Party! Party! Party!

Got the house ready for the big party today. You shove the laundry basket behind the couch, right? Uh... yeah, no... me neither. Finally got all the Christmas decorations put away last night. Converted the house into a pink, Hello Kitty wonderland. Katie said the house "looked lame this morning, but now it looks AWESOME!"  Put out the international symbol of "The Party is Here!"

Balloons and crepe paper can go a long way to make the house look bright and party ready.

And the Barbie convertible makes an appearance as a lovely centerpiece! :)

Katie had fun putting together gift bags for her friends. All the basics were included. Cherry scented Hello Kitty notebooks, swirly straws, cute erasers, bouncy balls, fuzzy slap bracelets, and lizards. Yep, lizards.

Since I only found that awesome rainbow-cake-pops-baked-into-a-cake cake yesterday,  we didn't have one for this party. I'm okay. I'll get over it. :(

Instead, we had donuts! (And I refuse to spell it "doughnuts", because it is spelled Dunkin' Donuts and that is the way it is.) I captioned this picture on Facebook as: "Cake is so last year." But I should have said regular cake is so last year, because I declare this year as the Year of the Cake Pop Cake!

Katie chose that one in the lower right corner. I bet you can guess why.

We found the perfect glittery candle in the shape of a 9, but come party time we realized that we didn't have anything to light it with. Oh, well!

Apparently, there are lots of uses for slap bracelets. They are huddled around the Hello Kitty popcorn maker, because even though we didn't have time to get together the plans for that awesome cake, we did have everything we needed to make Party Popcorn. I warn you though, it will be very hard to go back to regular popcorn after you've had this stuff. It's excellent and addictive!

Pop some popcorn. Every time we use this air popper, there is always a kernel or two that doesn't pop until it is already in the bowl. It sends the already popped kernels flying! It's kinda funny and exciting. Then spread it out on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper.

Melt up some Candy Melts. We used pink. Big surprise!

I dropped blobs of the melted candy onto the popcorn and then mixed it together with my hands. It was hot, but not burning. Which is exactly what Amy at She wears Many Hats said would happen.

And then I sprinkled the rainbow nonpareils all over!

Amy suggested using different colored sprinkles for different events, but I say use different colored Candy Melts for a fun allover color effect. Yellow and Green popcorn for all the Ducks games. That's the only football you watch, right?!

Final product:

Donuts and fun were had by all. It was a good day. :)