Baking Monday – Birthday Cupcakes

Cupcakes this week for a friend's birthday! Sadly, she was under the weather and couldn't enjoy one until a couple of days later. These cupcakes were inspired by this chocolate layer cake ... that chocolate cake plus pink icing just looked like the perfect birthday combo.

I do have a go-to chocolate cake recipe, but am always happy to try something new, and this one was great! I wanted to do a gooey, soft icing but didn't have the ingredients for the cream cheese icing in the original post. After flipping through The Complete Book of Baking, I decided on Seven-Minute icing. It seemed so quaintly old-fashioned, like the kind of icing my grandma would have made. 

This icing is more time-consuming than buttercream, but SO satisfying! (BTW, I should clean the hand mixer, maybe?) It's smooth and glossy, and just when it seems like I've been mixing waaaaay too long ...

BAM! Peaks! We've got icing! This icing does look pretty and is very sweet, though not as flavorful as buttercream, and has an interesting bubbly texture. Even though it wasn't exactly the icing I was hoping for, I did enjoy trying something new. (And one recipe made more than enough for 26 cupcakes, so I may have to make another batch this week to use it all up.)

Here's the big question ... sprinkles or not? I preferred the look and taste of plain, but the kids voted for sprinkles. We ended up with some of each for everyone. 

Temple Run Party!

Clark wanted to celebrate his birthday with friends this year, and he wanted it to be a Temple Run party! Temple Run themed party supplies are not easy to find, so we had to get creative.

I found a tiny selection of luau decor between the party and dollar store, including these cool tiki napkins, table and hanging decorations. I thought it was reminiscent enough of the jungle scenery and idol imagery from the game. Burlap and raffia were used as accents. 

I used half the burlap for a table runner and sewed the other half into goodie bags ...

... which included finger lights, magnets, and of course a treasure bag of gold. (Actually, better than gold ... chocolate!)

We usually do smaller parties for Clark because he gets so easily overwhelmed, but happily his social circle has been expanding and he wanted to invite a few more kids this year.



Jeff did another series of backyard games like he did for Theo's party, because they were such a hit! This time, we had cold weather to deal with, though the kids did not seem to mind. The games included throwing different size balls into a bucket, flinging bananas through a spinning hoop, running an obstacle course, and finishing up with taking a bite of a donut on a string!



Clark did GREAT and had a good time. Present opening was a little crazy, and he wasn't thrilled with the volume level of his "Happy Birthday" song, but everything went well and it was a fun way to celebrate!

Minecraft Party!

Here are some pics from Theo's party back in the fall. We did a very low-key have some friends over for movies and pizza kind of evening. There are soooo many cool ideas for Minecraft parties, but since I put this one together in about 24 hours, we went very simple!

I started out by downloading a Minecraft font for the sign and bookmarks, using green, brown, and black as the color palette for everything. The bags were for loot from the ...

... creeper piñata! I made my first piñata out of two cereal boxes taped together. It worked pretty well except I made the mistake of using packing tape instead of paper tape, thinking that a mess of 11-year-old boys would be able to beat through it pretty quickly. I was wrong! It was indestructible! One of the dads ended up ripping the thing apart and tossing candy out to the crowd. Theo made the candy selection: Butterfingers, Nestle Crunch and Warheads (mistake #2: overestimating how many Warheads to buy, thinking all the kids would be as crazy for super sour candy as my kid. We had a ton leftover!) 

And Theo continues his tradition of requesting birthday cookie cake! I was pretty proud of my creeper face. 

Mr. Hotcakes smartly planned some Minute to Win It type games for the backyard. The boys split into four teams of two and were scored on their speed. At the end, we were racing against the sun, finishing out the last few games in the dark! The winning team from each event got Dollar Store prizes. One hour of organized activity was ideal ... things started to break down after 30 minutes of unstructured play after dessert. (Time to turn on a movie! Aren't your parents here yet?) 

Baking Monday – Chocolate M&M Cookies

Today's Baking Monday comes by birthday boy's request!



