Karis Turns 5

I started on Thursday, with her party being on Sunday, by preparing some things.  In the last few years I've found it a challenge to make a themed birthday cake.
Sometime, when I have a little time, I'll have to share some of my other creations with you.  I usually start by perusing the internet for a cake that I can do.  But some themes in the past have included a Nemo Cake, a beach ball, Lightening McQueen and Hello Kitty.  This time around it was a ballerina theme, so I found a ballet slipper cake.

I don't want to sound high on my horse, but I am pretty proud of myself!!  I was SO happy with how it turned out!  And in the midst of the craziness with Jerry being stuck in London, I honestly felt like the Lord was giving me peace and even easiness as I prepared the cake and cookies.  I usually have some drama or mess up on part of the cake, but everything went smoothly!  I mostly followed a You Tube video on the cake, but I did deviate a little bit.  Because I knew we were going to have quite the crowd and some like chocolate while others like vanilla cake I decided to make a base for the slippers, and instead of the slippers sitting next to each other, I raised one slipper to sit partly on the other.  I did that all on my own and I didn't have an problems with the changes.  It all worked out well!!  I couldn't have been happier!!
I also made marshmallow fondant for the cake and the cookies.  It was the first time I had ever worked with it and it was so easy!!
I was able to prepare all the food on Saturday which included homemade salsa, a cheeseball, cheeseballs (per Karis' request, they are like Cheetos), cake and cookies.   And one of my Czech friends made and brought garlic cheese bread.

 Since it was mid-afternoon I kept it light.  Then I just needed to do some straightening up on Sunday morning (just so you know, we're not skipping church...our church meets in the evening).  I also had to give the kids a bath, get them dressed, get myself showered & ready, give them some lunch, stuff the pinata and put some decorations up.

 All by myself!  Whew!  I started getting a little crazed an hour before the party, but everything came together.  I wasn't able to get the gift bags put together, so I just dumped them in a basket and allowed the kids to grab what they wanted.  It worked.
The party started and turned out great.  I think so anyway.  We snacked, the kids played, we did a "pin the jewel on the crown" game, then out came the pinata.  Some friends gave it to us to use (it was the pull the ribbon kind).  Luckily they didn't care to have it back because after two ribbon pulls the candy came tumbling out, the top ribbon broke and the kids went flying to the ground.  It was absolutely crazy!

Karis opened her presents,

 and then blew out the candles on her cake.  We had a lot of fun!

Brennan having a good ole time with the punch (strawberry ice cream & Sprite). Silly boy!

 The house was a wreck!  There was pinata pieces, candy wrapper, food, wrapping paper and various other things scattered throughout the house.  But of course, I was off to get my hubby.  So the clean up had to wait.  Having gone to bed at 3 am and waking up at 7:30 am to get our kids I was exhausted.  And it took me ALL day to get the house clean.  I even took a picture of the junk I swept up off the kids floor.  Ha!  It was so thick with filth I couldn't even vacuum until I swept. 

 I think we'll have Brennan & Reegan's birthday in a park!!