Barbie Party Decorations - A Year Too Late

My older daughter's 7th birthday is coming up in September, so the planning (at least thinking) has begun! She thinks about her birthday all year round. She is definitely miss party girl. This year she is torn between a Justin Bieber themed party or having it at a gymnastics place. If it's going to be Justin Bieber, I really have my work cut out for me. The research begins!!

Last year she had a Barbie themed party. I looked everywhere for Barbie party decorations and there were none to be had...ANYWHERE! I improvised by just getting girlie stuff, making a Barbie themed cake, made Barbie personalized chocolate bars, and got miscellaneous Barbie items to try and theme it as a "Barbie" party.

So, this week, while waiting for my family to arrive at the movie theater to see Toy Story 3, I decided to stroll through the neighboring Party City.

Wasn't I surprised when I came across this...

It seems as though Barbie has finally jumped on the party bandwagon. It sure took them long enough! There were so many options now - tattoos, party bags, centerpieces, plates, napkins - you name it!

Only a year too late.

We're moved on to Justin.

HELP!! Would love any ideas you may have for a Justin Bieber party. Was thinking of using posters as decorations. I love planning the food, decorations and party favors. When it comes to the activities though is where my mind completely shuts down.

Would love (and appreciate) your suggestions!

4th Birthday Celebrations 1 & 2

As I mentioned, last Friday was my little one's 4th birthday. As I'm getting the details together for her big Spongebob themed party which will be happening this Sunday, I thought I'd share some pictures from her little celebrations.

Friday, on her actual birthday, we had a family dinner with my side of the family. On their birthday, my girls get to choose the menu for their dinner. This time she chose teryaki chicken (we recently went out for Japanese so it was probably still on the brain), potato latkes (her favorite) and broccoli (nice surprise!).

I was originally going to make her a number 4 shaped sculpted cake but since we were out all day and I still had to cook dinner, I ended up making a round cake, put a number four in the middle with icing and sprinkles,

and let my girls go to town on the decorating. I just had to make the icing in the requested colors - blue and yellow.

As you can tell - not a girlie girl. If it was my other one, everything would be pink, purple and sparkly.

Celebration #2 came on Sunday. We were going to my inlaw's for Easter so I figured since everyone would be together, that would be a good time for them to celebrate with her. When I made the cake, there was enough batter left over for a dozen cupcakes. I used red cupcake liners and this time she wanted purple icing. I also designed cupcake toppers to match. Everything was set to go until we had a little mishap.

Someone, who shall remain nameless, but is the only male in our household, forgot to put the cupcakes in the car. This, along with some other stuff that he forgot to load. Believe me, I was not a happy camper when we got all the way to Staten Island to find out my stuff was missing. The purple icing and cupcake toppers however did somehow manage to get there. There was no way I was going to disappoint my baby. The whole ride she kept talking about these cupcakes. So, when they were distracted with Eater stuff,

I scooted out to the supermarket, bought some store bought cupcakes, scraped off the icing, replaced it with the purple icing, popped on a cupcake topper, and we were good to go.

Happy Birthday...again!!

Why is it that birthDAY somehow ends up being birthWEEK? 2 more to go! Tomorrow we have her little party at school and then Sunday is the big one. I'll share more of those pictures as it comes along.

How do you celebrate birthdays? Do you make your own cake? Do you have any special traditions in your family?