Birthday Party!

On Friday night we had Cora's birthday party. Christopher was able to come up from Provo again for the party and helped us get ready. Mom helped a ton throughout the week and especially on Friday - I'm afraid we wore her out just before she went home. Mom helped us get a lot of the decorations for Cora's party and also got the pizzas for us. She was my primary helper in making the Elmo cake pops that were the main event, even though we wound up needing Ryan and CW's help too, to finish.

It's funny, I really do believe that simple parties are best for kids, but somehow I managed to keep getting ideas for this party that made it more work than I meant for it to be. The party theme was Elmo - he's one of Cora's favorite characters and the first one she was able to name.

Here's Cora reading books at her new table before the party, looking like a big 2 year old with that ponytail.
Here's Cora sitting on the pizza table. Behind her you can see the banner that Ryan and I spent an hour making the night before. I googled the pictures, printed them off, and took them to Kinko's to make transparencies (3 sheets @ $0.75/sheet). Then after institute on Thursday night Ryan and I stayed after to use the overhead projector, taped the paper to the white board, and traced the images.

Here are the Elmo cake pops - I was really happy with how they turned out, and they tasted really yummy too! I got the idea from the Bakerella blog, but instead of painstakingly drizzling candy coating to look like fur, Mom came up with the brilliant idea to use chopped dyed coconut flakes. That cut down on the time they took to make, but they were still very labor-intensive little treats. I would never have attempted them on my own but since Mom was such a good sport to help me, we went for it. I made up two cake mixes for them - one strawberry and one cherry chip. Here are some up-close shots - although it's kind of hard to see what they really look like with the wrapping already on.I gave in and let CW make a couple with frowny faces - he said it was a more appropriate emotion for Elmo to have when he's about to be eaten.Elmo fruit platter

Dessert table

Cora enjoying her cupcake. We put her #2 candle in it and had everyone sing to her. You can also see the remains of her pizza - we got it because it's usually her favorite food, but she was too distracted to eat well - she just picked off the pepperonis and ate them. (Also - pretty good shot of my belly in the background there.)

After eating we pulled down the banner and had all the kids color it. It was a fun, low-mess activity for the kids to do. (left to right, David, Tanner, Davey, Dallin, Kyleah, Breanna)

Cora's cute friend Emma enjoying her Elmo pop.

More coloring. Those bubbles on the tables were the favors for the families to take home. (kids left to right, Tanner, Dallin, Kyleah, Breanna, Savannah, David)

Cora got an Elmo pop too - lots of sugar that night.

After the party we realized we didn't have any pictures of the three of us for her birthday, so we had CW snap this in our kitchen. In all I think the party was a success! Thanks so much Mom for all your hard work helping Ryan and I pull it off. We were so happy to have Mom and CW come visit us and spend that time with Cora.