Sunday, April 19, 2009

I have lots of stuff to share!

Jude's Birthday party was yesterday, and it was great! :) Here are a few photos to share..



Trying out the cake. He wasn't sure about it... and he didn't get as messy as I would have liked, but he was cute poking the cake with his fork. I made the Birthday crown that he is wearing, and the appiqued "1" onesie.



Pointing at the cake while Daddy tries to light the sparklers. Reccomendation - don't buy sparklers at the dollar store! They wouldn't light and left little bits all over the top of the cake - ew.



A shot of Jude's little cake before I iced it... I baked this in an oddly shaped pyrex dish with the mix left over from the cupcakes. Because of the odd shape, I cut it in half and layered it with a mixture of cake/cream cheese icing in the middle.
I think it looks like a giant macaroon in this picture...





"J" is for Jude!



Playing with his favorite toy, a Pooh car that Grandma gave him for Christmas.



He loves cars... everything is all about cars lately. He said his first word the other day and guess what it was? Yep, "Car".



Matt chilling in the corner.. I love the goofy look on his face :)



More food... yum! Cupcakes with home made cream cheese icing, and the chocolate bar favors. Most of the women from my husband's family who came to the party are involved in a diet challenge, so I ended up with lots of sweets left! I made the cupcake toppers and the chocolate wrappers (those are caramilk bars inside) with a graphic purchased from Http://Govango.Etsy.com.



Jude sticks his toungue out at his little friend Anneliese, who is 9 months old. Isn't she a cutie?



Chewing on the big puffy sheep, which was a gift from mommy and daddy. I found this sheep yesterday for $1.99 in the Easter clearance section at superstore - score! That's all for pictures for now... I took hundreds though and have yet to look at them all so maybe a few more will show up here later.



This is a blurry picture, but my friend Maria (Anneliese's momma) made Jude this robot pillow. It is super cute, with a little flap that opens and closes. She used vintage fabric and sewed it all herself (and designed the pattern, wow!). She commented that she thought I would like it even more than Jude... and that is probably true lol :)


I wanted to share a bit about the crafts that I made for the party. I was on a small budget so I wanted to do a lot of DIY. I made the crown using two pieces of felt, ironed together with stitch witchery (the "1" was applied with the same, and glittered with stickles). I attached an elastic in the back by hand stitching. Jude wore the crown for most of the day and didn't even try to rip it off! I would like to try to make another crown for him for play at some point - but it would need to be a little more durable and maybe sewn on the machine. Anyways, the crown ended up costing me less than $1 to make and I think it really added something special to the photos. The onesie was made using stitch witchery as well - I just cut a "1" out from some red fabric and ironed it onto a plain onesie we already had.

Also - since a lot of people on Twitter asked me for my buffalo chicken dip recipe - I thought I would share it. I served it at this party and usually make it for most occasions. It is super easy, and a crowd pleaser.

Buffalo Chicken Dip



- 2 softened packages of cream cheese
- 1 small container of sour cream
- roughly 1/3-1/2 bottle of franks red hot sauce or other buffalo sauce
- 1 shredded chicken breast

This dip is made in a crock pot and served warm. Add your cream cheese, sour cream, and most of the buffalo sauce (to your own taste) to the pot and set it on low. Place your uncooked chicken breast on a cookie sheet, coat in the rest of the buffalo sauce, and bake until cooked through. When chicken is done, shred it with two forks and add it to the now softened cream cheese mixture. Serve on crackers - voila! You could also bake this in a dish in the oven, but I like to use the crock so it stays warm.


Anyways, I'm going to wrap this super long post up. Thanks for reading!!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jude is a cutie. Love all the hand made decorations. I would like the robot more than my kid too. If I had one. lol. Thanks for sharing the recipe. Can't wait to try it. :)

Amanda said...

Hey there,
I make this same dish, but instead of sour cream i just add milk. I find as the night goes on, the mixture kinda evaporates a bit, so i add a bit of milk. :)

Chelsea Ann said...

ahhhh I can't wait for b-day parties. My kiddies are going to have parties at home. No amusement park and event centers for us. Your DIYs were brilliant and I think it is too funny that he didn't go face first into his cake. What a shame. You need a mommy and son pic!?

Hugs~
Chelsea Ann

apparentlyjessy said...

What a cute little one year old Birthday boy! I love the crown and the one t-shirt! The buffalo dip looks yummy too!

Jenny Holiday & Aaron said...

Ohhhh I can't even STAND IT!!! Toooooooooooooo cute!!! lil Jude is just too too too cute!!

I LOVE his crown!! And tee shirt!! Adorable!! Looks like he had a GREAT day!! So does Daddy! haha!

Such a GOOD mommy!!

Thanks for sharing!!
XOXO Jenny

Matt said...

You're welcome!
(For reading)

UPrinting.com | Greeting Cards said...

Awww those photos are so adorable! He looks so cute. I'm sure he had a great birthday! The cake looks really good too! Anything chocolate I can appreciate haha :)