Mr. Toad Cake and Sprite Can Birthday Cake

Okay, so we had very laid back birthday parties this year because we were REALLY busy doing plays.  Abyni and Sprite both had birthdays very soon after we finished up with my directorial debut of "The Mad Adventures of Mr. Toad"  I still made them cakes, though...

Here is Abyni, dressed in her "Mole" costume:

And here is the cake!  I did a sort of caricature of her, combining her two favorite things:  Skating and Acting!  The corner of the cake is missing because Paris, my other daughter, was too impatient to wait, and stole a corner of the cake.  I was NOT pleased.

My daughter, Sprite, turned 16 ON Thanksgiving, so she had her party at a different time.  I still wanted to make her a cake, though:  I REALLY messed up in putting the small round cakes together, but it didn't turn out HORRIBLY... just a little bit of a dented can.  She loved it anyway!

What is your favorite birthday party memory?

MacGyver Themed Party!

MacGyver Party!

Take things apart and make OTHER things Supplies:

Collect broken old VCRs, DVD players, TVs, anything with fun moving parts inside.

Screw Drivers of assorted sizes.

Wire cutters if you want.

Depending on the age of the kids, you may have to show them how to use some of the tools, but that's about it.  My boys and their friends spent an hour and a half doing this until we dragged them away!

From my journal:

There is a birthday party going on in my house... and I've not had to do anything other than cook/bake for it!

BTW ~ when having 5 boys in the house, make more than FIFTY pizza rolls or no one other than those boys will get any food:) I made pepperoni rolls with french bread dough, pepperoni & mozzerella cheese rolled up like cinnamon rolls/pinwheel sandwiches and baked them. Apparently, they were yummy:)

My hubby is helping them build their little speakers, after they were DRAGGED away from dismantling an old heater, VCR, DVD player... and some other things as well (Which they spent well over an HOUR doing ~ in this case boys ARE easier!!) and then, if the parents "ok" it, he's going to take them to his new custom home theater store and let them watch a movie on the big screen TV with "real" surround sound. Wow. Points for hubby:)

Kainan just LOVED his cake. I've gotten a half a dozen hugs for it already:)

My kids are so flipping blessed to have such an awesome dad!

Cake Decorating Themed Birthday Party!

Let's Decorate a Cake!

My Baby is Nine!!!

This year, Paris wanted to have a Cake Decorating Party!  I made small cakes for the girls to decorate.  I was having a very rough year emotionally that year, so I didn't have a lot of energy to put forth... but we had a great time.

For the Guests:

• a disposable decorating bag, with a coupler
• about a dozen decorating tips to share
• 2 large "personal size" cakes to decorate
• 4-5 cupcakes to decorate

The Kids and their Cakes!

Big sister Sprite helping out

And this was the cake I made for Paris with a royal icing crown!  It was SO easy and turned out SO cute!

I just made royal icing, drew the design I wanted, and then taped the design covered with waxed paper over a fountain drink cup from our local gas station.  Then I piped the icing on and let it dry.  It took a couple of days before I had the nerve to take it off the cup, but it worked like a charm!