umbrella and it made her over the moon happy.  She wears this costume all the time now!  The dress was made from an old shirt, I added a red elastic waistband, blue skirt, and red bow.  We found the hat for Daddy’s chimney sweep costume at Target.  He still has to learn the chimney sweep dance routine. 😉
Mary Poppins Themed Party
“17 Cherry Tree Lane Cherry Limeade” for the drink, my recipe is here.
Mary Poppins Themed Party
Pic Nik Shoestring potatoes for “Fiddlesticks” 🙂  My favorite movie quote of all time “Fiddlesticks, boy!  Feed the birds and what have you got? Fat birds!”
Mary Poppins Themed Party
I HAD to make something for spoonfulls of sugar.  At first I thought I’d just put a dollop of frosting on some small spoons but I had sugar cookie dough left and thought of this.
So glad I did, they were so cute!  I just traced a small spoon (you can buy cookie cutters in spoon shapes too).  I used a small rolled up piece of foil under my silicone baking mat so the spoons would be curved… but many of them broke after cooling.  Next time I would just make them flat.  Piped a dollop of frosting on the spoon and sprinkled with sanding sugar!
Mary Poppins Themed Party
For the sugar cookies I made cherries, hats (using sprinkles for the decorations), daisies, and a waiter penguin.
Mary Poppins Themed Party
I am not the best at decorating sugar cookies, but I was pretty happy with how theses came out!
Mary Poppins Themed Party
I figured we shouldn’t have ALL sweets so I made kite PB sandwiches (twizzlers pull and peel licorice for the kite strings) and the umbrellas are made from babybel cheese cut in half and a cut down bendable black straw for the handle.
Mary Poppins Themed Party
My daughter LOVES a special little candy shop in Portland, Candy Babel, so we had some of her sweets at the party.  Licorice scottie dogs to represent Andrew (The little dog in the movie), gold coins for tuppence, gummy cherries, and gummy peach penguins.
Mary Poppins Themed Party
Chimney soot treat bars and chimney sweeps, recipes here.
Mary Poppins Themed Party
I made a little kite for the top of her cake with green paper , bendable gold ribbon, and washi tape for edge.  I used twizzlers pull and peel for the red stripes, and used marshmallow fondant for the cherries (with this martha stewart mold) and also cut out letters from it to spell supercalifragilisticexpialidocious around the top.
Mary Poppins Themed Party
I made the cake really small, so I made some mini cupcakes to go with it.  The daisies were made with a tiny daisy cutter I have, and a mini candy chip in the center.
Mary Poppins Themed Party
For the activity we made “stained glass kites”.
Mary Poppins Themed Party
You’ll need:
Contact paper
Black construction paper or cardstock, cut in kite shapes and straight strips
Twine
Tissue paper squares
Glitter and sequins, optional
Mary Poppins Themed Party
They place the kite shape on contact paper, then make the cross strips if they want, then sequins and glitter, then fill with tissue.
Top with another piece of contact paper, trim edges, and add a string.  Hang in the window.

Mary Poppins Themed PartyOther activity ideas:

Feed the birds: Make peanut butter pine cone bird feeders.  Tie twine around a pinecone so you can hang it.  Spread it with peanut butter and roll in birdseed.

Chalk drawings: This buttermilk chalk painting is SO fun for kids!… okay, adults too! I totally do it with my girls every time.

Visit a carousel.

Other refreshment ideas: 

Cotton candy “London fog” or “chimney smoke”

Candy Apples (like Jane and Michael have at the horse race)

Tea sandwiches.. you could even do a whole tea party theme, go with the Tea party on the ceiling.

Mary Poppins Themed Party
This girl was soooo happy to have a Mary Poppins party and we all had so much fun!

I made the invites, pretty simple, but cute:
The front:
Mary Poppins Themed Party

And the inside:
Mary Poppins Themed Party

A Valentine’s Tea In the Woods

A Valentine's Tea In the Woods
Last year we had a “Bee Mine” Valentines Tea and it was so much fun we had to do another one this year!  My girls love the “Stranger in the Woods” books and videos, and that was the inspiration for this one.  Everything was really pretty simple, and my girls had so much fun helping to make everything.


