Making of a Cars Party

Here are the few experiments I worked on for Deane's Cars 3rd Birthday Party.  All are based on images I found and pinned on Deane's Birthday Pinterest board.

Cake

This was the first birthday cake I've made for my kids, but I saw this example and wanted to give it a go.  I did a step by step because I would have appreciated one myself.  For the cakes I used this recipe based on Magnolia Bakery's Vanilla Cake.  The layers were pretty thin even though I increased the recipe size for 4 9" rounds.  I would just double the cake recipe, but not increase the frosting portion.

 Here are my four rounds stacked, two on top of each other.  I froze them all for about two hours after cooling to make them easier to carve.  I did shave the middle sections so they would fit together to shape a better 3.

 I carved a 3 out of the top layer only.  I had put a thin layer of frosting between layers.

Frosted the entire thing; wasn't going for overly smooth.

I ground up about 1/2 container of Oreos and used a teaspoon to sprinkle it on the 3.  Again, I was somewhat careful, but it's good to do this level first since there will likely be spillage.

I dyed a small bag of coconut with green food coloring to make the grass infield.

I created a border for the track with yellow, red, orange and blue M&Ms.

The dashes are 1/3 of a piece of Orbitz.  The wintergreen flavor is white (as opposed to the other mint flavors which are light green).

I used 100 calorie dark chocolate Fudge Stripes around the outside for the wall of tires.

I couldn't find the chequered flag ribbon as the original creator suggested and tried to use a paper one I made, but neglected to adhere it when the frosting was still fresh.  I don't think it was a necessity. The cake was moist, but denser than a typical birthday cake.  It tasted just as a remember Magnolia Bakery's vanilla cupcake tasting.  I did purchase the Lightning McQueen and Mater for $3.50 each, but I made my own flags by printing the chequered print and glued them around half of a skewer.

Applauding himself after nearly burning off his hair.  Mom was helping him, but since he doesn't know how to blow well, he managed one of the candles himself and she got the other two.

"3" Photo Board

 Decoupaged these photos that I printed on card stock so they would handle the adhesive better.

Paper Banner

 It says "Deane is 3"  I used my Cricut and downloaded Cars images and chequered flag print.  I cut various sizes of rectangles and rectangular frames and the letters and used my Modge Podge to make each section.

Custom T-shirts

(Photos out of focus because he was not interested in having his photo taken.

Step 1:  I cut out the 3 and Heart using my Cricut and the Lightning Bolt was something I found on Google images.  I printed and cut these out on card stock.

Step 2: Lay them over the fabric you are using to see how much fabric you need. 

Step 3: Lay the iron on product on the fabric piece you need and cut the same amount.  Iron on as described on product.

 Step 4: Trace your cut out card stock upside down on the surface of the iron on product.

Step 5: Cut out images and place on the clothing item (or whatever you are using) to check placement.  Remove the back paper and iron on as described on product packaging.  There are some iron on products that can be sewn and some that you are not supposed to sew.  The one pictured above is the latter.

It was a nice afternoon with some of Deane's favorite people.  It was great to have all of my grandparents here.

 Group picture (almost everyone included).  It was perfect because Deane just opened up one present at a time while we all snacked and talked so he got to enjoy each one.

 My Mom with the babies crawling all over her.

 My Dad showing Deane the fake butterfly in a mason jar I found at Wal-Mart.  He is still very interested in butterflies.  I will say that this gift is sort of annoying now that it's been sitting on my counter a couple days just flitting around.

My Dad with Kate, just cuddling.

Our dinner menu:

Snacks - homemade salsa, chex mix, veggie & ranch dip

Chick Hick's Chicken with Sally's Sauces - Chicken Cutlets with Basil-Parsley Sauce and/or Meat Sauce

Mater's Taters - red, white and blue mini-potatoes with Olive oil and Lawry's Seasoned Salt

Flo's Fruit Salad

and of course, the King's CAKE, with ice cream

Birthday Boy - Deane is 3!

