Posts
Last week Gage turned the big 3! He got off pretty easy, he got to play, relax, get presents(LOTS of them) and eat cake. Me on the other hand got the poopie end of that lollipop.(sorry, I've been watching Dodgeball..). For about 2-3 weeks before the actual day of the party I scrambled to get decorations, cake ingredients/decorations/pans, gift bags, stuff for gift bags...and I realized I spent WAY too much money..but that's besides the point. So far, every birthday Gage has had, has had a theme. His first birthday was The Backyardigans, his second was Cars and this year was Little Einstein's. Now each year, once a theme is decided I comb through stores and online for decorations, wrapping paper and whatnot to match the theme. I have noticed a theme so far with this. EVERY year, no matter what the theme is..no where has anything for that theme. Until the following year that is, then they have it all over the place. I couldn't find The Backyardigans stuff ANYWHERE when I wanted it and now..it is in all the party supply stores. The same goes for Cars and now you cant turn around in a store without seeing Cars decorations. I figured this would happen so I started looking online for this year. I knew I could get somethings at the Disney website..of course I printed tons of things and then never used them. So I totally wasted my mother's ink(sorry..). I had such a hard time finding things this year, more than I could have thought. I finally found a site that sold what I wanted and it wasn't the cheapest, but cheaper than anywhere else. So I got a little of this and that, then figured I could improvise the rest. I ordered a few things and they were expected to be in on the 4th, which was perfect since the party was on the 9th. I get the box when expected but I opened it to make sure everything was there. Of course..it was missing stuff! I would have been ok if it was just missing a thing of cups, I could deal with that. Oh no, we were missing the banner, table cloths, cups and blowers! I think the pick and pack person doing my order must have been drunk or something to miss that much stuff...not to mention, some of the more important items! To top it all off, the number on the invoice was not a valid number. I spend the rest of the day searching for people to yell at, lol. I ended up calling the corporate office and telling them I wanted the rest of my order rushed to me or they can take it all back. Yes, this was am empty promise on my part, because I knew I couldn't get the stuff anywhere else...but it worked!
Now, me being how I am thought it was an awesome idea to make Gage a cake that looked like Rocket. Big mistake. Oh but that wasn't enough, I had to make butter cream frosting..from scratch. Bigger mistake. I've made butter cream before, but it is a pain in the butt if you don't have a nice mixer. Which I don't, I have a little hand mixer..some day I will have my Kitchen Aid Artisan mixer..some day..sigh...When I do get one, it is cookies, cakes and pastries for everyone! Anyway.two days before Gage's party comes around and I realize I better get cracking on this cake. I also have to make the sign that says "Happy Birthday", stuff the gift bags, wrap presents, make the frosting, make the cake, carve the cake..and on and on. I also had a wedding to go to the day before the party(those were the pictures from the previous post). So Friday night I get all the presents wrapped(I over bought..big surprise there huh?), got the sign made and the gift bags all set. I must say, I was pretty proud of the gift bags..I think they were cute. I personalized each one and tried to split everything evenly.
The sign I made for him..cheaper than getting one made for me!
The gift table(well, part of it) and gift bags..
Oh..by the way.. none of these photos are edited..I got lazy :)
Alright so now about this whole cake mess. To make a long story short, I went all over trying to find the correct pans for this cake but couldn't find them anywhere. So I spent more than I would like to mention on a football shaped pan so I could get the proper shape for part of Rocket. Now..I got all the cakes made and it was time to carve. I was NOT looking forward to this part. I spent the better part of a day making this cake. I let the cakes cool so I could carve them easier, then it was so hot in the house that once I made the butter cream I had to keep letting it cool in the fridge so it wouldn't melt. So I got the cake all carved, frosted and set after staying up until 2am! The next day my forearm hurt like a mother from everything. I don;t think its as good as it could have been, but I think Gage liked it. Next year, I'm doing a sheet cake! I didn't even want to eat it, but from what I was told it came out pretty good.
Full view of cake..again, not edited so its a little dark.
Close up of Rocket.
Towards the end, I got a little messy with decorating. My hand hurt too much for me to care about it, especially at 2 am.
All in all it was a successful party. We had a lot of people show up, Gage got some awesome presents. The next day we went to my mothers(where the party was held) and he ran to the back door looking for his party again. It was cute. We had a few other things happen to...
Gage was excited to see his party.
Jack was a little flirt, of course
Kasey actually got to snag Rocket away from Gage(this rarely happens)
Gage got excited to get Rocket back
and Hayden gave Jack driving lessons.
Thanks to everyone that came to celebrate with Gage and thank you all for the wonderful presents!
The next day, Gage's actual birthday I was determined to take Gage out all day. We rarely get to do this with his therapy. So I figured we would go feed the ducks at the hospital, maybe go play at the park, go out to eat and just play all day. We did pretty good for the most part. Gage LOVED feeding the ducks, me..no so much. I'm not one for ducks that growl at you or come so close that you think they will bite you. Oh and if you are noticing..yes, Gage does have the same outfit on..I washed it. I just wanted him to wear his birthday boy shirt again, lol. Here are some pictures from that little adventure(again, not edited).
Headed to the pond...
Checking out the crazy ducks with his Mee Mee.
See how close they got! It took bread from my hand!
Throwing bread to the crazy ducks.
Taking his revenge! Chasing the seagulls!
Playing Peek-a-boo with Mee Mee.
Ok..so I did edit one picture...this kid loves trees!
By the end of the day, this is what happened.
Alright, I know I said before I would have wedding things in this post...but I am not even close to being done editing those..so next time, maybe.
No comments:
Post a Comment