Monster of a First Birthday Party | The Food

Hello! Hope everyone’s having a great week so far! I’ve been busy crafting away in my niece’s room and have so many fun things to show you in the coming weeks. The projects aren’t quite ready yet…so instead I am going to talk more party details!

Are you sick of monsters yet? 😉

Even though I have a few more monster crafts to show you, I thought I’d switch gears and show you the creative (and easy) finger foods I put together for the party! Everything was really simple and quick – the food for this party was no stress!

As I mentioned in my original post, one of the biggest hits of the party was the “Make a Monster Cracker Sandwich Bar”!

This was an idea that just “came to me.” I knew I wanted to do a cheese and cracker tray, but I was trying to think of ways to add more “monsters” to the food and make it fun for the kids! Then it occurred to me that I could make faces in the cheese using cookie cutters! I thought it would be simple to find “face” cookie cutters, but I was very, very wrong. Couldn’t find just faces anywhere. Instead, I settled for a “celestial” set and modified some of the shapes to make them look less space-y and more monster-y!

This was a pretty easy task! I asked the deli to cut Swiss, Munster, and Colby cheeses extra thick. I then placed my cookie cutters in a way to maximize my cheese space. (Note – this does waste cheese! To use up the little bits, I cut out a bunch of “1”s with a mini number cookie cutter!). The Swiss and Colby cut beautifully, the Munster crumbled a bit, but still worked just fine!

Cutting out the cheese was a little time intensive, but totally worth it!

Another big hit were the unique way I presented the fruit and vegetables!

Star-shaped pineapple and watermelon!

To achieve these fun shapes, I used a cookie cutter again! I cut my watermelon and pineapple into “sheets” and then just cut out as many stars as I could. All the remnants got made into fruit salad 😉

My original thought was to make the fruit into pops, but they were a little top heavy! If I had stronger skewers, I think it would have worked!

The veggie “shooters” were a unique spin on a traditional veggie tray!

I bought these mini cordial cups (plastic) at The Party Store…I think they were about $4 for a package of 10!

I made a simple sour cream herb dip that could be used both on the veggies and pita chips! So as not to get the dip down the side of the cups, I loaded it into an icing bag with an extra large round tip!

Putting the dip into the cups was fast and clean!

A few more finger foods finished out my table!

Dollor store bowls were filled with tortilla and pita chips, white a three-section tray from Home Goods was filled with hummus, salsa, and more of the herb dip.

Finger foods for the kiddos included pretzel sticks, goldfish, and animal crackers! A scoop with plastic cups meant guests could fill up!

Beverages included Honest Kids juice pushes and bottled water loaded up in more Dollar Store buckets (except for the blue water bucket – that one is from Hobby Lobby). I coordinated everything with scrapbook paper and matching labels. Since my table space was limited and it was a (relatively) small party, I let guests help themselves to the fridge for any other beverages!

The cake was a three tiered white cake that I flavored with green and orange jello! This is the recipe I used! It took two cakes mixes to make this three layer cake!

 I also tried a new buttercream frosting recipe (one without shortening) – this is the one I used and it worked out great! Super sweet and went on nice and clean!

Extra cake and extra frosting meant cupcakes for guests to take home!

Usually, I get really overwhelmed by prepping and putting out food for a party. Because the party was mid-afternoon, I knew I only needed to provide snacks instead of a big meal! All the snacks were a big hit – everyone had their fill, and we had some great leftovers to eat throughout the week!

Hope you’re enjoying my party details – hope it’s not overkill! On Monday, I am going to share all my label printables, so be sure to check back!

Have a great weekend!

Megan

You can now catch up on all the Monster Party Posts here:

 

See You Soon!
Megan