Today was Jackson's 4th birthday party! It went well and everyone seemed to have a lot of fun. A few weeks ago Brian and I talked to Jackson to find out who he wanted to invite. We had to shorten his list quite dramatically as he has recently decided he is the most popular boy in the world and everyone he knows should get the honour of coming to his special day. So in the end we invited 12 families (total of 19 kids, ranging from 4 months to 6 years). We sort of expected that a couple families wouldn't be able to come and that would leave the guest list fairly reasonable. Yeah, not quite. Only three families RSVP'd with no, another never RSVP'd and the rest were all able to come. So in the end there were 13 kids (plus Jackson and Lexi), and 7 adults (plus Brian and I). Thankfully it was a nice sunny (although incredibly windy) day so we could just have the party outside. I can't imagine all 24 people in our house!!
I ordered the balloons a few days ago. It was so windy outside that I couldn't place them around the room so they just stayed in a bunch by the stairs. Sort of a waste of money, but still festive and fun.
The kids were given this bouncy castle for Christmas last year. It was a perfect addition to the backyard party!
The kids had a blast running around the backyard and playing on the play structure.In the last month we've gone to 3 birthday parties and each one has had a pinata. So naturally, Jackson decided his birthday party had to have a pinata too. I'd given him the choice early on as to what theme he wanted for his birthday. He chose the Wonder Pets (a show on tv that he has been obsessed with for months). The problem is, there is very very little Wonder Pets stuff in stores. So to find decorations and party supplies, let alone a pinata, was very difficult. My options for the pinata were to buy a store-made one and glue a Wonder Pets picture over the original picture, or to make one myself. Since I fancy myself crafty I decided to make it myself. Plus, all the pinatas at the other parties were the store-bought ones and they were so hard that kids could not break through them. I figured a home-made one would be thinner and easier to break (the store-bought ones are essentially cardboard boxes covered in decorations). Here is the finished pinata...
Tada!! The pinata was 3 layers of paper mache over a large balloon. Then I stuck all the crepe paper on around two images from the Wonder Pets. This image features Linny, Tuck and Ming-Ming.
And on the other side is the Wonder Pets logo. This photo cracks me up because the pinata looks ENORMOUS! But really it wasn't as large as it looks.
Okay, maybe it was enormous, lol! This was the first whack at the pinata. Jackson got to do the honours.
All the kids got to have two turns hitting the pinata (3 whacks each turn).
Every guest that wanted a turn got one. After all the kids had two turns I invited the adults to take a turn (I was wrong about home-made pinatas being weaker than store-bought ones! This sucker was SOLID!).
No other parent wanted a turn so I took out all my frustrations over making the pinata, lol! It still took me quite a few whacks to bust open the darn thing! But eventually it shattered and the goodies went flying! It was filled with candy necklaces, Hershey kisses, Starburst candies, clapper hands, rubber balls and whistles.When I started planning the party I was trying to think of a cool take-home gift. I didn't want to do the usual goody bag full of toys that the kids like for an hour and the parents can't wait to just throw them out. Last year I did potted plants (but forgot to do them so ended up just giving each guest a small pot with some stickers and a flower bulb in it!). This year I started planning it out and sent my dad an email with a few ideas. In each episode of the Wonder Pets they build a 'flyboat' using items found in the schoolhouse (the Wonder Pets are classroom pets). Jackson loves this part of the show and is always trying to build flyboats. So my idea was to have all the supplies for each kid to build their own vehicle. They would use markers or crayons to decorate them and then get to bring home their creations. My dad responded by sending us 8 truck bodies and 16 car bodies, complete with wheels and axles. Awesome!!
The kids really enjoyed building their flyboats. Especially since the markers were the yummy Mr.Sketch Scented ones!
In addition to the pinata and the make-your-own-fly-vehicles we also played a Save the Animals game. This game was a great concept that I found online. Basically each child is told an animal that they have to save. The way I planned it was that at some point in the party Brian would wander about the backyard hiding small plastic animals. Then each kid would draw a slip of paper out of a bowl. That slip would say an animal and the child would have to search the backyard for their specific animal. Then they would get to take their 'rescued' animal home. Sounds like a good plan right? Well, I had just brought the bowl out into the backyard, the animals were hidden, the stage was set (so to speak). Then there was a bouncy castle catastrophe (wall collapsed, children piled on top of each other, Jackson scream-crying, y'know good party fun). In the midst of all of this a huge gust of wind came along and blew all the slips out of the bowl. We ended up finding 9 of the 13 slips (some were all the way in the side garden near the front of the house!). And while all this was happening one of the moms came up and asked if there was some game planned with animals because her daughter had found some and started collecting them, lol! We rehid them, had the kids draw animal names (just telling a few kids their animals instead since we didn't have all the slips) and then had them off and searching. It turned out way better than I anticipated and all the kids found their animals! Fun game.
