Happy Easter!

Hi all! Happy Easter! Just wanted to quick post about what I've been up to and Lily's Easter! So I've been super busy the past few days. Wedding dress shopping for my cousin, and baking like crazy on top of the usual holiday bustle. I made a cake for my cousins baby shower, made a generic birthday rosette cake, made egg shaped cookie sandwiches for Easter, am in the process of making my brothers birthday cake and wedding shower cupcakes!! Busy busy time! But it looks like a lot of people viewed the Easter party post so I'm super excited about that! Thank you all for reading and repinning and sharing! I'm so grateful! And also, I'm on my phone which means all of the pictures will be at the bottom. Sorry!!!

So first ill talk about the rosette cake. I use a wilton tip 1 and had a crazy easy time with it honestly.. the only tip (not frosting tip, pointer tip, lol) I really have is to be conscious of the sides. Don't worry too much about making the side rosettes the same size as the top rosettes. If they don't fit, they don't fit. Make bigger rosettes for the sides.

Next ill talk about the baby shower cake. I'd say I learned plain old not to use sugar sheets. They're so difficult and frustrated the crap out of me! They don't wrap around the cake as easily as youd think and even someone like me, who always finds a solution, struggled bad! I also purchased the baby mold for the top from a company called winbeckler who I could spend millions on! I didn't have color dust, so I painted the baby's hair with cinnamon. I also put the baby in diamond sugar around the baby which definitely gave the her a nice touch! Surprisingly, this cake has got more comments than any thus far, I think, and its not my favorite.

And last but certainly not least, Lilys basket!!! She found hers in her room and was very pleased!! She had hair bows, pjs, chalk, bubbles, big coloring book, a ball, brobee keychain (yo gabba gabba), shoes, hair elastics, shorts, a little wind up jumping bunny and a rubber duck. Very satisfied! Grandpa also got her some books. I did not give her any candy. She did an egg hunt at Adam's house and made out very well too!

Now I feel people are going kinda crazy with baskets. I don't think big gifts are necessary at all because its not a big gift holiday. Here's a list of basket stuffers for children under 3:
*puffs, yogurt drops, cheerios, cheddar bunnies or their favorite snack in eggs
*beach toys
*bubbles
*books
*a small stuffed animal
*shaker eggs or an egg tambourine
*bows
*pjs
*stickers
*crayons (the fat ones are great for little hands)
*a large scale coloring book
*wind up toys
*bath toys
*a ball
*socks
*water shoes or flip flops
*anything you truly need to restock on (hair elastics for Lily)
*sun hat or baseball cap
*Melissa and Doug wooden puzzles
*mix up some pinterest baby finger paint if you're feeling brave
*a bathing suit
*fairy wand
*tball set
*Easter rubber duck (dollar store!)
*baby sun block (if you're going with beach theme)
*tights
*a soft photo album

See, I think its key to set a budget or an Easter basket size, because you don't need to get too much. We spent about 30$. They probably have plenty of toys and will get overwhelmed if there are too many things to look at. I think that interactive things like coloring and outdoor activities are great because you can prepare for summer! Don't buy something cute but useless, you'll be wasting money! Simplicity is key in everything with kids. You can also put things in the basket that your baby needs anways. They won't know at this age. When buying ask yourself, "Does my child need one of these?", "Will this stimulate a skill or growth?", "Will this be interactive for my child and I?". Those are the worth while presents. I mean how many toys do you have that sing the abcs, count and sing songs in Spanish and English?! Let them do the learning and exploring!

What did you put in your childs basket?! What was their favorite?

Thanks for reading :)
-Becca

Baby Easter Party!

Today, Lily had all of her baby friends over for an Easter party!! :) We all met at a group when the babies were about 2-4 months old. They're all born between November and January and all girls. Crazy weird! So my mom suggested this idea and I'm so glad she did and helped me shop. Thanks Mom! Here are the decorations:

I also put garlands in the the hide and seek room, a few ribbons around and a chick with eggs cut out. I made the garland and will never touch tissue balls again. Those things are the biggest pains, EVER! They do look cool though!

So for food, I saw some ideas on pinterest. The silverware carrot idea was from there as well as the bread bunny! Way too cute. I made everyone's favorite, peanut butter filled chocolate cupcakes and put little chocolate eggs on top. I dyed the frosting green and used a star tip to look like grass. I think the food labels are a super cute touch and easy for sure.

For 'goody bag's, I used beach buckets(dollar store) (mom's idea), so that they can re-use them again. But me, being me, bedazzled them with their names! Inside I put a little bit of grass (dollar store), bubbles (dollar store), crayons (dollar store), an egg tambourine (iparty), a pinwheel (dollar store) and a little stuffed animal (dollar store) for the top. I also made a little bucket for the mom's because they deserve a treat, too!

And last but not least, the activities! Now these babies are between 14 and 16 months, so over planning can be tiring and wasted efforts for a party planner. If you plan too much, you'll lose their interest and they probably won't do it all. Most of a baby party will be just playing and down time. So I stuck with one main activity and a mellow activity. We of course did an egg hunt, which the girls were amazing at! I bought these cute glittery paper bags with bunnies from Iparty for 30 cents a piece and used those for egg hunting. We did it in the living room because it was too cold outside, still snow on the ground. YUCK. I filled the eggs with baby puffs and yogurt drops. 

