Beach Bingo ... Beach Themed Cupcakes (Coconut Drink & Beach Ball Toppers)

And we wrap with the last two cupcake themes I made for the party.  These last two ideas came from Party Pinching and a post featuring beach themed cupcakes on a budget!  These again are so easy and cheap (oh yes you know my motto cheap and ahhh dropping).  

If you missed yesterday's post. I started with making 2 batches of cupcakes using my favorite homemade yellow cake mix and 2 batches of my favorite sturdy buttercream frosting.

This post will feature:

The first to show off (or technically the third if you're reading this after yesterdays post) is the super easy and I think the coolest looking one Coconut Drink Topper.  Don't we all want a fruit drink while sitting on the beach?  Why not have a cupcake that will give you that same feeling with out the alcohol since I was serving kids!

What you Need:

Frosted Cupcakes

Whoppers

Icing

Twizzler Pull Aparts

Sprinklers (I used little stars)

Umbrella's (optional but I thought it added character)

Take a sharp knife and cut of just 1/8 of the top of a whopper (mostly just the chocolate part of the top).  Add a little swirl of icing to the part that you just cut off, I made it look kind of like what a drink looks like.  Cut a little strip of Twizzler pull-apart for your straw.  I added a star as a little fun topper, I've seen some with regular sprinkles but I wanted something fun. I then added to a frosted cupcake (I had some Peanut Butter Sturdy Buttercream left over from another recipe (post to come) so that is why this frosting looking brown vs. white).  I topped with an umbrella because it felt like they needed something.

And last on my list to do was the easiest one to make, Cole actually put these together for me.  Yes Control FREAK mom actually handed this cupcake over!  These are to look like a beachball with an umbrella.

What you Need:

Frosted Cupcakes

Gumballs

Paper Umbrella's

YUP easy frost a cupcake plop a gumball on and top with a paper umbrella.  OH yes I told you it was simple but they were so stinking cute!

And was a quick add on I made this super quick umbrella centerpiece.  I wish I would have had two boxes of the umbrella's but my dollar store only had 2 and I used the other for the cupcakes.

What you Need:

Foam Circle / or Floral Circle

Paper Umbrella's 

Open up umbrella's be careful not to break them, I gave them a little loosing up and then let Caden open up the umbrella's and we stuck them around the floral circle we picked up at the dollar store also.  Would have been nicer to have it fuller but it was perfect and CHEAP for the theme!

We had a great time and everyone had such nice things to say about the food and the cupcakes.

A BIG thanks to my helper Cole who bagged & tied them for me.

As I keep saying the idea to put the cupcakes in a plastic cup, a clear bag and tie with a ribbon has been the most used and AWESOME idea I have ever come across on Pinterest.  Whoever thought of this needs to win the award of most awesome person and helper to mom party planners.

Have a Beach tastic Day!!  Hope you give one of these a try!

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

Beach Bingo ... Beach Themed Cupcakes (Fondant Beach Balls & Popsicle Sticks)

Now onto the cupcakes made for the party!  NOW don't shake your head I didn't go totally nuts this time around I ONLY made 4 different types of cupcakes.  I'll feature two here today and then two tomorrow not to overwhelm you or make one heck of a long post.

While searching the internet for pool themed food I came across Party Pinching and a post featuring beach themed cupcakes on a budget!  I narrowed down my list to only four to make, well three they featured and one I made up on my own.

I started with making 2 batches of cupcakes using my favorite homemade yellow cake mix and 2 batches of my favorite sturdy buttercream frosting.

First on the list to do is Fondant Beach Ball Cupcake Toppers.

As you know I'm now in LOVE with this rolled buttercream fondant, that is super simple to make.  Click the name and it will take you to recipe, trying not to repeat the same thing over and over and have you all do an eye roll on me.

I wanted to do something fun and this fondant is so easy why not make beach balls with 3 colors!  I took my fondant made 3 balls, I then dyed each a color of the beach ball I wanted using Wilton Food Icing Color.  I then rolled out 1" strips of each color and pressed them together with my pamper chef roller.  It came out perfect, I then took what I think is a whiskey glass to make perfect circles (yes you can laugh we got them for our wedding & of course what do I use them for baking ... lol). I would try to get 3 balls out each time and then I would change the color line up. (blue, yellow and then green.  Next time Yellow, Green and Blue and so on).

I frosted each cupcake and then my helper topped them with a fondant Beach Ball.  We then put them in plastic cupcakes, a plastic bag and tied with ribbon.  

What you Need:

Baked Cupcake

Frosting

Fondant (3 Balls)

Wilton Icing Color

Wilton Cut and Roll Mat (or any mat)

Circle Cutter or Glass

Next on my list was the easiest cupcake ever!!  I made little Popsicle toppers to go on top of cupcakes.

What you Need:

Baked Cupcake

Frosting

Mike & Ikes

Toothpick

Break toothpick in half, take the broken half and shove into the fatter side of the Mike and Ike (one side is thin like a top of a Popsicle and other end fat like the bottom).  And your done!  I added two of the same color to the top of a frosted cupcake.  Again we then added cupcakes to a clear cup, clear bag and tied with a ribbon.

I must say serving cupcakes this way has been the BEST idea I have ever used off pinterest.  When the people left the party they were able to take a cupcake home with out worrying about it getting everywhere.  And since NO one RSVP's these days I had no clue how many would show so I made 36 cupcakes to be on the safe side.  LET's just say parents and kids each took a cupcake home that day!

Have a Beach tastic Day!!  Hope you give one of these a try!