The Cake...
Anyone who has followed this blog for the past 2 years knows of my obsession with birthday cakes. It borders on crazy. Anyways, as soon as Jackson chose his Wonder Pets theme this year I started planning out the cake. I looked for ideas online and finally narrowed it down to this one:
http://lickthebowlgood.blogspot.com/2010/01/to-rescue.html When I showed it to Jackson he loved it, but then pointed out the inaccuracies of it. There were no "things that make it go" and no "sprockets" and no marble. Really? How annoying to have someone need things to be perfectly accurate (::cough cough::). He loved the sky cake base tho, since the flyboat was actually flying then. So I started planning it out.
Friday night I made the cake. I knew that the cake base was going to be a 13x9 rectangle. I was worried this wouldn't be enough cake for all the guests so I also planned to make cupcakes. In the past I've always used cake mixes and then from-scratch filling and frosting. This year I wanted to make everything from scratch (okay, except the fondant, that seems hard!). I searched online and finally decided on a good chocolate cake recipe and white cake recipe. I followed each recipe exactly and was not too happy with the results. The chocolate cake didn't rise right and was super thin on the edges and normal height in the middle. The white cupcakes didn't pouf up like I wanted and were fairly dry. I had also used some sprinkles to make confetti cupcakes and I didn't like the colours of them. So I decided to make a new white cake the next day. This time I was using a cake mix though.
Saturday Brian took the kids for the day and I got to focus on the cake and pinata. It was wonderful. I made the cupcakes and another 13x9 cake because the two chocolate layers were not going to make a very high cake. This time they turned out great and I got to start decorating the cakes. I used the Bavarian Creme filling I found online last year and used a dairy-free frosting I found last year too. There was no reason to make it dairy-free this year other than it is the yummiest frosting I have ever made. This year I decided to try a new technique and make the flyboat out of Rice Krispy Treats. That's right, I believe I am a contestant on Cake Wars. All I have to say about that was... It was SO much fun! It was a whole new dimension of cake making. You can make ANY shape out of Rice Krispy Treats. Then I covered the whole flyboat with fondant. Fun! So in the end I had a 3 layer cake (chocolate cake, Bavarian cream filling, white cake, Bavarian cream filling, chocolate cake, icing and then fondant) with a Rice Krispy Treat flyboat covered in fondant ontop of that. And then 12 cupcakes. That ought to be enough!
Now, seriously, how cute is that?!?!
I also got to use out a bunch of the new cake tools I got for Christmas! I am never, ever, icing a cupcake with a knife anymore. How pretty are these? And SOOOOO easy!
The flyboat has fondant covered Oreos for wheels, fondant covered jubjubes for thrusters ("things that make it go"), a ruler for the mast, a paper drawing for the sail, and a real marble on top. Jackson was satisfied with the accuracy of his cake. And couldn't wait to play with it. Ummm... yeah, not for long tho!
So pretty. The cupcakes were supposed to be blue (for Linny's cape), green (for Ming-Ming's cape) and red (for Tuck's cape). If anyone can tell me how to get icing red and not hot pink I would LOVE to know... I tried liquid food colouring and 2 different colours of gel food colouring. Always hot pink. Remember the Mega Blocks cake? Same issue then.
No Wonder Pets party is complete without celery! At the end of every Wonder Pets episode the trio celebrates with celery ("this calls for some celery!"). Being as he is obsessed with the Wonder Pets, it only figures that he is also obsessed with celery. Nearly every time we go to the grocery store he wants to buy celery. He never eats it, but still wants it and promises us he will eat it. So for his party I set up a celery station. It had cheez whiz, peanut butter and raisins (for ants on a log). Not surprisingly (considering it was a 4 year old's birthday party) most of this was still on the plate after the party. But it was a cute addition to the food table.
Mmmm cake. The pieces ended up being as big as each kid's head (just how I cut them, lol). And in the end we had all the cupcakes still and 1/3 of the cake. Hmmm... Some flaw in my original calculations!
Opening the gifts.I never know whether to have Jackson open the gifts while everyone is still there or leave them to be opened later. I like when we are at a party and get to watch the child open the present. I like to see their reaction to it and see if they like it. Even if they don't like it, it always amuses me when a kid opens a present and tosses it behind their back to move on to the next one. If an adult did it then it's rude. But when it's a kid, it's just so innocent and honest that it cracks me up. Last year Jackson opened his gifts when everyone was still over and it was fine. But we did have all the kids hovering around trying to help. This year I decided we'd open them when everyone was there but I'd have the child who gave Jackson the present come over and help him open it. That turned out kind of neat and I think the guests enjoyed that.
