All posts tagged: birthday

sushi cake.

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Need an alternative idea to cake? Why not a tower of sushi! You could take this a step further and make your own sushi, but if you have a favorite sushi spot, you can whip this ‘cake’ up in five minutes or less! When it comes to celebrating Hubby’s birthday, I get excited when I come up with a new cake alternative. (Remember the sandwich cakes?) For this sushi cake I picked up some of our favorite rolls from Kyoto Sushi in Berkeley. This was the first time I had created such a cake so I had a hard time visualizing how many rolls I’d need. I ended up getting enough sushi to make two cakes (~6″ at the base and 4 tiers tall), but no one is mad about extra sushi. I used about 35 pieces of California with and without roe, smoked salmon, and mackerel rolls stacked on a 6″ cake stand*. For the base I used the bigger rolls and for the top tier the smaller rolls. I topped the whole thing …

birthday parfait.

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For Bebe’s actual birthday we celebrated at home with a “Birthday Parfait” (keke) and a balloon arch photoshoot! Here’s how you can throw a birthday parfait of your own. Birthday Parfait For our birthday parfait I gathered: For funsies we also crumbled chocolate scones (leftover from our Outside Party!) on top. Sprinkles would be fun to add, too; it is a birthday parfait after all! Balloon Arch After learning about balloon arch strips*, I was hooked on making balloon arches! They make the balloon arch creation process so easy. And now there are so many balloon arch kits *, too; you don’t even have to think of a color scheme. For the balloon arch I used*: How to: Use a balloon pump to fill 100+ balloons. I recommend choosing multiple sizes of balloons to get a varied look across your arch. For more variation, fill some balloons ‘all the way’ and others ‘not all the way.’ I like to keep the balloons in more of a round shape; to achieve this look avoid overfilling your …

outside party!

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Bebe is two! For birthmonth we celebrated with an outside party, which is just a fun way to say a party at the park, because Bebe absolutely loves the outside and often exclaims ‘Outside!’ when he needs some fresh air and room to run. The sun sets so early, so we opted for an AM celebration and served breakfast snacks. I splurged and gave in to my dream of having utensil sets (IKEA for the win!) and (uniform) cloth napkins* for the occasion. We set up a mini pancake bar, breakfast burrito tower (catered by Cafe 9ine!), fruits, chocolate scones, and a kale and cabbage slaw (a la Trader Joe’s). We had Third Culture mochi muffins delivered to create a muffin tower in lieu of a cake. Friends also brought treats to share – donut and cronut holes, mochi donuts! For after snacks, I prepared some nature-inspired activities (a scavenger hunt and a decorate-your-name-with-nature art station), set up coloring pages, and had my Instax camera for folks to snap hard-copy memories. Favors were filled with …

birthday hoops.

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It’s my birthday tomorrow! Also, Trolls World Tour comes out tomorrow on demand and I’m totally going to watch it because I’m turning 4 (x9)! I made some colorful hoops for the occasion (birthday/Trolls watch party). You can make some, too. Materials: Streamers (you can also use ribbons or yarn) Double-sided tape Embroidery (or other) hoop (I used the inner hoop for this project) Scissors String (for hanging) Cut strips of streamer paper however long you wish. You’ll use about 1 inch of each strip to wrap around the hoop. Attach crepe paper strips with double-sided tape. I placed tape on the edge of the paper strip, wrapped around the hoop, and taped onto the paper, versus taping onto the hoop. This was a personal preference, so I could shift the paper strips around as I put the hoop together. Add paper strips until the whole hoop is covered. Add four ties equidistant around the hoop. Then, tie the four strands together to form a loop for hanging. Hang and celebrate! Can you imagine a …

tennis party.

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Hubby’s birthday was last week and since he’s a low key kind of guy, I am now an expert in low key birthdays. I love planning and decorating even if it’ll just be the two of us celebrating. This year I went with a tennis theme. Hubby turned 34, so I told him the theme was “34-love” – a play on the weird tennis scoring that I still do not understand. (Who came up with it?!) Decor included green paper garlands, fans, ornaments, and heart balloons, plus a low key sign… 🙂 I got small lime green plates to represent tennis balls and reddish-orange plates to represent clay courts. For food I made tennis pasta! Take a closer look – the pasta is tennis racquet shaped. And I called in some help from Trader Joe’s – pumpkin and butternut squash pasta sauce and meatballs for the win. I added lots of basil, too. So creamy. I also made celery soup because Novak Djokovic drinks celery juice and Hubby is into it. But the stars of …

tea for seven.

