Happy Birthday to Taya! I can't believe it's been 5 years since that crazy 40 minute drive to the Trier hospital in Germany. I almost didn't make it. Taya was my first natural birth, my 3rd baby girl, my 3rd child, the spitfire of the family, & the sunshine of my soul.
Her birthday isn't until September 25th actually, but since we're moving that week I didn't want to spoil her special day so I bumped her party up a couple weeks so she could really enjoy it.
Her favorite thing in the world right now is:
My Little Pony - Friendship is Magic
If you've never seen that show, it's adorable. I loved ponies as a kid & I love that one of my 3 girls loves them too. There are 6 pony friends in the show so I wanted to dedicate this party to those 6 friends. I made 6 party stations, each devoted to a different pony. Taya helped me get everything together for her party.
First we made 12 double dipped caramel chocolate apples for Applejack's station. Applejack was our goody/take home station, so of course we needed SOME kind of apple there.
It was fun wrapping them up in cute pink bags. Taya LOVES pink. She thought they looked SO pretty.
Taya always asks for strawberry cupcakes instead of a big cake, which is a totally fine by me. I make 6 cakes a year (for my hubby & 5 kids), so once in a while cupcakes are a nice break from the big ones. Taya wanted different cupcakes for each of the pony friends. I had to get creative with this one, but ended up having a BLAST matching cupcakes with the pony personalities & colors.
First we have Pinkie Pie, Taya's favorite pony. Pinkie pie is the spunky party pony. She throws parties for everything she can make an excuse for. She bounces instead of walks & she's ALWAYS happy (& a little hyper too). We actually call Taya Pinkie Pie occasionally because of the similarities between the two of them. For Pinkie Pie's cupcakes I make pink bubble gum frosting & added pink sprinkles & a Pinkie Pie ring. These were Taya's favorite cupcakes.
Next we made cupcakes for Rarity. Rarity is a beautiful white pony with purple hair. She's a fashion designer, loves sparkles & gemstones, beautiful things. She's the prettiest of the ponies so I marbled the frosting on her cupcakes to give it a more regal feel. I used a combination of cream cheese & white chocolate raspberry frostings for a marble effect & then added purple sprinkles & candy pearls. They were beautiful.
Rainbow Dash is my daughter Lorien's favorite pony. Rainbow Dash is the tomboy. She's blue with messy rainbow hair & she can fly faster than any other pony in ponyville. (Hmm, sounds like a certain little girls I know. . .) For Rainbow Dash I made blue cotton candy frosting with rainbow sprinkles. Lorien LOVED these.
My eldest daughter, Cadence, LOVES Twilight Sparkle. Twilight Sparkle is a smart pony who loves learning, reading, & being prepared for anything (a lot like Cadence). Twilight is purple with purple & pink striped hair. For her cupcakes I made purple white chocolate raspberry frosting & sprinkled them with pink & purple sprinkles.
Fluttershy is a cute yellow pony with pink hair. She is extremely shy & LOVES animals, plants, & anything cute. For Fluttershy's cupcakes I made yellow lemon frosting with pink sprinkles. Then I added a cute pink flower ring to the top to show her love for nature.
Applejack is the hard worker of the group. She lives on an apple farm & loves the hard work that comes along with farming. She loves making apple treats for her pony friends. I love Applejack's southern accent & her "I can do anything I put my mind to" attitude. She's one of my favorites. Her cupcake had orange cream frosting with red & yellow sprinkles. The orange frosting was my favorite. YUM.
Together, all the cupcakes looked gorgeous as a centerpiece on the table.
My friend Nancy sent me all sorts of fun My Little Pony table decorations. It made decorating for the party extra fun. Everything was SO BRIGHT & COLORFUL.
Taya was SO EXCITED for her birthday party friends to arrive. She just couldn't stop smiling. . .
and making silly faces.
She wanted to wear a pink dress & have her hair curled in ringlets just like Pinkie Pie.