We still had most of the kids hovering around the gifts tho! (Umm.. And my hairline is not actually receding, lol! Why do I look bald in this photo? Scary!! And yet I can't stop laughing at it.)All in all the party was a lot of fun! Jackson had a blast. When I asked him this afternoon what his favorite part of his party was he told me it was playing with all his friends. Isn't that what it's all about? Then tonight before bed I asked him again and he told me it was that Daddy stayed for the party. Awww. Such a good kid.
This time 4 years ago I was about to go to the hospital. This time 4 years ago we didn't know if we were going to be the parents of a boy or a girl. We didn't know what our baby would look like, who s/he would be.
It couldn't have turned out any better.
Jackson just a few hours old.
Jackson at One Year!
Two years old!
Three Years old!
Four Years old!!
Today was Jackson's 4th birthday party! It went well and everyone seemed to have a lot of fun. A few weeks ago Brian and I talked to Jackson to find out who he wanted to invite. We had to shorten his list quite dramatically as he has recently decided he is the most popular boy in the world and everyone he knows should get the honour of coming to his special day. So in the end we invited 12 families (total of 19 kids, ranging from 4 months to 6 years). We sort of expected that a couple families wouldn't be able to come and that would leave the guest list fairly reasonable. Yeah, not quite. Only three families RSVP'd with no, another never RSVP'd and the rest were all able to come. So in the end there were 13 kids (plus Jackson and Lexi), and 7 adults (plus Brian and I). Thankfully it was a nice sunny (although incredibly windy) day so we could just have the party outside. I can't imagine all 24 people in our house!!
I ordered the balloons a few days ago. It was so windy outside that I couldn't place them around the room so they just stayed in a bunch by the stairs. Sort of a waste of money, but still festive and fun.
The kids were given this bouncy castle for Christmas last year. It was a perfect addition to the backyard party!
The kids had a blast running around the backyard and playing on the play structure.
Tada!! The pinata was 3 layers of paper mache over a large balloon. Then I stuck all the crepe paper on around two images from the Wonder Pets. This image features Linny, Tuck and Ming-Ming.
And on the other side is the Wonder Pets logo. This photo cracks me up because the pinata looks ENORMOUS! But really it wasn't as large as it looks.
Okay, maybe it was enormous, lol! This was the first whack at the pinata. Jackson got to do the honours.
All the kids got to have two turns hitting the pinata (3 whacks each turn).
Every guest that wanted a turn got one. After all the kids had two turns I invited the adults to take a turn (I was wrong about home-made pinatas being weaker than store-bought ones! This sucker was SOLID!).
No other parent wanted a turn so I took out all my frustrations over making the pinata, lol! It still took me quite a few whacks to bust open the darn thing! But eventually it shattered and the goodies went flying! It was filled with candy necklaces, Hershey kisses, Starburst candies, clapper hands, rubber balls and whistles.
The kids really enjoyed building their flyboats. Especially since the markers were the yummy Mr.Sketch Scented ones!
Now, seriously, how cute is that?!?!
I also got to use out a bunch of the new cake tools I got for Christmas! I am never, ever, icing a cupcake with a knife anymore. How pretty are these? And SOOOOO easy!
The flyboat has fondant covered Oreos for wheels, fondant covered jubjubes for thrusters ("things that make it go"), a ruler for the mast, a paper drawing for the sail, and a real marble on top. Jackson was satisfied with the accuracy of his cake. And couldn't wait to play with it. Ummm... yeah, not for long tho!
So pretty. The cupcakes were supposed to be blue (for Linny's cape), green (for Ming-Ming's cape) and red (for Tuck's cape). If anyone can tell me how to get icing red and not hot pink I would LOVE to know... I tried liquid food colouring and 2 different colours of gel food colouring. Always hot pink. Remember the Mega Blocks cake? Same issue then.
No Wonder Pets party is complete without celery! At the end of every Wonder Pets episode the trio celebrates with celery ("this calls for some celery!"). Being as he is obsessed with the Wonder Pets, it only figures that he is also obsessed with celery. Nearly every time we go to the grocery store he wants to buy celery. He never eats it, but still wants it and promises us he will eat it. So for his party I set up a celery station. It had cheez whiz, peanut butter and raisins (for ants on a log). Not surprisingly (considering it was a 4 year old's birthday party) most of this was still on the plate after the party. But it was a cute addition to the food table.
Mmmm cake. The pieces ended up being as big as each kid's head (just how I cut them, lol). And in the end we had all the cupcakes still and 1/3 of the cake. Hmmm... Some flaw in my original calculations!
Opening the gifts.
We still had most of the kids hovering around the gifts tho! (Umm.. And my hairline is not actually receding, lol! Why do I look bald in this photo? Scary!! And yet I can't stop laughing at it.)