An Angry Birds Birthday Party

Hello there My Pretties! I haven't abandoned you, I promise! I have been so busy this year. I started a new business in January that has taken off like wild fire and it has consumed lots of my time. If you are a photographer in need of vinyl backdrops and faux floors, visit me here. Sorry for the shameless plug!

On top of all that going on, I began planning my little man's 8th birthday party. He wanted an Angry Birds theme so I happily obliged. I thought it would be easy, right up until all you people on Pinterest raised the bar on birthday parties. Cake and ice cream just won't do. Oh, no it won't! I put myself through 3 weeks of torture getting ready for this shindig and let me tell you. I don't care if we have to go to Disney next year for his birthday, we aren't having a party. In fact. he'll be lucky if he even gets a cake. I'm sure the memories will fade and I'll get wrapped up in party planning in 2013 just like I did last year, but for now, the pain staking memories of making fondant angry birds and smoothing butter cream icing just hurts too much. We won't even mention the Angry Birds sugar cookies that didn't make it to the party.

At least I had enough sense to have the party outside of our home this year. If you are a long time follower, you might remember last year, we gutted a room to the studs in our house 2 weeks before his party and the paint was still drying when our guests began to arrive.

So, to set the stage, we had the party in the fellowship hall of a friend's church. We sent out these invites that I made in Photoshop. (A Pinterest Idea. I can't take the credit for the concept.)



I made this banner to go behind the cake table out of scrapbook paper and ribbon.



I made a few props for an Angry Birds photo booth.


We had lots of goodies to get everyone's tummy full before the full scale angry birds game we would soon play.

I outsourced the sausage balls and pigs in a blanket to my mom. (Thanks Nana!) If you haven't tried the sausage ball recipe that adds a block of cream cheese, you are missing out. They are delish!



I was planning to order Chick-fil-A chicken minis too but seeing as I was already about, well, lets just say way over budget on this party, I decided to order chicken fingers from Zaxby's and get Sister Schubert's rolls from Sam's and DIY the minis. The crowd said they were better than Chick-fil-A. (Thanks Candi for cutting up what seemed like 2,000 chicken fingers!)



My sweet friend Emma and I cut up the fruit and made fruit kabobs.


The risers were upside down baskets courtesy of my bathroom closet. I am resourceful if I am anything!



I made chocolate dipped pretzel sticks because they were cheap fun . (Thanks Pinterst for that idea too.)



I made chocolate dipped Oreos too. If you want to try these, let me give you a little secret. Take one of the cookies off the Oreo and spread some of your candy melts on the cream, then place your stick in and put the top back on. Let me tell you how many I goofed up before I figured that little tidbit out. Or, no, I won't. Google is your friend people!



And what started it all, I bough these little paper straws on Etsy. I put them in color coordinating Hawaiian Punch bottles for the kids. Cute, yes. Weird feeling, double yes. My jury is still out on whether or not I like paper straws. Maybe I got bad ones or something but they felt gooey to me after a few minutes.



And the piece de resistance... The cake.


Pinterest, why do you do this to me? After seeing all the super cute Angry birds cakes, just a plain old cake wasn't going to cut it. I decided to tackle a 3 tier, covered in butter cream, decorated with little fondant Angry Birds cake. What was I thinking? Obviously, I was not! I made the fondant decorations a few days in advance thank goodness. The day before the party I started icing the cakes and I was still icing 20 minutes before the party. Butter cream will not get smooth for me. I think I watched every you tube video on smoothing butter cream and tried everything from a hot spatula to paper towel rubbing and it wasn't as smooth as I wanted it. Luckily I had enough decoration to cover the hot mess up! I think it turned out cute and it was perfect from across the room or for anyone who put their contacts in backwards that day.





My big man! I can't believe he is 8 years old already!




Happy Birthday Bud! I hope your wishes come true!



And just because I was skeptical that my cake would turn out, we had enough cupcakes for everyone on standby.



After everyone ate, we went to the church gym to play a game of Angry Birds. I collected boxes for weeks and the kids had a blast knocking them down with kick balls.





When everyone was ready to go, they got one of these candy bags with tags I made in Photoshop.



I am kicking myself because there is so much I didn't get photos of. Like the whole cake table. It was so cute. And the Skittle tubes I made that had the cutest little Angry birds tags I made on them. And the food labels. Well, actually, they didn't even make it to the tables. I printed 1 of each and in the end, my table design had double plating's of each food item and I couldn't put them out not having two. They were so cute. Bummer!

The party was great anyway. Everyone had a ton of fun. I think I slept for 15 hours after the party but it was sort of all worth it in the end.

Thanks for reading about my little birthday party adventure! I promise I am going to come back and post more soon. I have made lots of super cute things to share with you. I just haven't found enough hours in the day yet to get them all blogged about.

Are you a cake and ice cream party kind of mama or do you go all out? I'd love to hear your stories.

Until next time...