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@Adira: @shopaholic: Have great parties this weekend!! Cant wait to see pictures!
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Target for a helium tank it is!!! Thanks, we will need one for sure!
My invites should be here Monday and I am so excited!! I need to get them out ASAP!
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@Adira: @shopaholic: Hope today is a great party day for you guys!! Can't wait to read all about it, and show us pics too!
@shopaholic: The rain isn't as bad today as it was yesterday, so hopefully it wasn't too stressful for you to setup everything!
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Clearly I need to work on my icing skills. Def. going to do a crumb layer for the real thing. I glued stars on lollipop sticks for the topper. Then have silver star sprinkles.
Good thing I am doing a Costco cake for everyone else!
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@Smurfette: That actually looks pretty good to me! I'm nervous about doing this tomorrow because I haven't practiced!
Whoever suggested parchment paper in the bottom of my ramekins for the cake was a genius! Just made Xander's cake for tomorrow and it literally just fell out of the ramekin without me having to do anything! Now I just need to frost them, which I'll do first thing in the morning!
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@Adira: Thanks! I hope it comes out better the day of. Good luck with yours tomorrow!!!! Glad the cakes came out so easily. Have fun tomorrow!
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@AprilFool: Added you! I'm shopaholicviv
@cheert16: @Mrs. High Heels: Thanks ladies!
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@Smurfette: I actually think you frosted that really well!
@shopaholic: Party looked fabulous!!
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@Smurfette: it looks great! I had no idea how difficult it is to frost a cake until I started day of the party! I don't know how people get those perfectly smooth frosted cakes!
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Whew! The party was a smashing success! K was a little late to her own party, even though I kept her up early and moved her nap. In all honesty, I still was making a last tutu right up to the moment!
I was up till 4 am Fri. night, and up at 7:30 am. So I will keep this post brief.
The weather cooperated for us wonderfully! Rained overnight, but not a drop of rain all morning. Some of the older kids even played outside and we had some photos outside, but the grass was wet. The rented clubhouse worked out PERFECT! We had about 60+ people. Only 2 families cancelled. I took K home around 3:30 for a nap. My family helped clean up and it took 3 SUVs to bring everything home! By the 3rd car's drop-off, the rain and rolling thunderstorms had started! We were so lucky none of the guests had to get wet at all!
SO glad I hired a photographer! We didn't even end up getting to take family photos before everything started. I had planned 2 outfits, but it just never happened. Though she did get an outfit change for the cake smash. I wish I had a group pic of all the girls in their tutus (19 total!), but as you can imagine, that would be near impossible.
Can't wait for the professional pics! Everyone only took/posted pics of the dessert table, but I promise there were more decorations! lol! But here are a few from our friends! I didn't even have my phone with me.
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@shopaholic: I love K with her cake!!! Looks like everything turned out great - love your decorations! Glad the weather cooperated for you guys!
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@shopaholic: It looks wonderful!! K seemed to love getting into that cake. So glad the rain held off for you.
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@Mrs. High Heels: @dojo: I took a glass on cake decorating years you would think I could do it better. I think it is easier with a bigger cake.
@shopaholic: So glad that the weather held out for you!!! Everything looks great!!! I love the cake picture!! 3 SUVs, where you are going to fit all those toys? How did the food turn out? -
@dojo: @AprilFool: @Smurfette: Thanks!
@Smurfette: The food was El Pollo Loco and it was a big hit! Everyone loved it and it fit with our theme. But DH and I had different opinions on how much of what we needed. So we ordered more chicken and paid more for the "mixed variety". I knew we should have ordered more sides. Well, by the time we got there about 1/2 hr after the party started, almost ALL of the side dishes were gone! So my mom went to go pick up 4 more party platters of sides. And at the end - we had a ton of chicken leftover - ALL breast pieces! Everyone wanted the legs and wings. Our whole family has enough chicken for days!
RE: The SUVs - we had to bring everything to the party and back. I mean, everything. Soap, toilet paper, decor, everything. So you can imagine how many trips I made taking things there in my little sedan w/a carseat. lol. Now our living room looks like a disaster. And it's still raining since yesterday. We really lucked out on the weather!
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@Adira: Good Luck and have fun at your party today! Have someone in charge of pictures!
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@smurfette-freeze the cake first!
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@blackbird: Someone told me not to freeze the cake and then ice while defrosting. Can I?
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@shopaholic: Glad to hear the weather co-operated and a great party!! The chalkboard looks very nice. K looks so adorable and love the cake pic!! Hear you on the clean-up after party. I'm not looking fwd to that with lo by my foot!
@Adira: Hope your party went great and you guys had a good time!! -
@shopaholic: We ran out of sides for R's baptism cause DH said that it was enough. Stressed me out! Just shows what do men know about throwing parties!! I can't believe you had to bring toilet paper! Hope you get your house back in order this week!!
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@smurfette, you can get a really good crumb coat on if you freeze it a little first! Not too much though. Or a trick I've done is use Swiss meringue buttercream and get it on there ok, stick it in the fridge and it gets super hard (like butter, really), then put the final frosting coat on
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@Smurfette: I think the cake looks pretty good, and once it is decorated it will look even better. And it is ok if it isn't perfect, she is just going to smash it up anyways!
@shopaholic: Can't wait to see the pro pics! Glad that everything turned out and that the weather held off. All your details look great! I hope your getting a good night or two of sleep now.
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@silver1: @ALV91711: Thanks ladies!
@Smurfette: I know! I shouldn't leave that kind of detail to DH, but he did choose a winner with the idea for El Pollo Loco!
