Happy 2nd Birthday Madison!!!
We had a great time, one of our neighbors and a few friends from school came over to help Maddie celebrate The kids had a blast! Of course we brought out the jumper, but I think the big hit was the tote full of shovels, pails and oatmeal! It was a good thing I put a tablecloth down because by the end of the day oatmeal was all over the deck. Madison had a "Cars" birthday. She loves the movie "Cars" and every morning asks for milk in her "Cars" Sippy cup. She even wore her "Mater" t-shirt for the party. She enjoyed eating mom's homemade cake that was allergen free. One of our friends has a dairy allergy, so Jo Ellen passed on an allergen free cake recipe that turned out great. Mom is so proud of her cake (although she had to race to finish the decorating because she underestimated the time it would take to decorate). Mom even made dairy free buttercream flavor frosting. Sounds gross, but it was yummy. (I've put a few more pics of the cake on the next posting. Another hit at the party was the the balloon rocket, that blew up these long balloons, you don't tie them, but let them go & they make a funny sound as they buzz around the room. The kids (and parents) got a kick out of it. Thank you to everyone who called and sent presents. It really meant a lot to us, since we couldn't have family here. We are very thankful to have met the children of some of Maddie's little friends. They were all wonderful people and we hope to spend more time getting to know them!
I decided this year to make my own cake, partly because I ran out of time to order a cake and I wanted to try it. I have fond memories of watching my mom decorate these beautiful cakes as we were growing up. Unfortunately, I didn't have much time to decorate more detail, buy I worked quickly to at least make it partly look like Lightning McQueen. Everyone liked the cake, except Tyler who said "Mom, that doesn't look like Lightning McQueen!" Brutal honesty - gotta love it! Thanks to my mom for the recommendation of using Oreos for wheels - we're all really enjoying the Oreos now since we had to buy a full package only to use 4 for the cake! It's a real treat for the kids and I since I rarely buy cookies.
