Happy Birthday, IAN!!!!!!!!!

 Has it been 3 years already?!  Where in the world has the time gone?!  I can't believe that Ian turned 3 on Friday.  It was just a blink ago that I was in the hospital with him.  I think my kids threw away the memo that said they are not allowed to grow (because of course that means I'm getting older, boo!)  For his birthday Friday, we did a "hangout" day since Jason had to work.  Ian helped me clean the house and bake his cake and cupcakes for his party the next day.  Then we took a break and went and got some ice cream.

We went to Farr's Ice Cream where you get to build your own ice cream.  He wanted chocolate ice cream with gummie bears, sprinkles, hot fudge, chocolate covered raisins, sour worms, brownie bites, fruity pebbles, and strawberries.  yum!  

When we got home, it was time to get Brenna from school.  So we went and grabbed her, came home for a little bit and then I decided I didn't want to sit around so we went bowling. =)

The kids had lots of fun =)  I think we have a while before they're bringing home bowling trophies but surprisingly, Ian scored above 70 points and I think Brenna got around 50.  Then we came home and I finished getting stuff ready for Ian's party the next day and the kids played (fairly) nicely together and watched some movies.

Then it was PARTY DAY!!!!

Ian wanted a Transformers party.  "Optimus Prime is the goodest guy!"  "I love Bumblebee, he's my best friend. He's nice to me!" "Megatron is a bad guy! He's not a happy guy!"  "Transformers are cool!  They're my favorite!"  Can you tell he likes them?  So of course I oblige. =)  He wanted a Bumblebee party =)  One all his friends arrived, we played some games.

The first was "Pin the symbol on Optimus."  Optimus lost his autobot symbol in his battle with Megatron so the kids had to try and pin it back on =)  I do this type of game at every party for the kids.  I get them a poster in the party theme so that way they can have something to hang up to remember their party (Ian's toy Story one from last year didn't last after he threw a fit in his room and tore it off the wall and ripped it....such a stinker!!!  this poster is going out of his reach.....hopefully, but this child is a monkey....)

The next game was sort of a pinata type game.  My kids always beg for pinatas and I never get them because I think they are ridiculously priced and it is so hard for the kids to really break them.  Most the time the pinata ends up decapitated.  So I came across this idea on Pinterest (click for tutorial).  I was instantly in love with it.  It was soooo easy to do.  I told the kids that since Autobots are strong and can punch through walls, they get to punch through to get their prize.  I think this will turn into a usual occurrence at our birthday parties.  Especially since each kid gets to break something and with pinatas, only one really breaks it open (usually an adult or big kid)

Next, is the favorite part.  PRESENTS!!!

We got him a racing Hot wheels track, the old school Transformer movie (the one from the 80's with Unicron and Hot Rod...which they should turn into a real movie, since there are rumors of a Transformers 4 and 5, I'm crossing my fingers), plus the season 3 and 4 of the old Transformers movies, which have hot rod (Ian became obsessed with Hot Rod the first time he watch the old movie), a Transformer shirt and a matching game. 

Uncle Dallin got him an automatic nerf gun!  How cool is that!  Now he can shoot daddy!  Jason has a big nerf gun to so I see some epic battles in the future.

Then came Papa's present........is that the coolest bike or what?!  He was trying to ride it around the house =)  I can't wait until spring when the kids ride bikes outside.  Ian wanted to ride a bike this summer but he just had a little 3-wheeler bike but he couldn't keep up with Brenna.  Now he can "Roll out!"

Once presents were done, it was time for cake and ice cream.  yum!!

He wanted a Bumblebee cake so I tried to do one.  i knew I had no chance of trying to make a car shaped one.  But Ian loved it!  especially the toy on top.  He's been carrying it around ever since.

To do the symbol on top I melted some chocolate chips and added black food coloring.  I had outlined the autobot symbol on some wax paper so I colored it with the chocolate, put it in the fridge to harden and then pieced it together on the cake.  When I add the food coloring to the chocolate, for some weird reason the chocolate clumped up.  I started getting made because now I wouldn't be able to pipe it into the shape.  But then I played with it for a minute and it turned into a sort of moldable chocolate.  Then i just molded it into the shapes and all was well again.  Until I started with the frosting.  I wanted to try a marshmallow base recipe but when i tried frosting it it was too sticky and kept showing the crumbs.  So i had to do a crumb layer, freeze the cake, do another layer, freeze the cake, then do a last layer.  It was a pain in the rear!!  I am sticking with canned frosting from now on.  Then I moved onto the cupcakes. I couldn't find any cupcake toppers with Transformers on it.  Crazy, huh?  So I had to make my own.  I cut out an autobot symbol in some stencil plastic.  Then I got the spray food coloring and thought, "this is going to be easy!"  Boy was I wrong!  When I sprayed it, it was really runny and the symbol blurred.  Once again, I was getting mad.  So i fiddled with it and got some of them to work.  I did it a couple ways.  one way i did was to spray the stencil, then press it into the cupcake to transfer the color so it did the outline.  another way was to sprinkle so black sugar crystals into it.  They didn't turn out quite like I wanted, but it worked.  This cake was they simplest in design out of all the ones I've done for my kids, but it was the biggest pain!!  But one thing about it, It sure tasted good!  I did everything from scratch (no box mixes) and was quite pleased with it.  The cake was chocolate cake with coconut cream pudding in between the layers.  The cupcakes were vanilla cake, with some almond extract and then a butter cream frosting, with a bit of almond extract.  So It may not have looked like I originally wanted, but it tasted better. =)

Ian is such a sweet and special little guy.  I am so thankful to be his mommy.  He is always teaching me how to be better and more loving.  With him, a hug and kiss can fix anything!  He is always running up to me and saying "Mommy!  I Love you so much!" or "Mommy! I want to give you a kiss!"  His sister is his best friend and he can't wait for her to get out of school most days.  When we pick her up he goes running to give her a hug.  He is a total boy though.  Loves to get dirty, make messes, be noisy, build things, and jump off furniture.  He is such a smart cookie.  He recognizes most of his letters, sing his own version of ABC's (what kid doesn't?), can count to almost 15.  He loves to argue.  We were driving one day and he kept arguing:  Me: "Ian, I think you like to argue just to argue, don't you?"  Ian: "No, I don't" Me: "You're arguing right now." Ian: "No, I'm not."  yup.  He does.  He loves to cuddle with me (usually comes sneaking in our bed sometime in the middle of the night). He is content to just sit on my lap and hang out with mom.  His favorite thing right now is wearing slippers.  He wears his "Rex" slippers so he can slip, and his "Cars" slippers so he can vroom!  He is always cracking me up with the things that he says.  He is turning into a little man right before my eyes.  I love this little guy with all my heart.  I sure must have done something good in Heaven to deserve such sweet kids!

Ian Carl Hansen

1-20-2009 5:17pm

6 lbs. 18 inches