Anthony's Wild Things Party

Anthony turned 3 on Tuesday. I won't even let myself think the thoughts or feel the feelings about my baby being 3... So I will share the details of all the neat stuff I pulled together for his party. 

His current favorite book is Where the Wild Things Are, so we held a Wild Rumpus for him. Basically that meant inviting mostly family (a 2-year-old who doesn't go to school doesn't have a lot of friends yet) to come eat and play. 

For the invitations, I (or rather, Paul) cut out these wild thing outlines with my Silhouette Cameo cutter, then we used a pen in place of the blade to write out all the details. I love the way it turned out! (The pen ran out of ink on the last one, so I had to write in the date with black on the one we kept... The others were all metallic brown). 

I decorated the house with wild things made from tissue paper poms, a felt leaf garland, and lots of green and brown balloons and streamers all around. 

Anthony wore a "wolf suit", which was just a light gray fuzzy hoodie, light gray sweatpants, a fuzzy tail, and a felt crown (Of course I sewed the latter two).

I glued felt horns and fur onto headbands for our guests to be wild things too.

They played in the "private boat for Max," made with cut-up, taped-together, painted-red moving boxes we had stored in the closet from past parties. It was a hit!

The other thing that went over really well was the craft: make your own wild thing, with sticky back foam cut into horns and teeth and whatnot, googly eyes, and small paper plates. 

We stuck popsicle sticks to them so they could be used as masks. I love how they turned out!

The food consisted of Anthony's favorite foods: cantaloupe, blueberries, veggie tray, and MEAT. Paul smoked a brisket (which he is VERY good at doing), and we also had a few other BBQ staples (except I forgot the pickles!): bread, sauce, baked beans, chips and salsa. 

I added a few signs with relevant phrases from the book to connect the food to the theme, including labeling the blueberries as "terrible eyes" and some Bugles as "terrible claws."

Then, of course, there was the cake. 

I'm particularly proud of the faces; I think I was pretty spot-on in reproducing them from the book. 

The cake wasn't free from headaches; I had some structural issues with the arm Max rode on, and the fondant grass around the base never stuck all the way, and I ended up ripping them off.

Here are a few behind-the scenes pictures. The legs and arms were rice krispy treats; the body and head were chocolate cake. I covered everything in dark chocolate ganache, and fondant on top of that. People often ask how does one cut into a cake with structural supports. This is what it looked like after we ate some. The key is to know where the bars and boards are, and cut around them.

Our guests left with their headbands and crafts as well as kazoos (requested by Anthony), eyeball bouncy balls (to "roll their terrible eyes"), and a chocolate "wild thing" to eat up. 

Since Anthony's birthday is on Groundhog Day (thus the groundhog at the bottom of the cake), our groundhog photo op board had to make its appearance, this time sporting a king of wild things crown (in past years it has worn a sombrero and a hard hat). 

Anthony was a gracious host, escorting his guests to the door as they departed.

Our little wild thing had a lot of fun, and we are thankful to everyone who helped us celebrate him!

Katie's Octonauts Party

I wrote all about the cake, but what good is a cake if there is no party? I got a lot of help with the decorations and food prep since the cake consumed so much of my time and energy, and I am so thankful for my parents and Paul who made it all come together for our precious Katie.

I made her Octonauts dress with tie-dye spray and iron-on transfer paper. My mom taped the crepe paper "seaweed" on the walls, and the inflatable fish that Paul hung all over the house were reused from her first birthday party (Rainbow Fish themed)... I'm so glad I saved them! We had balloons all around as well, but that was all. Not much decorating is needed for a pool party.

I made her a Captain Barnacles hat with craft foam and a sticker that Paul made for me with my Silhouette Cameo cutter.

It was a lunchtime party, so we had sandwich trays, fruit, veggies with hummus, shells and cheese, goldfish crackers, and "crabby crescent rolls".

An orca attacked the hummus.

Oyster Nilla wafers with icing and a large pearl sprinkle. So easy to make.

A fruit bowl shaped like one of the Gups.

I had a fish craft for the kids in case they got tired of swimming, but it was completely untouched, and I'm ok with that! Better to be prepared and not need than to run out.

We spent most of the party outside.

I was even prepared with outside games, like an inflatable dolphin ring toss game, but the pool was enough entertainment for everyone.

Birthday girl had a great time.

I think our guests had a great time too!

Then we had some cake.

We ended with present time. Katie got a whole army of Octonaut toys and other awesome gifts.

We sent our guests home with some Peso "medical bags" which contained stickers, shark fruit snacks, a squirter fish, sea creature sponge capsules, a nautical band-aid, and a fish ring pop.

Thank you to everyone who came and made Katie's day so special!

Katie's Octonauts Cake

Katie finally (yes, finally... it seemed like she would be three forever!) turned four, so we celebrated with an Octonauts-themed pool party, which was a lot of fun, and has yielded a lazy pajama day today to recover from the weekend. Not to mention the fact that I started working on the components of this cake several weeks before the party (and then made another large cake at the same time). So I have been living, breathing, and, yes, eating cake for a long time now. But the outcome was so very worth the effort.

Like I said, I started several weeks ago with just a bunch of drawings and a little Tunip.

Then I made little tiny furniture.

I poured gelatin repeatedly over silicone domes (and a metal ball pan) to make the "glass" for the pods. I am still amazed that gelatin will dry completely hard like this!

Then it was time to put the little pods together. Here's Tunip's garden. I forgot to take a close-up picture of the games room. Oops.

And here are the bedrooms of the Octo-crew. Barnacles and Kwazii share a pod, and Dashi and Peso share another. Making all the tiny furniture reminded me of our gingerbread house from last Christmas.

Next up, the HQ.

And Professor Inkling.

The small details are the most fun to make.

Once the furniture and contents of the pods were done, it was time to focus on the characters: Barnacles, Kwazii, and Peso!

I let everything sit and dry for a few days, and I went to work on another cake before coming back to the Octonauts.

Paul helped me with the structure again. We used the same board as the wine cake, but it had a thicker center post and additional supports for the arms.

Paul also helped by making sea creatures with a silicone mold.

He got creative and made a few without the mold too... totally awesome. He always likes contributing to our kids' cakes in whatever way he can.

I airbrushed waves onto the bottom cake and then covered the bottom and the center with rice crispy treats. Then I used candy melts to get a smooth surface before covering the whole thing in fondant.

This took a lot of fondant to cover!

I added the characters, sea creatures, and the final details to the Octopod and finally finished around 1:00am. 

Katie saw it first thing when she woke up, and I heard her exclaim "Thank you Kwazii! Thank you Peso!"

She was so happy, and THIS is why I make cakes. 

Happy Birthday to my Katie!