I bought some silly FUN Services type toys downtown and put together bags for the kids (including a slide whistle, a flashing necklace and a slinky. I got a foam puzzle, finger paint, crayons and a sketch book to make it more than just annoying for the other moms. This all went together in a "tnt" bag with a cute label. I think I did well, especially since the bags didn't tie with the big sketch book in it.
The baby ADORES chocolate so what else would I make for her than a chocolate, chocolate brigadeiro cupcake? This is from a Brazilian cake mix so I wasn't sure if the outcome would be anything like the Betty Crocker cakes of my dreams. I followed the recipe exactly (measuring in mL instead of cups) and the cupcakes ended up more like brownies, not so fluffy like Betty's. That's ok, the baby like brownies, too. I made brigadiero frosting and put about at thick a layer of frosting as cake. I'm sure the kids at school were very sticky. Mmm.
We have a cool bakery/restaurant supply store nearby with all kinds of neat packaging. I got this neat box and put 16 cupcakes in for the 10 kids in the class. This way I have cupcake security without the risk of losing my cupcake tins (they don't do them here) to the pre-school abyss.
I even had extra gift bag toppers that I taped to the side of the cool box. There is no way that this party in a bag would be given to the wrong class.
What I didn't do was send my camera. I was just not that trusting. The teacher did say that she took cell phone pictures, but I never saw them. Oh well.
What I did do as soon as they all left for school was make a cake for the family party. This time Betty Crocker helped me out. I did it in a bundt pan and after I put it in the oven and was reading the cooking time, I realized that I forgot to flour the greased pan. Luckily, the cake came out of the pan anyway.
Again, we had brigadiero to put on the top. The cool part about using a bundt cake for this is that the extra brigadiero pools up in the middle and flows out when it is cut giving it a nice effect and extra frosting. And what is a brigadiero without sprinkles? I tried pouring the sprinkles down the sides, but it all just pooled on the plate so I asked Penha how this sprinkling process was done. She took a handful of sprinkles and threw it at the cake.
Sprinkles everywhere!
I was reluctant to do this because of the mess it made, but she said that there was no other way and, hello!! I didn't have to clean it up. I had her blessing to make a mess! Too cool.
I figured that since I was making a mess anyway, I would get the girls in on it, too. We put the cake on the floor and threw sprinkles at it. The girls giggled and laughed the whole time. The boy giggled and took pictures and video. Eventually we got a thoroughly covered cake.
The girls were appalled at how many sprinkles remained on the floor and wanted to help clean it up. The baby went to get the broom and the girl went to work with her tongue. Once again, because of my Penha I knew the floor was clean enough to eat off of. I'll have to break her of that when I am the boss of cleaning again...
The licking got old fast and we moved to more efficient methods of cleaning, eventually enlisting the help of my Penha on the left of the picture (she runs out of the room when the camera comes out).
Additional Penha side note- her shoes say "kiss me" and I asked her if she knew what it meant. She said that she liked the colors and knew that it must be cool because it was "Americano."
Here is my attempt at professional photography of stuff (usually food) up close. That will be another post someday when I am hungry. Notice all the extra sprinkles and frosting on the edges. Just imagine what kind of delicious feast is waiting inside this volcano of a cake!
Baby was excited all afternoon about her cake. We had to hide it to prevent fingerprints in the sides. When daddy got home, we got presents together and, along with some friends had a little party. When we went to look for birthday candles they were nowhere to be found. She doesn't need candles, right? No way, not this fire fiend! I got out some tea candles from our emergency supply and she had "biggest candles ever!!!" on her cake.
The current movie obsession of the baby is Barbie Diamond Castle. We just had to have all the fixins: hats, cups, plates and napkins. We also had the soundtrack playing in the background.
We did a pretty good job demolishing this cake along with the ice cream daddy had made.
Here are some of our guests enjoying the party.
Then came the presents. She opened every present very carefully. 
Grandma and grandpa sent some pony puzzles.
Our friends brought a face-making game. She now thinks that whenever that friend comes he will bring a present for her. 
Grandma and grand-daddy-daddy sent a hair kit with glitter paint and elastics. The sweet baby had glitter everywhere but in her hair for at least a week. It took four washings to get it all the way out of the girl's scalp.
We had a gift bag left over from school (apparently there were only nine kids) so we had something fun for our little friend to take home. The slide whistle was a huge success.
To burn off some of the brigadiero energy, the girls danced. Our other little friend (a year and a half younger) is a super dancer.
The evening ended with a sandwich hug between her fun friends. Notice the slide whistle.
I think everything turned out fantastic. The girl is a year older. We had yummy cake. We had fun friends. Mommy survived without stressing.
2 comments:
I love them eating off the floor!! I am glad my house isn't the only place that happens ;)
So cute to see them pouring the sprinkles on.....happy birthday cute little girl.
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