I set up the Applejack station with an Applejack poster, the caramel apples for the guests, & then I found adorable apple purses on Oriental Trading for super cheap.
I filled the apple purses with all the pony goodies Nancy sent as party favors. They turned out really cute.
Rainbow Dash's station was easy to set up. I found a "pin the cutie mark on Rainbow Dash" on Oriental Trading as well.
We blew up balloons with my little helium tank I use for all the kids' birthdays & we were ready to party.
I love that my girls love each other so much.
Cadence decided to make a Twilight Sparkle mask to wear to the party. She drew it herself & everything. It was cute.
Once all of the guests arrived, we started at the Rarity station. We painted everyone's fingernails with sparkly glitter fingernail polish. Rarity LOVES sparkles & apparently so do little girls.
Next we made our way into the dining area & found the Fluttershy Station. There we made cute little butterfly & flower necklaces. . . something Fluttershy would love.
Then we went back into the living room to take a turn at Twilight Sparkle's station. We made pony bookmarks for our favorite books. Twilight teaches us that reading is very important so these bookmarks will help us to remember to read every single day.
Next we found Rainbow Dash & played "Pin the cutie mark on Rainbow Dash." The girls had a BLAST with this one.
Then it was Pinkie Pie's turn. . . since Pinkie Pie LOVES parties, her station was cake & ice cream & presents. Nothing beats cake & ice cream at a party right?
We went back into the living room to open presents. Taya got all sorts of fun stuff from her friends.
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| Evelynne got her a beautiful Ariel swimming Barbie doll. |
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| Madisyn gave her a Barbie hair set & an Applejack pony. |
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| L.E. gave Taya a Princess Tiana Polly Pocket gift set. |
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| Rachel gave Taya a Spongebob bubble pen. |
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| Miyana brought Taya a cake decorating Barbie doll. |
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| Gabby & Gretchen brought Taya a birthday Barbie doll & a Twilight Sparkle pony. |
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| Nora gave Taya a Pinkalicious book & a Twilight Sparkle pony. |
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| And Anne gave her some balls & an art painting set. |
After the presents, we went to the Applejack station & gave each of the guests an apple & their apple bags full of goodies. Then when everyone went home, we had our own little birthday party with family.
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| Craiger & Bladen (Taya's brothers) gave her a Merida dress up costume. |
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| Mommy & Daddy gave her a Cinderella lego set. |
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| Auntie Marc & Auntie Char gave her lots of clothes & Hello Kitty things. |
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| Lorien saved up her own money & bought her sister a Pinkie Pie doll & a Pinkie Pie dress up costume. |
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| Cadence saved up all her money & bought Taya the 3 little sisters from the My Little Pony TV show. |
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| Taya was SO excited about the Pinkie Pie costume. She wore those pony ears for the rest of the day. |
My dear friend Nancy sent Taya some new outfits, shoes, & a Pinkie Pie Pony toy.
I think Taya had a WONDERFUL birthday. Thank you to everyone who made her day so incredibly special during this crazy time in our lives.
I love you my little Pinkie Pie.
You are my SUNSHINE.
Oh my goodness-what a party! I may have to copy these ideas, Dani. My girls discovered the My Little Pony shows this summer and they love them, too.
ReplyDeleteYou have just thrown an awesome Birthday Party. My little princess loves your cupcake style and wants for her birthday party. I'm slightly worried about it. Can you help me in this regard?
ReplyDeleteFor the cupcakes, all I did was buy the new Betty Crocker flavorless frostings in the tubs (just in the baking aisle at your grocery store) & mix in the flavors. They have about 10 different flavors you can choose from like Bubble Gum, Orange Cream, etc. I just found flavors that had the colors I was looking for. Mix up the frosting & flavors & then put your frosting in the fridge for about 20 minutes to stiffen it up a little bit.
