My sweet Ally James is now 7. SEVEN! I swear I start every one of my children’s birthday party blogs with the same first paragraph. I can’t believe he’s THREE…I can’t believe he’s FOUR….I can’t believe she’s FIVE…I can’t believe she’s SIX….. Well, we are at seven. Still can’t believe it.

Since Ally was 18 months old, she’s been head over heels for Cinderella. At age 3, she spent three solid months in her Cinderella dress. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. FOR THREE MONTHS. We’ve watched the movie more times than we can count, and have stood in the princess line at Disneyland for more hours than I’d like to admit. Ally was soon nicknamed Cinderally for her overwhelming passion for all things Cinderella. So coming up with Ally’s birthday party theme was pretty easy. CINDERELLA! To make it a little more creative, we went with Cinderally’s Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique.

Ally invited 25 of her classmates, friends, and family to join her for an afternoon of princess pampering and a royal tea party. Guests were greeted with tutus, magic wands, crowns and princess jewelry. After their princess attire, the girls moved on to the hair, makeup, and nail stations for their makeovers by the Fairy Godmother herself! The girls were given Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique bags to collect all sorts of fun treats like lip glosses, glitter spray, nail polish, etc. as they worked their way through the makeover stations. After they got all their goodies, they crafted necklaces and bracelets, and painted princess jewelry boxes.

The royal tea party table was set for 26, just enough for each girl and one surprise guest. When the clock struck one, our special guest arrived…who could it be, but Cinderella! When Cinderella walked through the door, Ally could hardly believe her eyes. She beamed from ear to ear, never once taking her eyes off Cinderella. She arrived just in time to enjoy all the tea party sweets. The table was overflowing with cakes, cookies, cake pops, cupcakes, and just about every dessert you could imagine. Cinderella took time to greet each and every guest around the table, even our very own Prince Charming AKA Hudson, and then read the girls princess stories. Ally never stopped smiling.

And what would a party be without a Jenny Cookies dessert table? We did 3 textured buttercream cakes, magic wand cake pops, pink marshmallow pops, cupcake bites, mini cupcakes topped with baby blue chocolate hearts, and sugar cookies in the shapes of glass slippers, carriages, crowns, wands, and hearts. The desserts sat atop various cake plates, in front of the most amazing vintage tile backdrop we rented from Vintage Ambiance, and surrounded by darling florals by Flora D’Amore. For the final touch, we hung a gold and crystal chandelier above the table. It was magical!

As if we didn’t have enough dessert, my husband and I decided to make Ally an actual Cinderella cake. It was quite the experience. We spent an evening carving cake to shape Cinderella dress, and I decorated Cinderella in blue buttercream roses until the wee hours of the morning. When the cake was done, it was gorgeous, but ended up being almost 4 feet tall! A little too tall to transport. So we had to call in a friend with a van to get Cinderella to the party! We placed Cinderella on her own table, in front of the cutest tassel garlands made by The Flair Exchange.

After the guests were all sugared up, they danced to Cinderella songs, had their individual photos taken with Cinderella in our vintage door photo booth, and left with Cinderella spa salts as a favor.

When it was all said and done, I felt as if I had just thrown a wedding, but it was well worth all the work. So much time and love went into throwing Ally’s party, from crafting all the decor to baking my heart out, but she couldn’t have loved it more. Even at the age of 7, she noticed every little detail and gasped with each new creation she saw. Appreciation and love make every hour of lost sleep worth it!

Happy 7th Birthday sweet girl!

Thank you to all the amazing vendors who helped make Ally’s Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique nothing short of magical!
Enchanting Princess Events: Cinderella!
Molly Vaden Photography: Photography
Caskey Design : Cinderella invitation
Vintage Ambiance: Vintage rentals
Flora D’Amore: flowers
The Flair Exchange: Tassel garland & Balloon Tassels
Basic to Bombshell: Fairy Godmother makeovers

Back in October, I had the pleasure of creating a dessert table for Tori Spelling’s youngest daughter Hattie’s 1st birthday party. Hattie, known as Hattie Cat by her family, is just an absolute doll. Tori chose a Mad Hattie Tea Party theme, with Alice in Wonderland accents.

