PARTY Time!

We celebrated Zach's birthday yesterday with Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Kay and Uncle Bo. The weather was perfect -- sunny, breezy and not too hot -- so we got to eat outside, one of Zach's favorite things to do. We had hotdogs, hamburgers, and brats for lunch, along with a delicious sweet potato salad and guacamole that Uncle Bo made. He is the best cook! Thanks, Uncle Bo!



Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Kay and Uncle Bo spoiled Zach with way too many nice gifts: a kite, lantern, sleeping bag, clothes, books, and an outdoor sink, complete with running water.






Zach had a Spider Man ice cream cake and...

Making a wish

...hamburgers and French fries?!*

Mmmmmmmm

We had a so much fun yesterday.

Even the dogs enjoyed the day...

Thanks, everyone, for making Zach's fourth birthday his best yet!

*Credit for these oh so cute hamburger cupcakes and French fries goes to Bakerella and her fabulous blog here. She has complete instructions and templates for the baskets, fry boxes, and liners. If you're thinking of making these, here are a few tips I discovered to go along with Bakerella's directions:

• In a Word document, I typed the fry box wording exactly as I wanted it to appear, printed it, cut it out, and taped it to the template. Then I copied the template onto vellum.
• Tracing paper wouldn't go through my printer without tearing, so I used vellum for the liners.
• I baked everything, plus printed and assembled the baskets, boxes, and liners in one day. What was I thinking?! Better to spread the tasks, especially the printing and assembly, over a few days.
• Its helpful to bake the cupcakes, brownies, and cookies the day before decorating so everything's cool and easier to cut.
• I thought it'd be really cute and tasty to have those little white paper cups like those in fast food restaurants filled with frosting ketchup for the French fries, but I couldn't find the cups at any of our stores -- a drawback of small town living. I tried to talk Craig into taking the boys to lunch at Wendy's and swiping a dozen, but he didn't think that was such a good idea. Ok, ok, I'm kidding about swiping them.
• I used boxed mixes (gasp!) for the cupcakes and brownies, prepared dough for the cookies, and canned frosting. If/when I make these again, I'd probably make buttercream frosting so I could control the consistency.
• I discovered -- after doing the ketchup and mustard frosting -- that its easier to decorate with refrigerated frosting.
• Same goes for the cookie dough. After rolling, cutting it in to fries, and trying unsuccessfully to remove every other fry, I put it in the freezer for a little while, then followed Bakerella's directions.