DeleteFor the actual swirly pattern on the cupcake you're going to need a cupcake tip & large coupler. You can buy this on Amazon or at your local craft store in the cake decorating section. I buy Wilton tips because they are the best. It is a REALLY LARGE tip (they call it a cupcake tip) & a REALLY LARGE coupler. Attach the coupler & tip to a decorators bag & then add the frosting. Squeeze as your swirl the frosting slowly onto the top of the cupcake in an ice cream swirly pattern ending in a point. It's SUPER easy. It just sounds complicated.
Go buy the tips & decorating bags & practice a few times on a plate before you do it on the cupcakes. You'll realize how simple it is. Good luck on your sweet little princess' birthday party. They sure are fun to do.
And to do the Marbled technique (like my white with purple swirl cupcakes), just put the white frosting in the frosting bag first by putting one spoonful of white, then drop in a little spoonful of purple, & then another big spoonful of white. Keep alternating the colors until you have enough frosting in the bag. Then squeeze out the frosting evenly & there will be a pretty marble of the 2 colors together.
DeleteYummy! Now you got me drooling over those sugary and healthy delights! The double dipped caramel chocolate apples are truly mouthwatering. The cupcakes, I especially love, because you managed to decorate these based on each pony character. Your creativity just skyrocketed, Dani!
ReplyDeleteNita Digirolamo
CUTE!
ReplyDeletewhere did you find the pony bookmarks to decorate?
ReplyDeleteOriental Trading is my best friend when it comes to birthday parties. I think it was about $3.50 for a pack of 12 of them. Just go to orientaltrading.com & do a search on bookmarks. There are several different bookmarks you can choose from. I liked the ponies because it fit the theme. Enjoy.
DeleteWhat a cute party! Those candy apples and cupcakes are amazing!
ReplyDeleteOh my word...you did amazing mama!! She will never forget this party!
ReplyDeleteI’m going to throw an enormous My Little Pony party at my 18th birthday, and I was looking for some pony themed food. Luckily, I don’t need to search anymore; those cupcakes looks absolutely amazing!
ReplyDeleteThank you for typing out a full tutorial on how to make them :)
I also really like the idea of giving each pony its own station. Expecting a bunch of 18 year olds to sit down and create necklaces might be a little naive, but an Apple Jack themed food station is a brilliant idea.
I already had plans of a “pin the tail on the pony” game, but pinning cutie marks is a much better idea, partly because it sounds way more fun, but mostly because I have pony stickers by the kilos; we could literarily play all night, and by the time we finish everypony would be covered top to bottom.
Besides, are you going to make a pony themed birthday party this year too? In which case, please, please, please take photos.
HOW FUN. I'm glad I could help.
DeleteThis year Taya still loves ponies, but she's begging for a Lego Friends' birthday party so I'm already in full swing getting that one all planned & prepared for the end of September.
I'm also knee deep in Halloween costumes. ha ha ha. Halloween is "MY" holiday & I always make costumes for the entire family that match. Last year we were all Mario Brothers characters, the year before that we were the Incredibles, & so forth. There's 8 of us so I work all summer long on costumes so they'll all be ready when October hits. I'm excited about this year's theme. It's going to be fun.
Good luck on your FABULOUS pony party & happy 18th birthday!
The 3 sisters are the cutie mark crusaders. So cute! I'm planning a pony party for my 12th birthday! I'm just in LOVE with mlp.
ReplyDeleteJust want to say a big THANK YOU!!! My daughter turns 5 in November, and the ponies are her favorites. Your ideas are fabulous and for a non-crafty, uncreative person like me.... seems very easy.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad it will help you out. I am definitely NOT the craftiest person & like to make things easy but fun. This was one of the funnest parties I've done. (I have 6 kids so I do A LOT of parties). This same daughter turns 6 next week so now I'm frantically planning a Lego Friends party. Fun fun fun. Good luck on your pony party & have a blast!!
