We are right in the middle of birthday season at our house. For a three month and one day period, eight of my children and two of my grandchild have birthdays. It's a whirlwind getting through them all. In fact, I designated a "birthday box" to keep supplies in, because I have to drag them out so much.
Usually, Angel-Leah and Tommy's birth grandmother, who they call Nanny and I call Joan, has the October party - a combined party for Angel-Leah and Luke. But she's having some problems with her leg right now (MRI coming up this week, we are praying the doctors will find the reason and can give her some relief). So this year, I offered to have it at my house. They insisted on paying for it. Joan was supposed to just come, but she cheated and brought some fruit anyway! :o)
With Tommy being on a diet that forbids any kind of artificial colorings, artificial flavorings and corn syrup, we have to make almost everything from scratch. After our last birthday cake disaster, (see that story here) I spent some time online looking for ideas to make things simpler, and also to try and find some natural decorating ideas. While the natural decorating ideas involved beautiful flowers and things that I am not inclined to spend so much time and money doing, I did find some wonderful ideas, mainly, rather than the messy ordeal of trying to cut cake and dish out ice cream with lots of little children dancing around me, I could make cupcakes, and freeze individual portions of ice cream in cup cake liners the night before, and just let everyone serve themselves. I thought this was an amazing idea - not that I hadn't heard of cupcakes, but sometimes I need reminding, and the ice cream idea was really nice and made things SO much easier.
With Mary Susannah on a trip to East Texas for church meetings, I was on my own shopping for the party.. I was amazed at how popular cupcakes must be right now, because a whole isle at Walmart was dedicated to them! I quickly found princess decorations, but there wasn't any boy stuff - I guess cupcakes must be a girl thing? I was wondering what I was going to do, when I found a little package of candy eyes. I snatched those up along with two small tubes of gel, and we were set. I also got Mary Susannah a couple of those cupcakes stands she has been wanting. That was absolutely the right thing to do!
The morning of the party, I baked the cupcakes, then handed them to Mary Susannah to decorate. She whipped up white and chocolate frosting, and before long, we had great birthday party cupcakes!
The girl version:
Usually, Angel-Leah and Tommy's birth grandmother, who they call Nanny and I call Joan, has the October party - a combined party for Angel-Leah and Luke. But she's having some problems with her leg right now (MRI coming up this week, we are praying the doctors will find the reason and can give her some relief). So this year, I offered to have it at my house. They insisted on paying for it. Joan was supposed to just come, but she cheated and brought some fruit anyway! :o)
With Tommy being on a diet that forbids any kind of artificial colorings, artificial flavorings and corn syrup, we have to make almost everything from scratch. After our last birthday cake disaster, (see that story here) I spent some time online looking for ideas to make things simpler, and also to try and find some natural decorating ideas. While the natural decorating ideas involved beautiful flowers and things that I am not inclined to spend so much time and money doing, I did find some wonderful ideas, mainly, rather than the messy ordeal of trying to cut cake and dish out ice cream with lots of little children dancing around me, I could make cupcakes, and freeze individual portions of ice cream in cup cake liners the night before, and just let everyone serve themselves. I thought this was an amazing idea - not that I hadn't heard of cupcakes, but sometimes I need reminding, and the ice cream idea was really nice and made things SO much easier.
With Mary Susannah on a trip to East Texas for church meetings, I was on my own shopping for the party.. I was amazed at how popular cupcakes must be right now, because a whole isle at Walmart was dedicated to them! I quickly found princess decorations, but there wasn't any boy stuff - I guess cupcakes must be a girl thing? I was wondering what I was going to do, when I found a little package of candy eyes. I snatched those up along with two small tubes of gel, and we were set. I also got Mary Susannah a couple of those cupcakes stands she has been wanting. That was absolutely the right thing to do!
The morning of the party, I baked the cupcakes, then handed them to Mary Susannah to decorate. She whipped up white and chocolate frosting, and before long, we had great birthday party cupcakes!
The girl version:
And the boy version:
They were a hit.
Another hit of the party was that we got Angel-Leah and Tommy's big birth brother Ben to come this year. We hadn't seen him in two years, and that was WAY too long. Tommy was scared of him, convinced that
"that man wanted to take me with him!" Not that that probably wouldn't have been just fine with Ben, except that he had to go back to work after the party, and having his little brother with him might have made it a bit difficult to work. Ben and I decided that we were going to get together more often so the kids could know him, and this time I intend to really do that!!
The party was fun, and I look forward to many more. In fact, Max had a birthday this weekend. He spent it in Missouri with Bill, golfing. They got home last night, and tonight is my turn with him. Max and I are going out to eat. Then Luke has his birthday later this month.
My children just keep growing up, no matter how much I wish time would slow down!!
Other birthday party blogs:
Happy Birthdays! Our birthdays around here last from February-June for 5 of the 6 kids, then my husband and my birthdays are in August, and then my littlest one's birthday is on halloween. Looks like it was alot of fun celebrating!
ReplyDeleteIt was!! I always dread the getting ready, but the parties are so much fun, it's worth it all!
ReplyDelete