A fun way to find out if your having a baby boy or baby girl!

This post tonight is about gender reveal parties! I wish I would have heard about them when I had my girls and I would have loved to have thrown one of these parties. The concept of the party is to gather your closest friends and family and reveal the sex of the baby you are soon to have. Some couples find out what they are having and throw a party to announce it to their loved ones and others throw the parties for their loved ones and for them selves as well. What you do is, go to your ultrasound and make sure to tell the nurse or Doctor that you do not want to be told the sex of your baby. Instead, you want them to write it down on a paper and seal it in an envelope. You then take that envelope to your bakery of choice and have them take a peek at what your having and bake the cake a pink color for a girl or blue for boy. At the party, when you cut the cake in front of everyone, you will find out what your having based on what the inside of the cake looks like. Party supplies needed for the decorating of the party are using the colors blue and pink. I would also tell those invited to wear a pink shirt if they think  its a girl or a blue shirt if they think its a boy. This goes for Mommy and Daddy too, wear what you believe you are having!

Their is another great way to find out what your having in a fun way without having to throw a party. Gender reveal photo session! This is such an awesome idea. You just do the same as mentioned before when you go to the Dr's office, except this time you give the envelope to your photographer. They will then proceed to get a large box and fill it with either pink or blue helium balloons. As your husband and yourself (as well as any other kiddos in the family) are opening the box, the moment is being captured by the photographer. Your faces will all be remembered with a photo as you see the pink or blue balloons fly out of the box. Its a pretty cool photo that I would have loved to have.

Here are some ideas of gender reveal parties and photo sessions:

 

Hostess With The Mostess

 

 

Karas Party Ideas

 

 

Big Dot Of Happiness

 

 

 

I Heart Pears

 

 

 

Amy Rose King Photography

 

 

 

The Cake Boutique



This cake design could be mixed with blue and pink instead of just blue for another great gender reveal cake!

Made By:

The Cake Boutique


Did you have a gender reveal party or photo session? Let me know how it went!

-Nikki

Easy snack ideas for babies & toddlers

While trying to watch a movie tonight after the girls went to bed I caught myself thinking about different types of snacks to give them tomorrow instead of actually paying attention to the movie. This brought me to get online and blog about it. I'll start off with a few things I would feed my 1 year old Emma.

 

Chopped, peeled & cored pieces of fruit are a great snack. Make sure you cut them small enough for the baby to eat. Grapes and blueberries need to be quartered. If the baby is not quite one yet and has no molars in yet be sure to cut everything the size of a pea, incase it is swallowed whole. Also, I try not to feed my one year old apples yet. Even when I peel them I notice she still has problems chewing through it enough (maybe she just tries to eat it too fast).

 

 

Yogurt is something else that is an easy option. There are a ton of those yogurt shops open now like pinkberry, yogurtland and sweetspot (just to name a few). Those shops are so yummy and every time I tell my girls I'm taking them out for ice cream, I trick them and take them to a yogurt shop. I think it taste just as good as ice cream and its healthier (depending on what you top it with).

 

 

Avocado is a healthy fat and little ones need healthy fats. Dice up some of this and let them give it a try.

 

Everyone loves cheese cubes, right?! With so many different types of cheeses out there, your little one should have a great time trying out all the flavors.

 

 

 

Cooked pasta is another favorite in my house. Fast, easy and inexpensive.

 

 

Every now and then make some homemade muffins. Toppings such as peanuts and other hard and crunchy toppings are not good for babies but better for toddlers and those who have more experience with chewing. If you have a younger baby around, skip the hard-to-chew ingredients on theirs. That's the best part of making them from home, you choose what goes in them!

 

 

My 3 year old Alina LOVES smoothies! Her grandma got her into this as a breakfast favorite. This like muffins and any other homemade item is a good option for kiddos. A lot of the times they refuse to eat certain things because they are not sure what is in them. Making these with your child around can help them see with their own eyes that the only thing being used to make these are things they like to eat. Every now and then when they aren't looking you can always throw in something like kale that has amazing nutrients in it and taste much better then people give it credit for.

 

 

Trail mix is another favorite for Alina. She gets the healthier foods like almonds, nuts and dried raisins as well as the colorful bits of chocolate.

 

One of my favorite snacks for the hot summers is frozen grapes. Almost half the time I always forget to put the grapes in the freezer so I don't eat them as much as I'd like but when I do remember, its a nice healthy way to cool down. (I don't recommend frozen grapes for babies)

 

 

A favorite snack during a cold winter for me are mini pigs in a blanket with some hot chocolate. If they are just snacks, make them mini sized. For meals or sides to a meal a regular sized pig in a blanket is more filling.

 

 

 

Now I'm off to bed and this post made me hungry! Not good..

