Partying Like a 5 Year Old!

The past two days has been party central here at the Whittaker household. Yesterday was Beniah's 5th birthday which we celebrated as a family with banners, balloons, and singing galore.

Beniah kept grinning a goofy, embarrassed grin whenever he got "Happy Birthday" sung to him.

 Since Tim had to work that night, we did the majority of the gift opening in the morning after breakfast.

Beniah requested pancakes for dinner, so I made him some birthday cake pancakes from a Pinterest recipe.  Silly mama that I am could have made him some of my regular blueberry pancakes and he would have been just as happy.

Cake (made by the lovely Grandma Whittaker so that I could rest more) soon followed dinner.

Which was then followed by calls from Aunties, Uncles, and cousins.

  Proof that he was listening to your singing Auntie Jo and not just reading his book! :)

Soon, it was bedtime (much to my relief) for the next day was the highly anticipated bowling alley birthday party at Big Al's!

 There was bowling!

 We love Beniah's arm flap of excitement!

 Elijah got a spare on his first frame (with a bit of help from his Daddy) which made him SO excited 

but left him disappointed in his bowling the rest of the time.

There were friends and friends who are also cousins!

There was even more bowling!

 There was pizza and cupcakes!

There was presents!

Yeah for really cool planets that can hang from your ceiling! 

Beniah tried to convince me to hang them up before his rest time after the party. Ha! Nice try kiddo.

There was the assembling of presents with Daddy once we got home!

 There was leftover pizza for dinner (since Mama was WAY too tired to cook)!

(Apparently the Hot & Delicious Pizza made just for me was made by the Devil himself!)

Beniah had a wonderful time bowling and asked as we were getting ready to leave, "Mama, when can we come back to Big Al's?"  I'm thinking this is going to become a monthly family game day (as long as it's over before nap time.

Showers with a Chance of Picnics.

This past summer, the church that Tim and I attended had to shut it's doors, so we began looking for another church to attend and found Lifepoint. I started going to a women's Bible study on Thursday mornings and met a lady whose family quite suddenly was asked to adopt a precious baby girl. This past Saturday, some of the Bible study ladies and her family and friends threw a shower for her.  I decided to test out my cake baking and decorating skills on a new group of women.

Woops! Someone forgot the 'N' in Brooklyn.

I also got to pretend to be a photographer and took pictures of the shower.
This happens to be my favorite one of the bunch.

While I was away, Daddy was in charge. When I got home, I found Beniah having a movie rest inside a cool fort that Daddy made him.

Later, we decided to have a picnic dinner on the living room floor.

Why yes, apparently, we do allow our children to put their feet on their plates before dinner.

It was a wonderful way to end the busy day.

Happy 28th Birthday, My Dear!

To celebrate one's 28th birthday, you must have a custom cake decorated by some young bakers who would rather eat the decorations then actually help the master baker.

A darling baby niece should be invited and loved on by everyone in attendance.

When receiving gifts make sure the gift giver dances and flaps his arms while you open the gift.

 Be forewarned, now that you are 28, your cake is now becoming a ball of flame. It is fine to use your cake to warm your hands.

Although, you may need help blowing out all of your candles.

Enjoy your piecaken. 

I love you my Tim Dear! I am glad you enjoyed your day.

The Devil Decorates with Non Dairy Whipped Frosting

     This weekend, my friend is celebrating her son's 5th birthday and asked me to make her a gluten free cake.  After scouring the internet and asking my gluten free friends and family, I finally was given a chocolate peanut butter cake recipe that my sister in law and her sister in law collaborated on. The original recipe was a chocolate banana cake recipe from the Cakemix Doctor Bakes Gluten Free, but I was told that peanut butter should work in place of bananas (fingers crossed). I have to say, "Yes, it does work!" I took a sample of the cake and it was delicious. So chocolatey! So peanut buttery! I am almost jealous of those with Celiac's disease.

Since, the theme of the cake was to be based off of Cars, I bought a little red car and designed the cake to look like a race track with a ramp.

Unfortunately, it looks like a shoe with a race track on top of it.

I am proud of the ramp with the little cave underneath it.

But, oh! the horrible shoe shape to the cake.

Chelsea, you must promise to eat it with your eyes closed and enjoy the delicious, ugly cake.