My Best-Birthday-Mom-of-the-Year award has become a bit tarnished the past couple of years. The dust has settled in around it and the chances of another one ever joining it are looking rather slim. I used to plan such fun birthday parties for my girls. A theme was always picked and everything was detailed to the hilt, from the napkins to the cake. Emma’s (The Teenager) 2nd birthday was a ladybug party. I made a ladybug cake. As in, shaped like a ladybug, and it was HUGE! I bought an Anne Geddes ladybug babydoll for decor. I bought a small helium filler to do balloons and tied a bunch to the lower stair railing. I invited Grandparents, Great-Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins. The dining room was bursting at the seams. Her 4th birthday was a fish theme – I even made her a dress to go with the theme on this one. And bought her 3 live goldfish for her gift – and for decor on the table. 2 cakes – one a fish cake, the other a treasure chest full of candies that looked like treasures.
Somewhere along about child number 3 I started losing steam when it came to Birthday parties. Larke (Middle Sister) got a few planned, fun parties. And Becca’s(Little Sister) first couple were ok. Buy lately? Not so much. I tend to let it go till the last-minute and throw something together quickly just to get it over and done with and keep them from bugging me about it.
Larke turned 9 in August. We had a party for her just this past weekend. 2 days away from being exactly 2 months late. (Hanging head in shame) We went out to a pizza place with friends, took dessert along, had some gifts and called it good. Yep, that award is even starting to rust.
Just in case I’m not the only one who doesn’t go all out for birthdays anymore here is a great way to throw together a cake in a bit of no time:
Buy a cake at your local grocery – mine came from Kroger. It was the only thing that didn’t have a bunch of generic icing roses. Larke doesn’t like girly cakes with roses so I bypassed all those, began to think I would have to forgo a cake completely, then on the end of the display there was this yellow cake with caramel icing. I grabbed it up pronto.
Also buy enough Krispy Kremes to feed your whole neighborhood. Even if the whole neighborhood isn’t invited. I also bought a box of fresh blackberries but I didn’t get a photo of the whole box so just imagine it.
Get out a couple pretty cake plates.
Take cake out of box and set on pedestal cake plate. Does not HAVE to be a pedestal but it does help the ‘wow factor’ if you have a pedestal cake plate available. Since the cardboard the cake was sitting on was gold and had a cute scalloped edge I set the whole thing on the cake plate instead of trying to get the cake slid off the cardboard. You can pretend you made the cake AND made a cute gold scalloped piece of cardboard for it to set on.
Now use whatever stuff you have on hand to add some bling to make it look more homemade and fun. The striped paper straws, black and white twine and washi tape were all in my craft stash. You could do the same idea with skewers and paper and string.
Taking several photos of the super fast and easy banner you just made is optional but it does make you feel like you are putting some effort into making the party fun.
It also means you have to edit more photos. If you want to skip all the extra pics go ahead – it really doesn’t take any of the tarnish away from the ‘Mom awards’ you have sitting around.
Pick some mint leaves out of your herb garden and add the blackberries and the mint leaves to the top of the cake. If you don’t have an herb garden, pick up some mint at your local grocery while you are there to get the cake and berries.
With all those doughnuts make a ‘cake’ by stacking them up in a sort-of cakish shape. Stick a flag in the top made of the same stuff you made your banner out of. Or skip the flag – it’s the doughnuts that really matter – for those who may not like the not-homemade cake.
At the last-minute, before you walk out the door to go to the restaurant, add some flowers to the cake if you have some available. Becca had brought these home to me after she stayed at Grandma’s a few days before and they still looked nice, so we used them.
Take cakes to pizza place, invite some friends to join you, order pizza, give the kids a bunch of quarters to play the video games, and breathe a sigh of relief that you have a year before time to think about another party for this child. (really only 10 months because this party is late, but we’ll ignore that fact)
Easiest birthday party ever. No need to clean the house. No food to fix. Never mind that award that is rusting away!!
What do you do for your kids birthdays?
Sew a Fine Seam
Haha I FORGOT about the dress- you really HAVE changed your ways! You didn’t mention the year you bought the wooden laundry rack and made a beautiful display for the cake and all the matching party accessories, that was my favorite. Clark is a lucky kid to be born at such a time as to bask in the birthday fun times that come out of your house…my method is to keep their expectations low. That way, when I hand them a roll of quarters and point at the arcade games, they’re like- PARTYTIME. Happy birthday, C & L- we love you!
