Monday, November 28, 2011

Beach Party

My daughter decided to have half of her middle school over for a pool birthday party. What a great time we had creating all the details. Pink, orange, green, purple, along with plenty other bright fun colors made this party a happy success.
The dollar store and target $1 items made this party planning an easy and affordable one!



We printed labels for these water bottles and gave them away as favors. 
Lake water was Sweet Tea and Pool Water was Blue Hawaiian punch!



The cool frames can be found at Ikea for $.99. We then used small wooden letters from Michaels and painted them and hot glued to the frames. The backgrounds are wrapping paper. I looked for scrap book paper but couldn't find any funky enough for the theme!


Poor attempt at cake balls but they sure did taste good! I was in a rush and used frosting for the exterior instead of melting chocolate. I would not recommend it if you want a pretty finished product but I will tell you the kids fought over these. They where moist and yummy.
Here is the recipe I used:

Ingredients

  • 1 box Cake Mix (red Velvet Or Yellow About 18 Ozs))
  • 1 can Frosting (store Bought 12 Ozs)
  • 1 bag Melting Chocolate (12 Ozs. Any Color Or Combination Of Colors)
  • 1 bag Lollipop Sticks
  • Various Tubes Gel Icing (any Colors)

Preparation Instructions

Just prepare the cake according to the directions on the package, and bake it in a 9 x 13-inch pan. Cover the cake with a dishtowel and allow to cool completely.
Once the cake has cooled, begin gently crumbling the cake. Place sections of the cake into a large bowl, 1/4 of the cake at a time. When you’re finished, you should have a bunch of very fine cake crumbs.
Use two forks to work the icing into the cake. Keep working until the icing is no longer visible. Even if you use white icing with devil’s food, the white will eventually blend in entirely.
Next, roll the mixture into balls—make them about walnut size – a small ice cream scoop could help with this.
This is important: pop ‘em in the freezer, uncovered, for at least an hour. The cake balls need to be very firm before coating them.
When the cake balls are nice and firm, go ahead and prepare a double boiler.
Dump the melting chocolate pieces into the bowl of the double boiler. Stir occasionally until the chocolate is totally melted and smooth and set aside.
Insert a stick sideways into each ball (paying attention to the flat part on the bottom). Now, you can either roll the ball in the chocolate, or spoon it over the top—whatever’s easier for you.
Be sure to thoroughly coat the bottom of the ball where it meets the stick.
Lay them back down onto waxed or parchment paper, paying attention to the flat part (get it against the parchment again.)
Now decorate and get creative as you want!









4th of July Float Lutz Allstar District Champions 2011

What a great time we had making this float. It was a last minute affair but what fun we had. Check it out!
It was a process


Trying to figure out how to hang the bannerThe finished product
The designers

The winning team


The sibling tag alongs


Beads anyone?