Tatum's Birthday Cake

I saw THIS post by another blogger about a cake and as soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to try it out for Tatum's birthday.

I started on it yesterday. Here are the six layers of cake. I failed to take pictures of each of my bowls when i was adding the food coloring. It was my FIRST time using food coloring too, so I was really excited with the outcome. Here are Purple, Blue, and Green....

Red, Orange, and Yellow...

A couple of things that might help if you plan to try this...after you divide the cake mix, add the food coloring, and pour the cake mix into each pan, shake the pans really good so that the mix is levelled out. I even banged the pans against the counter top several times to get the bubbles out too when I did the yellow, orange, and red cakes. I can sure tell a difference too.

After I cooked them, I let them cool 25 minutes before I took them out of the pan. I put all the cakes on individual paper plates and let them sit in the fridge overnight.

When morning rolled around, I mixed up the icing according to the directions and put a thin later on the bottom of the cake plate. Next, I tried to level out each cake a little....purple went on the bottom....

then I added in a layer of icing and then the blue layer....

...then icing and the green layer....

THEN i put another layer of icing on and put the cake in the fridge so it could sit and set for 2 hours.

after the 2 hours, i added the yellow layer, icing, then the orange layer

icing, and then the red layer and then icing....

after that, i put it in the fridge again for at least 2 hours.

THEN I got it out and finished icing it down....

As you can see, Icing a cake is NOT my strong talent, but i tried.

I came up with my last minute technique for the sides. I am sure it looks crazy, but that's how i left it.

I took the leftover icing and mixed in purple food coloring so that I could decorate the cake.

I need to work on the icing and the decorating FOR SURE....lol

It went back in the fridge until it was time to eat it.

Tatum was very excited to see her cake and blow out her candles.

And here is a picture of the inside of the cake. I am SO HAPPY with how it turned out.

The cake tasted great too! Trust me, if I can do this....ANYONE can do this!!! Not sure what we are going to do with the rest of this cake, but I am guessing it will be trashed in the next 24 hours since I can't afford to cheat anymore this week. SO, if you are in the area and want a piece, let me know!!

Tatum's 3rd Birthday

It's Official....I have a 3 yr old little girl in my house!!!

Tatum was born at 12:45am, so I spared her from a picture of that exact time this morning and settled for a few pics before we left for school.

Here is Tatum's first morning heading to school as a 3 yr old.

We asked Tatum what she wanted to do for her birthday and she said she wanted to play outside. We asked what she wanted for dinner and she said chicken and french fries. Since it was raining today, we decided Chick-fil-A would be perfect. Inside playground AND chicken and french fries.

We even let her have some ice cream too. Here are just a few pics.

I decided to let Mateo try some ice cream too. This was his first taste of ice cream. His initial reaction....

Mateo decided that he needed a second taste to make up his mind for sure.....

And the decision was made....(check out his 4 teeth!)

Mateo said he LOVES birthdays if they include ice cream. He is ready for Grandmommy's birthday on 11/7!

After Chick-fil-A, we headed home for cake and presents. Tatum made silly faces until I brought out the cake with candles. (Please ignore the finger prints shining on our TV in the background....those would be Tatum's.)

Tatum didn't need anything for her birthday, so Antonio and I just got her a few things. We got her 2 games that every little girl MUST have. Candyland....

and Chutes and Ladders....

BUT, Tatum's favorite present of the night was this card from her Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Clif. It plays music. She played with this thing for at least 15 minutes before she would even open another present.

Tatum's 3rd Birthday Party-Party Under the Big Top

We had Tatum's 3rd birthday party yesterday. I have been working on this party for months. I knew I wanted to do a Carnival/Circus theme, so I have been ordering things online, picking up items when I would see them in the store, etc.

Here are the goodie bags (boxes) that I put together and filled Friday night.
Antonio and I worked on getting everything shipped over to his parent's house Friday after work. My parents came into town late Friday night and spent the night at our house so that Antonio and I could get up early and work on putting all the decorations out. We started decorating around 7:30am on Saturday morning and worked up until party time....11:00am. It was just the 2 of us for the most part, but we got it all done just in time. Here is the set up before the party started.

Coolers on the left have, water, juice, and sodas. The green table is the cake table (cake still in the box). Yellow table is the goodie bag table.

I ordered this sign from orientaltrading.com. It was around $20 and it was perfect.

The red table was the 'food table'. We had hot dogs, chips, animal crackers, pretzels, goldfish, fruit chews, and a little candy. The red and white puffs at the top also came from orientaltrading.com.

The goodie bag (box) table. These boxes came from orientaltrading.com. I put some candy inside along with a red clown nose, circus themed stickers, and a little hand clapper thing.

I also made all of the signs to use around the party. I downloaded this circus font for free online and then bought some cardstock paper to print them out. I wish I had done more.

I bought some Jelly Beans, counted them, and put them in the jar. I placed this on the gift table so when people dropped off gifts, they could enter their guess.

