Carson's Birthday Party

Carson's party was today. She turns 3 on the 15th(I can't believe it!), and we had family and friends over to my parent's house to celebrate her upcoming birthday! My parent's house has become our venue for the last 3 birthdays...thanks mom and dad for letting us take over:)

So over the past week I have been consumed with party details; making place mats as party favors, games and the cake! I made this practice cake the other week to gear up for real birthday cake. For the last few weeks I have been following the Make-a-Cake Series and was inspired to make Carson's birthday cake. It's far from perfect and not what I imagined it to be, but I worked hard on it and for that reason I love it.

It probably took me a total of 6-8 hours to make the fondant, dye the fondant, make the buttercream icing, make the decorations, ice the cake, stack the cake and add the decorations...phew. It was all worth it. I showed the birthday girl a picture after I finished it. She said she loved it and then politely said..."Where are the princesses?" DUH of course the princess/dress up party needs princesses on the cake. My sister was nice enough to run by Publix and buy the princess figurines for the cake. We set them on top and the cake was officially finished!

the cake before the princesses

I wanted to incorporate the invitation into the cake. I used these invitations. I made the bottom layer yellow, pink and hot pink polka dots.

A bow covered the second layer and a number 3 on the third layer. I wanted to do a fondant/gumpaste crown, but I ran out of time. I improvised and used a tiara from Party City. The tiaras came in a pack of 6, all were different colors. I chose silver. The rest of the tiaras were placed by the front door. When the girls came they could take one to wear.

I used feather boas from Michaels ($1) to cover the bottom of the cake plate.

And the cake wasn't complete without the famous Disney princesses...Belle, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Carson's favorite...Ariel!

Carson loves blowing out the candles. She practices every time we go out to dinner and there is a candle on the table:)

When the kids came in the front door there were swords awaiting the boys and tiaras for the girls to take and wear/play with during the party.

During the party kids played outside, pinned the kiss on the frog, broke the pinata open, and ate candy and cake.

I made the pin the kiss on the frog game from a coloring sheet I found on the internet. I had it blown up to poster size, colored it in and had it laminated.

Who doesn't love to take a whack at a pinata?

We had a candy bar with ring pops, candy rings, necklaces, lemon heads, M&M's, dots and chocolate lollipops. My friend, Elizabeth, made the chocolate lollipops.

Aren't they cute!? She made pink and yellow chocolate carriages, castles, princesses and frogs. They taste as yummy as the look.

We made fruit kabobs for the kids in addition to their pizza. Pineapple, watermelon, and strawberries topped off with a large marshmallow...yum! We anchored them into a watermelon halves.

Some party guests eating cake.

Here are the placemats. I like to make them as part of the decorations and then send them home as favors. I made princesses for the girls and frog princes for the boys. I personalize them and have them laminated. We have a Lakeshore Learning Center nearby. I was able to laminate all 28 place mats for $6.

They also made crafts...

The boys decorated shields and the girls wands. I got the shields from Birthday in a Box and the wands from Michaels.

Carson loved opening her presents from her friends. Thanks so much everyone! We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family!

Our little singer/performer/drama queen.

She likes to flip her hair like Taylor Swift.

Some pics of the family...

Great Grandpa and Great Grandma

PaPa and Carson

MeMe and Carson

SaSa, Carson, Clara and Mommy

Clara and Carson

Happy Birthday Carson! You are growing up so fast. I hope you had a wonderful day! We love you!

Happy 4th...

from Siesta Key, Florida! Despite all of the on again, off again rain we had a wonderful 4th of July. In between rain showers we were able to spend some time on the beach and the rain held off for fireworks! We spent the 4th with my sister and her family.

We always try to get a group shot of the kids. Sometimes it's relatively easy...

And sometimes it's NOT!

Here is our Little Mermaid.

Waiting for the fireworks to begin. I stayed with the babies while they slept and watched from the balcony.

Bedtime!

I hope everyone had a safe 4th. Happy Birthday America!

Making Cakes

I have been obsessed with reading posts from this site...Ashley always has fabulous ideas and tutorials and for the last few weeks she has asked Brittany to be a guest blogger. Brittany is doing a make-a-cake series where she shares her tips on baking and decorating cakes. Her cakes are amazing...

and the tutorials are so easy to follow anyone can do it...even me...

I have always been intrigued by cake decorating and have often thought to myself, "How in the world do people get cakes to look fanciful and life-like much like pieces of artwork?"And wouldn't it be fabulous to be able to make a cake that looked professional without spending an arm and a leg? Not that my cake looks anywhere near what a professional cake looks like, but you have to start somewhere and I had a lot of fun doing it!

My real motivation for taking the plunge in baking and cake decorating is Carson's birthday. It is coming up next week and I want to make a cake similar to this...

but on a smaller scale. Maybe I am a bit ahead of myself in thinking I can pull it off, but I sure am going to try!

This is my practice cake. I wanted to make sure that I could bake the cake, make buttercream icing, fondant, color the fondant and cut/apply decorations. I am glad I did! Now I have a better idea of how long it takes and will do a little each day. I also found that my "Golden Sunshine" Wilton icing coloring was more orange than yellow. Good to know...I need yellow!

I also want it to taste good, not just look cute. So...I cut a slice...

and let my little taste tester be the judge.

And I think it passed the test!

If you have any interest at all in making cakes you should head over to the make a cake series. It will give you the confidence to give it a try. And you will be glad you did!