{dessert} cupcake bar

So with Madelyn's Sweet Shoppe Birthday Party on the way, I am super excited to be having a Cupcake Bar.  I searched Pinterest (seriously check it out if you never been there!) and found some great inspiration. 

Enjoy!

Photo via A Blissful Mess

Photo via The Knot

Photo via Ashleys Bride Guide

Have you set up a Cupcake Bar before?

{football friday} cake pops

Cake Pops are a delicious trend right now that I will fully admit I love a little too much!  I mean really, they are the perfect portion!  If you have never made them before, I found this great tutorial from Jamie at Love and Butter.  You can find the entire tutorial here, but for now I will just share some of her amazing photos!

What you'll need



I may not get past this part...Yum!

 

Almost done





Delicious!

Here is another way to display your Cake Pops from the amazing, Bakerella.

Do you love cake pops?  Leave a comment and let me know!

{football friday} our visit and a recipe

A few years ago we took the kids down to Virginia Tech to the Spring Football game.  It was a great time to go because the stadium was not crowded and the kids had so much fun running around campus.  We went with Mandy {my web queen and bestie} and her family.  Here are a few photos from our visit, plus our favorite Game Day Recipe!

Hot Wing Dip

. 4 boiled chicken breasts

. 1 cup Franks Hot Sauce {buffalo wing sauce}

. 1 cup Ranch Dressing

. 1 bag shredded Chedder Cheese

. 2 packages Cream Cheese {I use whipped}

1. Boil the Chicken

2. Shred the Chicken

3. Mix hot sauce, ranch dressing and cream cheese

4. Add Chicken

5. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes

6. Serve with bread and enjoy!

*When I make this for just Eric and I, I half the entire recipe and it's the perfect amount

{My family with Mandy's little girl and the Hokie Bird}

Have a good weekend and I hope your team wins.  Well unless you are a Clemson fan, in that case...Go Hokies!



{construction party} fun food

One of the best things about a childrens party is the creativity and fun you get to have with it.  Food should totally be a part of that!  We had:

 Nails - pretzel sticks

Screws - cheetos that literally look like a screw 

Wrecking Balls - cheetos balls

There was so much more we could have done as well, but we didn't need that many snacks!  I asked my Facebook fans to come up with some "Construction" names for food and some ideas were:

2x4's (great for kit kats)

Solar Panels

Corrugated Roofing

Skyscraper Snacks

Bulldozer Bites

It was fun to hear all of the ideas!

I packaged each of the snacks into individual bags for the kids to grab.  I do this for all of my parties.  I think it helps with the mess factor.  The kids can just throw the bag away when they are done.  Plus, if the party is down at the pool, you don't have wet hands dipping into all of the chips!  I used the kids large dumptrucks to hold the snacks, placed them into their correct truck and taped a sign onto each truck.  I used the Home Depot painting sticks to hold each sign up.  They are free, but because I took about a dozen, I did offer to pay for them.  They didn't care and let me take them, yea!

For drinks we had a Fueling Station that consisted of Gatorades, Capri Suns, Waters, etc.

For dessert, we of course, had cake.  Because there are two of them, we always make each their own cake.  We also sing to them seperately.  The boys picked out their little tractors to put on top of their cake.  We used S'more sprinkles to add "dirt".  We also had Toolbox Treats, which were M&M's that they could sprinkle on top of their piece.  The Old Dirt Road Pops, were a party favor.  Although I did see some of the adults sneak into them!

Remember to have FUN with your food choices.  Also be realistic about how much food you need.  We didn't need a ton of snacks, so I only picked three things.  A huge food display looks nice, but if noone is going to eat all that food, then cut back and use more props.

{diy} marshmellow pops

When I was making a list of food to have at our Construction Party, Marshmellow Pops

were at the top of my list.  Super cute + Easy = Just right for me!

I found a great tutorial from Savory Sweet Life and went with it.  I found that many people used nuts as toppings for their pops, but with Madelyn being allergic, I chose to go with Butterscotch Sprinkles so they would have the same look.

I pretty much followed the tutorial to a tee, except for placing the pops in a styrofoam block to set.  I missed that part, so I went through all of our baking sheets and put together something that worked for me.  One tip would be to hold the marshmellow as you dip it in chocolate, not just the stick.  I found I had more control that way.  Also, I used a very small spatula to get the excess chocolate off the top of the marshmellow.  The spatula also helped to even out the chocolate.

After I was done, I let them set for couple hours and then bagged 3 at a time and finished them up with orange polka dotted ribbon.  These were part of the party favors, so of course we had to come up with a fun way to display them.  I am all about using what you have to decorate.  So I quickly grabbed one of the boys toolboxes (and had the "noone is going to take this home with them" talk) and started filling it up.  I was definitely pleased how it all turned out!

{s'more love}

Summer is upon us which means late nights by the firepit, drinks in hand, kids playing and lots of s'mores! I think this year I am going to get a little creative with my s'mores and mix it up with different toppings. I also love the idea of wrapping up the ingredients and giving them out as party favors. What a fun idea for the 4th of July!

chrisandalys.blogspot.com : jordanferney.blogspot.com : oncewed.com : twigandthistle.com : alwaysorderdessert.com : bakersroyal.com