431 = 8?

Just in case you thought I had it all together…

I present to you my son’s birthday cake…

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And no, he’s not the world’s oldest person…

just completely forgot about candles until it was time to light them.

A Sleepover Party for My 11 Year Old

I have to confess something.

I hate sleepover parties. Really hate them.

I know I should love them as a mom and love that my friends have kids who want to come to their house but alas, I hate them.

My son turned 11 over the weekend and wanted a sleepover party with his friends.

He requested a 24 hour party which I quickly shot down. No way Jose.

We compromised on a 4 pm to 10 am party.

At about 4:30 pm on party day, after the 5 guests had arrived,  my husband and I looked at each other and said, “Only 17 1/2 hours to go!”

In all actuality I think it is the stress of hosting 5, 11 year old boys who want nothing else then to knock each other over for the entire length of the party. Oh, and maybe the kids who only speak at one volume, LOUD, that tends to drive me up the wall too.

For the beginning of the party we took the boys to the park near our house where they played soccer, tag, basketball, and grounders (chase on the playground set, no one touching the ground, with the person who is “it” closing there eyes while they were chasing the others – basically a recipe for disaster.)

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Once it hit 6:30 and no one had broken a bone my husband and I called the party a success.

After pizza and a rousing , “Only 15 hours to go,” it was time for a video game tournament, ping pong, and cake.

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After coercing them into taking showers the boys settled on the couches to watch Goonies.

I remember loving this movie when I was younger.

What I didn’t remember were the drug jokes and curse words throughout the movie. Good chance I could receive a few calls from moms today.

After the movie we tucked the boys in at 11 pm and …wait for it……they feel asleep immediately.

For those of you who have never hosted a sleepover you will not understand what a gift this is. No one had to utter 45 times, “Boy, it’s time to go to bed now.” Derek and I kept saying to each other, “Do you really think they are asleep? Can’t be. Are they planning something?”

At 7 AM my husband and I were awakened by what sounded like a herd of cattle coming downstairs.

We uttered, “Only 3 more hours.”

After a breakfast of pancakes, more video games, and ping pong we heard that wonderful sound we had been waiting for – ding dong! A child pick up 20 minutes early! At 10:05 when the last boy had been picked up Derek and I held are hands up in victory. Although only morning we climbed back into bed and vowed never to host a sleepover again.

We were feeling good and proud of ourselves until Andrew announced, “For my 8th birthday I’m going to have a sleep over too because that was so much fun.”

So now I’m standing firm on our vow.  We are not going to have another sleep over for at least 2 weeks. And for those of you counting, that’s only 236 hours till the next sleep over. Lord help us.

A Wonder Woman Birthday Cake

Well, Caroline’s birthday party is over and I think it was a rousing success.

I’ll trickle the pictures throughout the week and maybe into the next (oh joy!) because:

1) I want to be able to share all the fun activities with you

2) My work hours are increasing slightly so I need some completed posts for the blog (not that the 8 – 11 year olds at work don’t provide plenty of material).

So up first today, the cake.

Caroline said she wanted a Wonder Woman cake for months and I really hummed and hawed about this. I mean, I’ve completed a fart cake for pete’s sake but this one gave me pause.

She said she wanted Wonder Woman’s whole body but I wasn’t sure I could do that.

In the end, I found this picture and tried to copy it.

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Caroline loved it.

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I think it looked more like a pornographic blow up doll.

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Not my best cake.

But in the eyes of a four year old it was perfect.

Feb 1st – My Birthday

Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy Birthday Dear Jennifer,

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yep, today’s the day.

39 years young.

I’m not a person who stresses over the number so I’m good with today.

I’m going to spend the day having lunch with a friend (and Caroline) and then eating out again for dinner (twice in one day, holy cow!), hopefully followed by a movie rental with the kids and Derek.

Oh, and cake!

Can’t forget about that.

Rumor is I have a king cake coming my way so I’m super excited about that (thanks mom and dad).

Hope your weekend is full of cake too!

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A Mary Poppins Carousel Cake

Several months ago Caroline had a Mary Poppins birthday party.

So for a Mary Poppins party we had to have the proper hat...

play a bean bag M.P. toss game

ride wooden “carousel” horses…

play pin the bow tie on the penguin

play in the cardboard chimneys…

and have a Mary Poppins cake.

I started out this cake as I do all cakes – from a box mix.

Frost the cake and set aside.

To create the carousel, I used cake dividers (not sure of their official name but they are placed in between cakes with multiple layers) and ribbon.

First, I attached the bottom of a piece of ribbon with hot glue.

I continued to do this until I had gone completely around the circle.

I then glued another cake divider onto the bottom in order to cover up with glued bottoms.

I then glued a piece of ribbon along the side in order to cover up the opening between the circles.

Next, I glued a candy stick wrapped in ribbon to the center of the top circle.

I then took each ribbon individually and glued it to the center post (candy stick).

I topped the whole thing off with a little white pom pom.

I then attached the “legs” to the structure.

The legs are candy sticks wrapped in ribbon.

For the horses I found a picture online that I liked and printed it out on card stock.

I then cut out the horse and glued it to yet another candy stick.

Three horses late and the cake was done.

Caroline seemed to like it although it’s honestly not one of my better cakes.

Now that she is about to be three and half I’ve finally shared everything from her party.

And if you had any doubt about next years party, Caroline started talking about it roughly 10 seconds after her last guest left.

 

HookingupwithHoH The 36th AVENUE

Food Flags

For my sister’s baby shower we decided on the colors of hot pink and turquoise. Our theme of the event was “What will the baby be?” or “?” since Amanda is choosing to wait to find out if she’s having a boy or a girl.

One of the items I made for the shower were food flags.

I didn’t actually get any pictures of them at the shower but I dressed up our breakfast to show you what they looked like.

I started with a piece of card stock which I printed various lines onto it.

Click here in order to download this form.

Next I cut the paper into strips of the same size.

I then took a paper strip and a tooth pick and glued them together by placing some hot glue onto the paper and folding the strip together.

Finally. I used my scissors to cut the strip into a triangular shape.

And voila – stripped food flags!

In addition to the striped flags, I also made solid colored flags using some of the material I used in other baby shower projects.

I’ve never used food flags before but definitely will in the future since I think they added just an extra detail to the food table.

(For my 1st post about this baby shower click here.)


Crafty Confessions

Chef In Training Tuesday To Do Party

A Fart Cake

Two years ago my son had a bowling party so naturally I thought I would make a bowling cake.

Instead, I made a fart cake.

When asked what kind of cake he wanted me to make in true little boy humor he declared, “I want a fart cake.”

So I pondered. And pondered. And pondered.

And finally we came up with this… A Bowling Fart Cake…

Where’s the fart part you ask?

Take a close look at Alex’s rear end…

The green fart smell than inundates poor Andrew who is sitting at the back of the lane.

Earlier in the day we took pictures of the boys, shrunk them, and used them on the cake.

Add in a bowling bowl and chair made out of fondant, two signs printed out, and your fart cake is all done.

Trust me when I say this cake was a huge hit with eight year olds.

Oh, and the cake tasted great, I decided not to take the theme too far 🙂


HookingupwithHoH The 36th AVENUE button A Crafty Soiree