Our food critic picks the top 10 new restaurants of 2014. Time to add these hotspots to your must-try list.

Henna by Wardah Henna/Mehndi Artist in San Diego, California www.HennaTrendz.com

Plenty of Petals is a wedding and corporate florist in San Diego, CA. Also serving Del Mar, Encinitas, La Jolla, and Rancho Santa Fe

We like to make our kids birthdays extra special! It is a fun time for them and I LOVE planning it. I like to start preparing a couple of months in advance so I can spend time looking for good deals to make sure I get all the things I want. I can watch items on eBay and usually get some real steals. This post is rather long, but I want to explain the whole party itinerary and how everything was created. Two years ago for my son's 4th party, we decided to use the Diego/Dora theme, and the kids went on a rescue adventure. My son's Grandma made him a Diego vest, so he could be Diego and his 5 year old cousin came dressed as Dora. I make all my invitations on SCRAPBOOK MAX. This way I can personalize them and make them to fit the theme. INVITATION DECORATIONS: I bought Dora and Diego Wall pictures online and hung them in our carport. We also had balloons. Most of the decorating was done outback for each of the games. I'll explain them later. The object of the party was to save baby tiger, who was lost. On my invitation there is a picture of Click- with a zoomed in on baby tiger, but the kids wouldn't learn who they were going to save until they came to the party. When the kids got there they each got either a Diego rescue pack(boys) or a Dora backpack (girls). Inside I had a pull-out telescope, a compass, a mini-click view finder camera, and a mini flashlight(all party favors bought on Ebay) (Star Pocket, View finder camera, Compass, Telescope, & Flashlight) I made these bracelets to look like the one Dora wears. Each girl got one of these. I bought the yellow pony beads at Walmart. The flowers are large buttons from the sewing section in Walmart. I made these photo watches like the one Diego wears for the boys. For the photo watches I bought rectangle wood pieces at the craft store and painted them silver. I bought yellow ribbon at Walmart. I hot glued the wooden rectangles to the yellow ribbon. I printed stickers with different animals to fit the wood rectangle piece. Once the boys were there we cut them to fit their wrist and put them on with velcro dots. Each boy got one and got to choose the animal photo that he wanted to go on his watch. Dora's Backpack for the girls Diego's Rescue Pack for the boys After everyone was ready to go, my husband played the sound of a tiger crying for help. We had pre-recorded a tiger cry (sounded like a kitten almost) and we told the kids that an animal is in trouble. I had also downloaded Dora and Diego music and carried a CD player with me since we had music for each game. I asked the kids, "Who can help us find out which animal is in trouble??" "Click the camera"(the kids say) We play the Click the Camera Song. I pulled out a Click the camera I had printed. On one side it was zoomed in to show just the fur of an animal. I said we need to Zoom out to see which animal needs our help. The kids yelled "ZOOM ZOOOM!" and I turned it over and it clearly showed the picture of baby Tiger. "Now we know what animal we are going to rescue, but we don't know how to get there." I say, " Who do we ask for help when we don't know where to go??" and the kids say, "The map!" (I play the map song" I then pull out a map that I created that show the way to go, 6 places, and we go over it. The 1st place we have to go is Lollipop Fields. We walk around the side of the house and I say I see something, but what do we need to help a see far away?" and the kids say, "A telescope" They all pull out their telescope and we look over the fence. There is the Lollipop Fields (I have the Lollipop, Lollipop song playing.) For this area I bought a 100 pack of bamboo sticks at Walmart for $3. I took straws and pushed them onto the sticks about half way and taped them on. I then spray painted them green. I printed some leaves, cut them out, and stapled them on. We then stuck them into the grass all over and put small dum dum suckers into each straw top. I painted the stick of one sucker blue. I had my niece and nephew dress-up as the bobo brothers and dance around the lollipops and pretend to mess with them. For the rescue packs and backpack I used canvas bags(leftovers from the Star Wars party. I purchased a lot of 50 on Ebay) I dyed half orange and half purple with Rit Dye. My mom sewed ribbon on them. I used the same kind of ribbon I used for the watches. I bought 2 purple and 2 orange. She sewed 1 piece of ribbon on the orange to make a rescue pack sling and 2 for the purple to make backpack. I printed Backpack and Rescue Pack faces onto iron-on paper and then ironed them