Birthday

It was my husband’s birthday this week. I had high hopes of making him a layer cake of his favorite German chocolate cake, but with a new baby in the house, time slipped away from me. Since cookies are my husband’s favorite baked-good, I opted to turn his favorite cake into cookies instead.

We celebrated my hubby’s birthday last weekend. For his birthday cake, I decided to make his favorite thing — cookies — but with a twist. I decided to make him a funfetti skillet cookie, which turned into a deep-dish sugar cookie with all the colorful sprinkles.

My baby boy, Rocco, turned two last month. For Rocco’s first birthday, I made him a low sugar smash cake decorated with cheerios. The cheerios were the dangling carrot to get him to try the cake. It worked, sort of.

Rocco is obsessed with two things right now—trucks and basketball. He especially loves fire trucks. So for his second birthday, we decided to throw him a DIY fire truck birthday party.

I feel bad. I feel like the worst mommy in the world because I wasn’t in town for my son’s third birthday. I wasn’t there to wake him up, give him a giant hug, or wish him a happy birthday. I feel worse that we had to celebrate it on a day that fit better into my busy travel schedule.

I’m really looking forward to 2016 and my 36th year on this planet (my birthday is this week). The next 360-ish days will definitely include a lot of travel, thanks to my awesome day job. I also look forward to the end of diapers! Rocco learned to potty train in 2015, and I am sure Gigi will be quick behind him this year.

I can’t believe my baby girl is turning two next month! Time really does fly by. I’m still deciding what theme to try for her second birthday, so I’ve been searching all over for girl birthday party ideas.

Gigi loves animals. She consistently asks us to read her the same animal book over and over. When we were deciding on a theme for her 2nd birthday, it was a pretty easy decision to choose a zoo birthday party as the theme.

For my daughter’s birthday this year, we threw a zoo-themed birthday party. Her love of animals and trips to the zoo made it an obvious choice. I decided to try my hand at cake decorating, so I created zoo animal cupcakes — zebras, lions and tigers — to celebrate her big day.

Right after Christmas, I had grand plans of a girly-dinosaur-themed birthday party I was going to create for my daughter’s third birthday. I started scouring Pinterest for inspiration and even reached out to a couple of companies with chic dinosaur accessories for women that I thought would be fun to incorporate into her third birthday. I was determined to throw a majorly adorable toddler birthday party for my daughter, like I had done when she turned two (in case you missed it, it was zoo themed).

I wish I could take your unconditional love and box it up. The way you look at me, the way you adore me, I want to sear it into my memory – the memory of your innocence, your perfect self, before the world gets in the way. This unconditional love is something I never knew existed, not truly, until I had you.

My birthday is in January. The older I get, the more my thoughts on getting older have shifted. I hate having a January birthday for one major reason. It is way too close to all of the other major holidays, so it kind of gets forgotten. (Not that I need a parade for my birthday, but as a kid I always got the combo gifts and it always felt like an afterthought).

My baby girl turned 5! To celebrate, I decided on a unicorn theme birthday party. She loves horses and unicorns, and there are so many cute unicorn things available right now. Because I travel so much for work, I really didn’t have a lot of time to throw it all together. The week before her birthday, I was traveling, so I actually did a lot of it via online ordering.

The new The Ice Age: Adventures of Buck Wild movie came out last weekend on Disney+. They invited me to throw a watch party, and I realized this would be such a fun birthday party theme for any kid that loves the Ice Age movies. If your child loves Ice Age, here are some ideas on how to create the perfect Ice Age birthday party.

For Gigi’s birthday this year, she requested a soccer birthday party. My kids have played soccer for a few years, but they really got into it this past fall. It is so fun watching them bloom into little athletes and I was excited she picked a sports theme this year. In the past, she’s gone for much girlier themes. We did ballet one year, and unicorns another year, so this was a fun change.

Birthdays are a special time to celebrate, and what better way to make your child’s special day unforgettable than with a slime-themed birthday party? Gigi loves slime, so when she asked me if she could have a slime party, of course, I said yes. In this guide, we’ll walk you through every step of planning and executing a slime birthday party.

My baby girl turned one recently. Happy Birthday Gigi! To celebrate, I wanted to decorate a bit, but didn’t want to do anything too time-consuming (like Rocco’s fire truck party).