Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Birthday countdown freakout

We're in the throes of getting ready for the big party this weekend. I don't know who's more excited... the birthday girl or me.
We've purchased favors, craft supplies and the food. Drinks will be done on Friday - I'm still debating whether handing bottles of Izze to a bunch of 7-year-old girls is a good idea. Maybe I'll stick to juice pouches and water (but fancy water of course). Tomorrow is her actual birthday so we're having a family dinner and opening family presents, but that's just her usual menu of steak, mac n' cheese, corn on the cob and fruit (and some green salad for Mr. J and I). I've no idea how she's going to eat anything since she's missing about 3 teeth right now with another 2 or 3 loose.

So that leaves me with freakingout about the cake. Since D wants a chocolate cake, I'm making the classic Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" cake. I'm either doing a chocolate mousse filling (if time and Anders permits) or a simple raspberry filling. But the frosting.... I can't decide if I should go for gold and make a yummy swiss meringue buttercream or a delicious, but much lower-key regular uncooked buttercream (you know... butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, a little milk). I doubt the girls will care much one way or the other, but I do. There are so many factors: time is the primary one, but I worry about heat too since a meringue buttercream tends to have a real hard time coming together when it's warm and goodness knows it's warm in Florida in July and then the frosted cake will have to sit in the fridge overnight 'cause there's no way I'm attempting to make buttercream Saturday morning with everything else going on. And I'm decorating with shredded coconut and jellybeans and will that look fancy enough or should I find some mini palm trees or hula dancers or flip-flop candles and ohmygosh I forgot about the dog, who's going to watch the dog, she can't be running around the house eating scraps and she'll tear our bedroom apart if I lock her up there and she's going to bark constantly and what will Mr. J and Anders do all afternoon since they didn't want to be around for the party thank goodness my sister is coming although she hasn't really confirmed that and I still have to ask Kari if she'll take pictures and I still haven't got RSVPs from about half the invitees this is kind of stressful but I'm looking forward to it anyway.

Thanks for listening.

2 comments:

Debbie said...

Deep breath, T! Yes, we are both coming and, of course, Kari would love to take pictures. Do you think you could stop her? Fize will be fine. I'll be there to help.

Most importantly, my vote is for the swiss meringue buttercream. But you are probably right that the kids don't care. Does Dagny know the difference? And I have some of those little paper umbrellas - could you use those for anything? I didn't know if the toothpicks would be too pokey for the kids.

Anonymous said...

I want a piece of that fancy cake! Bunky