Little Man's Birthday

Isaac's birthday was back in January, mixed in between meetings and gearing up for the ball. We had family come over so I wanted to do something special for the little man. He likes Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, so I did a Mickey Mouse party. Fun, right? Well, yes it was. Some of the decorations were a little tricky, but I was able to get them to work.

In the window, I hung Mickey's, round decorative ornaments with red, black, and yellow stripes, and Mickey hands.  For the Mickey's I used black strips of paper that were about an inch thick.  The head used strips that were about 12 inches long and the ears about 4 inches.  I punched a hole in each end of the strip, and put a brad through one end.  I then divided the strips and looped them so each side formed half of the circle and stuck a brad through the end.  The last step was just to separate the strips so they formed a ball.  To attach the ears, I poked a hole through one strip and used the bottom brad through the hole to attach them.  I mistakenly didn't take photos through the entire process.  I wasn't sure it would really work, but I was pleasantly surprised.  I did make a few different sizes of Mickey's.  The bigger ones (12 inch) used about 24 strips, but I wanted them filled in pretty well, but if you want more space you can use less strips.

Here is one of the Mickey's.  The photo isn't the best because it was easier to take the photo when it was in the window but it also caused some issues with lighting.

Here is the decorative orbs.  It is the same process as the Mickey's but I used colored paper that is known as Mickey.  The circle isn't the best, but it has been hit and bumped so I would just need to "fluff" it a little.  I used fishing line to hang everything in the window.

For the Mickey hands, I used surgical gloves.  I tied the pinkie off and turned them inside out.  These are larges so the fingers are a little long, but they are what I had.  If I were to purchase them, I would have gone for the small.  I drew 3 black lines after blowing them up to make them look like Mickey's gloves.

 Originally I was going to use the surgical gloves and blow them up with helium to make balloons too, but I ended up running short on time and since it was only Isaac's 1st birthday, I figured he wouldn't mind.
For the cake, my mom found this bowl that I could use as a stand.  I cut a few circles out of cardboard that would fit inside the bowl.  I glued them together and then glued the circles onto a square of cardboard that was big enough for his cake.  I covered it in foil so I could set the cake straight on the stand.

 

 This is the little man's cake!  I used a standard 9 inch cake pan for the main circle.  It is a 2 layer cake, the main part is chocolate and the ears are yellow.  The frosting is butter cream with food coloring.  We had someone coming that was a no chocolate person (sad) so I wanted to some of both.  I also didn't want Isaac to have chocolate as his first time having cake, let alone sweets.  The yellow was in a decorating bag.
To make the yellow cake for the ears, the size I needed, (and a mini cake for Isaac, and a few mini cakes that hadn't been anywhere near chocolate) I used cookie cutters.  I left some of the frosting white to fill in the layers.
The yellow cake was hardest to frost because they had been cut out so the edges were super flaky.

With all the excess cake pieces (from cutting out the ears and mini cakes) I though about making cake pops...but that seemed like a lot of work.  So I made a cake casserole! I dumped all the excess cake in a 8 inch square pan.  I heated up the red and black frosting slightly so I could pour it over the cake, then emptied the decorating bag that held the yellow frosting.  Doesn't necessarily look all that great, but it tasted pretty good!

 

 

Isaac enjoyed his cake.  The first night he ate the ears, the second night he went for the body.  I though him having his own cake would be best for everyone.  I liked the Mickey Mouse theme, but black frosting is the pits.  It would get on the floor and if we waited too long to wipe it up, it left a little purple spot.  It cleaned up just fine, but took a little more effort that other colors.  It also took quite a bit of food coloring to get it black and not grey.

For his birthday, I also made him shirt.  I used a white onesie, the one I used is typically an undershirt so I didn't realize how thin it was until I was working on the shirt.  I found black patches that I cut circles out of.  It made it easier to sew on, since I was able to iron it on.  I had the green fabric, and cut a 1 out of it.  I used the sewing machine to do the zigzag around the 1 but found out the corners were difficult.  I tried to do it around the Mickey, but since the fabric was thinner than I thought, it ended up pulling and ending up straight, not zigzagged.  I loop stitched around Mickey by hand.  The spacing wasn't the best but he's little and it was my first birthday shirt.  He didn't seem to mind. :)

 I've decided that I'm going to do a birthday shirt with his age each year.  The design will vary based on what he likes and his birthday theme.  Hopefully they don't get too complicated.