Posts Tagged ‘cake’

We had Heron's first birthday party today! It was a little hot, but I guess it's a good thing that all the families that RSVP'd didn't make it. We had a good turnout of kids and babies and a good time just playing and chatting.

This is the cake I threw together in the morning before the party. I had a more elaborate vision, but it turned out cute! I made chocolate fondant, but the humidity (I guess?) made it SO goopy/drippy and it was impossible to work with. I would've added more sugar, but the grocery store was closed so I just scrapped it and frosted the cake. Heron's party was bug-themed, so he got a little buggy cake!

He had a cute bug outfit from Mom & Dad and there were bug stickers for the bigger kids and big bugs all over the floor for the little ones. We had blue, yellow, and green balloons on the floor and the ceiling to play with and some cute Japanese paper lanterns. Heron had fun crawling around with all his baby buddies! Rhino was in need of a nap halfway through the party, though.

We had some other cute treats. I made some rainbow Jell-o cups (kind of like these but without the condensed milk) with hidden gummy worms. I actually wouldn't recommend doing that. The Jell-o reacted strangely with my gummy worms and "stuff" flaked off the worms and they got really hard, too. It wasn't what I was hoping for. We also had "ants on a log" (peanut butter piped into celery sticks, topped with chocolate chips) and a variety of toddler-friendly treats. Yum!

Heron had a blast opening his gifts! He didn't quite understand what was going on, but seemed to enjoy the attention. The older kids helped him rip open his paper and play with his toys! The older kids had fun playing with Dad's cool RC helicopter. We didn't have any planned activities, just a general play time. First birthdays are the only ones that I want to invite this many people to. When he turns two next year, he'll get two guests at his party, then one more added each year!

Happy birthday to my big baby boy!!

Happy first birthday, Heron!!

I'm so glad that Mom & Dad were able to be here for Heron's first birthday! We had a great time!

I sewed up a special birthday crown for him (like I did for Rhino, but I'll be redoing Rhino's for future birthdays.) [Idea from Amanda Soule's book, The Creative Family.] I also sewed up a birthday banner for his party on Monday (idea from the same book.)

He received some wonderful gifts! He was given some cute outfits from Great-Granddaddy and GG and Pop. Matt's parents got him some adorable clothes too, as well as a Punch and Drop and some stacking wooden rings. I finally got to give him the knitted rainbow snake that I finished a while ago! Matt and Rhino and I also gave him a Walk N Roll for when he starts walking (soon!)

And, of course, there was cake!! I baked him his own little chocolate cake with my yummy chocolate frosting. Lucky boy! We tried to hold off on giving him any sugar until his first birthday, like we did for Rhino, but it hasn't really worked out. Rhino likes to share his treats! So this is the second time Heron's had chocolate cake.

He did pick the whole thing up and try to eat it like a cupcake! When it first came out, he didn't want to try the cake, actually. I took a finger full of frosting and chased his mouth around for a while until I could finally sneak it in. Then he knew what to do!  I cringe a little at this baby-chocolate-cake tradition because it's just so much sugar and we try to limit sweets. It is just too adorable though (I love this messy, chocolate baby!) and it is a one-time thing. It won't be every birthday that he gets to dive into his own cake!

The mess was so worth it. He had a blast! And cleanup was pretty easy. Once I got him in the bath, crumbs fell off him and he turned the water brown. At one time, a small piece of cake floated by him and he grabbed it and attempted to have seconds! Such a pig!

Today the boys and I went to a double 2nd birthday party for our playgroup pals, Kaitlyn and Thomas. It was Elmo-themed with lots of balloons and pop-up tents to play with! Heron was happy to sit on the floor and watch all the toddlers and Rhino went nuts running around with balloons, laughing with other kids, stealing food off the buffet table, and playing in the tents.

The cakes were adorable and done by a lady here on base. I love the idea of mini-marshmallows and orange M&Ms for Elmo’s eyes and nose! It was quite a chore keeping Rhino away from the cakes before the birthday kids got to blow out their candles!

Heron was so sleepy for the second half of the party and definitely needed a nap. I put together two of the armchairs to make a chair-crib for him and another baby. Isaac fell asleep eventually, but Heron wouldn’t have any of it.

It was such a fun party and I’m so glad that the boys have little friends that they get to see regularly. The playgroups on base are just the best and we’ve met a ton of wonderful families! The pop-up tents were a fantastic idea for a toddler party that I think I might have to steal that for the future. Rhino had a great time and Heron was worn down after the party. When we came home they both crashed for almost three hours and gave me a much-needed break!

Happy birthday to me!!

