Scarborough Seashells: kids birthday

On Thursday, we celebrated Aidan's actual birthday with a dinner of his choosing (homemade mac and cheese and birthday brownies!) and he received a few more little presents. First off, we got him a Narragansett Mariners jersey with his brother's name and number printed on it so he can wear it to the games and support the team. (He didn't wait for today's game, he wore it to school on Friday, lol!)

And he also received this adorable little book.

I won it in a giveway on the blog My Kids Are My World.
The book is from Frecklebox- which is this site filled with all sorts of clever kids items that can be personalized for your child. (Great for birthdays, holidays, etc). I picked this book about zoo animals.
As you can see, the title is "Aidan Goes to the Zoo" and the whole book is directed at him and engages him to read and explore, looking for his name hiding in all the images.
It's great because he's a first grader and just learning to read and the text isn't overly complicated, so he can read it by himself!

We were also able to personalize the inside of the book with an inscription, so he'll always remember when he got it for as long as he owns it!

Thanks again to Jenn at My Kids Are My World for offering this giveaway and helping us make Aidan's birthday that much more special! Also, thanks to Mark at Frecklebox for expiditing my order and getting it here in time for his birthday. We appreciate it!

Although this time, from a mix. (Or rather FOUR mixes, a dozen eggs, almost a 1/2 gallon of water and 3 cups of vegetable oil!)

It's my nephew's 7th birthday tomorrow and for the second year in a row, my gift to him (at his request) is his cake. This year I made him a football helmet with his team logo. He plays Pop Warner Football and his team is the Falcons. Theirs uniforms replicate those of their NFL team counterparts, the Atlanta Falcons.

The helmet sits atop a giant sheet cake. Here it is frosted with a "crumb layer".

I level the helmet cake by slicing off the uneven portion on the bottom side.

Once it's centered, I begin by outlining the face mask and freehanding the basics of the team logo.

Then I filled in the rest of the helmet with dark chocolate (the Falcons colors are black and red, but I find the taste of black frosting is really chemically because of the amount of food coloring it takes to darken the frosting and really, who doesn't love chocolate?!)

Finally, I draw in the shape of the falcon. First, outlining in silver and white

then filling in with red, white and more dark chocolate.

Happy Birthday, Noah!

I can't wait to see you tomorrow and the boys are looking forward to having you over for a sleepover afterwards! We love you!