Party-Filled Weekend

We had such a fun weekend last weekend.  Friday was Cannon’s actual birthday, and Saturday was his party.  Nothing too fancy; just some close friends and family over for what I intended to be a porch-party.  But, since 1) I didn’t have the food set up outside and 2) the ever-popular train table and all of the other toys were still in the den, it kind of started out as an indoor thing – which was fine.

We did go outside when it was time to cut the cake, though.  It was just such an incredibly beautiful day, and I didn’t want cake all over the floor.  But I thought the same thing for Bennett’s first birthday, and I certainly didn’t have to worry about cake on the floor.  He barely even touched the thing!  I wound up putting a piece of icing in his mouth and he spit it out.  Oh well.  No big cake dive for Bennett.  

Cannon, however, dug right in.  I put that cake in front of him and he took his hand and gouged a huge chunk right out of it.   

And he ate it.  He went back for more, and more, and then got tired of wasting time using his hands.  Atta Boy!

I've never been so willing to get icing all over my face:

Then we opened presents, but Cannon was not interested in that at all.  He wanted to crawl around and see what all those big kids were up to.

Bennett had fun playing with his cousins, Mac and Rachael, and friends Ella, Katherine and Aiwyn (all children of our close friends).

Some more good pictures from the party:

Baby Everett (as Bennett still calls him):

He's got to be one of the most handsome babies ever.  :)

Uncle Josh teaching Rachael how to play the trumpet.  But it looks like he might need to focus more on teaching his own son the correct way to play...

Me with my newest niece, Maria:

Bennett and Cannon's cousin, Haylie, about to enjoy her cake.

And as usual, we try to get a shot of all the Gibson grandchildren.  Greg was able to grab at least one decent one before the meltdown started:

It was a good time.  I really enjoyed seeing everyone, and some even hung out long enough to have pizza with us that evening, which was great.

The next day, we went to another birthday party.  My good friend from college has twin girls, and it was their 2^nd birthday.  What a party those folks throw!  Oh, man we had fun.  Especially Bennett.  That little boy did. not. stop.  for three hours.  He ran and played and ran and played and ran and ran and ran…  

Anyway, their party this year was a “barnyard animals” theme.  So of course they had a rooster, a couple of ducklings, and a guinea pig for the kids to feed and play with.   

They also had the forethought to put a ton of toys in the yard so the kids could go to town and the parents could safely sit back and watch from a distance.  I set Cannon down out there and he was just as content as Bennett for a couple hours.

 

I did the cake, and it was, of course, barnyard animals themed.  My idea was to make this barn that was split right down the middle so that when you pulled it apart, each cake came away as a fully iced cake; one for each girl.  But, to my dismay, it shifted a little on the ride over and one side fell into the other and made it so that it was kind of a mess when they were pulled apart.  And one of the barn doors fell a little bit too.  I was so sad, ‘cause it was so cute before we left – and I didn’t get a picture of it at home because I knew I’d have a chance once we got there.  So no pre-slid pictures.  Oh well.  It happens.  Good thing it was a gift from me.

And I don't think Katerine and Ella minded.  :)

I made a really cute cupcake for Miranda, but didn't get a picture of it, unfortunately.  James, her husband, wrote me a couple days before the party and asked if I could make a special cupcake for Miranda, since her birthday was Saturday.  So I started thinking about what I could do.  On their invitations, there is a black-spotted hen sitting in the upper window of the barn.  So I thought, well, Miranda is the mother hen…  So she got a spotted “mother hen” on a bed of hay.

Just like last year, right about the time the girls were getting into their cakes, we heard the familiar “clang-clang” of the ice cream truck.  They had the ice cream man stop by the party and everybody was able to go up and order whatever they wanted.  Bennett picked a cherry popsicle (although he’ll tell you it was raspberry).

Cannon got to enjoy some too.

After the cake and ice cream, it was back to playing.  Cannon got to ride around the yard and then relax with Daddy for a while.

Towards the end of the party, James’ dad and brother broke out their toys; a couple of remote control cars.  They stood back out of sight a little bit and ran those things all through the yard, between kids and toys and animals.  It wasn’t long before there was a whole mess of kids running behind the cars, and Bennett was right up front, absolutely having a ball.  As they tired, kids kind of slowed down and the mess dwindled from about eight of them to just a couple, then down to just one.  Guess who that was?  Yep.  He was the energizer bunny.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a sweatier, more red-lipped kid in my life.

You would think he would have passed out on the way home, especially since it was basically his bedtime by the time we left, but nope!  He yapped the whole way home.  At one point Josh and I just looked at each other, both exhausted just from listening to him!

It really was a great weekend spent with people we love.

Cannon's "Piece of Cake" Cake

First comes the post about the cake, then comes the post about the party.