Clark wanted chocolate cookies with M&Ms for his school treat. I went once again to Tracey's blog for inspiration, and both classroom teachers asked for the recipe! One change: I used mini chocolate chips in the batter and decorated the top of each cookie with M&Ms before baking. Super yummy and fun!



Oh, this kid. We  have our daily ups and downs. Let's focus on the ups: he loved his birthday goodies, presents, and celebrating at school. His birthday weekend included a fun day in NYC, a relaxing play day at home with Dad, and dinner out at Friendlys.

He also loves his new specs! Just a matter of time when you're a member of the Family Four-Eyes. 

Happy Birthday 6-Year Old!

Welcome to Clark's Disney Birthday party!

What a fun theme ... I could have planned this one forever! But two weeks was what I had. 

He invited a few of his buddies over in the afternoon, followed by dinner with our family afterwards. And we got to do it on his actual birthday, which was extra special.



I used these bookmark printables from Family Fun to style tags for our guests. SO cute!!!



Favor bags: I'm usually a fan of practical favors, but it was hard to resist so many crazy cute Disney things at the party store. Each kid got a Disney Pez dispenser (assorted characters!), pencil, stickers, popping candy, and a Disney Dance Party cd for each family.



I knew I put the right person in charge of balloons: I never would have thought of decorating the bannister, it looked terrific!



My favorite decor: a collection of vintage-y mini posters of all Clark's favorite attractions from Disneyland last year.





Balloon girl also helped run the party – she and her good friend ushered all the kids downstairs and helped them with party games (character cake walk, freeze dance, Bingo and Mad Libs).



Favorite gift of the morning! Love this!



DIY dessert: cookie decorating.

Clark went a little crazy with the M&Ms! 

Happy birthday, little guy! What a fun six years it's been!

Happy Birthday, Dora!

We celebrated Dora's 10th birthday this month!



She won a gift certificate for our local bounce place last spring, we saved it and invited a few of her friends to come along as her birthday party. It was a very small group of girls - just the right size - they had a blast!



These little hair sets were stocking stuffers from Target, on sale after Christmas. We added a mini bottle of nail polish to each one for favors.



These little cupcake boxes were also after Christmas sale items from Christmas Tree Shop.



Dora wanted chocolate chip and sugar cookies as her birthday treat. There were enough of each to send little bags home with each guest.



Star cutout cookies! My grandma helped me decorate these on the day of her party. I don't like giving up control of cookie decorating, but I do love my grandma.

We celebrated with family on her birthday with a blueberry cake.

What a fun 10 years we've had!

Berfday

At least one reader wants to know ... where have I been? What have I been doing?

Answer: Celebrating four funny years with this guy:



Who wanted to know every day for the past week, "Is TODAY my berf-day?" He finally got to celebrate last Thursday. The big kids had a half day of school (note to school board: one hour and 45 minutes is NOT half of a day), so they came to visit the frog room. Theo was all too cool for school, but Dora LOVED being around all the little kiddos and switched into full gear "teacher" mode.



Her five minute story took 20 minutes to read, because she str-eeeeee-tched it out. ("What color are his spots now? That's right! Blue! What is he holding here? That's right! A flower!") School was followed by lunch at our favorite diner, a movie at home, and dinner with our family (with Whoopie Pies for dessert, mmmmm.)



And yesterday, we had a little party for his buddies at the bowling alley. I loved these bowling cookies, they were so fun to make! This is my first time making chocolate cutouts (for my little chocolate guy), and they were excellent. 

A little note about the cookie cutters: I usually order from this store, because they have a big selection and very reasonable prices. But I really wanted a separate pin cutter, and they only carry a ball and pin combo. So after much, much searching, I found exactly what I wanted from this store on Bonanza. I've never used (or heard of) Bonanza, it's kind of like a mix between Etsy and Amazon. The prices in this shop were a bit higher, but the quality is excellent. The cutters are extremely sturdy and well made, and the sides are a good 2" tall. Highly recommended!

Next up: favors.



Clark got this mini bowling set in his stocking last year, and it's still one of his favorite things. We thought it would they a great goodie for his bowling buddies, each kid got one in a monogrammed bowling bag.



