Every Friday we do playgroup. There are eight moms and 19 kids. We trade houses, passing the crazy task of hosting around and around. Today everyone came to my house and we celebrated Leah's birthday. Playgroup Birthday Parties are great. There are no gifts required. (Leah did receive one gift and a few drawings this morning.) We have cupcakes or cakes -- sometime healthy versions, other times not. Today was not. I made chocolate cupcakes from the recipe on the Hershey Cocoa can. I discovered this recipe a couple of years ago and haven't stopped ranting/raving about it since. I opted to use heavy whipping cream instead of sugary frosting for the tops. I had whipping cream that needed to be used and I figured the kids would be fine with less sugar instead of more. I simply added one tablespoon of sugar and one teaspoon of vanilla extract to a couple cups of heavy cream. Mmmmmmmm. (For those who don't already know... heavy whipping cream is my new best friend.)
Even though my girls are almost two and four, this is the first time I've decorated for a birthday party for one of them. Last year I had grand plans, but they were falsely exposed to chicken pox, so we had a 21 days of no playgroups and no birthday parties. (It turned out our little friend had been allergic to laundry detergent. Not the chicken pox at all.) All of that to say, I started making some decorations last year. A few days ago I pulled them out and completed the task. Melody and I entered the a different world of scissors, double stick tape, paper tools and scrapbook paper. The floors were covered in tiny remnants of our crafting. (I don't waste much.) She repeated over and over again from the other side of the table, "Mommy this is so much fun." Music to my ears. Leah alternated between coloring and watching DVDs.
It was really fun for me to do this party. I will reuse all of the decorations for Melody's party in a few weeks. (For six weeks I will have a two year old and a three year old.) I daydream of making decorations for an Esty Shop someday.....
