A Fancy Feast!

After a make-over, accessorizing, and a fashion show, our guests at E's Fancy Nancy birthday party were more than ready for lunch!

Although the set-up was fancy, I kept the menu simple. 5-year-olds are not known for their adventurous palate, so I stuck with classic favorites. Heart-shaped PB&J sandwiches supplied the main course with sides of strawberries, carrots, and pretzels. Pink lemonade was served in "crystal" glasses with heart-shaped cranberry juice ice cubes. 

The ice cubes and lemonade were the talk of the table. If you'd like to make your own, Target had heart ice cube trays in their dollar section during Valentine's Day, and Ikea usually carries them year-round.

For dessert I made fancy cupcakes the only way I know how... use a ziplock bag to pipe frosting in a swirl pattern. I used a cake mix, but as always I made the buttercream frosting from scratch. It's a basic vanilla icing, but I added food coloring to make it pink. Sprinkles left over from Valentine's Day cupcakes worked perfectly to add a little pizazz.

E's "Grandma Ji-Ji" (my husband's great Aunt Jean) gave her a Fancy Nancy sticker book for her birthday. I made good use of a few of the 600 stickers to create these cupcake toppers.

I'm afraid there was nothing particularly fancy about how quickly these cupcakes were gobbled up!

Check back tomorrow when I'll have a few more tips and tricks about throwing the perfect Fancy Nancy birthday party!