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

Mother's Day Weekend

Our weather is cooperating nicely this weekend.  The sun is shining, the temperatures are rising, just perfect for Mother's Day weekend.  I have to say I'm a little sad, as my Mom left for her hometown Friday and my first Mother's Day gift ever isn't in town either.  Heehee, my oldest daughter was born on Mother's Day 13 years ago, the best Mother's Day gift ever.  And, ever since then, my family has always been together for brunch on Mother's Day at my house.  This year, nope.....so we changed it up a little and my son had his friends to sleep over for his birthday party.  First they went bowling and had lunch, then they went to the kids arcade, and then McDonald's for ice cream. 
A pic of their dirt cakes;

all the fixings needed to make the cakes

the finished dirt cakes

So, I thought I would plug the little holes in the bottom of the flower pots (purchased at Dollarama, 10 pack for $1) with tin foil inside, but turned out that scotch tape on the outside bottom of the pots worked even better, so crumble already baked chocolate cake in the bottom of the pots, put a spoon full of chocolate pudding then insert a couple of gummy worms, and sprinkle with cookie crumbs on top and there you have dirt cakes.  They are yummy and a hit with the boys, although they were a little on the full side to eat much when they returned home, didn't eat them until about 8pm, oh well.


Now just a heads up in case you thought about having a group of boys sleep over, they are real life Energizer Bunnies, I kid you not, my goodness, they just keep going and going and going!  At least 9 and 10 year old boys do, whew....my coffee couldn't be made quick enough come morning, lol.  They had so much fun, played out side most of the afternoon and evening, ate too much food, but did manage to get some sleep, again thank goodness.  Sooo, in the morning I made cinnamon pull apart bread and served fruit, and waffles as well in case some didn't like the cinnamon pull apart bread.  Ya right, not much left for us non boy party members *sigh*  They played a little more outside before Dad's came to pick them up in the morning to go and celebrate Mother's Day with their Mom's.  I crashed a little on the couch with my coffee and my family and I just hung out at home, made a visit to Canadian Tire, bought some dirt, seeds, mulch and pots, and had take out Greek Salad for supper, and left over cheesecake for dessert.  Just perfect really, simple, and delicious.  On our way home we noticed this cloud in the sky;

same cloud, we just drove a little more down the road and I took another picture.   Sorry, the pics are taken on my iPhone, wished I had my camera but you get the idea still.  Wow, it was quite windy then and Lake Superior was covered in white caps, but the sun was shining and it was still warm outside, not a tornado, thankfully just a cloud.

This morning I pick up my oldest daughter at the airport, YAY!!!

Can't wait to talk in person instead of texting non stop, and give her a huge hug, (I missed her sooo much) she had a great time, they earned a trophy for their efforts, only one injury (not my daughter) (and, not serious) all the girls survived and are stoked for next years Cheer leading.
Hope every one had a fantastic weekend with loved ones, whether or not it was a mother, and will chat soon.

where does the time go???

Well it has been another whirl wind week.  My oldest became a teenager on Wednesday, and, Thursday I took her to the airport to go on her own for a cheerleading competition in Niagra Falls!  Yikes, like that didn't hit me a bit hard.  I did manage to hold back the tears until walking out of the airport into my van.  I took a moment to breath and wipe away the tears I have to tell ya.....My 'baby' was leaving on a plane without me :(  *huge sigh* 
K my lemon cookies, just so you know, were really quite yummy and did not last long at all, just a little distraction so I don't well up with tears again, lol.

