Archive for the ‘Birthday Parties’ Category

Old-Fashioned Movie Birthday

Wednesday, November 2nd, 2016

old-fashioned-movie-cake

If you want to throw an old-fashioned movie birthday party, you have come to the right place! I will show you how to make a cake in the shape of an old movie camera. I will also tell you about some activities you can do for a movie party, besides watching a movie!

How to make an old-fashioned movie camera cake:

Let’s start with the cake. You will need to bake three cakes; the first two will be rectangle cakes, and the third will be divided between two circle pans. You will assemble the pieces this way:

movie-camera-cake-2

I trimmed the sides of the first rectangle cake for the center section of the cake. I cut the bottom and side trapezoids from the other rectangle cake. (You can eat the cake leftovers while you work!)

I wanted the circles on the top of the cake to be smaller than a cake pan, so I used a round plastic container as a cookie cutter.

cake-circle

The finished cake is at the top of this post. I found some large letter stickers at a hobby supply store, and I stuck them down on white card stock paper and taped them to toothpicks before stabbing them into the cake.

Decorations for a movie party:

home-movie-screen

You can tape curtains to the sides of your television. We used the curtains from our puppet theater, but you can just hang some cloth and tie the sides. No sewing is required. I found a movie gadget that opens and closes for the scenes being filmed. I bought it at a party supply store. We used it for the skits described in the activity below.

movie-party-decorations

I also found some Hollywood decorations at a party supply store, which I hung from the chandelier, but you could just cut out a silver star out of card stock paper. I had silver star confetti and silver streamers. I placed a black bed sheet on the table, and the silver streamers ran down the sides. A camera was placed in the middle of the table on top of the confetti.

Movie party activities:

dress-up-box

Grab a basket or dress-up box and place different hats, scarves, glasses, and other accessories into it. (We found some stick-on moustaches at a costume shop!) The kids can break into teams and practice a fun skit with the materials in the basket. Then they can present it to the audience. You can film the skits.

outdoor-movie

During the second half of the party, we watched an outdoor movie. If you don’t have a projector, you can watch the movie indoors on your television. We hung a sheet outside and used the projector from my speaking engagements, and we watched “The Princess Bride” outside. We had a great time at our old fashioned movie birthday party!

Airplane Cake

Friday, October 21st, 2016

airplane-cake

I’m going to show you how to make this cool airplane cake. My son recently had an airplane-themed birthday party, and we placed his model airplane in the middle of the table on top of some sand as the centerpiece for the table.

We baked a rectangular cake and up-ended it on a cutting board. I cut out the shape of an airplane. The wings weren’t long enough, so the cake that was cut out of the sides–I used this extra cake to expand the length of the wings. I also placed a triangle on the front of the plane.

airplane-party

I placed foil on an upside-down cookie sheet. Then I frosted the cake with chocolate frosting. If you want to use candy for a propeller, you can add that detail.

airplane-cake-party

We looked for an airplane piñata, but we couldn’t find one. We saw a beach ball piñata, and we covered it with blue and green tissue paper to create a world. The world, after all, is for traveling. Airplanes help people to travel around the world!

world-pinata

We covered the entire piñata with blue tissue paper first and let it dry. Then we cut out continents from green tissue paper. I outlined the continents with black Sharpie marker.

If you want to see our Airplane Unit Study, it is in the large Modern History section of the Unit Study Treasure Vault!

Fashion Show Birthday Party

Friday, July 1st, 2016

Fashion-show-birthday-party

My daughter recently celebrated a fashion show birthday party. She had so much fun! The party included a runway with dress-up clothes, a doll fashion show, and a dress cake!

Our table centerpiece for the party was a miniature runway, with mannequins the size of Barbie dolls. (The kit we used was called Fashion Time Fashion Show, but you can create your own fashion show with actual dolls.) My daughter could decide what colors of cloth go together to make great outfits, and then she shoved the cloth into a vertical groove at the back of each mannequin.

fashion-show-dolls

You can embellish your fashion outfits with ribbons or lace. As you can see, the table runway looked great! I used hot pink confetti for the runway on top of a white tablecloth with lace.

After opening presents, my daughter did another fashion show with her American Girl doll, placing new doll outfits on her that she had received as gifts from her friends.

fashion-dolls-for-kids

Next we made a dress cake. We baked a rectangular cake and let it cool in the refrigerator. Then we cut out the shape of a dress and placed it on a piece of cardboard lined with foil. We iced the cake with cherry icing, and we used chocolate chips for the buttons. I also created a pleated skirt effect by scoring downwards with a knife on the lower half of the cake.

dress-cake

I took out lots of dress up clothes from previous activities we’ve done: the poodle skirts from our 1950’s party, medieval dresses from our Medieval Unit Study, hippie clothing from our 1970’s party, cowboy outfits, ruffled skirts, boas, and an assortment of hats.

dress-up-fashion-for-kids

We made a red carpet runway down our living room by placing our hallway rugs end to end, and putting a wider red rug at the far end. The girls would turn around when they got to the end of the runway, to show off their fashions. The girls were having such a great time that the fashion show lasted a full hour! Who knew that a fashion show for kids would be so much fun?

fashion-show-for-kids

Star Wars Cake

Monday, December 14th, 2015

star-wars-cake

For my son Stephen’s 14th birthday, I made him a Star Wars cake–or to be more precise, a Darth Vader cake! I started with a simple rectangular cake. I baked it the previous day and cooled it overnight in the refrigerator.

I googled “Darth Vader” and tried to find a simple silhouette of his head so that I could cut out the shape with a knife. I cut the cake little by little until it was the perfect shape of Darth Vader’s head.

I found a piece of cardboard in the recycle bin in my garage, and I cut it slightly larger than the cake. I taped foil to the cardboard to make a base for the Darth Vader cake.

Next I grabbed the chocolate frosting. Since I didn’t want a black cake, I thought brown would be fine. I opened the frosting container and frosted the entire cake, including the sides.

Finally, I used a tube of black frosting to outline the details of Darth Vader’s face. First I outlined the outside of the cake. Then I did the forehead and eyes. Last, I did the mouth. My husband proclaimed that this Star Wars cake was one of my best cakes of all time!

princess-leia

We decorated the dining room table by throwing a dark blue sheet over it. Next we crossed two toy light sabers in the middle of the table. Last, we scattered star confetti and Star Wars paper chain links that we got at a party supply store.

While watching a movie marathon of Star Wars movies on DVD, I braided my daughter’s hair like Princess Leia. She looks so cute, don’t you think?