Party Preppin’

Masey’s 3rd birthday and I want to do something special.  I began by researching venues and was quickly frustrated by the lack of options a month in advance so I wrote this blog about it.

The end result was to have a Pirates & Princess party in Clayton’s building which has a free party room.  We shared a Google doc so we could plan the day together; splitting tasks.

Clayton made cool invitations:

We had 3 boys & 2 girls RSVP + Masey.  All daycare kids!

So now that was done, we had to take care of the basic planning.

  • Food & Beverages
  • Costumes
  • Decorations
  • Games
  • Loot bags
  • Cake

Since this was a dual themed party, we needed to get double the items.  I made a list to hit up the corresponding stores to take care of my portion of the list.

I started with the costume first.

I visited two Value Villages after work on Friday.  I wanted to find a tacky pink prom dress from the 80’s which I figured would be about $8.00.  What I found was limited sizes (I guess real princesses aren’t a size 10).  I did find a wicked Barbie pink dress which would have been perfect but Barbie doesn’t have huge knockers.  So sadly, I left it behind.  It also wasn’t 8 bucks, it was $20 and the price went up for jilted bride to be’s dresses (or cheap brides).  The dresses were awesome but I am not spending $50-$100 for a dress I probably wouldn’t wear again.

My next destination was on the following day:

The Dollar store.  A great place for cheapo items!  I picked up:

  • Tiara’s x 3 $1.25ea
  • Princess balloons $3.00 (Clayton rented a helium tank)
  • Plastic mini aquatic friends for the cake $2.00
  • A “3” candle $1.50
  • A package of white 24 candles $1.00
  • Birthday card $2.00
  • Ribbon & Tinsel $1.99 + $1.50 (To make our own magic wands – more on that later in the blog).

I stopped in Shoppers Drug Mart to pick up my candy cake accessories:

  • 4 packages of Rolo’s (for the cannons)
  • Life savers (for the port holes)
  • 1 package of Hershey Whoppers (cannon balls)

Total cost $10.94

Then off to The Party Bazaar which used to be on West 2nd but moved to Main & Terminal area.

I had visited their website to figure out what I wanted so I figured it was a quick stop.  I walked through all the aisles to see if I could find more decorations we might need.  What I ended up finding made me so happy!  Hallowe'en costumes on sale!! And while it wasn't a princess costume (they had them but they were um of the provocative kind).  The ones I had my eye on were um Pirate wenches!  Perfect.  They had two styles, one with a bustier and the other was more of a gypsy top and skirt.  I opted for the first one but am opting to wear leggings.  $20.00 score.  They only had one stand up photo display that I wanted (out of stock on the princess variety).  I left $30.18 poorer but now have a costume for this fall!

My good friend Lynda came over to celebrate Mason's bday, she suggested making our magic wands instead of paying $2.50 each for them (yep, I have frugal friends too!).  So we took the ribbon, tinsel, wooden skewers that I had in the cupboard and some scotch tape and got busy!.

I took 4 wooden skewers and had two with pointy sides up and two with pointy sides down.  I took the scotch tape and wrapped the four skewers together all the way to the top.  Then repeated the process with the ribbon.  I lined up a handful of tinsel (which was loose...and now all over my home).  and put tape around the middle a few times.  I folded the tinsel in half and using a mini stapler, stapled the taped pieces together.  This made a strong base that I then

Here is a snapshot of the goodies!

 

Last stop was Superstore to pick up the groceries.  Everything was for the party and came out to $60.00.  I bought:

  • Juice boxes for the kiddies
  • Tortilla chips
  • Red, Yellow & Orange peppers, celery, carrots, cucumber & broccoli for veggie dip
  • Strawberries
  • Food coloring, 3 cans of frosting, 4 cake mixes
  • Carton of eggs
  • Baking pan (square springform!!)

One of Mason’s presents from me was a ‘Pirate’s Cove’ that I found at the Vancouver Maritime Museum. A  little project he can do with his Daddy.

The other present from Mummy was a Mega Blox Pirate ship which has real pirate sounds and some mega block peoples he can use with his other sets.  A great deal on Craigslist!

Now that all the supplies were purchased, it was time to get our baking on!  We were doing the cake in two steps.  Bake and decorate.  Baking the night before & shaping/decorating the morning before the party.

We used three different types of pans (all non stick):

  1. 8" round
  2. 8""x1" square
  3. 10" x 2 3/4" square springform

 

I chose a Chocolate Fudge cake mix by good ol Betty. 

The best part of baking a cake is eating the batter...


Pretty simple directions, eggs + oil + water/milk (we opted for water) and the mix.  Lynda got to try out my new pink! hand mixer.

We did the two smaller cakes first, in for 30 mins.  The next two cakes went into the one Springform for 45 mins at 350.

The round & the square came out of the pans perfectly.  I commented we should open up our own bakery! Not sure how the cake is going to taste but need to consider it's going to be slathered in icing and fed to hyper little 3 year olds ;) This cake is more about presentation than taste!  Good thing it's not a competition.  No wonder people charge hundreds of dollars for themed cakes - they are a lot of work!

So now that the cakes are baked and wrapped tightly in Saran Wrap, they are chillin' in the fridge til morning.  Then Alice will be over at 9 to join us girls to help cut, shape and start the decorating.  That's a whole 'nother blog!

Night!

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