Under the Category of Better Late Than Never...

Or maybe we can all pretend that we just hopped in a time machine and went back a month!

I wanted to show you the few things I did for Baby Boy's fifth birthday in October and somehow time has flown by and here we are mid-November already.

Our littlest guy had not one, but three celebrations for his birthday! MADNESS I tell you.  Excessive madness!  LOL

Little Man made his brother a sign for the entrance way

The first was his "family birthday" party where I think I disappointed my nephew with my lack of handmade goodness in the treat bag.  I have to say, I felt both badly and incredibly honoured when he said, "What's the thing you made this year?  I always like the thing you make the best." And then he proceeded to list off the things I'd made in the past and I'm pretty sure he thought the cookies I'd made this time just weren't up to snuff.  One of my nieces had apparently been wondering on the drive out what kind of thing I'd have made them too.

So from here on in, I hereby declare that Auntie Sarah will stop being so lame and figure out something good to make for my lovely crew of nieces and nephews! (Really, I just couldn't come up with a good idea and then ran out of time.  No excuse really.)

Anyways.  Baby Boy is crazy about dolphins.  Specifically crazy about the dolphins Winter and Hope  of the Dolphin Tale movie fame.  We had got a second hand book about Winter last year and he immediately became obsessed. Playing Winter and Hope, talking about them, drawing pictures of them, telling us great epic stories about them...  So naturally a dolphin theme was what he wanted when birthday party planning rolled around.

For his family party I made a dolphin shaped cake and the aforementioned cookies.

Dolphin cake #1

Dolphin sugar cookies - still working on my Royal Icing technique 

A couple of days later we had his actual birthday, which required another cake and the traditional birthday crown.  I love that the little guys enjoy the birthday crowns still.  I never guessed when I made the first one for Little Man's first birthday that it would become a yearly tradition.

Dolphin cake #2

What a guy!  I can't believe he's already five!!!

 Finally we had his "school friend" party towards the end of the month.  I asked him what kind of cake he'd like figuring he may have been dolphin caked out by that point, but he requested an exact replica of the one he had for his family party.  I feel like I could make a dolphin shaped cake in my sleep now.  Ha ha!

Dolphin cake #3

I also wanted to have a game planned for the kids at the party.  I thought a rousing game of pin the tail on the dolphin would be good to amuse ten five year olds, so I got some poster board from the dollar store and painted a dolphin on it.  Then I cut out tail shapes from card stock - a different colour for each party guest.  Note to self: A loose weave scarf for a blindfold that the kids can actually see through kind of defeats the purpose of the game...  all the tails pretty much ended up one on top of each other in the right spot.  At first I thought the kids were just that good.  Then Little Man confessed,  "There's tiny holes in the scarf, Mom!  You can see right through it!!"  Ooops!

Help kids!  I need a tail!!!

And thus ends the birthday month of baby boy.  I think I'd better try and pin Little Man and Baby Boy down on their birthday themes for next year so that I can start thinking now of things to make for party favours.  Maybe that way I'll redeem myself in the eyes of my nieces and nephews!  :)

Catching Up and a Birthday Party

I can't believe we are more than three weeks into July already!  The summer is flying by at break neck speed.  So much has been going on since I last posted here.  I'm still working on my outfit along and I've done a few other small sewing projects, but there's not been a lot of time for craftiness

(BF)G was on vacation from work for two weeks and we jammed packed them full of things to do.  Every thing from camping and a first time fishing for the little boys to berry picking, to museums, to park visits to lots of playing in the little pool we bought to replace the baby paddling pool.  It was busy, but loads of fun!  We even had a birthday in there! Well two, of course, since Little Man and I share a birthday, but his is more interesting than mine, given that he is six and I'm in my forties.

The boys helped make the lightsaber party invitations
for Little Man's friends

Little Man is crazy about Star Wars.  He's talked about having a Star Wars party pretty much since the day after his Superhero party last year.  He was also super excited that he got to have a "school friend" party as well as a family party this year.   We actually had the school friend party in June before school let out for the holidays so more of his friends would be around to attend.

Now let me warn you, dear readers, that you should, under no circumstances, ever let your child look at Pinterest over your shoulder as you peruse it for ideas for a birthday party.

If you do not heed this warning, you will likely find yourself up to your elbows in papier mache, angsting over just how the heck you're going to make dipped pretzel sticks look like light sabers when you can't find pretzel sticks in any store, agonizing over whether or not your Chewbacca cupcakes looks like Chewie or a friendly little beaver, and painstakingly cutting out and sewing eleventy-billion little pieces of felt to make little freezie holders that look like light saber handles.  Do not say that I did not warn you!!!



It was a bit mad, but all in all Little Man's assessment was that both his friend party and family party were "AWESOME!!!!!!!!", so definitely worth the effort and insanity.  But I'll stop nattering on here and just leave you with some pictures of the two events!

The Annual Birthday Crown!

There was also a  freezer stencilled Birthday Shirt this year!

My interpretation of the Death Star in Piñata form.
(I've never made a piñata before... OH MY WORD.
They are a whole lot of effort to just get smashed up.)

Eleventy-Billion pieces of felt...

