Strawberry Celebrating aka Why I Gave Up Caking on the Regular

This weekend our little Moon baby turned three!! Our angel is three years old! So to celebrate our little girl, we had a Strawberry Celebration. She insisted on throwing Strawberry Shortcake in there so I added her in with some extra party hats, confetti, favors, and balloons. It was a Strawberry Jamboree!

Now I make my baby's cake every year and it has to be decorated the same day as the event, but it always ALWAYS puts me way behind schedule. It takes me hours to finish the cake and then I never get everything done and end up not doing certain things at the party or making use of all the crafts I spent weeks making.  This year was no different and lots of details were passed over but there were lots of little fun details that we all enjoyed and the cake, although rushed and slightly crooked, lol, came out kinda cute too.

I got the main table layout idea from one of my favorite blogs, Glorious Treats. Mine didn't come out nearly as cute as I had to use plastic tablecloths and it was the coldest windiest day, so the tablecloths and bows kept going crooked but everyone loved it still!

I got all of my printables from DimplePrints and they also provided the very cute invitations and thank you notes. There were signs and banners, water bottle labels, and the cupcake toppers that were completely adorable.

...and of course there were the party hats with the homemade pom-poms. I love my baby's "no more pics" face in this picture.

The menu consisted of all food strawberries. Strawberry-Chipotle Chicken and Strawberry Caprese Pasta Salad. There were Strawberry Cupcakes. (Thanks to the lovely Debbie for icing them for me :)).  Fondant leaves and strawberries were provided by Emmyluucakes and the cupcake liners (and straws shown in the tablescape photo) were provided by HeyYoYo.

...and homemade Strawberry Marshmallows (thanks again to Debbie for cutting them up and getting them out for all to enjoy ;)).

Then there was the cake. Two layers of strawberry and one vanilla. 

Each table was adorned with these great cupcake liner topiaries.  The tutorial can be found here.

The two games were supposed to be Musical Fruits which is the same as musical chairs except instead of chairs, there are pictures of fruits and berries.  The second game was a berry version of Pin the Tail on the Donkey where the kids had to stick the strawberries in the basket blindfolded. The prizes came in these strawberry bags found at the dollar store.

But things got a little hectic and the games never got played :(  But nevertheless, the kids went home with lots of goodies.  The goodie tins were filled with small strawberry plants for the kids to grow, strawberry shortcake favors, blowers, strawberry fruit roll ups, and lots of candy. The favor tags were part of the printable package.

And, of course, everyone got to bring home their own container of strawberries!

...and before sending the kids home we all made Strawberry Wishes. Every child got a strawberry favor box and a piece of paper on which they wrote their wishes and then placed them inside the box. We tied each wish box onto a balloon, tied the balloons together, and my little girl let them go for their wishes to come true!!

The final strawberry touch was my daughter's dress! Her dress was beautiful and handmade by Boutique Elli'Ette. I loved it and it fit her perfectly and she looked like a little Strawberry Moon Princess ;)

All in all, it was a fun-filled day and I had a blast making all the little berry decorations!  Make sure and check out all the great Etsy stores and blogs that helped me put together our berry exciting day!!

~Nik