A Polka Dot Birthday Party

Yep.  That’s right.  My baby is three.  Please hold while I cry for a few hours.

Okay, okay.  Really, as much as it’s hard to believe she’s so old, I count every day a blessing that she’s a part of our family and that I get the pleasure of spending my days with her.  Every single day.  And no, all you negative nancy’s out there, I’m not exaggerating.  Even the hard days, days she seems to spend half of it in time-out, I still couldn’t imagine one second without her.  When I think of her, the most captivating little girl I’ve ever known, I can’t help but smile.

And this little girl who makes me smile ’til my cheeks hurt, well, she adores polka dots.  And so a polka dot party we had.  Pink and orange dots showered our house this past weekend for her celebration, and I thought I’d give you a peek into the details.

Here’s her birthday cake.  I’d never made a cake before, not one for a party at least, so I thought I’d use this occasion to try decorating one with fondant.  It was surprisingly easy and I was pleased with the results.  For the cake, I made my absolute favorite chocolate cake recipe in 9″ and 6″ rounds and then I used a thin layer of basic vanilla buttercream to give the fondant something to sit on.  The fondant came from the local bakery and the “dots” are tropical starburst rolled out and cut with my smallest circle cookie cutter.  Yum.

And then there were cake pops.  A whole forest of pink and white cherry chip lollipops.  I made them using these recipe guidelines, but with cherry chip cake mix and a can of cherry frosting.  They sat on a block of styrofoam wrapped in pink wrapping paper and garnished with polka dot ribbon.

Polka dot sugar cookies were in order too, in our theme colors of course.  These still are my favorite sugar cookies and am sooo glad we have extras.

Visually, I think the rock candy was my favorite addition to the dessert table.  I love the pop of color and whimsy.  Doesn’t it just make you smile too?

And here’s a shot of the whole dessert table.  Mmm, so many yummy goodies to choose from.  Just the way it’s supposed to be.

We decorated with circle garland.  The butterfly paper actually inspired the color scheme for the party.  The Phoenix sewed every last one of those circles.  What a guy, I tell ya.

And finally, we had buckets of sidewalk chalk for all the kiddos to take home.

I hope you enjoyed a little glimpse into my girl’s big day.  I sure had a blast putting it all together for her.  With that smile, how could I not?

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Happy Birthday The Red Bird Life!