Hudson's Birthday... Part 2

On Saturday 3rd September we had a little BBQ for Hudson's 1st Birthday. We went with a 'Mickey Mouse Clubhouse' theme as it's Hudson's favourite show. Over the course of the day we had some family and a few close friends visit to see the birthday boy, eat some yummy food and play a bit of cricket and footy in the park. With the ever unpredictable Sunshine Coast weather and the fact we have a rather small apartment we limited who we invited in the event that it was raining and we had to move our BBQ in the park to eating dinner in our apartment. Good thing we did this as it didn't rain but it was exceptionally windy and come 6.30 for dinner once the BBQ was cooked we moved up to our place. It was a little squishy but everyone was much much warmer and we had a great time. Most importantly though Hudson had a great day.

Now to let you know a little about the food......
Some of the Gold Coast family including Hudson's Grandad, Nonna & Uncles came up for lunch so for them I served 2 trays of lasagne that I had made the night before but baked on the day and salad. Then since they were not going to be here for cake I made vanilla cupcakes so we could put a candle in and sing Happy Birthday to Hudson...(Note: For the Mickey Mouse decorations at the BBQ, the little cupcake patty pans with picks & Mickey Mouse lolly bags I got them from Discount Party Supplies on Ebay.

For dinner we served standard BBQ food and a few extras: Sausages, burgers, chicken sticks, another tray of lasagne, garden salad and Cous Cous with pumpkin, fetta and baby spinach.  To say we had leftovers is an understatement. For the last couple of months I've been doing groceries on a Sunday....not this week...we will be having BBQ meats and salad for the rest of the week in this house!

Then after dinner those that were remaining sang Happy Birthday one more time to the Birthday Boy and this time with a candle in his Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake. He was getting a little sleepy from such a big day but gobbled down a piece of his extra special cake made by Mum Mum.

My best cake thus far and the excitement on Huddo's face was more than worth the hours of decorating and staying up until midnight to not only finish the cake but clean up the massive mess of icing in every colour of the rainbow. For this I made of 5 vanilla sponge cakes (2 rectangular, 2 circular and one small circle for the base of the clubhouse)  with homemade (from a stand at the Eumundi markets) Strawberry jam spread between each layer. The black head of the clubhouse is styrofoam balls I got from Spotlight, pinned together with wooden skewer sticks and painted black. Fondant icing was used to cover the base of the clubhouse and the 4 layers of the cake. Fondant was also used for the blue slide/tail of the clubhouse, the entrance to the clubhouse, the letters to create Hudson's name on the cake, the windows on the clubhouse and the yellow fence. Buttercream icing with vegetable shortening was used for the star-piped grass effect, the flowers at Minnie & Daisy's feet, and the star-piping in colours associated with each character that they are standing on. Black 'writing icing' was used for the grill on the windows and for the door to the clubhouse. Detail-wise I was really happy with my 'drop flowers' I made for Daisy and Minnie! (When I took the pic below Minnie's flowers were still in the freezer getting solid) The second pic was taken by our friend Grant (with his AMAZING camera).

I had a lot of fun making this however, like I mentioned earlier the look on Hudson's face was just priceless and so worth all the effort.

As a final touch for the day and salute to the theme I made some little lolly bags for the kiddies that came along. Inside some Mickey Mouse little plastic bags I just put a couple of Freddo Frogs and two chocolate shortbreads in the Mickey shape piped with mickey's pants...here is one of the 2 trays I made..

It was a very fun week and I couldn't get over all the amazing presents Hudson got. So I took a photo with all his presents put it up on my facebook and tagged everyone on their present....

The final present from Mummy & Daddy that is yet to come is his photo-story book that I have made for him about his 1st year. I wanted to add a few pages of photos from his birthday. I've also nearly finished editing a DVD with all the video footage we've taken over the first year.  I will put up a link in a post when I finish it for those that are interested. How he's grown. To think when he was born he was just over 5.1kg (11lb 6oz) and 55cm. Now he is 14kg and 84cm.

What a year! What a kid! Troy and I are so happy and feel so blessed to have such an awesome little man.