a little lagniappe: She's Had a Birthday Shout Hurray!

Monday, November 02, 2015

She's Had a Birthday Shout Hurray!

Grace is 11!

It's been a busy weekend! {Although NO, still no baby.} On Saturday, we decided to go ahead and celebrate Grace's birthday a day early since we were trying to fill up the day before it was time to go trick-or-treating anyway. :) The inspiration for her cake this year came to me a few days ago, and after a quick run to Michael's for sprinkles and supplies on Saturday morning, I was all set to go! I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but a couple of months ago Grace TORE through The Hunger Games series. As in, every spare moment she had was spent reading. And then REreading once she finished it the first time around. For weeks and weeks and weeks, she has been begging to be able to watch the movie for her birthday present, and finally -- on Friday night -- we caved. Much to Ethan's chagrin. {Because it's not fair you know -- he read The Hunger Games a couple of years ago and we never allowed HIM to watch the movie.} Well, it is what it is, and that's what we did. Movie Night on Friday was split up with the older two watching The Hunger Games, and the younger ones watching other movies in the TV room and on Freddie's iPad. As for the CAKE, I had already decided that I wanted to do something inspired by her love of the book. And for the record, I think this could be my favorite cake I've come up with. :)

{Cake details: Grace always opts for a vanilla cake with vanilla frosting. I used my doctored up cake mix hack to create the cake, once again, and homemade buttercream frosting for the topping. The decorating is where my wizardry skills came into play. I wanted to try and replicate the cover of the book, but knew it would be way too difficult to try and dye all the frosting a dark enough black to suffice. SO. I came up with the idea of covering the cake in black sprinkles, and then melting white chocolate to create the mockingjay pin and lettering for the words. I scored at Michael's when I found black sugar crystals (I ended up using a full two containers) and GOLD food coloring spray paint for the mockingjay! While the cake was baking, I got cracking on the chocolate work. I melted white chocolate Ghiradelli wafers, spooned it into a ziploc baggie, and then snipped a tiny corner off the bag. With a sheet of parchment paper literally on top of the book cover, I used the white chocolate bag to trace over the pin and the letters, then let them harden. It sounds so simple -- and it kind of was -- but I still ended up needing to redo the pin 2 or 3 times. I popped them into the fridge or freezer each time to harden them up faster, and the first time I took it out, it slid off the paper and broke, and the next time I cut the tip to big and the result was a much blobbier pin. The third time was the charm, and the pin turned out perfect! I piped the circle background separately and then the mockingjay. Once they were good and hard, I spritzed them with the gold spray and let it dry! The lettering isn't perfect, but it was good enough and I was out of patience by the end to try and make them look any better. Hahahaha. Coating the cake with the black sugar crystals was another feat, but eventually I got it done. Word to the wise, though, the black STAINED and was a MESS to clean up. And it kind of dyed everyone's lips, teeth, and tongue black while they were eating the cake. Hahaha. At least it looked really cool, right???}

Close up of the letters...

And close up of the mockingjay pin.

I was able to work on the cake in mostly uninterrupted peace, thanks to a birthday outing to the movies on Saturday afternoon. Scott and Freddie took the older 3 to see the new "Goosebumps" movie that Grace was dying to go to, and Jane and Alex were distracted easily enough at home with the computer and Freddie's iPad. I finished up the cake JUST in time for the movie goers to get home, and then threw Grace's birthday gifts into a bag we had lying around the house. :) Because even though Grace said we wouldn't have to get her ANY other presents this year if we let her watch The Hunger Games movie, I knew that deep down inside, she would be kind of disappointed without having any gifts to open. {Because who wouldn't??}

So, we set up the dining room, sang happy birthday, opened up presents and cut into that cake! Alex was riding the struggle bus all day long, and was quite upset about not being able to go to the store to pick out a present for Grace this year, so we tried to solve the problem by giving him another gift bag and having him put "The Hunger Games" book inside to "give" to Grace for her birthday. Hahahaha. He was KIND of appeased. But not by much.

True story -- Grace STRUGGLES with blowing out birthday candles every year. Hahaha. She always has. Granted these were "sparkler" candles, so they were a little trickier, but still. It's kind of hilarious. :)

Posing with Alex's "gift."

And laying it on thick for his sake, that she REALLY loved the present. Grace is a good big sister.

As for the gifts that I picked out for her, I decided to go with her newest passion -- make-up. Hahaha. We officially have a tween-ager. I figured I'd much rather have her play with her own stuff, than continue to use and ruin mine, so it was cheapie drugstore makeup to the rescue!! Hahahaha. And she LOVED it.

Quite the stash -- Baby Lips, nail polish, eye shadow, mascara, eye liner, and an organizer. She was pretty stoked to set it all up in her bathroom vanity.

After the cake was cut into and eaten up, there was only an hour or so left to kill until it was time to eat dinner and get our Halloween on. So, pretty much, we filled up the day PERFECTLY! Hahaha. I think Grace had a pretty good birthday celebration. :) Made even more perfect (in her mind) because she didn't end up having to share her ACTUAL birthday with baby Isaac. Hahaha. Oh Grace. What would our family be like without her??? :)