What do you do when you can’t decide what you want your birthday theme to be, unicorns or mermaids? You have them both of course. They go together right? Well, when you’re friend is a super talented cake designed, she sure makes them look like they belong together! My little was beyond over the moon for this birthday cake.

So when it came down to the mom made cake, I didn’t even want to try to ‘compete’. We did strawberry frosted donuts with candles, which was equally as special, and she thought it was even better than cake!

Here is a little sneak peek into the goody bags. We picked up some fun goodies from Target and the Dollar Store. A fun bubble wand, some flower shaped sunnies, bubbles, glow bracelets, a beach ball, and unicorn scratch paper, all loaded into a fun sand bucket shaped like a sand castle.

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We decided not to do a big classroom birthday party this year. We opted for the big kids to come and read a story to the class and to give out these cute “party favors” instead. There is a small class, so we opted fot these Sun Squad chalk boxes with a cute home made tag saying “Thanks for making my birthday “chalk”-ful of fun! Big hit with the class, and something that the kids would go home and use! What are some of your go to goody bag ideas?

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“It’s Me, Hi, I’m The Birthday Girl!”. We are in our Taylor Swift era. So naturally, for her birthday, my daughter wanted all things Taylor. Sarah came through as usual, she does all of our cake toppers (isn’t she amazing?!?!). All I said was, Taylor Swift, sparkles, and FUN! Needless to say, this cake was a hit!

Summer birthdays are hard with friends on vacation and at camp, so we decided to hold off on a party until the fall, but for our family celebration, I made this fun cake with bright colors and fancy sprinkles.

Here is a close up of the awesome cake topper!

Topper: SHRH Designs https://www.shrhdesigns.com/

Cake sprinkles: Sprinkle Pop /https://sprinklepop.shop/

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We have been really getting into Pokemon lately. I have no idea how to play or what anything means, and I think my kids really just like the shiny cards We decided to go with a pokemon themed birthday – so I created this door decoration with a red foil fringe backdrop and taped on these pokeballs that I made on the criut.

I decorated the wall to make a photo backdrop with red, white and black paper plates and made some of them into pokeballs. Pikachu looks like he has seen better days…

For the birthday party I made these cupcakes – silver and gold foil cupcake wrappers with home made cupcakes, red sanding sugar sprinkles and topped with these pokeballs from Amazon.

As party favors for the kids, we made these pokeball shirts – the boys got red shirts with black pokeballs and the girls got red shirts with sparkle pokeballs. The pokeball on the outside was a gift tag made with my Cricut and the name tags were stickers also made and cut with the Cricut.

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My daughter is obsessed with my brother’s dog, which is perfect, because this means we never have to get our own dog. We get to have it over for a few hours, love her, play with her, and then we get to give her back. We never have to walk her, or take her to the vet – all the good things, none of the tedious things.

So obviously she wanted a dog themed birthday cake. I like to do one “professional” cake for the kids and one “mom” cake for the kids, to show them that I at least I gave it the old college try. So the cake above is one that my friend made for my daughter, a pretty close replica of “Mei Mei” the labradoodle.

Here is the mom cake. Cute in its own way if I do say so myself. Made with different sized smarties, it was cute and colorful, and decorated in under 10 minutes.

Here it is from another angle. Do you make cakes for your child’s birthdays?

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I am always on the lookout for ideas for party favors. At the end of the summer season at Target last year I picked these bubble makers up for just a couple of dollars each. I like the idea of one big party favor lately, instead of lots of little things, so this was perfect. I added on a personalized tag (made with my Cricut) to complete the look. How cute are these for our art themed birthday party?

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If you’re looking for an affordable birthday party option, Trombetta’s in Marlborough is your spot. Perfect for kids ages 5-8, they can host birthday parties of any size. You can bring your own food or have pizzas delivered from one of the local shops (Plum Tomato or Post Road Pizza). Bring your own drinks and snacks, party decorations and balloons to make the party room as fancy or as simple as you’d like.

We brought our own cupcakes (golf themed cupcakes with golf ball rings I found on Amazon) to pass out as favors at the end because we had the kids make their own sundaes at the party. At the beginning of the party, kids chose from 5 kinds of ice cream. While they golfed, Trombetta’s pre scooped the ice cream. When it was time to come back into the party room, each guest sat down to their ice cream and was able to add the toppings of their choice: candy, sprinkles, hot fudge and whipped cream.

