Cocoa & S'mores Penguin Holiday Party

And up next, an adorable COCOA & S'MORES PENGUIN HOLIDAY PARTY submitted by Jennifer Rogers of Cio Prints. Oh, I just want to squeal at the look of this. So, so, so cute. How fun is a S'mores & Hot Cocoa Bar?! LOVE the dipped spoons.

Here is what Jennifer said about the party- "This party was a perfect fit for a little girl with a love of all things penguin. It was a small get together for a few friends before the winter break. We did something small that would entertain and include some traditional holiday fun with a twist. The choice was obvious, a hot cocoa bar and s’mores yum.

A few of the activities included letters to Santa, pin the nose of rudolph, face painting, and penguin bowling. We ended the day by making a visit to the hot cocoa bar where kids got the chance to choose from a number of wonderful topping: whipped cream, caramel, chocolate syrup, marshmallows, sprinkles, peppermint crumble, and chocolate chips. Instead of cookies or cake we chose to do s’mores. With a parents help everyone toasted their marshmallows and chose from chocolate, cinnamon, or honey graham crackers. To top things off they got to choose from cookies and cream or milk chocolate candy bars. Other items on the tables were peppermint pretzel sticks, s’more marshmallows, chocolate dipped spoons.

For favors there were take home s’mores kits, cocoa kits with mini marshmallows, chocolate Santa mustache pops, letters to Santa, personalized crayons with childs name on them, penguin cups and cuddly stuffed penguins. Since it was a Christmas party we thought it would be fun for all the kids to be Secret Santa's for each other. We took photos of everyone saying shhh then printed them on tags that said, "Ho Ho Ho I'm your secret Santa.

This party was inspired by the new "Happy Feet" movie and a little girls love of penguins.

The kitchen and den were decked out in red, white and black with cuddly penguins everywhere. We wanted to give everything a winter wonderland look, kind of like the arctic environment where penguins live. We chose things that were holiday classics or simply nostalgic in the idea of what childhood is. That is why we chose a cocoa and s’mores."

Penguin mugs, trays, and sleigh: Target
Penguin shaped cups: Walmart
Reindeer antlers: Michael's
Printables: http://www.cioprints.etsy.com

Rustic Glam Baby Shower!

My next winning party feature goes to this

Rustic Glam Baby Shower

submitted by Katie Grace Design!

How beautiful!

I adore the 'Hot Cocoa' Bar!

In Katie's words..."This shower was so fun to put together because it was for one of my dearest friends. She is having "Baby Shepherd" in a few weeks and we wanted to do everything we could to honor this new mama! I styled this shower to look glamorous but I wanted it to have rusticity to bring some "Boyish" charm into the mix. Aubrey loves gold, bronze and brown so I wanted everything to look like something she would want to take home and put right in her nursery or in her house. I think we pulled it off because she showed up with an outfit that matched the shower PERFECTLY! Believe me when I say I know this girl very well!

To start off we did a fabulous "HOT COCOA" bar with every topping you could imagine; Peppermints, butterscotch chips, peanut butter chips, whip cream, heath chips, peppermint syrup, raspberry syrup, caramel syrup and of course marshmallows!"

"Aubrey collects crosses so my gift to her was a custom cross made by Gibson Gals Creations and they did a fabulous job! I told her the colors of her nursery and they took it and ran with it."

"Dessert Bar.... Feather boas from Save on Crafts and lace fabric from a flea market. I loved how the backdrop turned out."

"Gold tree candle holder filled with bronze, red velvet cake balls. They were scrumptious! The candle holder is from T.J. Maxx. (These were supposed to be Bedazzled Bon Bons but with our crazy winter storm here they were stuck in Florida! One of our local bakeries, Rick's Bakery came to the rescue last minute.)"

"This was one of my favorite parts.. I had been brainstorming like CRAZY trying to come up with something ORIGINAL for a baby shower activity. I bought these paper mache boxes and had my friend Emily work her magic on these plain boxes. They turned out cuter than I imagined! Everyone wrote little notes to Baby Shepherd on the building blocks and one day they will be a great toy for the baby and also they can be used as cute nursery decor!"

"Party Favors... Glass mugs from the Dollar tree filled with a scrumptious recipe for Hot Chocolate and a wooden spoon dipped in chocolate. (Spoons from Garnish with some added glam and bedazzle!) The tag reads, 'May every sip bring you joy and remind you to pray for the Smith little boy'."

Thanks for your submission, Katie!

Amazing job.

Congratulations on being the winning party feature today!