Summer Fun Party

Again, I am going back in time. I hosted this party in July 2011 and am sharing it in January 2012 when there is snow on the ground. It's fun to think of summer in the winter, right?

I invited a bunch of my friends and their children to come over for an outdoor summer party. Any excuse to throw a party! The kids had a blast getting each other wet with homemade sponges likes these from OCP and the adults got to sit around and talk....until they got wet. :) 

My little Cecily. Love those chubby legs.

This treat is what I call seashell crunch. 

One of my favorite childhood snacks--Bugles, (because they look kind of like shells), goldfish crackers, and pink jello popcorn. 

 Fresh watermelon on a stick. I tried putting a cupcake liner underneath like I had seen on Real Simple, but the liner just got soggy and defeated the purpose. so I stopped lining them. 

Blue Jello cups with swedish fish. It was so hot they began to melt and the kids drank them. 

Marshmallow starfish. I saw these on Pinterest and thought they were so adorable! But instead of making the marshmallows from scratch I cut them out of those newer flat rectangle marshmallows with a star cookie cutter (a fondant cutter would work too). So as a result they were really small and took a long time. I did not have any candy eyes so I used white chocolate chips and dotted them with tube frosting. They are coated in melted chocolate then dipped in crushed graham crackers. Laying on a bed of sand (brown sugar).

I had seen this idea on Pinterest too. Fresh pureed fruit frozen in a cup. They just tore off the cup and ate the popsicle before it melted. This is the recipe I used from Sunflower Market. I can't find the recipe now but it was basically pureed strawberries, pineapple juice and perhaps watermelon? 

 I made this jello with suspending swedish fish. The tutorial can be found here.  I think I ended up just making blue jello which is why it is so dark. So the effect ins't quite the same and the fish are swimming sideways. But the kids loved it.

 Pretzel crabs. These are simple large pretzels covered in orange (with a touch of red) candy coating (Wilton's). The eyes are like the starfish, white chocolate chips with dots of black frosting. 

This paper fish is a vintage kite from Japan. My grandfather caught it when he visited there many many years ago. My mom had it in her stash and it was perfect for this party. It is now hanging in my son's bedroom. I drew on this old shed wall with pink chalk. It came right off with some hose water.