Today is Deane's 3rd birthday.  He is such an amazing, cute, sweet, smart boy and we are so incredibly lucky to have him in our lives.  Here's a rundown of today:
Waking up with balloons.  Got this idea here, but we just blew up balloons and started tossing them into his room right after he woke up.  This worked since he still sleeps in a crib and is used to waiting for us.  He wanted us to put them all in his crib and hide under them like a ball pit.  He kept coming back to this throughout the day.

Having breakfast with the dinosaurs.  I remembered I had pinned this cool idea for a "Mater" sandwich and tried to recreate it on the fly.  I asked Deane if it looked like Mater and he said No. :)
 

Playing in Grandma's flip flops.  My parents are awesome and they came over to help us get stuff done since I had to cook for the party and Chris needed to work on garage and mow.  Dad mowed and Mom babysat...and cooked...and did laundry.  They are awesome.

Opened gift from Great Aunt and Great Uncle to keep the fun quotient high

Cuddling "Miggy" (his blanket, derived from mispronunciation of "blankie") and Mommy

Watching (part of ) Cars before lunch

Lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings (while the storms rolled in and out) while of course also watching Dino Dan on the iPad

We went for a ride in th rain and Deane had a well deserved birthday rest

When we got home, we introduced the "big" present, a bounce house that I read far too many reviews about.  There was a theme of gifts that are helpful to building skills for Deane (I think this will be another post).  Of course Deane was equally excited about the mattress we removed from the bed that had been in the location where the bounce house is sitting. 

We sat on the deck, again in the storms.  Deane listened to "Life is a Highway" on my phone (a current favorite song) from on top of the small slide while Kate tried to scale it.

Deane had chicken nuggets for his birthday dinner and told Chris, "Great Job", when he served him the microwaved nuggets.

After baby sister went to sleep, we worked on cleaning up the garage.  At 30, I'm not very excited to be spendin my Saturday nights cleaning the garage, but Deane certainly didn't care that he was spending his birthday evening getting dirty in the garage.  He is a boy through and through I guess.  He tried on a bike helmet he discovered and every pair of Chris's shoes that reside in the garage.  He kept saying "scary" whenever he put on a new get up.

And as you might expect, a birthday boy needs a birthday bath after all of that playing.  His dinosaurs of course also needed a bath.  Now it's Daddy and Deane's turn for some quiet time reading books and going to "weeps". 

I'm planning to talk about how lucky we are to be sharing today and all of our days with our little man.  Birthday party tomorrow, Deane style.

Happy Birthday Big Boy!

Engagement Story

It was 10 years ago today Chris and I were engaged. Unfortunately there are hardly any photos from that day, but the story is still pretty vivid.
We had planned to spend Labor Day weekend in New York City. We were flying out of O'Hare so we stayed with a couple friends (Tom and Mel). There was a little speculation among my friends that maybe this would perhaps we would get engaged on the trip.  I didn't want to get my hopes up.

The morning of our flight, we were enjoying breakfast at friend's apartment and Chris was acting strange, coming and going from the table. Then he had Tom joining him. I'm sure Mel was having a hard time figuring out what to say to make that not seem strange. Apparently Chris had the ring box tucked into the suitcase that I had packed. That morning, I had repacked and never came across the box, but he assumed that I had because he couldn't find it. He had grand plans to propose the following night since we had reservations for a romantic dinner, theatre tickets, etc., but in his desperation, he asked me "Do you have it?". I said "What?" He said, "You know what!" In that moment, I did know what.
We were minutes from having to leave for the airport so we all began looking together. I'm so glad I wasn't the one to find it since that would have been a pretty anti-climatic way to first see your engagement ring. Chris found it, still in the suitcase. He put it in his coat pocket and wouldn't let me see it. He didn't want to even talk about it because he was so frustrated. That was impossible as all the way there, on the plane, etc, all I wanted was to see the ring and get on with being engaged. :)
When we arrived at our hotel, the HiltonTimes Square, they had overbooked and moved us to the Paramount Hotel for the first night. It was a very cool and contemporary place to stay.

