Friday, March 28, 2014

On Birthday Parties and Problem Solving

I'm a firm believer that art allows you to practice problem solving skills that will aid you in other areas of life- like planning birthday parties! My 3 year old is all about diggers so it became the theme for his birthday party after Thanksgiving. I knew I wanted to make little diggers working on his cake. I found some CAT cranes, dump trucks, etc. at the Dollar Tree, bought some "choco rocks" at Hobby Lobby, and picked out a cake and frosting recipe. I had never tested the recipes before... The frosting recipe did not make as much as I thought it would and I was out of cocoa powder so couldn't make more. That's when the problem solving kicked in! I put the frosting on roughly and decided to stick the choco rocks in between the two cake layers. That made it look intentional and sort of like digging through the different layers of earth. The cake did start to dry out just a bit where it wasn't covered with frosting, but we had a cool cake, (and I learned to use tested recipes for parties!)
This is how you handle running out of time to clean everything before a construction birthday party!
This was my other creative solution. I spent a good chunk of the day cleaning and organizing and at a certain point it became obvious that I was just not going to get everything done. This part of the kitchen counter is my biggest problem area where I tend to put things I don't know what to do with. I had picked up yellow and black streamers and figured I might as well have a sense of humor about it. Our guests got a kick out of the caution- construction site!

2 comments:

  1. I love, love, love the cake. I am sure he had a great birthday. I love the post so much as it is what life is really like. Great Job!

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    1. Thanks! He just saw the picture and said he wants another birthday cake. I said he'll technically have to wait until his next birthday for that!

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