Breaking News: American Girls Take Over Clinton

Warning: some photographs in this post may contain content that is too graphic for those suffering from PEDIOPHOBIA.

You have been warned. 

Saturday, June 16, 2012...just like any Saturday in June it seemed,  until seven girls and nine American Girl Dolls descended on the Maple Street house.  The ruse was a certain seven year old girl's birthday party.  But really they were intent on taking over the world...starting with Clinton, South Carolina.



This photo confirms what some of us have thought all along.  The American Girl Company is poised to take over the world.

But first the ruse.

It's not every day a girl turns seven. 
Anna requested an American Girl Party about 7 days before the actual party day. 
Super mom to the rescue.

There were the decorations:







And the goodie bags:


...complete with a cool rock star vest for each doll made from the material seen in the picture.  You can find this no sew tutorial at Free Sewing Patterns for American Girl Dolls.

And the cake:


Since when does a "7" look like an upside down "L"?  The answer...when an inexperienced cake decorator, aka me, does the cake.  I was hoping it would look like this except two tiered with the damask pattern:

But as you can plainly see I deserve to be featured in Cake Wrecks with what actually came to be.  But, hey, it was for a bunch of kids who really thought it was pretty.  That counts for something, right?

Finally the activities:


Here are the crafty materials used to make birthday crown for the dolls


And Anna making a template. If you scroll up you can see all the dolls with their finished crowns. Scary, I know. 
Notice the fabulous no sew rock star vest on Anna's doll.
La-Dee-Dah.

We also made matching bracelets for the dolls and girls from patterned duck tape.

The Menu:

The guests and birthday girl were served easy things for Super Mom to prepare.

• Pink Lemonade
• Bagel bites mini pizzas
• Chips
• Fruit Kabobs
• Not so fabulous red velvet cake and ice cream.

They ate it all up!



Presents were opened:



And the dolls were once again brought under our control...phew, we save Clinton and possibly the world from imminent destruction.



This breaking news has been brought to you by "I'll Tell You Later, Betty", your source for all news that is worth reading about...if you happen to be a fan.

The Summer of Six

Our baby is six.
How can that be?



She insisted on writing her own invitations.
Such a big girl...sniff, sniff.


Her request for a party was simple. A texas sheet cake with horses all over it.
Check.


A pinata.
Check.
If you remember her 5th birthday you know how I feel about pinatas.



No living rainbow colored horses were killed at this birthday party


Pink and Orange Decorations.
Check.


Classic tissue paper pom poms.
Love 'em.


And girlfriends.
Check.


We all sang "Happy Birthday" and made it official. She is now six years old...sniff, sniff.

A Decade of Gavin

Look at that peanut.


Now look at that handsome ten year old boy.

I am in disbelief.
How does time fly so quickly and seem to inch by so slowly at the same time? It is a phenomenon that continues to baffle my little brain.

My creature of habit child turned ten in January. He decided he wanted to go bowling again like he did last year. So we indulged him. After all, how many times do you turn ten?


The cake choice/"theme" was Whimpy Kid. Our kid couldn't get enough of these books over the Winter. So we indulged him. After all, any reading from our reluctant reader is good reading.


We had to improvise with the decorations. There are no Whimpy Kid decorating sets at the party stores


I ask you, how could I not put this picture in? Everybody sing with me...


The next ten years of Gavin...I think about that and know that I am in the midst of a boy who will be a young man in the blink of an eye. And I get to be a part of that journey...the good, the bad, and the ugly. Stay tuned.

Can it be that my baby is five years old?: Rainbows

Baby to Five in the blink of an eye.
How does that happen? Remember when Summer vacation lasted forever? Now it seems like it's a week long and they are back in school. And it was just a few weeks ago our Anna Mae was a baby.

So she had her Rainbow Party. All the invitations were created (Anna drew and cut out all the rainbows)then sent along with a request for each attendee to wear a designated color of the rainbow.




Gavin and Daddy created the sign behind the kids. See, I have visual proof that her big brother (or bother as she, thanks to Olivia, refers to him)can do something nice for his little sister.



We had rainbow cupcakes. I had seen them featured many times in many blogs. They all look so pretty and rainbow-y. Mine...not so much. Advice to anyone considering making these...be prepared for color gel stain-a-palooza. Oh, and make sure you are totally a left brain person or have a left brain person handy to separate out all the cake batter and layering. I sucked at that part. But we did get very bright colorful cupcakes, so I'm pretty sure that the kids that came ingested their fair share of food dye for the next year or so. And can someone tell me where to find a cupcake liner that doesn't ruin the look of a perfectly beautiful cupcake? Are you sensing cupcake frustration dear readers? Dreams of a cupcakery were dashed because of the dreaded rainbow cupcake.



Oh, and the tropical heat pretty much melted any great frosting fantasy I may have thought might save the look of the cupcake. Okay, enough already Betty, move on.


One more beef...it pains me that there is no "y" in this cupcake, only RO_GBV...the shame.

There was also the quintessential party event, the pinata. I have a hard time watching children trying to bang the living daylights out of something that may have represented a living thing. So what does it say about me that I was okay with them beating the hell out of a rainbow? Kinda seems like some sadistic dream killer if you ask me. Not that anyone is, but if they did ask me that would be my answer.


This was the before the dream killing began. Such a sweet image don't you think?


Let the dream killing begin! It would have been perfect if only I had loaded that thing with all sorts of vegetables.

But in the end, after all the cake that was ground into the carpet, the sticky dried juice on the table and the remains of the destroyed rainbow, there was a five year old girl that loved the celebration she had with her friends.



I guess that means we'll do it all over again next year because after all, how often do you get a chance to whack the hell out of an object and not get arrested?

Can it be that my baby is five years old?: Surprise!

Yes.
And I've got birthday party pictures to prove it. After great gnashing of baby teeth, she decided that she wanted a Rainbow birthday party (I'm not sure why I capitalized rainbow. Maybe I'm finally giving it the respect it deserves). But before the official birthday party kicked off on the actual anniversary of this dear girl's birth a surprise birthday party was thrown for her the weekend before. And it was cause for celebration because we finally got some cousin action down here. Cousins, Aunt L. and Uncle K. and Gramma descended on our little house and we partied.


Clearly she wasn't expecting this when she came in from playing.


"I've always wanted a cookie pizza!" -Anna


Aunt L. and Anna get her itty bitty twin dressed in her new birthday clothes


Gramma Cece and the girls!


I swear there is a story in these pictures! Happy cousins, uninvited giraffe man comes to party, dress up gone bad...

...so we laughed, gossiped, chased kids around, and all around celebrated being together. Is it any surprise we had a great time?

Alice in Wonderland Unbirthday Party

We must have been all mad.

I know we were. Mad for a little girl named Anna Mae who turned four on June 16th. On the 13th of June in the late afternoon South Carolina heat we had a Mad Hatter's tea party under the canopy of a beautiful beech tree generously loaned to us by our wonderful friends and neighbors. Here's a little digital scrapbook documenting the occasion...the only thing missing was you...



Make a Smilebox scrapbook

We're all tuckered out now and resting up for the next unbirthday to come along.