I had a great, relaxing birthday. Matt always treats me right, but it was a nice, special day for me. Matt doesn’t usually like to go out for Mexican food, but I often crave it. We haven’t found much good Mexican food here in Japan, but there is Mike’s Tex Mex, which I like enough. So we went there for lunch. Yum!

All I really wanted for my birthday was a Japanese cake. They are SO delicious! I asked for it to say “Happy Birthday Melissa” in Japanese on it. Matt misunderstood and got “Happy Birthday” in English and just my name in Japanese. Not even really my name. When he went into the shop and ordered it, I guess he got flustered and mispronounced my name. In Japanese it’s pronounced may-ree-s-sah, but he said may-ree-ee-sah. Instead of doubling the s, he elongated the e. So my cake said Happy Birthday Meleesa! It tasted super delicious anyway, though!

He turned 2, so for his party he had two little friends (plus parents and siblings.) It was the perfect size party and a great time with our friends!

There were lots of balloons on the ceiling and the floor. Blue, green and yellow.

There were cheese and crackers, veggies and fruits, heart-shaped cream cheese and jelly sandwiches, ants on a log, and an assortment of juices. All of Rhino’s favorite snacks. For lunch the kids made mini pizzas. Rhino really loves his cheese!

Rhino loves to color and paint, so after lunch we took out large sheets of paper. There were carefully thought-out blobs of color on one, a beautiful rainbow and mother and daughter on another, gentle strokes of light blue and yellow on a third, then Rhino’s: large marker circles and goopy smears of handfuls of finger paint.

We were going to do presents after the cake, but Rhino snuck away and tore into them without us. I heard from the other room an overjoyed “Elmo! Elmo!” as he discovered his new Elmo microwave! I couldn’t say no then, and let him open up the deluxe Mister Potato Head (40 parts I never knew about!) and tote bag of Play-Doh and accessories. The kids were all mesmerized by the microwave until we drew them away with the cake.

I wanted to make a Blue’s Clues cake because it’s his favorite show. Tanja loaned me a dog-shaped pan and I dyed the batter and the frosting blue and did my best to resemble Blue. Rhino was so overexcited as he danced in his chair and sang along to the birthday song (“happy, happy, happy, happy …”), immediately blew out both candles, and lifted one out of the cake and bit off the bottom of the candle. After we recovered the wax from his mouth, we directed him towards his slice of cake and he wolfed it down in record time!

He’d never seen a party blower before, but it didn’t take him long to figure it out. Soon enough he was blowing it so the extended end would knock his cup over, poke friends in the head, and dip into his fingerpaint (and then roll up again, and extend on the blank paper making little party blower paint marks.) We partied for about two hours and then our friends left and he crashed on the floor, with blue on his face, next to his Elmo microwave. What a party!

We drove down to Hachinohe on Wednesday to check out the fish market. We showed up and stood in front of the door, but it didn’t open. We couldn’t read any of the writing on the door. A handful of Japanese people walked right up to the automatic door like we had, looked around for a moment, and left. We finally found an employee to ask in our extremely limited Japanese. Matt managed to figure out that Wednesdays are the only days they’re closed. Woops!

We went back this morning and made it in! Jen picked out some sake. We don’t really know anything about sake, so we couldn’t help much. The decision was made based on price and how pretty the bottle is. There are some very pretty sake labels! When we last went to the fish market, Matt and I tried squid ink cake. This time Jen and Rhino tried it, too. Yum! We also had some delicious, tiny dehydrated shrimp and saw lots of cute treats. Rhino was startled by a merchant showing off his live crabs. He danced to the music playing through the building and entertained the shoppers. We have to remember to go back to do actual shopping. A lot of the fish looked so good!

Jen and I wanted to go out one night to karaoke. I’d never been, but it is a big deal here in Japan. I know of a place right outside the main gate that we decided to try. I thought it would be a bar with tables and a stage that you get up at and sing. I was definitely not going to do that, but I’d cheer Jen on! When we arrived, we found that they are private karaoke rooms. We purchased a room for an hour and some bottles of water, were given some microphones, tambourines, maracas, and a control. We poked at the buttons on the control for about ten minutes before asking for help. The attendant showed us the “English” button (which we couldn’t read!) so we could browse through all the songs and artists. Jen had some solos, we sang a bunch together, we did some Christmas songs, I actually sang a solo, and then the workers ran in and interrupted our song, grabbed all the supplies, and kicked us out at exactly 60 minutes! It was all very goofy and the room was super hot, but we had a blast! Each room has a small kiddie section with toys and books, so next time I’ll have to take Matt and the boys!

