Ice-cream themed summer birthday

I have often seen child number 1 being the most angelic, most well mannered, well behaved one, while number 2 is usually an opposite. It is not because I am child number 1 but because even my children are like that.

My first born is the first born of both the families so she has always been a blue-eyed baby. Plus she is the most well mannered baby I have ever come across. It is not because she is mine, but I have always gotten compliments about her, to the extent that my friends would ask me for advise on how to get theirs as disciplined and behaved.

Of course I know no magic, number 2 and number 3 are a proof.

Number 2 was/is a loud baby (just like her mother). She is a Mini-Me. Care free, easy going, easy moving, distracted, extremely loving and super intelligent. When outside, both number 1 and number 2 are known for their manners, etiquettes and behaviour. But she likes to be a baby at times, and after number 3 even more.

She is the only summer baby in the family, so we always have greater and better chances to plan and celebrate her birthday. But for past couple years we could not. I was travelling on or around her birthday so we would just cut a cake and give presents, but then there were occasions and that too very often, when she would come to me with those puppy eyes, and huge pout and say “Am I not your daughter? Why do I never have a birthday party? Why do I not get to invite my friends? Etc etc etc”

Being the crafty mom that I am, I’m always on the look out for stuff, cheap stuff that I could use for little, unnecessary stuff. About a year back, I had seen some nice chevron and damask patterned stuff at the local craft store in the clearance section and boy it was a treasure for about 20 bucks. So I had been thinking of using that stuff towards her party; to make her happy on a budget. But it just happened, like it always does, that few days before I set the party, I happened to visit the store again. And something caught my eyes. It was a paper ice-cream cone garland, from summer stuff. I just loved the colours and put it in my trolley for a mere $2.75. That ice-cream cone garland just turned everything upside down.

I came back home and dived deep into my magic closet where I keep all the left over papers, cards, glitter, paints, glues, mod-podge, pom poms like Mr. Maker. And I came out successful. A whole bunch of goodies that were gonna keep me busy for a whole lot of days.

I made the invites out of the card stock that I had saved. Glitter, markers, paper fasteners, pom pom balls were all part of the project.

Since the weather was great, so I planned a backyard party with everything in the party to do something with summer and candy and ice-cream.

The Pizza cones: That actually matched the total ice-cream theme (Recipe here)

The Fruit Punch: Just the simple orange juice with some honey added for sweetness, and reusable plastic ice cubes

The Ice-Cream: I did not get a chance to take the picture of ice-cream itself but I used three different flavours from President’s Choice: Sprinkle Party Cake, Rainbow and Galactic Swirl (All Kosher Certified) The toppings were marshmallows, cherries, sour jelly beans, and mini m&m’s.

The Mango smoothie: A little sprinkle goes a long way, and so it did help attract the young guns to that healthy nutritious smoothie inside.

The party favours: I chose these super cute gum-ball machines, that were an instant hit with the girls. Of course there were these little fights over who wants the pink (Which obviously everybody did) but it was manageable.

The Watermelon jello: Who does not like jello? That too when it is made in a watermelon shell and looks like watermelon slices!

The cake: I had decided to go for a seven layered rainbow coloured cake with vanilla buttercream for the inside. And had two different themes in mind for the decoration. But then I left it blank, like a canvas and kept some edible decorating markers on the side so the guests and the host could decorate it themselves. It was one of the biggest hit of the party. everyone so excited as to when we were going to decorate the cake.

The girls had an amazing time decorating it. Though it was a bit difficult for them to run the markers through the soft fondant but hey, cooking and baking and decorating for them is such a fantasy right now at this age!