We were able to celebrate our little Evie's 1st Birthday with our family and some close friends. It was a tropical theme. It started off as just a pineapple theme, for a few reasons. E loves pineapple, she is so sweet, and has made our little family stand taller with happiness. Also... Spencer and I love Hawaii and all of the fresh pineapple there. As I started trying to get decorations, I sort of went a little crazy and that's when I decided to change it to a tropical theme. Most of you probably don't even care about this, but one day I am going to look back and want my free time and excitement planning parties (at least that's what I am telling myself).
I did keep the decorations pretty simple, but the simplicity of them made the whole party pull together. I decided to give balloon arches a try, as they seem to be simple but so cute to look at. I did two different ones, a "pineapple" one and "pink tropical". I got all of the balloons at Zurchers. I also found this balloon arch tape that literally saved hours of frustration and unnecessary anxiety. I will link it here. Here is how to make an arch with the tape: 1- blow up balloons different sizes and tie a knot. 2- Put the knots through the pre-punched holes 3-Use command hooks to hang from walls (I used the holes to hang from. That's it! Sooo easy! I used 13 yellow balloons for the pineapple arch, and 18 balloons for the tropical one. Once I had all of my balloons in place, I taped a variety of sizes of tropical leaves (here is the link) where there were gaps. They really were so easy to put together, and I was quite pleased with how they looked. I even kept them up for a few days after her party was over.
I made a pineapple out of paper (28 triangles and a hand cut leafy top). I also bought a felt ball garland from Hello Maypole (Felt balls) that I hung over my island where the food was. That was it. See, I kept it pretty simple!
Here are some random things that I had for decorations. The Pineapple cutting board is a souvenir we Spencer and I got in Maui celebrating our Anniversary a few years ago. The towels I found on clearance at Wal-Mart
I made a last minute garland to hang on her high chair that said "One" but E tore that off as soon as she saw it. Luckily I got a picture before she sat in her chair.
Food. The real reason why people come to a party. I also kept this simple, but it sure was tasty. Since we were doing a tropical theme, I thought it would be fun to do pork sandwiches. If you have ever been to a legit Hawaiian luau, the pork is to die for. I did so much research on finding a good recipe to make it taste like the Hawaiian Luau pork. Well... this one was perfect! With the help from my mom, we cooked two pork butt roasts.
Hawaiian Pork (in the crock-pot)
-8-10 pound butt roast
-2-3 tablespoons of Pink Himalayan Salt
-3 tablespoons liquid smoke (hickory flavor)
- 1/3 bag of spinach
Instructions:
-Lay a bed of spinach on the base of your crockpot
-With a dinner fork, poke holes all over the roast
-Rub the salt all over the roast and place in crock pot.
-Pour liquid smoke over roast
-Place foil directly over the roast
-Cook on low for 8-10 hours (I cooked mine overnight)
This was seriously so easy. I woke up to having my house smell so yummy. I thought it would be dry, but the pork roast is naturally fatty, so with the smoke, the foil, and spinach, it had so much juice. I was quite surprised. It also was so tender it literally fell apart as I was taking it out of the crock pot. We served these on Costco rolls with the option of BBQ sauce to put on top of the meat.
Another hit was our pineapple lemonade. If you want some lip smacking juice, this is it. E LOVED this juice and could not stop drinking it. I double this recipe and it was more than enough. I also learned that it is much better cold and chilled with ice.
-2 cups Country Time Lemonade mix
-2 cups cold water
-64 oz (chilled) Pineapple juice
-1, 2 liter bottle of Sprite
On a side note, with the leftover juice we made a few Popsicles, so yummy!
For the rest of the food, we had a delicious green salad, a fruit bowl, and chips. I forgot to take a picture, but it looked pretty fantastic.
I am not a baker, but I managed to make a basic vanilla cupcake with a vanilla buttercream frosting. They looked so good, and from what I heard, they were pretty good. Spencer took a good chunk of them to work the following Monday and even his Engineering buddies wanted more.
Frosting:
1 cup butter (I used unsalted), room temp.
4 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup heavy cream
2 1/4 tsp vanilla.
