I recently had the opportunity to do a guest post for Chocolate Bytes. I enjoy planning parties, decorating cakes, and gardening. This guest post gave me the opportunity to do all three, with chocolate!

Melted chocolates make great cupcake or cake toppers. I think these molded chocolates would be fun for a cookout, or just for summer fun. If you’re planning a Mother’s Day party, summer garden party, or birthday tea party check out how to make these melted chocolate garden cupcake toppers. 

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We made baseball cupcakes this weekend for my son’s birthday party. He’s getting to old for some of the birthday party themes, but he loves baseball. The kids all went out to the backyard and had a little baseball game of their own.

The baseball cupcakes were easy to make. I used the Wilton Mini Ball Pan to bake the cupcakes, and Decorating Tip Set 2 with #3 Round for the ball laces and #16 Star to cover the cupcakes in white icing. They really were simple to make. I covered a cookie sheet in Wilton Silver Fanci-Foil Wrap, but regular foil would work well too. Can you tell I’m a huge Wilton fan?

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Thank you to everyone who participated in the Beginning Nature Books Giveaway here at Kid’s Fun Reviewed.

 

The winner was selected by Random.org.  The winner was comment number 30, Betsy. She says..

Corduroy is my favorite children’s book!

That’s one of my favorite books too. It’s one of the books I bought before my son was born, I’ve loved it since I was a child.

Congratulations, I’ll be contacting you shortly to get delivery information. 

I’ve had a blast with the giveaways this week, and I enjoyed reading all of your comments. I love children’s books, it’s been fun checking out everyone’s favorites.

We have more giveaways coming up. If you don’t want to miss the next giveaway, birthday theme, craft idea, or cake photo here at Kid’s Birthday Fun, subscribe to our feed and check back often.

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I can’t wait to see Kung Fu Panda in theatres June 6th (that’s only a little over a month away). Celebrate Express already has Kung Fu Panda Party Supplies, so if you’re planning on having Kung Fu Panda premiere party, or you want to have Kung Fu Panda as your birthday party theme you can get started with the planning.

 

Plan your Kung Fu Panda party with a Kung Fu, Asian, or animal theme, with earth tones, reds, golds and bamboo.

Plan games like egg races with chopsticks, kung fu relays (the kids take turn putting on a kung fu outfit and racing around a pole, take off the outfit and tag the next person to put it on).

Let them make a big gong with a cardboard pizza circle, and gold foil, and a cardboard mallet.

Serve iced fortune cookies for snacks, eggrolls, and fried rice.

Check out the official Kung Fu Panda Website for more games and activities, and a photo gallery.

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We’re giving away 3 Usborne Beginning Nature books, Bears, Eggs and Chicks, and Caterpillars and Butterflies. These books have beautiful photographs, and they’re loaded with information for your budding scientist. 

How can you enter:

• Leave a comment below telling us about your favorite children’s book.
• Enter only time per household by midnight EST on Saturday, April 26.
• The winner will be announced on April 27.
• Contest is open to US residents only.

After you’ve entered click over to my other blog Mother Earth’s Garden for a chance to win a composting book, or Leapin Lemurs, and Penuguin Puffs Envirokidz cereal. After you’re done there click over to the Bloggy Giveaways for hundreds more blog giveaways and contests.

Good luck, and have fun!

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I recently had the opportunity to preview the new Cooking Light Complete Cookbook: A Fresh New Way to Cook from Oxmoor House.  I was very impressed. It has over 1200 recipes, and 600+ photos. It has cakes, cookies, and a complete entertainment section with a countdown to your party. Their checklist can help you plan your party from beginning to end. They have some great ideas for unique touches to make your party memorable. From a Mother’s Day Brunch to a 4th of July Celebration the Cooking Light Complete Cookbook has wonderful recipes and more.

They’ve also included a section on how to make perfect cakes. There’s nothing better than a cake made from scratch. The recipes look wonderful, and most look easy to make. They have Turtle Cake, Coffee Cupcakes, Chocolate Cheesecake (Yum!) and many more.

I’m truly loving this cookbook, it became my new favorite the day it arrived in the mail.

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I haven’t done a link post here for a while. There have been some great party posts this week. I thought I’d share some weekend reading with you.

 

She Knows Parties has 10 fun party favors you can make yourself.  She has a list of fun inexpensive party favors you can make for your next birthday party.

 

Birthday Parties and Themes has a horse cake idea made by her daughter. There are step by step instructions, and it’s a really cute cake for a horse theme birthday party.

 

Shindigz! has some really cute Mother’s Day party ideas, that would also work well for a summer garden tea party.

Janet at Kid’s Birthday Parties has fun favor and activity ideas for a Ben 10 birthday party.

 

If you’re looking for ideas for a Webkinz theme birthday party, check out this post by Deb at Mom of 3 Girls. Her daughter was invited to a Webkinz party and she shared some of the fun Webkinz party ideas they used there. I love the Webkinz World theme games, but I think my favorite part is the Webkinz bedrooms they made out of shoe boxes. The kids could purchase party favors with Kinz cash they’d earned during the party. She has some great photos, and details from the party. So cool!

 

Have a great week!

 

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I have a really simple, really beautiful pattern to make your own roses for a kid’s garden tea party, luau theme birthday  party, or for Mother’s Day.
What you will need:
Thin wire, 8-12” long
Glue
3-6 different brightly colored sheets of tissue paper
Cut the tissue paper into different size rectangles, 8 inches x 4 inches, 6 inches x 4 inches, and 4 inches x 4 inches. Duplicate the layers until you have 4-6 layers per flower. Make each rectangle a different color, or make some the same, think about how you would like the finished product to look. Trim the ends into petal shapes, with rounded or spikey tips. Don’t cut the sides, only the ends. The straight sides will disappear when you gather the flowers in the wire. Check out the photos for detail.
Lay the largest rectangle on the bottom, center the 6 x 4 rectangle on top of the larger rectangle. Then center the smallest square on top. You can layer two or three of each size if you want a thicker flower. Gather the center, and put a small amount of glue on the gather. Wrap the wire around the center to secure, then use the wire as a stem. You can wrap the wire with florist tape if desired, or make leaves out of construction paper. Fluff the "petals” of your flower.

You can let the kids make these paper roses, or make them ahead of time for party decorations.

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Hello, Cupcake!: Irresistibly Playful Creations Anyone Can Make by Alan Richardson and Karen Tack puts the fun into making cupcakes.

I’m all for fun and easy cupcakes, and this book tells you how to do both. This books loaded with beautiful color photos, and great instructions. You don’t have to be a skilled cake decorator or have any fancy equipment to make these cute cupcakes.

Most of the cupcakes are easy to make. The book features more than cupcakes for kids. You can find cupcakes for birthday parties, weddings, summer cookouts, holidays and more.

Besides being loaded with design ideas this book includes a section on cupcake recipes.

If you have a party or special event coming up in the near future, and you want to make your own cupcakes, I highly recommend this fun book.

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Here’s a fun easy recipe for green fruit punch that will work great for a creepy crawly party, a garden party, or as swamp nog for a Shrek birthday party.

Mix one pack of green Kool Aid as directed on the back of the package. Combine it with one liter of 7 Up, and just before serving time scoop in 1 container of green sherbet ice cream. It makes a cool refreshing treat.

To add interest lay gummy worms over the edge of the punch bowl, and on the table around the punch.

 

You can change the color of the Kool Aid, and the flavor of the ice cream to suit other party themes.

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