Living the Minivan Dream: Happy FIRST Birthday, Baby Alyssa!

We went home to Louisiana last weekend to celebrate Alyssa's birthday with our family & friends. Saturday (party day) started out a little rocky. I was working on the cake pops while Blake went to the store to pick up the cupcakes I ordered & have balloons blown up also. Well, I had baked the cake Friday night so there would be one less thing to do on Saturday. That morning I crumbled the cake & added the frosting to it. Last time I made the cake pops (my trial run) I thought there needed to be more frosting, so I added a bit more. Boy was that a mistake! The balls kept falling off the stick each time I submerged them in the chocolate coating! They were just too moist from the extra frosting I added. We managed to get about a dozen decent pops.

These cute cookies were our party favors. I didn't make them, but think I may try to do something like this one day.

When Blake got back from the store all of the balloons were popping. The store clerk filled them with too much helium. We ended up with about 6 red balloons out of 20! The cupcakes were totally wrong too. I ordered the cupcake cake to be shaped like the number 1, white cake, white frosting, red writing. The cupcakes had yellow frosting, pink writing, sprinkles & curly ribbon. Really? Yes, really! I called and talked to the bakery & the lady said bring it back & they would have the correct order ready. I asked her who orders yellow frosting with pink writing anyway & she said that's what it looks like in the picture showing what cakes they offer. I let her know that I've never seen the picture & the order was placed by phone, so not quite sure how that mistake happened. Oh well, they fixed it promptly. Luckily, the rest of the day went smoothly.

Alyssa opened presents!

Next it was time for cupcakes! I made the cupcake toppers using a Mickey Mouse head printed on card stock, ribbon, glue gun & Starbucks coffee stirrers. Guess I should have made the cupcakes too!