 



Spa Birthday Party

It's a hot Saturday today and the only thing I can think of is a relaxing spa date ;) That is why todays birthday party theme is a spa party! A lot of us tend to start stressing about making sure the guest at our kids birthday parties are entertained from start to finish (especially the children at the party). We take so much time figuring out which games to play and how many of them we need to play in order to take up a good amount of the party time playing games. On top of that most worry about making sure there are small prizes for each game. With a spa theme, a lot of that stress is taken away. First example, you don't really need games at a spa themed party. Girls LOVE to get pampered and the best way to do that at a birthday party that will keep them entertained for a while is applying facials, manicures and pedicures. It could be pretty inexpensive to do this and you don't have to worry about "getting prizes for the games". The "games" are really facials, Mani's & Pedi's and the "prizes" are their new glammed out looks! A cute and very inexpensive party favor idea would definitely be flip flops! They will need them right after the pedicures and they get to take them home and keep them. You can find flip flops for $1 a pair! You can also dress them up a little and tie some strands of ribbon to the straps for an extra fun look. Here are some cute ideas:

Aren't these little slipper cookies the cutest!

They are made using Nutter Butters!

 

 

 



Top three photos from Vicki Lynn
Spa Mask Cookies: My Cookie Couture
Slipper Cookies:Hungry Happenings

Back To School DIY

Since this is the time of year everyone is getting ready to send their kiddos back to school, I thought I'd make my first post about some easy DIY crafts for budget friendly teacher gifts. First up is the...

PENCIL HOLDER

 

This is a cute and could be a very inexpensive project. You could purchase the wooden bases at your local craft store such as Michaels or Hobby Lobby and paint it. You could also recycle the base out of something you already have such as empty formula cans or tins. I've made my own pencil holder once from an empty formula tin and covered it in a pretty scrapbooking paper. It takes minutes to complete and is definetly something teachers need. I've visited my sisters class before and the students are always in need of pencils and having them easily accessible is a must!

 

CLICK HERE to see more on this project from its original source.

 

FUN CLASSROOM FAVORS

 



These cuties are edible pencils made of candy! A great token of appreciation to the staff at your childs school. They can be filled with a roll of candy such as lifesavers or rolos and topped of with a Hershey's kiss. Roll them up with paper and a cute message and your ready to go!

CLICK HERE to visit original source.

Chocolate Dipped Pretzel Snacks

Surprize your kids when they get home from their first day of school with some "Apple" themed Chocolate covered Pretzels. Take a look at Make Bake Celebrate for more yumminess!


FUN! FUN! FUN! Colored Pencil Necklace

Now this necklace is beyond fun for teachers, especially those teaching Elementary! I would totally sport one of these if I was a teacher! Visit Caught On A Whim to learn how she made this adorable necklace. Note: This would be a great way to recycle broken colored pencils instead of just throwing them away.

I have a couple more years before my oldest (Alina) starts school so I unfortunately don't get to make any of these fun crafts just yet, but I know as soon as my kiddos are in school I will look forward to all the fun activities and crafts I can do for their teachers and their classmates. Until then I will continue to blog about it all to help those of you with school aged children out a little.

While we are still on this subject I thought I'd remind you that soon after school starts you will start to see big "Back To School" items on sale or clearance. This is a great opportunity to stock up on some items that can be used throughout the year for next years DIY teacher gifts or even for Teacher Appreciation Week. If you don't have the time to make something like the colored pencil necklace before school starts, purchase the colored pencils while they are on sale after school has started and make it for Teachers Appreciation Week! Hope this helped!

-Nikki

About Me

                                                           Welcome to Mint Sprinkle!

I'm Nikki and I am a stay-at-home mother to two amazing girls, Alina and Emma. I love being able to stay home with them and work at the same time which is why three years ago I found my hidden talent as a cake artist. I started a home based bakery known as The Cake Boutique and I have been doing it ever since with the exception of a temporary break while we were in the process of moving to Dallas from Laredo, TX. I enjoy creating edible art in the forms of cakes, cookies and cupcakes. I also enjoy putting collages together of party themes and DIY crafts and party favors. This is the reason why I started Mint Sprinkle. Mint Sprinkle is a place I want people to visit when needing ideas for party décor, DIY crafts, as well as baking tutorials. Mint Sprinkle will consist of party décor ideas from a variety of vendors as well as ideas, crafts and tutorials that I made myself. It will take some time to put together a large amount of material that can suite everyone's needs in regards to what they are searching for but it will happen. If there is a certain party theme, DIY craft or baking tutorial you would like to see on Mint Sprinkle, feel free to email me at mintsprinkle@gmail.com and share it with me! Also, for any information on The Cake Boutique please email cake_boutique@yahoo.com or CLICK HERE to visit our Facebook page!