Emmalee and Tyler's Birthday Party

Oh man, you know how you get a caught in all the new things and you forget to blog about the things that happened already?

I have wanted to write about the kids' birthday party for a couple weeks and just kept getting pulled in 32 other directions and never did!

Honestly, I think this was the last year of the two for one, double party.  Emma, being the social butterfly she isn't, wasn't understanding why she only had a couple friends over.  And honestly, that was on me.  Their birthdays kind of crept up on me, and with a joint party, it's always weird to invite friends who are only friends with one, I don't really know her friends since David does drop off and pick up, we have a small house, and with Tyler so young, we figured an easy cookout with family would work.  But then Emma was really sad that she didn't have friends coming so a week before her party, I backtracked and invited the 3 girls she talks about most at school and dance, and since I already know the girls and their moms from dance, it was less intimidating asking them to come!

We did a very low key cookout in the backyard but Emma did ask for a moonwalk, a pool, a pinata, bubbles, and tattoos so we made it all happen!

Thanks to my mom for so many great pictures!

 If you're local to New Bedford, check out Bouncing Time! They were the only company we could find that had a My Little Pony bounce house and it was only $115 for a full day with delivery, set up, take down, and removal! The guys were prompt and even did a big reveal, having Emma close her eyes to surprise her with the My Little Pony banner! It was the best money we spent all day!

Emmalee was also very specific about her cake, err, cupcakes.  She wanted "My Little POny cupcakes that look like Ponyville with flowers and ponies on them". So I whipped up some cupcakes, dyed some green frosting and used a Wilton tip to create "grass" that I topped off with a few sugar flowers and My Little Pony candles (they can be bought here and here through my Amazon affiliate links).

Tyler's cake was a bit trickier. I used a tutorial off of PBS for a Daniel Tiger cake and then completely changed it! Ha! I round cake and two cupcakes formed the face and ears and then I tinted frosting and just free handed frosting, rather than using the extras PBS suggested. I think it turned out great!

Who's that tiger? Practicing to see if I can make little man's birthday party cake or if we should order to from somewhere....

A photo posted by Heather (@heathgiff) on May 4, 2016 at 4:54pm PDT

Emmalee also asked for rainbow krispie treats and tiger tail pretzels.  I tell you, when she has something pictured in her mind, there's no telling her otherwise.

I pulled off rainbow krispie treats making rice krispie treats and substituting in Fruity Pebbles instead of Rice Krispies.  They were a hit! And the first thing to disappear...

We also used our super cool Chocolate Pen to make Tiger Tail Pretzels! We were sent the Chocolate Pen last month (but you can order it here through an Amazon affiliate link!) and used it to make some really great little candies so I knew it would be perfect for this project too!

Instead of using the included molds, we warmed up the included chocolate candy and loaded up the Chocolate Pen.  We dipped pretzel rods that we broke in half into some orange Wilton Candy Melts then laid them on a piece of wax paper on a cookie sheet.  Emmalee used the Chocolate Pen to draw the tiger stripes!

I think they turned out completely adorable! I love the Chocolate Pen because it made it so easy for Emmalee to be involved in the party set up! We've already ordered extra chocolate sets so we can make more soon!

We had such an amazing day! I loved that we were able to make all the food ourselves, have a fun and almost relaxing day with our family and friends, and both kids slept like rocks that night!

Tomorrow I'll be sharing what we did on Tyler's actual birthday so be sure to check out where we went!

xo Heather