Birthday party...details

Several people asked questions about the party... so here are the answers:

Yes, I made the cake. It was a regular round layer cake. After I stuck the layers together, I sliced them in half to make two semi-circles. I then carved off the rounded edge and set the whole thing upright on that carved flat side. I frosted it and made the plank lines with a fork. The rest was all decorating... cookies for the gun wale sides, cookies with candles in the sides for cannons. Playmobile pirates, shark, island and treasure chest along with individually wrapped rolo candies stacked up for gold and malted milk ball cannons. The sails were paper and put onto skewers.

I had several large props, including a life size pirate, cut out of ocean waves, real looking and VERY big cannon and the treasure chest. These were borrowed from a local high school and really added to the feel of the party.

The treasure balls were made from used coffee grounds (which were collected by a local coffee shop and given to me), flour, salt, water and tempra paint. We added some glitter to make them sparkly. The dough was like bread and we made balls and then made a hole in the middle to tuck in the clue, then seal up the ball. We baked these in the oven at 200 degrees for about 40 minutes and then let them air dry for the next week. They were hard and the kids really had to bang them on rocks or the ground to get them to crack, but they could do it without help from a grown up!

I am still "hanging" in there... my kitchen is being painted and Ella's crib (which was in "day bed" mode) broke and we had to get her a toddler bed. I just finished putting it together. Oh, and I am now "officially" a Creative Memories consultant.... If you need to place an order or want to come to a workshop... let me know!