I really should do an all out party for Becca – but not this year 😉 I should scan the pics of those early years and blog about them – at least put all my ideas on pinterest! I liked the one we made the rack for too! I’d love to blog that one!
Our birthday parties are not at all what they used to be either. 🙂 Life happens! You can make the simplest things look cute, though.
Looks like we missed a great party!
It’s easy to make stuff look cute when you have stripey straws and washi tape on hand! And yes, you missed a fun party – would have been so fun to have you here.
great lookin’ quick cakes! i love the krispy kreme donut cake layering. super cute!
Thank you Ali! They were both a hit and made me feel a little better that I at least put a tad bit of effort into the party!
The cake is ‘simply’ darling! I’m sure in the eyes of the kiddos you’d get an award for the Krispy Kremes (heck, I’d be excited to see them!). I’ll be stealing that cute banner idea!
Thanks! The banner is SO simple and such a fun pop of detail! Steal away!
Love it. With all 3 boys’ birthdays in July, plus my dad & his wife, things get pushed aside here too. When D was born 5 days after A’s birthday I promised I’d never combine their birthdays but the past 2 years they had combined family parties and this year we didn’t even get the family together – YIKES! Last year I wanted to do a Lego cake but didn’t take the time to practice ahead of time and about an hour before the party, when the posts on the Lego weren’t turning out, I threw a bunch of real Legos in the dishwasher then dried them and threw them willy-nilly on top. Love your cake – would never have guess it was store bought but I love that you personalized it and made it yours. I have bought plain iced cakes from my favorite bakery before and then decorated them myself. Take the stress out of baking & frosting but they still get homemade-ish decor.
I’d do it all at once every year and call it good! Then you can focus on fun frilly parties for little sis!
I bet the doughnut cake was a huge hit, and the other is so beautiful in it’s simplicity! Sounds like you had everything you needed for a fantastic party, even without going over the top!
The doughnut cake was a great hit! It’s a fun alternative to cake for those who don’t really care for cake!
Sooo cute! The little additions of the banners and blackberries on the cake were so lovely!
Thank you Yelle! Larke loves blackberries so it was an obvious choice and it did turn out cute if I do say so myself!
You go girl! I had a gold medal….and now….not even an honorable mention 🙂
I love the simplicity of the cake! You are such a rock star!
karianne
Thank you Karianne! That is high praise coming from you 🙂 YOU are the rock star!!
So bummed we missed the party. It looks like it was fun, even if it was late and hastily thrown together. You have the knack to make anything look good. (By the way, less than a month to the next birthday at your house.)
We missed you Mom! They all had fun and yes, I know I have less than a month till Becca’s birthday. Maybe she will forget?!
Now this is my favorite type of post! The love is there and the cook is not to tired to enjoy the festivities!
Birthday wishes to lovely Larke!
🙂 Thanks Laura! It was so much more relaxing than the endless cleaning and food prep that the earlier years parties consisted of!
Jill, that looks like a great party. Sometimes, and I speak from experience, you get so wrapped up in details and facets of the party that you don’t even have a chance to enjoy it. It looks like this party was enjoyed by all. I think your award remains in tact. And, I think that your daughters’ names are beautiful.
Aww, thanks Amy! I think a lot of it is just that I know I don’t really feel like doing anything at all and I put it off! So then I feel bad that I’m just throwing it together last minute. but it was really nice to not make a bunch of food and clean my house and end up totally exhausted!
Thanks for your comment about the girls names. I started my blog so long ago and back then not many people were using real names so I came up with Big Sister, Middle Sister and Little Sister. Changed Big Sister to The Teenager when she got old that I thought Big Sister didn’t fit anymore. And decided it was time to just call them by their real names!
Fun Party Miss Larke! and I agree with the above comment (: no tarnishing! Keep on there mama (: …but i totally know what you are saying… I have changed my ways too with each bouncing bebe (: Illsa is getting a cake ( I did actually remember to order it this time, rather than me trying to bake in a mad flurry 😉 and maybe a few pretty table cloths thrown on..but other than that I plan on concentrating on BEing with her and the lively guest. All 39 of them!! (: The house will be bursting! very blessed!
Wow! Glad your house is bigger than mine! I thought we had a lot when I used to have both our families – we were bursting at the seams with around 20. Larke seemed to appreciate the effort I put forth – and honestly the main reason we didn’t do this 2 months ago on her birthday – she was sick! And then it just never worked out till now.
I love the Washington tape banner. Its so cute 🙂
I just saw what Autotype did! That’s a good one 🙂
🙂 LOL!! You should get some washi(ngton) tape Kendra!