101 cupcakes

I've learned my lesson. Well, I should say, I've learned a lesson. Each daughter starts discussing her birthday cake whenever I make a cake and I used to go with that idea and start planning...until she changes her mind and gives me the newer, more wonderful idea. My younger girl even goes so far as to draw me a picture of what she wants which is different each time she designs it. Her birthday is in the fall and she's currently decided on Smurfs. I'll be shocked if I actually blog a smurf cake in a few months. After 50 ideas and "I've decided on what I really really want" statements, I was thrilled when my older daughter decided on a 101 Dalmatians birthday party. A month before her birthday she made her decision and I figured by then it was safe to start planning the party.

It was a movie night slumber party with only a few girls and she had to have the cartoon version to watch projected on the wall with theater popcorn, candy and other theater fare. What made me the most thrilled was that I knew it would be an easy cake (and pretty easy party too). A small cake, a dog on top, a few spots.  Only when it came down to it, I couldn't just make it easy, could I? No, of course not. No, no, no, I just had to go and add cupcakes, didn't I? And what's 101 Dalmatians without Cruella? She's my favorite.

Did I mention that she's my favorite?

Happy Birthday, Sweetness! It's been an incredible 8 years!

40 doesn't really suck THAT much

Since he was a mere 25 years old, my husband has been saying with a groan, "I'm getting old."
I used to laugh at and contradict him. Now I get to finally say, "Yes. Yes, you are."

This past May he turned 40. I think he's learning how young 25 really was. In another 15 years, he'll figure out how young 40 was. And then in another...well, you get the idea.

He didn't want a big party because, well, he's kind of an introvert, but did I let his little old opinion stop me? Of course not! Because I am most definitely not an introvert and this party was all about me anyway.

Feeling not-so-creative, I went for the "40 sucks" theme and it was pretty darn fun to do. Enough of me rambling about how lucky I am to have the best husband in the world (oh, did I not mention that before?), here's what it looked like!

First, the invitations: "you're invited to help make Mark's 40th birthday not so sucky..." blah blah blah.

For dinner, I did a taco bar which turned out to be quite amazing with the help of my sister-in-law’s guacamole and fresh pico de gallo and my mom making sure the serving dishes were replenished. Yes, there were lots of little things to do and cut up and serve, but it was all done ahead of time, so I could just enjoy the party and not make the birthday boy get stuck at the grill all night. I even had my meltdown a few days earlier, so I got that part of hosting out of the way before the party started too. I will not post pictures of food, especially Mexican food, because pictures of food always look like pictures of partially digested food.

The decorations were suckers. Oh so clever, right? I stole the idea from my friend and, well, hundreds of other party throwers who posted the same idea online.

The challenge of cooking for a big group was nothing compared to the stress I caused myself over the cake.  I wanted to make something amazing for him because he always gets the “oh, crap! I need to make a cake, don’t  I?” cake. I wanted something that looked like it sucked, but that didn’t actually suck, so I chose a sucky day at the golf course. Little did I know that I needed an engineering degree just to build the stand for the leaning tower of cake. Please, be impressed.

                                                                               Oh yes, I did.          

It was a fun party with lots of friends and family. I'm happy to be married to a much, MUCH older man.

Isn't he pretty hot for an old guy?

oh, and this happened... 

thankfully not until cake was being served.