Mickey Mouse Birthday Party

Has anyone gone through life with children withOUT having a MICKEY Party?

Well! We not only had a Mickey Mouse Party... We had a Micky Mousetach party!

See, my nephew who's birthday is one day before my youngest's had to have a Mickey Party, and at that age you can't argue with them.  So my sister in-law and I decided to combined the parties since they are so close in dates and who wants to consume an entire weekend with birthday parties!?  NOT me! 

SO evolved the Mickey MouseSTache party!  

I've always wanted a "little man" themed party with ties, vests, top hats and mustaches but with the great opportunity to combined parties and with my nephew not parting ways with Mickey Mouse anytime in his near future I thought we should combined the theme as well! 

So here are a few pictures to gaze at... We are getting into the party planning business soon as well, but if you should live far, far away then we can send you the items for you to adorn your party with all by yourselves!   WARNING- combining a party does not make less work! It only makes it more fabulous! 

ENJOY :) 

Logan (left-3) Brandon (right-2) 

THE BIRTHDAY BOYS

Artsy made the shirts! They turned out ADORABLE!! 

Mickey Top Hats- we made from cheap top hats then added ears and a red stripe to tie into our colors

Mickey shapes were added to the tops of our favor bags with a mini clothes pin and we also put them on tall bamboo skewers to add some depth and cuteness to our tables.

oh and here is a top hat for one of the girls that planned to stop by and share some minnie love ;) 

An amazing chocolate cupcake with shipped cream frosting and red sprinkles! 

YUM, Brandon liked them! 

We also set up a fancy photo booth with dress up clothes! These are the oldest BROTHERS to the young Birthday Boys! 

a beautiful mickey balloon decor for the wall 

so the mustaches didnt make it through the entire theme but it was still cute and came through some of decor!

dont forget the marshmallows!

The Mickey Cookies that CookieXchange did only dipped the ears in chocolate instead of using any royal icing decoration.

...and some more yummy desserts...

FRUIT KABOBS

FRUIT TARTS

CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES OF COURSE

more cute favors

ADORABLE FRAMES!!! 

On the back of the boys' shirts Allison ironed on some cute sayings-

Logan turned 3 his shirt said _ YIPEEE IM 3!!

Brandon turned 2 his shirt said- WOHOO IM 2!!

ALL JUST PICTURES TODAY no tutorials or where to get things... 

I'll try to keep you updated with out crafty lives over yonder...  please be sure to comment.  If you ask any questions about anything you see I will be sure to give you my answer!!!

XOXO

Rainbow Cupcakes - Happy Birthday James!

Tomorrow my darling young son is turning 7!
Where has the time gone?? Why not celebrate with this...

I'll show you how, it's super simple!

Last year for his birthday in Kindergarten we made some yummy cupcakes that he just had to give to his friends this year again!  I think they may have made him a bit more cool at the time and who doesn't want their kids to be cool!?
I think I found this idea about a year or two ago in a magazine and since then I will catch a glimpse here and there online. 
So I thought I would share my process with you all just in case you want to make some for St Patties Day, a birthday or just because. Now- WARNING... these aren't Sprinkles Cupcakes, they aren't "to die for" they are just very cool, and fun... I wouldn't make these ever to show off at a meeting unless it was for a cub scouts meeting...just saying that they are more cute than they are tasty :) NOT saying they aren't moist sugary cupcakes, cause they are... but once you dowse food coloring into all that cake mix, it tastes well, like food colored cake mix! I have nothing against cake mix, there have been some amazing things conjured from it (i.e. ArtsyAlcie YUM!!!!) and the occasional german chocolate mix and frosting... WAIT I'm veering from the point...My point is these are GREAT kids please'rs, kids will be talking about them for months!!!!

So I started with these

1 box betty crocker white cake mix (white only because we are trying for some solid colors)
1 tub of cream cheese frosting (get the kind you like)
green "sprinkles" from wilton
1/3 cup applesauce (YES, applesauce!)
3 egg whites
1 1/4 cup water
7 cups
7 small spoons
large mixing bowl
wooden spoon or whisk
Gel food coloring (you can use what you have on hand)
****
red
blue
green
yellow
pink (not necessary for the full rainbow affect)

...and NO OIL!
"BUT why no oil Jessica"? Because we used applesauce sillies!   HELLO, this cuts down on fat MUCHO. It calls for 1/3 cup oil, but we substitute with applesauce for that moisture leaving an oil free cake, MAMMA likes and has been doing it for years!!!  You can use that in most of your baking recipes!!!!
I wouldn't leave the oil out of a chewy brownie recipe though, some things you just can't mess with :)

SO, get that cake mix in the bowl, seperate those eggs, measure out that water and applesauce.

Good, now we are ready to mix WAIT--- Turn that oven onto 325...
..then just dump all the liquid ingredients into the dry mix. There is no science to mixes, they are made to be fool proof, although when it gets into the oven it's all up to the baking gods and your timer!

Don't mix TOO much only because we are going to be mixing colors into the batter soon and we dont want this batter to be beaten or mixed to death!
Once your batter is smooth and incorporated you want to pour about 1 cup into each of those 7 glasses.
I use gel coloring only because I have a big stock of it for my cookie business. But you can use what you have on hand. I love gel because it gives you a bright color without having to use half the bottle or more than a tablespoon and doesn't add further liquids! But these portions are small so you dont really need too much to brighten the batter up.

So start your coloring; red, blue, yellow and green are their own colors, but for purple you need to mix 1 drop blue to 1 drop red (you may need to add 1 more of each but play around with it one drop at a time). Orange you need 2 drops yellow, 1 drop red. Mix those in until they are a solid color.

I used white cupcake liners and I used 2 liners for each cup to prevent browning (browning takes away from the beautiful colors we are working so hard to achieve). The alternative to using 2 liners is to get those foil liners, those would be perfect but since I only have white in stock, thats just what I did and it worked wonderfuly!
After all your colors are mixed and you have lined your cupcake pan you want to start with purple.
PURPLE: take your purple and put about a spoonful in each cup, and make sure the bottom is completly covered (this can get tricky), I used a butter knife and swirled it into the bottom of the liners and you can try shaking the pan a little in a swirly motion.
BLUE: same process about a spoonful or two, on the next layers you will need to sort of lay the batter on top of the last layer so it doesnt just plop into the bottom of the purple layer. Be gentile.
GREEN: be gentile
YELLOW,
ORANGE,
PINK,
RED.
Keep in mind you wont be able to get a perfect layer of each, so dont spend too much time on trying to spread each layer, give a little shake (to your pan, not your backside) and move forward to the next color.


I set my oven to 325 degrees. I don't have a fancy convection or anything, just a standard 60's model GAS of all things, but Petunia has been good to me (yes, I have named my oven).

Put those cupcakes into the oven when it comes to temp and I left mine in there for about 14 minutes but I would check after 10 just to make sure everything is copacetic..probe one with a toothpick, and the toothpick should come out with a crumb or two.

how cute are those!?
Here is a picture of the side of the paper, you can see through them...it's a rainbow!!

the kids are going to LOVE these!!!
When they were cooled I just spread a thin layer of my cream cheese frosting to avoid sugar blow ups on the playground (I think Mrs. Bauer will appreciate that!), then just sprinkled the green "sparkles" thats just the color I happened to have.

..and I love how the cakes stain the white papers:)

So with the time saving luxary of a box mix, why not spend that extra 30 minutes to make a special treat for yourself or children so they will never forget their Birthdays and get those brownie points with their classmates!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMES!  MOMMY LOVES YOU!!!!

XOXO

..questions or comments please post below!!