I know there are sake bars around that serve sake in a traditional way, I just have no idea where they are. Jen wanted to try some, but didn’t want to crack open her new bottle. So we went to the bar next to the karaoke place and ordered sake. They asked what flavoring and Jen chose green apple. They mixed the sake with soda and green apple syrup, which I have never seen before. I’ve only ever tried it in tiny cups and warm. I had no idea that it was served this way, too!

Even though we decided not to celebrate Halloween, I am not against a good, candy-filled party! Our church, Faith Baptist Church, puts on a harvest festival, as many churches do. Matt had to sleep, but I brought the boys so Rhino could get some fun in. It was a good mommy break for me too as I got to hand off Heron to some ladies who have missed holding a little one. And right now Heron loves strangers and didn’t seem to miss me at all!

A lot of the games at the festival were a little old for Rhino, but we adapted them so he could enjoy them. There was a “Fishers of Men” game where you had to hold a fishing rod with a hook on the end of the line and pick up tiny plastic men out of a kiddie pool. Rhino got lots of help. There was also a Jonah game where you’d put a golf ball into a whale’s mouth. Rhino got down on his tummy and placed the ball in the mouth, but I eventually got him to roll the ball. He did successfully knock down the “walls of Jericho” (stacked cardboard bricks) by throwing a tennis ball. He couldn’t use the Nerf slingshot to shoot a ball through the hole in Goliath’s head, but he did slam-dunk it in if I held him up! I didn’t even want to bother with the “Blind Bartimaeus” game where you are blindfolded and feel around in a bowl of rice for tiny safety pins. I could just imagine the mess! There was a face-painting station and Rhino looked at the sheets of clipart and pointed to the colorful train engine. He sat still the whole time while it was painted on his face and it was so cute! The last game we played was by far his favorite — the cake walk! What’s not to love? There’s music and cake, two of Rhino’s favorite things ever! We walked around a few times as I held his hand and he kept trying to walk away. Soon enough all the little kids walking around in a circle wanted to hold his hand too, so I got to sit back. He got a little bored of trotting in a circle and would break free to dance in the middle of all the numbers. Whatever he likes! We did win a cake and he picked out a white frosted cupcake and ate that while dancing for the cake-walking kids. It was a great time and went on for seven hours, but we didn’t stay nearly that long.

Afterward, we headed to the Weasel’s Den to crash a birthday party my friend Sarah had driven down for. We met some new people and Rhino had a great time eating grapes and playing! I had found Sarah’s blog a year ago and really enjoyed reading it then found out that she comes down to Misawa (from the Aomori area) once a month, so we arranged to get together. We haven’t hung out much yet, but I enjoy chatting with her when we have and look forward to her future visits. Her blog is a great read, too!

This post makes 300 blog entries here! Not that I was waiting for this magical number or anything, but I did notice it when I went to post. So the cake wasn’t really in celebration of this blog milestone; I was just baking a cake for no reason. But post #300 sounds like a better reason than just because I was hungry!

My past cakes have been pretty ordinary. Chocolate or white cake or mostly just whatever the box mix says to do and slop on some frosting. I saw this recipe at Recipezaar (my favorite recipe site!) after having some cake at the last ladies’ fellowship that sounds like it could be the same thing or close. Matt doesn’t care for coconut and has just started a diet (he thinks he’s too fat. Hah! But it’s good for him to try to eat better…) so I know I’m on my own with this cake, but I still wanted to try it out. Well, I have friends I can share with … I guess.

Rhino likes to “help” me in the kitchen lately, which I appreciate! I can’t wait to cook with him and teach him things in the kitchen. For now, he just likes to play with silverware, the refrigerator, bowls, peek inside the oven, etc. Well, yesterday he discovered the oven mitts while Nicole and I were making tacos. He put both of them on all by himself and came barreling into the living room to show off his mitts! I’m not sure if he thinks they’re puppets (which he has gotten the hang of for the most part and really enjoys!) or if he just likes to copy Mommy, but it’s very cute! So today while I had the cake in the oven, I left the oven mitts on the rug for him to play with. He put them on and walked around for quite a while, peeking in at the cake and turning to show me his hands. I love it!

Usually I pig out on the batter bowls, mixers, and spoons by myself, but there were enough bowls to share this time! I took the batter bowl and gave Rhino the pudding bowl/spatula and then the whipped cream bowl/spatula. What a lucky boy!

The cake is yellow cake, topped with a layer of crushed pineapple, then a layer of vanilla pudding, then a layer of whipped cream, then some toasted coconut. Delicious! Before layering the whipped cream, I let the cake cool for a while in the refrigerator. I guess I didn’t let it cool thoroughly enough, because when I went to take it out of the fridge and cut a piece, I noticed all the whipped cream had melted. So it’s not all tall and fluffy like it should be, but it the whole cake still tastes wonderful! Next time (ohh, there will be a next time!) I will be really patient and wait to do the whipped cream for quite a bit longer.