We also made these fancy sprinkle cupcakes for those who wanted cupcakes instead of ice cream sundaes. You can bring your own cake or you can have Trombetta’s make you an ice cream cake.

When the kids were ready to go home, we passed out these gift cards as favors, $5 gift cards for them to come back and either spend on golf or get another cone for free.

Trombetta’s Farm

655 Farm Road, Marlborough, MA

https://www.trombettasfarm.com/

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Every year for the kids, I get them one “fancy” cake (read: professional), and then one cake that I make. My son has been very in to making paper airplanes, so naturally, I made him paper airplane cake toppers. I Googled some colorful maps, printed them out and carefully folded them into small planes. I glued them onto toothpicks, and viola! Simple, yet fun.

A simple two layer vanilla cake with vanilla frosting and Oreo crumbles in the middle.

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Can I be honest for a minute? The one thing I actually don’t mind about the pandemic is that birthday parties have gone away. (EEK, I admitted it!) The BIG ones, the ones where you invite the whole class, you know what I’m talking about. And if you had more than one kid, forget about free time. Our weekends used to be PACKED with birthday parties. I would have a steady supply of LEGO kits and birthday cards at the ready in our house and sometimes we would be DOUBLE BOOKED.

I kind of like having just our immediate family over (socially distant of course) in the driveway – keeping focus on what is important. My kids don’t need 8,000 presents, which they would previously rip through at lightning speed. They wouldn’t even get to enjoy what they received because there were 20 other gifts to open. I ask my parents to get them experiences, not toys. I ask family to get practical gifts like clothes, art supplies or books.

Last year, we had a friend surprise one of my kids with a Birthday parade – all the kids from class made home made signs, beeped and waved from their cars. I think that was one of the best birthdays so far! There was a lot of love that day!

Have you scaled back on birthday parties? Tell me what you’ve done to celebrate – I’d love to hear your ideas.

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Finish this sentence: “You know you’re a mom when…”

Mine is when you pick up your own birthday cake. Since this was a big birthday for me, I decided to go big or go home. That means, not just one cake, but three. And my husband came through with a cake as well, even if it was a few days late (better late than never).

Every month, Blackbird has different flavor cake in addition to the standard vanilla and chocolate. They claim that it serves 2-4 people, but in this case, I made my own suggestion that it was really a single serving! I mean, it did say “personal sized”. This one was two vanilla doughnuts with house made jam and vanilla buttercream frosting. AMAZING. I could have eaten this alone in my closet and it would have been my best birthday ever. I think I was smart enough to make a homemade cake as a decoy cake – the kids ate that one and I had this one to myself…

Blackbird Doughnuts Locations in South End, Fenway, Harvard Square, Beacon Hill, Brighton and Newton Centre

Order cakes online through the catering menu.

This is the pie of my dreams: the party pie sampler from Elm Street Sweets, a sister bakery to the Rosebud in Somerville. They hibernated over the winter, because it just wasn’t feasible to keep it open, but I’ve got my fingers crossed that it re-opens. The pie is 9″ and has two pieces of cookie dough brownie pie, two pieces of cookies n’ cream pie and two pieces of peanut butter fudge pie.

Elm Street Sweets Pickup at The Rosebud in Somerville or Posto in Bedford

Next up, New City Microcreamery in Hudson, MA. I love this ice cream cake because it actually has CAKE in it. Make sure to plan ahead if you want a customized cake, three days ahead actually. They do have pre made cakes in the freezer should you need one last minute. Choose up to two different kinds of ice cream and one “funk”. We went with the mint chip and the chocolate chip cookie dough. Cakes come in three sizes: 6, 8 or 10 inch – we went with the 6″.

New City Microcreamery 29 Main Street, Hudson, MA

I first fell in love with Milk Bar when I went to New York a million years ago. Their now called “Milk Bar Pie” is one of my all time favorites. I was also in love with their corn cookies. You used to be able to buy the mix and make them at home. The ones at the store in Harvard Square are good, they just aren’t the same as I remember. Side note, you can buy Milk Bar truffle crumb cakes at Target, and they will definitely tide your craving over. Back to the cake: 6″ will feed 8-12. Its three tiers of rainbow flecked vanilla birthday cake with birthday frosting, crunchy birthday crumbs and of course, rainbow sprinkles. My husband gets brownie points for this one!

Milk Bar Boston location at 3 Brattle Street in Cambridge but they ship!

So tell me, have you ever picked up your own birthday cake(s)?

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