Oliver's Birthday

We started out the birthday with chocolate chip muffins!  Yum!

and a present because waiting until the party at night is too hard!

 Giraffe cake!

 John Deere Action.  Oh yeah!

 Oliver and I went to McDonald's for lunch.  It was a fun little date.

 Admiring his beanie boo zebra

 It is Nana's birthday too!

 First LEGO set

Playing Hungry Hippos.  This game is a winner!

 Happy Birthday to two of my most favorite people!

Oh how I love you both!

 It was such a fun day.  I especially enjoyed the evening which was full of chaos, excitement and a very hyper Oliver.  I couldn't stop giggling.

Happy Happy Birthday!

Sugar and Butter and Wedding Cakes

This month, I made my very first wedding cake:

 complete with cupcakes for the after party.

 It was a huge learning experience for me.  A lot of fun.  A lot of stress.  But totally worth it in the end!  I was very pleased and extra grateful that it turned out as well as it did.

 The cake and cupcakes were lemon cake with a lemon syrup, strawberry frosting inside and a nice American white buttercream on the outside.  I used somewhere in the range of 8 pounds of confectioners sugar and 5 pounds of butter!

 Decorated with lavender and a few silver sprinkles on the cupcakes

 I was nervous to transport the finished cake, but it worked out well.  I decorated the cake with the lavender on site.

The wedding turned out lovely!  Pictures to come!

Ethan's Birthday

He slept so bad the night before.  He was too excited!  I told him he was just practicing to sleep bad on Christmas Eve.  Lol!

 We sent him on a little hunt to find his main gift.  He's been wanting this for a year!  He was beyond excited.

 Blueberry pie for breakfast!  I didn't complain about that one.

 And the ice on the roads made school have a two hour late start.  It was an awesome birthday surprise.  So Ethan went right to building after breakfast.

 While he was at school, I made his cake!  I think it kind of looks armored.  :)

He liked it

 More fun with Grandpa and Nana in the evening.  Pizza and presents.  Plus talking to Michael on the phone!

 Happy Birthday to you!

 I love you Ethan.  So much!

It was an easy wonderful day and he said it couldn't have been better.  I loved it too.

Cake!

I had a lot of fun making Oliver a Tractor Cupcake Cake this year!

 And since everyone should be able to blow out candles on their own cake, I made a chocolate one for Nana too.  It was really fun to have so much deliciousness in one room!

 Oliver liked his cake and kept saying, "tractor, tractor!"

 Cooper liked licking the beaters!

 Oliver was very cute while we sang to him.  Just smiled the whole time and blew his candles right out at the end of the song like a champ!

 Ahhhhh!  Happy Birthday to Oliver and Nana.  I sure love these two:

But, it turns out, Oliver doesn't really like cake.  Just licked the frosting a little and that was that.  He's a funny kid, he doesn't really like any treat.  I'm not sure where he came from on that one!  But I'll still keep him!  Maybe by next year he'll be able to tell me what he wants for his birthday.

The rest of us had a grand time devouring the cupcakes and chocolate cake!  YUM!

Digger Cake!

Cooper came up to me a week or so before his birthday and was so excited.  "Mom!  I have a great idea.  I want a digger cake for my birthday with diggers on it!"  I had to laugh because he had no idea that he had had a digger cake with diggers on it the last two years!  So this year, I decided to make it a little different.  Cooper also requested skittles on his cake.  I had lots of fun with the round cakes and adding the excavating site on the side.  And of course, lots of skittles!

 When he saw his cake, all he could say was, "Perfect!"  Made me happy!

 What a fun and easy cake to make.  I wonder what next year will bring!

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cake!

This cake was really fun to make!  Chocolate cake with strawberry frosting covered in chocolate glaze.  I dipped the strawberries in chocolate too and decorated them and made the swirls with candy melts.  

 It was so delicious!  I think miss Madeline liked it too!

Mmmmmmmmmm!

Cooper's Birthday

Cooper's birthday turned out to be a really enjoyable day.  He is such a happy and easy to please kid and, just turning 3, had no expectations.  He was delighted by all the simple things and spent the day thanking us for everything.  Before the extended family party in the evening, we had a little present opening party for him with just our family.

 He loved his new crane and construction hat.  Madeline gave him a tube of mini m&ms and Ethan gave him some play dough.  They both made him digger birthday cards and he replied with a, "Thanks Eeeef!  Thanks Mada!"

 "Look!  I am a crucktion worker!"

 He especially loved his cake!  It took all of his self-control not to touch the diggers, but he was awesome and waited.

 He stood there admiring it for a long time.  I asked him which digger he liked best and he said, "I like this one, and this one, and this one, and this one, and this one!"

The weather was perfect and the family gathering was lots of fun.

He got loads of awesome digger stuff and was thrilled!  Thanks everyone!

He was really cute blowing out his candles...

once they were out, he smiled, clapped his hands and ran away!

 And then, the moment he was waiting for!  Digging into his chocolate ice cream with his digger and dumping it into his mouth!

Happy Birthday Cooper!