Where did she go?

If you have been wondering where I have been the past little while... it's down an internet rabbit hole labeled, "Harry Potter Birthday Party" planning.  (Oh, so. much. fun!)

What did mothers do before google?! (My parents turned the sprinkler on in the back yard and then served cake, handed out paper bags with candy and stickers and... Done. Thank you, 80's childhood.)

Now, thanks to the inter webs, creative obsessive party planners like me can spend hours looking up the perfect table decor for their themed events.  Oh, did I have a blog to write? Oh no, recipes for "potions" are so much more fun!

In all seriousness, though. I am planning to throw the kids a Harry Potter themed birthday party for them when they turn 9 and 5 next month. (gulp! wait, what? NINE? He was 5 1/2, like, yesterday.) AS PER THEIR REQUEST.

My original plan was a "Silly Party." Since they are both silly and all I needed was some silly hats and a few balloons for the "theme". After lengthy discussions (Lily wanted Frozen, Daniel absolutely refused), we settled on Harry.

Funny thing is... I'm certain none of Lily's Pre-K friends have delved into the Dark Arts, and I'm pretty sure none of Daniel's friends know the difference between a Muggle and Half-Blood either. (And if you have no idea what this paragraph means, then you have some reading to do! I'll wait here. Book One is only a few hundred pages.)

So, two children will recognize the owl I'm going to sharpie onto a bunch of white balloons, and perhaps not wonder why they are being asked to play "Quidditch" on our ping pong table... and everyone else will just stuff their faces full of chocolate frogs and put their hands out for their goodie bags.

And because I'm a sucker good mom, I'm also making an Elsa cake for Lily's birthday. Kind of like this one, only blue and with an Elsa doll stuck in it. Clearly I do not remember how stressful making a princess cake is. Good thing I have a blog to make a liar out of me remind me of my past joys.

So in case you were wondering where I've been... I've been dissapparated into the Pinterest World of Harry Potter.

Come join me! It's awesome!

Birthday Princess/ Birthday Jedi

I will interrupt the stories about our trip to Ethiopia to tell you a story about a cake...

Specifically, this Barbie Princess Birthday Cake that I made all by myself! 

Lily's birthday was the day before our 2AM wake up for our flight to Ethiopia. So, of course, it was the perfect time to throw a pizza party for our family and close friends, and bake an elaborate Barbie Princess Birthday Cake. 

I may have been a little bit crazy  busy in April.

Back to the cake:

First, following some nice lady on YouTube's instructions, I baked a simple yellow cake in a bowl. Only my cake did not so much cook in the middle as turn to mush. Mush which I scooped out once the rest of the cake was near burnt done. And I have no idea what happened to the scoop of half baked yellow cake, except that I imagine it tasted pretty good eaten out of bowl with a hot cup of coffee.  Just guessing...

I cut the round shaped bowl baked cake into a more round shape and place it on top of two more layers of cake, then started icing it.

And iced, and iced, and iced it. I think I used three batches of icing. I kind of lost track.  There may have been some sweating, stressful, why the *&$% didn't I just order from a bakery, late night moments. Maybe.

But then it (she) started coming together, and I felt hopeful. It was starting to look a little bit Pinterest-y

VIOLA!

There really are few problems that cannot be (temporarily) solved with gobs and gobs of pink icing.  

I had a moment, when this beautiful hours of work and sweat and tears cake was on the table when I thought, nope, no! We are not cutting and eating this perfect piece of art. Let's just have ice cream instead. 

But, obviously, I was brave and we ate it. And it was DELICIOUS! All 3 million calories.

In a moment of guilt over the fancy pants cake I was making for Lily, I came up with a (much, much simplier) fun idea for Daniel's birthday cupcakes.

Happy 8th Birthday, my dearest son.

Happy 4th birthday, my darling daughter. 

Next year, ice cream...