Ninja Party: Dessert Table (Party Part II)

To see the sneak peek of the party invitation, click here.

For Part I of the party (table decor), click here.

 

Every good party deserves a good dessert table right?   

 I LOVE a good dessert and/or snacks table at a party.  It really showcases the food, gives you more choices (for those that don't want cake) and in our case also give your guests a little something more to take home with them!

Since there aren't many "ninja specific" foods, I went with more of a red, black and white color scheme with the desserts.

Hand dipped fortune cookies, oreos, hershey kisses (with cute little party coordinated stickers on them)...

   

I displayed black and red Twizzlers in glass vases adorned with ribbon and paper pinwheels (meant to mimic Chinese throwing stars)...

   

Yogurt Covered Raisins, Strawberries (healthy option) and Swedish Fish - not pictured (mmm... Swedish Fish...).

 

My favorite dessert project however (and the favorite of the party guests) was the faux sushi:

Made with Rice Crispie treats, assorted gummy candies, fruit roll-ups and Fruit-By-The-Foot.  They turned out pretty cute (if I do say so myself).

Cole requested chocolate cake but I know not everyone likes chocolate cake, so I did white cake ninja cupcakes as well. (free printables from here)

I've learned from past experience that I can NOT frost a cake to save my life (and my sister-in-law who makes the most amazing cakes lives 4 hours away now) so I just ordered a cake from the local grocery store-- knowing I wanted a cake that was as plain as possible (and as inexpensive as possible). 

I ordered the cake-- just plain white-- no borders, no writing.  I got some weird looks both when I ordered it and when I picked it up and said "perfect!"-- but it really was just what I wanted.

Then since the whole reason we were doing a ninja party was because of my son's obsession with LEGO Ninjago (and the black ninja -- ninja Cole- which was essentially named after my son) I took four of his Ninjago mini-figures (washed them with soap and water) and placed them on top of the cake-- no need for fancy (or expensive) custom cake toppers when I already had the perfect solution right in our... toy box. (sounds weird I know, but it worked!)

We had so much dessert/snacky type food that I also bought some clear treat bags (20 for $1 at Walmart) and asked guests to fill a goodie bag before they left (in addition to the kids goodie boxes that they would get at the end of the party.)  I'm happy to report MOST of the candy/desserts went home with other people!

All in all, I was pretty happy with how it turned out and it was a big hit with kids and parents alike!

Oh and the reason that we had to have both a cake and cupcakes (besides the flavors) was this:

Cole got to cut his cake with a REAL Samuari Sword.   He was SO excited!   

And see the back of his shirt.  His birthday party shirt was my first project with my Silhouette Cameo.  I have never been so excited about a t-shirt before, but I LOVED it. (that's the Japanese symbol for the number five- for Cole's 5th birthday)

And a little "behind the scenes" look at the dessert table and the fabric backdrop I created for the dessert table.

So, do you do a dessert table at your parties?

Finally. A Girly Party!

I've said it before and I'll say it again.  I LOVE to plan parties!  I've coordinated lots of corporate events, parties for my son-- I even helped offer ideas/vendors for a friend's son's "Rockstar" 1st birthday party, but I've never had a chance to do a real girly party-- until now!  

When my friend Kim started talking about her daughter's upcoming 4th birthday party, I subtly invited myself to help and she totally bit!  :)  Of course I was challenged to keep the budget to a minimum so we DIYed much of the decor and food, BUT we didn't want to sacrifice the details either!  Using what we already had, working with coupons and shopping post-holiday sales helped us keep the costs down.

Sarah (the birthday girl) very specifically asked for a "purple fairy pixie dust" party.  Sarah would've been happy with a store-bought tinkerbell party, but Kim (Sarah's mom) didn't want a full-on licensed character party.  

When I joined in the party conversation a few things were already set-- the venue and the entertainment. Basically we had to come up with decor, food and favors.

Kim got a great sized space to use for the party for FREE!  It presented some challenges but the price was right.  It was ALL dark wood paneling,  there was LOTS of furniture in the room (with no other space in the building to move it to), and we were given lots of restrictions- like not taping anything to the walls.

On the other hand, the space was the perfect size, it had an attached kitchenette (for final food preparations/storage), and it was FREE!   :)  All the tables and chairs were also thrown in for free.  So far our budget was off to a great start!

One week before the party I got my first look at the space.  Luckily a lot of the ideas we already had planned were going to work.  Here's the space as I saw it 1 week before party time:

from the entrance to the room

looking to the left 

non-working fireplace-- looking back toward the entry way hallway

looking right

That's a lot of dark wood and a lot of orange and blue furniture-- doesn't quite scream "purple fairy pixie dust" now does it??!

