Good morning, and Happy 4th of July! It's kind of a gloomy day this morning and I'm hoping it will pass so we'll be able to set off our collection of fireworks later, haha! So, today I'm going off topic and sharing with you Ryleigh's birthday party. Did you know that today is actually her birthday? That's right! She's a firecracker baby, and that's why I felt that today would be the perfect time to show off her mermaid themed celebration! I know that the post has nothing to do with fashion, but I thought you'd guys like an inside look at what I had been up to this holiday weekend...
So I took to Pinterest to find a lot of amazing and inspirational sets and decor to easily 'DIY', but I did think with some originality for the party favors. I found a pack of pearlized Sixlets candies and thought that they'd make great "pearls". I just put them in a little glass bottle (from Hobby Lobby), tied a 'Thank You' tag around the neck and...TA DA! An easily handmade party favor! Plus kids can't resist chocolate, so it was definitely a hit!
Also, if you see what I did with the green ribbon: I bought a 3 pack of these little present toppers and placed them around the table for the illusion of seaweed.
Ok, so this marvelous piece was my favorite to create! For the party colors I was going with light purple, light blue, sea green, and silver; so when I hot glued all the needed utensils in the candle holder, I had Justin spray paint it silver and gradually spray a little purple sparkle paint onto the base of the holder. The pearl necklace was a nice touch!
We know kids don't normally eat shrimp, but us adults do! I found these cute zig-zag martini glasses at the Dollar Tree and knew they'd be perfect for holding the shrimp and cocktail sauce. DELISH!
I had told Justin that we'll be having Chick Fil A nuggets (because no one can resist them) and hot dogs. I had also mentioned to him before about possibly making them look like little octopus, but then reconsidered since that would be a lot of hot dogs to cut up. He then came back with three adorable "octopus" hot dogs on a platter as a centerpiece. It was cute!
Of course blue fruit punch makes great for "sea water!" haha!
Now for the cake! I had seen so many different ideas for cakes, but of course I wanted to try an idea of my own an make it into two layers. The first layer was a standard 8" round cake where I frosted it and then crumbled up graham crackers and sprinkled them all over to make it look like sand. The second layer was the tough part....I didn't realize how hard it was to carve a cake into another shape. Seriously the hardest, and I still didn't make the sides even, haha! But after that was done, I rolled out the marshmallow fondant and cut out little circles for the scales.
*The fin at the top was supposed to be made out of fondant, but that morning I saw that part of it was missing and I'm guessing our cat must have eaten it. I had to quickly think on my feet and make a trip back to Hobby lobby for a sheet of purple styrofoam.
We all ate the cake with personalized bejeweled forks. Ryleigh had mentioned that she wanted jewels somewhere in her party, so this was a great way to incorporate it!
I even went the extra mile and colored the layers within the cake blue and purple.
It was so great being able to pull off Ryleigh's 4th birthday party. I could tell she really loved it and it was so cute when, while I was baking her cake, she saw what I was doing and told me that I was the best. I knew she was really excited and after that, I really wanted to make this party very special for her!
And of course, a princess can't open presents without her Tierra!
I hope you enjoyed todays post! I wanted to share it with you guys, and that maybe you'd like seeing something a little bit more different and refreshing. Heck, after writing all this up and editing the pictures, it made me want to have a mermaid party of my own! Of course a more mature one for a 25 year old, haha!