A Valentine's Tea In the Woods

Here’s what we did:

A Valentine's Tea In the Woods

“Forest Flower Nectar”  This is just 7 up and cranberry juice.  Very well received! I debated on what to make for the girls to drink, as some like the hot herbal tea but not all.  This was an easy fix, they could have either and still drink out of the teacups.

A Valentine's Tea In the Woods
I love the log cake platter, I bought it at Cost Plus World Market and was happy to have a perfect occasion to use it!

A Valentine's Tea In the Woods
I made each setting an acorn cap necklace by making felt balls and gluing them inside acorn caps.  Beforehand I drilled a hole in the cap for a wire loop to put the string through. I wrapped one around each napkin.

A Valentine's Tea In the Woods
For place settings I used these woodland animal valentines, found here.
A Valentine's Tea In the Woods

Fairy bread, of course, for the girls.  It’s just peanut butter or frosting on bread, dosed in sprinkles.  I used the woodland animal cookie cutters as well.

A Valentine's Tea In the Woods
For “twigs” I made chocolate dipped pretzel rods.  With them are walnut cookies.

A Valentine's Tea In the Woods
For the cookie mushrooms I just used the sugar cookie dough I used for the other cookies (You just make a ball of dough, dip a bottle top into cocoa powder, then into the ball of dough.  I froze mine for about 45 minutes so they would keep their shape better, then baked.)

A Valentine's Tea In the Woods
For the snails we swirled chocolate and regular sugar cookie dough and used sprinkles for antennas.  Again, I froze them for about 45 minutes to help from spreading.

A Valentine's Tea In the Woods
The log cake was a big hit!

A Valentine's Tea In the Woods
I decorated the cake with marshmallow fondant, using martha stewart molds for the ferns and leaves, a little cookie cutter for the daisies, and freehanded the toadstools.

A Valentine's Tea In the Woods
The green moss is made by mixing graham cracker crumbs with green food coloring.  We added some candy rocks we found at the amazing Candy babel store.

A Valentine's Tea In the Woods
Last minute I remembered we had some deer picks so I added those the mini cupcakes.

A Valentine's Tea In the Woods

The cookie cutter set was from Ikea I believe, though the deer was just the bear modified.

A Valentine's Tea In the Woods

More sweets, of course!
A Valentine's Tea In the Woods

Even if you just break out some cookie cutters and make simple pb sandwiches with juice, have a tea party (with tea cups of course!)  I promise you won’t forget it, and your little for sure won’t!

 

Tea by the Sea

Tea by the Sea

This summer we had a “Tea by the Sea” for my daughters and few of their friends (and the moms).  It was such a fun way to end summer.  These ideas would work well for a mermaid type birthday party as well.

I kept the invites simple, printed on vellum and ripped the sides, attached to brown paper using some washi tape.

Tea by the Sea

My girls had alot of fun making each of their friends a mermaid clothespin doll.  We used them as a napkin ring and they each got to take theirs home.
Tea by the Sea

We kept decorations simple since we had made so much fun edible things.  just a few shells and such we had around the house.
Tea by the Sea

For the kids I made “Mermaid Lemonade”.  Mix lemonade and blue Hawaiian punch.  ( I also had hot herbal tea for the moms).
Tea by the Sea

I made pink seahorses using pink candy coating and a seahorse chocolate mold, then attached them to a pretzel rod dipped in blue candy coating, then sprinkled some sprinkles and pearl candy around them.
Tea by the Sea

And of course coral reef candy.  Make it yourself using the recipe here.
Tea by the Sea

Smores Starfish, recipe found here , and some cookie clams made with cookies, frosting, and candy pearls.
Tea by the Sea

I’m not the best at decorating sugar cookies, but the kids didn’t care!
Tea by the Sea

