Aloha! Greetings From.....

.......NOT Hawaii. Ha - I wish!

It seems like everyone I know has recently gone or is going to Hawaii.

Everyone.......except me.

Bummer.

But anyway, some of my family is cruising Hawaii next month (can you tell I'm a little jealous?!). To celebrate they had a luau themed party with the big group they are going with. My family and I were invited even though we aren't going on the trip.

Hawaiian island rejects!

Ha - but seriously, the luau was so fun. I'm glad we could at least attend that even though we won't actually be climbing volcanoes with them next month.

My mom offered to bring some food, so I ended up making cake pops! It had been over a month since my last cake pop project, and I was so happy to be getting back into it. I went a little overboard with all of the designs, but these Hawaiian ones might be some of my favorites I've ever done.

I was so dang proud of this hibiscus flower. I'm not one to usually brag, but for freehand drawing this on a round cake pop, I was pretty impressed with myself.

Coconuts!

How fun are these pineapples?

Tiki man!

I thought this bathing suit cake pop turned out really cute.

These suns came out exactly the way I had hoped, and they tasted super yummy since I had used chocolate cake and peanut butter chips for the sun rays.

How cute is the food table at the party? Everything was decorated so bright and colorful. Do you see those little muffin things in the basket in the lower right hand corner? Those would be lemon blossoms my aunt made that were SO delicious, and I usually dislike anything lemon. They were so yummy though that I couldn't stop eating them. They're on my list of things to bake soon - ha!

No Hawaiian party is complete without little mini umbrellas!

I loved the way my cake pops fit right in with the rest of the decor.

I ended up leaving the luau early because my friend Rachel's graduation party was also that night. I made her some cake pops as well since she's going to NKU next month (and I totally just typed next year instead of next month at first - how is this happening?!?).

I had so much fun at Rachel's party since I hadn't seen her and so many of my other friends in a while. Rachel went to Hawaii in June (I told you everyone I know is going - another one of my friends leaves this weekend!), so I got to hear all about her trip and look at lots of her pictures. I felt like Saturday was just a whole Hawaiian day.

I know this one is blurry, but it was a rare picture with some of my grade school friends so I had to add it in anyway.

Saturday was a fun day spent baking and laughing with friends and family.

However, the day made me realize something very important.......

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I need to book a trip to Hawaii as soon as possible!

Graduation Party {The Actual Party}

I blogged about the decorations and desserts from my graduation party here, but today I'm posting a bunch of pictures from the party itself.

It was so fun having almost all of my friends and family there to celebrate. The only bad thing about parties like this is that I never feel like I get to talk to anyone for very long. I'm constantly mingling with different people and getting side tracked with people coming and leaving. But I guess it's nice to see so many people together that you don't always get to see.

So here's just a bunch of pictures from the party!

We had a bit of a Nerf gun competition as well......

I was so happy a few of my friends stopped by as well!

Apparently nothing can stay serious in my family for long - ha!

It rained for a little bit during the middle of the afternoon. Alright, maybe it poured for a little bit. It didn't seem to mess up the party too much - in fact, I think the kids had more fun playing in the rain.

Overall, I'm so blessed to have such great friends and family who have supported me over the years and helped me get to where I am today. I know I wouldn't be the same without them!

Graduation Party {Decorations & Desserts}

I feel like life has been flying by lately and that I never have time to just relax. I finally have some time now (Friday night), and I am super happy to be able to sit down and get back to blogging. Like I said earlier, I have a ton of things to catch up on, but blogging has just taken a back seat as I have had so many other things to do.

But I'm starting to get caught up by first blogging about my graduation party, which was June 22. We had it at a local park, and it turned out to be pretty fun overall. This was the first party I've planned since Pinterest came into existence, so I gained some inspiration and went all out with decorations. It was so fun to put the whole thing together although it did take a lot of prep time. I enjoyed it though, and I think it just added to the festiveness of the party!

I made custom labels for the water bottles. Cute party ideas like this don't always go as planned though - the paper got soaked from the ice in the cooler, and it was hard to read the label. Oh well!

I made some photo banners to hang above the food tables with pictures of me from when I was a baby up until now.

I made a Class of 2013 banner that I hung outside the shelter when people first walked up.

I made centerpieces for each of the tables, and they turned out to be so easy and cute. My mom and I found this cheap glass store in town that sold these little jars for $0.50 a piece. We had 12 tables, so it only cost us $6 - a pretty inexpensive centerpiece! I then filled the jars with green decorative filler, tied a ribbon around the top, taped a picture (along with the date it was taken) to a cute paper straw, and I had an easy and cute centerpiece. I also made little diplomas out of smarties by wrapping them in paper with "Congratulations" printed on them and tying them with a little string. Simple, easy, and cute!

I knew I was going to be a bearcat even in 1996!

This jar got 2 pictures because we had a little mishap with one of the jars being blown off the table and shattering before the party started. Just keeping it real - the perfect plans don't always turn out!

I made tissue paper pompoms that I hung in the trees as well. I watched a quick YouTube video on how to make them, and after that they went really fast. Blogging about the party now has got me thinking that maybe I did go a bit overboard :)

Overall, we went for the green theme since my high school was green, but we decided to make the desserts all UC. I made these chocolate cupcakes topped with vanilla buttercream 100% from scratch, and I even made the toppers myself too.

We got these cookies from a local place in town. They always turn out so good. These kind of cookies are something I really have not tried myself - maybe one of these days!

And of course, no party of mine is complete without some cake pops. I was so happy with how fast these went (we didn't have any left). It always makes me excited to see my family and friends love them just as much as I do.

I'll post pictures from the actual party soon. Hope you all are having a good start to your weekend!