Birthday Bash 2013

We were lucky that Benjamin's birthday was on a Saturday, it made party planning very easy! We are also very fortunate that my ILs could come up for the weekend to be at his party! It was so great having them here. Here is my rundown of his party.

. I am sorta going to write this "by section" so if I repeat myself, I apologize. 

The Prep
I was originally planning to do an ABC/Blocks theme. But then, about two weeks ago, I realized just how much Benjamin is loving anything with wheels, so I decided to change to cars. The theme was not really heavy handed or anything, just some decorations and the cake. Of course I do everything last minute, so I did not get invites out, invited people word of mouth. I bought decorations both the weekend before and from Amazon to be delivered the day before. I started baking the cakes on Friday. I had lots to do on Saturday. I NEVER would have gotten the house ready, the cakes decorated, the decorations up, etc, without the help of my MIL and FIL, and my little sister. Unfortunately DH had to work OT during the day so I really needed the additional help. Thank you so much to those three for helping me out!! I basically got up at 6:20am and started cleaning, baking, running errands, etc, and did not slow down until the party started at 4:00pm. Let me tell you, it was so nice to relax a bit when guests started arriving!

Cake Boss (or Cake Student)
The cake was a true adventure. I wanted to carve Benjamin a car. I am pretty good with layer cakes and cakes by scratch, so I was most worried about the frosting part.  I used this recipe from Veena's Art of Cakes. It turned out SO DENSE and was very easy to work with. When I started carving, it turned out it was easier to make an SUV than a car, and he likes all things that go, so I went with SUV. I was (of course) doing everything last minute. I called my little sister and she came over to help out! She baked the second cake (lemon store bought for those chocolate haters), and made frosting for the SUV cake. Well, I had bought Wilson's Prof Grade food dye, the reviews of which said they would make a great red. Not so much. We used a lot and it still came out BRIGHT pink. So then we added yellow, and ended up with bright orange. When my little sis started icing the SUV in bright orange she realized it looked a lot like my brother's jeep, so she decided to go full out and copy the jeep. Meanwhile, the lemon cake got a quick store bought frosting job and some momma's messy writing, and the Smash cake, made from scraps of the chocolate cake, was a baby block. Honestly the little Smash cake turned out so nice made me wish I had stuck with the Blocks theme! But Benjamin liked the SUV cake! The chocolate carving cake was dense but super delicious, and perfect with buttercream and vanilla ice cream. People loved the store bought lemon as well Here are the results:

The Decorations
Benjamin loves decorations, so I wanted to make sure to have some stuff up, even just streamers! He loved pointing at things. Once I got the banner up (that said Happy Birthday), he immediately started wanting to look at it, and kept pointing it out to my ILs as they chased him around. He also loved the hanging balloons - here are some pictures of the decorations and Benjamin enjoying them!

The Guests
Guests included DH, myself, and Benjamin. Grandma and Grandpa K, Grandma and Grandpa Y. Tante L, M, and K. Uncle M and J.  Adopted auntie and uncle K & J and their son K. My sisters ILs J & L, and the vet student who is working with my older sister this week. Total count 18! It was bigger than I originally planned. It was SO fun having everyone here, and all of them loving on Benjamin. I love having a full house for a party!

Food 
Benjamin's favorite food is Pizza, so we got Pizza! There was also veggies tray, and cake of course. Benjamin enjoyed eating the Pizza just as much as he enjoyed the cake!

The Party
People started arriving right on time at 4pm. DH and FIL went to pick up the pizza while the rest of us hung out and watched the two babies play. K is 2 months older than Benjamin and I always enjoy getting those two together.

Then came the pizza! We had PLENTY for everyone and I think everyone got what they wanted!

After everyone was feeling nice and well-fed, it was present time! The first gift we "unwrapped" was not wrapped at all - it was a sled from my brother and his wife. Benjamin LOVED it and insisted on being in it for the rest of the present opening. I cannot wait to go out and use it!

As with Christmas, it was hard to tempt Benjamin to help unwrap his gifts, so I did a lot of it. We did get him interested in a couple things though! Of course he was more interested in the toys already open than he was in the ones left to open. Some high lights of the presents (no offense meant if yours does not get mentioned!) - A "Lap Pup" leap frog toy, cabbage patch doll named Eduardo, some great books and cute out fits, and of course, his Tonka Truck!

We let the kids play for awhile before moving on to the last part of the party - CAKE!!!

 Benjamin liked his SUV cake and was very interested in it. Everyone crowded into the dining room and sung to him, then I blew out the candle. We gave him his smash cake, which turned him BRIGHT BLUE. Guess the frosting had a bit too much dye! He mainly ate frosting and not much cake, but I am unsure whether that was his preference, or he just had trouble smashing the cake when it was so dense! It was a lot of fun! Everyone liked the cake. And yes, I dressed him in blue on purpose!

After cake, people hung out a bit more and chatted, but started drifting out. It was a really great time. Benjamin is so lucky to be surrounded by people that love him! I hope all his parties go as well as this one, and that this is the first of many great Birthday memories created in this house!

We did a lot of other fun things recently, so I hope to post again soon. Sorry for all the pics, I am just loving them!