Birthday Party ideas for kids...

Well, this weather is not helping my plans of just a little more yard work, boohoo.  I did bake just one more rhubarb treat and I promise I will stop writing about rhubarb, I just can't help myself....

OK, so not only did it smell awesome, but tasted yummy, an apple, rhubarb, strawberry crisp, yup, uh huh, I made it late in the evening and ate a small bowl for breakfast once the kids were gone to school, accompanied by a perfectly brewed, warm, cuppa java, a great way to start my day.

Alright enough already, I know, I know.  Since these grey, drippy clouds have me a bit down and unmotivated to create new things I thought I would share a little passion of mine.   I love prepping for my kids birthday parties, the ideas floweth and consume my mind.  My Mom and I have always decorated the birthday cakes for my kids, ever since they could shovel in cake with their fists.  Usually rental cake pans are used and cakes are decorated up all nice and colourful, but sometimes the kids make requests that don't use a cake pan, and some just get me thinking even more about ideas to go along with the birthday 'theme'.  I thought I would share some of those with you, maybe to help you with ideas as well, and they are just a lot of fun to show.

This cake was made with a cake pan and we decorated it as to my daughter's colour preferences.  Hannah Montana was the theme, we sent out guitar shaped invites and the party was at a photo finishing/studio.  The girls had a blast.  The party included an hour long photo shoot to my daughter's chosen songs, (Hannah Montana of course) pizza, and we provided the cake.  Their loot bag after the party was a picture of the group of them taken by the photographer in frames I purchased at the Dollar store and chocolate shaped guitars I had made up by a local chocolate business.  I also gave each girl a glittery scarf for the photo shoot. (also purchased at the Dollar store).  The girls had the option to purchase a DVD of the entire photo shoot, with special effects, music and all.  The studio also provided a link for the families to see and share the video for a certain period of time.

My son's party was hamburger themed, as you might have guessed.  The invites went along with the theme, and the food served was mini burgers (and hot dogs for those that did not want burgers)  The cake was made with two Pyrex bowls and a circular cake pan.  It is a large cake, just to let you know.  We chose real sesame seeds for the top of the bun, way easier than dots of icing, and we used icing as the ketchup, lettuce and mustard, as I don't let my kids eat fruit by the foot, or otherwise, but you can cut different shaped licorice gummy type of things to look like the lettuce etc... if you wish.  My kids remind me often that their friends get fruit by the foot ALL the time (apparently) and why can't I just be a normal Mom....Yep that's me, abnormal.  I think I've said that before in a round about way.

This cake was when my son was loving Lego, a short phase for him, thankfully really.  He chose a costume party theme and had a joint party with his sister.  Their birthdays are only two weeks apart, so that made for an interesting couple of hours.  We sent out mask shaped invites, and had good old fashioned party games.  The kind I used to have, the kind that kids nowa days aren't really aware of.  Hot Potato, musical chairs, etc....  We rented our rural Rec Centre for a whole $45.  Totally worth more, but shhhh, it's all good.  The cake is 4 separate cakes covered in marshmallow fondant.  So much more tasty than almond paste, bleh....Anyway it came together relatively easy, the little Lego dude is a little out of scale in comparison to the cake, but you get the idea.  For the party we added a few more Lego people and I iced a couple of cookies with Happy Birthday written on them and his name and leaned them up like a sign on the cake Lego pieces.  It was a hit with the boys at the party, that's for sure, I was like, totally cool Mom with this one.  Oh  and my son dressed up as a Lego man, easiest costume ever, face painted his face, good ole Lego yellow, purchased a red shirt like the Lego dudes at the Salvation Army store, and used a Sharpie marker to draw on the shirt just like the Lego dude.  Ta Da....

These little ice cream cones are my daughter's cakes.  It was an icy themed party.  We had an outdoor skating rink in our back yard that year, so we sent out skate shaped invites and had a skating party.  Her birthday is in February, the 13th, to be exact.  I filled the ice cream cones only about half way with cake batter, some were a little more full and rose up quite a bit, but no biggie, it's cake, it's all good.  Iced the cake cones to look like ice cream and added sprinkles.  Awesome!  The cones were a little soggy, not crazy soggy, more like a little soft after baking, no crunch when you bit into it, but they were still yummy.  The loot bags were cookies in a jar, recipe attached and a bag of some already made cookies to sample for each girl.

These fun little bears are relaxing in their cupcakes pools under an umbrella, chillaxin.  The theme, you guessed it, a pool party.  Fun summery invites were sent out (made on the computer as my daughter's birthday is in February)  and the girls swam and had fun.  Easy peasy.  Pizza was served to eat, as well as other snacks.  A few girls slept over at the hotel and got in one more swim the next morning.  My other daughter had a pool party one year too, and we planned ahead for that, giving away flip flops from Old Navy as gifts.  Gift receipts were attached but I think we pretty much nailed the sizing for the girls.  Old Navy just happened to have a flip flop sale weeks before, how perfect for us.
Finally one of my daughters last birthdays;

  Larissa

            Birthday Mall
             123 Holly Lane
           Anywhere, CA
           (123)456-7890
-----------------------------------

Store: 011
Cashier: mom007

-----------------------------------

*Shopping special, one day only*

Larissa is turning 11, it’s a
Birthday madness event …….

Meet at my house, we’ll have
Supper at the Mall, shop for
Deals and return home for cake

*Super blowout special of the day*

Sleepover, bring sleeping bag,
Pillow and whatever else you
Need!

             Total:  $$ Lots of fun!!
-----------------------------------

       CUSTOMER COPY

Date (Friday, February 10^th)
Time (arrive around 5:00pm)
Pickup (11:00am Saturday)

             Thank You  J

Insert a picture of a bar code here,
I googled bar code images and chose
one to insert
So I'm not the most techie person and didn't know how to post my document of the invite we sent out, so, I copied and pasted it on my post, sorry.  As you can see it was a shopping party.  I did up invites on the computer to look like shopping receipts, cut them into the proper width, used our own address and phone number of course, and inserted a bar code at the bottom.  we rolled them up and put them inside bags to give to the girls, kind of like a shopping receipt in the bottom of your shopping bag, lol.  The kids thought it was a great invite, and when we returned home each girl got a pretty little cake of her own to eat.  I gave each girl $10 to shop with, and at Ardene's they can buy loot bags 2/$5 for small ones, or 2/$8 for the larger ones.  Which the girls then opened and traded and wore all the neon accessories and humongous earrings, and bangles etc...

Alrighty sorry about the length of this post I got a little carried away.  My birthday planning days will soon be ending and I had to reminisce.  Both my girls are now at the ages where they just  want to go out with their friends, the mall is always a good choice to them, and my son who knows when he will decide to be done, his this year was only with a few buddies and they went all over the city doing whatever boys like to do, bowling, video games, ice cream, and home to run around screaming and getting scratches on their knees from tackling each other on the lawn.

We just had a momentary power outage here.  Whew....Those darn leaky clouds...thunder and lightening, which, I am a storm lover, so I am not complaining.

Till next time my friends, hope I have given some of you a few ideas, and if not, hope you liked what I posted.  I am always open to more ideas, I have neices and nephews still that I can plan for, heehee...leave me a comment please.  Chat soon

More Rhubarb...great weekend

Well, this May Long weekend went by in a hurry.  I never get everything done that I want to get done. Funny how kids, and just life in general get in the way, oh ya maybe Mother Nature too.  One day we have OK weather, the next it's raining and then it's a scorching hot beautiful day and you try to jam pack all the yard work into one single solitary day, and not ignore your children, and try to remember to feed everyone lunch, and still try to keep working, mowing, raking, weed whacking, digging, pulling, wheelbarrowing, driving a child and her bicycle to a friends house, picking up that same child and bringing she and her friend back home to play even more, taking pictures of kids riding on a pallet being pulled by the quad runner for weight to drag and level the driveway and haul some rocks away, running to the back yard to see your other children do flips and moves on the trampoline and balance beam, throw a ball or two for your favourite hairy four legged buddy,  make sure the little dog you are looking after for your parents doesn't run up to the road and get hit by a car, and.....whew.....practically all was completed in a matter of one day.  We all worked together, managed to have some laughs, and smiles, and out yard no longer looks abandoned.  We have two acres of land, of which a good chunk is lawn, thankfully we have a riding tractor, and the kids take turns on that, the rest is push mower and weed whacker fun.  I live on the edge and weed whack without ear and eye protection and no steel toes either, ya I'm a risk taker, or just dumb, whatever you wish.  I have a few different gardens and they do get neglected from time to time, I know hard to believe and all, so I tackled my center island garden yesterday.  We have a circular driveway and this is the center piece, lol...

So mostly it just need to be weeded, and trimmed back a bit.  We have had that old cast iron fire hydrant for a few years now, and finally got it 'planted', sanded and painted by my youngest daughter and hubby (hubby is a fire fighter) and it looks great.  We live rurally and certainly don't have fire hydrants out our way, all just for decoration and cool factor.

I did get a little sun as well, ya, another living on the edge moment, that I will totally agree was dumb for sure.  I never even thought about it as I headed outside first thing in the morning, as my fam was having french toast, made by hubby, I was mowing my first patch of lawn.  When I get motivated I gotta do it, or it will be lost and I will be on to something else, probably of less importance.  Anyway by the time I had to drive my daughter to her friend's house, and change out of my most righteously fashionable yard working ensemble , by order of my daughter, who really didn't even want me pulling into her friend's driveway for fear that I may be spotted looking my absolute best sweaty, dirtiest.  I took note that my shoulders were feeling a bit off, and once I returned home after the short drive I realized for certain that I had got my first and last sunburn of this year.  I have about 17 bottles of different kinds of sunscreen, baby, waterproof, spray on, wipe on, purple on work in till clear, small bottles, large bottles, compact, travel size, purse size with a carabiner clip and still I was dumb enough to go outside without any...dumb! dumb! dumb!  I am blond, fair skinned and burn instantly, really I only get a darker shade of ivory over the course of summer, tan is a foreign word to me, honestly.  OK enough ranting, on to......R H U B A R B.

I love rhubarb, first of all it's free, and second it's tartness is so dang yummy.  From picking it fresh and dipping in sugar, ya feel your cheeks suck in, that's what I'm talking about, tart yumminess.  To stewing, to baking, to making jam, it's all good.  I can't wait to have my sprouted grain toast with rhubarb jam in the morning.  Bah, who am I kidding I could eat that jam with a spoon, never mind on toast, kind of like 'medicine'.  Ya, medicine, that's it.  I will admit that I licked the pot clean after jarring up my batch.  I just use the recipe in the Certo box for all my jams, I have learned which ones to tweak and how to ensure setting of the jam or jelly.  I am a regular jam and jelly maker with the fruits and vegies of the season.  I am actually typing to the sound of my jars 'snapping'.  The sound of success, right there.  Even if the jam or jelly doesn't set, put it in the fridge and use it up right away.  Give some jars away to friends and family with instructions to refrigerate.  The taste will be the same, and should not go to waste.  It's all good, who cares, change the name to sauce instead of jam, who needs to know, heehee :)

Now when I say I have a hardy batch of rhubarb, I'm not kidding, you will notice in my pic that not all the leaves are even on the trees yet, and my patch is huge, under those large, umbrella like leaves are seed pods already beginning to form, and some who live very near to me aren't even able to use their rhubarb yet.

I love it.  I actually think it loves the iceberg rock it grows next to.  That rock is enormous and we had to build our house away from it, as it was too large to move without going broke trying to blast it outta there.  It only grows under the ground, I think it goes to China, seriously...It's the base to our kids snow hill to slide and play on in the winter, or at least when they were young and would actually 'play' outside, lol.

Well, we didn't build anything, and we didn't get any new 'treasures' this weekend, as I stayed pretty close to home, we just hung out, kids had fun, we watched movies during the rain.  My parents are off on their journey in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland and I have their little dog for a few weeks.  She likes me, I know it, and I like having a small dog around to cuddle up with on the couch with my blanket and coffee on yet another rainy greyish looking day.  It keeps the forest fires down, and the grass green, so that keeps me smiling.
What's your favourite rhubarb treat, do you have one or are you not a rhubarb lover?  Please share with me as I am always open to new ideas for recipes.

Have a great week.