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Friday, March 18, 2011

March is for birthdays

It begins with a big boy turning eight years old.  It's hard to fit 8 candles on a dinosaur cupcake.  And, yes, he wanted his hair that short!














The dinosaurs were also party favors.

Nathan was born in Louisiana, and his birthday was the day before Mardi Gras....sooo, the dinosaurs fought their battle on a bed of purple, green and yellow-sugared vanilla frosting topping chocolate fudge cakes.



























Best buddy Garrett









There were friends bearing gifts.








Reading circle buddy Tiara. They discuss books. :)



























Matthew really enjoyed his cupcake.



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Then there was birthday number two, or rather number five, for Lauren.





She wanted a kitten princess cake.  I had to take cupcake surrounds (outside liners) shaped like crowns and put kitty stickers on them. There were also picks shaped like castles and those got the stickers also. She loved it, but immediately asked me where the brown and orange stripes were that she wanted. I'm sorry, Lauren, but I just couldn't do brown and orange with pink and green. Bad Grammy! 





















The family was there to help her celebrate with homemade pizza. 

Her best cousin/friend Kaitlyn, who is always by her side at Grammy and Poppy's.


Gaige sporting his visor creation that was the party craft.

Nathan and his winning smile.

Matthew was much more interested in the cake than he was the pizza.





There were a few Disney and My Little Pony characters invited. 


























And she was a very happy and excited little girl.



























We also have Gaige, Nathan and Kaitlyn's daddy's birthday today. And I have one of my very best friend's BD, two nephews and one niece. It's almost as many as May and October!

28 comments:

Susan said...

Why, why, why will blogger not let you adjust the spaces between pictures and text?!!

Sandy Nawrot said...

I know dumb Blogger. But it was effective...there was suspense as you paged down to see what was next! My dad and my daughter were born in March. Love the pictures...they are such sweet little angels!

VioletSky said...

Up in these parts, March is a crappy month to be born, weather-wise: you never knew if you would be skipping or sledding on your birthday. But the greatest people are also born this month!

The Bumbles said...

I don't understand why Blogger is doing that formatting to you - I don't have that issue. Are you creating your post in the HTML view or the Compose view? I can help you try to figure it out some time if you like.

I love your dino cupcakes - cupcakes seem to have taken over for cake these days - at least in the b-day parties I have attended over the last few months for the younger set.

How lucky those kiddos are to have such a talented grandma!

Ruth said...

Precious babies (not any more though!), precious cakes, precious grandma!

Seriously, go to the HTML edit tab and just delete all those spaces. I can talk you through it sometime, even on the phone or g-chat!

Char said...

soooo adorable - love all of the lovin' here

ds said...

Love the photos--the space just made me dwell on each a bit longer. Love those dino cupcakes!!
And a kitty princess cake, wow.
Those so-quickly-growing-up children definitely appreciate their very talented Gram.

Susan said...

Sandy, I don't know about that "sweet little angels" part! Photos can be deceiving! LOL They're really sweet when I'm one-on-one with each of them, but, lordy, when you put them all together! Look out!

Susan said...

Sanna, it's not so different here. We seem to have a real doozy of a snowstorm every year in March. We've escaped this year, so far...knock on wood.

May is a pretty good month for birthdays, too. ;-)

Susan said...

Molly, I usually do them in Compose. I'm not sure I could do it in HTML...too many <<<< and >>>> going on.

Cupcakes certainly are my choice. They're so easy to decorate, although you're somewhat limited in decorating choices. They're perfect portion control, too, and no messy slicing and serving.

Thank you.

Susan said...

Ruthie, they're just growing up so fast! It's hard for me to believe that Gaige will be 10 this fall! And you're right, there are no babies anymore. But I have a new sweet little grand-niece that I can go cuddle whenever I get the yearning.

Seriously, I tried editing out the spaces and that just messed it up even more, so decided to leave it alone. I'm a dunce when it comes to these things. I'm definitely a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of gal and learn as I go. Lots of trial and error, falling heavily on the error side. :/

Susan said...

Thank you, Char! There is a lot of love in this house.

Susan said...

ds, you always know how to turn a negative into a positive. I hadn't thought of it that way, but you're right.

The dino cupcakes were my favorite, too. I really don't like making flowers. I'm out of practice is the biggest problem. I need to do some practicing, though. I promised to make a large sheet cake for the Cub Scout Blue and Gold banquet next month. Yikes! I have leftover frosting, so it will be easy to just take it out of the fridge when I have a little time. I just hate all the cleanup. Bleh. One thing for sure, by the time I finish decorating a cake, I have NO desire to eat any of it. LOL

Deborah said...

