Crawford and Cole’s Party: DECOR

The first of the birthday party posts will be focused on decor (people coming next).  Amanda and I spent a while trying to decide on a theme.  4 year olds are into everything – so we thought Lightening McQueen; motorcycles – but we settled on space.  We rented out FAC Kids Factory – and it worked out perfectly.  They have a bounce house which we called the “Moon Bounce.”  A few more “minor” details and the decor was done.

Grown up tables with planet centerpieces.

The cake table.

My favorite part (Zazzle.com is where we got the standees).

 

The food table.  Of course we gave all the food “space” names!

My favorite – was the make your own space mix:  Saturn’s Rings (cheerios), Rocket Boosters (pretzel rods), Jupiter’s Moons (cheese balls); Asteroids (M&Ms)!

Amanda made rocket shaped rice krispy treats!

The kid’s project table:  make your own UFO and then fly it!  This was an even bigger hit than expected.  We had markers and stickers for them to decorate them.

 

The space suits:  we made each guest their own space suit, complete with patches and their names on the back.

 

Goody bags:  foam rockets that said “Mission Complete!  Hope you had a Blast!”

No for the fun part, pics of the kids that made the party great!

Cake Day

I’ve mentioned that Amanda and I are in the thick of planning Crawford and Cole’s birthday party.  Somehow in the midst of this I took on the task of making the cake.  Can I take this opportunity to say – I’ve NEVER made a cake like this (and NEVER made fondant).

It starts with a base white cake with chocolate icing tinted black (man it took a lot of icing to get it the color I wanted).

I sat down at the computer to answer some work e-mails and this is what I found… my kids eating the cake!  Thank goodness it was the scraps from the rocket.

Here’s the cake with the rocket inserted in the moon.  I really didn’t want the top of the rocket to be that big – but for a first try – I think it’s pretty good.  LOVE the boys cut outs in their space suits holding the flag.

  

Despite some serious engineering to make the rocket stand up – I still took it off for the night.  No sense chancing it.  Here’s the base with the finishing touches.  The small specks are actually edible stars!

The kids were craving my attention – so when Bo came home at 4:00 (and the cake was finally done) we headed out.

   

Con’s favorite part – throwing the snow!

 

 

Love the forts that the Kestner girls made.

After bath – we found Conlee taking Baby (yes that’s her official name and you better not argue with her) and Jax for a walk!

I seriously can’t believe it’s still snowing outside.  We thought about canceling the party because its been coming down ALL day.  But, we called everyone and told them the party will go on.  Fingers crossed that people actually show up!

Snow Day

I couldn’t believe it when I woke up this morning – it had snowed a TON.  Enough so that my office was even closed.  Since it is February 1 and we only have 13 more days to pack in heart shaped activities- we had heart shaped pancakes for breakfast!

Something about food that’s in shapes – just makes it that much more fun.  Bonus is we had leftovers – so into the freezer they go for Valentine’s morning :)

 

When your 2 year old is quiet – this is what you find.

The bank even closed early – which meat the whole family headed out for some sledding next door (they have the best driveway).

 

  

Taylor with the kids.

  

Of course, we made snow angels.

 

We even colored them!

 

Snow castles.

 

I love the snow!  So thankful that it wasn’t the ice that they thought it was going to be.  Having chili for dinner, yum, yum!