OK now back to the start of the week;  I had my volunteer stuff to do at the kids school, then prepare for the birthday, my daughter decided Monday night that she would like cake pops for Wednesday, oh and chocolate cake too please.  Hmmm, seriously?  OK.... I can do that, turning 13 and all, is kind of a milestone, OK.  When I woke on Tuesday morning and was prepping to head to the school I realized that I was making, only 7-8 dozen hotdogs for the kids at school on Wednesday, how was this cake pop thing going to happen?  Ugh!  Again deep breath OK, think this out......So I went to the school to collect the hotdog orders, left the school with the orders to take home, instead of staying to go thru them, and head to the Bulk Barn for supplies for the cake pops and grocery store for the chocolate cake ingredients. (Did I forget to mention that my son Ethan was going to have some friends for his birthday party Saturday, um ya, so he requested cheese cake and I thought maybe dirt cakes would go as well, just in case, hard to believe, that maybe one of the boys doesn't like cheesecake)(Oh and have I mentioned I'm crazy, ya, just so you know) Anyway on I went about my merry way to get dessert fixings and get home to figure this whole thing out, and ya, I bought the weiners but forgot the buns for the school :(  grrrr....oh well they will have to wait.  My daughter got home from school, I drove her to Cheer practice and returned home to my other two getting off the bus, fed them a snack, sat down to write some kind of list so I didn't forget anything else, start supper, of homemade soup that I promised I would make, and go out again to pick up my daughter after her cheer practice.  I bought flowers for my Mom who would be coming to visit Wednesday with my Dad and tidied up the house.  Homework, play time and I was pooped and off I went to bed.  Did you notice I did not mention the hotdog orders, or buns, yup, I set my alarm for 6am so I could wake early and count hotdog slips, sort them out, begin to cook the vanilla cake for the cake pops and chocolate cakes for the fudge cake.  Happy Birthday Alina!!  Make only two lunches, thank goodness my daughters friends were taking her out for lunch, and get everyone out the door to school.  (Hubby is working day shifts so he isn't much help in the mornings cuz he leaves early).  I managed to get a couple of loads of laundry in and on the clothes line, crumble the cooled vanilla cake for the pops, and prep that, let the chocolate cakes sit and cool until I returned from buying the buns and scooting to the school to cook and serve the dogs....breath....OK, I got home, layered the chocolate cake, iced it, decorated it and I'm off again to pick up my daughter and a couple of her BFFs at school and bring them home to hang out together.   Melt the coloured wafers to cover the cake pops, discovered the pops weren't cool enough, so I put them in the freezer to chill a bit more, then cover them, and by this time my other two kids had come home from school....breath....snacks made up, and cake pops were completed, not so pop like as I also forgot to buy floral foam, so they are upside down pops, just as good, and they looked good too.  Now on to dinner at the restaurant of choice by my daughter where my parents were waiting and my hubby got off a wee bit early and was there as well...breath... a water would be great thanks :)  We ate, we giggled and we returned home to have our desserts with the rest of the family, all was delicious.  I finally sat and had a coffee and enjoyed my chocolate cake, oops I mean my daughters chocolate cake, heehee! 
A few pics of what was created on Wednesday, the ingredients needed for the cake pops;

the cooled vanilla cake, cooked, crumbled and mixed with half a container of icing to make the cake pop 'dough', covered in plastic wrap to chill further to roll into balls. 

I used my Pampered Chef scoop to make the size of the pops the same, rolled them out, placed on parchment paper, dots of cookie icing on the ends of the sticks to use as glue and pushed the sticks into the rolled dough and put in the fridge, then the freezer to chill further. (this chilling step is necessary so when covering them they don't fall off the sticks and into the melted wafer liquid)

Sorry I don't have a pic of the melted wafer, covering process, I was a bit rushed to get them all done before heading out for dinner, and totally forgot to click a pic.  I used the double boiler method for the wafers, I like that way the best, over microwaving, then spooned the melted liquid over the rolled dough on the sticks and twirled them to get rid of the excess coating.  None fell off the sticks :) Yay!

Ta Da, the finished product, my daughter wanted blue as her colours so I choose turquoise coloured  and white coloured wafers to coat, along with coordinating coloured sugar.  just so you know the white sugar does not show up on the turquoise coloured melted wafer coating, so just plain they were, no worries.  A few of them had cracked coatings after returning them to the fridge until it was time to eat, but by no means did it ruin them.  I love the crack of the coating when you bite into them, it's all good to me.

All the desserts completed and ready to be eaten, oh I have a single pic of the yummy, chocolatey cake as well.

It isn't fancy and not hard to make, Betty Crocker chocolate cake mix, Betty Crocker chocolate icing, I did spread the bottom layer with homemade jam for moisture and a sweet flavour in the middle, chocolate shavings for decoration, and biddeep, biddeep, biddeep, that's all folks.  Yummy chocolatey goodness right there.  I may or may not have been, craving this cake for over a week, and I may have ever so quietly suggested she have this one, maybe?

It didn't last long, my Dad and I had the last two pieces in the morning for breakfast with our coffee, mmmmm and it was just what I needed.

Now her BFFs slept over on the school night, so I had a couple extra lunches to make in the morning after, but no biggie, she managed to pack all her things and have them all ready for me to grab when I had to pick her up at school and take her to the (sniffle sniffle) airport.  She returns on Monday, Yay!!   So, that was my week, for the most part.  I had a good visit with my parents, they left for their home today (Friday) and they will be back in 8 days for me to take them to the airport as they venture off to London, Wales, Ireland and Scotland. for a few weeks of travel.  They are both retired and lovin it.  I will push for them to move here more when they return, I told my Dad he had a year of retirement before I started harassing him to move, and that year is almost up.  My sister lives here as well, and has one son so it only makes sense that they move here to be closer to their grandchildren, right?  Right!  Thanks, I knew you felt the same way I do.

Well, I must put some laundry on the clothes line, and get going with my to do list, That cheesecake isn't going to make itself, and I want to do some building/creating/crafting.  Just got a phone call that our Habitat Restore is having another sale, yippy, got to go check on some more deals on used treasures.  I will post some pics of the dirt cake, if you are unsure of what I was talking about, and hopefully whip up a few things this weekend as well, chat at ya on Monday.

Have a super fantabulous weekend everyone, the sun is shining here and hope it is where you are too, if you like what you see, follow me, and I will post more for you to read :)