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?!

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?

My Nephew Turns One!

He's not quite a one year old yet, but since next weekend is Halloween, we celebrated a year gone by with this little guy! Isn't he adorable?! I think he looks like his momma :)

 My sister baked this guy a pretty sweet cake. I didn't get a good picture of it, but the cake we ate (which was delicious!) was green with some grass added in the corners, and Dylan's football cake sat on top of it. This was no little football either!

 He made sure to eat every bit of it too! What a mess he made! He probably made more of a mess than my three kids combined. Way to go bud!

Nom nom nommm!

Check out those messy fingers! I could just eat them up!

Tell your brother "Happy Birthday, Casey!" Ah heck no! Hahaha! I love his eyes in the last one! Oh no you di-n't!

 After Dylan destroyed his cake, the dogs were quick to clean up the mess. Roxy ate most of it... There were a total of 6 dogs at the party, which almost out numbered the kids.

I caught this little ham being ridiculously cute eating his cake. He actually only ate the frosting!

I think it's safe to say everyone enjoyed watching this little cutie yesterday afternoon. He sure is loved by all! 

BAM! Superhero Cake + Cupcakes

My kitchen has been a busy place today! Other than frosting and baking the cake itself, I did all of this, including the cupcakes, today. I would tell how happy I was to hear that Perry took the day off of work since his planned trip to Bozeman was cancelled, but he literally stayed in bed all day. He was pretty useless. It made for a couple *high* stressed times when the kids weren't quite behaving...But he did manage to make Charlotte take a nap with him in the late afternoon so that rocked! She can be quite the little tornado in the kitchen... 

 I haven't really used melted chocolate much before, but I thought that since I volunteer to add cupcakes to the order, I may as well do something I haven't done before. I love how they turned out. Probably my favorite. Can cupcakes be my favorite cake?

 The cake turned out cute too though. Except the spider. I hate the spider. I cringe a little every time I even think about making Spiderman. I guess less specifically, red and black. But one or the other appears on pretty much every cake...

 But I really just love the cupcakes. They were a huge hit with all the kids. I normally don't make chocolate, but this recipe knocked my socks off. And if you haven't already, you should go to my Facebook page, Simply Delightful Cakes, and "like" it. 

The party was at the YMCA in one of their gyms. Kids were running everywhere! Hunter and JP had a lot of fun together. Charlotte ran around by herself. She really enjoyed kicking balloons and chasing them around the gym. She was adorable, until she was just done. Conveniently enough it was the same time that I found Hunter curled up in a corner crying because no one wanted to play with him. Poor guy. (It might have been because he was steamrolling everyone and everything over...) 

Get ready for another superhero cake next weekend too!

Happy Birthday to my Superhero!

I'm pretty sure JP thought his birthday party would never get here! He has been waiting and waiting since Hunter's birthday...in November. But the last few weeks it hit him hard. "How many more days?!" It's a good thing I had it at the hotel again (and that they're super flexible!) because I had to change the date around a few times since Perry had a last minute trip to Spokane. His birthday was actually on Tuesday, but with Perry being gone, we changed it to Wednesday so he could be around for part of it. 

On his birthday, I let him order what ever he wanted for breakfast, which was an egg on toast with sprinkles. Aunt Kim and Nanny came over later that morning and stole him and Charli away so I could decorate the cake. (Cooking dinner with Charlotte around is hard enough!) He went bowling and almost got a strike, played on the train at the mall and went birthday shopping with Nanny and picked out his present. By the time they got back, the cake was almost done. It really only took a few hours... For dinner he requested Mac 'n Cheese, and after I had the water boiling for it, I realized we were out. I instead formulated a plan that was better than just Mac 'n Cheese. We went through the drive thru at Wendy's and came back and ate it in a fort we built in his room. And then Hunter and him got to sleep in it. 

I thought he was going to pick a Ninja Turtle cake again, but I was wrong, JP wanted a superhero cake this year. I was so excited about that decision because I had been wanting to make a hero cake for one of my kids! (In JP's head, Ninja Turtles *are* superheros so Leonardo made an appearance too!) You can see more cake pictures on my cake blog.

 Wednesday finally arrived and he was SO anxious to get to the pool to swim with his friends. He had so much fun with all of them! I could tell everyone had fun - even the moms :)

 JP even went down the slides a few times with Aunt Kim, and once with me. Contrary to his belief, he ended up liking it! 

 Charli got in the pool too! She was really scared of the kiddy pool because of the mushroom waterfall being really loud, but she eventually got in and sat in the big pool. Hunter spent most of his time in the hot tub...

 Just having a green table cloth and green plates, literally, made his day! I'm pretty sure all his friends are aware of his green obsession...

 Despite what the picture shows, he was super excited, internally though. He's like me in social settings and definitely and introvert!

 

 After singing "Happy Birthday" he attempted to blow out his candles from way back in his chair. He really struggled to get the last two, so I hoisted him up after a few more failed attempts. 

He also wanted nothing to do with cake because he was just itching to open all of his presents. He was so excited! 

JP slept like a rock last night. Hunter did too...kind of. He came upstairs about an hour after bedtime and walked down the hall like a zombie. He climbed up on my lap and snuggled in like a cat. Perry and I tried and tried to asked him what was wrong and before we knew it he was out. At one point he was hanging mostly off the couch, with his face on my tummy, and his hand smack in the middle of my face. We're both sure he was sleep-walking, especially since he doesn't remember any of it!

Happy *Surprise* Birthday to My Dad!

Yesterday my dad turned 60 so the day before our family held a surprise party for him.

 His cake was supposed to be a surprise too but he just happened to be upstairs when I arrived...go figure! The plan was to have him hang out downstairs in the basement with the guys and watch football. All of his party guests arrived and stayed upstairs and waited for him to come upstairs at half time (which took longer than expected!).

 Meanwhile I had fun watching Casey steal candy... He knows how to get what he wants!

 Nanny however wasn't impressed with him after he rubbed his chocolate-cover hands on her *new* "nanny-only" chair...one more excuse for me to make sure the downstairs door stayed closed!

 I did get a little Dylan time too! He's a sweetheart! I think I only heard him cry once? And it was the cutest thing ever!

 When halftime finally came around, he headed upstairs for "sandwiches" and found two of his brothers and their families, along with a cousin and an few family friends. 

 He was excited to see one of his college buddies there too! 

It goes without say that this golfer loved his cake too!

 As soon as JP got down from the table, Casey hopped on up to finished what JP left.

 And the sweets kicked in right away!

 Isn't he so sweet?!

My cousin Ryan and his wife Tara stopped by for a while too with their little princess, and Charlotte loved her! JP did too - he made her a crown and bracelets,which she later nibbled on! I think it's safe to say my dad was truly surprised and blessed to have so many people there to celebrate turning the big 6-0! Thanks to all who came! It was great to see everyone and talk to everyone! I'm still trying to figure out his card trick too...