Help me with my big and little birthday party questions!

That's way more than enough! Super-cool.

If you find that you have extra gummi worms maybe you could put them in there.

Drink... we always have a hard time with that one. We don't do soda around here (but I think most kids do). At sozlet's party we had water, grape juice, and hot chocolate. That seemed to work pretty well. (Most of the kids ended up having water and hot chocolate.)

I was thinking maybe some kind of slushie type thing. My refridgerator has a drawer that has a "soft freeze" setting. I'm trying to figure out if I can pre-make a bunch of mix and soft freeze it so I could just throw it in the blender and go.

Maybe iced tea or lemonade for backup.

Think what tastes good with chocolate and with carrot cake.

Heavy drinks might be too much with rich pastry.

Milk is the answer

Milk.

Man I love milk. I am a milk junkie.

I used to feel guilty about drinking so much milk but my niece worked on the NIH study about drinking milk and she gave me a big thumbs up.

Actually I bought stuff today to make fruit smoothies figuring that not only are smoothies kind of special they can take the place of serving ice cream.

This is Mo with his birthday stick:

Gleeful and manic--also adorable.

That's such a cute picture boomer. Somehow he's changed
from the last photos I've seen. He already looks the part -
more grown up now.

By the way, I love milk too - always have, and drinking
a glass of warm milk with honey is just bliss.

soz, I just printed out your recipe so I could make sure I have everything and I noticed that the recipe calls for 3 cups of carrots but here you mention 6 cups. Do you usually double the recipe?

I'll probably make a rectangular cake so I'm guessing this recipe will make one largish rectangle cake?

I want to make sure I have enough even though I am making the dirt cake too. I guess it would be better to have a little too much than too litlle, huh?

Boomer--

Is this the weekend of The Big Day?

How many of the feudin' families are coming? I assume Mary is not riding in on an ambulance?

Hold your dominion.

What I know so far:

Mom's side: mom, boyfriend, twins, Auntie, great-grandma (maybe great-grandpa).

Dad's side: grandma and grandpa and aunt.

They will be outnumbered by friends and neighbors. We will probably end up with 25-30 people here. My friend, T, has promised to help divert attention as needed. As long as bio-dad doesn't show up (he has not been invited because nobody knows where to find him and because he is the trouble maker of the bunch but his sister is coming and she is about the only person in contact with him..... so..... we'll see.)

I'm sure it will be an interesting hour and a half.

My dominion is holding up pretty good!

The weather has even cooperated by being dryish enough to allow me to get my windows washed after Mo's recent mud bathing of them and to get the walks swept, etc. I still need a day for a bit of outside work but it is mostly cosmetic and can therefore be superficial.

Tomorrow will be baking day!

This idea has turned out pretty fun --

I didn't want to spend a lot on decorations so I thought I'd paint the windows with some window paint then I hit on painting them on the outside with bathtub type finger paints.

It was really easy to make. You can't get to fancy with it but you can make these cool semi-transparent shapes with it.

I'm thinking I can hit it with a pressure washer after the party and get clean windows as part of the deal.

Cool!

Sorry about 6/3 confusion, it's 3 cups, and about two carrots per cup, so it's usually 6 carrots. 3 cups is right.

I usually make two round ones, layer 'em on top of each other with frosting in between (and all over the top surfaces), yum-my.

The recipe says something about what size pans to use for different shapes, just a sec and I'll get that.

Five! He's already five! when did that happen! He was three the last time I looked over my shoulder.
Sheesh!
Anyway, happy birthday, Mo, and a grand and sane party to boomer! And lots of calm afterwards.

OK, this is the sidebar for that whole cake section:

[b]Choose-a-Pan Cakes[/b] Two-layer cakes suit some occasions, and carry-in-the-pan cakes are handy for picnics and potlucks. For the cake batters of pages 77 to 83 [that includes carrot cake], choose the size pan that best fits your needs. Fill the baking pans no more than half full. Use any remaining batter to make some cupcakes. Baking times are approximate and may vary from cake to cake. [code]Pan size Estimated baking time @ 350 Two 8x1 1/2-inch round baking pans 35 to 40 mins Two 9x1 1/2-inch round baking pans 30 to 35 mins Two 8x8x2-inch baking pans 25 to 35 mins Two 9x9x2-inch baking pans 25 to 30 mins One 13x9x2-inch baking pan 30 to 35 mins One 15x10x1-inch baking pan 25 to 30 mins[/code]

That's all for the basic carrot cake batter -- are you making the pineapple/coconut variant? If so, that takes a bit longer yet (about 40 minutes in two 9x1 1/2 inch round pans, so an extra 5-10 minutes for that one).

Yeah, five. Man, does time ever fly. It doesn't seem like three years ago I was freaking because it appeared that he was living here now.

I took him in for a haircut yesterday. Oh wow. He aged about 3 years right there. He wanted it short, like a neighbor boy's hair so it is gone gone gone. I almost cried.

I still can't even get used to looking at him. Is that crazy? I've taken several photos and just been bewildered that it is the same kid. When I look at the photos.....

I don't know.

He loves it though.

Thanks for the cake info, soz!

Maybe I'll make a two layer rectangle cake and stuff some cupcakes in the goody bags. Then I might have some left over to send to work with Mr. B (His customers love me.)

It has been a long time since I've made a layer cake but what the hell. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Oh, I know what you mean, boomer. Everytime I take my son in for a haircut, he immediately ages, too. It's frightening.

We're going again tomorrow if I don't chicken out.

It's in his eyes, tho'...

Soz! That cake is GREAT! Very moist and fluffy and delicious.

I'm going to stick the layers together with apple butter and carmel sauce.

Oh, finished already! Cool!

It also keeps really wonderfully. Flavors deepen and it stays moist. I usually like day-3 leftovers better than the original.

The last layer is in the oven right now. I only have one pan in that size so I had to bake a layer, let it cool (cooked the cupcakes while the layer was cooling) then put in the second layer.

I wanted to get an early start so it would be nice and cool before I delved into the frosting and decoration of it.