Treats For Your Feet(s)

Is it just me, or is planning a birthday party stressful?  It doesn't matter where you have it at -- the stress is still there.  Just trying to come up with the idea or "theme" of the party throws me over the edge.  The Monkey has celebrated her birthday in the past at the local rock climbing gym, the bowling alley, the movie theater, the farm, and at our house.  Let me state right now...never again will it be at our house, at least not until she is older.  Cleaning the house, preparing the food, asking kids not to jump on your couch, cleaning up the spills....ugh.  I am all too happy to show up somewhere, and allow them to take care of that stuff.  It's such a good feeling just to hand over some money, and walk away from the mess.

This past weekend, the Monkey celebrated her birthday a week early at Toot Sweet, a local bakery, and it was great.  She invited nine of her friends to come and decorate cupcakes.  The bakery prepared the cake according to her directions.  She wanted each guest to have two vanilla and two chocolate cupcakes.  She picked up the color frosting they would use, and we chose to upgrade the party to include fondant.  The package also included a 1/4 sheet cake, which she designed.  She may be watching too many reality cooking shows, because she drew her design on a piece of paper.  We met with the baker, and they worked out the details.  The baker said she has never had a kid do that before!

Tables were lined up, and each guest were given a their own apron and hat.  Then the fun began, for the girls and for me.  I didn't have to do anything!  In fact, I sat outside and enjoyed the beautiful weather with my husband and my sister-in-law.  The bakery handles everything -- she explained what the girls were going to do, gave them directions and decorating ideas, and away they went.  They worked silently, and concentrated hard on their designs.  Once all the cakes were decorated, they were professionally boxed up and the girls got to take them home.

To put our own spin on the cupcake theme, I made sock cupcakes as party favors.  Search this idea on Pinterest, and you'll find a TON of ideas.  That's what I did.  Most tutorials will tell you to use the nice, comfy slipper socks.  I think these type of socks would be appreciated by an older girl, and not by the group of 9 year olds that attended the party.  These were pretty easy to assemble.  Here's what you need to do:

• Pair of socks (I found a 3 pack for $1 at the....dollar store)
• Tube of lip balm (I was able to find Blow Pop and Nerd flavored balm at the dollar store)
• Rubber band, or hair band
• Cupcake liner
• Tissue paper
• Ribbon

Lay the socks out, and then fold in half.  Place the lip balm at the "toe" end of the socks, and start to roll the sock from end to end.  You want the cap portion of the lip balm to show at the top of the socks, because this will act as the "cherry" on top.  Use the rubber band or hair band to secure the socks, and place in a cupcake liner.  I think that if you use the slipper socks, you won't have the gap that I had between the liners and the socks.  To help hide that gap, I used tissue paper.  I placed a small amount of paper around the "cupcake", and tied it with the ribbon.  Then I placed it in the liner.  Presto!  All done.

We also gave out some homemade hair bows, that had cupcakes on them.  I've been in a bow making mood recently, and the Monkey has been watching.  These bows were all her idea, and in fact, she made them (with a little help from me).  The cupcakes are actually buttons we found in the sewing section of the craft store.

One part of the birthday celebration now...another to go.  Her birthday is next week, so now we need to plan on her treats for her classmates.  Her request?  It has to be something we haven't done before.  Time to put on my thinking cap!

Until next time....