Parties, Presents, and Cake

Birthdays, birthdays, and more birthdays.  Having three birthdays within a four day period makes for a hectic month for any mom, but I feel like I have been living and breathing birthdays for weeks.  Somehow not only did I make it through, but the kids had a lot of fun too. 

Anna and Alex turned 6 on August 20th.  We started the day early by opening presents, and ended the day with a trip to McDonalds.

Here are the kids sporting their new scooters!

Alex may not have nunchuck skills, but he  has serious Lego skills!

The Birthday Duo!

To prevent us from having multiple birthdays cakes in our house, I had to get creative.  So, this year I made an extremely yummy Cookie Pizza, and I decorated it to look like their pet turtle.  It was so good, I had to include the recipe.  Enjoy!

Cookie Pizza Recipe:

1/2c Butter

1/2c Brown Sugar

1/4c White Sugar

1t Vanilla

1 Egg

1 1/4c Flour

1/2t Baking Soda

1/4t Salt

1c Chocolate Chips

Frosting:

2c Powdered Sugar

1/2c Cream Cheese

1/4c Butter

1/2t Vanilla

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.  Frost when cool.

The following day Alex and Anna each had their individual parties.  Anna went with some girls to the movies to see Shrek 4, and Alex went with some boys to go bowling.

In lou of cake, they had a doughnut tree.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNA & ALEX!!!

Kaitlyn's birthday was on August 23rd.  This year she turned 4, which means she got to have her first birthday party with friends.  She had a princess party; everyone dressed up, and we did crafts, makeup/nails, and dancing.  The girls had a great time!

The Birthday Princess!

Kaitlyn and her cousin Whitney

Now, for the best part...the CASTLE CAKE!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAITLYN!!!

The Melting Birthday Cake

Three days ago we celebrated Ben's birthday.  To make his day special, Ben's parents came over for dinner.  I made Ben's favorite, beef ribs, and the dessert, while his mom made rolls, salad, beans, and potatoes.  I thought it would be fun to do something different for his birthday cake, so I decided to make an ice cream cake (part cake and part ice cream).  I hadn't ever done this before, so I kind of made it up as I went along....and as usual when I try to "make things up" they don't turn out at all like I envision.  I started by making two square chocolate cake layers, and after they had cooled I took out the ice cream to soften while I made the frosting.  When I was done with the frosting, I spread the soft ice cream between the two layers of cake.  Then, the idea was to quickly frost it to hold in the ice cream and then put it back in the freezer.  Well, since the ice cream was already soft, it had already started to melt by the time I started to frost it.  As hard as I tried to use the frosting to keep the melting ice cream in, it still seeped out.  And by the time it was frozen again, there were frozen puddles of ice cream on either side of the cake.  It wouldn't have been too bad, except the layer of ice cream left between the cake layers was extremely thin.  Oh well!  It's the thought that counts, right?!  Happy Birthday Ben!