Two in the Evening and Underneath the Moon

We are having a big family/friends birthday party for Vada this coming weekend but we wanted to celebrate Vada's birthday on the actual day as well, so we invited Justin's parents over for dinner and cupcakes and Vada was able to open a couple of birthday gifts. 

This gift was from her Aunt Lindsey, Uncle Chris and her two cousins, Asher and Fitch.

Thanks guys! She loves this fun stacking toy!

After dinner and gifts I moved her high chair onto solid flooring and we all sang Happy Birthday to her and then handed her, her very own cupcake.

We tried to get her to blow out her candle but she was more interested in eating it than she was with the silly old candles --go figure!

It took Vada a couple of minutes to figure the cupcake out.

I think at first she didnt like the way the frosting felt on her hands. There was a few times when she tried to shake it off. 

Once she got her first taste of sweetness, there was no turning back!

She somehow made sure to get most of the cupcake and frosting into her mouth or at least around it.

Yes, some cake did make it up her nose and even on her body but like a true girl, she was very careful to not mess up her hair!

There were just too many pictures that I loved of her sweet face --no pun intended, so I couldn't choose just a couple to share...

Vada's "theme" for her birthday party is rainbows but today on her actual birthday we used gold, for her golden birthday. 

These past two years have been full of blessings. Full of love and full of growth --for all of us! I look forward to every year in our future and our journey with our children. I never thought that this would be the life I would have but I would never ask for anything else because to me, this is the greatest and it is better than I could have imagined!

Make-Your-Own Cupcake bar

 My husband's birthday was on the twelfth of November but he had to work so we were unable to really do anything to celebrate him so we held off until today. We asked one of our favorite family of friends over for dinner-- Grilled chicken, baked potatoes, steamed broccoli and salad. For desert I had set up a make-your-own cupcake bar. I baked dark chocolate fudge cake and had a small assortment of frosting and a great deal of different sprinkles to choose from. I have really enjoyed making fun cupcakes in the past like Vada's birthday cupcakes and the corn on the cob ones but since this was kind of a last minute thing I decided to not stress myself out with trying to do something like the what I have done in the past, those usually require a good deal of planning and time. Anyway, I think the make-your-own idea went over pretty smoothly. The kids enjoyed it at least and Justin and I just really enjoyed hanging out together and with our friends.

Vada's Birthday Cupcake's

I was stuck on butterflies this year and it became the "theme" for Vada's birthday. There were butterfly cupcakes, mobiles, dishes, gift bags, cards and even a Smart Trike (from Grandpa and Grandma Wilson). I like butterflies.., a lot. I think that they are beautiful and I like that they start out as a worm (of sorts) and morph into something fabulous. Still, that's not my reasoning behind the theme. Truth is, I have no reason. It's just how things seemed to work out.

Typically, Justin and his dad are the "cakesters" in the family. Justin's dad has been decorating cakes since Justin and his brother and sister was a baby. Justin started following in his dad's cake decorating footsteps once we became a family. However, I made special cakes for Jasmine and Kiliegh's first birthdays and I wanted to do something special for Vada's as well. I told Justin that I wanted to do cupcakes and that if he still wanted to make a cake that he could and should. It felt a little touchy because he does do such a wonderful job at his cakes and this was Vada first birthday, but I think that he was a bit relieved to not have that kind of pressure on his shoulders. He has been very busy lately and finding the time is not always the easiest thing to do.

I found my inspiration for Vada's cupcakes in a cookbook called Hello Cupcake. It is such a fantastic book that is filled with fun and not so difficult ideas. (I'm doing the corn on the cob cupcakes on April Fools Day for the girl..., to be playful.)

I started the chocolate wings about a week ago and spent two separate nights doing them and then I made the cupcakes themselves, last night. (I used Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge cake mix and it was by far the best tasting cake mix that I have ever used!)

Then together, Justin and I assembled the butterfly bodies onto the cupcakes themselves.



They turned out nicely and they tasted delicious!