Big Hero 6/Honey Lemon birthday party.

My twin sister, Jaime, is crazy talented. She is my party planning hero and her daughter's Big Hero 6/Honey Lemon themed birthday party was so incredible. I had to feature it here for you all to see.

(An adorable welcome sign Jaime designed)

Here's what Jaime wrote about her party menu, décor, party activities, and all the other great details:

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I decided to do all Asian foods, since Big Hero 6 is set in San Fransokyo, and I love its Japanese vibe. Here was the menu I landed on:

• sweet & sour meatballs with rice.  I used the Rosina brand frozen meatballs, but the Pioneer Woman's recipe for the sweet and sour sauce; it turned out delicious.
• won tons of 3 varieties: crab & cream cheese, pineapple & cream cheese, and sausage & green onion. A friend helped me with these, and they were even yummier than I remembered. It had been too long since I'd had her delicious crab and cream cheese won tons and forever since I last made my mom's sausage and green onion won tons, and boy, did they deliver. The recipe for the pineapple and cream cheese ones was inspired by the appetizer Jacque and I love at RA.
• Asian chopped salad with two dressings.  I bought the Costco bag of salad and served it with both the dressing that comes in the bag and a homemade red chili peanut dressing from Bobby Flay--both were yummy.
• pineapple, blood oranges & strawberries with chocolate dipping sauce.  Another friend brought the fruit, and it was so sweet how she thought about the color scheme and chose blood oranges--they totally matched Honey Lemon's superhero uniform! So perfect! And of course, I used our favorite chocolate fondue recipe to make the dipping sauce. All of the fruit tasted SO GOOD with the chocolate. My favorite was the blood oranges. Don't, however, dip a sweet and sour meatball in the chocolate. In a wild moment of, "hey, everything tastes good with chocolate!" My hubs did exactly that. And he said it was revolting. Poor guy. Sometimes spontaneity gets ya right in the gotcha.
• lemon cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.  A friend made these using a recipe I found from my sister-in-law, tweaking it a little to make them super lemony. They were amazing.
• a candy buffet.  I chose candies inspired by all of the Big Hero 6 characters, e.g., Baymax lollipops, Hiro Hamada black licorice microbots, Honey Lemon tungsten carbide gum balls and chem balls, Fredzilla fire balls (hot tamales), Wasabi plasma blades (green apple sour gummies), and GoGo electro-mag discs (yellow chewy Sprees) -- The buffet turned out SO cute, and the kids (and adults) seemed to love it. 
• a Honey Lemon-inspired five-layer birthday cake.  I had so much fun making this cake! And with the food coloring my friend gave me for my birthday last year, it was a cinch to get the layers exactly the right colors. I mixed a little blue and purple to get the eggplant color--so fun.

After I figured out the theme and menu, I designed the invitations. I knew I wanted the party to be superhero-focused, but I also still wanted it to have a girly feel, so I decided to use colors inspired by Honey Lemon's wardrobe: lemon yellow, hot pink, light pink, orange, and an eggplant purple color. I also used some lime green in the scheme just for some balance. I really love how everything turned out!

Here are some of the elements that made up the decor:

This amazing sushi wrapping paper I found on Etsy: I used it as a table runner, and it was perfect for the Japanese theme and color scheme. 

A felt garland my sweet friend sewed for me--I wanted it to look like Honey Lemon's chem balls . . . it turned out perfect.

Some gum balls that looked exactly like Honey Lemon's tungsten carbide ball that she turns into pink dust in the movie . . . do you remember? And some Honey Lemon-esque flowers:

 

The stem of pink puff balls was the very first thing I bought for Cate's party, actually. It just screamed Honey Lemon, and its sort of mod/minimalist feel really drove the way I envisioned the rest of the decor.

And some pretty yellow mums, and this supercool white and yellow filler flower to add more color:

deep purple mini carnations too:

And did you notice the little vases shaped like chemistry vials??

We decided to do some chemistry experiments with the kids in lieu of games, (since Honey Lemon is a chemist and all), and it was so much fun. The kids seemed to enjoy it, and I think the parents really did too. HA. :)

But first, some more of the party elements:

The cute straws and mini paper cups we put with the candy buffet:

The candy labels I designed to go along with the candy buffet:

The Chinese takeout boxes I found at Party City and the thank you label I designed in Photoshop.  The kids and adults used these to fill with food leftovers and candy to take home.

The adorable Honey Lemon stuffed doll we found at Toys R Us and the pink lollipops we found at Party City.

So much cuteness!

Another sign I designed and put on an orange magnet board I had, and the Baymax lanterns I made to hang above the table. I was surprised by how many times I had to adjust the width of the line between his eyes and the size of his eyes too to get the lantern to look like Baymax. The proportions of his face are apparently very specific. 

Oh, and in case you're curious where I found the font, it's actually called Big Hero 6, and it's free! Easy peasy!

I also covered some books with white paper and titled them as if they were books Honey Lemon would have in her lab:

I thought that was a pretty clever idea. Hehe. :)

And here are some pictures of everything put together:

Because the buffet was backlit at the time of the party, the lighting in the photos wasn't super great, but you can get the idea:

My husband helped me hang the felt circle garland, balloons and Baymax lanterns from the ceiling fan. He's really good at stuff like that:

My sweet friend helped me take pictures, and she managed to snag one of me in the process--looking a little haggard and sans makeup, as is usual when I'm hosting parties at my house.  ;)

 Check out these adorable and super yummy cupcakes my friend made! They were lemon flavored with a cream cheese frosting, and oh my, they were so good!

The candy buffet:

The delicious wontons:

The dipping sauces:

I was in love with the adorable science goggles I found for the kids. They came in all sorts of colors, and it was so cute seeing the kids running around with them on. Safety first, am I right? :)

After eating and playing on the trampoline a while, my husband divided the kids into two groups, so we could do the science experiments. The older kids came to my station first, where we made bubbling test tubes, and the younger kids went to his station first, where they got to see what happens when you put mentos in a big bottle of Coke.

They squealed and screamed and loved it.

At my station, I had a test tube for each child, and we added water and oil to each and then a drop of food coloring in the color of their choice. Then I handed each of them a small piece of an Alka Seltzer, and on the count of three, they all dropped their Alka Seltzer piece in to their test tube . . .

It was so cool to see the colorful bubbles fizzing up from the bottom of the tubes to the top. And the bubbling lasted a good while.

We did it again with the younger kids:

 

It was so cool to watch! Even the adults were into it.

They all seemed to have a lot of fun with the experiments.

After the experiments, we sang Happy Birthday to Cate and let her blow out her candle. Here's a close up of the Honey Lemon inspired cake.

The evening wrapped up with the kids (and adults) visiting the candy and food buffet some more, (can you say chocolate dipping sauce and fruit?), and many of the kids playing with water balloons outside .

The entire party went so smoothly and was so much fun. It did all of our hearts such good to spend such a happy evening together with our dear, precious friends. We love them all so much!

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And there you have it!! An amazing, fun, colorful, thoughtful party by my twin sister. I was with her when she started the first plans for this party, and to see it all come to fruition is so awesome.

Thank you, Jaime, for sharing your amazing party with all of us! You are a rock star!