Hello and welcome to another post featuring Kaley and her first birthday...hopefully you can survive one more post on this topic. I know it's a lot, but I want to share some pictures of Kaley's cake smash in case anyone at home wants to try this.
For Braxton's cake smash pictures we hired a photographer, and I love them so much but they were very expensive (with a capital e). When you are off on maternity leave versus staying at home without any leave, things like this become a luxury. So I decided to try to take my own pictures for Kaley's cake smash. I know they aren't as good as professional pictures, but I think I'll keep the $400+ and call this good enough.
I kept the theme for her cake smash the same as her birthday party, and actually used almost all the same decorations. I threw a pink plastic tablecloth on the ground with a large peach-pink piece of fabric over top. I hung a white paper tablecloth on the wall and taped paper stars to the backdrop. To cover the two tablecloths meeting I used tissue poms along the wall and outer edges of the area. Add a pink cake with star sprinkles and gold star cake toppers and you have yourself a cake smash area.
You can see how all of the stars and tissue poms were used at Kaley's party here. I think that this worked well, but the area seemed much larger before I tried to take pictures. Next time, or if I had to do this again I would add more of a side to the backdrop so that I could take pictures on angles. Braxton just sat and played with the cake for his, but Kaley was running everywhere. It was difficult to get pictures of her because I had to constantly run her back into place and try to take a picture before she took off again. Thanks goodness for Luis.
Kaley did not like touching or eating the cake, but she sure wanted to run away with the tissue poms and stars. The cake toppers were much cooler than the cake too, and eventually had to be put up so that we could get her to pay attention to the cake. Silly girl. It's going to pretty much be pictures from now on, so enjoy our little goofball!
This was a lot of work to get the decorations and area ready, but so worth it. I love being able to look back at these and remember how little they were and how much they have grown. I'm a very sentimental person and things like this (and throwing birthday parties with tons of decorations) make me happy and feel like I will have a fond memory to look back at. As well as something for the kids to look back at as well.
That's it folks, the last time you will here the words "first birthday" on this blog. And I promise no more birthday post for at least 11 months, maybe 12 depending on how crazy life is. I saved the best picture for last, enjoy.
Kerby
Linking to:
Naptime Creations - Great Things to Make for Kids 1/31/17
Ginger Snap Crafts - Wow Me Wednesday #284
eighteen25 - Show and Tell #7
Hey everyone!
Hope you guys are having a great weekend and are not too busy with Christmas preparations. It's getting down to crunch time, so hopefully you are getting too bogged down.
Today I want to share a few easy chocolate crafts with you guys. I thought I would lump a few together into a bigger post, instead of a few small filler posts. Hence, the chocolate everything.
First up, chocolate spoons. These are great for gifts or just to use for yourself at home. And they go great with coffee and hot chocolate.
Supplies (This will make about 25 spoons)
1 cup semi sweet chocolate (bakers chocolate or chips)
20-30 plastic spoons
Chocolate sprinkles (optional)
First, melt about a cup of semi sweet milk chocolate in a bowl over low boiling water:
Next, dip your spoons in the chocolate making sure to cover the back of the spoon as well. Let the excess chocolate drip off, or tap the spoon on the edge of the bowl:
Place on wax paper and add chocolate sprinkles:
You could switch out the chocolate sprinkles with crushed peppermints or any other small topping. Next, pick up some treat bags and wrap the spoons up:
I found these bags at my local Micheals for $3 I think. They were the perfect size for these spoons. That's it. Pretty easy.
But what to do with all the extra chocolate? I ran out of spoons long before I ran out of chocolate. I decided to make chocolate dipped marshmallows.
You can use any extra sprinkles or toppings from the spoons with these as well. They are pretty good, but they would have been better with milk or white chocolate. Again, another great addition to hot chocolate (sensing a theme?).
The last thing I want to share are the chocolate snowflakes that were the cupcake toppers for Braxton's birthday. These are so easy to make that I can't believe that I haven't done them before.
You will want to melt your chocolate either in the microwave or over boiling water on the stove (I used the microwave because I was using multiple colours):
Next, you will want to print out the design you want to make and place it under wax paper:
I like to use Ziploc bags for piping because they are cheaper than actual piping bags and I always have them on hand. I find the easiest way to fill up your bag for piping is to place it in a cup and folding the edges over the cup:
After you put the chocolate in the bag and seal it, cut the very tip of one corner off and follow your design. Place the chocolate in the fridge for 15-20 minutes or until solid. Then transfer into a container until you are ready to place then on your baked goods:
That's all for today folks. Just a ton of chocolate ideas, all of which are so easy to do. Hopefully you guys can give these a try. Let me know if you do and how they turn out.
Kerby
Linking to:
A Night Owl - Monday Funday 12/15/14
Hello there all! Today I am sharing some more details about Braxton's party with you guys, since almost ever post in the last few weeks has been getting ready for it. Hopefully you guys can sit through one more post about these decorations and such.
The theme was a Winter One-derland theme, which I know isn't the most original, but I thought was adorable. I found this invitation at Shutterfly:
It pretty much sealed the deal. The card was too cute, and Braxton's two favourite colours are red and orange. I could make this work. I used the invitation as an inspiration for the decorations:
Well, it's official. My baby is no longer a baby. Braxton had his first birthday on Saturday and we had a party for him. My little guy did so well! He is usually pretty shy and sticks close to me, but he had no problem running around and flirting with all of the guests.
I'll share the details of his party later this week, but today I wanted to share some pictures of my little guy. You see on Pinterest all the super cute pictures people have taken each month of their babies and I knew that was something I wanted to do. So I had Luis take his picture each month while I held him, and added some details about what he was doing that month.
I'm not going to add too much more, hopefully you can just enjoy the pictures and stare at my baby for a little bit.
It's amazing how fast a year can go by, and how much Braxton changed in that year. I can't wait to see what happens in the next year.
Kerby
Hi everyone, hopefully you guys aren't sick of crafts yet. I have been busy as a bee (is that even a saying?) trying to get everything ready for Braxton's birthday as well as getting ready for Christmas. Lots of crafts going on over here (and panicked cleaning and paint touch-ups).
Today I want to share another easy craft you can do in a short amount of time, that would be a great addition to any Christmas tree. It doesn't hurt either that it is fairly inexpensive if you already have a paper puncher. If you do not have a decorative puncher, you can get them with a coupon to Micheals or Hobby Lobby for roughly $15.
I made some paper ornaments:
Happy Monday to you all! I want to take a minute here for my "holy smokes my baby is almost a year old!" moment this week. Seriously, where has the last twelve months gone?
Today I want to share another fun craft that I did for Braxton's upcoming first birthday. But this could easily be a fun craft you could do for Christmas decorations or even just because it's winter. They are pretty snowballs that don't melt!
Morning everyone, today I want to share another craft I have for Braxton's upcoming birthday. I found the idea on Whipperberry .
They used them on Christmas presents as part of the wrapping and decorations. But I thought they looked really cute as snowballs.
(Please ignore the baby toy in the background, I can't help it)
Hey everyone, hope you all are staying warm!
Today I want to share a fun craft that I did as a decoration for Braxton's upcoming (first) birthday. It is a great craft to do in front of the TV or with older kids. And it's also great as a winter or Christmas decoration! First you need to gather your supplies:
