Happy 2nd Birthday, Claire!

It happened . . . our baby turned two! 

She is in that adorable phase where she copies everything you say.  I love this age!

One other thing she loves to do is say "Mommy, I baby!" And then she falls into my arms, sticks out her tongue, and acts like a little baby.  She does it to Chris too.  We can't help but love her little chipmunk smile and cuddly ways.

Here are some highlights of her family dinner/Minnie Mouse party . . .

The Tiana Cake

Let's just clear the air right now.  I am not a cake decorator.  My mother-in-law gave me a nice set of Wilton tips.  I use them but not as elegantly as I could.  I honestly lack the patience.  But, I really have fun making butter cream frosting and going crazy!  And the girls love the result . . . which is what matters.

To make this cake, I used a large Pampered Chef batter bowl and baked a yellow cake mix for 55 minutes.  That didn't make a long enough dress, so I baked another yellow sheet cake in a 9 by 13 pan.  After, letting the cakes cool overnight, I laid the batter bowl "dress" cake on top of the sheet cake and sliced around like it was a circle stencil.  I repeated this step one more time to add enough height.  What I forgot to do was put frosting between the layers to help them stick together.  Then I did a thin crumb layer and froze the cake for about 15 minutes.  Then, I added green frosting and slapped on more white to make it look fancy (even if it is kinda sloppy).  Chris had the idea to use white flowers from my craft bin and I cut up one green dot candy for the leaves.  Tiana's legs were wrapped tightly in plastic wrap before being shoved into three layers of yellow cake.  The result was a tasty and very sugary concoction.  One day I will bake more cakes from scratch.  But for now, it's homemade frosting and the good old Betty Crocker box.  And that works for me!

Lots of imperfections make it look more homemade!

She started to melt by the time we lit her and dug in.  Poor Tiana.

Now that's an enthusiatic cake eater!

Claire's First Birthday Party!

Our little Claire turned one on April 18. We had swiss cheese fondue (with lots of little food Claire could eat) and pink soda (Claire had milk). Claire's cake was strawberry and everyone else had red velvet "Claire-cakes" (cupcakes).

A Haunted Halloween

I love Halloween. I just love holidays in general. If you read this blog frequently, you probably have deduced that already. Here are photos of our recent festivities.

• I wanted fun napkins, so I hand cut napkins and used a Sharpie to make a mouth and eyes. The "Wicked Punch" in the background is orange soda and orange sherbet.
• Hallie had so much fun helping with this cake. She mixed the batter, helped spread frosting and put on pumpkins and worms.
• Our annual Halloween meal: Feet of Meat (meatloaf)- Chris just like to call it "bloody stump" Snake Potatoes Ghost Crescents and plain old Green Beans
• Jack-o-Lantern Cheeseburgers for Tuesday night
• Mummy Dogs, Monster Mouths, and Blood Orange Salad for Monday
• And I had to throw in pictures of my cute kids.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Birthday Cake!

Hallie's Ariel cake is much different than I originally imagined, but I LOVE how it turned out. I wanted the water to look like, well, water so I thinned out my blue frosting. Instead of spreading it on smooth, I plopped it on the top and let it drip down the sides. For a "sand bank" for Ariel to sit on, I pressed light brown sugar into the sides. To fake the look of sea weed, I cut gummy worms in half. Chopped Mike and Ikes make air bubbles. The starfish are starburst. I heat them in the microwave for five seconds (so they get pliable) then I roll them out and use a small star cookie cutter to form them. Although Hallie mixed the cake and frosting with me, she didn't see me decorate it. When we showed it to her, she gasped with excitement. Just the reaction I was hoping for!