So I thought for Cannon's first birthday cake I might do a frog cake like this, or maybe an elephant cake like this.  And if I did the frog cake, the invitations would have been frogs, and the elephant would get elephant invites.  But then I remembered that I had some coke reward points (or pampers points, I can't remember) to spend, and Shutterfly is always one of the options for redemption.  So I decided to get me some free invites and they looked like this:

So when I started thinking about the cake again, I thought, "Well, what does the invitation look like?  Hmm... there's really only a picture of a piece of cake on it."  And then a light bulb came on in my head and I thought, "What if I made a cake, cut a piece out of it, iced the cake back, iced the piece back, and then used the piece as Cannon's smash cake and the cut cake for everyone else?"

And the next thought was, "I wonder if that's been done a million times before."  So I got on Google and guess what?!?  I could not find one single picture of the same thing.  There were plenty of pictures of cakes that had been cut, iced back, and the piece put on top of that same cake, or just cakes that were made to look like a piece of cake.  But none that used the piece as the smash cake for a child.

Y'all.  I had an ORIGINAL idea!  Oh my gosh, I'm so proud!

Now, don't you all go Google it at once and send me all the pictures you find of this idea.  Let me believe that I've been creative all by myself for a little while, at least.

And some of you might be going - but you are always so creative!  Uh, no, not really.  When people order cakes from me, they tell me basically what they want and I go to Google and type it in.  I choose three or four cakes that I like and take the best of each and make my own version.  So I kind of steal everybody else's ideas (should I be admitting this?).

I have completely copied one cake.  That was Elizabeth's Nemo cake.  That thing was just so cute, I wanted her's to look just like it.  And the Thomas/Cars cake that I did was pretty much a copy of someone else's, but that's because Josh's cousin sent me that picture and said that's what she wanted.  But I think I can honestly say that I made it better (toot, toot of the ol' horn).

Anyway, sometimes I get frustrated that I can't come up with any of my own ideas any better than I do, but I really just am not that creative.  It's just that I can look at what someone else has done and copy it well.

But this time....  This time I did it.  And I loved it.  And it wasn't for someone else.  It was for my Cannon Man!

Cannon is One!

Happy Birthday, my big bundle of squeezable love!

His party is tomorrow, so of course there will be a post to follow.  :)

Montessori Spring Fling 2011

Saturday was the Spring Fling at Montessori. We weren't able to go last year for some reason, so I really wanted Bennett to be able to go this year. Plus, he's old enough to really be able to enjoy it. But it turned out that it was the same weekend as the tour of homes we were on. There's now way I could have done both. Thank goodness for grandparents! Lynn and Steve came and got the boys on Thursday and took them back to their house so we would have Thursday evening and all day Friday to finish getting ready for the tour, and then brought them back to Douglasville to go to the Spring Fling while the tour was going on Saturday.

Well, there's no way I couldn't at least go see Bennett's class performance. He's been practicing this song at home for the past few weeks, and I really wanted to see him sing it with his class. So I broke away from the tour for a little bit and went up there.  They had just finished up lunch when I got there.

It was a really hot day, so it apparently took him a while to really get comfortable and have fun. He wanted to play in the bouncy house, but the sun was shining right on it and making the vinyl really hot on your feet. Steve went to the car and got him a pair of socks so it wouldn't be so bad.

Then, to Bennett's surprise, Poppa showed up.  Daddy called me and asked me how it was going, assuming I was at the house for the tour, but I told him I took a break to come over to Montessori for the Spring Fling.  He said, "Well maybe I'll just come up there.  Do they have food?"  We are just alike - always thinking about food.

Bennett played a few games while Cannon enjoyed the ride.

Then it was time for Bennett to line up with his class for their performance.  I don't know why I love this picture so much, but I do.  I guess just seeing my little boy in a crowd of other little boys and girls.

Anyway, here's their song(s).  Don't ask me what they're saying, because I have no clue. Some of it is obviously in different languages, but I can't even understand some of the English words. :)

(Bennett is next to the little girl in pink.)

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Bennett's Big Boy Room

Well, it's been over a year that Bennett has been in his "big boy room," but it has only recently been completely finished and worthy of a showing (thank you, Tour of Homes, for getting our butts into gear).

So here's the transformation of our Georgia-themed office into Bennett's big boy room:

A Bennett Funny

I just got home from getting Bennett from Montessori.  As we pulled into the driveway, Bennett asked who was going to be at his house today.  He's used to either Grandmama or Poppa or Gigi and Pop being at our house lately.  My parents were there a lot this past week helping us get ready for the tour of homes that was this past weekend, and Josh's parents kept the boys for us over the weekend during the tour and then spent the night with us Saturday night. 

So he wanted to know who was going to be at his house today.  I said, "Nobody's going to be at our house today, bud.  Just us."  He got quiet and didn't say anything else.  We got out of the car and started walking up the back steps.  Bennett turned and saw a guy on Greg's back porch next door.  He excitedly pointed to the guy and exclaimed, "There he is, Mama!"  I said, "There who is?"  He said, "Justus!"