Starfish Cereal Treats

​A couple of weeks ago, I hosted a pool party for some of my daughter's friends.  I'm not sure who had more fun - the girls or me? 

When I started planning this party, I turned to pinterest for some nautical inspiration.  (Talk about inspiration overload.)  I loved this cute idea of wrapping plastic silverware in blue napkins and securing it with a rope and a life saver for a pool party. 

​I continued with my blue theme by dressing up the drinks for the pool party as well.  I used scrapbook paper to make labels for the water bottles and tied coordinating blue ribbon on the root beer bottles.   

​I headed out to my front yard to pick some blue hydrangeas to add to my nautical blue pool party table.  I used 5 hydrangeas in each mason jar to create 2 beautiful blue centerpieces.  

​The center of the table featured a pair of blue and brown flip flops - made out of cake!  They were super cute.  (If I do say so myself.)

​For dinner I served "heat wave hamburgers" and "too hot - hot dogs."  (My daughter's request.)

​I also served some "time for a dip salsa" with "surfboards".  (Longboard chips from Trader Joe's.)

​I served cheeseball "beach balls" in blue paper cups.

​I also treated the girls to rainbow gelatin wedges.

​The main dessert was cake but I also offered flip flop cookies, 

​and rice crispy "starfish."

​These were a lot of fun to make.  I started by making a batch of rice crispy treats and butting them into stars with a large cookie cutter.  

​Next, I frosted the outside of each star with vanilla frosting.

​Finally, I dipped each frosted star in crushed graham crackers and added some eyes. 

​The food table was set and ready for guests to arrive.

​After the girls had eaten, I could tell that the massive amounts of sugar were starting to have an effect on them so we headed straight to the pool to burn off some extra energy.

Even though I had done my best to fill the bellies of these teenagers, I knew that it wouldn't be long before they got hungry again.  I thought about packing a bunch of snacks to take the pool and then I decided it would be easier to have the girls pack their own snacks.  I set out jars of pool themed snacks and gave each girl a cellophane bag to fill with goodies to take to the pool.

​ There were frosted cheerio "floats" and club mini "beach towels."

​There were mini nilla wafer "suns" and colored "goldfish." 

​There were pretzel "beach balls" and scoops "boats." 

​Each girl filled their bag with goodies and made their own unique snack mix.  This was one of their favorite parts of the party.  I tied them all up with a pretty blue ribbon and I took them to the pool for the time when the inevitable munchies hit.      

​ The party was a big success.  The weather cooperated and the girls had a great time.

Ciao!