We have five pregnant ladies (that I know of!) at our church right now, all due within the next couple of months. Friday night we had our first baby shower. Tatjana is having a little girl (Tianna Isabelle) next month. Charren hosted this shower at her home, we had a fabulous turn-out (mostly church ladies) and a wonderful time!

We played a couple of baby shower games, such as finding the safety pins in a bowl full of uncooked rice while blind folded. We also passed around a roll of toilet paper and were told to unroll as much as we use in one day (and with four pregnant ladies present at the shower, the roll went quickly!) After we all had our toilet paper, we were told that we have to say one thing about ourselves for each square of paper we have. Tatjana definitely tore off the most and we got to hear a good deal about her life!

I brought Rhino along because Matt has to work at night and it didn’t really occur to me to leave him with one of the husbands (which pretty much everyone did.) So he was the only little kid there and is kind of distracting (especially at a 3 hour nighttime baby shower!) He was pretty well-behaved, but still very energetic and noisy! When we were all saying things about ourselves during the toilet paper game, he’d often laugh after someone gave a fact. Charren gave a nice devotional about loving your children and Rhino let a nice big burp right in the middle! A lot of the ladies got a kick out of him though, and he definitely enjoyed the attention. Heather was such a sweetheart and spent the most time with him: feeding him (that’s why they’re now best friends,) holding him, wiping jelly off his face, giving him toys, etc. He sang/whined himself down on her and almost fell asleep until he scratched his face on her necklace and came over to me. It was a nice break for me and he is really starting to get friendly with other people, thankfully!

Of course there was cake and presents. Katy made the chocolate cake with fondant and some yellow-cake cupcakes that were both delicious! This is the third cake she’s decorated and it turned out beautifully! I have a bunch of cake decorating supplies and it’s something I’ve wanted to get into, but it’s one of many things on my “to-learn” list that just hasn’t made it to the top yet. We decided we should bake up a bunch of cakes in advance and then have a day together to practice decorating!

Tatjana opened her gifts as we ate the cake. She all ready has a little boy, but this is her first girl and she received so many cute girly things! I got her some wipes, a set of Japanese-style (they tie like kimonos rather than snap) newborn clothes (onesies, sleepers, shirts, socks, etc.), and I crocheted her a little blanket. She also was given a ton of really adorable dresses, a bunch of diapers, and a neat little Japanese activity gym thing. She definitely made out with the adorable girl-loot!

The next three ladies (myself included!!) are all having boys; two of us all ready have boys. I’m told it will be one big shower for all three of us, probably just a diaper shower for the two of us who all ready have plenty of boy things. That’s fine with me (though I don’t really want/need a bunch of disposable diapers because we cloth diaper, but we’ll see!) because I just like getting together with friends (and cake!) Tatjana’s shower was actually the first baby shower I’ve attended other than my own and it was a blast!

On Saturday, Rhino and I went to a 1st birthday party for Carson and Cole, two babies at our church who were born a week apart.

Rhino had a blast playing with all the helium balloons and their strings (so did the other little kids!) We spent about an hour just watching the kids enjoying themselves before we dug in to hamburgers and hot dogs.

Charren (Cole’s mom) and Katy (Carson’s mom) had kiddie music playing: “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”, “The Wheels on the Bus”, etc. and Rhino spent a lot of time just jamming out to the songs and dancing for the guests. His favorite new moves are deep, repetitive squats with his arms straight out or waving around. The boy is going to have awesomely strong thighs!

After all the food, the boys opened their presents. I gave each of them a hand-stitched felt ball, embroidered with their name and the year. After everything was unwrapped, the kids tossed it around a lot, so I think it was a hit! I still have to finish knitting up some little bear finger puppets as a belated gift. I just couldn’t get it all finished in time!

After presents we had cake! The party was baseball-themed and the cakes were very cute (and delicious!) baseball cakes with a trophy for each boy. Carson and Cole each were given a chocolate cupcake. Cole was pretty unsure about the cupcake, would cautiously take a little nibble from his dad’s finger, and sort of complain or avoid the cupcake for the rest of the time! Carson, on the other hand, immediately picked up his cupcake by its bottom, and shoved nearly the whole thing in his mouth!

It was a great time chatting with other moms, watching the kids play (Rhino loves being around other kids now!), and getting some yummy food! Happy First Birthday, Carson and Cole!