hatching
A Springtime Party
A mother-daughter birthday team asks,
“Which comes first, the cake or the egg?”
BY MELISSA SCHNEIDER
PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRISTINE HALL
MARCH/APRIL 2007
79
SO PRETTY IN PINK: McAlister
Smith dons one of her favorite
colors for her afternoon birtday
celebration.
S
Sebrell Smith has a deep, nostalgic fondness
for Easter egg hunts. Her daughter, McAlister, who is 3
years old, is fascinated with cakes. As it turns out their passions
fit together perfectly, especially on their birthdays.
Sebrell grew up celebrating her April 12 birthday each year with a special event, an
Easter egg hunt, which her grandmother would organize. Together with her cousins in
her hometown of Florence, S.C., finding those brightly colored eggs was something she
looked forward to each birthday.
But some favorite pastimes don’t age well. After all, a young lady can only have Easter
egg hunts for so many years. So throughout her teenage, college and early married years,
Sebrell missed the annual activity.
Imagine her delight when, after she became pregnant with her daughter, McAlister, she
found out her due date was very close to her own birthday. McAlister was born on April
14, which means her birthday will almost always fall during Easter week. Now Easter egg
hunts are back on the schedule for this professional party-planning mom, who hopes to
stage an expedition for those ellipsoidal prizes each and every year.
Before starting her company, Sebrell Smith Floral & Event Design, about six years ago,
Sebrell worked at the Savannah College of Art and Design as director of special events.
When she left SCAD, some of her old contacts still wanted her to design their events,
which she did, and so her business began.
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S AVA N N A H M A G A Z I N E
Sebrell offers these tried
true suggestions for
children’s birthday parties:
and
• Have an activity ready for kids as soon as they
arrive — either a game, a relay race or a craft —
something that will get everyone comfortable
being together.
• Use furniture that is scaled to kids, and place
the cake and games at their level.
• For egg hunts, hide eggs in different areas for
different ages.
• Remember children’s nap and eating schedules,
especially for the birthday girl or boy.
• Keep children busy with a planned progression
of events.
• To avoid disappointment, remember that kids
won’t necessarily enjoy the things that require a
lot of time and trouble, so plan accordingly.
Brilliantly
iced cup cakes
scattered in the grass
were
RUSH OF COLOR: Sebrell Smith
assembled multi-colored provisions
to make the party a stand-out
event. UPPER RIGHT: The birthday
cake, sitting atop flats of wheat
grass, was the centerpiece.
easy, sw eetpickingsfor
Sebrell’s company handles some
corporate functions, but the largest segment
of the business is weddings. In 2006,
Sebrell helped 26 brides arrange their
nuptials, and many of them were
Savannah-destination weddings.
Sebrell says that planning children’s
parties is not really her forte, but she
welcomes the opportunity to host six
pairs of great aunts and uncles and loads
of cousins and friends at the Isle of Hopearea home she shares with husband,
Damon, and their daughter.
This birthday party began on a sunlit
spring afternoon with a petting zoo. The
children entered a pint-sized pen to
gently cuddle baby bunnies, chicks,
ducks, a big turtle and a fat hen.
little hands . . .
Well, maybe not the hen.
Nearly an hour later, a larger-thanlife version of the Easter Bunny arrived.
Sebrell always rents a bunny costume
for the party, but she gives him a mini
makeover by adding a handmade vest
to his garb. The vest is made of bright
blue felt and decorated with fabric flowers
and eggs made by McAlister, and the
idea is to add a new handmade embellishment to the vest each year. After
posing for photographs, the bunny
gathered all of the children and the egg
hunt officially began. More than 300
plastic Easter eggs filled with candy and
surprises were artfully hidden then
shrewdly retrieved on the Smiths’
expanse of marshfront property.
MARCH/APRIL 2007
81
BUNNY HOP: The Easter Bunny
wears a handmade vest decorated
by Sebrell and McAlister. RIGHT:
The Smith family pauses to enjoy a
moment together in the warm sun.
McAlister enjoyed the petting zoo and
the Easter egg hunt, but inside that curly
blond head, she had her own priorities.
Finally it was time for the most important
part of the celebration, the serving of her
very own cake creation. “She’s a cake connoisseur,” said Sebrell, who explains that her
daughter often accompanies her to the
Custom Cakes bakery owned by Minette
Rushing, Sebrell’s source for wedding cakes.
While Sebrell and a bride talked with
Minette, McAlister passed the time in the
bakery workroom where she “practiced”
rolling out her favorite colors of brightly
hued fondant icing and decorating her
very own cupcake.
It is no surprise that when it comes to
cakes, McAlister has definite opinions. “The
cake has to be pink and green with some
blue,” advised McAlister. For this party,
Minette, whom McAlister calls “Aunt M,”
met with the birthday girl, and together
they designed a very special pastry. The
white sour cream cake, filled with raspberry and white chocolate mousse, was
iced with pink-tinted white chocolate,
rolled fondant.
This Mad Hatter-style cake, known for its
tall, slanting, seemingly haphazard layers,
was topped with multi-color ribbons and
jaunty little balls, all made of colored fondant
icing. The cake details were kept top-secret,
so that even Sebrell was surprised when the
cake was delivered for the party.
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S AVA N N A H M A G A Z I N E
Sources:
• Minette Rushing, Custom Cakes
• Christine Hall Photography
• Critters to Go Petting Zoo
• Colorful marshmallow “people”
came from a local discount store,
but when displayed in little wooden
carts, they looked customized.
To properly showcase the confectionary masterpiece, Sebrell had some
plans of her own. Using flats of wheat
grass placed end to end and edged with
wide ribbon and pink flowers, she fashioned a child-height “field of grass”
tabletop for the cake. Brilliantly iced
cupcakes scattered in the grass were
easy, sweet pickings for little hands.
Three candles were lit, and a chorus of
“Happy Birthday to You” was sung by
everyone, young and old.
Taking McAlister’s lead, all of the children
polished off the birthday cake, leaving the
cupcakes to the adults — a surprising change
of plans that worked out just right.
While the grown-ups looked on,
McAlister, her cousins and friends played
away the spring afternoon by the warm,
greening marsh.
And Sebrell started planning next year’s
party and Easter egg hunt.
McAlister is way ahead of her; she knows
the cake will be pink and green. ■