If I come to Ohio on my birthday what are the chances I could get a cake decorated by you? Or even just a cupcake??

Darn lucky kids, is all I can say. And have you ever tried Windows Livewriter to write your blogs? Oh, I forgot you have a Mac. Maybe there's a LiveWriter for Mac. I find it much easier to play with photo placement there.

Susan said...

Deb if you came to Ohio, I would decorate a cake for you even if it weren't your birthday! And, of course, I forgot to mention the best part...the cake inside was sort of purple from the pureed berries I put in it. It made the cake so flavorful and moist. I guess I was so tired, I forgot to snap a picture of it.

You say the word, lady, and I'll start baking and slapping on that icing!

Deb, I have iWorks on my Mac, which I could use, and I may start doing that. It would serve two purposes; making a cleaner presentation and having a backup in my documents. The only thing that bugs me about it is when I use any of the cool fonts or colors, it only shows up on the blog for Mac people. I guess that doesn't really matter. Maybe I'll give it a go with the next one.

Wanda..... said...

I just thought you did the spacing on purpose, Susan...center stage affect, which they all deserve! Their birthday cakes were award winning, I know you enjoyed making them, used to create similar ones for mine when they were younger. I see you've had even more cakes to make this month...beginning the last of Jan. and through Feb. is when 10 of our family birthdays are grouped. Busy times!

Now, yard work is keeping me busy! :)

Jeanie said...

What totally adorable kids! Looks like a wonderful time with lots of smiles.

I know what you mean about the short hair -- I've never been able to figure it out with our guys, either!

Anonymous said...

I'm just thrilled to see those birthday kiddos at home, and not in the middle of some commercial "come have your birthday here" place! And what great photos.

When I was growing up it was an inviolable rule: birthday cake at home, cupcakes for all the kids at school. We ate a lot of cupcakes, now that I think about it. But no dinosaurs, back then.

The html shouldn't be any different with blogger than wordpress, unless they have things set up differently on the back end. I had to quit trying to post pics left-and-right because the text wouldn't wrap properly.

What would we do without challenges? :-)

Barb said...

Susan, You are definitely putting me to shame as a Grammy with the adorable cake and cupcakes. The children are so cute. I also have 8 year old Grandchildren (twins) and a Granddaughter who will soon turn 5 (not with the help of my baking though...)

Susan said...

Wanda, thank you! It is a labor of love, that's for sure. I wouldn't do it for money...I couldn't possibly charge enough to make it worth the aggravation and time it takes.

I have been enjoying the few days we've had so far getting the veggie garden ready to plant. I stuck the onion sets in the ground a few days ago, and the garlic is already 4-6 inches high. I love Spring!

Susan said...

Thank you, Jeanie! They have their adorable moments (most of the time) and the moments where they drive my completely insane! I don't have a lot of patience in my old age, if I ever had any. :)

Nathan has very coarse, thick hair, so it needs to be short, but that was bordering on baldness! I think his dad got a little carried away with the clippers, but didn't want to admit it. :D

Susan said...

shoreacres, yes, we do have most of our birthday celebrations at one of our homes. It's just better that way. I don't believe in spending a small fortune on birthdays. We have had a couple of outside ones. We did bowling parties for the older boys, but they were only allowed a few friends, not the whole class! But I still made the cakes.

We had the little one's 2nd birthday at a Chinese restaurant last year. I was just too exhausted to cook. It was fun...they let us have a room to ourselves and the kids could play and not disturb anyone else. And it was so cute when our two waitresses came in and sang "Happy Birthday".

Believe me, Linda, I am constantly challenged by the intricacies of computers and the internet! LOL

Susan said...

Hi, Barb! So nice to see you! Aren't grandkids so much fun!

Even before I took the Wilton classes to learn cake decorating, I always made the cakes. They weren't that great looking, but they always taste better than store-bought, even if you use a cake mix. Even now, I don't do it often enough to do it very well, but I don't like it enough to practice more either. I hate the yucky mess it makes...especially if you're using a lot of different colors. Bleh. I do it to make them happy. That's what we grandmas do. :)

Dutchbaby said...

Love that Mardi Gras sugar! You are the best Gramma on the planet!!!!

Anonymous said...

I lovet hat Nathan has a little reading buddy! And it was nice to see your Gaige :)
And, of course, that cake looks yummy enought ot eat .

Susan said...

Dutchbaby, you wouldn't say that if you had heard me yelling at them yesterday...they turned into wild animals, instead of children! :-)

Susan said...

Thank you, Stacy! Tiara is the sweetest little girl. She loved Nate's cupcakes and requested some for her birthday. :-)

Jeanie said...

Oh, my! Those adorable children and beautiful cakes are enough to bring a huge smile to my face!