I am, by no means, a decorating person. I'd way rather spend that time making a fun cake! Leah loves Hello Kitty, so I went easy and bought a Hello Kitty Banner, plates, napkins, and balloons at Walmart.
We decorated while Leah was in bed, so she woke up to decorations above her bedroom door and in the kitchen.
"This is amazing!" she said, when she looked at her door frame.
I love her enthusiasm!
We always open presents right away in the morning on our bed. The birthday honoree has the option of breakfast in bed. Leah opted to eat with her sisters like she usually does.
I think breakfast in bed is a little too solitary for her :)
I got her some of her favorite yogurt and made cinnamon rolls from a can...without burning them this time! WIN!
My parents, sister and her boyfriend, and Aaron's parents came over after lunch for some more fun, presents, and eating!
For appetizers, I made ginger ale (recipe to come) and raspberry lime rickey for drinks and guacamole and spinach artichoke dip for snacks.
For supper, I kept it simple and made hamburger sliders, fruit salad (my sister cut all the fruit, but I DID pour in the blueberries), chips, and raspberry jello salad (recipe to come).
The food was really yummy, even though the picture isn't beautiful!
The cake was where I spent a lot of my energy! It was well worth it, though. Leah loved it!
It wasn't that hard to make the rainbow cake...it just took some time. I followed this recipe. The only substitute was that I didn't have vanilla bean paste for the cake, so I just used an equal amount of vanilla extract. I put strawberry freezer jam between the layers of the cake instead of frosting, too. The cake was really yummy...not dry and I loved the addition of almond extract.
Plus, it's always awesome to have a rainbow in your cake!
Oh, the ice cream we served was chocolate and vanilla bean with mini M&Ms mixed in. The chocolate ice cream was more like custard from Culver's...so delicious! Both of these ice creams will knock your socks off!
It was a wonderfully fun day, but the fun wasn't over for Leah! She got to have her school birthday on Monday!
I made Oreo Cupcakes for her, and they were a huge hit! I used a different frosting recipe than the one listed. The one I used is probably my all time favorite frosting! So light tasting and there's no butter in it...just a cup and a half of whipping cream ;) I don't know if you can tell in the picture, but there is half of an Oreo (the half with the frosting, of course) at the bottom of the cupcake!
We all went to school and had lunch with Leah. Aaron picked up personal pan pizzas from Pizza Hut for each girl, although Maggie and Gracie were a little too distracted to eat! I even bought pudding cups for all the girls to eat, which is quite special as I don't usually buy that kind of thing.
The little girls didn't finish their pudding cups at school, so they enjoyed them at home instead.
I think we can all agree that they REALLY enjoyed them! It looks like they each had a fu manchu moustache!
All in all, I think Leah felt really special.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
Ryan told me all about the oreo cupcakes! Great birthday party fun!
ReplyDeleteThat's cool! I'm glad he liked them :)
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