So… the other aftermath of the party = K got a fever in the MOTN. DH didn't believe me at 4am, but she had 102 fever under the armpit this morning. I read somewhere you should +1 for underarm? We kept giving her medicine today, and she's been a constant mid 100-101 the rest of the day (went and bought an ear thermometer). It seems she must have caught something from one of the LOs or just from all the excitement?
SO - Who has parties next weekend? Good Luck this week!
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I owe you ladies pictures, but the party went REALLY well! I sent Xander to daycare so I could do some cleaning and finish putting together all my crafts. I hung up the rest of the instagram prints, put up the monthly photo display, redid all the stupid labels on the stupid mini Hershey's (Terrifically Tacky Tape did the trick), and cleaned the bathrooms. Then my mom came over on Saturday to do some DEEP cleaning. We cleared the living room and vacuumed, dusted the baseboards, and did some serious cleaning in the kitchen. Also Hubs finally cleaned up the pile of Xander's clothes we just had accumulating on top of the dryer, haha. And we went shopping for all the food! Plus two of my friends showed up, thinking the party was on Saturday! haha! And then after Xander went to bed, I made his cake and the dairy-free cupcakes (which my lactose-intolerant friends didn't even eat, grrr).
Then Sunday morning arrived and I made the frosting and frosted the cake and cupcakes and finished some decorating. My parents showed up to put sand on our driveway (we have a layer of ice that just WOULD NOT MELT). We made all the sandwiches and then started putting out the veggies, fruit, crackers & cheese, etc. My brother showed up with the cupcakes, so those went out, and once everything was on the table, I snapped a pic, haha.
Xander's nap schedule ended up working out okay. He woke up too damn early, so we ended up keeping him up until 10:30 (he should've gone down for a nap around 9:00). He was DEFINITELY tired, but I nursed him and then he passed out and slept until 12:15, which worked well. The party started at 1:00 and he was able to stay awake until 3:30! So during that time, he played with the other little kids (it's so much easier to entertain children now that we have one of our own because they just take over Xander's toys and have fun!). He was a little wary of some of the adults (especially the grandparents), but seemed overall pretty friendly with people and seemed like he was having fun. Everyone ate (the food went over really well, yay!) and then we opened presents (he got soooooo much stuff), and did cake!
I was nervous about how the cake was going to go because Xander seems to have a texture issue, so I didn't even think he would touch it. But as soon as we put it in front of him, he tried to grab it! Hubs had to restrain him while we lighted the candle and sang Happy Birthday! And then as soon as we released his arms, he just grabbed the cake with both hands and smashed it!!!! It was so funny! I'm not sure he really ate any, but he definitely got some in his mouth and kept crushing the cake with his hands, so I think I got some decent pictures. And then he stayed up for about 30 more minutes and went down for his nap.
I'm soooooo happy that I hired my brother's friend to do our cupcakes. She's a stay-at- home mom, but really into baking. I've had her cupcakes before, so I knew they would be delicious, and they were sooooooo good! Everyone really liked them! And she only charged me $45 for 36 cupcakes!
Someone got Xander this remote control car that is soooooo neat! The remote only had one button. You press it and the car goes forward. You press it again and the car spins around. Xander was sooooooo fascinated watching the car drive around and he eventually figured out that the remote control controlled it and took over playing with it! It was so cool to see him connect the dots and really get how to play with the toy!!
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@shopaholic: I don't know about the underarm thing. We use a head one. I hope K is feeling better!!
@Adira: Glad that everything went so great! I think we are going to try and keep up R later too, like you did. Cause I think she is going to just have one nap that day. Bummer, they didn't eat the dairy free cupcakes.
I can't wait to see pictures of Xander with his cake!!
That car sounds fun! I agree I love that now they are starting to get how things really work. -
@shopaholic: Your photos look AWESOME! I LOVE K's outfit!!! That's so awesome!!! And that cake is soooo cute! Looks like K really got into her smash cake too! And I love your instagram garland! How'd you attach the pictures to the string? We used mini clothespins, but it looks like you did something different. So glad your party was a success!!
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@shopaholic: Sorry that she got sick, hopefully she is feeling better today.
@Adira: Sounds like the party was good. I'm glad that he got into the cake, even if he didn't eat any. That wasn't very nice of your friends to not eat the special cupcakes you made.
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Oh! I forgot to mention that MIL didn't come to the party! I guess she was sick??? The weird thing is that she didn't even TELL us she wasn't coming! I found out from SIL! That's so rude, right???
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@Adira: That is odd that she didn't even call or anything!
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@Smurfette: I second what @blackbird: said. Freeze the cake a bit first. And, I always put it back in the fridge or freezer for a bit so the crumb coat layer will set and then put on the final layer. The crumb coat can be really thin, too; just enough to keep it from jacking up the real frosting.
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@shopaholic: Love this pics! It sounds like everything was amazing, and K could not look any more adorable!
@Adira: Glad it went well! That car sounds awesome. And, I think it's weird that your MIL didn't let you guys know she was sick and couldn't come to her grandson's first birthday. Very odd.
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@Mrs. Blue: what if I make the cake Thursday night. Can I just leave in the fridge till Sat morning and ice then?
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@Smurfette: I would think so! Just wrap it in saran wrap and you'll be good to go!
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And here's finally some pics from the party!
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@Smurfette: I would wrap in Siran wrap, then foil, & put it in a ziplock...but I'm kind of overkill.
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@Mrs. Blue: me too!
@Adira: everything looks great! He is so cute! -
@Smurfette: Thanks! I would've posted more, but HB was sick of me, haha.
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@Adira: haha!
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@Adira: Great pictures! Everything turned out so cute!
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@Adira: now I want a cupcake
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