The girls checking out their loot

The egg hunt was first. I felt that while the girls were pumped up to see each other, they'd have the most energy and focus now. Next was lunch, landing right around noon, where we started at eleven. Finally, I set up an Easter themed sensory tub. This was nice because the girls could freely play (and destroy) and also play with other toys without being told to do something specific. You can only ask so much of a baby before they just want to do their own thing, you know? So in the tub I got three or four bags of Easter grass (dollar store), and also added bunny tails, which were last season's snowballs, but this seasons bunny tails! They're like sparkly, large cotton balls. I also put in a chirping chick and hopping bunny from the dollar store, and some rubber ducks that Lil already had, and some empty eggs. The girls loved it and happily threw the grass all over the living room!

So that concluded our party! We had so much fun and I think it was a great success! The idea of one big activity, food and a mellow activity is definitely the way to go with multiple babies. Also, I feel that parties are a lot nicer when you offer healthy food. I chose whole wheat organic pasta to serve because it's a healthy option for babies, alongside the side dish, that mothers can be comfortable with. Nothing is more awkward when you don't want to feed your baby someone's unhealthy food. The adults could have the finger sandwiches and everyone was satisfied and raving. Lily had so much fun with her friends, and we can't wait till we all get together again. This is the friends from last year (the first time we got together), to this year! Almost exactly a year later. Crazy how fast time flies with babies!

Do you guys know any fun activities for babies? What are you favorite Easter traditions with a little one? Thanks for reading :)

-Becca

DIY Cupcake Toppers

Hello!

So tonight was like one of the best nights ever for a few reasons!! 1. I got a special package from my beautiful cousin whose wedding is in December asking to be a bridesmaid!!!!!!!!!! I've never been a bridesmaid and am so beyond excited! It means so incredibly much to me and I am about to go pinterest crazy!!! I'm so happy for her and so touched that she wants me to be in her wedding! EEEEEEK!!! :)
2. I got to spend time with my best friend! This is unusual because she is a world traveler, volunteering in Africa, family in Lebanon, etc. She's off to Florida next and had to say goodbye again! Stinks, but I had a really good night with her and am super happy to spend time with her!
3. I'm totally weaning Lily and she fell asleep after only 15-20 minutes of tears tonight instead of last night which was 45 min-1 hr! Woo hoo!
4. I finished my cupcake toppers for this weekend's birthday festivities that is this weekends job and am almost done with a topper that's also due! Yay!

ANYWAYS! I just wanted to stress before I start my tutorial that I don't think I'm a pro or anything and don't want people to think that I think I'm all that... my point in writing is that I'm just starting out and figuring out as I go. If you have a better idea or more tips, feel free to comment and give me more ideas! I'm just sharing what I learn in hopes to inspire others :) No where near an expert and don't want to come off that way. So here are the toppers, the party is Dora the Explorer.

Now I will use pictures to show you how I made these through Microsoft word!!
Materials:
A computer and a printer (paper, too)
Scrapbook Paper
Lollipop Sticks
Hot Glue Gun
Ribbon (optional)

So first, I went on the Google and searched Dora the Explorer. I found an image with a white background and pasted to Microsoft Word. If you're having trouble finding an image literally search "with white background" or "portrait" after the characters name. Next, I shrunk the picture to the top corner of the page. Now, I've screen shotted the next few:

So! How easy?! Next, I looked up more images I'd like to use, and did words like Happy Birthday, and 2 and such etc. After this, I printed them out and picked out scrapbook paper that went with my color scheme.   Thanks Sierra for letting me look through! Next, I free handed a flower-ish bump-ish border and cut them out!

(Sorry it's blurry! Using cell pictures with a baby pulling at my leg!!) And then cut!!!

Now, I took out my lollipop sticks and hot glued my little creation to it's stick. I also tied a mini bow and hot glued that as well. I thought tying the bow ahead of time instead of tying it around the stick would prevent slippage and allow you the perfect bow! I trimmed the bottom of the ribbon to size and got this! My ribbon, by the way, was 4 rolls for a 1$, saw it on sale on my Michael's App! You HAVE to get that bad boy, so useful!

I am so sorry I rotated my pictures like a million times and they are still sideways! UGH! But back to toppers- I think they're perfect for customizing your own! If you're really good, you could paste picture's of birthday boy/girls face and you can write what ever and do whatever pattern. I think they're a really awesome touch of extra effort that can go a mile. They sell these on Etsy and are now selling them in stores, but hey, you can personalize them yourself and save money. Hope you enjoyed, will post pictures of the cupcakes topped Later! Also, almost done with my DIY cake topper. Will post ASAP. Thank you sososo much for reading :) Night!

-Becca

18th Birthday Cake

Hello! Writing in the midst of a huge storm... yes again! My mom, Lil and I just got back from toys r us, though, and she got a new stroller to push her babies around in. She's very pleased! Any who, I made my best friend's little sister's 18th birthday cake and am pretty happy with how it came out! It's vanilla on vanilla, but I dyed the frosting pink to look pretty. I used Duff Goldman fondant, but was a teeny bit disappointed because the color was definitely not the shade on the tub. Oh well! My DIY cake topper turned out not matching in shade because the fondant wasn't the right shade. Nevertheless, it's still glittery and pretty. Here it is!

Quick suggestion- when doing things polka dotted, like the name , I put the polka dots on the fondant BEFORE cutting out, therefore, I can get the effect better with some going off the edge. Also, I always use shimmer dust (or pearl dust) where I can. I found it much better to literally put a little in my hand and blow it onto to the cake like fairy dust. It settles over the cake is such a pretty way and never clumps. I'll be delivering tomorrow and really hope she likes it! Happy 18th Brittany! You're finally legal :) 

Night! -Becca