Ladybugs and Daisies

My only niece recently turned 2 years old. She is lovely and wonderful and I was so excited for her birthday that I shamelessly begged my sister in law to let me bake cupcakes for her party. Something you may not know is that I'm sort of tossing around the idea of starting a bakery. Not a fancy big store front type of bakery, but a little fun out of my kitchen-at-home type of bakery. Right now I'm in 'think about it and bake a lot to see if I like it' mode. SO, party cupcakes are right up my alley.
Her party had a lady bug theme (with live ladybugs as party favors! SO cute!) so I went the obvious route and made triple chocolate ladybug cupcakes...only they looked a bit lonely by themselves, so then I decided to make a lemon lime, cream cheese iced field with lemon drop daisies for them to march through.
Truthfully, I was completely happy with this endeavor. I learned a few things. Like, it takes a while to bake and decorate 100 cupcakes. Also, cream cheese icing is almost impossible to make thick enough for an outside party. Very melty stuff. What else... oh yeah- boxes tend to collapse in on your cupcakes without a support in the bottom, WHICH you have to buy separately. Found that one out at the last minute. So, see? This mode I'm in is important, I think. Learning and baking and messing up when it doesn't count. Oh let's be real. It always counts... I would have been devastated to show up to her party with a melted field and ugly bugs. I was thrilled that they turned out like this instead, and were yummy, to boot: