Rocco's 4th Birthday - A Ninjago Party

Whoop whoop whoop whoop...Sound the Octoalert! Oh wait, I meant ninjaaaa...go!

This year I was SO excited to do an Octonauts party - I had a lot of cute ideas AND Toys R Us had recently released an Octonauts compass toy which plays the octoalert sound. If you aren't familiar with the Octonauts, check out the show on Disney Junior and the books by Meomi. Or, take a look at their website here. The artwork is super cute!

Then, a month or two ago, Rocco tells me that he wants a Ninjago party instead because he didn't want his Ninjagos to be sad and that the Octonauts can "swim away." My heart just about stopped. I tried to sway him back to having the Octonauts party but was unsuccessful and deep down I knew his heart was in LEGO and Ninjago.

I didn't have a ton of ideas for a Ninjago party and am actually expecting my second child any day now so I guess in a way, Rocco was doing me a favor - fewer ideas means less work for me! Anyway, here's to keeping things simple!

For the table, I did the usual Ninjago eye balloons and favor bags. Each ninja has sightly different eyebrows but I had a tough time finding the right images for the balloons so they all look the same unfortunately. I'm not sure how people do it but I couldn't get all the balloons to face forward and "smile for the camera." The banner was just a simple banner that I made out of felt  -  I cut the letters out to look similar to the font from the Ninjago logo.

I wanted to keep the dessert options simple so I did "Dark Matter" Grape JELL-O, Great Devourer lime "venom" cheesecake bites, red velvet cupcakes, and Stone Warrior cookies. As tired as I am of making my usual Ninjago head cookies (which you can see here), I felt like I needed to make at least a few of them so I made mini Ninjago head cookie cupcake toppers. Rocco really likes the little Stone Warrior characters so I made a few of those even though they are a probably a little mean and scary looking for the average four year old. Surprisingly, a lot of people actually said they were "cute." The lopsided cake was store bought - I sprayed it with Wilton gold color mist spray and topped it with a Lloyd/green ninja cookie pop.

"Dark Matter" Grape JELL-O

Here's an image of Ninjago "Dark Matter" from the show below. I think it looks pretty close to grape JELL-O!

"Great Devourer" Lime "Venom" Cheesecake Bites

Stone Warrior Sugar Cookies

Lloyd / Green Ninja Cookie Cake Topper

The Lego food label stands were made out of two pieces of 1 x 6 plates, one 4 x 12 plate, two 1 x 2 brick pieces, and a Ninjago minifigure on the side. If you are planning on ordering individual pieces from the Lego website, you'll probably want to order at least three weeks in advance because the pieces ship from Poland.

The favor bags included a coloring book which I put together with some card stock and green masking tape, Lego shaped crayons from What's Your CRAYON on Etsy, a mystery minifigure, a ninja tootsie pop, and a gold origami shuriken/ninja star.

I saw these Lego fruit snacks online on the Walmart website but unfortunately wasn't able to find them anywhere. I think they would have been a nice addition to the bags.

Happy Birthday Rocco!

Snoopy Cookies

Onesie Cookies

Just some random onesie cookies...

Onesie cookies w/ contrast neck trim

Thank You Onesies w/ collar

Acorn & Leaf  Onesies

Lalaloopsy Cookies

Lalaloopsy Dyna Might Cookies

I wish I would have done a better job on the bows but I just got too tired...

TMNT / Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Cookies

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles...Heros in a half shell...Turtle Power!

Bachelorette Night Out

My "little" sister is getting married in two weeks so this weekend, a few girls got together for a "Bachelorette Night Out" in the City. I originally had plans for a Sex and the City themed party but a few of my ideas fell through so I had to simplify the theme to what my three-year-old son calls a "panty party" (he helped me shop for panties for our panty game - hence the name "panty party").

With three pregnant ladies in the bunch (myself included), we kept it pretty simple. We started off with drinks at the hotel - sparkling cider, champagne, cosmopolitan jelly shots and berry/lemon jelly shots - followed by dinner at a French restaurant and dancing. It was my first time making jelly shots so they weren't nearly as perfect looking as all the ones I saw online. I put them in glass casserole dishes which I greased with a little grapeseed oil but they were still tough to get out. Next time I'll be sure to put them in non-stick pans - I'm guessing they'll slide right out that way. For favors, I made some white corset cookies then printed out paper toppers which I finished off with strips of lace and voilà! Or should I say, ooh la la!

Goodnight Moon Baby Shower

If you have a small child, chances are you have at least one copy of Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. The cookies below were made for a Goodnight Moon themed baby shower for a couple expecting a baby boy.