Phineas and Ferb Party for Pork Chop

Happy Birthday Pork Chop!

Well now that we have had a few days to sit down and sort through things, I can finally share some of the party pictures. Tomorrow I am going on a class trip with Pork Chop, which is sort of scary.  I can hardly keep myself from killing him, how am I going to do it with lots of other peoples kids.  Well I made cookies so maybe that bribe will help, who knows.  Anyway.

  Now I didn't do anything too crazy this year for his party, just no time, but it was still good.

But I have lot's if pictures.  Some of which are even in focus, so you know, it could be worse.

These are almost perfect, I used coloured candy melts and will from now on.

So I already shared with you the Perry the Platypus marshmallows I made.  Other than that I didn't do too much.  I made some cake pops, some chocolate covered pretzel rods, cupcakes and a tiny cake.  Then we played some games.  So lets get to it.

Sort of messy, but not too shabby!

These are my tiny little spring form pans, they are perfect for mini cakes.

  Firstly the cupcakes, I made cupcake toppers like I usually do. I found some images of Perry on google and printed out a few sheets onto edible icing paper.  Then I cut them out, and put them on a layer of fondant/gum paste and let them dry out.  For some reason I felt the need to use a lot of icing sugar and this made the pictures sort of dull.  And well, I have no idea what I was thinking really.  Other than I was in a rush and at the time it seemed really smart.  It was not, but whatever, it still turned out sort of okay.

These are all the cupcake toppers I made, you can sort of see how I covered some in icing sugar and  they look dull.  Oh well.

  For the cupcakes and cake I just made the basic vanilla, chocolate and red velvet batters that I have shared here before.  For the cake I made two layers, one chocolate and one vanilla.  Then all were iced with vanilla butter cream, in bright colours to match the theme.  The cake I just decorated with a few left over strips of edible icing and then I tinted the icing a few colours.  Super easy.

A cake decorator I am not!

  The cake pops were your basic chocolate cake, formed in my My Little Cupcake Pop, mold.  And dipped in orange and some purple candy melts.  I think this is the way to go for me.  I am able to get a good flow on the coloured melts.  Not something I can get in the white melts so much.  So once I finish the 50 pound box of white melts, I am not getting  any more, I will stick with the coloured ones.  They may cost more, but man they work so much better for me.  I can for see a lot of bark being made to get rid of the last pounds of melts I have.

I don't think I have done an actual edible image wrapped around a cake before, not too bad.

  I decorated them really fast, by drizzling on a bit of the left over melts and sprinkling on some co ordinating sprinkles.  Simple and fast.

  The pretzel rods got a dip in milk chocolate and a simple drizzle of candy melts and sprinkles.  I was in a rush.  Pork Chop had one big request, he wanted candy Lego men.  Last year I made them for his Lego party and I said why not.  It was easy, I just used the left over candy melts and made them in the silicon Lego mold I had.  He was thrilled and the kids at the party ate them like crazy.  So that was great.

Perry is all "oops, sorry I'm all over your cake."

Why I picked those most girly colour I have no idea, but it worked.

  At his party we decorated simply.  I had coordinating table cloths, only one was an actual theme cloth.  Then we hung up some large pictures I got in the theme section of the party store. I had a center piece which  I think for the $7 really ties the theme together.  I also got a roll of themed streamers and a few balloons.  That was all I bought to decorate with.  And my mom, sister, aunt and friends really did a great job.  I set up the main table with that, then put the desert table together.

I didn't want to put pictures of other peoples kids, and I have no idea how to cut or blur them out, so you get to see Pork Chop.

Hubby and him think the underwater camera is awesome.  

  I used my two cake pop stands, that mom got me when she was in the states.  They were made my KC bakes, and I wish I had more, I mean how many do I really need, but they are awesome!!!!  Then I used my cupcake stand, it was a plain make it yourself stand that I got over a year ago.  I put my colorful cupcakes on it and the one on top I decorated with a Perry the Platypus vinylmation.  It was simple but easy and I loved how it turned out. I had to watch as a few kids were all, "that is my cupcake!" I told them it was for the birthday boy, and they could have any of the other ones.  I was a little surprised that the kids all wanted the red velvet cupcakes, they went first.  Which was good.  Pork Chop got to blow out the candles on his mini cake.  And a few kids were yelling "the cake is so small, we won't get any!"  Which was right, but they all got cupcakes and I didn't have to cut a thing.  As a matter of fact we never even got to his cake until 4 days or so later.  But cake stays well if it is iced fully, so that was not all bad.

That's my dad, he was wearing a Perry coloured shirt and he didn't even know it. Try not to look at the kids, pretend they are not there.

  We played a few games, which I wish had been spread out better.  The party started out with an hour pool party.  We rented out the whole pool for the party, it was huge and really the cost was nothing at all so the kids got to tear around and Hubby got in with them.  Thankfully another dad did too.  But I asked parents to stay and watch in case their kids needed help to change or were not strong swimmers.  Not a big deal really, there were comfy seats and the time passed fast.

And there you go, if he gets any older I may need a bigger cake to get all the candles on.

