Party Girl

When I look back at the photos from Mam's birthday party, I'm a little mystified as to why the whole thing was so exhausting. There was nothing complicated about it. It was all very simple, down-home birthday party-ish. Not really a lot to coordinate. Probably, again, something to do with cake...and my ability to worry about just about anything.

The girls...and it was all girls this year...showed up at 11:30. Girls are significantly different from boys. There was a whole lot of screaming and giggling surrounding each arrival. Somehow, it only added to the party atmosphere. I set them straight to work making mini pizzas, just like the boys did at Smunch's party.There were lots of options for toppings, but most of the girls stuck with cheese and maybe added a little pepperoni or pineapple. I wasn't particularly surprised to find a lot of leftover mushrooms and bell peppers. For some reason, I feel compelled to supply these even though I don't need them.

While my mom and I baked little pizzas, Daddy led the girls in a game of Twister. I'd carefully manufactured the rules for a slightly different game called Octopus, where the girls worked in teams with eight appendages. I don't think Daddy managed to pass all that theme-related information along, but I suspect the girls didn't care. They still had fun.Twister was followed closely by lunch of mini pizzas...with a side of fishing for goldfish and whales.The latter is a cute little idea I got from the kids' preschool a couple of years ago. The kids dip the big pretzel stick in blue frosting and then use the frosting to pick up fish. I'd also found some cheddar whales at Target, so I added them to the mix for a little variety.After lunch it was time of a somewhat disorganized, but entertaining, game of Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Dolphin.Thanks to Daddy for finding a way to create a poster-size dolphin and creating all the tails for me. Note to self: Although it's cute, don't bother with the different colored tail. It just encourages the girls to argue over the purple and pink ones. No one won. It's better that way, I think.

Next on the agenda was a rousing game of piñata. I'm not a huge fan of piñatas and all the candy usually involved. I decided this particular fish had swallowed sunken treasure that needed to be freed...another idea that I don't think was ever communicated to the girls.So, the piñata was filled with chocolate coins, plastic coins, beaded necklaces and jewels. When it comes to girls, these things are even better than candy. We made them all put their loot in a big bowl to be distributed among the goodie bags. I know these girls and I know at least one of them is agressive enough to have far more than her share of the loot. There was some whining, but not much. The fish was surprisingly fragile. This wasn't one of those piñatas that the birthday girl's dad is forced to whack open. It barely made it past the first round of party guests.We let the girls run wild for a while after that. Running wild usually means they all end up in the tree house, which at least makes for some fun photo opportunities.And after the last game, but before cake is the perfect time to let them run around because nothing gets their attention faster than asking if anyone wants cake. EVERYONE wants cake, even if they don't necessarily want to eat it.This one was pretty darned yummy too, if I do say so myself.

In an unplanned turn, the girls really wanted to see Mam open her presents, so I let her do that before they all left. It was hard to see just what was going on, the throng of girls was so close to her that they were nearly clambering all over her. It made me claustrophobic, even though it didn't seem to faze Mam much.I was taking notes and didn't manage to take photos during present-opening, but we continued with family gifts, like this lovely little musical jewelry box from Gram, after the guests had left with little goody bags of graham cracker sand, chocolate shells, piñata goodies and a little battery powered fish that could be caught in a net.

It was such a fun little party. I hope the girls all had a good time. They're all in the same kindergarten class and get along so well that it's hard to imagine that they didn't. One of the guests, who wasn't so sure about being dropped off, even sent her mom home after about half an hour. I consider that a major success.

Naturally, our day wasn't over there. Mam still had some work to do, turning from birthday princess to fiesty basketball player in the Hoop Stars highest scoring game yet. One more week of basketball and then it's all about batting and fielding for a few months. I don't always love basketball, but I think I just might miss it.And last, but not least, Mam decided where we would all eat dinner and chose...Fresh Choice. Now there's a dinner of champions!

