Cake Pops and Easter

A bunch of us friends got together for Easter at Johnny and Mey’s in Jersey.   Our lucky family to host our 1^st annual Easter event.  Poor Johnny didn’t get home till 2AM, found himself waking up to a 5AM emergency call to rush back to work.  Then to come home to a full house with 9 active toddlers running around and ready to hunt for eggs in his home. 

To make things easier for the hostess and host, we initially agreed that each family contributed to something this was before knowing Johnny had to work.  Potluck makes it so much easier especially if you are expecting a lot of people.  Even thought the event wasn’t planned at our house, just baking and putting together the bags was exhausting.  Imagine doing it all?  Our gracious host and hostess provided yummy Latin food.  I offered to put together goody bags and bake sweets. 

 

I’m not much of a cook or baker.  Although I decided to bake sweets for this event.   Starbucks gave me the idea - cake pops.  Their new line of sweets.  They are so cute which made me want to make them for Easter.  I think cake pops are going to be the next big sensation like the cupcakes!  I did a little more digging and discovered “Bakerella” on the internet!  After checking her out, I ran out and bought myself her book.  Love it.  I never really baked before - let’s just say I never baked this much before in such a short time.  

To prepare myself for Easter - I baked twice before my big bake.  Brought my first batch to work to shared with my fellow colleagues and then another batch for my daughter’s daycare.  Made both variation – cake balls and cake pops.  I used yellow cake from a box for my cake pops and dipped them in different color chocolate to make bunnies, chicks and Easter eggs.  As for the balls, I made them look like bite size chocolates with red velvet cake inside.  They were a hit.  Everyone loved bite size cakes and seriously who can resist cake on a stick?!   They are also fantastic for little munchkins and their little hands.  I did alter the recipe by using less than recommended frosting to just 1/3. 

As for gift bags – I made it simple.  Order “Max and Ruby” story and coloring books from Amazon, also added a box of small crayons, voila.  HOWEVER, my little gift bags did not turn out how I envisioned because my LOVELY husband accidently threw my Amazon package into the trash.  My only save was the 4 books that were shipped separately!  The night before the get-together I ran to B&N and target and couldn’t find any!  "Max and Ruby" are hard to find.  I had to improvise and picked up other books as replacement.  Arghhhh... It was a disappointment on my part but the kiddies didn't know any difference.  Lesson learned, don’t trust your hubby when it comes to cleaning and picking up! 

Happy Easter Everyone.

Yo Gabba Gabba

Colin’s first Birthday Part-ee! Selina my girlfriend and mom did an amazing job coordinating it. She is a teacher at a private school in Manhattan. She is unbelievably patient and hands-on when it comes to kids. Sometimes I wished I was a bit more patient like her. She is also very creative and resourceful when it comes to planning. She threw her son, Colin a Yo Gabba Gabba party.

The party was held at the school where she teaches. She was able to rent a space at the school to throw the party. The school looks like it belongs in the Harry Potter movie with manicure lawns and impressive buildings. The school is currently going through some restoration. 

She had balloons tied to the doors so the guest can find their way to the party.  As soon as you get closer you'll notice familiar faces on the happy colorful balloons - why of course the characters from Yo Gabba Gabba!  I couldn't believe they were stickers.  She had a great space to work with too.  She had an open area where she setup a projector on one wall with the show running in the background and a bunch of equipment scatterred throughout the the room for the kids to play. The kids loved the gigantic legos and blocks. The kids had a ball building and sharing.  The equipment kept the kids occupied the whole time and little supervision was needed.  They had fun, we had fun! 

As for food, she had it catered from a Philipino restaurant, she arranged a long table all spread out as a buffet area with drinks in the middle of the room. The food was definitely interesting and different.  Then on each side of the Buffet table were two long tables for the guest to sit, beautifully decorated with center pieces and colorful table settings.  The place didn't need much decoration. Then along on by window she had a round table where the cake and gift bags were spread out and another table for the gifts. The gift bags were adorable and it was personalized for each little guest. She got assorted coloful paper bags from Party City and placed the names for a personal touch.  As party favors, she got plain little t-shirts and placed character faces on them. Very cute and practical. Selina also gather the kids together during the party to do circle time - did the parachute, dancing and singing with the kids. She was also able to find DJ Lance radio piñata.  It was a big hit for all the kids incuding the older ones.  Before you knew 3hrs went by. With all the excitement and playing - our birthday boy certainly had a long day.  We later found him yawning on his mommy's arm.  Everyone had an amazing time and the party was a total success. Hope Colin did too! Happy Birthday Colin!