Happy Birthday Miss M ~ Getting personal

Last weekend we celebrated our oldest's 7th birthday! I really have a hard time typing that. I truly cannot believe I am mother to a seven-year-old first grader. I remember when she was born and thinking wow, I can't even imagine what it will be like when she goes to school. And here we are!! We had a wonderful time celebrating her special day. After school on Friday, she got to have Mom all to herself as little sister and brother went to stay with the grandparents. I find the older she gets the more she craves Mommy time, and I do too. It gets harder to get that one-on-one time that is so important for each of our kiddos. We baked two kinds of cupcakes (for a total of four), made three different frostings and organized all the sprinkles and toppings you could imagine. She was having a Cupcake Decorating Party with seven friends from school on Saturday. I have to admit I'm usually the box cake kind of girl. I have never had the best of luck with homemade cake. It usually turns out too dry or too dense. But, I found a fun little blog and e-mailed the gal. She gave me some great tips and sent me some recipes to try. We made yellow, fresh strawberry and chocolate. Then, as a surprise for MJ, I baked some Orange Creamsicle ones after she went to bed. I think they ended up being my favorite. I just used the yellow recipe and adapted it with some orange juice and orange extract. I think next time I'll use some zest too, but they had plenty of orange flavor. I put whipped cream/cream cheese frosting with them. Yummo! I think they all turned out great. I used buttermilk in the recipes and I think it was part of the difference. We made vanilla buttercream for the strawberry and yellow cupcakes and used chocolate buttercream for the chocolate ones.

MJ invited seven friends (only 6 could make it), and they each decorated seven cupcakes (one to eat at the party and six to take home). Before the cupcake decorating began they each decorated a cake box and thought about what name they would give their bakery if they owned one. They came up with some pretty cute ideas. They each received an apron to wear and take home, then the decorating began! They had a blast choosing which flavor of cake, which frosting and which of the many toppings to finish it off. We had sprinkles of every color, colored spray (kind of like spray paint for icing), chocolate chips, toffee bits, crushed Oreos, gummy worms and colored fondant. I think most of them tried to put a little of everything on each cupcake! I think they enjoyed being able to be creative though. They opened presents after that then enjoyed a little pizza picnic in the backyard for lunch. The rest of the time they played outside and in MJ's room. At the end of the party, they each enjoyed one of their cupcake masterpieces!

Later that evening, we had Josh's family over for a bbq and more birthday fun. It was also the BSU vs. Wyoming game. I finished decorating the rest of the cupcakes after all the friends had left the party, and made some blue and orange ones to celebrate the game.

 

All in all, I think MJ enjoyed her birthday weekend. Sunday was quite relaxing. After going to church, we came home, played outside and watched a movie together. It was nice to just hanging out as a family. Happy Birthday Sweetie! You are such a joy to us and we love you very much!