Maeve had a birthday! (so it was in February. Big deal...)

Maeve turned FOUR in February!! (Pointing out that she is quickly coming up on 4-1/2 will do no one any good, so let's just focus on the fact that I am know getting these up... hey, just wait until I get N&B's bday stuff up... Now THAT'S late... ;)  Really, the motivation to go back through the pics and dig these out was to show off my rainbow cupcakes.  Though there is much I could say about our darling and maddening Maevesters... Oh, we love that little stinker! But for this post: just the surface stuff. So... Tara shared a link showing craft project fails.. right HERE.  Number 22 showcased the exact cupcakes that I made!

Well, the exact picture on the website that I followed to make my rainbow cupcakes. Not the exact ones that *I* made. Though mine were alllmost that good. And honestly, I'm not... um... talented... in the kitchen. But these actually turned out right! and they were pretty easy! So, that made me feel accomplished.  Honestly, I think the person who messed them up had to have done it on purpose. They're THAT easy.

They were just slightly time consuming because we had to mix up six separate bowls of batter, and then plop them, one by one, into each little cupcake liner.

But look how cool! 

And you can kinda see the inside here.  Believe you me... the layers stayed separated and colorful... they were awesome!  I don't know what that poor chap did up above. Something horribly wrong. If *I* can do these, it's a safe bet that pretty much anyone can...

Annnnd... just because we started into the bday pictures, here are more. Maeve, with a bday t-shirt. She loves this shirt. Who wouldn't? Cats. Wearing a variety of hats.

We had her party in our neighborhood community center.  This is the picture where they are dancing around with the rainbow ribbon wands I made. I spent FOREVER on those wands.  Finding the right materials... little eye screws... fishing line swivels... bells... the right ribbon... cutting and sanding the dowels... pain-stakingly hand-stitching the ribbon on even though my awesome friend has a sewing machine and would have helped me...etc... And then. I didn't screw the ribbons in tightly enough to the dowels and there was an epidemic of wands falling apart! Argh! We got it taken care of, we did. But still.  Also, the ribbon-dancing lasted about 2.7 seconds before the kids were ready to move on. I exaggerate.  Maybe 2.7 minutes. haha... Really, though, just dance longer!!!

A close-up of a wand.  I was quite pleased with them!  They're so pretty.

For her actual party (it was a rainbow-themed-ish party), I didn't do the cupcakes because of how time-consuming they were.. plop...plop...plop... (and then of course wished I'd done them, but we went out with friends the night before and got in late, etc. etc.), so I just did them in cake form.  You can't tell from the top, because I then just did stripes of left-over batter down the top, but inside the colors were still nicely layered and lovely looking.  And I didn't frost it, obviously. Just puffs of whipped cream. Like clouds...

Just a bit of how we decorated the community room. It coulda been better, coulda been worse.  Those are big tissue paper pom-poms that I made... the idea also gleaned, and beautifully executed, if I do say so, from another online crafty site... Nice and cheap, and big!  They were really cool. And plastic tablecloths in the middle, like big streamers.  There is definitely stuff I would've changed about the party, but overall it went well. And Maeve had a blast, and that's what matters!

Not looking like she had a blast, but she did. Ohhhh, she did.  Even if she didn't, I will keep telling myself that she DID! ;)  And she did...

Maybe shows the cupcake better? Still not bitten into, but without the wrapper... and this one has real frosting, with sprinkles.  Good thing I'm showing you so many cupcake pictures, because the idea of them is difficult to grasp... ha!

The wreath I made out of a styrofoam flower wreath thing and felt! The blue background with the M on it is removable, so it's just a circle rainbow now... Man, I was REALLY crafty this go-around! Good job, Fiona!

Hair chalk! Fun! Somewhat messy! We were gonna do it at the party, but forgot. Thank goodness.

She got a (used, from ebay) Build-A-Bear. She named her Jammies, and she's really cute.  And a little carrying pack for her.

Grandma Buttons sent her this bouncing toy! She has a lot of fun with it, if that's not obvious.  It's a Kidoozie Foam Pogo Jumper. Pretty cool. I've even tried it... I don't get quite the bounce that she does, but it's still fun! They really should make more adult-sized toys like this. Really.