Birthday Extravaganza

Well, The First Born is about to celebrate her 8th birthday in 3 days. I could go on and on about how I can hardly believe she is old enough to have her ears pierced, much less try to act like a "cool dude"!

Or bemoan the fact that she is not a baby any longer, but more closely resembles a string bean. While these are all true, let us instead celebrate who she is, and the wonderful young lady she has become.
When beginning to make birthday preparation, The First Born was asked the usual questions: "What kind of birthday party would you like?" and "Who would you like to invite?". Who to invite became a tougher situation than we thought. The First Born only felt like there were 3 girls from her class that she is good friends with, so with that small number, I set out to make sure that these 3 girls would be able to attend on the date set. Next was the theme for the party...we went 'round and 'round, from craft/puppy party to a friendship party, and we settled on a cooking party. There is a local bakery that offers children's birthday parties in which the children are able to decorate cakes, etc. I thought to myself, "If they can do that, I can do it, and do it better!"
So I set out to begin preparations for this party. We decided that each child would help to mix cake batter, and we would bake 4-6" heart-shaped cakes during the party. (I had previously made 4-6" heart-shaped cakes and frozen them so that all of the girls would have a 2-layer cake to take home.)
So, day of the party, the girls arrived, and after showing them The First Born's room, and Classic Middle Child and Tazmanian Devil showed off a bit, the girls and I set to work at baking while The World's Greatest Husband took Classic Middle Child and Taz downstairs to view a movie. (They rejoined us when it was time to decorate the cakes.) While the cakes baked and cooled, the girls had a snack, made snowmen from bananas and other various fruits, and played rousing games of musical chairs and hot potato. We then made Brownie Sand Art for each of the girls to take home:

Use a 1-quart mason jar.
Layer in this order, cocoa on bottom. Baking Directions:

1/3 cup cocoa
2/3 cup sugar
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
½ cup vanilla chips
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 tbsp flour
½ tsp. salt 9"x 9" pan.
½ tsp. baking powder

Seal with mason jar lid and ring.

Baking directions:
Combine contents of jar with:
1 tsp. vanilla
2/3 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
Mix until well blended. Pour into greased 9”x 9” pan.
Bake at 350 for 26-28 minutes.


After the Brownie Sand Art, it was time to decorate the cakes. This proved to be lots of fun, challenging and a great creative process! And the cakes looked awesome! (even though some of the children--Classic Middle Child--decided to see just how much candy could be piled on top of a cake.)
We did the usual, opened gifts and had cake and ice cream, although I think most of the children had had enough cake/frosting by now!
And I have certainly had enough cake--one 2-layer birthday cake, 4-6" heart-shaped 2-layer cakes, and two 1-layer cakes later! All of the girls took home their decorated cake, as well as their "shopping bag" with an apron, cooking utensils, and Brownie Sand Art.
We took the remainder of our cake to church today, and passed it out for coffee hour, and then sent many people home with large helpings!!!