Swimmingly

From now on, perhaps March should be labeled as the month I bite off far more than I can chew. With Smunch's birthday in February and Mam's in early March, I should probably eschew any other job that comes my way in early March, but of course that's not the case. I'm managing Mam's softball team, and volunteering for big new roles at school as well as agreeing to reprise my current roles. I watch other moms do much more and I can't help but wonder why I'm the one who's losing my mind. It could have something to do with cake.

Because of course, when March 1st rolls around, the first thought on my mind is what in the world I'm going to do for Mam's birthday cake. And this year, her birthday fell on a Saturday, so I couldn't fudge it by scheduling her party later than her actual birthday. In fairness, I'd already scheduled Smunch's party quite a bit earlier than his birthday, so I had more time in between at least. But then there was that whole trip to Tahoe.

Mam originally wanted to have a "pony party" this year. The idea made me cringe. I love ponies as much as the next girl, but I was worried about the expectations she would have. Would she expect to have pony rides in the backyard? Friends have done that. I wasn't up for it. I like simplicity. So, I was relieved when she changed her mind and wanted a "dolphin" party. Of course, that seemed a little narrow to me, so I expanded it to an Under-the-Sea party with a dolphin slant.

And originally, I'd envisioned a sleek, 3D, dolphin-shaped cake covered in grey fondant. That'd be cool, right? But I wistfully thought of a nice round cake that I wouldn't have to stress over. In the end, I asked the birthday girl herself and had her design the cake...carefully guided by the cake artist, of course! She chose a round cake with dolphin on the top. Totally do-able. Of course, even that, I had to take to extremes, right? At least I resisted putting a small 3D dolphin on the top! But I did start out with this:On the right is the very cute dolphin picture I found on the internet and sized for a 10" round cake. On the left, my carefully constructed fondant reproduction.As ordered, I baked a 10" round white cake. I split each layer into two, for a final cake that was four thin layers with whipped cream and strawberries as a filling. I frosted it and covered the cake (very inelegantly...I need some fondant lessons) with aqua blue fondant...my new favorite food coloring. I should've taken a photo at that stage, but honestly, I need some help with how to make a fondant cake look pretty on the sides. I didn't and it looked a little Frankenstein-ish. Nothing a little seaweed couldn't cover up. I used food spray to color the bottom of the cake a deeper blue and make it look like deeper water. I'd bought a dolphin cookie cutter, cut out some additional dolphins in light grey fondant, which I painted with dilute black color paste. They looked cute, but nothing like the big dolphin on the top.I also made a bunch of brightly colored fondant to use for starfish and clams...the two other little cookie cutters I'd found online. The Cookie Cutter Shop rocks.

Mam got to help me add the starfish and shells. She was so thrilled that it made me a little sad to think about how little I normally let the kids partipate in their cakes. I had to give up a little artistic license, but she was so thrilled with the result that it was totally worth it!Finally, I added the big dolphin to the top.One thing you can't see is that my fondant was too dry and when I draped it over the cake, the corners all cracked. I'd intended to do a border of waves, so I wasn't too concerned. Of course, with this perfect-looking top, I was nervous. I added a pearly-looking border around the bottom, then got to work on the waves...It did a great job of disguising my cracked edges and looked pretty cool, I thought. Of course, no cake is complete without some writing. At that stage, I'm always concerned that one more thing is going to ruin it, but it turned out O.K.That funny smudgy area under the dolphin wasn't really smudgy. That's where her name was before I doctored the photo to be blog-worthy. Mam was absolutely thrilled with her cake, especially with her own role in the decorating.But in the immortal words of Ruff Ruffman "Is that all the points a dog can give??" Of course not. I wasn't done there. In addition to the cake, I'd been working on a collection of chocolate shells over the past week. Before the party itself, I added graham cracker "sand" to cover the cake board and added shells (interspersed with chocolate starfish, crabs, and lobsters) decoratively around the sides.I loved the look, even if it didn't last for long!Yummm. And the girls loved eating the shells too!