The Fidget Files: The Birthday Parties

November 1, 2008

We threw a joint kids' birthdays/housewarming party the first weekend in November. We were excited to finally be in our new house, and we were looking forward to making use of our wonderful deck and backyard. Of course, I wasn't really thinking everything through. Afterall, the party was on November 1st--not actually the best time of year to be planning an outdoor party. A couple of days before the party, we saw temperatures begin to drop. Thank goodness the weather did cooperate, though. It was a nice, but breezy day, so we put the tables and chairs up in the garage, but the kids were still able to play in the backyard.

Fidget invited all of her princess and pirate friends to join her at her "Ball." I did my best to make her a castle cake. I was inspired by a fabulous castle cake my grandmother had made for me when I turned 5. I don't know why I felt the need to make the cake myself, but it was very important to me that I channel my inner Martha Stewart (I still have not found her--no matter how I try) and have a homemade cake. Baking a cake is not the issue, I can bake a cake that tastes great. The problem with my plan is that I'm a terrible cake decorator. I know this, and I doubt that it will ever change, no matter how much I practice. Yet, for some reason, I refuse to quit trying.

My concept was great, in theory. In execution? Not so much. But I tried. I made a practice cake. It was good enough that even with my half-hearted attempts at playing with different types of icings and decorating tools, I felt I could do a good job of the cake for the actual party. Well, at least I tried. So, besides the fact that I know I'm not a great cake decorator, and yet, I went forward with the plans to bake the cakes for the party, here are my other excuses for what went wrong: I couldn't find the same kinds of decorating icing I used for the test run in the colors I wanted. I did look everywhere for the "cupcake icing" in a can. That stuff is fantastic! But every grocery store I went to the week before the party was sold out. We didn't get home from the "trunk or treat" until late and didn't have the kids down for the night until nearly 10. I then started to decorate the cake. My homemade icing turned into a disaster. I ran out of pastry bags. I tried to fashion homemade pastry bags out of ziplocs (do NOT try this at home, ladies and gentlemen). I ended up using a paint brush to push icing into grooves I made for details on the cake. In the words of a dear friend, "Well, it certainly was made with a lot of Vitamin L [love]." That it was, dear Fidget. Thank goodness she was too young to be embarrassed by her mom.

Oh, and do you have any idea how easy it is to go over the top planning a Princess-themed party? There were crafts to make princess wands and pirate swords and goody bags filled with all sorts of dress-up things necessary for princesses and pirates. And we were going to take pictures of all the kids in the castle turrets we'd made. I had my cousin, Murphy, who's at Yale, give up an entire weekend to "help me" make turrets (translate that to: banished her to the basement to design and construct mostly on her own--I, with zero artistic ability, was of little help) out of some of our left over moving boxes. I wanted the turrets to be by the front door to welcome people as they arrived on the "pink carpet." Oh, yes, it's EASY to go over the top with ideas for a princess party.

We never got around to taking the pictures. "Why not?" you ask? Oh, yeah, I must have forgotten to mention we'd also rented a princess bouncy house. Turns out that was all we needed--that and the new playset in the backyard! The kids had a great time. Me? I really need to learn more about the KISS method (keep it simple, stupid!) HA!

Oh, and poor Linus--since we were having everyone over, we celebrated his first birthday in all of this. He was completely overwhelmed by the whole thing. He was melting down and ready for a nap while we were eating lunch. So, we asked everyone to stop in the middle of lunch to let him blow out the candles on his cake so he could go nap. HIS cake looked GREAT if I do say so myself. Again, inspired by my grandmother--she made a train cake for my brother's first birthday--I made a train cake for Linus. I'd found cupcake molds in the shape of a train, and I was able to do a decent job of decorating it. Anyway, I think next year I'll a) order the cakes and b) not try to plan joint birthday parties and a housewarming all at once. Separate (simple) birthday parties for the kids!
Here are quite a few pictures from the day: