My Nephew's First Birthday

The party was December 19, and I've slacked on posting about it.

My sis decided to do it low key.  Pretty much just family, in the house, with a Where the Wild Things Are theme.  It was a really great theme.  We did a cake.

And I made him a crown like Max's as his birthday hat.

And I got to face paint the cousins, though it was non-thematic painting.

It's Fine if You Don't Mind

This past Saturday, I painted faces at a 5th birthday party in River Edge, NJ. It was a great party, but I didn't have time for photos, so there aren't any of those. Sorry!

It did bring up an interesting issue, though, so I thought I might want to give you some pointers for when you're having an entertainer at your party. This is relevant for hiring face painters, magicians, caricature artists, anybody...

The party was at a dojo (karate school), and was amazing fun for the kids. Don't get me wrong, it was great fun for me too! Heck, I used to take karate as a kid myself, so it was fun even to reminisce.

Thing is, the family planned for me to be there right when the party started. So I got there and set up, and was ready to go in a back room next to the party room. What I didn't know was that the parties at that school have a standard format (as well they should, but I'd never before done a karate party), during which the sensei (teacher) has the kids participate in a series of games and exercises for about 1.5 hours before going to the party room.

It included breaking boards, so it was very cool for the kids, and I can't wail 'til my nephew's old enough to have a party like that!

Thing is, for the first hour or so of the party, I was just hanging around, being entertained by the sensei and kids, but not working.  It so happened that this particular family wasn't worried about it and was able to add an hour onto my time to make sure that no kids left unpainted.  That's terrific, but most families simply can't afford that, and I'd hate for them to be put in the position of having to choose what to do about it.  Also, it was lucky that I didn't have another obligation immediately after that party; it can happen that I have five parties in one weekend and can't really stay later at any of them.

All in all, it was great to be there; the family was very nice, the kids were wonderful, the other guests great, and I even got some ice cream cake!

This is just a reminder to the rest of you... when planning  your parties, if you don't want an entertainer to have down time, go over the party schedule with your entertainer when booking so you can work out together the best possible way to handle things.

I also...

... bake and make chocolates, just not all that frequently. So with my sister's baby shower taking place today, I baked the cakes and made the favors. Three chocolate lollipops in the shape of teddy bears with blocks per person. Why three? Mom and I decided that one looked too small and cheap. So three it was. With 52 guests, that meant 156 lollipops. I did 160 just in case.

The chocolate looked and smelled so yummy while it was melting!

I had 4 of the mold trays, which helped to speed things along a little, but not enough for my taste. It still took hours and hours, over the course of two days.

I used all dark chocolate, as it's healthier and my family prefers it.

Once they were hardened in the proper form, I bagged each one and then tied it with a personalized custom ribbon. The toughest part was the ribbon, honestly. When they're printed, you've got to make sure the text faces the right way. It took some practice.

One of the boxes I had could only hold 106 of the pops, so the rest went into a different box.

Yesterday, it was cake day. I used this pan

to make these cakes

One a yellow butter cake and the other a fudge cake. I torted each so I could fill them with chocolate pudding that I cooked. For the yellow cake, I sliced bananas into the pudding, and for the fudge cake, I sliced strawberries.

One and a half batches of chocolate buttercream and one batch of regular buttercream (dyed lemon yellow and mint green) later, I had two shower cakes, sitting nicely on the cake board I'd covered in gift wrap...

... and a lot of dishes to wash! While I was baking, I thought my least favorite part of baking was greasing and flouring the pan, especially shaped pans like this. Then I got to the dishes, and they definitely win.

The chocolates and cakes were a hit, though. Everyone who didn't eat them at the shower took their lollipops, and both cakes were devoured, not a crumb left. Now THAT is a compliment.