Birthday Time!

My baby girl just turned 4 and we had her birthday party Saturday.  I've been in denial that my first born is 4, but now that we have celebrated it, I guess it's time for me to deal and come to terms with it. I can't believe how time flies with little ones!  When it took 4 days to induce my labor, I felt like she would never get here, then I blinked...now I have a 4 year old and a 1 year old!  Mazi Dutch was born just 6 days after my husband's and my 1st anniversary.  I told him he would have a hard time topping that gift! Then less than 3 years later, he gave me a son a week before my birthday. The man has good timing on his gifts! Mazi is my great-aunt's name, and Dutch is my granny's name. They are sisters, and both extraordinary women. We kept both of our children's names a secret during my pregnancies, and introduced them after they were born. My granny was there when we introduced her name-sake (at 2 am!) and called her older sister, Mazi, to tell her the news in the middle of the night. We have it all on tape, and it was so neat!  (Mazi and Dutch aren't their birth names, rather their nick-names that they have gone by since they were kids.)

I love love LOVE  celebrating my kids' birthdays! I love how happy it makes them, and celebrating them and the joy that they bring to our family.  For my daughter's birthday this year, she wanted a princess cake. I had decided a couple of months ago that I was going to make it.  I have some cousins who had a bakery and did amazing work, but decided they didn't want to do it anymore and closed up shop. So- I decided "I can DO this."  Mazi loves to watch Cake Boss and Ace of Cakes, so I imagine her expectations of a birthday cake are pretty high! Ha! I had an idea of what I was going to make, but a few days before her party I started to stress a bit over whether I could pull it off...It wasn't a perfect cake by FAR, but Mazi loved it and it was a hit at the party, so I'm going to file it in the success category! (Success that needs improvement is probably a better category!)

Here it is:

I made 3 batches Marshmallow Fondant using this recipe. I love Make it and Love it. Ashley has so many cute projects, and she enlisted her friend, Brittany to do a Make a Cake Series. I can't tell you how much her tips and tutorials helped me make this cake!  You can check out her work here, The girl is SO TALENTED!  I used this recipe for the buttercream inbetween the layers and under the fondant. It is SO delicious (and beyond easy)! I used my Cricut and SCAL and cut out letters for her name, a number 4, a princess silhouette, a Cinderella shoe, and a princess crown on cardstock. I rolled out the fondant, placed the cardstock shapes on it, and with an exacto knife, cut out the pieces. I also made some pink and purple sugar jewels to put around the cake. The crown was made out of Gumpaste.

I made several tissue paper pom poms to have floating above the cake table. They were so easy and really inexpensive to make. The instructions can be found here. They are now hanging over Mazi's bed in her room. She LOVES them!

I also made a banner with my Cricut.  I bought all of the paper at Hobby Lobby.  I decided how big I wanted each triangle, how many I needed, and cut them out.  It could have been easily done by hand, but everything is more fun with a Cricut! :) Then I cut out the letters, glued them on, used blue glitter glue around the letters, attatched them with ribbon, and I was done.  All for under $6.  (I caught the paper 50% off that day!)

 

Next I made Oreo Suckers, Birthday printables, and a Happy Birthday 2x4. All of which can be found over at HowDoesShe. I adore their blog and ideas!

Check out these Cake Balls turned Ice Cream Cones!  Have you ever had cake balls? They are sooo yummy.  All you do it bake a cake (any flavor) and crubble it up. I use my food processor.  Then you add about 3/4 can of frosting. Mix it up, roll it into balls, and dip them in chocolate or candy melts. Bakerella has made every kind imaginable...and they are the cutest darn things! She posted pictures of some ice cream cone cake balls that she had made out of sawed off waffle cones recently that are going to be in her book. (I can't wait to get my hands on it!)  Anyway, I found these little ice cream cones at the store that are TWO INCHES TALL!! Oh they make me happy. 

Seriously. Look how teeny.  A.dor.able.

I filled a bucket with pink candy covered pretzels, and another with the rest of the oreo suckers, made some pink lemonade, and we were ready for a party!

I made Miss Mazi a cupcake tee from this tutorial, and a tutu.  I had made my son a cupcake applique tee for his birthday and had been looking for a way to girl-it-up. When my friend sent me a link to this tutorial, I immediately made one!

After the cake and present part was over, we headed outside for some water fun! My parents have an awesome water slide that they let us use. They kids had a blast!

My sister coated my kids in sun block, and my little guy was in Heaven. He thought she was giving him a massage! He just melted right there in her lap!

The birthday girl thought that DeeDaw (my dad) looked like he needed cooled off!

My sis was helping my baby use a water shooter when this happened...

Haha! She was a great sport! No one was off limits once they stepped into the grass near the water.

I think that my dad had just as much fun (if not more!) than the kids did!

This is Calvin. The dude was serious with that water shooter! He was so quiet and sneaky and great at shooting unsuspecting people! I really enjoyed watching his sniper skills!

My baby was more at home on the sidelines. Things were a tad crazy for him!

The birthday girl was one happy camper.

My sweet little neice decided she needed to stop for a drink. :)

Bubbles!

My little guy found a hat at some point. He was pretty darn cute strutting his stuff in it.

After lots of playing, a cool watermelon sure hit the spot! I loved my baby girl relaxing in the baby pool with a slice! 

Today I am thankful for family, and wonderful parents who opened their home (and water slide!) to our family and friends to celebrate our daughter's birthday.  Parents are the best!