Happy Birthday, Dear Laura!

Yesterday was Laura's birthday and we celebrated it right.  A group of us met at a local hot spot and we ate well, drank well and celebrated with cupcakes.

Laura was not expecting us to sing "Happy Birthday" at the top of our lungs and NONE of us were expecting the entire establishment to join in the song.  

After cupcakes, a quick game of  Cards Against Humanity wrapped up the fun celebration.

Happiest of Birthdays to you, Laura!

8th Birthdays are Awesome!

My Josie wanted a Lego party to celebrate her 8th birthday.  She.Loves.Legos.  She loves playing with them, inventing new things, and can put together sets like nobody's business.  She just loves them.  And most of the kids she knows love Legos too.  It was the perfect time to get these kids together for some Lego fun!

Here Josie's posing with her #8 and the sign she made.  Behind her is the cake, but we'll get to that in a little bit.

My husband created the large Lego "punch-out" that you see behind Josie.  It was used as decoration for the party, but as kids left, they got to "punch-out" a circle and take home a Lego mini-figure.

As the kids arrived, we wanted to capture some fun!  The room we rented for Josie's party had a BEAUTIFUL view of the lake, so the early arrivals had some fun out on the balcony!

Let the games begin!

The first station is where kids got to drop Legos into a small cup on the floor.  It was a race!  The first to get all 10 (they each had the exact same pieces) into their cup won.  At this station, the kids earned a Lego marshmallow Pop!

The next station was were kids got to make a necklace or a key chain out of an assortment of Legos.  These were takeaways and I love how creative the kids were!  No two were alike!

At a third station, they had to race to put together a pre-determined model of Legos.  There was a model and then five bags filled with the pieces to recreate the model.  At this station, the kids earned a "Master Builders Certificate."

We had a fourth station where the kids were able to decorate their own goody bags.  I had markers and stickers available to them and it was nice that they could carry all of their loot around in one place.

The fifth station was where we had a jar filled with Legos.  The kids had to guess how many Legos were in the jar.  At this station, the kids received a bag of Lego candies.

Josie did a great job decorating for her party!  Here's a toaster!

While we waited for the pizza to arrive, there was time to play musical chairs, to the song, "Everything is Awesome" of course!

Dinner is served!

Pizza breadsticks that look like Legos!

Jell-O made using Lego molds!

The kids also enjoyed fruit salad, chips and juice or water.

And then there was cake.  Josie selected the Chocolate Flecked Cake.  Totally her favorite.  To make this guy, it was three full layers of 8-inch cake on the bottom, torted (so 6 layers of cake to 5 layers of frosting).  The top tier is another layer of 8-inch cake torted and a top 6-in tier.  All covered in fondant.  The Legos are edible, made of various colors of Candy Melts.

What a crew!!

And on the way out, each kid got to punch out a Mini-Fig.

The next day, Josie brought in Lego treats to celebrate her birthday at school.  These were pinata cookies, filled with mini M&Ms.  

Everything was AWESOME indeed!

Connor's 1st Communion Cake

Connor celebrated his 1st Communion and I'm so honored that I was able to make a cake to help celebrate it!  He wanted a white cake.  It's frosted with buttercream frosting and topped with some fondant and 1st Communion topper.  

I also made some cupcakes.  These are topped with fondant and chocolate crosses.

We're so proud of you Connor!  Congratualtions on such a wonderful event!

An Umizoomi Birthday Party

My Maren has been a fan of Team Umizoomi for quite some time now.  If you're unfamiliar with the show, let me explain that the show is on Nick Jr. and it's all about math; patterns, measuring, numbers and shapes.  I enjoy the show but not nearly as much as my daughter.  So it made sense that we would celebrate her 3rd birthday with a party all about her favorite show.

My first step in creating my daughter's cake was making the cake topper.  I had to do this several days before her party to insure that it would stand up properly on the cake without wilting.  

A shirt that ordered for her off of Etsy arrived just in time for me to complete the design of her cake.  All Maren wanted was a blue cake.  Just blue.  So I went with that.  Her blue Umizoomi shirt arrived and so did my ideas.  I'd make her a blue velvet cake and have it coordinate with this great shirt.  

Here's how the cake turned out.  Lots of shapes, patterns and the number 3 along with Bot, Milli and Geo in Umicar.  

Here's the cake at its final destination right by the goody bags.  My husband "takes the cake" for all of the work done on the goody bags.  He made Milli headbands, Geo belts and my other daughter, Josie, made Bot's Belly Screens.  We also included some Fruit by the Foot, shape slinkies, bracelets and bubbles and Umizoomi stickers.  

After going on a few Umizoomi adventures and "earning" their Milli headbands, Geo belts and Belly Screens, the kids were ready for lunch and cake.

Maren's a little unsure of what to do while everyone sings to her.  But she made the most of it!

 

Happy 3rd Birthday to my sweet little Maren!  I hope you're party was Umi-riffic!

Josie's 1st Communion Cupcakes

My Josie received her First Communion this weekend and boy did we celebrate.  Her family and very important friends came to the church to celebrate with her, and after we went out for a celebratory dinner and had cupcakes for dessert.

Josie didn't want a cake.  She insisted on cupcakes with little crosses on top.  I fortunately had a candy mold and was able to make these chocolate crosses (two at a time, mind you) for the top.  I placed each one on a pink fondant round and I think the effect was very pretty.

Josie asked that I arrange the cupcakes into a cross.  And had I used double-sided tape to secure them to the cardboard, they would have retained this shape by the time I arrived at the restaurant.  Alas, they did not.  Instead, they all jumbled to one side of the box.  

Fortunately, that did not affect their taste.

Congratulations and blessings to my dear Josie.  We are so very proud of her.

Jonathan's 1st Communion Cake

Jonathan's cake was a simple cake for a very special family get together.  His mom decided on a chocolate cake with white frosting and I made my vanilla bean buttercream for the occasion.  If you look closely, you can see the flecks of vanilla bean throughout the cake.  

For his cake, I wanted to keep it looking masculine, so I opted for the blue sprinkles on top to outline the cross.  I think the effect turned out really nice.

Congratulations and blessings to Jonathan on his very special day!

Sophie's First Communion Cake

Sophie had big plans for her First Communion cake.  She really wanted a blue cake.  Royal Blue.  And she wanted a host with a gold cross on top with light blue accents.  And she wanted a red velvet cake.  And a chocolate cake.  She had big plans.

Together we sketched out her design.

And thanks to her detailed plan and description, this is what she got.  

Congratulations and blessings to Sophie on her very special day!