A TANGLED AFFAIR

Happy Friday y'all!  I am so glad the weekend is here!  The scrumptious hubby cleaned up all the patio furniture this week... can't wait to sit outside tonight with him and enjoy the outdoors!

I thought today I would share another party with you.  This is not as elaborate as my Mom's Party I shared last month.  I try to make the kids' parties special without going overboard.  Our house is tiny and the kiddos' birthdays fall in months where being outside is not ideal.

The Boo (my daughter) turned 2 and she has been OB.sessed. with the movie Tangled.  All about it.  We even put the songs on our ipods so she could sing along.  I have to admit... I love it too.  Thus, a Tangled party it was.

Her favorite song in the movie is "I See the Light" and I wanted to make that happen.  I decided to make lanterns to hang from the ceiling and recreate the scene on her cake.  Here's how I did it.

Mason jars, wire, and freezer paper that I put on the jars with a few glue dots.  Glue dots are my life!  What would I do without them?!?!  The tea lights are great because they flicker... and you can get them at the dollar store!

I just drew on the paper with doodles so they would glow when lit.  Believe me, I'm no artist, people.  LOL. But The Boo got the idea, and that's all that matters, right?  I hung them all over our basement so it looked like the floating lights.  (Grainy photo... sorry!)

I did make the birthday cake as well.  Here's my disclaimer:  Prior to viewing these photos, please know that I am in no way super great at cake decorating!!! I just always pray that one of my cakes does not make it onto the Cake Wrecks website...

I just have to say that I purchased the toy on top, and the rocks... they are like M&Ms!  Chef Duff product you can get at Wal-mart.  They are so super cool, and you will certainly see them on other cakes of mine!

The sand is brown sugar, the water is piping gel tinted blue.  The rest is icing.  For the lanterns on the cake, I just wrapped a tiny piece of freezer paper around the actual tea light and hung them on wires.  FUN! 

By far though, the BEST idea I used for the party was found here.  I am so happy that I found this because it turned out to be the easiest party clean-up and preparation I have ever done!

MAKE.YOUR.OWN.PIZZA. YES!  Put the food making the responsibility of your guests!  I cooked / cut up all the ingredients while the cakes were baking and put them in ziploc bags.  For the party, I folded over simple brown bags for topping bowls and just plopped the ziploc bag inside. 

I rolled out brown paper and the table and just wrote down the instructions.  Seriously.  Hubby cooked the pizzas on the grill.  For clean-up I just rezipped all the bags and back into the fridge they went.  Rolled up the paper for the garbage.  BEST.EVER. 

We had a great time and the pizzas were so delicious on the grill!  We liked the whole "make-your-own" idea so much, we did it again for the next birthday party!  I'll be sure to share The Bug's party soon!

Have a great weekend!  Please feel free to leave a comment to let me know you stopped by!