Birthday party for Violet

I made these Coconut flour cupcakes that I found on pinterest for Violet's birthday. The frosting is the buttercream recipe that the same blogger created and linked below the cupcake recipe. They turned out really yummy, I think. Relatively low in sugar, and flour free, yet very moist and flavor like a donut. The frosting is an old fashioned buttercream that is made with maple syrup, and thickened with a meringue-like process rather than just a heap of powdered sugar. Also very yummy. It all tastes really good straight out of the fridge.

These cute little cake toppers came from a blog friend across the pond! Joanna, who owns the business Cakes Inspired  was super generous and offered to send me Lego cake toppers when she found out that Violet was having a Lego birthday. There was a nice little variety of designs included, and the toppers are edible!  They were a very cute and festive addition to the cupcakes (fairy cakes to the Brits!) I've still got plenty for the future too, since I made a small batch of cupcakes.

The last detail for the eats were the chocolate lego bricks and minifigs. I found some silicone candy/ice molds on Amazon, and melted some dark pound plus chocolate from Trader Joe's (poorly, I might add because I was in a rush and bloomed the chocolate) to pour into the molds. This was seriously a dream come true for Violet. One of her favorite activities has been using her mouth to decapitate all of the Lego men and then walk around with a mouth full of heads. Some kids have pacifiers, and ours just loves to dismantle and chew on Lego men. 

When Violet realized that she could actually eat the heads off of her Lego men, she was totally delighted. All she wanted to do was eat the arms and heads off of the chocolate guys, and leave the rest. Lol.  

Delight! 

 

By the end of the day, despite my repeated statements about it being Violet's birthday, Clover was convinced that it was "happy birthday Coco and Violet!". So they both had a great birthday

 

 

What to do when you're too rushed to fiddle with the settings on your camera, and everything turns out blurry and out of focus? B&W! 

 

This above shot of Violet came out so terrible, but I had to keep it because it shows her delight in finding that she had gotten a Percy train from her grandparents. 

 

 

Her grandma got her a Melissa and Doug train track, and the kids are really enjoying shoving their trains around on it. When they aren't fighting with each other over it and ripping the track apart just to spite the other person.

We got Violet the Lego book

and the new Lorax movie. After gifts we had family movie night with the kids.  

On Saturday we took the kids to the Tysons corner mall to shop at the lego store. I was slightly terrified, but it all went pretty smoothly. Violet didn't manage to stuff her mouth full of Lego heads and run around the store growling like a monster. So that was good.  Today, Violet did widen a hole she had created in a screen of a second story window, and shoved one of the new lego creations (LOTR Gandalf wagon + Frodo minifig), among other Legos, out of it and into our driveway. Tim was out there molesting a shrub to search through it for little Lego pieces.

Now we get to look forward to fall approaching and the start of Clover's first year of HOMESCHOOL. I've settled on trying Oak Meadow for her first year of preschool/kindergarten. Exciting!