Star Wars Birthday Party

Trevor has been having great fun taking cake decorating classes for the past 18 months or so.  So when he suggested having his birthday party at Every Baking Moment, I was totally on board. Not only would it be a lot of fun, it would be much easier than hosting a party at home like we usually do.  This year, Trevor's birthday fell on the same day as our Cub Scout Pack's Bridging Ceremony and BBQ, which meant that we wouldn't even be home most of the day to prepare for the party.  Plus, an indoor party meant not having to worry about the weather.  Last year's Angry Birds party was over 100°, which meant last-minute changes to move as much as possible indoors.  Three years ago, we had to move our Zoo Party indoors because of rain!  

We arrived at the bakery about 30 minutes ahead of our guests to set up.

As the kids arrived, Trevor invited them each over to a craft table to decorate a white bag to hold their goodies.

When everyone had arrived, Janis taught them how to pipe frosting, roll fondant, and decorate their cakes to look just like Yoda.

The kids went right to work.  Such concentration! 

As each child finished, Steve took their picture individually with their cakes.  They all turned out so well!  Here's the birthday boy with his Yoda cake.

Here's a closer look at Trevor's cake.

After having their picture taken, the kids headed back to the craft table.  I'd prepared a packet of Star Wars activities (word search, complete the drawing, maze, etc) from activities I found at starwars.com.  This kept everyone engaged while waiting for the slower decorators.

I moved the Yoda cakes off to a side table where they'd be safe.  They looked so cute all lined up!

Next, we played Star Wars trivia, using questions from starwars.com.  Since not all of Trevor's friends are into Star Wars (just like his mother), the kids worked together as one big team to earn points.  After I asked a question, they had to discuss it amongst themselves and come up with an answer.  If they got the correct answer without hearing the multiple choice possibilities, they earned 2 points.  If they needed to hear the multiple choice, then a correct answer was worth 1 point.

For the next game, I led the kids over to a display of random Star Wars related items that Trevor owns.  I gave the kids two minutes to work together to memorize the items.

Then I lined them up with their backs to the items and had them list as many as they could remember.  As before, they worked as a team rather than against each other.  I told them that the number of items that went in their goodie bags would depend on how many points they earned as a group.  (Of course, no matter how many points they earned, that would have been the magic number required to each receive all 4 prizes.)  Look at them struggle to remember the final few items!

Finally, it was time for cake.  Not the Yoda cakes- they took those home as party favors so their families could see and enjoy them.  Instead, I introduced Trevor and his friends to one of my beloved traditions from childhood - the Money Cake (more about this tomorrow).  I gave each child their initial in chocolate to mark their lucky piece.

Trevor blew out his candle....

... and then everyone dug in.

Finally, it was time for presents.

And last, a group picture.

Thanks to all who helped celebrate and make it a wonderful day.  Happy 8th birthday, Trevor!

Taste the Red, White, & Blue!

What a crazy few days we've had!  I'm home from two busy days of judging at a county fair (more on that later) immediately following Trevor's party, and we've jumped right into swim lessons, doctor appointments, and a bunch of other stuff.  I still need to go through all my photos to put together a post about the Star Wars party.  In the meantime, here's a prewritten post about one of our county fair entries.

...

When Trevor and I were looking through the county fair guidebooks planning our entries, a kids' poster contest at the Alameda County Fair caught our eye.  The requirements were simple: create a poster about the fair theme of "Taste the Red, White & Blue!"  I was bummed that there wasn't an adult division, but signed Trevor up to enter.  Even though I couldn't enter it, I decided to make one anyway. Trevor and I sat down at separate ends of the table and brainstormed our ideas.

Trevor sketched out a band playing, with dozens of people sitting in the bleachers watching, each eating a red, white or blue food.  He had music notes drifting up and the Alameda County Fair logo in the corner.  Very cool!  He colored it with Prismacolor markers, color pencils, and Sharpies, then added Stickles to make the words stand out.  He really wanted to put black washi tape around the edges to mat it, but he hadn't left enough of a margin to do so.  Other than that, he was really happy with how his poster turned out.

I went a completely different route with my poster.  I kept it extremely simple, with the theme across the top and fair foods across the bottom.  After coloring everything with Prismacolor markers and adding Stickles to the words, I added a variety of media to each food to make it dimensional.  I put Glossy Accents on top of the red candy apple, which added an awesome shine.  I put Enamel Accents on the soft-serve vanilla cone.  I added Distress Ice Stickles to the blue raspberry sno-cone, which looked exactly like ice crystals.  Finally, I took Trevor's idea and added a black washi border.  I love it in real life.  The scan doesn't do it justice.  Oh well!

