Real Festa. Marianna's 5th Hello Kitty Birthday Party

We celebrated Marianna's 5th birthday with a fun party at Bounce U. Marianna had a blast! All her friends, mommy, daddy and brother Joseph were there. Kids jumped and bounced around colorful bounce stadiums and structures. We also had the 'cosmic bounce'. We made the room dark with special effects lighting and we added extra fun by giving some glow-in-the dark accessories (bracelets and necklaces). Pizza, cake and treats.

DECORATION.

The party room had dark colors, yet I brighten it up by using lots of green, yellow, light pink, fuchsia and red. I combined plates, utensils, napkins and table runner in different colors and patterns. Little Hello Kitties, stickers, coloring pages, crayons, candy and lollipops. Fun fun and more fun stuff.

SNACK. Carrots with ranch with a EAT ME tag.

DESSERT TABLE. Because the short time they give at Bounce U. I had to arrange a very small table for the cake and cupcakes.

I thank my good friend, Eunice Velazco, for the beautiful cake she created especially for Marianna.

Besides, I baked and decorated simple chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with different color frosting to match the cake.

GOODIES. Little colorful plastic baskets with Hello Kitty goodies: bracelets, necklaces, stickers, cups with biscuit and cream ....finished with a little bow and a TAKE ME HOME tag.

This is me and the birthday girl!

Teddy Bear {cupcakes}

What a big day for Joseph. He graduated from kindergarden. To celebrate they had a fun and adorable event: "Teddy Bear Picnic". I really enjoyed making a special cupcakes for the occasion.

Congratulations K-20 class. Have a great summer!

Some of the material

wrappers

On the make... waiting for some eyes.

Teddy bear head made of a cake ball on a pretzel.

Teddy bear waiting...

Bunch of them ready to be transported.

Some of them made it to a birthday party!

Real Festa: Farewell School Party

It has been long time since my last post. I have many parties to share and I will start with a special one.

Last school year, when my husband was deployed, we received so much love and care from the Holy Redeemer Community where my two children go to school. I wanted to say thank you to all the moms and teachers for the support and help and I found a good opportunity.

I was invited to style a Farewell reception for Mrs. Beverly Langston, Founder and Director and Mrs. Pat Messalle, Teacher. Both spent almost 4 decades in Holy Redeemer Nursery School.

I worked with a great team of moms to put the event together. We wanted the traditional school theme. I chose light pink, sage, beige and red colors. We had lunch boxes, real apples, pencil pretzels, apple cake balls, black board cookies and more.

Former students, moms, dads and children stopped to say thank you. It was an event full of love!

Take a look to the details..

Main table

To give a school touch I set around the room decorated objects like books, glasses and fabric flowers and ribbons.

Plates, napkins and utensils

Kids enjoying the treats.

Apple Wishing Tree.

Here my little ones leaving their messages.

Flowers from my garden

After a very busy weekend with lots of kids' classes, a big event and a birthday party, I was craving peaceful time by myself. I am enjoying my morning around the house and the garden, but I couldn't stop sharing these beautiful flowers from my front yard. I wish I could share them with mom. She loves flowers more than anyone I know.

Thinking of you..

.

My Mother's Day celebration

I celebrated Mother's Day with a small group of friends. I wanted a simple stress-free event, no cooking and washing dishes, but at the same time something chic and tasty. I came with the idea of a salad bar full of vegetables, meats and delicious dressings.

Between laughs, good food and wine you can't go wrong. Thank you ladies for sharing such a delightful night.

Mexican friends you celebrate tomorrow. Happy Mother's Day!

Salad Bar

These bands were given to the moms according to their personality and character. It was a fun activity.

For dessert we had chocolate truffle cake, cookies and apple pie.

Feliz 5 de Mayo {sweet treats}

When I think about Mexican sweets, I always think about coconut and chocolate. Love them in any type of treats: cake, ice cream, flan, pudding. Today is a beautiful day, sunny with a pleasant breeze and I thought a perfect treat could be a popsicle. Coconut popsicles!

I found a recipe here. I made a some slight adjustment. For the milk, I used skim. For the coconut milk I chose low fat from Trader's Joe and added two cans instead of 3 cups, a couple more teaspoons of sugar to find that rich and sweet taste I was craving.

Happy "5 de Mayo".

Green Elephant Baby Shower

Last night some friends and I threw a baby shower and I designed this Green Elephant Baby Shower dessert table especially for Adriana and her baby David.

I used as a focus point a trunk-up baby elephant for good luck. The elephant is probably the most positive animal symbol known.

While looking for the theme and colors, I found matching fabric and napkins that inspired me to combine some shades of greens.

This table is an example of simplicity and fun. Just by adding some special items like the elephant and bringing together other matching elements you can turn a plain table to a very special one. Not much needed: a piece of fabric, napkins, couple of small vases, few flowers, neutral color plates and bowls and few sweet treats.

Corsages made of napkins.

Napkins and utensils

Some sweets

Elephant cookies made by Eunice. They were amazingly cute.

Congratulations to Adriana and thank you to all our friends that were there. It was a wonderful and fun night.