All combined to make almost two dozen of these freezie holders!

The kids played a balloon game with pool noodle lightsabers
that (BF)G made by decorating them with duct tape and electrical tape

Marshmallow tie fighter oreos, dipped breadstick lightsabers and Storm Trooper
and lightsaber cupcakes for the friend party

And cupcakes for the family party!
Darth Vaders, Chewbaccas (seriously what happened there?), Yodas,
Luke Skywalkers , Leias and Storm Troopers OH MY!

Cakes, Cookies and A Crown, Oh My!

Our Baby Boy just turned four yesterday! Four. I can't even believe it, really.  How is it that time has gone into some freakish warp speed without my realizing it?

I recall at one time when I was much (much!) younger, and the older kids were all much (much!) younger, I was in a donut shop trying to wrangle all three of them - about aged 1, 3 and 5 as they all went separate directions simultaneously.  A little old lady stopped me and told me to enjoy it.  To know that this time would pass so quickly and they'd be grown up in a flash.  At the time, I remember thinking, "Lady, I sure hope you're right!" As it turns out, I've spent the subsequent 19 or so years wishing growing up took just a touch slower to happen, because that little old lady? She really did know what she was talking about.  Because I'm not sure how baby boy is already four.  I'm even more baffled by the fact that my baby N, that was my baby for 15 whole years before Little Man came into our life, just turned 20 - don't worry, although he didn't get cakes, cookies or a crown, mama made sure he had a birthday treat too by way of pumpkin spice cupcakes that I actually remembered to make and give to him this year unlike last year when they got made and I totally forgot to give them to him so I ate them instead.

Anyways, I digress. Birthday craftiness was, of course, undertaken for the fourth birthday celebrations. Most of it this time was in the kitchen instead of the sewing room. Baby Boy, finally, at the eleventh hour returned to the "theme" he'd chosen ages ago after having gone through about a million other themes in between.  He wanted an Angry Bird cake for his birthday.  Not just any Angry Bird either.  It had to be the "Pink Girl Angry Bird".  I breathed a huge sigh of relief and considered myself getting off easy peasy with that one! Such a simple request.

I have a fantastic 12" cake pan I bought for baking our wedding cake layers, so it really was no fuss, no muss. Well, so long as you don't count the fact that between making too small of a batch for my pan, likely leaving out one of the leavening ingredients and Baby Boy opening the oven so that the already flat cake fell further to almost pancake height requiring me to bake a second batch of cake, it was no fuss, no muss.  I used the recipe for Buttermilk Chocolate Cake from Lorelie's Wedding Cakes For You  site again.  It's such a great recipe! (when you actually follow the recipe, make enough and keep the blooming oven door shut while its baking that is) Any suggestions what to do with the pancake cake that's currently sitting in my freezer? It still tastes delicious.  Maybe petit fours?

So. New cake baked, I was all set to decorate it.  I had leftover buttercream from the wedding cake that (BF)G's niece had brought back after decorating it, that I had popped into the freezer, waste not want not and all that, that turned out to be the exact amount I needed to make the "Pink Girl Angry Bird".  (BF)G, who is often my creative consultant on these sorts of matters, had the idea to use a fortune cookie for the beak, and I decided the gigantic marshmallows I'd bought for the weenie/marshmallow roast party would make awesome (and easy) eyes for our little lady bird. I did cut the marshmallows in half though, because holy smokes! Those suckers are  HUGE!

For party favours I got a notion in my head to make cookies after seeing Angry Bird Cookies on the Sweet Sugar Belle website.  Now, I should mention I'm clearly bat s--t crazy because I've never once decorated cookies with anything more than buttercream. My usual standard of decorating is, well, to be honest, none. Or maybe coloured sugar sprinkles if I'm feeling fancy.  But I did get a bit of the decorating bug last Christmas when the boys and I did some fancier cookies for the holidays. However, I've never even seen Royal Icing, let alone made it, and I do not own a kitchen aid, which every website I looked at told me to use, so it was a bit dicey going. (As in I had no hot clue what I was doing), but I'm am SUPER DUPER proud of my cookies and how they turned out. I am also now obsessed with fancy cookies and have spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about what kinds of cookies I could decorate. But that, dear readers, is a story for another day.  Back to the birthday party craftiness.  I did have some moments of anguish and panic trying to get the consistency just so, and a few minor heart palpitations when the first one I started with I managed to break an ear off within the first 30 seconds, but then I took a step back, a dose of reality and realized I needed to calm down. It's a cookie after all.  Just a cookie.

So that was the end of party craftiness in the kitchen - although remind me to tell you about the weenie roast some day. We had bannock wrapped wieners cooked over an open fire.  You should try it.  It has the potential to be a fall time cookout winner!

I did, of course, make the now traditional birthday day crown.  (You can see Baby Boy's previous ones here, here and here.)  Sticking with the Angry Bird theme,  I had a lot of fun doing this and was really happy with how it turned out.  I think Baby Boy was happy too!

