Happy Birthday to my Titanic-Loving Kid

Happy happy birthday to HD who is now double digits. Like how though?!

 At the beginning of the school year, he was really into the Titanic. We found a fictional book series about the passengers on the Titanic and he couldn't read them fast enough. He also enjoyed the book, "I Survived: The Sinking of the Titanic" which he also quickly read. He had no idea what he wanted for a cake this year, so I surprised him with the idea of the Titanic. He was quick to inform me he didn't want it to be sinking!

 He liked it, but he said he would have loved it if it had four stacks like the actual Titanic....

 I could not have done this cake without my dear friend, Alicia, though! She and her daughter came out for a concert and stayed an extra few days. Because that weekend coincided with HD's birthday party weekend, I suggested she help me with his cake. We had always talked about getting together to make a cake, but we never set aside time to actually do it. I figured now was a good time to check that one off our list. 

 She's got a pretty steady hand, so she did all the little windows on the bottom of the boat. HD was very interested in what she was working on and wanted to try it himself. 

The cake decorators and perfectionists in us were both thinking NO, it'll ruin it! So we let him do windows on the back of the boat, since there's ALWAYS a backside!

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!

You know who had a birthday last month and I completely missed sharing about it? Miss Gail! I *cannot* believe our little princess is 5 years old! I tried to convince her to stay 4 for just a little bit longer, but she insisted on having a birthday anyway.

For the last two birthdays she's wanted a Minnie Mouse cake, but changed her mind at the last minute. From Minnie to Cinderella and from Minnie to cats. This year it actually stuck though! (Frozen and Moana were tempting her a lot!) Her birthday seems to just sneak up on me every year. We count down to it, but I'm still not ready for all the planning birthday celebrations entail. 

We did have a little party for her with her family the day before. Cousin Casey rode over on a special trip with Nanny. Robin and her boyfriend, Marshall, also made an appearance at the party. I spent the morning putting the finishing touches on the cake while the kids played.

Some time during the morning, my mom took the kids to the store and Casey came back with a wind-up boat to play with. The bowl he found wasn't big enough for the boat to float around in, so I filled up the sink for him. Before I know it, both him and Ms. Gail are running off to change into their bathing suits and then they hopped into the sink as I pretended to not be watching. You can only do this at Aunt Sadie's house! They were so sweet to watch! I couldn't stay no!

Ms. Gail love love loved her cake. It's not my favorite, but if the birthday girl loves it, then that's all that matters.

I seriously can't get enough of these two! Nanny had gotten Ms. Gail a "phone" which had lip gloss in it that resembled apps. I can't tell you how many fingers she painted with lip gloss!

She also could not wait to try on her pink hair! She thought it was the best thing *ever*!

 

Ms. Gail had to share her birthday with me this year as Mother's Day landed on her special day. Because I knew how much she enjoyed bike rides, I opted to have us check out a trail that runs through town. It did not disappoint, though Ms. Gail found herself having to walk up several hills. I think we biked around 3 miles round trip.

Conveniently enough there was a gas station right off the trail so dad suggested we "go check it out." Ice cream all around! The perfect incentive to go just a little bit further.

Because we didn't get to roast hot dogs at her party, like requested, we gathered around for a roast that evening. Pretty sure roasting hot dogs is one of the kids' most favorite thing to do.

S'mores are just an added bonus :) 

My Princess Turned 3!!

I am so tired right now I could cry. Actually, I might have before leaving for work at 10:30pm. These Friday night shifts are killing me! But lucky for me, I had a friend stop by the house to drop off somethings and she brought me coffee. Exactly what I needed to get through the morning!

Charlotte's birthday last year was super last minute, and this year wasn't much different. I was originally planning on having her party Friday evening, but then I heard cousins Casey and Dylan wouldn't be there so I moved the party to Thursday. Then I heard Aunt Kile was going to come, but she thought it was on Friday. I moved it back to Friday, after I agreed to work the overnight shift. Some serious poor planning right there. You know, thankgoodness it wasn't on Thursday though. At one point there was 11 kids at my house ranging from 8 months old to 7 1/2 years old. It was chaos. I was just glad my mom and neighbor were there too! I would have never gotten anything ready for her party while watching Charlotte + Kady + 3 babies during the day. 

Aunt Bobbi occupied some of the kids by playing baseball in backyard.

After baking and carving the cake Thursday, I woke up semi-ready to tackle Friday the 13th. Charlotte was so excited when she woke up and ate her last jelly bean on her countdown to her birthday! Ridiculously cute! Just as I imagined, she requested Cream of Wheat for breakfast, her favorite. 