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It’s my Mommy’s birthday today! Yay, Mommy! We celebrated over the weekend with a  tea party. On the menu… Tea sandwich 1: Peach and bourbon jam + tiny green apples from the garden. My nephew said it tasted like apple pie. Tea sandwich 2: Smoked salmon + dill cream cheese + chives. Allowing the dill to sit in the cream cheese for at least an hour adds so much more flavor. Tea sandwich 3: Cucumber + dill cream cheese. A classic pairing. I cut each sandwich flavor into a different shape. Also, crusts off always! We also made open faced smoked salmon + cucumber + dill cream cheese + chives sandwiches because why not. It added some nice color to the plate. Also on the menu: Steamed hericots vert with salt + pepper. Bell pepper crudités, a daikon vinegar slaw, and bread delights from 85 Degrees – (clockwise from top) coffee roll with red bean paste and mochi, walnut roll with black sesame seed paste, green tea roll with red beans and cream. …and of …

bath bombs and bon bons!

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This year for birthmonth I celebrated with a chocolate factory tour, a picnic, a mini hike, a kava bar lounge session, and a bath bombs and bon bons party! The last mostly happened because I love alliteration. And themed celebrations. And crafts. 🙂 We had bon bon treats and ’90s jams all night. I found lots of bon bon options at Trader Joe’s (and I added edible shimmer to some of them for added fancy) and at a local chocolatier. I also found the tiniest plates for all the tiny foods. My maker friend extraordinaire, Angel, hosted and taught the bath bomb part of the evening. I have the craftiest friends! Check out all these fun supplies. The scent of the different essential oils filled the room. Ahhh-roma therapy! Ready to craft! But first, a wefie to capture this Breaking Bad moment. We started with a warm up craft: body oils. We filled these cute containers with base oils (I used sweet almond oil), Vitamin E (for a preservative), a few drops of rose hips, and an …

sunnies and snacks.

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I love planning events, trying my hand at making different foods to share, and setting up activities for friends to try. For birthmonth I threw a picnic party – great friends and yummy snacks all afternoon made for a fun and relaxing day. For snacks I made tabbouleh, a green salad with tahini lemon dressing, sunomono cucumber salad, veggie wraps, and French onion dip. I also gathered shortbread cookies, nuts, mandarins, blackberries, chips, and black sesame crackers. My new fave (accidentally made) snack: what I’m dubbing “tabbouleh nachos” topped with Greek yogurt French onion dip. I can’t wait to make it again! I set up some crafty play stations – origami and photo decorating. Plus park friendly activities – bubbles, lawn bowling, dominos, and sportsballs (Hubby taught me how to properly throw a football!). My niece also brought the Bean Boozled jelly bean game. Gross fun! And party favors because that’s how I roll: everyone got a pair of sunnies. More picnics please! What are some of your go-to picnic foods and activities? Do share!

lucky bamboo.

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My Mommy turned 70 this week so we had a little celebration over the weekend. I was assigned party favor duty. Since I’m always looking for a way to incorporate soy candles into celebrations because I have a candle lady (#thatmakerlifetho), and the party was at a Chinese restaurant and the decor would be red (for luck!), I decided on lucky bamboo scented soy candle favors! My friend Joy even made custom labels for the occasion. To package them up for my Mommy’s guests I found some tiny bags from Michaels, made mini tassels, and included a few matches. I used embroidery floss for the tassels. You can make at least five mini tassels with one skein of floss. Then, I punched a hole in each bag and attached the tassels “luggage tag style.” Since I wanted to include matches not in matchbook form, I cut the striker from the box into small squares and used double sided tape to adhere them to the inside of the candle lids. The Diamond brand match boxes can …

this is how we fiesta.

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Everyone loves a taco party! Dinner al fresco lives on in my God-sister’s backyard to celebrate her birthday! We set the table with legit plates, napkin rings (cause we fancy), and desserts…lots of desserts. For our centerpieces we put together tiny vases of chamomile flowers, faux candles, and mini piñatas filled with more sweet treats. For our taco bar we picked up meat from Mi Tierra in Berkeley, and grilled up some vegetables. We had homemade salsas, guacamole, and aguas frescas, and all the taco fixin’s. And it wouldn’t be a fiesta without some honeycombs and photoprops. Group selfie with giant taco! Happy Birthday, my sister from another mister! How do you backyard bash? Share your party secrets below.