Meeska, Mooska, Mickey Mouse

I've had Ellie's first princess birthday party planned out since before she was conceived. Unfortunately for me, this girl already knows what she likes...and it isn't princesses. Mickey Mouse holds a special spot in her heart only second to daddy. So after months of planning a princess party and sending all my supplies to decorate her princess cake to Utah, I caved and changed tracks to plan a Mickey Mouse party a couple days before.

We celebrated her birthday on the first of January because of all the wedding festivities on her real birthday.

Since Ellie is addicted to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, it seemed like the most appropriate design for her. Pretty much anything that could possibly go wrong while baking and decorating a cake happened to me. I was near ready to throw this cake against a wall and just buy one from the store the morning of the party, but it finally starting coming together (though never as fabulous as I had envisioned it...). Even the Mickey Mouse cake pops were a near disaster for Jonny and me.

Ellie was so lucky to have so many family members and friends come to celebrate with her. (Sorry EVERY picture is so blurry- I left my camera on the wrong setting).

Ellie cried when we cut the cake (probably because she was hungry) and cried even harder when Connyr busted the pinata open. She loved her little Mickey Mouse pinata and helped me stuff each piece of candy with love. She got over it when we gave her a sucker though.

Thanks to everyone for coming to help us celebrate!

Toy Story Birthday

We had Ken's Buzz Lightyear birthday party on Saturday at our house. It was pretty much the coolest birthday party ever and we all had a blast, especially Ken!

Since I have so much free time I thought it would be fun to make Ken this masterpiece. It was my first time using fondant, but I was so happy with the way it turned out and Ken loved it. (Joey Comment: Amber seriously made this cake and she made it all the way from the brown fence to the very shaped moon. She stayed up until 5am finishing it, two nights in a row and some how managed to study, do clinicals, etc... I only say this because I think some may doubt.)

I posted a million pictures of it because it took me 12 hours to make, lived for about 5 hours, and was destroyed in about 2 minutes. Totally worth it for the look on Ken's and the other kids' faces.

I was particularly pleased with how the moon turned out.

Joe and Ellie just hanging out at the party

The bounce house was a hit and the kids were so entertained I didn't have to try to come up with games to entertain them. Genius.

Ken had a perm-a-grin all day!

King of the slide!

Ken and Rebeca had to sit by each other at the head of their table to eat their pizza.

I love this picture of Elizabeth with my mama. Grandma was very excited because it was her first time to ever play in a bounce house!

Getting everyone gathered around for some pinata action

Collecting the goods. You can tell these kids are still only 3-4 because it took them like 15 minutes to finally get all the prizes and candy off the ground.

Ken was quite proud of his cake

Blowing out the candles...I'm not sure if Ken was actually the one to blow it out or the one of the 7 other kids trying to blow it out before he could.

Joey Comment: one of the cool things was that we had the bounce house for the whole day. So, before the party Ken and I bounced to our delight. Then after the party Amber, Ken, Ada (Amber's friend from Anesthesia school), and myself bounced for hours again. We had a great time and I loved being a kid again!