Birthday Bash Bonanza

Adrien turned 3 last Tuesday. On Cinco de Mayo. I can’t believe he’s already 3 years old! Wow.

This past week was a cacauphony of birthday madness; a jumble with cupcakes, gum paste, parties and little time to rest. Tuesday afternoon, Andi met us at the park for a picnic lunch in honor of Adrien’s birthday. We had sandwiches and whatnot and Adrien got to open his presents from us. We got him a scooter, a new train to go with his Thomas set, and some Hot Wheels. I let Adrien ride his scooter at the park for a good hour. It was so hot!

Tuesday night we took Adrien out to eat for his birthday at Texas Roadhouse. It was as much for Andi and I as it was him, but it was fun, nonetheless. They bring out this saddle for the birthday kiddo to ride. We had him all decked out in his cowboy shirt and cowboy boots. I even made a little cake ahead of time that we had the kitchen staff keep in the fridge, and bring out when they sang to him. I’m not saying they’ll do this for everyone; Andi’s brother is the kitchen manager.

It was a lot of fun. A bonus was that on Tuesday nights, kids eat free at Roadhouse…pretty nice since Adrien didn’t really touch a thing on his plate. That cake was last minute…and I got to play with the gumpaste I’d bought for another upcoming birthday celebration.

Friday evening we had a party for his friends. It was pirate themed. I really liked the place we had the party, but the online pictures looked quite a bit bigger than the space actually was. It was fun though. Here are the cupcakes I made for the pirate theme. They’re chocolate with black chocolate butter cream icing. They were pirate-licious! Arrrrgh.

Saturday’s party was for family. Originally, I’d had it in my head that I’d be making this wonderous 3 tier monster truck cake. A week before the party, Adrien decided he wanted a fire truck cake. Overwhelmed but willing to oblige, I scoured the web for the cutest. There were some pretty grotesque renditions of fire engine cakes on the web, and I decided against attempting a big fire engine shaped cake. So cupcakes it would be. Again. I found these on Sara Bakes Cakes. (She’s got a great cake and cupcake blog, btw! So go! Visit! Drool!) In total, it took three days to make all the gumpaste fire trucks, but it was well worth it. Although they’re not as wonderfully perfect as Sara’s, they were still cute! They turned out just the way I wanted, and Adrien was pleased for sure. Everyone oohed and ahhed…it was nice. These were red velvet cupcakes with lemon cream icing.

So the week was just crazy. Why so much fuss for a third birthday? I don’t know. Because I can. I didn’t go as crazy as the celebs do for their kids. It’s his only third birthday he’ll ever have. Why not? Julie, over at Angry Julie Monday (love to lurk that blog, btw!), wrote about a birthday party she attended, whereby the kid’s mom spent $300 for the cake. I didn’t even spend that much on my wedding cake (my mother in law made it, and that’s another story all together). But really. It was an awesome! cake. But I’m just the do-it-yourselfer type. But check out the story over there. What do you guys think of all the birthday hooplah?

I remember generic cakes and ice cream when I was a kid. Now there have to themes and favors and elaborate cakes, oh my!