I feel like we are in party central mode and are non-stop until Ellie’s birthday. It starts with Christmas (or three or four of those celebrations) goes through Madison’s birthday to the party day and right into Ellie’s birthday… which is yet to come! I guess I can just lay low until next year then, right?
So, this year we tried the dual party on an “off” day – you know, neither of the girls” actual birthday. It had pros and cons as most things do. Pros – one party, one time to get the house ready, one time to get food made, one time that others have to make time to come. Cons – one party, you still need to do something on the day of the birthday, not as individual for each girl, kinda felt a little like a machine (Madison, you see your cake; Ellie, you see yours; Madison, you open gifts; okay, Ellie, your turn), and two cakes to do at one time. I don’t know what we will do for next year, but this is what happened this year.
So, we invited mostly family with one or two non-family guests. By the time the family comes, there is little room for many more, and frankly, at this age, I don’t think the girls care one way or the other.
Everyone started arriving around 4pm. Pretty soon, we had almost 15 adults in our living room on a holding pattern until the food was ready. If you have seen our living room, you would understand that this is pretty amazing. (I actually didn’t think that many would fit in there, but…) There were about 13 kids flying around between the upstairs and downstairs and the basement playing hide-and-seek and other things.
Finally, it was time for the meal to begin: sloppy joes, hot dogs, baked beans, veggies, and chips. Simple, fast, and little clean-up. Everyone slowly filtered into the kitchen to get food. Then, we had almost 25 in that area!
We made it through the meal, did a little clean-up (thanks, Mom!), and got prepped for dessert.
Madison was the first to receive her cake. She had decided early on in the year she wanted a Barbie cake like this. To be honest, I was a little intimidated, but I was ready to take it on. Fortunately, she checked out a cookbook (yep, my kids do this regularly… I think it is awesome!) from the library that had desserts in it. She found an adorable castle cake made using a 9x13 cake. It was much less intimidating, and I readily encouraged the switch. She had seen me working in the morning on the cake, but she was not allowed to see the final cake until the party. It turned out well, and I think she was very happy!
We sang happy birthday, she blew out the candles, and we moved on to Ellie.
Ellie got her cake second. She had decided that she wanted an Elmo cake. Last year she had said the same thing, and I went with Elmo cupcakes. This year, she was adamant – it had to be a cake. Since I hadn’t spent the $15 on an Elmo shaped cake pan last year, there was no way I was going to this year. (Who would have guessed her Elmo infatuation would last two years!) So, I scoured pinterest to find an Elmo cake I could do without that special cake pan and without using fondant. (I have no idea how to use that stuff, and it wasn’t cheap when I looked at it last year.) A few weeks before the party, I finally found a step-by-step tutorial on making your own Elmo cake! It was not too hard, and I even jazzed it up by using my cool tip for making furry looking frosting!
Ellie, also, had not seen her cake. I think she was happy with it. But none of the pictures will show it. She started crying as soon as Happy Birthday sounded the last note. (It was a little reminiscent of her first birthday.)
And both girls...
After the cake, ice cream, and cookies were eaten, we moved briskly into gift opening. Madison opened all her gifts first.
Ellie followed…. without the tears.
Shortly after, guests started leaving, and we shut down party mode. I wish I would have taken a picture of what it looked like in our kitchen after the kids were in bed. I told Jeremy, I think this is worse than digging out after all the Christmas fun. I mean there were dishes on the counter, discarded wrapping paper on the floor, multiple piles of gifts to find homes for, and random chairs scattered about. It looked like we had been having a fun time!
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