Clark was being a bit of a stinker about pictures yesterday, so consequently I have a group picture of all the party guests ... minus the birthday boy!



But I happened to sneak this one in when he was being goofy. The party moved outside after lunch ... I really didn't expect to be outside in mid-November!



And I snuck in a little mini-photo session after our friends went home. (Note the haircut between picture #1 and this one ... no more mop top!)

Lego Party

We celebrated a very Lego birthday this week. I was so excited that Theo wanted to have a Lego-themed party, there are SO many cute ideas out there (like this, this, and this.)

Theo helped me with the invitations. The figure originally had a regular candle in his hand, and my backseat designer said, "The candle should be made out of Legos, too!" Of course, he was right. He brought me the flame piece so I could see what it was supposed to look like.



Surprise party? Yes. But more on that later. First things first: Lego wrapping paper. Clark tried to help me with this, but was cranky and quit after five minutes. This was super fun and easy, and I found that good acrylic paint worked better than the kids' washable tempera.



We had our family here over the weekend, so I got to set a cute table:



... and I splurged for the coordinating color M&M's, couldn't resist.



I also made little picks for the swirly cupcakes.



Now, here's where the insanity struck ... I found instructions to make a little folded Lego guy online and used that as the inspiration for favor boxes. These printed on a sheet of cardstock and were big enough to hold Pop Rocks, fruit snacks and a Lego minifigure pack.



Want it? You got it. Download printable Lego Minifigure favor boxes here.



Only slightly less insane, but SO fun ... we ordered minifigure parts from the Lego website. An assortment of heads, bodies, legs, hats/hair, accessories and base plates. I used clear labels to personalize a name plate for each guest.

And for Theo's friend party, I made Lego head cake pops!



This was my first attempt at shaped cake pops. (Thanks to Living Locurto for the idea!) I used M&M's to make the little pegs on top. I had some trouble with the Wilton food markers, they did not go on nearly as smooth as I thought they would. Jeff thought they looked like boobs, but the kids knew what they were supposed to be, so (raspberry sound).



They were slightly wonky, but (high-pitched sing-song voice) dee-lish-ous! I used the extra chocolate to dip pretzel sticks.



Snack table staging area. It was a gorgeous day, so we had the party and all the food outside. So much nicer than having ten 7-year-olds stomping through the house.



Theo requested chocolate chip cookies again this year, but there's never any good place to put the candle ... oh, wait!



I borrowed my brother's old Legos from my parents' house so the kids would have them to build with during the party. I set up a gallery area and made round labels for awards (most creative, craziest, biggest, etc.) The kids LOVED the competition, and Dora loved handing out the awards. Everyone who participated got a title, and they were proud to wear their badges. (Seven-year-olds are not too old for stickers yet, yay!)



Here are their minifigure creations. They had SO much fun with this. There was a fair amount of chaos when they were putting them together - everyone grabbing at once - but I tried to move the dishes around the table and give everyone a chance at a first choice.



Okay, so the surprise. Dora REALLY wanted to have a surprise party for Theo. I thought it would be impossible to plan a friends' party without him knowing about it. Our solution was to plan the party for a Thursday ... but tell Theo that it would be on Friday. Dad picked up the kids from school and took them out while the guests arrived. Everyone hid in the treehouse for the big reveal, and Theo was really, truly surprised, it was so cool. Dora got many accolades for the great idea and planning.

And, OH! the party. It was such a boy party. They did not stop moving for 90 minutes. They shot baskets and played soccer and tossed footballs and hula-hooped. They wrestled and imagined a police chase and walked in the woods and played hide and seek.



There was also a lot of treehouse play ...



Lego building ...



... and potty talk (this is Theo making tooting noises for the crowd.)



They ran and ran and ran some more. Most were all sweaty when their parents came to pick them up. Hopefully everyone fell asleep quickly tonight. I don't think they get enough opportunities for so much physical play, it was such a thrill to see them having so much fun.



Yesterday's lost tooth confirmed it ... I've got a big kid now!!