Two Silly Boys: Penguin Party

My youngest son loves Penguins. He loves watching them at zoos and aquariums. He even started walking like a penguin because he thought it was funny. He also loves the color blue. When it came time for his birthday he wanted a blue penguin party. We went with regular black and white penguins, and everything else was blue.

The wall was covered in wrapping paper. I made the igloo by taping a bunch of scrapbook paper together. I laid it out on a table and cut the shape. The penguins started out as a craft for my boys a few weeks earlier. I drew all the parts on scrapbook paper for the boys to cut out. I drew the circles and the shapes for the arms on black paper with a chalk penciI. They used glue sticks to attach the parts. When we were done I thought they looked pretty good. I added the hats and scarves with some scrapbook paper. They were so excited that they made the decorations. The banner was made using Snow Friends digital scrapbook elements I purchased from Sweet Shoppe Designs. I also used it for the invitations.

The party was in the late afternoon so we just had some snacks for the food. I got lucky with all the holiday snacks that were out. I found some penguin shaped little crackers. and the snow flake shaped ritz crackers.

I made the igloo cheeseball from the Betty Crocker website. I really wanted to make the little black olive penguins,
but I ran out of time.

We had blue corn chips with salsa, apples slices with
fruit dip and a veggie/cheese tray.

I also made marshmallow popcorn balls and white chocolate dipped pretzels with blue sprinkles. The recipe for the popcorn balls can be found at Sprinkle Bakes

We had blue Hawaiian Punch, bottled water and hot cocoa for beverages.

On the table I had blue Jell-o Jigglers "ice cubes" and some sweets that could be mixed into the cocoa... blue chocolate candies, peppermint candy canes, blue candy canes and some marshmallows I dipped in white chocolate and blue sprinkles.

Instead of a cake we had vanilla cupcakes with homemade Buttercream Frosting. I used white sprinkles to look like snow. I got lucky with the decorations, cupcake wrappers and toppers, paper goods and favors. I just happened to be looking at the Christmas party items at Walmart, and found an entire section for a blue penguin party. It was perfect, and my son was so excited when he saw it.

The birthday boy reaching for his cupcake.

I also made these penguin sugar cookies. They seemed like a good idea in the beginning, but when I was still icing them at 4 am I wasn't so sure. I was surprised that they came out as well as they did. I followed this amazing tutorial from thebearfootbaker.com. I'm not sure that I used the right cookie cutter, but it worked. I always use the Wilton recipes for the sugar cookies and the icing.