And of course the sandcastle cake went in the middle of the table

Tea by the Sea

And the teeny cupcakes disappeared very fast!
Tea by the Sea

Sea Glass candy, recipe here
Tea by the Sea

Seafoam (also called honeycomb candy) recipe here
Tea by the Sea

Lime mousse, recipe here. I served this for both the kids and adults.
Tea by the Sea

Fairy bread, of course.  A must for every tea party.   Cut bread with an octopus cookie cutter and spread with frosting or softened butter and coat with sprinkles. I mixed a few colors in with blue and added some candy eyes.
Tea by the Sea

Using some mini croissants we made crabs cutting the mouths from marshmallows and the candy eyes with “glued” onto marshmallows with frosting and put on toothpicks.  I put ham and cheese around them so the kids could make them how they wanted.
Tea by the Sea

For the moms I made some tea sandwiches.
Tea by the Sea

And I frosted some of the cupcakes with plain frosting and put a chocolate shell on top instead of the gummy candy for the kids ones.

Tea by the Sea

And lots of sweets to go around!

Tea by the Sea

It was a fun day! I wouldn’t be surprised if we do it again next summer!
Tea by the Sea

 

Lego Party!

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I’ve heard alot of backlash lately for the Lego Friends line, but in my opinion it’s not a bad thing.  My Lucy loves animals.  And many of their sets include animals, if not involved totally around animals.  When she got the Lego friends pet saloon she took it apart and rebuilt it to be an aquarium with a dolphin exhibit.  I’m not crazy about the girl figures, but they don’t offend me either.  When she turned 7 she knew just what kind of party she wanted.  Lego!  These ideas would work easily for a boy too, you could change the colors to primary too for classic lego, but since my daughters favorite color is pink we went with that. 🙂  We stayed within our rule for birthday parties, which is they have to be very inexpensive things we make ourselves together.  This makes for a much more memorable party when your child is helping to make everything.

I printed some simple invitations using this free Lego Block font and this free Lego Brix font on white cardstock.
I cut out on the top and bottom to look like the lego head shape.

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My daughter decorated the front of the invitations.  She really enjoyed this part.

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I made a small birthday banner on pink cardstock (again using the lego blocks font).  The little tabs on top I left longer so they could fold over the ribbon to hang.
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My daughter and I made this together to hold the silverware and napkins, with L for Lucy and 7 since it was her 7th birthday.

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I used these molds from Amazon to make some mini chocolate lego figures and bricks. We used candy melts and covered the backs with sprinkles.
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For some sandwiches all you need is a small circle cutter and a knife to cut squares or rectangles.  We made some lego fairy bread (a birthday tradition in our house) using frosting as the “glue” for the sprinkles.  And some peanut butter and honey ones as well.  Just use frosting or peanut butter to “glue” the dots on.

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You can make lego cookies using any square cookie or graham cracker and mini marshmallows cut in half for the dots.  I coated ours in candy melts leftover from the Lego Head Marshmallow Pops.  We also dipped pretzel rods in melted candy melts and added sprinkles and big candy hearts.

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And of course the Lego Head Marshmallow Pops!

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We covered juice boxes with colored paper and taped dots on using mounting tape so they popped out a bit.

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The cake was so easy.  Lucy did most of it herself even.  I baked a cake in a 9 by 13 pan and cut a 9 inch square out for the cake.  We used jumbo marshmallows cut in half for the circles on top, but you could also cut them out of cake.  Lucy put her name in Lego candy on the front of the cake.

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Using the leftover cake we cut squares out and covered them with frosting, then more lego candy.

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For the activity each girl had a tray with choices for making a ring.  I bought the rings with blanks at Craft Warehouse, but you can find them online as well.  We went to our local used lego store and sorted through the bins and found pieces that would work for the rings, except the flowers, which I found cheap on Ebay.

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It quickly became a game of “how many things can you fit on your lego ring?” 🙂

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My Lego lover was very happy!
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While I don’t think it’s necessary to do a “favor” for every party, especially since they each got a ring to take home, we found enough of the pieces to make a heart for each friend.  We strung them on some ribbon and made these boxes to hold them.

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