Then I was back in the kitchen again yesterday to make a mini version of the Angry Bird cake for Baby Boy's actual birthday.  This time he requested a "Blue Bird - not a light blue one. A darker blue one. But not too dark." (He's not particular at all that one. Nope. Not him... rolls eyes)

So, that's it.  I'm a bit caked and butter creamed and royal icing-ed out for now.  I think I'll give the icing sugar and chocolate a rest at least for a few days...

Happy Birthday Little Super Hero

Last Saturday was a big day in our house!  Little Man turned FIVE!!!! (I also had a birthday, but that's not nearly as exciting).  We started the day out with the traditional birthday crown (you can see his previous ones here, here, here and here !) This year's seemed pretty plain to me, but Little Man's assessment was, "It's just what I hoped for! Green Lantern's symbol with a five on it!" He'd also mentioned he hoped there'd be a five "stitched in thread" on his crown this year so I embroidered a five on either side of his crown.

Instead of doing "loot bags" this year I decided it would be much more fun (for me anyways!) to make super hero masks for each of the little party guests. I had hoped to make an assortment for the adults too, but unfortunately ran short on time. I think the kids liked them and I did have fun making them.  Little Man picked out the selection and chose specifically for each child which they should receive then presented them with their mask as they arrived.  I used an online template for the basic shape then took off from there! We had (from top right :  Batgirl, Supergirl, Dazzler, Wonder Woman, Stargirl, Spider-Man, Batman, Captain America and Wolverine - Little Man and Baby Boy used their Green Lantern and Flash masks that I made them in May)

You have no idea how hard it is to get a bunch of excited kids - who are being eaten alive by mosquitoes - to sit and look at the camera for a photo. This is the best one I got!

Little Man has been thinking about his cake for months so I knew exactly what I needed to make.  Using my usual chocolate cake recipe I quickly realized I wasn't going to have quite enough cake batter to fill a 9x13" pan as well as a 9" round pan that I would need to create the Green Lantern symbol, so I decided to make my chocolate cake and then a white cake recipe that would yield a single layer, and then marble the two as I didn't really want scads of cake left over if I did a double recipe of chocolate. It turned out really well I thought. Icing it in weather that, with the humidex, was +37C with no air conditioning was, as always, interesting shall we say. It involved a lengthy process of freezer, quick crumb coat layer, back to the freezer, second layer, back to the freezer till cake time all in order to prevent the buttercream from melting and sliding right off the cake. I was happy and Little Man was happy!

As I mentioned it was also my birthday.  For months the boys have been looking at my Australian Women's Weekly Cake book planning exactly what they wanted to make for me, which I thought incredibly sweet of them.  I was treated to a "Fairytale Cake" mostly made by the boys and (BF)G - with a wee bit of assistance from me.

All in all a pretty good birthday I'd say!!!

Busy Days and a Birthday!

I feel like I haven't even looked at my blog in days. Or has it been a couple weeks already?  Things have been cruising along at a rapid pace here chez Prairie Girl.

With a new schedule of preschool and skating lessons, and all the usual things like running into the city for doctor appointments, trying to keep on top of day to day housework, and the like things have been hectic to say the least.

Part of that hectic last week was preparing for a very special day! Baby Boy turned three this past Monday.  How?!?! How is it even possible that this wee little baby is now already three years old?

Baby Boy - A few hours old!

Giving his very biggest three year old smile
wearing this year's birthday crown, perfect for a Rescue Bots fan

Yes sir. Time flies! It was in a blink of the eye that he went from teeny tiny newborn to big boy!

We had a party last Saturday with the family for him.  He was very excited that all his brothers and his sister were able to come to his party, as well as Grandma, a few aunties and uncles and some of his cousins too. He had lots of fun, and quite liked his cake that I made to look like the Rescue Bot emblem that he has on his crown.

Cake with sparklers! What more could a boy ask for ?

Cake and fun. Really what more could a boy ask for? Well... presents of course are always nice! He hit the jackpot in new toys - Oh My Word!!!! It was like Christmas in our house that evening!

Fun opening presents with cousins!

What a day!!!

On Monday, it was his actual birthday. Daddy was on a vacation day from work, so we dropped Little Man off at preschool for the morning, then did some errands with Baby Boy. We met up with Little Man at the library - he was on his very first ever field trip! - and had fun choosing some books then went for Birthday Lunch at McDonalds. When we got home I made yet another cake. Baby Boy was quite insistent that he needed a volcano cake too, just like his brother had for his birthday, so I made a mini version. Needless to say, I don't think I want to make or eat cake for quite some time now...

The mini volcano cake

More sparklers and candles too!!

It was also N's 19th birthday the week before. And because he was home for the party I had made some pumpkin spice cupcakes for him and planned to put a candle in and sing him happy birthday too. Unfortunately, after almost everyone had left except J, N and N's girlfriend, I suddenly remembered the cupcakes that were in the freezer. So then I figured I'd just send them home with him to enjoy whenever he wanted. Except, I just found them still in the freezer the other day. Ooops! N - if you're reading this I hope you'll forgive your old mama. I promise I will make you pumpkin pie or pumpkin cupcakes - your choice - the very next time you're home. (and look at that... I'll wager that as good a bribe as any to get my kid to come home to visit! ha ha!)