There were 1592 jelly beans in the jar. Jennifer was the lucky winner of the Jelly Beans. I think she was excited to win them...my grandmother wasn't excited that she lost.

Next is the "Toddler Area". Several of Tatum's friends that we invited to the party have younger siblings around Mateo's age, so I thought it would be nice to have an area designated for the little ones so they would have a safe place to crawl around. I didnt' know it at the time, but this was the perfect placement for the toddler area because it was in the sun. Since it was a chilly day, it was great to put the little ones here so they would be warmer.

Here is the photobooth. The plan was to have the kids sit on the table and this would be the backdrop. I don't think people really "got it" and my person I lined up to take pictures didn't happen, so this was a good idea that didn't really work.

Next is the facepainting area. I lined up a teacher from school to help me out here. Ms. Kelli is one of my favorite teachers at school. I also knew there would be many kids from daycare, so I knew they would love to see Ms. Kelli there. She did an amazing job!!

At the next table we had this thing set up where kids could put their face in and we could take pics. Here is Antonio demonstrating how it works.

and here is his picture cropped....

I rented a popcorn machine for the party. It was nice, but I think some kids filled up on popcorn (Tatum) and then didn't eat hotdogs. That's okay though.

We also rented a bouncer again this year. It went over so well last year, so we rented it again this year and it sure didn't disappoint.

My parents brought Mateo and Tatum around 10:30 and Tatum was sure excited to start the party. She got a kick out of this...

Here is Tatum's 'cake'. I contacted the girl that did Tatum's cake last year to see if she would do it again this year. I told her the theme and told her I just wanted individual cupcakes and that was it, but she wanted to do more. So, this is what she did. Everything is the fondant icing on a board, and then the cupcakes are balloons in the air. I LOVED it. She is so great at what she does and is very affordable as well!!! I can't wait to line her up for Mateo's party too!

Here is a picture of Antonio's parents with most of the grandkids....Austin is the only one missing.

Mateo hanging out in the Toddler Area.

Timmy and Baby Luke

Ms. Kelli doing some facepainting on Tatum's face while Saylor and Sullivan stand in line

The toddler area

Tatum showing off her butterfly

Gabby and Tatum at the photobooth.

Jocie and Josiah in the photobooth

Saylor and Katie drinking juice at the photobooth

One of the twins

My parents manning the popcorn machine.

The other twin

The twins' brother and Caiden. They met for the first time at the party and they became great new friends I think.

Ms. Kelli doing some facepainting on Caiden

Saylor sliding out of the bouncer

and giving a silly face!! Saylor also plays soccer with Tatum.

Some of the kids in the bouncer. Funny story....right after I took this picture Tatum started crying because she got hit on the face somehow. All the kids gathered around her to check and make sure she was okay. Someone yelled out..."Tatum's nose is bleeding." Being the concerned mom I am, I immediately climbed in and got over to Tatum to check on her. I just had to laugh when I realized what happened. This picture was after we did cake and Tatum dug into a cupcake with red icing. Apparently Antonio didn't clean all the icing out of her nose, so it looked like it was bleeding, but wasn't.

Baby Luke was partied out. I think this is a great picture of Tim, Jennifer, and Baby Luke.

Sullivan

One of the tables AFTER the party.

Saylor's mom helping one of the twins put her shoes on. Their mom was standing there trying to help with shoes, but Kennedy insisted that 'Saylor's mom' help her instead.

Tatum was SO TIRED at the end of her party. She was having a mini meltdown here.

Baby Luke was great for the party. I LOVE this picture!! He is sitting up and looks so big here.

Jennifer and Cindy

Jovena and Josiah

Gran sure has a way with Tatum. She was getting her to eat her hotdog. Ms. Ruth, my grandmother's friend, also joined us for the party. We love having her there, she is a part of our family now.

We were beyond exhausted after the party. After cleaning up, loading the cars, and getting home, we all took long naps. I napped for 2 hours, Tatum for 3 hours, and I finally woke Mateo up after 4 hours of napping.

After Tatum woke up, we let her open her presents at home.

Tatum got so many great presents!! Plenty of princess items, Dora goodies, Barbie, Spongebob things, clothes, shoes, stamp art set, etc. She is very blessed to have so many great family and friends around her. We are thankful for them all!!

Mateo also enjoyed some things Tatum got. He loved this Mickey Mouse on this bag.

...and he LOVES these ladies as much as Tatum does too!

But by the end of the night, Tatum and Mateo were enjoying playing with this big box! It provided lots of entertainment for us all.

As you can see, we all had an amazing day! I love doing these birthday parties for the kids! I love doing all the planning and then watching everything fall into place, but the best is the smiles on Tatum's face because she is having such a great time!! That being said, I think we will have to scale back some next year. This one was sure fun, but it wore me out (and cost a little too much too). I am pretty sure I know what we will be doing next year.

Now, I will be starting on Mateo's party planning. I already have the theme picked out, so let the planning begin...lol