when cooks party (Julianna's 7th birthday)

When we landed on the idea of a cooking party for Julianna I knew we had struck gold.  This little treasure loves to help in the kitchen, and the autonomy to "do it on her own" was gift enough!  Adding a best sister and best friend sealed the deal.   

We started off the afternoon decorating birthday cakes.  I borrowed a 7 inch pan and prepped three smaller cakes so each girl had their own.  We started with a base layer of white. [Hello, this was hilarious to watch them try to spread icing and cake crumbs multiplying and the eventual call for "i need help, the crumbs are everywhere".  In the end I used so much white icing repairing the tops that I never even mentioned the need to frost the sides!]

The original plan was to draw a rainbow on the cake, but as it turns out, squeezing the icing bags is just too. much. fun.  We went well past 'rainbow' and ended up with enormous amounts of frosting, squeezing those little bags til they were totally empty :)

Oh, and more than a small dollop of frosting ended up right here....

While the cakes rested from their frosting work out the girls played Monopoly Junior and enjoyed a brief stint at the neighborhood play ground.  Then, it was time to work on supper: tacos. 

They really did a great job.  (With very minimal supervision and instruction.) 

After dinner and a movie and a night of sleep it was time for the final cooking gig: french toast!

Yum!

Such a fun party with three of the most fun little girls that I know!  They had a great time, and I did too! 

Happy 7th Birthday Julianna!

(Her birthday is the 23rd.  This is the first year we've celebrated early and I really liked it.  It took some of the crazy away from the holiday, and the whole weekend felt devoted to her big day.  We'll do this again I think!)