Nugget and Doodle's 4th and 2nd Birthday Party!

What a great weekend!  The kids are passed out and I am about ready to drop myself!  Brent's getting on a plane so the craziness continues, but we had a great time celebrating the nugget's 4th and the doodle's 2nd birthday.  Their actual birthdays are only a few weeks apart, and given everything we've had going on, we decided to combine their parties this year.  

Grandma and Grandpa came down from Missouri, and their cousin George and 6 week old cousin Penelope made the crazy road trip too.  The kids had never really met while old enough to remember so this was a lot of fun to see them together.

The theme of the party was bugs and butterflies!  I had so many fun buggy activities planned for the kids that we didn't even get to.  We got a barbecue spread from a restaurant just down the road, but for snacks and apps, the kids dined on butterfly fruit, ants on logs, and oreo dirt and worm cups.  Mammy and P may have kept the mai tais flowing as well, but who are you to judge our drunken toddler birthday parties!  :)  Before anyone calls social services, as you can see in the background here, it was a strict choice of milk or water for the kiddos.

The cake was time consuming, as usual, and I'm totally my worst critic.  Brent said it's my best cake(s) yet, but through my lens, I see the rush and poor execution.  In all fairness, I make a fancy cake once a year (twice if the kids have their own parties) so it's not like I roll fondant on a daily basis.  

Anyway, here is the cake in progress.  I made the doodle a chocolate butterfly cake with buttercream frosting and filling covered in homemade fondant.  And the nugget got a confetti caterpillar cake also with buttercream and fondant.  

To get the butterfly shape, I just cut a round cake in half and then cut two rounded notches and aligned the curved sides together.  Like so...

Here's a picture of it dirty-iced with buttercream, and you'll notice little teal stains on it.  That was my oopsie with teal fondant that I never should have attempted to lay on the cake.  The teal batch just wasn't right and I knew it but tried it anyway, and so it goes.  So I went with white instead.  

Butterfly fondant take 2!  (white this time)  The picture is deceiving.  This a 24" piece of fondant rolled out!

And voila!  

And for the caterpillar, I used the Wilton Mini Ball pan and stacked them to make full spheres instead of halves.  They look like frosting burgers.  :)

And dirty iced.  These balls weren't thrilled about keeping their shape with the weight of the frosting and fondant!

So it was about at this point when the cleaning ladies arrived and my kitchen was a disaster, so I stepped on the gas and didn't take pictures of each step.  Sorry!  

Here's how they turned out.

And let's talk about fashion!!  All the guests were good sports sporting their neon buggy headbands, and the birthday boy and birthday girl looked smashing in their neons as well, especially the doodle's toenails! I was pleasantly surprised with piggy paint, by the way.  It's all natural, so I was shocked at how vibrant the colors went on and the selection of colors in general!  The headbands just have pipe cleaners bent and twisted with little fuzzy pom poms hot glued on.  :)

The kids (big and small) kept busy outside catching butterflies, or dragonflies as the case may be, and flying their kites!

Aww, quick hug break.  :)

 

The kids had so much fun opening all their great presents.  Nugget's remote control airplane was a hit, and the doodle got lots of shoes that she alternated wearing the rest of the night.  I was psyched they got the Frozen DVD that we've already watched this morning, and some special gifts made with love from Grandma...

and from Auntie Cindy...

and of course the gift I already regret giving...

We thought we had it locked in 1st gear mode for them to get the hang of it, but they figured out how to lay the hammer down.  Throwing your body in front of them at 2mph is a no brainer when they're headed somewhere they shouldn't be headed.  5mph was less pleasant for us human land-buoys.   The belly laughs were worth it I suppose, but I'm pretty sure we haven't seen the last casualty from this thing.  George was the first victim, falling out of the back when they stepped on the gas.  He got back in it though - it was that much fun I guess!  Really must teach the nugget how to drive with his tongue in his mouth.  :)


We didn't get to do our (plastic) bug hunt complete with bug investigation kit and magnifying glass or all the various buggy craft projects I had prepared for the little ones, but it's only because they were so busy having fun in other ways!  All in all a great birthday, and a great time with some of our favorite people.

Happy birthday nugget and doodle.  I love you to the moon and back!