Mama’s 1st Post & Finn’s 1st
Birthday
Well I am officially starting a blog, I have been thinking
about doing it since Finn was born (a year ago!). So here goes.
I have been thinking about posting all day, at work it was
all I could think about. So tonight I got on Blogspot and what do you know, my
blog was deleted and marked as spam. Now it has to be reviewed by who knows who
to determine if I am a computer or a person. I decided to go ahead and write up
what I was going to put on my blog and save it for tomorrow.
Last Thursday, March 14th was my only son
Finnegan’s 1st birthday. Wow how this year has flown by. For the past few months or so I have been
planning his big birthday party. I work full time so I don’t have a lot of
extra time but since the weather here in Iowa has been cold I have been
spending lots of time indoors, planning.
First I had to pick a theme or something to start with. I
decided to go primary colors and do a circus themed party. Luke, my future hubby was also up for the
challenge and helped me along the way. My vision had lots of balloons, streamers,
sprinkles, corn dogs, sweets, cotton candy, lemonade and my special little guy.
I don’t have a good program on my computer for creating the invites so I found
some on Etsy. I bought the rights to the
personalized invites and then had them printed at Copyworks. They turned out so
good, I was extremely pleased.
This is the link to the Esty Shop I order them from. http://www.etsy.com/shop/splashbox
They were very quick and were emailed to me the day after I
ordered them! I believe they were only $10 and I paid $.20/ invited to have them printed. I cut them myself to save some money.
Now I am not a baker what so ever but I felt it was my duty
as a mother to bake my son’s cake/cupcakes for his 1st birthday. I
considered it a challenge. The rest of the party planning was so easy and came
natural, except for this. I spent many hours on the Internet researching
recipes, I asked baker friends for advice and even spent an hour in the baking
section at Half Priced Books, scouring the shelves for the perfect recipe book. I tried 4 different recipes, 2 of which were
not edible and NOTHING was good enough. I was especially looking for a
white/yellow cake recipe, chocolate is easier and I had a family recipe I used
for the chocolate. Finally I found the “Perfect Vanilla Cupcake Recipe” from
GloriousTreats.com, they turned out so moist with the perfect sweetness. http://www.glorioustreats.com/2011/07/perfect-vanilla-cupcakes-recipe.html
This is my new go to blog for sweets!
The chocolate cake
recipe was my Grandma Standlee’s Crazy Cake recipe. Luke’s Grandma and Mom also
make crazy cake. Crazy Cake was popular during the depression because it does
not have milk or eggs in it. This recipe is for a 9 x 13 inch cake but worked
perfect for these cupcakes.
3 c. all purpose
flour, 2 c. white sugar, 2 t. baking soda, 1 t. salt, ½ c. unsweetened cocoa, ¾
c. vegetable oil, 2 T. distilled white vinegar, 2 t. vanilla extract, & 2
c. cold water.
1.
Sift flour, sugar, salt, soda, and cocoa
together in ungreased cake pan. Make three wells, pour oil in one, vinegar in
one and vanilla in one. Pour cold water over and stir well. For the cupcakes I
mixed in bowl first then poured in to cups.
2.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 15-20 min for cupcakes
or 30-40 min for cake.
I found this awesome butter cream frosting almost a year ago
on the web as this is one of the blogs I follow, CookingClassy
I made it a few times
before the party for different occasions and everyone loved it. You can also add
some cocoa to this to make a good chocolate butter cream. This is now my go to frosting,
I could seriously eat it with a spoon.
Finn loved his cupcake. I was a little worried he would want
anything to do with it, as we have been practicing a lot and he never seemed to
interested in it. In fact he was deathly afraid of on of the "test cakes" and
screamed if it was in the room with him.
My mom found this cute bunting for his highchair. Isn't it cute?
Our family friend and Finn’s uncle’s sister (if
that makes any sense at all) Shawna, made Finn’s birthday shirt. She has an
Etsy Shop and we are so lucky that she is always making shirts for us. She also picked up photography as a hobby and
has taken family pictures for us over the past year. She is taking Finn’s year
pictures this weekend. I wish her luck he is on the go.
All
of Finn’s friends and family had a great time at his party. Finn's cousin, Gavin
told me “It was the best party EVER!”
Here are some more pictures of the party. I had so much fun planning this party. I guess I need to start thinking about next year... :)
Luke's nephews Gavin & Sawyer.
Grandma King got Finn a life jacket so he can go on the boat this summer.
Pointing at the Balloons
These three loved the cotton candy. The two little girls are Shawna's girls.
Clown Cake Pops
Chalkboard with Chalkboard markers, they are so neat.
This was the fishing game I painted. We also had a Can Knock Down game, a Pick the Duck game, and a Bag Toss. The kids really enjoyed the games and prizes, especially Sawyer.
Sophie, isn't she adorable?
The dads even had a good time
Finn did a great job opening his gifts, with the help of his friends.
Finn's babysitter got him this car. She has one at her house and he loves it!
Can Knock Down game I used formula cans and wrapped them with scrapbooking paper. I thought they turned out cute.
Sawyer was awesome at the game.
Grandma King was coaching
See ya next time.
I noticed I had a new follower today and then I found your blog---how fun! :-)
ReplyDeleteWe had a great time at the party---I'll have to check out those recipes because everything tasted AMAZING!