After and hour and a half of set up, here's how the room looked at party time:

A simple sparkly bow welcomed guests (bought during post-holiday-sale).

It snowed the morning of the party.  The sled not only helped move food/supplies into the space, but pulled double-duty as a great activity on the adjacent hill to keep the little ones busy during post-party clean up!

Each place setting had a large paper doily, lime green plate, Tinkerbell fairy napkins and cups (Sarah's choice) and an extra napkin sticking out of the cup to add a little height to the table setting.

The tables were scattered with sparkly fairy confetti and white flower petals found on clearance in the  wedding section.

I also found mercury glass votive candle holders in purple with rhinestones and silver with butterfly appliques for $.30 each in the holiday clearance bins at Michael's craft store.  We used battery operated tea light candles (3 for $1.00 at DollarTree) to add some warmth without adding any risk.  Even though it was a daytime party, it felt really special to have the flicker of "candle"light.

apparently the fairy with the black hair really liked them :)

Centerpieces included tissue paper flowers and star shaped lollipops for the kids to take at the end of the party in simple mason jars.  Totally simple and totally kid friendly!

Each child's chair had fairy wings (found in the Target dollar spot) for the kids to wear and then take home-- serving as both decor AND favors.  Gotta love double duty items!

Even though this was a children's party, we still wanted things to LOOK nice, so we dressed up the food table with glass serving pieces, fun ribbon (also seen here) and lots of sparkle.

One of my favorite projects that we did were the tutu cake stands.  I'll be back with a quick tutorial on how we did these.  Really easy and SUPER cute!

We took store bought subs, cut them into bite sized "fairy bites" and cut peanut butter and jelly sandwiches into star shapes.

To dress up some Pirate's Booty, we portioned out single servings into cute cupcake liners (bought at Michael's with 40% off coupon) and served them on a silver tray.

Of course every good kids party has to have theme appropriate named food/drink.  We served:

"Fairy Bites" sandwiches

"Twirly Wands" pasta salad

"Pixie Puffs"  Pirate's Booty

"Magic Munchies" carrots and celery (with hummus and ranch dip)

"Tinker-berries" grapes

"Pixie Punch" pink lemonade

"Tinkerbell Tea" iced tea

"Dew Drops" water

And for dessert we brought out cake (which I totally forgot to take a photo of), wafer cookie bites and of course even the Hershey kisses got gussied up for the party!

Inspiration from here.  We didn't do the gumball topper (which is much cuter) because of the choking hazard.

Above the food table hung paper stars (like the ones I used here) and these sparkly damask ornaments that I also found in the Michael's post-holiday clearance section for $.30 ea.  It was hard to get a photo of (because of the windows), but you'll have to take my word for it that it was REALLY pretty!

Behind the food table, the medallion that I previewed here hung via suction cup hook from a window-- also REALLY hard to get a good photo of.

The fireplace area was dressed with lots of tissue paper pom poms.  Originally we were going to hang them  over the fireplace, but when I saw that giant black rectangle where a mantle must've been, I knew we had to cover it with SOMETHING.  I wish I'd done 3 or 4 more, but over all it was not a bad guesstimate either.

The handmade Happy Birthday banner also hung above the fireplace.

We tucked these glittery fairy ornaments (bought on post-holiday-clearance at Walmart for $1.48/12) all over the party. 

And used small frames that I bought during a post-Halloween-sale ($.50 ea.) last year to hold cute fairy quotes and inspirational words.

Balloons with Hershey kiss balloon weights were also strewn throughout.

Kim brought a lavender area rug from her daughter's bedroom and we moved a couch out into the space on a diagonal to help define a place for the kids to watch the balloon/magic act.

And before everyone left, they got to make their own magic wand.  To keep it gender neutral, boys made Dino wands.   Each child left with a set of wings, the wand that they made, a balloon creation from the balloon artist/magician and a star lollipop (from the centerpiece).

After seeing the space in person we scrapped a few ideas (that would've looked dwarfed in the space) and nixed setting up a photo booth type area due to the fact that with 51 'yes' RSVPs our space was filling up quickly, but all in all, the party was a great success.  The look on Sarah's face was priceless (and really that's all that matters right?)

OK one last time:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

And if you want to see more of my inspiration for this party, check out my Pinterest board - 'Sarah's Party Inspiration'.  If you care to follow along and want to be a part of the Pinterest craze, leave me your e-mail address and I'll send you an invite!