For Hattie’s dessert table, we decided instead of a separate table for desserts, we’d use the tea party table as our actual dessert table. Tori has an incredible farm table that seats 16, which was perfect for this party. We used mismatched vintage chairs for seating and set gorgeous vintage china teacups at each place setting. The abundance of overflowing desserts made up our centerpiece. I made 5 different cakes, 3 different kinds of mini and regular sized cupcakes, cake lollipops, sugar cookies, brownie bites, rice krispy treats and more. It was a dessert feast! Paper lanterns hung above the table creating the tea party scene from Alice in Wonderland. It was more than perfect. I have to say, this was one of my favorite tables ever!

Happy 1st Birthday Miss Hattie Cat!

My sweet little Hudson turned 4 a few weeks ago, which I can still hardly believe. FOUR? My baby is FOUR? That not only makes me feel old, but also a little sad that he’s growing up so fast.

We celebrated Hudson’s fourth birthday by throwing him a Peter Pan party. He was thrilled with his invitations we sent out in bottles, and could hardly wait to wear his Peter Pan costume. He was a little disappointed though when he discovered the costume didn’t make him fly. Trust me, he tried jumping off the bed. (Thank goodness it was just the bed.)

The first few years of our children’s birthday parties, my husband would frown, roll his eyes, and think I was out of control. We don’t fight very often, but it was a given that we’d land ourselves in a fight the night before one of our children’s birthday parties. I’d be stressing over all the last minute things I needed to get done, and he’d be annoyed wishing his wife would just come to bed like a normal person. Miraculously though, after six years of over the top parties he’s had a change of heart and has really gotten into it. So this year I just about died when he suggested he dress up as Captain Hook. WHAT?? So the Kellers became Peter Pan, Captain Hook, Wendy Darling, and Princess Tigerlily for Hudson’s big day.

His party took place on the beach at Kayak Point State Park. We woke up to rainclouds and sprinkles but by the time we got out to the beach the rain had stopped and the sun was shining. It was a birthday miracle. (If you know me, it rains about 75% of the time I’m planning an outdoor party.)

The kids had a blast at the beach. They had a Peter Pan picnic on a pirate ship table, dug for buried treasure, sword fought mean Captain Hook, had their faces painted, and of course ate more sugar than their parents would have agreed to.

After the party was over, everything was cleaned up and we were finally driving away, Ally said from the backseat of the car “Mommy, that was the best party you ever did!” Hudson chimed in and said “I want to have my party there next year too!”

Those sweet little comments make every ounce of work worth it. Sitting in their car seats, Ally wearing green fairy wings and a face covered in pixie paint, and Hudson with crazy messy hair, a body covered in sand and black lips from too many pirate cake pops, both beyond exhausted from all the fun. That’s my definition of a party success.

We loved these beachy nautical desserts we did for a little boy’s birthday party. Such cute colors and fun theme! Happy 3rd Birthday Bennett!

Summer has been so busy, I’m just now getting to blog the fantastic dessert tables I was able to do over the last two months. From wedding tables to baby showers, corporate events to birthday parties, it’s been a very eventful season!

In June I was asked to create a 50th birthday Golf themed dessert table for a very important person at Microsoft. What a fun table this was to put together! We did a green cake with a hole in one at the top, golf ball cookies, cake pops, and cupcakes. The team at Microsoft was incredible to work with. Happy 50th Birthday Brian!

Can’t believe a whole year has already passed since Simone’s 1st Birthday at the Santa Monica Pier Carousel. Sweet Simone is now 2, and as darling as ever.

We celebrated her 2nd birthday with all things pink and purple. From the ruffled ombre’ pink and purple cake, purple sugared cake pops, to #2 polka dotted sugar cookies, guests enjoyed the party on a sugar high.

Thank you Bill and Scout for including me in such a special event! Simone is one lucky little girl to be surrounded with so much love.

Photos: Frances Iacuzzi Photography & Jenny Keller

It’s all about ombre’ this season. Not only can we wear it as our hairstyle, nails and fashion, we can ombre’ in buttercream as well! Loving this ruffle ombre cake and 1st birthday smash cake. Even cookies can look great in ombre’ colors.