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

Beach Bingo ... End of School Year Swim Party Food

A few weeks back I posted an invite I made for a end of year swim party for the boys and their classmates.  It was originally scheduled for this Saturday but due to a change of Rick's schedule we had to bump the party up to last weekend.  We had a few kids show but it was a lot of fun and really when compared to other parties I do this was VERY low key.  I made a few cupcakes and found food that went with the theme.  We were so blessed one of the dad's actually maned the BBQ and cooked up all the hot dogs, while Rick gave all the kids rides on the Jet Ski and I played life guard watching the kids in the water.

Here is a quick glimpse of the food that we did, the following two days I'll show the cupcakes I made in the theme.  Food was really simple and the food labels were a FREE printable on Hostess with the Mostess.  She was so sweet and had it in a PDF or  JPEG file.  I used the JPEG file and copied into a word document that I then added a text box and added the fun wording.

Cole Helping me get the labels together:

Here is how the table looked:

Food to Munch on:

Cupcake Station:

Hot Dog Station

Veggie Dip

Gummy Circles

 Gum Drops 

Pool Noodles

Gummy Life Savers

Beach Themed Cookies I bought

Cut Fruit

Tiki Punch

If you're looking for the invites I did here is the post.  I'll include a picture of the invites I sent out.

My little munch kin enjoying the day:


And my trial run of my swimsuit and cover up went well I think.
Sorry for bathroom picture it truly is the ONLY mirror I've ever allowed in the house.
And I didn't have time to have someone take my picture.

Hope you have a GREAT day and get the grill on!

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

Celebrating My 37th Birthday ... This Sunday will finally be the day I get to go off diet and eat (well not crazy off but something special)

Every few years my birthday lands on Father's Day and this in my year to share.  I guess I can lol just playing the older I get doesn't really matter.  I am really excited I have been so good on this diet for 10 months or so I haven't cheated (well once in February I had a sugar cookie when I was at a plateau and a friend suggested eating something to jumpstart my system.  Besides that I have stuck to it and as you can see have been doing pretty darn good!  I'm down 104.8lbs and 9lbs for my goal weight (well the one that I first set I may go an extra 10 after that but that is another thing).

With Sunday being Father's day the restaurants are going to be crazy.  I've been dying to try Cheesecake Factory since my friend Debby at Just Breath told me about a low carb cheesecake they have.  I've resisted but I made a promise to myself that on my birthday I would have cheesecake!  And a low carb version at least doesn't make me feel too guilty.  We do have to go early since Rick's work schedule changed, so maybe I'll do their breakfast with cheesecake ... LOL. I've been promising myself cheesecake for over a year now so I don't care what time of day it is I'm having it!

PLUS my women's group ladies are going to take me out to dinner on Saturday night!  I'm so excited to go out!

On my list to try:

Thai Lettuce Wraps (minus the sauces)

If I have to have breakfast I'll do the Steak & Eggs (minus potatoes)

And for desert - Low Carb Cheesecake (mine will be minus fruit)

And for my birthday Gift Rick bought me this.

I want a bigger one but that will come hopefully in a few years.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend, I'm very excited to celebrate my birthday this year with some great friends and the hubs.

End of School Year ... Thumb Print Tree & Thank you Letter from Child

One more teacher gift, this one was made for Caden's Kindergarten teacher.  I must say she is one heck of a lady.  I wish I had found this school when we had Cole in Kindergarten.  She was amazing at helping the kids read, do math and all kinds of fun things.  They would take a walk each day.  Over the course of the school year, Caden was so excited to get his 20 MILE token!  He is a super reader and a wiz at math, I'm so excited that he loves school and loved his teacher.

As you remember I did a thumb print tree for our PTF president, sadly the one I had to do for her was shorter notice so I couldn't personalize it.  This Thumb Print Thank You Tree I actually had ordered first so it was personalized with her name and the very nice lady at Plum Adorable added a memory verse Psalms 1:3 (He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.)  Remember this Thumb print tree can be printed for free or you can pay to have it personalized.

I was able to get all the kids to do thumb prints and write their names and then I picked up a nice frame at Micheal's.  Caden's teacher was so sweet she gave me a hug with tears in her eyes and told me how much she would miss having me part of the class.

Sorry not the best picture.

My Camera ate the photo of the framed finished project.

Caden also wanted to do a little something special, I found this great FREE Fill-in Teacher Thank you letter on Lil Blue Boo.  I asked him the questions, he asked me to spell the words and he wrote it all by himself.  His answers are so sweet!

These are all so cute and so easy to do!  And really makes such a heartwarming gift.

Hope you all have a GREAT day!

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

End of School Year Gift ... Orange You Glad it's Summer (Teacher Appreciation Gift)

Sorry gang it is going to be a quick post tonight.  My digital camera decided to corrupt all my pictures and I was the dummy that hasn't downloaded or saved them to a CD.  So I've spent almost 4 hours recovering and trying then turn mpo files that my camera changed to back to the original jpeg file!  I'm exhausted and I still have to set up my new laptop.

I made this gift for Cole's teacher, I wanted something that was on the manly side and thought this was a fun idea.  A basket of all orange items, I wish I could find a orange basket but I couldn't find one.

What you need:

Orange Pop

Orange Cup

Orange Gum

Several Orange Candies

Orange basket (I had to use white)

Card Stock / Printer

Ribbon 

Tissue Paper

Add all items to basket, I added a little tissue paper in the bottom to help keep everything stable.  I found this super cute orange tag that I added a whole and tied with a ribbon.   Go over to Coley's Corner for this super cute FREE printable.

Easy gift to do and you can find everything at the dollar store!

Hope you all have a GREAT day!

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.