Here's a closer look at each element:

We'll be visiting the fair later this month so we can see how Trevor's poster did for his age bracket! Can't wait!  I seriously love the fair.

Belt Loop Progress

In his two years as a Cub Scout, Trevor has earned 23 Belt Loops. That's at least a dozen more than fit on his belt, so rather than wear some and not others, he stores them on the Belt Loop Display that he made. Each time he receives a new Belt Loop, he brings the display down and rearranges them all.

Sometimes he sorts by color, sometimes alphabetically, and sometimes by a method known only to him.  

I have no idea what his organizational system was for this, but I'm sure there was one.

Trevor, like most Cub Scouts, is highly motivated by Belt Loops. He enjoys the activities to earn them and loves collecting them and showing them off. I recently told him that the Belt Loop (Academic and Sports) Program will be discontinued in May 2015. (You can hear about changes to the Cub Scout program on the June 2014 CubCast.) Trevor was, understandably, really disappointed to hear this. Even though the activities will be incorporated into the ranks, he still wanted to continue to earn the Belt Loops and complete his collection. Once he learned that he has only one year more to earn the rest instead of the three years he thought, he told me that he wants to work really hard now to earn the rest before it's too late.

So we made a chart. We listed all the subject areas, Academics on the left and Sports on the right. For each, there is a space for Belt Loop and Pin. Trevor started with an orange pen to color in the Belt Loops he earned during his Tiger (1st grade) year. Then he used a yellow pen to color in the Belt Loops and Pins he earned during his Wolf (2nd grade) year. He'll use light blue, the color of the Bear rank, to fill in any of the remaining Belt Loops and Pins he earned during this upcoming year.

Once our chart was complete, we went through the Academic and Sports Program manual carefully, seeing what Trevor will have to do during the upcoming year to meet his goal. It's going to be challenging, REALLY challenging, but I think it might be doable if he is actually committed. He'll be earning a handful this summer from the two camps he's attending, plus his Den Leader has said that she's planning for the boys to work on several as well, so that will help. Stay tuned!

Product Review - Groovebook

Happy Monday! I am currently out of town judging at a county fair after a fun-filled, incredibly busy birthday weekend. I'll be sharing photos from Trevor's Star Wars party later in the week. In the meantime, I thought I'd do a review of the Groovebook that arrived too late for me to use during Scrapbook Improv at Lain Ehmann's Creative Live workshop.

As you might recall, those of us in the studio audience were given a free code to order a 100-photo Groovebook for use in Lain's workshop. Once my photos were on the Groovebook app, ordering my first Groovebook was a piece of cake. I waited for it to arrive. And waited. And waited. I didn't start worrying until 15 days had passed. Why was it taking so long?! When I learned that Groovebook ships out of Los Angeles, I was even more confused. Shouldn't it take 2-3 days, a week tops, for something to get from the Los Angeles area to the San Francisco area? I read somewhere that they ship via USPS Media Mail (which keeps costs low and delivery times potentially long) but that doesn't make sense, as photographs and photo albums are specifically mentioned as items that cannot ship via Media Mail.

The Groovebook did eventually arrive, 21 days after I'd ordered it. It arrived in good condition, despite the outer covering looking really beat-up. The pages were thinner than I'd expected, but still a decent quality. I loved that the date and other metadata was right there with the photo.  

Overall, the print quality was ok. Some pictures turned out well...

... while others were downright terrible. The worst one had a big pink streak through the photo, a weird orangish tone, and a dullness to it. I scanned it, then made a collage with the original to show the difference.  

I'm just now starting to take phone photos, so we'll have to see whether Groovebook is something that I might eventually want to use in the future. In the meantime, I'm much happier ordering slightly more expensive photos with a much better print quality and significantly faster delivery time.

If you'd like to check out Groovebook for yourself, feel free to use the handy coupon that was in the back of mine.  

I'd love to hear about your experience with Groovebook! Love it? Hate it? Somewhere in between? Let me know!

Happy 8th Birthday!

Today is a very special day in the deRosier household, because today Trevor is 8.

There is no question that these have been the best 8 years of my life.  I have loved every minute of being Trevor's mom.

  

2006, in the hospital after Trevor was born

2007, on a hayride in the Suisun valley


2008, playing guitar together at home

2009, on a cruise to Hawaii

2010, enjoying a train ride at the Oakland Zoo 

2011, geocaching in Vancouver, BC

2012, camping at Yosemite

2013, my 41st birthday

2014, in our backyard on Easter morning

Happy birthday Trevor!  I've never been given a greater gift than when I became your Mommy.  I love you.