Cookie Monster Party

For L's first birthday we decided to go with a Cookie Monster theme.  He's one of my favorites, and I didn't think an Oscar the Grouch theme would be appropriate.  A trip to the party store during lunch I was able to find Sesame Street invitations, table cover and a 1st Birthday banner.  Another trip to the dollar store and I found blue plates, cups, and party hats.  A run through the craft store and I had googly eyes and glue.

The cake pan was a little more difficult as the Cookie Monster pan isn't made anymore.  I was able to find one on eBay.  Actually, I found two on eBay.  The large Cookie Monster and the small Cookie Monster that we used for the smash cake.

I then used glue to add the googly eyes to the party hats and cups.  

And had them set up on the table with the food.

Since it was mostly adults at the party, a lot of the hats weren't worn, but the boy had a blast!

Day 19 - What do you collect

I guess you could say I collect shaped cake pans.  I started experimenting with them last year for L's first birthday.  He had a Cookie Monster party and since it was his first birthday we had a large Cookie Monster cake

and a smaller Cookie Monster smash cake.

I also have a guitar, Big Bird, Cars race car, dump truck, monkey, and backyard bugs.  I've  used all the pans at least once with the exception of Big Bird.  Big Bird and the small Cookie Monster use half a cake mix each, which makes them a little more difficult to coordinate.

31 Day Blog Challenge Day 12

What's in your fridge?

So my first thought was 'Which one?'  because we have two.  We have the typical one in our kitchen and a second older one in the basement for more bulk storage.  This is what I get for shopping at a warehouse store. So fridge #1....

This one has pretty standard stuff.  Milk, eggs, creamer, leftovers from last night's dinner, condiments, etc.

The downstairs fridge is a bit of a different story.  That middle shelf is almost all L's yogurt, with a box of hot dogs and some butter mixed in.  The bottom shelf is water bottles and cans of Diet Coke.  The light distorts it some, but that's a cake on the top shelf.  We're going to a Graduation/Anniversary party later.  Our friends are throwing their daughter a grad party and she is throwing them a (surprise) anniversary party at the same time.  So she came over last night and we  she spent 6 1/2 hours making and decorating this cake.

She did a really great job and I think her parents will love it!

Distraction #3

So I've been participating in the 31 Day Blog Challenge and haven't written about anything else in a week.  It's been fun and a good distraction, but it's taking away from posts on other subjects.  Like the goodbye cake I made for a coworker.....

Get it, it's a truck because he was moving on.

OR

It was a truck, because it was a new pan and I hadn't used it yet.

It's also been raining a lot here, which means J's business is slow.  Which stresses him out, which stresses me out.  So he decided to fill a day, by working in the attic.  Now, there is stuff in the attic that is his and his mom's that needs to be sorted.  I'm glad he made an effort to start going through things.  He also did some rearranging in the process......

I'll have to get a picture.  There's more floor than there was before!

He also reorganized some stuff, and moved things that I had set up....

I had a system. <deep cleansing breath>  He moved some of my system.  <deep cleansing breath>  It's ok.  <deep cleansing breath>  I can handle it.  <deep cleansing breath>

Really, I swear, I'm happy he made some progress.  Just because he moved some of the stuff he wanted to keep into the area I was trying to clean out to become my quiet sanctuary, doesn't mean it can't be moved again once we've cleaned some more.  Right?  RIGHT?  I think I need another drink.

Not what I needed after a rough work day and more Compasses mocking me at lunch.  Seriously, I saw two within two minutes.  I really liked the color of the second one.  It was kind of a greyish/green.  I was jealous.

Happy Birthday Baby Boy!

So my baby boy turned two today.  I can't believe how fast time flies.  We had his party over the weekend and I think the final cake came out pretty good.

He sure seemed to like it.  As did everyone else.

Overall I think everyone had a good time!

Distraction #1

So a friend of mine recently celebrated her 30th birthday and I decided to make her a cake with my new cake pan. I really like to decorate shaped cakes, but most of mine are boyish(I do have two boys, three if you count the husband). So I was very excited when I found this "girlier" pan during a recent lunch break.



It's the Backyard Bug pan by Nordic Ware.

So yesterday, I baked a cake. Or should I say, I baked 8 mini cakes. They're cute. Now, the directions said to fill the baking cups, which I thought was a little odd. But for some reason I was still surprised when I opened the oven and saw what looked like exploded cake. My apologies that I started trimming the excess off the cake before taking the picture.

So it wasn't until I went to decorate the eight mini cakes, that I realized I only had 1 decorating bag left. I knew I was running low, but didn't think it was that low. Note to self, check decorating supplies before baking. So needless to say the decorating, didn't go very well and I was not happy with the outcome. I'll spare you the less attractive cakes. A butterfly and dragonfly are below.

And yes, those are the better looking ones.