Macklin's 5th Birthday Party

We were able to celebrate Macklin's birthday on Saturday due to the upcoming baby! We just moved all of our April 3rd celebrations to Feb 28th...nothing like an early birthday right? Anyway, Macklin requested a Planes: Fire and Rescue movie party and playdate, so I ran with it! It was a great day with a fun group of little boys! 

The Set Up

All of the printables came from a great Etsy shop called XochitlMontana. Daniel helped with the printing and Justin's TAs (high school students that serve him as a teacher assistant for a period) cut it all out. Seemed so easy without those steps. I decided to go with a fun little die-cast toy for each boy instead of a bag fun of little goodies. They loved having a toy to play with during the movie, in addition to Macklin's collection. The printable set came with candy bar wrappers and popcorn boxes, so you know we used those too! 

The Cake 

I am normally a cupcake kinda momma - fast, easy, and predictable. But for this year, Macklin requested that we put the Planes smokejumpers ontop of a cake. It gave me a reason to try fondant, as I had been curious about how that process works. I bought the Wilton packages from the store and gave it a try. Four hours later and wee into the morning hours, this is what I came up with! I am happy with the result, but not sure that I need to attempt this again. I kinda feel like I could do it all with icing (the side flames I mean) and that would have taken a lot less time. :) I dyed the fondant myself and that was fairly easy. It was hard to estimate the amount needed at times though. I went with an easy top of graham cracker crumbs, fondant rocks, and a blue icing river. Add smokejumpers and the cake was complete! The top Planes logo was a long shot. Now I know that fondant cannot be dried out in the fridge and be expected to stay on sticks for a period of time. You can see the fail in the little pic below (in the background). No worries though. Macklin liked the cake and that is all that mattered! Serious kudos to the pro and amateur cake makers out there! 

 

 The Party 

The boys had a blast. So precious to listen to 8 little voices be excited about a movie together. Macklin loved being sung to and we even opened presents at the party (a debatable activity in my mind for a five year old). The boys enjoyed watching him open the gifts, but it did get a little hectic quick! 

The Guests 

Precious little crew we have here with their new Fire & Rescue toys!
Thanks so much for celebrating with Macklin! He felt very loved!