T's Birthday Party

This just proves how busy we've been and how much of a slacker I've been. The party was the first weekend of March and I am just now posting pictures. We invited three families to come and celebrate with us. T again chose a Star Wars theme for his cakes. I think he will always be a Star Wars geek like his daddy. LOL.

This was our little man, D, when he was turning 7 months old the day of the party. He is such a good baby you hardly know he's around most days. He only fusses when he is hungry or tired. We have been so blessed!

Grampa was able to come over the following weekend to celebrate with us. He brought T a very special gift: a remote control helicopter just lilke Daddy's. As you can tell in the picture, T was very happy. It is even his favorite color: blue. Happy 10th Birthday!

Birthdays and Epiphany Party

C and B had a joint birthday party again this year and they both chose to do just the age they were turning. So, that is why the cake reads "86". It is supposed to show that C is turning 8 and B is turning 6. They each chose their colors and design that they wanted me to do. The funny thing about this cake is that if you turned it upside down it looked like they were turning "98" or 9 and 8.

The next day after the birthday party, we celebrated Epiphany with some friends of ours. Even a priest from our parish was able to attend. The day went really well and even included a little play about the wise men visiting baby Jesus and some fireworks after dark. D was the only little baby at the party, so he was asked to play baby Jesus in the play. I guess he has caught the acting bug even sooner than most of the other kids...and what a challenging role for his debut. lol.

E Turns Two!

The original cake I made for E's 2nd birthday. The tractor and wagon are made entirely of cake and frosting.

Small piece of cake E ate on his actual birthday.

Second cake that I made for the real birthday party. The first cake was destroyed when my mom turned on the oven to pre-heat it. She had forgotten the cake was still inside. We had to scrape off all the frosting and redo the cake entirely. I didn't have enough cake or time to make a new tractor made out of cake, so we put his toy tractor on it instead. E didn't seem to mind.

My Baby Turns Eleven!

At the end of May, our M turned 11 yrs. old. Wow, how time flies. I can't believe she is that old already. She is looking more and more grown up all the time. She decide on a much simpler cake this year, and frankly I was glad. This was one of the easiest and quickest cakes I've ever done. Wouldn't you know it, E found a way of getting into it and messing it up. I would have been really upset if I had spent much time on it. I had just enough frosting left over to repair the damage he did to the top edge, right before the guests arrived.

The day I started making this cake, I found out I have gestational diabetes. I was very glad that it only took me 45 minutes to frost it, instead of the usual 2-3 hours I've spent doing other more difficult cakes. The temptation to eat some of that frosting was overwhelming, but I never took a bite. ( This baby will never know how much I sacrificed for him!)

M was very pleased with the end result and was extremely excited about her b-day party. She helped me to make the Hello Kitty streamers, wall banners, and window clings. This was also one of the least expensive parties, because we were able to use dark and light pink plates and napkins as our theme colors which were left over from C's First Communion party. Recycle and reuse; isn't that the motto of large families on a tight budget?

T's Birthday party

I printed out a coloring page off the Internet and cut it out to make this stencil for T's birthday cake. Just like other character cakes, I placed the stencil on the cake and then "traced" the silhouette out with a tooth pick. I colored the stencil just so I could see the frosting colors I needed. This ended up being the most colorful cake I've ever made. By that I mean the largest number and variety of colors. The colors included blue, red, yellow, green, white, black, peach, and brown.

I have to admit that I cheated a little and bought the black frosting. I've never made black before and for as little as I needed, I thought it was safer to just go with the store's brand which I knew would look right. I've never outlined any of my character cakes before in black. After doing this one, I think I will make sure to outline all of my future cakes in black. It really made the character stand out and look more like the real thing.

Since T had such a big party last year, we had a much smaller one this year. I think he still enjoyed himself, but with minimal work on my part. Ma and Pa came over and so did two of T's friends. They all enjoyed the pizza, cake, and ice cream for dinner. I think the highlight of the evening for T was playing Mario and other video games with his friends for about two hours. He is never allowed to play video games for more than 25 minutes per day. I think he also enjoyed having his friends over to spend the night. Happy 9th Birthday, T!

Our Big Three-Year-Old

Here is R with her pink piggy cake that she requested. It was rather simple and I was thankful she asked for something so simple. I was really sick the day I made it and just wanted to go to bed the whole time I was frosting the cake and cupcakes. She was delited when she saw the cake on the morning of her birthday, which made it all worthwhile! Happy Birthday, Becca!

First Friday and Grandpa's Visit

Wow, I've been slacking and slow about getting pictures up. Sorry. Here is one from our First Friday activities for November. We celebrated All Saints Day and All Souls Day by dressing up as saints and having a "Name that Saint" game. It was a lot of fun and everyone learned a thing or two about these holy heroes of the Faith. Don't they all look so cute? I was amazed at some of the great costumes. We also played Saints' Bingo.

The rest of these pictures of Grandpa coming for a visit to celebrate R's 3rd Birthday. She received twin baby dolls and was very happy. It was such a nice day out that we were able to play outside with Grandpa. The kids were all so very happy to have Grandpa come for a visit. B even was able to ride a two-wheeled bike for a little while with the help of Daddy. :)

My Nephews' Birthday Party

My nephews, Joe and Mikey, turned 3 and 1 respectively. We were able to join in the celebration and had lots of yummy cake. My sister-in-law did a fabulous job on their cakes. I just might have to borrow these ideas for future birthday cakes. Happy Birthday, Boys!

Grandpa's Visit for Elias's Birthday

Here are a few pictures from our visit with Grandpa. We were celebrating Elias' birthday. Elias had a great time playing with his new toys, almost as much as the other kids did!

Elilas' Cake and Party

We recently celebrated Elias' 1st birthday by taking him to the local mall, letting him play on the indoor playground, and eating out with Grammy and Paw-paw. He had a great day, ending it with his own piece of chocolate zucchini cake.

Over the weekend, we celebrated with some of the aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. Elias really enjoyed himself that day when he tore into his frog cake. Elias was also fascinated with the cards that he received with his gifts. He loved to open and close them like a book. He even went so far as to throw aside some clothes and toys to get to a card. It was rather unexpected.

I am amazed that it has been over a year since our little guy was born. We've been so busy this past year, with four kids in school, getting ready for my sister's wedding, and camping that the time has just flown by us. Before I know it he'll be two and talking up a storm. My how the time flies when you are busy.