mommy's laptop is back from dell. it is on the mend but not completely fixed. the laptop loss has taken a toll on time to blog and we temporarily lost access to our photos. i am sorry for not keeping up to date with you but wanted to explain.
second-- i cannot blog about harry's birthday without first reporting on jude's big day (see above about mommy guilt). he turned four in may. as readers know i had an amazing time watching everything come together for his event. so let me remedy the delay now. i promise to share harry details tomorrow.
come with me back to may when dinosaurs invaded our backyard. along with a bounce house.
birthday boy
it was triceratops vs t rex on the cake. i pulled some ideas from a circus cake on parents.com. here in no particular order are the top ways i learned not to mess up a cake:
1. circus peanuts
those cheap candies make great boulders or blocks on cakes. the peanuts also made a great support for the frosting waterfall.
2. food spray paint.
i coated the boulders with my other new favorite cake decorating product- food spray paint. it made them look old and the rest of the cake have grass.
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| birthday cake wars: triceratops vs t rex |
after minutes of expert research online i learned the magic of crumb coating the cake. bake the cake then freeze it. pull the frozen cake out and spread a thin layer of frosting over the entire thing. work fairly quickly or it may thaw and get more crumbly. put the crumb coated cake back in the freezer. later you can take it out and put a thicker, pretty frosting layer on it. it sticks like glue and tiny cake crumbs do not get into your pretty frosting layer. also when i frost i now run the spatula right off the top edge a little, leaving a glob of frosting. then i smooth the globs straight down the side. it makes a nicer top edge.
for jude the most popular activity was the bouncy house. the picture below shows how and his two friends from preschool spent most of their time.
we had a quiet book corner with stories on dinosaurs (thanks oak park library). this is also about the only picture we captured of harry that day.
and then there is the pinata. learn more about how amazing finding this green and orange triceratops was in the earlier post here: the pinata story it was a hit!
we also served pizza and tyson dinosaur nuggets. to boost the health factor i added a big bowl of apples, some grapes and carrots to the table.
it was a fun day for our four year old. he is still enjoying the generous gifts and fun memories.
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| dinosaur cake after candles out and wishes made |
note, party hats are very popular with the four-year-old set. i was unprepared and only had a few grabbed from our storage box. there were tears. don't let this happen to you.
jude's triceratops party had guests digging for fossils. i found a great kit from lakeshore learning DinoDigKit.
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| digging for fossils! |
for jude the most popular activity was the bouncy house. the picture below shows how and his two friends from preschool spent most of their time.
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| wrestlemania |
we had a quiet book corner with stories on dinosaurs (thanks oak park library). this is also about the only picture we captured of harry that day.
and then there is the pinata. learn more about how amazing finding this green and orange triceratops was in the earlier post here: the pinata story it was a hit!
one of the cute moments came just after kids had their turn to take a swing. jude's friend owen told his mom this was the best birthday party ever! (probably because at three and four, most of them haven't seen a pinata, let alone been encouraged to hit something really hard with a stick with the goal being to break it!)
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| dino bites |
it was a fun day for our four year old. he is still enjoying the generous gifts and fun memories.
now for the hardest part-- opening the packaging on toys
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