onto the canvas bags. They turned out so cute!!! After the rescue mission we took each one back and put their goody bag inside. When the kids saw them through the telescope, I cried "It is the Bobo brothers we need to stop them?" and all the kids yell, "Freeze Bobo Brother Freeze!" The Bobo brothers looks up and say, "oh, sorry" and run off. We are now at Lollipop Fields and I explain to the kids that we need to find the lollipop with the blue stick because that is baby tiger's favorite and that will make him feel better once we find him. Lollipop Fields After the kids find the blue stick. I pull out the map and say, "The next place we need to go is the Grumpy Old Troll Bridge. We made our trampoline into a bridge. We took 2 large wooden boards and leaned them against the one side. We placed a piece of 1/2" thick plywood and laid it across the boards to create a ramp. We had one on the other side too. The trampoline became the bridge with a ramp up and another ramp down on the other side. As the kids approached the ramp, I started playing the grumpy old troll song and my brother-in-law(who had been hiding) jumped out and pretended to sing. After the song he read them the riddle that they must answer in order to cross his bridge. The riddle was super easy because they were 4 years old. The riddle was: What is a yellow treat that monkeys like to eat? After they answer the riddle then the adults help the kids cross the "bridge." When they get to the other side, I pull-out the map again and say, "We have been to lollipop fields, we have crossed the troll-bridge, now where to we need to go???" "We have to go to the Bear Cave" But along the way we see the stars hanging from the clothesline. I say, "We need to stop and catch stars along the way." I had bought foam stars and attached them to ribbon with a paperclip and tied them to a clothesline. I played the music for catching stars and the kids reached up a grabbed the stars. They came right off and they put them in their star pocket. I just made a foam star pocket by cutting out two large stars and cluing them together, but leaving an opening pocket. I used googly eyes and decorative adhesive foam shapes to make them cute. CATCH THE STARS BEAR CAVE: We then saw the bear cave. To create the bear cave we used several stakes and stuck 1" pvc pipe pieces onto one stake and and bent it over and stuck it onto another stake, making an arch. We did this until we had 3 arches spaced 3 feet apart. We bought black plastic sheeting and covered the arches and the ends. We made it so it was dark, but so they could walk-bent over through the cave, in one end and out the other. I peek into the cave and say, "Oh, it is dark in there! What can we use to help us see in the dark??? The flashlights, Right!" They all pull out there flashlights and peek into the cave. We had a large stuffed bear laying inside. I said, "There is sleeping bear. We need to go past the sleeping bear without waking her up. Sleeping bear likes the song twinkle, twinkle little star, so is she starts waking up, then we need to sing her back to sleep." As the kids walk through, my husband reached in and started moving the bear, as if she was waking up, The kids start to sing and the bear goes back to sleep. (Some kids were too scared to walk through and walked around it instead. After the bear cave, we pull out the map and say "now where do we need to go?" "To Bubble Garden" BUBBLE GARDEN: We had 2 bubble blower machine set-up on the fence and it blew lots of bubbles out. I had taped large pictures of flowers onto more bamboo stick and stuck them in the ground. The kids had to pop the bubbles, while we played the "popping bubbles" song from the soundtrack. SINGING BRIDGE: I then ask the kids, "Where so we go next?" " The singing bridge" We walk back across the bridge we had made for the Grumpy Old Troll Bridge, but from this side, it is the "singing bridge" We had music notes taped all over it and music was playing underneath it. STAR PINATA: Once they are done, they pull-out there map and look to see where to go next. We need to go to the rain forest. Along the way we see the star pinata, where we realize the evil witch has trapped some of the stars. So we need to rescue them. The kids take turns hitting the pinata and get to put the treats into their backpacks or slings. RAIN FORREST: We then make our way to the rain forest where I have blow-up parrots in the trees. I had hidden a large stuffed tiger in the trees and the kids had to look for baby tiger. They were so excited to find him! I play the song "We did it!" and all the kids danced around so happy! We then went back to the tables and had cake and ice cream and opened presents. This party was so fun to plan and I was able to use things from both Dora and Diego to make it fit a boy/girl party. I hope you like these ideas. Thanks! Momma!

