Benjamin's 3rd Birthday--The Parties

We had a busy, busy weekend. It was full of cleaning and cooking and hosting. And all well-worth it. I learned that pastry chef will not be my back-up career. Not only did Mike describe my DIEGO cake as "Diego's down syndrome little brother," but I hated every minute I spent making that thing. I figure you might as well try something once, and if it's not your thing, then at least you know from there on out. Cake decorating was not my thing. I didn't like it, and I don't plan to do it again.

Mixing the colors of frosting two nights before the party. Yes, that glass of wine was incredibly necessary to get through that portion of the prep work.


This was taken after 2.5 hours of work decorating the night before the party. I had already had it, and was barely half done. Fun, fun, fun.

In the end I decided that as long as a certain 3-yr-old thought it looked relatively like Diego before he dug into it with his buddies, then I would have fulfilled his birthday wish. So I'm fine with how it turned out.






We did a "stick the badge on Diego" game










The gift opening was a free for all, with lots of help. It was super quick :)



Benj's buddy Shannon, daughter of his preschool teacher Mrs. Maxwell. Aren't they super cute?


Benj's family birthday party was the very next day, and we hosted a combination birthday party/ Mother's Day brunch. It was a nice, relaxing day with a small group of close family. The weather was gorgeous, the food was good, and the company was wonderful.







Now THIS cake was MUCH more my style. Homemade, with a hand-written "3" on it ;)





It was a great weekend. Another full and fast one, though. When, oh when, might we enjoy a weekend of *no* plans? I don't even think we'd know what to do with ourselves.

Oh, and I believe in a few days I'll be ordering myself a Mother's Day present. I've got my eye on this sweet little baby:
Persimmon....