Birthday Yummies

My littlest man turned TWO yesterday.  That is a crazy time: when the baby of the family turns two.  Wow.  Up until Wednesday, I still wasn't sure what we'd be doing to celebrate...I'm an up-to-the-last-minute kind of gal lately.

We decided on a small gathering of family on Saturday, with another small family gathering coming up later this month.  It was low key and I made almost no work for myself.  And, I realized that Bennett really couldn't have cared less!  He loved his special day just the same as if I had gone crazy with decor, cleaning, and a fancy cake.  Simple is good!

I baked some cupcakes in ice cream cones Saturday afternoon.  They were awesome!  They are perfect for little hands to eat, able to hold onto the cone as they dig into the cake and frosting.  

We baked a few normal cupcakes and one giant cupcake for the birthday boy!

To bake the cupcakes, I just follow these simple instructions from RealSimple.com:

Bake your cupcakes directly in the ice cream cones. Fill 24 flat-bottom cones two-thirds full with cake batter. Place the cones in a high-sided 9-by-13-inch baking pan and bake in two batches at 325° F for 30 minutes. Let cool, then frost with two 16-ounce cans of frosting. You can have your cake and eat its holder, too.

Any overflow around the top of the cone, I just cut off with a sharp knife before frosting.  I used Betty Crocker's Fluffy Whipped Frosting for a light, creamy texture and it was great!

The only other cool thing I did for the party was make fruit kabobs!  What a fun, summery way to serve fruit.  I will definitely be doing this for all our summer gatherings!

Happy 2nd Birthday to the Benny!

Howdy Tow-Mater

We celebrated my oldest son's third birthday tonight with my side of the family.  He doesn't turn three until next week (and believe me, I am not pushing it...I'm taking in every minute of this little man growing up too fast already).  My mom and sister (the creative ones) made the awesome Mater cakes (from Bakerella) in honor of my son's love for the movie Cars.

The cakes were so cute - almost too cute to eat.  I just hated to see them go away, since they were so adorable!  Both my mom and sis admitted the cakes were really easy to make...I didn't believe them.  But, in case you want to check it out, you can find the link to the Mater cakes here.

If you haven't perused Bakerella before, take a few minutes to see some of her other amazing creations!  Maybe you're feeling inspired for your next event???

1st Birthday Fun

Last week was my son's first birthday!  It was an amazing day full of emotions.  To celebrate while we're on the road, I made these special Cookie Pops!  My sister helped me and we were up until the wee hours of the morning creating our masterpieces, but it was worth it!

My big one year old boy.  His cute "1" t-shirt is from Sweet Pea & Co.

For the complete Cookie Pops recipe, click here.

After baking, we embellished the cookies...that was the fun part:

We stamped little "B"s (B is for Bennett) onto tags...

and cut blue ribbons for each stick.

They turned out so cute.

Then we made them even cuter by packaging each one in an individual bag and tying with a final blue ribbon.  Adorable, if I do say so, myself.

 And my little one year old sure loved his cookie.  Also adorable, if I do say so, myself.

Today my baby turns ONE!  So many emotions...I can't really explain, but I just know that YOU, Mamas, understand.  Its such a huge milestone with feelings of:

"Where has the time gone?"

"When did he get so grown-up?"

"What was life like one year ago...I can't even remember?!"

"When is it time for another baby?" (Did I really just say that????)

"Is it time to wean???"

"We did it!  We made it a whole YEAR!"

I took this photo out at a golf course one day, edited it on my iMac and then uploaded to Picnik.com where you can do all kinds of cool editing, etc. Check it out for photo fun!