Explore San Diego Shooter's 45720 photos on Flickr!

Halloween can be a family holiday if you just put some groupthink into costume planning. Thanks to Pinterest, here are some favorites.

ugh. so damn stoked on my grads this year—the energy was UNMATCHED, even though they got totally screwed over by coronavirus. they were all so positive and excited, and i’m so damn happy they chose me to document these moments for them!!

SpongeBob, Patrick, Sandy, Mr. Krabs, Plankton, Gary, and Squidward will all be sitting pretty on your guests’ heads. Let kids choose to wear their favorite Bikini-Bottom-ite while settling down to krabby patties and cake! Print Now To make the party even more Sponge-tastic, schedule a personalized phone call from SpongeBob himself (or one of 10 additional characters) when you join the Nickelodeon […]

This sweet California soiree comes complete with one ridiculously beautiful Calla Blanche dress.

Oscarsitosroom has the best quality in Birthday invitations and Party Supplies 🥳. Our Beautiful invites are the perfect touch for your birthday party.

Explore Sweet Escapes Bakery's 378 photos on Flickr!

My sweet nephew, Jaxson, turned one in January and his mom wanted to throw him an Olaf birthday party. I was thrilled when she asked me to help her with it! She didn't want anything over the top, but she also wanted to make it special with a few different elements. It ended up being

I know, I know, you've been waiting with bated breath for part 2 of my son's Dinosaur Birthday Party. You have been in endless agony waiting to see what the snobby food choices were, and how we spent the 2 hours from 11am to 1pm. Well, wait no longer! The best part of the party! I made tags for each section of Dinosaur dietary concerns: carnivores, herbivores, and sweetivores. Sure, I could have just said done one that said "omnivore" but where's the fun in that??? I got the idea from a party I saw here. Since it was a party for a two year old, there's some turkey sandwiches on white bread, back in the corner of the carnivore section. Then dinosaur boiled eggs, and for the Mommy dinosaurs: Chicken Teriyaki Spinach salad. MMMMMmmm, that salad is good! The herbivores were given a selection of fresh fruit and salad. The sweetivores also had a selection of cupcakes, chocolate covered marshmallow dinos on popsicle sticks, and chocolate dinosaur eggs (or leftover Cadbury eggs....) These eggs weren't exactly delicious, but they looked cool! I saw them at Our Best Bites, go check out their tutorial here. The kids also got to slurp some juice right out of Gatorade swamp. Hey, it's a fun color! Reminds me of dinosaurs. That works, right? Saw the idea for these "Dino Bites" here at My House of Giggles. They're chocolate covered marshmallow pops. I used starburst cut into triangles for the spikes. I was debating whether I wanted to make these, and then saw those candy eyes at Michaels and couldn't help myself! I used the same green melting chocolate to pipe polka dots onto these Cadbury chocolate eggs. For activities we had a dinosaur egg hunt, for these redone Easter eggs. There was a plastic dinosaur figurine inside each egg, making these a hot commodity for the little dinosaur hunters. And there was a "dino dig" as well. We made our own salt dough a few days before, cut into bone shapes and let them dry out. (I'll do a post next week with the recipe and pictures) We buried those and more plastic dinosaur toys in four buckets. There were about 2 kids to each bucket. This was a surprising popular activity that went on for a long hot while! I made cupcake wrappers to go around the cupcakes from regular bright cardstock. I have a Cricut Lite cartridge that just does wrappers and these were the "grass" choice but looked wild enough for dinosaurs. Then I made toppers with stamps on the same colors of paper. This face made it all worth the effort: And if any of all ya' all want to recreate this party, feel free to use these tags I made. Just let me know! (That's right, my only payment is in flattery! And we wouldn't mind if you decided to follow our blog!) Pin It Linking here: Sunday: http://iheartnaptime.blogspot.com/, http://niftythriftythings.blogspot.com/ Monday: http://craftomaniac.blogspot.com/, http://makingtheworldcuter.blogspot.com/, http://diyhshp.blogspot.com/, http://www.skiptomylou.org/, http://sumossweetstuff.blogspot.com/, http://marvelouslymessy.blogspot.com/ Tuesday: http://todayscreativeblog.net/, http://ladybug-blessings.com/, http://tipjunkie.com/, http://www.sugarbeecrafts.com/, Wednesday: http://gingersnapcrafts.blogspot.com/, http://www.paisleypassions.blogspot.com/, http://somedaycrafts.blogspot.com/, http://www.bluecricketdesign.net/, http://reasonstoskipthehousework.blogspot.com/ Thursday: http://www.momnivores-dilemma.com/, http://www.houseofhepworths.com/, http://nightowlcrafting.blogspot.com/ Friday: http://www.whipperberry.com/, http://www.thegirlcreative.com/,http://tidymom.net/, http://sassysites.blogspot.com/, http://shabbynest.blogspot.com/, http://tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com/, http://www.findingfabulousblog.com/ Saturday: http://www.bedifferentactnormal.com

Comic-Con San Diego 2011

silver sequin navy cake The last cake of 2015!

I have such a fantastic time with this family. They are nice, genuine and really fun. Mom loves albums as much as I do and this is the idea we came up with to capture the boys in 2012. I had a lot of fun with your family. Thank you for entertaining me again! ©

One tier cake with a jungle theme was covered in blue buttercream icing with fondant details. Diego was hand drawn on fondant. Vines, tree trunks and leaf border were all piped with buttercream.

Every once in a while I like to show you something we have done in the past. It may inspire your own birthday ideas. This was pre-blogging, so the pictures aren’t as intentional, but I’ll try and make this as post as helpful as possible. This fabulous balloon we recently were given from Party City is...Read More

If you're looking for a major color pop to brighten your day - look no further. Today's sun-soaked San Diego editorial at Caroline's Seaside Cafe planned by Ivy Weddings and Events is an instant...

A simple recipe for jello playdough. Smells great, simple ingredients, and is a fun activity for kids!