Whip butter until smooth, then add in rest of ingredients. More cream may be needed depending on the desired thickness. I think I used the 1/3 cup plus 1 maybe 1 1/2 tablespoons of cream. I then piped it on to the cupcakes pretty easy. Of course... I did add three drops of pink food coloring. E devoured it, I was so proud of her. She even ran her frosted fingers through her hair, which made it fun to clean her up.
She sure was spoiled that day. She is the light of our lives and brings so much sweetness to our family. I am so happy we were able to have this fun little party for our E.
I did keep the decorations pretty simple, but the simplicity of them made the whole party pull together. I decided to give balloon arches a try, as they seem to be simple but so cute to look at. I did two different ones, a "pineapple" one and "pink tropical". I got all of the balloons at Zurchers. I also found this balloon arch tape that literally saved hours of frustration and unnecessary anxiety. I will link it here. Here is how to make an arch with the tape: 1- blow up balloons different sizes and tie a knot. 2- Put the knots through the pre-punched holes 3-Use command hooks to hang from walls (I used the holes to hang from. That's it! Sooo easy! I used 13 yellow balloons for the pineapple arch, and 18 balloons for the tropical one. Once I had all of my balloons in place, I taped a variety of sizes of tropical leaves (here is the link) where there were gaps. They really were so easy to put together, and I was quite pleased with how they looked. I even kept them up for a few days after her party was over.
Sorry for the terrible lighting!
See... so easy!
I made a pineapple out of paper (28 triangles and a hand cut leafy top). I also bought a felt ball garland from Hello Maypole (Felt balls) that I hung over my island where the food was. That was it. See, I kept it pretty simple!
I made a last minute garland to hang on her high chair that said "One" but E tore that off as soon as she saw it. Luckily I got a picture before she sat in her chair.
Food. The real reason why people come to a party. I also kept this simple, but it sure was tasty. Since we were doing a tropical theme, I thought it would be fun to do pork sandwiches. If you have ever been to a legit Hawaiian luau, the pork is to die for. I did so much research on finding a good recipe to make it taste like the Hawaiian Luau pork. Well... this one was perfect! With the help from my mom, we cooked two pork butt roasts.
Hawaiian Pork (in the crock-pot)
-8-10 pound butt roast
-2-3 tablespoons of Pink Himalayan Salt
-3 tablespoons liquid smoke (hickory flavor)
- 1/3 bag of spinach
Instructions:
-Lay a bed of spinach on the base of your crockpot
-With a dinner fork, poke holes all over the roast
-Rub the salt all over the roast and place in crock pot.
-Pour liquid smoke over roast
-Place foil directly over the roast
-Cook on low for 8-10 hours (I cooked mine overnight)
This was seriously so easy. I woke up to having my house smell so yummy. I thought it would be dry, but the pork roast is naturally fatty, so with the smoke, the foil, and spinach, it had so much juice. I was quite surprised. It also was so tender it literally fell apart as I was taking it out of the crock pot. We served these on Costco rolls with the option of BBQ sauce to put on top of the meat.
Another hit was our pineapple lemonade. If you want some lip smacking juice, this is it. E LOVED this juice and could not stop drinking it. I double this recipe and it was more than enough. I also learned that it is much better cold and chilled with ice.
-2 cups Country Time Lemonade mix
-2 cups cold water
-64 oz (chilled) Pineapple juice
-1, 2 liter bottle of Sprite
On a side note, with the leftover juice we made a few Popsicles, so yummy!
For the rest of the food, we had a delicious green salad, a fruit bowl, and chips. I forgot to take a picture, but it looked pretty fantastic.
I am not a baker, but I managed to make a basic vanilla cupcake with a vanilla buttercream frosting. They looked so good, and from what I heard, they were pretty good. Spencer took a good chunk of them to work the following Monday and even his Engineering buddies wanted more.
Frosting:
1 cup butter (I used unsalted), room temp.
4 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup heavy cream
2 1/4 tsp vanilla.
Whip butter until smooth, then add in rest of ingredients. More cream may be needed depending on the desired thickness. I think I used the 1/3 cup plus 1 maybe 1 1/2 tablespoons of cream. I then piped it on to the cupcakes pretty easy. Of course... I did add three drops of pink food coloring. E devoured it, I was so proud of her. She even ran her frosted fingers through her hair, which made it fun to clean her up.
She sure was spoiled that day. She is the light of our lives and brings so much sweetness to our family. I am so happy we were able to have this fun little party for our E.
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