  But I really thought this would wear the kids out, being that the pool part was over at 6:30 at night.  But no, the kids were crazy!  So as soon as they were all in the room they were tearing around like they were full of sugar, but they hadn't had any yet!!!

My poor hand was feeling the heat!

  So as soon as they all got in the room and got seated we had pizza, and of course Pork Chop would not eat any.  But I had told him if he wants a large party we have to have pizza it is the most economic thing to serve really.  So we did that.  Then the kids ran around a bit.  And I was all "we have to stop them, someone is going to get hurt."  My solution?  Give them cake.  I know, I am smart.

Hubby tried to get a picture but it was dark.  

    So everyone sat down again and we sang happy birthday to Pork Chop and he was all "this is so embarrassing"  And he blew out his candles.  Then the kids got cupcakes and Pork Chop ran for a cake pop.  I told him no, that those were for after the party, because I had like 60 cupcakes and they had to be eaten!

 So after they were all done we played some games.  I had a few.  One I did a few years back, was basically a quick one.  You print out a picture like 100 times, make them the same and all of them get tapped all over the room. So it is like a decoration, but you are going to use it. Then you tell the kids to find them and the one with the most wins a prize!  So not only are they having fun, they are also cleaning up some of the decorations.  I know they may figure that our in a few years, but for now, I'm good.

My sister got these pictures for me, that is my desert table.

  After that we played a game that I read about on line.  In the TV show there is an older sister who is always trying to bust her brothers.  So we played "busted"  basically I blew up a bunch of balloons and one of them had a paper inside that said "you win!"  So I let them loose and let the kids pop them until they found the winner.  Then I got them to clean them all up, because bits of balloon were everywhere.

  The last game was going to be a dance contest.  But Hubby was not able to get the song I wanted.  Gangam Style, sure you have heard of it?  Well basically Pork Chop was going to use his "dance inator" to get the kids to dance.  Because another character is always making up silly "inators" so that was good, until one kid was slamming into the floor, so we cut it short as he was just being too silly and was going to hurt himself or someone else.

Not the most detailed picture, but the best I got.  Considering I forgot to take any.

  Then we had like an hour left.  So I gave each kid a tattoo of Phineas and Ferb.  Hubby's mom even got one, and one kid wanted one right in the middle of his forehead, I told him his mom might kill me, so we stuck to hands and arms.

  Then the kids tore around for like 20 minutes when I figured we needed to bring it down.  So we let Pork Chop open his gifts.  I don't like to do this as usually he is not the most subtle when he doesn't like something or already has it.  I talked to him about being great full and told him the only thing I wanted to hear him say was "thank you" and that was what he did, even when one toy was something he already had.  No matter he was very good.

 As kids started to leave they each got a Marshmallow pop, a cake pop and a pretzel.  So it was a good day.

This was the table, see those tiny pictures?  Those were one of the games.

  We got home and Pork Chop begged Hubby to start putting together his Lego's  I told him if he helped me sort the pieces I would do one too.  He said it was his birthday and he didn't have to sort if he didn't want to.  I have no idea how you respond to that, so I said, "okay we can do it later, when it's not your birthday"  And so there you have it.  Pork Chop is officially 8, he doesn't need a booster seat anymore, but I don't know how I feel about that.  He is old enough but not tall or heavy enough.  We will see, he is not bothered by it.

And next year, watch, I bet he will be all, "I want a Lego party"  And I will have to break his legs.  Think I can talk him into a sleep over, with like 1 friend, and I go out and Hubby deals with it?  Well I have a year to work on it.

Easy Halloween Cake Pops

I think they turned out kind of cute, that little witch on the bucket, she is all "don't you eat those, they are poison!"  Or something like that.

 Right now I am going to pretend that everything is back to normal.  It's not, we are still not sure what is happening with our car.  We are on the fence as to what would be better, will they fix it, will they write it off?  I just don't know, what I do know is that no matter what happens, we are going to be in for some serious payments of some sort.  Sigh.

My cake crumbler thingy, my new bowl is so big I have to hold it, it won't rest across it like my other bowl.

 So to try and get back to life I decided to make some cake pops.  Because nothing says "everything is okay!"  Like cake pops.

  Am I right?  

Hubby made those for me, are you impressed?

  Well fine, maybe not, but at least it is full of sugar, and that always makes me feel better.

  So I promised Pork Chop cake pops for his hockey team, but as the last week was just up in the air, I just got to it.  I decided to use all the fun new things I have gotten in the last few months, because there will be no new fun things for a while.  

See how big this bowl is?  That right there, is two full cakes.  So exciting! 

  I also wanted to make some treats for the neighbour that helped Hubby by offering him a chair from his home when he was in the accident.  I also wanted to make a small treat for our new neighbours.  We have been in our home for almost 10 years, so we have seen many people come and go. And the home that now has our new neighbours was home to the nicest lady and her son, we are going to miss them so much.  But our new neighbours, they are so sweet and they have the cutest dog.  So we are thrilled.

My cake pop mold, and my Halloween nails.

I used an ice cream scoop to try and keep my hands clean.