Charlotte and Aunt Kim in the hammock. 

 I spent the morning tidying up the house knowing that by the afternoon, you wouldn't be able to tell it was tidy. I powered through just so I wouldn't have to work on decorating the cake. I keep putting it off until the last minute. I think I'm burning out on the caking... At one point I had two babies at my feet, and two very curious girls watching me frost the cake. I can't tell you how frustrating all the questions can be when I'm concentrating! But I got it done with time to spare.

 My parents showed up just in time to help make the burger patties and prep the toppings. Perry arrived home to a house FULL of people, and just in time to grill. Unless I miscounted, there was 20 adults and 12 kids. I don't think we've ever had this many people at our house at once. Especially for a 3 year old's party! I loved it!

 Hunter enjoyed his time with cousin Casey, but also had a friend over to play with as well. (He just shows up at our house pretty frequently so instead of sending him home, I said he could stay for dinner. Then he set his plate down and the vulture-dog of ours ran off with his hot dog.) JP didn't care for all the people, which didn't surprise me. I found him in our spare room watching a movie "having some Jimmy time." Charlotte was later found in Hunter's room crying because of all the people. Poor little thing!

 We quickly cleaned up dinner and moved on to cake and presents to perk up her spirits. She loved the cake, but she wasn't into pictures today. Go figure. This is the best of them. Booties helped her to at least look at the camera. 

 She wouldn't even cheer up for Daddy!

 She did perk up a bit when her bestie came around though! Just a little.

 After I took all the pictures I needed of the cake, we sang her the birthday song, and wasn't overly impressed about it. She did request mom and dad to sing it again to her at bedtime and her face was all smiles!

 I'm pretty sure Hunter adores Casey as much as Casey adores Hunter. I sense some trouble coming on with these two in a few years...

 Once she ate her cake, Charlotte made a mad dash for the presents. All the kids did. She had been waiting all day to open up the present JP gave her. He had me pick up a box of Whoppers for her and he wrapped them with the message, "To Charli Love Jimmy" on the box. If that doesn't melt your heart....

The other night at dinner we asked her what she wanted for her birthday and she was quick to spell it out for everyone. A bike from JP, a pink flower from Hunter, her "purple-red" blanket (it's actually teal) from Dad that's been sitting high on a shelf for several months (only Santa can reach it, her words not mine!), and a light saber from mom that looks like Hunter's. She later changed my present to puzzles thankfully. Other than her blanket which is already hers, she received everything she asked for!

 Perry rode her bike in from the garage. I had bought a few bows to put on it, but they didn't make it to the bike. The pedals didn't make it on the bike either. I found it posted online from a church friend and immediately spoke for it. It has princesses on it too! Perry helped her ride it down the hall after Casey helped her put her new helmet on. 

 Once all her presents were opened, we all got a really nice thank you out of her. She opened them all so fast that she didn't process everything she was opening. After all the guest left, she dug through her box of stuff excitedly!

 Casey enjoyed her new pom-poms :)

 Before the nephews left, we attempted to get a cousins picture. #1 I can't see Dylan! Sit Dylan up!

 #2 Stay there Dylan! JP look at the camera! Hunter put the bat down.

 #3 JP look here! Casey! 

I think we should have stopped after the 1st picture.

Much to our surprise, Aunt Erin and cousin Stevie were in the area and were able to join us for the party! Such a fun surprise! I'm excited to hopefully see them again before they head home next week!

Happy birthday sweet Charlotte! Where have these last 3 years gone?!

Underwater Themed Cake

This was quite the week for me! As I said last week when I was finishing up my post about our basement, I had a few upcoming cakes this week. This is the first one that needed to be done.

The theme of the party was whales, as it was for a 1 year old. He has an adorable blanket with whales on the back that his mom wanted his party themed after. Adorable. In my mind, there would have been more waves on the top tier, the portion he got to smash into, but Monday happened. I had the entire bottom tier completely done, as well as the cake baked and layered for the top tier by Sunday afternoon. The whale was even made. All I needed to do Monday morning was frost the cake and add the waves and the octopus.

I swung by the store after work Sunday night to pick up a few things and by the time I was checking out, I felt so weak and pale. I didn't think much of it because I was exhausted (and a bit stressed). Instead of working on the cake when I got home, I opted to work on it Monday morning while the twins (I babysit now because I have baby fever!) were napping, except I woke up in the middle of the night completely sick. Every time I moved I would start gagging. It was terrible. And that lasted until the next afternoon. My whimpering/moaning in the middle of the night woke my wonderful husband up so he just knew he'd better take a sick day and stay home with me. Bless his heart I didn't even have to ask <3 p="">
I slept on and off all morning, the best I could with Charlotte still wanting mommy. (And because someone spent his day off working on the basement...) I probably could have rested easier if I wasn't so worried about getting the cake done. It took a solid hour to get frosting on the top tier. That task usually takes just a few minutes. I was a wreck until Perry went to the store to pick up some anti-nausea medicine for me.