DeleteWhat a fabulous party! I'm working on a MLP party for my 6 y/o and just love what you did. Do you happen to know where you got the posters? I'd love to get her some for her room but can't seem to find them anywhere. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI got the posters in a little magazine called Sparkle World. My friend gave my daughter a year subscription as a gift for Christmas the year before. They always have something My Little Pony inside them & I was able to keep all the Pony posters that I had collected throughout the year. There were still 2 posters I wound up making myself because they weren't in the magazines, but I just printed pics off the internet & put them on colorful card stock. Your daughter would probably love Sparkle World Magazine if she loves ponies, strawberry shortcake, fairy magic books, or polly pockets. They are really cute & educational as well. Good luck & have fun planning.
DeleteThank you, Dani! I appreciate your reply. Will look at Sparkle World. :)
ReplyDeleteWow have just started organising my daughters 7 th birthday party and you have inspired me so much. What lucky girls you have, only hope I can follow suit. You should be very proud x
ReplyDeleteWow! This is very serendipitous. I call my blog like a "cyber palace" and yours is a kingdom. My daughter recently celebrated her 5th birthday and she did a MLP thingy, too. But it's not as grand as Taya's. :)
ReplyDeleteI just found your blog when I Google-d an MLP party. ♥
What a fabulous party, my little girl turns 5 next month and is wanting a MLP party, I hope you don't mind but I am going to use your ideas... I only wish oriental trading delivered overseas though as I live in Australia! Thanks for your ideas, you did a great job!
ReplyDeleteI am planning my daughters 6th birthday party and she loves MLP! I have to say the cupcakes and candy apples are a smart idea that I am gonna have to steal. Thank you for the ideas they were a big inspiration.
ReplyDeleteLove love your ideas!! I'm going to attempt to bake the MLP cupcakes as you did.
ReplyDeleteI love it ....I'm planning my baby girl 1st birthday and I'm so in love with your little pony table cloth where did u get it?
ReplyDeleteI actually got all the My Little Pony stuff at Party City, but at this time My Little Pony was just started to become popular again so these party supplies were based off of the OLD my little ponies that I enjoyed as a kid (in the 80's. . . I'm OLD). You might be able to find them on Ebay. I always laugh because my kids choose parties that have NO SUPPLIES & then one year later, they are super huge & there are party supplies everywhere. Party City now has TONS of My Little Pony supplies based off the Friendship is Magic series.
DeleteThis year all 3 of my girls opted for Lego Friends birthday parties & of course there's NOTHING out there party-wise for it, so I had to put on my thinking cap once again. All 3 parties turned out good, but I'm just waiting for all the Lego Friends things to hit the Party supply stores now that I did the parties. ha ha ha.
You guys are all making me feel so good. I'm always very unsure of myself when it comes to my kids' parties. I never know if they are fun for the guests. All that really matters is that my kids enjoy them, but all your thoughts & compliments really do make me feel good. Thank you all for your kind words.
ReplyDeletehow did you make the caramel apples?
ReplyDeleteThis is an awesome party idea! Do you think you could give me some ideas for my youngest sister (turning 6) who wants a party, mostly Rainbow Dash-themed?
ReplyDeleteMy middle daughter LOVES rainbow dash too. She has everything rainbow dash in her room. I love it.
DeleteThere are some amazing primary colored tie dye cake mixes at Walmart. They are by Duff (the cake baker guy) & I've made them before & they're super easy. It would be fun to do a big tie dye cake or several tie dye cupcakes for a Rainbow Dash party.
If you're going with the rainbow dash theme make a "Pin the Cutie Mark on Rainbow Dash" as a quick game & I've seen Rainbow Dash pinatas on amazon as well as at Party City. (She & Pinky Pie are the popular ponies). And of course you'll need some kind of a race at your party because Rainbow Dash is all about racing. Make it an obstacle course where they have to run, then jump, then pretend fly, then roll , then spin in 6 circles for the birthday girl, etc.
There are also a lot of rainbow crafts out there you could do. Oriental Trading has some rainbow bead bracelets you can make for like $7 for a dozen which isn't bad at all. Check Michaels Craft as well.
Good Luck & I hope sister's party is amazing!!!
Love this! Can you share how you made the dipped apples? Thank you!
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