And there you go, perfect cake pops.

  Anyway back to cake pops.  I have been really lazy as of late.  When I make cake pops I have just been doing the ones where they stand up, not the ones that you put in a display.  Only because they take a bit longer and I am lazy.  Well this time, I went all out.  

  I know, don't expect it all the time.

 So to start I needed lots of these pops, so I got Hubby to make me two cakes.  I also asked him not to use my new mixer, I so wanted to be the first one to use it.  He was all "are you serious?"  And I was all "it's our anniversary week, you have to do what I say!"  And he did, but he grumbled about it, like I was killing him, having to use a hand blender.

I don't really know why I thought this needed a picture, but you know, there are my balls.  (Tee Hee)

See those are my awesome cake pop stands, they each hold 30 cake pops.  And they were made just for me as the sticks I use are not the same as the ones most use apparently.

  So I started by using the cake crumbler that I got in that cute Bakerella kit and crumbled both cakes into my new mixing bowl.  Can you believe it?  Two cakes fit, and I was so excited, no more doing two batches, only one for me now! So once it was crumbled I added just a bit of icing, I find that too much and it's just too soft to work with.

Here is Hubby getting Pork Chop set up to play on my computer.  Because when I asked him if he wanted to help make cake pops, this is how he was going to help.

By making faces at me when I was telling him to smile.  He was all "Bite Me!"  Or maybe I just read that somewhere.

  I wanted these cake pops to be big, because it means less work really.  So I used the mold from My Little Cupcake.  I love the ease of these molds and the size is really generous.  So I used my mold and out of the two cakes got 50 cake balls, I might have gotten a few more, but Hubby might have over baked the cakes a smidgen and I had to take a few toasty edges off.

This is the set up for the second dip and sprinkles.  Coffee filters are great for catching sprinkles and not having them bounce all over the place.  Some still ended up on the floor, don't ask me how.

  Now I usually do cake pops over a few days, but since I was in a rush I had to do these in one night.  So I put the cake pops in the freezer and got to setting up to dip them.  I was so excited to use my new cake pop stands.  I got these a month ago, from KC Bakes.  The company is located in Pennsylvania in the states.  Which just so happens to be where my Mom was going to be going to golf and shop with my Dad.  I had wanted one for a while, but shipping to Canada is crazy and I could not afford it.  The stands are solid wood, so they are very heavy, that is why it cost so much.  Anyway she agreed to drop them with my mom so I could save shipping.  I could not believe how sweet that was.  Anyway they are amazing.  Before this I was using Styrofoam and that stuff is a pain.  These stands are just amazing!

I really love these sprinkles.

But then I love these even more.  And if I had time I would have put some eye balls on them.  But I was too lazy.

  So I melted my candy melts and then working about 4 pops at a time, I dipped the candy stick into the melts, then into the pop.  I then dipped the whole pop and tapped off the extra.  Then into the stand to set.  Now usually my cake pops crack like crazy.  So I plan to dip them twice.  But these ones didn't crack, not a one of them!  So I think it may be due to the low amount of frosting and the short amount of chill time.  Whatever.  

I put the bags on when they are in the stand then they are easy to tie up this way too.

Ta Da!

  So then I got my sprinkles out and a coffee filter.  I then dipped them again, sprinkled them with sprinkles and rolled them around in front of a fan until the chocolate was set enough to make sure the sprinkles did not just drip off.

  Once that was done, I wrapped them in bags and tied them with ribbon.  

See this was all about $5 at the dollar store.

I used 4 or 5 in each bucket.

Just smoosh them in there.

  I just sent them in a box to hockey for Pork Chop and Hubby to hand out.  Hubby hates handing them out, I do too.  I also feel bad when there is not enough.  I mean I send enough for the team and a few extra, it's the brothers and sisters that always want too.  And I cannot afford to make double for all of them.  So he feels bad, but the team is first, and the coaches and if there is extra then the brothers and sisters can have them.  Pork Chop almost always never takes one, but he did actually eat one cake pop.  I know, crazy right?

And this is the garland, I just sort of stuck it in there.

 For the neighbours I wanted to make a small gift, so I hit the dollar store.  I got two little tin buckets, and I wanted some flower foam, but there wasn't any.  So I got some sponges and some glittery garland.  I may have also got some chocolate, but that was for me, not the gift.

  When I was ready, I took the sponges and stuffed them into the bucket to fill it.  Then I planned to just push the pops into them, but the sponges were really thick so I used a skewer to make holes then put the pops in.  Then I sort of wrapped the garland around them to fill it in.  I think they turned out cute.  I also brought some into work, and they were all like "Finally!"  Because they have not had many treats, but now we are back to "normal" they will get their yummies.

  I am going to get started on treats for Pork Chops party soon, I can bake and freeze the sugar cookies and the marshmallows can be made and dipped in chocolate a week or so before, they last perfectly.  So the only real last minute thing will be cake pops and cupcakes.  I refuse the make a cake, well maybe a little one, but not a big one.  

  So there you go, we are getting somewhat back to normal.

All done, and there were six in each bucket, more than enough really, because I wanted to eat the rest.