After the boys bounced through the door after school, we all loaded up to deliver the cake. I knew I wasn't fit to be driving and I'm glad I didn't because I started feeling sick again on the way home. I hate hate hate being nauseous. I don't remember being so sick before in my life, but I'm pretty sure I feel that way every time I get sick...

Anyways, here's how it turned out. Normally I take a few more "professional" looking photos, but I just couldn't this time. All things considered, it turned out decent :) 
<3 p="">

JP's 6th Birthday with Yoda and Leonardo

Oh month of February, how I loath you... I'm so thankful JP's birthday is over and more so that I opted not to throw a big party for him because I woke up today with the feeling of a head cold coming on. As the day progressed, my suspicions were confirmed. Here comes my dreaded birthday cold, right on schedule. Hooray. 

 Charlotte and I spent Tuesday and Wednesday working on JP's cake and cupcakes. She's such a good helper in the kitchen!

 To celebrate his birthday at school, we made these cupcakes. He wanted vanilla cupcakes, so I added a little bit of green coloring to them, because I knew he would just love that. And he did. The majority of the evening was spent making the chocolate to resemble turtle shells. I meant to take a better picture of them, but his birthday morning was chaos. He couldn't stop smiling at them!

 Before he left for school, I told him he could open one present, knowing he'd pick the biggest one. Last week I went to zip his backpack closed and the zipper completely came off so I found a Ninja Turtle one to replace it. He was super excited to take it to school!

 After lunch Charlotte and I loaded up and took the cupcakes to school while Leonardo, his favorite Ninja Turtle, and Yoda dried. Like usual, I fell down the stairs again when I left JP's classroom. Go me. 

 I really struggled to get the Ninja Turtle to stand on his own. His shell was too heavy! After jabbing a couple looong dowels through his legs, I finally got him to stay. I finished up the lettering 15 minutes before we left to go to dinner at Pizza Hut with Grandma, Aunt Kim, and King Julian. Not that I'd expect you to know, but the lettering is in Ninja Turtle font, though it's from Star Wars. You know, Star Wars meets Ninja Turtles.

 Everyone met up at our house after pizza for cake and presents. Even Aunt Bobby joined in as she was just getting back to town from taking her boards in Helena. (It'll be a long wait until next Friday for her!)

So excited to blow out the candles...

These are the best pictures I have of him with his cake. He requested a chocolate cake, and then didn't even have a piece. Go figure. I wish he hated pictures a little bit less. Just one nice smile for mom? Pleeeease?

A Star Wars Birthday For Hunter

We have a 7 year old! I've been calling Hunter a 7 year old for at least a month prior to his birthday, but now it's legit. As of late he's really been into Star Wars, even though he knows nothing about it. All he knows is they fight with light sabers and Darth Vader is pretty cool. 

At his request, despite my disapproval of the color black, I made him a Darth Vader cake. He sat with me on the couch (as he was recovering from an evening of throwing up all over me...no, I was recovering from that) and we scrolled through Pinterest looking at all the different Star Wars and Darth Vader cakes. He chose the simplest design in the worst color to work with. 

I must have rolled out the black fondant ten times, and I may or may not have uttered the words, "You should be very glad that I love you right now or you wouldn't be getting a cake..." The more dye you add to the fondant, the more the fondant begins to breakdown... Why didn't I just use black frosting? Because I didn't want all the kids to have purple mouths... Gah. But Hunter loved his cakes, even with a couple cracks in it. He especially loved that I was able to make Darth Vader hold his birthday candle as a make shift light saber. Mom for the win! 

 He really really really wanted his party at the hotel again and I couldn't say no, even though his party was scheduled to start the same time the Cat/Griz game started... Every stinking year his birthday coincides with that football game weekend... But since he didn't get to celebrate with his kindergarten friends last year, I said what the heck this year. I can't begin to tell you how much fun Charli had with the neighbor twins! To say she loves the water is a bit of an understatement...

 He had a handful of his classmates show up, which was plenty for me! From what I could tell, it looked like everyone had a bunch of fun! I made just enough goodie bags for his guests too. That never happens with me...

Even though he gives Perry and I a run for our money parenting-wise, I love this kid to pieces and can't wait to see what this year brings! Hopefully more snuggles for mom? We're not too old for that yet, right?