Katie’s 2nd Birthday Celebration

Our sweet granddaughter, Katie, turned 2 on the 4th of July, and we got to host her second birthday party right here on Saturday! We kept it small and simple, but fun and pretty. (Two-year-olds don’t really remember their parties, but they will love seeing the pictures someday!)I took on the responsibility of baking the cupcakes and sewing Katie’s party dress, and true to my wait-to-the-last-minute-to-do-everything nature, I didn’t start on either until after dinner on Friday night. Only a few minutes into mixing together the cupcake batter, I reached up into the cabinet above my work space and knocked out a glass jar. In the instant following, I chose to save my darling six-year-old who was standing in the chair next to me, and I sacrificed my favorite vintage yellow Pyrex mixing bowl. (Yes, one of the mixing bowls that I was so worried about in our move: Settling In.)By the time the mess was cleaned up (Pyrex shards fly a long, long way!), and I was putting a new batch of cupcake batter into the oven, it was 8:00! And, I hadn’t even decided what exactly I was sewing! Thankfully, once I had a picture of what I wanted, it all came together quickly and beautifully.Morgan had asked for a polka-dotted tank-style dress in the colors that she’d picked out for the party decorations (colors which were chosen from Katie’s favorite cartoon, Dora the Explorer). A quick trip to Joanns on Friday morning turned up the three fabrics in the skirt and the trim pieces, and the buttons which look like they were made to go with the flower fabric! The fabrics in the knit bodice are those Riley Blake jerseys that I’m loving working with. I’m calling it the retro-modern Dora-ish party dress.As for the food, we served yummy, but not too unhealthy treats. I used this recipe for the cupcakes: Chocolate Gluten-Free Cupcakes, substituting coconut oil for the canola oil and whole husk psyllium for the xanthan gum. For the frosting, I made a standard butter-cream, and added natural pink food coloring using boiled raspberries! The raspberry flavor gave the frosting an amazing sweet-tart taste. Yum!We sprinkled a few mini-chocolate chips on the top of the frosting just for fun, and then left the almost-full bag of chocolate chips too close to a certain birthday girl.Other party fare included Unreal Unjunked candy-coated chocolates served in cute little snack cups, sliced strawberries, chocolate cookies, pink pomegranate chips and lemonade.I also baked up a couple of loaves of Honey & Oat Gluten Free Bread which we sliced and served with honey butter (softened butter whipped with raw honey) and blackberry cream cheese (softened cream cheese whipped with no-sugar-added seedless blackberry jam).The kids all had a great time playing in the backyard on the swing and playground and blowing bubbles. Katie’s big brother, Austin, kept himself busy wiggling a tooth that wasn’t quite ready to come all the way out!Uncle Charlie got caught trying to open the presents and was not happy at all that I was taking his picture! (You can tell from this picture that the inside part of the party ended up taking place in my sewing studio. It was just the most convenient place since the sliding glass door to the backyard is right there.)Katie loved having everyone sing, “Happy Birthday” to her . . . . . . but she couldn’t quite figure out how to blow out the candles by herself! It was okay, though, because Uncle Jamie jumped right in to help!