Falltastic Pumpkin Party

I wanted to have one last party for Bailey as an only child...you know before she has to start sharing everything with her new baby brother. I also knew the baby would be born right around Halloween and we would not be able to do much this year. She was so excited about having a pumpkin party and helped me get everything ready. We had 10 little friends come over and the weather was beautiful! I made most of the food but had some help with the pumpkin shaped PB&J's as well as Little Debbie and her fall cakes ;) We played 3 games: Wrap A Mummy in Toilet Paper, Sweep the Pumpkin, and Pop the Balloon by sitting on it. There were 2 tables set up outside. The first table was set for the pumpkin magnet craft and fall themed coloring pages. The second table was set for "Decorate Your Own Cupcake". Target had 5 different kinds of Fall/Halloween themed sprinkles in a pack and I dyed cream cheese frosting orange for them to use.

It was a fun party and Bailey loved having her friends come over for the afternoon.

Yummy fall food! Orange Cupcakes, Popcorn, Chicken Nuggets, Cookies, Cheese Ritz Bits, Marshmallows...

Party Favors with Halloween Gummies and Candy

  

Little Debbie Fall Cakes in White and Chocolate as well as Pumpkin Shaped PB&J's

Pumpkin Shaped Sugar Cookies

Pumpkin Rice Krispy Treats

Everyone dressed up including Meiko

Each child made a Pumpkin Magnet to take home

Party Here: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyCQvZ4gVf5Sqe4pjgITZkJoC0rAkKgMPvAdN6gGPE4vAXpKb0i9hIJLO8R0KQjtBc9hvS-GGzAad5d2CvEQCUMjS984EC2V-s10D2jTiRUYUSUhr9dEybqndrMFEGki6ZBwYj190OPbI/s1600/wgw+button.jpg

Summer of Cupcakes #8 & #9

Well I didn't get to #10...and really #8 & #9 were the same cake just different icings, but they were still delicious! Very Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Icing and strawberry drizzle or filling. I decided I liked the filling better so that each cupcake received the same amount. These are going over really well that I made them for another occasion and received high remarks about them. I made them with homemade whipped topping the third go around and they were delicious. I still think the strawberry icing tastes the best to get the "very strawberry" taste.

Very Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Filling and Vanilla Buttercream Frosting in Pale Pink and Pale Green with "6" flags for a birthday party

An order of #4 cookies for a birthday party at school for a little girl turning 4.

Lingerie Shower

For the past two weeks I have been busy getting ready for a fabulous Lingerie Shower with a Fiesta theme. Blake just happened to be in Puerto Rico a few weeks ago so we scored on getting good tequila for a great price. Every night for the past week and a half I have dedicated 1-3 hours to doing something: cookie dough, cookie icing, 3 layers on the pinata, spray painting the pinata, tissue paper covering the pinata, bagging the cookies, making the cookies, decorating the cookies and my love/hate relationship on printing out the invitations ;) Here are pictures of the fabulous shower. We had such a fun time even if the weather was bad. Three of us hosted and two of us are pregnant...so more margaritas for everyone else ;) I forgot to take a picture of the margarita shaped cookies and lingerie cookies...hopefully someone else did on their camera.

The hostesses with the bride-to-be in front of the lingerie pinata!

Cookie Cake

I haven't done a cookie cake in some time and needed a practice run before I make 2 for a Lingerie Shower coming up next weekend. It turned out delicious! I wanted to practice drawing a margarita glass so I made it with bright colors for my bunco group I hosted this week.

Cookies Published

When I started my cookie decorating hobby this website was used by a lot of decorators for their prices. They do business all over the U.S. and are commonly used by cookie decorators. I sent them a picture of my breast cancer cookies and they posted my picture on their website! http://www.thecookiecuttershop.com/cancerribbon/cancerribbon1.shtml

How neat! I can't believe how excited I am over this...it's the little things I guess!

Starting Cookie Decorating

I bought a book a few weeks ago on cookie decorating after I started following blogs about it. I love to see the different styles people come up with. Decorating a cookie is like making edible art work. I bought a few cookie cutters to start: round circle, bikini top and bottom (also could be used for lingerie showers), elephant (roll tide!), airplane (Blake's going away party), 5 point crown (ZTA), margarita glass, breast cancer ribbon, and the number '3' (Bailey's birthday-party favors).

My alumnae chapter was having a bowl-a-thon to raise money for our foundation and philanthropy (Breast Cancer Awareness and Education) so I thought it would be a perfect time to try out my new book. The recipe is easy to work with and tastes great with the icing. The first day I did the large round cookies with pink sprinkles - these were called "Hot Pink Sparkling Bowling Balls". The next day I iced the breast cancer ribbons and they turned out really cute. I am going to submit them to the website I bought the cutter from - they said if they use your cookie then you get a free cutter which isn't much but it would be neat to have my cookie posted for ideas.

I enjoyed doing these over actually baking cakes because it is less stressful. These dry and can be packaged really cute where as a butter cream cake can fall apart on your way to the event. So I am going to start doing these for my friend's showers and personal events to start with and see how it goes.

Fabulous Weekend

From my last post I said I would redeem myself with pictures of hot pink cupcakes and my first decorated sugar cookies on sticks. Well I forgot to take a picture of the cupcakes but they turned out really cute. On Thursday I finished a birthday cake, had my guitar lesson, and made cupcake icing. On Friday I baked the cookies. On Saturday I iced the cookies, baked the cupcakes, informal recruitment from 10AM -5 PM, and "Bal Masque" that night. On Sunday I iced the cupcakes and went to informal recruitment from 11:30AM -6:30 PM. It was a very busy weekend, but one that will be remembered. Some say I overdid it and had too much on my plate, but when you love what you are doing it doesn't seem like work at all. I wish I felt like this about everything and one day I hopefully will...in God's timing.

To all my ZTA sisters out there - Theta Nu brought it. I was so proud of them. At our school greek life isn't that big so turn outs for informal recruitment are very small. They invited back 9 and 6 came to bid night! I will let you do the math on where the other 3 went among 2 other sororities. I do love being an advisor even though it takes time away from my family; although, Miss Bailey did attend her first ZTA bid night and loved it!

"Bal Masque" was really fun. Blake wore a Tux and I wore a bridesmaid's dress from my best friend's wedding back in October. The band was good, my feet were sore, and I sang to the top of my lungs to "Sweet Caroline" and "Don't Stop Believing".

Where to start?!?

Well the past month has been really busy at work and home so blogging took a backseat for over a month! First it started with recruitment weekend. I am the rush advisor for Zeta Tau Alpha - Theta Nu chapter so that kept me overly busy for an entire week. Then I planned and decorated a cake for my best friend's bridal shower three weeks ago. Two weeks ago we went to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic for 5 days. Last week: Blake left for the entire week to play war games in MS; I had a 3 Family Yard Sale and made some great CA$H with two friends; and Tuesday I had an Initials Inc. party(www.initials-inc.com/1521) - love their stuff. This past weekend I helped with my best friends bridal pictures, we went to a wedding on Saturday, and church on Sunday.

Bridal Shower Pictures (3 weeks ago)

Party Favor: Chocolate chip cookie with their initials on each one.

Blake and I in Punta Cana (2 weeks ago)