Birthday Party Prep...

Before the actual party we did a "cake smash" session with Jaxon.  I wanted to incorporate an aqua and lime green color scheme with the "owls" that showed up at his party.  Above is the "green" layer of the cake batter. :)  Looks like slime!

Aqua cakes baking in the oven...

Final cake smash cake...before the smash of course! ;)

After the cake smash session, we cut out the smashed up part and this is what was left of the cake.  It really was beautiful how each sliced was layered in bright colors!  We ate a few thin slivers,  then so as not to waste so much cake, we took the leftovers to our Connec+een Sunday School class.

This is the actual party cake.  It was the same concept with layered colors in the layers.  I did to a two tiered cake with fondant (first try for that = success!) accents and a fondant/cake owl topper.  There was a mini-smash version for his actual birthday too, with matching owl topper, but he wouldn't smash it! :( 

Party cake insides...

Some other party planning details that were done for Jaxon's party were

WATER BOTTLES:

I made the labels in "Pages" and hot glued them on water bottles.  They weren't waterproof so we didn't immerse them in water/ice, but chilled them pre-party and set them down in a bucket of ice.  Easy and cheap.  I bought the owl clip art and rights to print it off Etsy.com.

GOODIE BAGS:

These are some pieces I put together to make the owl bags. 

I cut out hearts on my cricut machine and crimped them with a fiskars crimper for beaks.  I just put the "eye" layer on top of the "humps" so that they looked like beaks.

Final owl bags...the pupils were done all different.  Some googly, some looking left/right, some regular, etc.  Girl owl bags got bows.

PRIZES:
Inside the "treat bags" I decided to put something useful.  So I cut out labels out of vinyl and attached them to bottles and cups for the kids.  :)  I also included cake pops for the kids.

Older kids got water bottles, younger ones got sippies.  More useful than trinkets and candy. :)  And I got the cups on sale.

BANNER:
I made this (with help from Naomi) to hang on Jaxon's high chair for his cake smash/party.

More to come later....hat, cake pops, how I made the cake topper, etc. ;)