Ice Cream Party

Oh Pinterest, how you trap us mothers into spending countless hours planning birthday party treats and decor. Yes, it was a lot of work, but yes I also had fun doing it. And Yes, I'll do it again next year :)

 I wanted to take some good two year shots of Em (some of which we had up at the party). Paul and I took her to the coffee shop and got her a strawberry ice cream cone and let the nice camera set on automatic and some good lighting do the rest. She's pretty darn cute don't ya think?

 On her actual birthday, Friday the 12th, Paul and I took her to the donut shop and got her a donut with sprinkles and pink icing. She was so not interested - she likes donuts ok, but much prefers the banana and chocolate milk. Whose child is this??

 The ice cream theme was very fun and there were lots of items out there to decorate with. The ice cream cone balloons were a pinterest idea and the banner is like the one I made last year but in colors to match this years party. I also found the invites on pinterest. I pasted them into powerpoint and used text boxes to fill in our information (sorry, I'm too lazy to figure out how to rotate it right now).

The cake idea is also pinterest. It is supposed to look like the ice cream is melting down onto the cake. Pretty clever idea and even better that the whole things gets drizzled with chocolate ganache. I tried a new cake recipe this year (It was OK, but not super moist). If anyone has a great white cake recipe, send it my way. I've tried several and haven't found one that I'm crazy about. The icing on the other hand was super yummy - and how could it not be with cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar and lemon zest? 

We also had homemade roasted strawberry ice cream (this photo and recipe courtesy of the zoe bakes webpage). I'm not going to lie, it was a lot of work to make the custard base, and I can't see myself doing this on a regular basis, but the results were divine. Ours didn't turn out quite this pink, if you want pink strawberry ice cream I'd suggest adding the tiniest bit of food coloring.

We also had chips and dip and fruit to snack on and these creations which were actually all my own concoction. Take that pinterest!

 I made the phyllo cups in a muffin tin then stuffed them with my favorite shredded chicken recipe (add 2-3 chicken breast, one packet ranch seasoning, 1 packet chicken taco seasoning and enough chicken broth to cover half the breast then cook in the crockpot for 4-5 hours. Shred the chicken in the kitchen aid mixer and return to the crockpot for another hour or so). Then I topped them with shredded cheese and popped them in a 450 degree oven for a minute then added some pico at the last minute. Super easy and yummy - and you can make all of the parts ahead and assemble them right before the party.

 Here are the party favors. I ordered ice cream shaped side walk chalk on Etsy. That site really has everything, I mean everything you could possibly want.

Since a two year old's party is really more about the adult entertainment than the kids, we just had one party game, the pinata. And how could I not buy it when it fit the theme perfectly (thank you hobby lobby). All of our sweet little girls (who happen to have birthdays within a week of each other) were not so successful at cracking the pinata, thankfully we had a big brother there to do the trick. Now that is the look of determination. Way to go Lincoln.

Emmerich got lots of fabulous presents including a play kitchen, a table and chairs, a baby doll now named, "duck baby" because of her ducky pajamas and an inflatable pool (in addition to all kinds of other fabulous items).

 And what birthday girl doesn't want to end her evening with an outdoor bubble bath in her new pool. We are so lucky to have this sweet girl. I wouldn't trade one single minute!

And a shout out to Mary Kendall for providing this dress with ice cream cones. She bought it for Em as a shower gift two years ago! Who knew it would be just perfect for the occasion!