Once we were settled, we decided to get a bite to eat on our way to Central Park for a carriage ride. We ended up at Old Castle Pub. It was ironically not very Irish and also not very romantic for our engagement dinner, but that's the story :).
After dinner, we went down for our carriage ride. Chris asked me to marry him and the only photos we have are one that we took of ourselves and one the driver took (which is presently MIA).

Remember this was before digital cameras, previewing and retaking.

I remember feeling as though it was just about us since we were in a place where no one knew us or cared what we were doing...so different from being in our small hometowns. We walked back to our hotel, stopping to pick up a bottle of champagne, toasted and called my parents.

I may not exactly have been 21 so of course I took a picture of this champagne in our cool room

The rest of the weekend trip went as scheduled. The following night we saw Chicago featuring Brooke Shields as Roxy and dined at One if by Land, Two if by Sea (which was super romantic). That's the story!

Making Memories

Here's random rundown of current kid happenings.

• I'm in the midst of putting together Deane's 3rd birthday party for this Sunday.  We will have a Cars theme and I hope he will really enjoy the way we've organized it.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Pinterest and use it daily to collect ideas.  I guess I'm a visual person and saving images rather than favorites is great for me.  Here's the board I made for Deane's Birthday.

• This weekend Deane walked up to me and said "Eat Orange".  He's never eaten an orange before and when I've offered even mandarin oranges in syrup, he wants nothing to do with the.  I cut an orange in half and gave him a piece.  He tasted it and mostly sucked on it.  I gave him the rest of the half which he proceeded to play with but not actually eat.  Who knows where this stuff comes from?

• Deane was also walking up to our fake plant and saying "smell the leaves" and then "ewwww".  This is huge because he understands the concept of smell to some extent!
• Deane is into marching and the other night he came to get me to march with him.  Then, he grabbed a toy drum to carry along.  We were a marching band!  Again, very exciting that he is picking this concept up and wanting to pretend. (Note: the hat was added by Deane to my already highly attractive ensemble.)

• We tried out the new Mexican restaurant, Los Charros, in my hometown and it was pretty good.  I mention this because Deane wore his new Hawkeye hat and I thought he was looking cute.

• And finally Kate is everywhere!  She is intrigued by everything Deane does or has.  She would love to drink his sippy cup or eat the snacks in his snack cup.  Last week I caught her as she moved in to give Deane a little love and take his cup.

Dimensional Framing Idea & Special Print

I acquired this print awhile back (ummm, August 2010!) with the intention of hanging it above my desk in the mud room.  I knew I didn't want to pay to custom frame it and eventually decided I needed a less conventional way to present it.

I liked the idea of "floating" a frame over the print and found an old frame at the Vintage Button.  I cleaned it and painted it to match our woodwork.  I used Ceramcoat in Light Ivory Opaque 02401, found at JoAnn's Fabrics.  It took three coats.

   

 I decided to mount the print with double sided adhesive foam like this so that the print was about a 1/4 inch off of the wall.

 

The frame had a couple of screws from a previous use on each end.

Chris used picture hangers with the original screws to give it that dimension out from the wall.  I hung it to optimize the image versus to be centered over the print.

I'm really happy with the final look and to finally have my print where I can see it everyday.

I'll leave the mess that surrounds it for another day and completely ignore the irony of the "Simplify" sign on my shelf.

About the print:  I purchased this because it reminded me of Deane and myself.  I was rather pregnant with Kate and probably clinging to some of that worry that my focus on my first child would dissipate a lot with a new baby (guess I didn't need to worry about that!).  I suppose any brunette mom with a little blond boy could see themselves in his print.  It came from this Etsy shop.  In recent months as I planned to frame it, it has brought tears to my eyes several times. To me, it now represents my leading Deane into the world, a place that is confusing and frustrating to him.  Little by little, he is less secluded as he gets more comfortable communicating with and engaging others.  I feel certain he knows I will always go before him and protect him.

I'm linking up with these linky parties: Home Stories A to Z, Tip Junkie, At Home with K, Not Just a Housewife