Friday Follow – Party Time!

I stumbled across a blog recently called 5 Minutes For Mom, which is based on the premise that every mom can take five minutes for themselves to relax, read relevant content, and connect with other moms out there in the blogging world. They’re hosting the Ultimate Blog Party, which starts today! All week long there are chances to win prizes, but also to get to know other blogs and bloggers. I think it sounds like a great idea, and decided to take part. I’m even hosting a giveaway over there, so be sure and look for my item!

For those of you that are stopping by for the first time as a part of UBP10, my name is Christi. I’m 28, a Christian, and am raising two boys with my (amazing) husband in west Texas. One of my sons, J, is 2 1/2, and C will be one year old NEXT WEEK! I’ve blogged for almost three years on a private blog for our families – mostly posting photos, videos, and all the details grandparents love to read about. My mom encouraged me to start another blog, and I finally decided to take the plunge. I initially started this blog with the idea of writing about my attempts at being frugal, and that’s still at the core, but I also write about things I love to do, experiences in parenting, and whatever else is important to me at the moment.

In the spirit of the Blog Party, I thought I’d share a little about plans for C’s upcoming birthday party. First, the theme: cars & trucks. That was pretty easy to decide, since they’re things C plays with all the time (and, let’s be honest, it also came down to finding a theme we hadn’t used for J’s birthdays). Next up: invitations. Here’s the final product – minus a few key details. ;)

Now, can I make a confession? We still haven’t mailed them out yet. Tomorrow… hopefully!

I’ll make the cake, and am planning to attempt a 3D car. Nothing fancy, but I’m hoping to carve a convincing shape – partially to save money and avoid buying a pan that we’ll likely use just once, but also because I think it’ll be fun. Brian and I like to work on cakes together, so it’ll be a team effort, I’m sure. Making our own cakes is a tradition in our family – here are some of the cakes we’ve done over the years:

This iPod cake is the first one we made after getting married. We kept it pretty simple – we didn’t do any carving, and I think we pressed bowls into the icing to use as a template for the wheel.

An (out-of-proportion) NES controller was next. This was our first foray into using fondant. We haven’t used it since, actually, not to say that we won’t again in the future. I don’t care for the taste, but there are so many adorable things you can do with it.

Next came a cake that most of you will look at and wonder, “What the heck is THAT?” Brian is, if you couldn’t tell from the NES cake, a pretty big gamer. The next cake is modeled after a game he played called Katamari Damacy. This one was a lot of fun to make – we baked it in a metal bowl to get the half-sphere shape, and used peach rings and Dots to aid in the decor.

I wrote last month about the most recent cake for Brian’s birthday. Now, we’ve done cakes for my birthday too – I just don’t have photos most of them! Here’s a minimalist cake Brian made and decorated all on his own for my 27th birthday:

One last cake – well two, really. Here are J’s cake & smash cake I made for his first birthday:

I just realized I haven’t figured out what to make for C’s smash cake – if the “big” cake is a car, what should the smash cake be? Ideas are welcomed.

For decor we’ll probably keep it pretty simple. I like to use solid bright-colored table cloths, plates, napkins, and cups. We’ll make a banner with cars and trucks on it, and I plan to fill a big hurricane vase with some of the MANY cars we have in our house – gotta love free decor, right?

I’m sure the closer we get to the party, the more details we’ll think of – and I’ll be sure to post photos afterward. In the meantime go check out the Ultimate Blog Party and Friday Follow, and have a wonderful day – the weekend is upon us!

Edited to add – part of my participation in UBP10 is to list some prizes that I’d like to win, from the HUGE list of those to be given away. I kind of felt like I was window shopping as I looked through the list! There are so many great prizes… here are my top five favorites (besides mine, haha… I’m US32, by the way!):

• US39: Be My Guest certificate, good for a 2 night stay for a family of four, at any Hilton Garden Inn, provided by Hilton Garden Inn and Bloggin2Noggin.

• USC17: A $200 Apple gift certificate, provided by CmomGo. We’re big Apple geeks!

• USC39: A $50 PayPal cash prize, provided by MomDot.

• USC8: A $55 e-gift card to Amazon.com, provided by Kelly’s Lucky You.

• US74: $30 Amazon gift card, provided by AFullCup.com (What can I say? I love Amazon!)