Party Problems

Em and Camille threw Merle an awesome Pre-Birthday party this past weekend. We thoroughly enjoyed it. It was such a fun spin on the normal Baby Shower (not that Baby Showers are bad at all, I just loved their creativity and spin on things). Birthday parties are a blast. Well, any party is a blast really. I just love parties and putting together events. If I were a cat and had 9 lives, in one of them I'd be an event planner. Where we live just isn't very conducive to being an event planner...you need somewhere with more people really. But I do love our rural area. 

Anyway...Merle's Pre-Birthday Party has me in a party mood, so I thought I'd go through our submissions and pull out some that have to do with party planning and shin-dig shenanigans.

So...what's the staple of any party? The food. We try so hard to put forth food that not only tastes fantastic, but that looks like it belongs in a food museum as well. Sometimes we end up with both good looking and tasty...and sometimes they are just one or the other. Or in sad cases...neither. So to start the post off, I give you a few Party Palate Pinstrosities:

Original Pin #1

http://www.raspberricupcakes.com/2013/04/gummy-bear-layer-cake.html

I do love me some gummy bears (just not in ice cream...they get too hard and weird in ice cream). This cake is fun and colorful and sure to please just about any kid! 

Amber's son loves gummy bears, so she decided to give this a go for his birthday, but as the post didn't have any instructions, just a picture, she had to wing it.  Here's how hers turned out:

Pinstrosity #1

Amber says, "I told my son it was a gummy bear avalanche cake. NAILED IT!"  

Round stacked cakes can be a booger. I've only made one and it took me a while to get it not too lopsided or full-of-crumb frosting. The hardest part? Getting the bottom pretty! The plate/board is so hard to keep clean and/or to wipe clean. That's why I stick to pan cakes (where they only come out of the pan when you cut it up and serve it). I'm just not that adventurous. So when I see people try these round stacked cakes, I applaud them, regardless of how they turn out.

 So cakes aren't the easiest. What about cupcakes? 

Original Pin #2

http://www.ivillage.com/rubber-ducky-cupcakes/3-r-139110

I'm impressed that Tré even attempted these. I would look at them and think, "How cute! But not a chance." I'd give up before even trying. So hats off to you Tré. In his email he explains, "My daughter turned 1 last Wednesday, so we planned a Rubber Ducky themed party for her this weekend.  I got a little cocky and decided I'd try these."

Pinstrosity #2

"Well, a few things didn't go as planned...  The frosting I used to hold the head and tails on was too warm, so they started falling apart. Then the beaks refused to cooperate; I don't know what was supposed to happen there.  Then we put the eyes on with the frosting too warm, and that all melted...  I ended up with weeping zombie ducks.  My daughter still loved them, but really..."

Zombie ducks, bahahaha. I love his description. At least the daughter was happy! 

So the cake isn't always a success...but drinks. Those are the easy part, right? Hehe. 

Original Pin #3

You know how this turns out...I love this. Jen says, "I threw a baby shower for my best friend this weekend. I was using Pinterest for inspiration for a lot of decorations, foods, and games. One pinterest project went particularly wrong, however. Since the theme of the shower was penguins, we decided to take this punch recipe and use penguin rubber "ducks" in place of actual ducks. Furthermore, we were not able to find blue Kool-Aid and thus used the suggested replacement of blue Hawaiian punch. Let's just say the punch didn't turn out exactly as shown on the pin... "

Pinstrosity #3

"Our punch was a polluted mess! The color of the "bath water" turned out to be more of a green-brown murky color! Then, we put the rubber penguins in and they all fell over...

The bright side? It was delicious and quite hilarious. We named this new recipe 'Global Warming Punch.'"

Once we have the food figured out for a party, if we have extra time and energy the next step would be the decorations. How fancy do we go? Just the food table? The entire room? The entire house? The front porch? Here's a submission with party decorations that didn't quite match the Pinspiration:

Original Pin #4

This was a pin uploaded to Pinterest. I've spent nearly an hour trying to track down the original pinner/creator but I keep hitting dead ends.  But here was the caption on the pin: "Took $1.00 table cloths, cut slits and braided the tops to create fun party wall cover ups for my daughters birthday party at home."

Marissa saw this and gave it a try. "The pin said to use three table covers from the Dollar Store, and I did buy 3.  However, two were rectangular and one was round so I ended up using two.  As you can see I FAILED lol."

Pinstrosity #4

Luckily, the food and decorations don't make or break a party. Sure, they help...but you don't need a Disneyland worthy party for your guests to have fun and for the party to be a success! 

Thanks to our awesome readers/submitters for the party Pinstrosities!