Birthday Party Round 2.

As the kids get older, I am getting slightly braver about having birthday parties with their friends. I don't know if it's just an Orange County thing, or the people we run with, but parties around here can easily become a kid's 30 nearest and dearest friends, and since it's on the weekend and the kids are small, both of their parents and older and younger siblings. I am not prepared for 100+ people at my house, and am too cheap to shell out a couple of hundred bucks to rent a space at one of the indoor playgrounds that they have around here. GET USED TO HOME SEWN PARTIES, CHILDREN!

Last year we did a mommy-daughter painting party with five friends, this year we had six families over and did a Nerdy Nummies themed party. Nerdy Nummies is a YouTube show by this darling woman Rosanna Pansino, who makes cakes and cupcakes and cookies and decorates them with various "nerdy" themes. We found her when Ellie wanted to watch Frozen, before it was available on DVD, because Ro and her sister Mo were making Elsa and Anna doll cakes. And so, Ellie's love was born. Ro came out with a cookbook last year, and Ellie got to meet her at the Barnes and Noble in Orange while she was on her book tour. She remains a family favorite even though up until this week, we'd never made anything out of the cook book. The actual baking isn't hard, but she does some really intricate decorating, which is beyond my skills given the fact that my sous chefs are still working on their fine motor skills, and I don't believe in fondant.

Ellie helped me make the chocolate cupcakes (which we were going to decorate as "galaxy cupcakes" and the ever popular unicorn poop cookies. First we watched Ro, and then the kids got down to business. They loved it! We gave everyone a plop of each color of cookie dough, and while the adults made a lot of jokes about "getting your poop together" the kids rolled their unicorn droppings into delicious, beautiful creations.

While the cookies baked, we brought out the cupcakes and the frosting (which I put into piping bags with different tips, because sometimes I like to be fancy) and the kids frosted and sprinkled their cupcakes into oblivion.

And because the kids already had cake on their plates, we grabbed a candle and sang happy birthday to our girl. It was rather convenient to feed the kids cake right off the bat. It certainly saved me time listening to my children whine about when cake will be served.

I also caved and got a pinata for something else to do, because I realized oh man, the kids are probably going to spend a max of a half hour decorating, what will I do with them until it's time to order pizza? Answer, let them smash an unassuming butterfly with a baseball bat. I am generally not that into pinatas because the small kids can't open it and everyone seems to get frustrated, so I was sure to buy one with the ribbon escape hatch. Each kid got a turn, and then I said we'd let Ellie go once more and then all pull a ribbon, but lo and behold, to her great delight, ELLIE SMASHED THE PINATA OPEN!

Butterfly, we hardly knew ye.

Then it turned into a regular Saturday night at our house when friends are over. The adults poured cocktails, the kids played outside between a few quiet moments of watching Ro

And then we finished the night with a pizza picnic and a great dance party.

She's an enthusiastic singer AND dancer. Thank goodness we had nothing planned for today - I don't have anything left, so we've been vegging out and finishing the leftover pizza. Sunday of Champions!