Imogen's First Birthday

So this past Sunday we had a little party for Miss Imogen's to celebrate her first birthday.  To say I was excited about this party would be the understatement of the century!  I had been planning since pretty much January.  I was very happy with how everything turned out.  It may have been a little over ambitious but we got there in the end.  But I will let the pictures tell you the rest....

We had a build your own burger bar for lunch and loads of sweet stuff for dessert.  I rounded it out with some fruit and jam sandwiches for the little ones too.  The lemonade stand was courtesy of my amazing husband who built it for me exactly to my specifications!  The lemonade was just cordial because I ran out of time to make my own.  It went down a treat though so I don't think anyone minded.  I am so happy that the party turned out well and everything looked exactly as I had hoped.  The only thing I wish is that I got a better picture of the burger bar when it was properly ready.  Oh well, you can't have it all!  So now that that is over I can move onto planning next years birthday. It's never to early to start planning is it?!

Baby Shower

Sunday was a very fun day! My mum threw me a baby shower at her house and it was loads of fun.  I didn't get a lot of photos but I did get photos of the decorations beforehand and the presents afterwards. The decorations were made to match the theme of the invitations.

My mum and aunty spent all morning in the kitchen baking up a storm.  We had a delicious spread of cupcakes, brownies, meringues, marshmallows, musk sticks, sandwiches, chicken meatballs, pizza scrolls, spinach & feta triangles and mini quiche.  It was all so delicious and they did an amazing job!

My cousin managed to get a couple of photos of me unwrapping presents.  My camera was playing up so unfortunately most of the photos are a bit blurry but these two turned out well.  The funniest thing going through these photos is some of the facial expressions I make.  I didn't realise I looked like such a goof sometimes :-)

My little Squishy was super duper spoilt in the present department.  She got so many cute things and my sister even threw in a present just for me, a knitting book of vintage patterns.  I am so excited to start knitting some of these patterns.

How cute are all those clothes! She has quite the collection of dresses now. I just need to buy some more little hangers so I can hang them all up.  A massive massive thank you to all my friends and family who came along.  It was a really lovely afternoon and I feel so loved.

Ice-cream Cone Cupcakes

Today was our nephew Isaac's 2nd birthday party and I decided to make some cupcakes to take along. I had been wanting to make ice-cream cone cupcakes for so long and this was the perfect excuse.

I used these ice-cream cones from Woolworths and the baking trays I got from Coles but apparently you can get them at Dimmey's really cheap if you happen to have a Dimmey's nearby. The baking trays are to help the cones stand up while you are baking them and they also work well for displaying the cupcakes.

I found a circular object that was slightly larger than the cones and traced it onto the bottom of the trays. I then used Corey's stanley knife to cut out the holes to stand the cones in. I then placed the baking tray on top of a normal biscuit tray to put in the oven.

When you are filling your cupcake cones make sure you don't fill them too much. I kind of experimented on the first tray of cupcakes to see how much I needed to fill them and then the second tray came out perfect. My first tray came out like this....

No worries though! Corey was more than happy to pick off and eat the spilled over bits of cake. After I had baked the cakes I covered the trays in wrapping paper to make them a bit more presentable for the party. I think they looked quite cute!

My only suggestion if you are going to make these would be to make them for a party at home. They are a royal pain in the butt to transport as they are so tall. I had mine in a container with glad wrap and chopsticks holding up the gladwrap. Next time I make them I think I will make them when I don't have to transport them.

Oh and excuse the crappy photos. I had to return the Nikon D7000 I was borrowing from my friend so I am back to a point and shoot until I get around to buying a new camera.