Strawberry Birthday Party!

My middle child turned 6 last month! And of course she wanted a Strawberry Shortcake Party!!!

2 years ago, she was Strawberry Shortcake for Halloween, and then last year, she was Strawberries friend, Blueberry muffin... and guess who she is going to be this year?

Apparently Strawberry has a friend named Raspberry Torte?..

Anyway, I didn't want it to be too commercially themed, so I made it mostly just Strawberry, but the cake? I let her call the shots on that

She wanted this... Strawberry Shortcakes house. But, she is my one child who doesn't like fondant. She is the buttercream girl. So, I didn't do much fondant, and tried out a few other things like chocolate (that's on the top), and green apple Twizzlers, and even candy coated sunflower seeds. 

She put the little toy characters around the edge.

I'm adding a few more pictures of the cake:

While we're talking about food, I'll tell you what else was on the menu:...

Of course we had Peanut Butter and Strawberry Jelly Sandwhiches (although I had to make a few plain Nutella for my girls:))

Strawberry Jello with Whip Cream and Strawberries on top

I found these strawberry trays at Tai Pan, and planned on filling them with Brachs strawberry candy... but of course, that was the ONE bin that was empty for the 3 weeks leading up to the party! So they got pretzels and green and red jolly ranchers (which were supposed to be for my strawberry stained glass cookies that I ran out of time to make... maybe next time!)

I also ordered a strawberry sucker mold from Amazon, and made red and pink chocolate suckers (on the left) and bought strawberry marshmallows, which I dipped in red chocolate and added white sprinkles to, as well as green chocolate tops (I found it easier to make these ahead of time and stick them on before the red chocolate hardens) 

We had homemade strawberry lemonaide in these mason jars decorated with red burlap, a doily, and strawberry printable tied with twine.

These were some pretty simple decorations, but they were really cute. Just red balloons that I drew seeds on with a black sharpie, and tissue paper leaf tops.

Instead of messing with helium, I blew them up and put them on balloon sticks. I could do them the day before because of this, and put them in vases.

Food table in the background included a picnic basket filled with bags of chips.

The strawberry balloons turned out really cute. I also decided to cover my big mirror for this party. I get tired of trying to take pictures and not get myself in the reflection. I also cut out a big number 6 from wrapping paper to hang on there as well.

The only pink shirts I could find at the last minute (Confession: I'm not much of a shopper) were school uniforms! So, I added these crocheted strawberries to them, and they turned out cute. Not only did the birthday girl get one, but her 2 year old sister did too. (I didn't do them for the party guests)

Here's the birthday girl!

I also made a bunting out of strawberry fabrics. That was fun because there are so many cute strawberry fabrics out there. It was an easy way to use a lot of them! Confession: I'm priming my next girl to want a strawberry birthday party just so I can use it again!

Our party favors included a strawberry hair bow for each girl 

Little sister got 2 since her hair is only long enough for 2 piggy tails!

For only $25 for 12 of them, a lady I know crocheted each girl a strawberry purse. They could put their party favors in them!

I also made cotton candy to look like strawberries. I used disposable frosting bags because they are kind of pointy, but taped back the tips so they wouldn't be too pointy. I also drew seeds on the bags, and tied them with green ribbon

We also had a strawberry flavored lip balm (from Avon) for each girl which was their prize from the bean bag game