Showing posts with label cake. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cake. Show all posts

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Luke's 3rd Birthday Party--TRAINS!

Luke chose to have a CHOO CHOO party! I really didn't want a "Thomas" party, but honestly, there are not many other kinds of trains out there; so really, it did turn into one.  We had a great time and everything turned out great!


I used my Cricut machine and computer to make the signs.  Many of the ideas I got from Pinterest!  The Thomas tent was something we've had since Jack was a toddler.  It worked well as an accent decoration!



The boys really enjoyed helping me make the "train tracks" on the sidewalk!  Grandma Rickert bought Luke's adorable Old Navy Choo Choo shirt!


The cake was nearly a #pinterestfail! Up until the night before, I still didn't know which cake I was going to bake.  The #3 one with rail road tracks or the classic Wilton's train cake pan.  I decided to go with the #3 forgetting that once you cut apart a cake, it's nearly impossible to frost it without the whole thing falling to pieces!  I stayed calm and it all worked out, but it was a LONG process; and like many of my cakes, it was quite frosting heavy!  My guys don't care, though!  They love my frosting!





I got the idea for this "Baggage Claim" suitcase from Pinterest.  I wasn't able to execute it without the old fashioned looking suitcase from our "Drama Closet" at school!  Thanks, Deb!  I hand made each of the tags, and the real prize in the goody back were the train whistles!



My mom and sister made the R X R cookies.  They turned out awesome!  And they tasted amazing as usual!


My sister walked in with the train painting as a gift for their bedroom.  It worked well on the gift table.


The party was a huge success.  Luke had a great time and the day was gorgeous!  Lots of friends and family were able to make it.  Now on to planning the next party?




















Sunday, February 24, 2013

Jack's LEGO Party--6 years old!

I think Jack gets just as into planning a theme party just as much as me!  He enjoys looking at ideas on Pinterest with me and planning ideas! We debated over  a Superhero party or a RAC party (no work for me), but we ultimately settled on a LEGO party this year.  Jack's been increasingly more interested in Legos over the last few months, so the theme seemed fitting.

I found an invitation on Pinterest that looked similar to this one, so I enlisted the help of my very creative cousin, Stacy, to create this invitation.  I thought it turned out so cute!


I hung the #6 Lego we built on the front door and made Jack stand outside in his Lego shirt for a picture. It was super sunny, so he was squinting like crazy!



As we were looking at cake possibilities, he was very ambitious for me.  He wanted some 3D cake that stood very tall with Lego guys and mini Legos made out of fondant.  I told him I'd have to quit my job to take more cake decorating classes to be able to do some of his fancy ideas.  We settled on some version of a Lego man cake.  Here's how his cake turned out.


It was actually a combo of two cakes.  I had to cut them up to make the Lego guy.  The hands cut out nicely but were ultimately impossible to frost, so I just used frosting on the board.  That worked quite well.





Weeks prior to his party, I began work on the favor bags and decorations.  Usually I like to take a day off work the day before the party, but I used my time off for an Arizona vacation with Jay, so the work was spread out over several days.  Jack was able to help me too!






I saw the idea of square Lego man heads for plates.  Jack and I had fun coming up with faces to create for the place settings.  We also ended up using one of the plates for the "head" of Pin the head on the Lego man!




There were three "games" at the party with a Lego man prize.  Guess how many Legos are in the jar, pin the head on the Lego man, and one of the plates had a Lego sticker on the bottom which won the kid a prize.  The prizes were mini Lego guys.




We also had a pinata.  We decided to string it up in the garage.  There's so much winter gunk on the floor, that Jay had to cover with painting drop cloths.  It worked well and the pinata seemed to be a highlight of the party.  I wasn't ambitious enough to paper mache my own Lego pinata, though!




Jack invited 6 friends from his kindergarten class and one friend from Sunday School.  All but one school friend came to the party.  It was a nice group of boys and they played well together.  They were NOISY, though!  Right at the start of the party, they started getting a little too rambunctious in the basement, so Jay went downstairs to lay down the ground rules.  It was so cute, he started by yelling, "Alright boys, huddle up, huddle up!"  He had their attention and then told them the rules.  They all listened so well and were well behaved.  I got this picture of Jay in action!


Jack has twins in his class, Gavin and Mason.  He told us how to tell them apart, one has a white stripe on his glasses and the other a red stripe.  That was a very subtle difference and we had a hard time telling them apart.  Those two could really crack the baseball bat on the pinata just like Jack.  I think they'll be baseball buddies this summer!


All of the boys!



Opening presents and eating cake was last.  What they enjoyed most was just playing and the pinata, of course!







Another successful birthday party!  My absolute favorite part was when Jack came up to me in the kitchen while I was cleaning up and gave my leg a huge hug and said, "Thank you, Mommy!  You throw the best birthday parties!"  Love that kid.  That makes all the work 100% worth it!

Happy 6th Birthday, Jack!

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Grandpa's 65th Birthday!

Dad turned 65 in early May.  I decided to make him a cake to mark the big number!  I got the idea from Pinterest and thought the cake turned out adorably!  Totally his type of cake because his spends most of his time on the golf course!




Monday, February 27, 2012

Jack's 5th Birthday Party!



Jack's 5th birthday party was a huge success despite a few unexpected trips to the ER!  Never a dull moment at the Ryan household!

Jack chose a MONSTER party theme.  He chose this months ago when I was planning Luke's first birthday party.  He wanted to search Pinterest with me and come up with a theme and so began the party planning for his fifth birthday!

While I absolutely love party planning and making elaborate cakes, I do get stressed out!  (Shock!) Add in a husband who is out of commission due to severe torticolis and a drugged induced stupor, and I'm impressed at how well I kept it together.  I essentially had ZERO help and shockingly, I pulled it off with no major glitches!

I made monster cupcakes AND A monster cake AND cake pops!  Cake pops taste amazing, but holy cow they're a pain to make!














This year since Jack was five, I decided to have a couple games for the kids.  We did a pinata and "pin the eyeball on the monster!"
My dad lead the pinata escapade since Jay was in bed unable to move!




 I love this picture of Luke peering over the table!


 Jack cracked up at his placement of the eyeball on the monster!
 All the little boys' goofy faces!