Matthew Turns Four

Matthew is our autumn baby.  We celebrated his birthday with a "family party" on his actual birthday and then a "friends party" a week later.

The invitations were made from a leaf rubbing and watercolor painted over the crayon...

His birthday crown (it caused a little bit of drama because at first he liked the leaves, but then he said he wanted cheetahs on it.  Luckily he came around again)...

Joseph gave him a dentist kit that he put together and Danny gave him a wooden wolf and cub...

We ate his favorite, macaroni and cheese with broccoli...

The cake was almost inappropriately decadent...

He asked for a chocolate cake with caramel, chocolate frosting and "hard chocolate frosting" which I'm assuming is what they put on ice cream at Dairy Queen.   So my interpretation of that was a three layer devil's food cake with a chocolate buttercream frosting and a chocolate ganache on top, coated with melted chocolate that firmed up well and then drizzled with caramel.  Chris made the acorn candle holders.  The beeswax candles are from Camden Rose, our local "Waldorf Store"...

For the friend party, we kept it pretty simple, did a small craft, ate cupcakes and went down to the river to release leaf boats and returned home with lanterns that we had hung down at the river.
We lined the driveway with these lanterns I made using this tutorial I found.  My mom lagged behind and put them out after we left for the river so they were there as a surprise when we returned and the kids got to pick one to take home...

The party favor bags were just felt circles with some yarn stitched through them for a drawstring and we put the felted acorns and acorn jewels inside...

I made cups out of apples for apple cider...

The cupcakes were pumpkin with creamcheese frosting...

These were the lanterns for the lantern walk, made with paper mache on a balloon...

I soaked indian corn and we threaded necklaces, although it was mostly the parents who ended up working on these...

 

More party favor bags...

These were the leaf boats, made by dipping leaves in beeswax, shaping them slightly and then sticking on a small beeswax candle...

I put up the leaf garland I made and some leaves on our dining room shade...

 They looked very pretty...

We also dipped caramel apples...

Here are a few more pictures...



Happy birthday Mattie.