The Little Princess: A Perfectly Pink First Birthday

When the sweetest little girl is turning one, pink princess cupcakes are a must!

Gotta love pink!

There are some people that you meet in life that constantly amaze you and bring you joy! Lucky for me, these two beauties come as a package deal!

Meet Emma (sweet baby girl) and her incredible mom, Stef.

...and her awesome husband too! Can't forget him!

I SO love these two women. They are strong and have an energy that instantly lights up a room. Did I mention they were beautiful? Because they are...both inside and out.

So you can imagine how honored I felt when I was asked to make cupcakes for Emma's first birthday party.

Theme: Pink Princess...what else?

I made 4 dozen cupcakes (half vanilla/half chocolate) with a pink swiss meringue buttercream.

If you haven't tried SMB (Swiss Meringue Buttercream)...you must. It is heaven!

When thinking of "princess", I thought of castles, dresses, prince charming...oh my! Since I did not trust myself to make some of these more elaborate decorations (i.e. prince charming would look more like a reptile than a human), I decided that crowns, flowers, magic wands, and bows would be adorable!

Here's what I had in my sketch book:

Planning stages! So fun!

Here's how they turned out!

Much better than a prince's face...awkward...

Just for sweet Emma!

These are all made out of homemade modeling chocolate. It took me a while to get to the shade of pink I liked, but with a few trials - I finally settled on the ballerina/rose pink.

I ended up blending some white into the pink.
The pink was like..80's pink. NEON!
Sidenote: I LOVE the 80's. But not for a princess.

Bows and crowns!
You should have seen my shaky hand put on those sprinkles...
No bueno.

Once again with the strategically placed sprinkles...
4 cups of coffee is a no no, Kina.

When deciding what style of frosting decor to use, I thought something that looked "ruffle-y" would be pretty. Is that a word? Well it is now.

Emma got extra frosting!

They are also covered in love, a synonym for sprinkles.

Aka Torrey's (my son) future floor treasures!
Imagine his delight when he saw...lots...of them on the floor.
Please don't call CPS.

I also wanted to make sure that Emma got a special cupcake...it is her special day after all!

Here it is standing solo on top.

Princess Emma!

And here's the rest of them!

Tower of sugar!

Wands for magical dreams.

Flowers for grace and beauty,

Bows for cuteness.

And crowns for royalty and power.

To Emma and Stef:

Thank you for being such a bright light in our lives. Stef, you are such a gracious host and wonderful mother. Emma has a wonderful woman to model herself after and I know how proud you are of your precious little girl. Thank you for letting Torrey and I be a part of your special day. It means the world to us! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET EMMA!

Love you all! Take Care and God Bless!

UNO: My Son Turns One

Somehow, it's been a year since my son was born. 

I have no idea how that happened. 

BUT since he such a sweet kid, I made sure his sweets table was well stocked!

SUUUGGGAAAR!!...and sleepless nights!

Sweets Menu:

1. 6" Western themed half Red Velvet, half Devil's Food Cake filled and iced with dark chocolate ganache

Decorated in modeling chocolate...yummy!!

2. 2-dozen mini vanilla cupcakes w/buttercream frosting

3. 2-dozen mini carrot cake cupcakes w/ cream cheese frosting

4. 2-dozen mini devil's food cupcakes w/ dark chocolate ganache

5. 2-dozen mini red velvet cupcakes w/ cream cheese frosting

6. 1-dozen large vanilla cupcakes w/ buttercream frosting

7. 1-dozen large red velvet cupcakes w/ cream cheese frosting

CUPCAKES!!!!

8. 1-dozen smores on a stick

9. 10 "hay bales on a stick" (rice krispy treats)

If you've never had a smore-on-a-stick, I highly recommend it...they're SO yummy!

10. 25 star sugar cookies covered in marshmallow fondant

Brushed with apricot jam and packaged with care :0)
(Thank you Emily and Erica!!)

11. And of course...a SMASH CAKE!

This is his pre-pose stance before the smashing (aka poking) began!

So, that was the sweets table! Here's the food table!

Pork sliders, deviled eggs, and pigs-in-a-blanket still set to arrive.
I can't take credit for ANY of this...I did nothing, my friends and family did EVERYTHING!

Life is different when you have kids.

          Very different. 

You have no concept of time or beauty. Especially beauty :0).

Where does he get that sad face from ;0)??!!!

I can usually get only one of us looking good when we leave the house - and it never seems to be me. When I don't have my husband home to do a "check," I almost certainly will have rice cereal, peas, and poop on, near, or around me and not notice until I see someone's frightened face in public.

But it's the happiest ugly I've ever felt! I love being a mom, more than anything. 

I think he's worth more than that!

Since I have so much spare time (HA! Syke!), I spent many nights preparing for his party. I slowly tackled the decorations (all homemade from recycled, reusable items) during his naps.

Wine bottles for vases, egg cartons for cupcake holders,
and painted Honest Company boxed for stands!

And I baked while he was dreaming of puppies and cookies!

Again...NONE of this would have been possible without the help of incredible friends and family! THANK YOU! 

Aunty Erica and God-Mommy Emily = MY ANGELS!

They (those two beauties above), along with grandparents, Ryan, and Blake dedicated their whole weekend to helping me set up, prepare the food, and snuggle my sweet boy when I was up to my elbows in frosting. 

It was so fun having a house full of babies and their incredible families. When we moved from Kauai to Oregon, I was so nervous about making new friends, as I can by shy...and extremely awkward. But true to form, Jesus has introduced our family to some of the kindest people on the planet!! We are so blessed. 

To my little Torrey,

You are my stars, moon, and universe. I am so proud of you and love seeing you grow and develop. Thank you for your laughs, overactive need to open cupboard drawers, play with toilet paper like a cat, and kiss and snuggle me before you fall asleep every night. I love you.

My sweet pea! 

Love You All! Take Care and God Bless!