LiLo's Confections

Thursday, 7 March 2013

Lauren Turns Two with Toopy and Binoo!

My daughter loves Toopy and Binoo so we chose them as the theme for her second birthday. It did prove to be a bit of a challenge because there is not a lot of Toopy and Binoo products available. But with a little creativity it turned out to be a great party!

Decorations :

Since Toopy & Binoo items are so hard to find I decided to go with a "Toopy & Binoo" feel rather than being too literal. I used colourful plates, napkins etc from the Dollar Store.

Centrepiece - For the centrepiece I was excited when I found the bucket at Kernel's. I just printed pictures off the Internet and made some stars on my computer with "2" and "Happy Birthday Lauren" on them and taped them to skewers. I stuck them into floral foam and filled in the empty spaces with colourful tissue.

Banner- For the birthday banner I just glued colourful stars onto a ribbon and placed felt letters to spell happy birthday. On each end I glued pictures of Toopy and Binoo that I found on the Internet.

Party Hats- I found two different sizes of New Years Eve hats on Clearance. On the small hats I glued little felt "Binoo" cat ears and on the larger hats I glued "Toopy" mouse ears.

Toopy and Binoo Cut-outs - Using a colouring sheet as a guide I drew these larger images onto Bristol board, It was a great place for the kids to get their pictures taken.

Activities:

Face Painting - Luckily I have a talented friend, Robin, who did some face painting for the kids (Grandpa even got in on it!).

Necklace/ Keychain Craft - I made some little Binoo's and Patchy Patch's charms out of FIMO. Together with pony beads and plastic cord the kids made key chains or necklaces to take home with them as part of the goody bags.

Colouring Sheets - I printed some Toopy and Binoo colouring sheets off the Internet and had a little table set up with crayons for those kids who felt like a quieter activity.

Cake - For the cake I figured Binoo may be easier to tackle than Toopy. Using two sheet cakes I cut the pieces out using an outline i had sketched on paper, I stuck all the pieces together using icing. It wasn't perfect but Lauren was happy so that;s all that matters.

Party Favours - Since items with Toopy and Binoo are so hard to find and Lauren's birthday is really close to Valentine's Day I took the easy way out for party favours. I made Valentine's inspired chocolate suckers with a little note attached thanking the guests for attending.

Thursday, 1 November 2012

Cookie Monster & Elmo Costumes

Saturday, 7 July 2012

Happy Camper!

My husband loves the outdoors (a passion we do not share). So this year I decided to go with a camping theme for his birthday. I was really happy with the results and the cake was one of the easiest I've ever made. All you need is:
Stones: Bridge mix (I like the different sizes and colors)
Campfire: Cut a hole and sunk a tealight into the cake and it doubles as the birthday candle.
Tent: Graham wafers stuck together with icing and trimmed with pretzel sticks.
Letters: Alphabet pretzels available at Superstore
Trees: Icecream cones trimmed to desired size and decorared with icing using rosette tip.

With the help of my three year-old we made this birthday card. She's not quite at the cutting stage so I got all the piece ready and she glued them on.

Friday, 6 July 2012

Gluten Free Birthday

We have some people in our family with gluten sensitivities. So instead of making a traditional cake for my mom's last birthday I made a gluten free rice krispies bouquet! The kids thought it was way more fun than regular squares and everybody got to enjoy a treat!

For her gift I assembled this family collage. Using family photos I collaged them together to spell FAMILY. Everybody loves searching through the pictures trying to find themselves and remembering special times. I did it in word and it was pretty painstaking so I'm sure there has to be an easier way. If anybody has any ideas on how it would be easies I would love to hear them.

Tuesday, 19 June 2012

SHARK ATTACK!

My nephew asked me to surprise him with the theme for his sixth birthday so I decided to throw him a "Shark Attack" party!

The front door was decorated with BEWARE SHARK to give him a hint of the theme before he entered.

I was super excited to find these shark fun foam hats at the Dollar Store.

The table centrepiece

The Desserts

The idea for the cupcakes came from the book "Hello Cupcake" by Karen Tack. They ended up being a bit of a disappointment because during the night all of the sharks collapsed. With no sharks I had to quickly decorate some more fish cupcakes in the morning.

Using a clean shark sand toy as a mould this jello shark took a lot of trial and error. Finally what worked best was to spray the mould with cooking spray and to use one cup of hot water for an 85g box of jello. I did not add any cold water. Let set for a least three hours and until the jello is not sticky to the touch. Turn onto serving plate and lay a warm cloth over the mold for a few seconds to loosen.

The Presents

Unable to find any shark wrapping paper I just wrapped the present in blue, cut a shark fin out of construction paper and stuck some fish stickers on it.

On the outside of the card I wrote "Fishing you a Sharktastic 6th Birthday" the template for the inside of the card can be found at www.candlewick.com/book_files/076362229x.kit.1.pdf

Activities

Shark Photos - This activity played double duty as a party decoration. I found a shark colouring sheet on the Internet and drew it to a larger size on a piece of blue Bristol board. I cut out the mouth and added a few teeth. Then I mounted it on a piece of blue display board(the kind used for displays at science fairs - available at craft and office supply stores). I added a few fish that I printed off the Internet and made some waves using blue streamers. The party guests took turns having their pictures taken inside the "sharks mouth"

Shark Says - I printed and cut out fish colouring sheets off on coloured card stock and hooked a paperclip through their mouths. On the backs I wrote different activities like "Shark says... Spin around in a circle while making a fish face" and "Shark says... Sing a song about a fish" on a couple I wrote "Shark Attack". Using a magnetic fishing rod purchased from the Dollar Store each child took turns catching a fish and doing the activity on the back. When a "Shark Attack" fish was caught everybody got excited and tickled the "fisherman".

Save the Fish - I put some water and a little blue food colouring in a large plastic container and threw in a few small sea animals and a shark sand toy. Using a toy butterfly net the children took turns trying to "save the sea animals" while avoiding catching the shark. The sea animals were then divided up among the children to take home as a party favour.

Party Favours

The younger kids goody bags included ocean themed bath squirt toys.In addition to the sea animals that they received during the "save the fish" activity the older kids received a shark craft kit, ocean stickers and some ocean fruit bites.