Birthday Splash!

One of the nice things about having a birthday during the summer months is you can have a pool party!!  Which is one of the easiest for whom ever is planning it (me!).  But one of the drawbacks of having a summer birthday is having to have a pool party!  Poor Lucy, the last 2 birthday parties have been pool parties.  Lilly would LOVE to have a pool party for her birthday, but until we find a heated pool, I don't think she will have many takers for a dip in the pool in November.  Sure there are a few pools in the area that are "heated", but I am talking about some serious warm water here people, not just a few measly degrees above ambient.  So that being said, Lucy had a pool party for her birthday.  She requested a mermaid cake and I was hoping that since her Aunt Gigi had obliged her that I would be off the hook.  No such luck!  Last year she wanted a simple two tiered affair in pink and this year she said she wanted the same cake, but blue and with a mermaid on top.  OK, even I can handle that. 

I made some purple sea life candy to put around the bottom of the smaller layer.  My kids love the candy molds.  They are constantly asking me to make something (anything) with them.  I have even made shaped ice just to get them off my back.  SLACKER!! I tried to do the blue wave around the cake in frosting, but was not able to pull it off.  Luckily I found a bulletin board border.  It looks soooo much better than what I did. Easy peasy thus far.

I decided that I would do some cupcakes too because I wasn't sure exactly how many people were going to show and I didn't want to be short.  I found a really cool picture of some cupcakes that had used gum paste to make sea creatures.  Gum paste is like play dough that you can eat, so I figured how hard can it be right?!  Surprise surprise it wasn't hard at all!  This cake request is quickly becoming my favorite!

In case you can't tell: we have a fish, octopus, red crab, whale starfish and jellyfish.  There was quite a bit of interest in these while I was making them.  More so from Jim than the kids.  I told him that if he even THOUGHT about sneaking one of them he would draw back a nub!  hee hee.

OK, so the cake/cup cakes were handled.  The main attraction would be the pool, so I gathered up some pool toys and noodles and figured as long as I had more than just one of each I was good.  Lucy requested a pinata.  What is it with children and pinatas?  We have had to have one at every party!  Personally I like the ones with the pull strings, but Jim makes fun of them so badly and usually the strings don't work quite as well as a bat, so the search was on for one that went with our theme.  I figured that I had quite a few choices to work with but Lucy decided on a mermaid one.  I searched and searched - nothing!  I found a cute beach ball one, but it was received with a wrinkled nose and "I said mermaid mommy"!  FINE!  I found one on amazon for $15.00.  I would have paid twice that amount to never see the wrinkled nose face again. 

As you can see she is string-less.  Jim was quick to find a Nerf bat to use.  Almost too quick!  I must admit it was fun to see the kids take swings at the mermaid. The payoff was especially rewarding.  She really took a beating, but a well aimed whack all that was needed to crack her open.  More importantly no one was injured.  My fear was the whacking would get out of hand and the kids in line would get whacked on the back swing and the mermaid on the front.  Here is Lilly mid-whack!

Another problem with having a summer birthday is trying to keep the cake and ice cream from melting.  We were not able to solve this problem.  The ice cream was more like a cup of milkshake.  I tried to sell it to the kids as such, but they just sat there trying to slurp it from their spoons.  Not the most adaptive bunch - ha ha ha.  Check out the cupcake Ben was eating.  Notice the icing is basically running off the top.  Good thing I took pictures before we left the house.

It was quick and mostly painless just like parties should be so a success in my book!  This picture seems to capture what Lucy thought of her party.

She looks pretty tickled to me!  What more can a mother ask for right?  Only 3 months before we have to do it again for Lilly.  What will happen when our kids figure out that most people only celebrate their birthday on the actual day of their birth instead of the month.  Don't think I want to be around for that!