Boston Red Sox Birthday!

We just celebrated Caden’s 7th Birthday with a Boston Red Sox Birthday Bash!

We began the Birthday excitement by mailing a custom made Red Sox Ticket to Caden's guests:



This ticket was said to cause quite a bit of sibling rivalry until it was explained that it was *just* a birthday party, not an actual Red Sox game. However, we’d like to think the full Boston Red Sox experience was recreated RIGHT HERE for three high flying hours!

Here is a look at what the Birthday guests experienced…

The (now famous) Ticket Booth in its Red Sox finest:



The (thrice recycled) Boston Red Sox Birthday Gift Tent and Red Sox Goody Bag Display:



Here is a closer look at the Birthday Gift Tent:



The Goody Bag Display:



Inside the Goody Bags:



Caden’s VIP guests were served the finest baseball fare!
Here is what was on The Ballpark Menu:
Peanuts, Popcorn, Crackerjacks, Hot Dogs, Chips, Baseball Cookies, Cupcakes, Cake, Ice Cream and Candy.

Here is the Red Sox Cupcake and Crackerjack Display:



Here is a closer look at the Warhol Inspired Crackerjack Art (containing 48 full boxes):



The Red Sox Cupcake Carousels:


I made over 100 cupcakes! German Chocolate, Butter, Carrot, and Dark Chocolate.

The Baseball Cookie Display:



Caden colored the Red Sox Pennant shown above.



Here is a closer look at one of the Baseball Cookies:



I made 60 of these sugar cookies! They were almost 5 inches wide, baked, frosted and “hand stitched” the day before.

We attempted to recreate Fenway Park:



But I’m afraid the Boston Red Sox game on TV held little interest…



So we hiked everyone down the driveway and engaged the kids in a game of Wiffle Ball on the ball field the Mr. designed for the event:







But many of the girls were not all that interested in the Wiffle Ball game and played in our culvert instead…



Which, not surprisingly, led to a few injuries, so we quickly decided it was time for the Red Sox Piñata:





The Piñata lasted about 5 minutes; it exploded after the 4th or 5th turn and then the Lord of the Flies moment began as the children scavenged candy like little savages:



But after a run back up the driveway, we were able to settle the wild sugar crazies with a lunch break:



And shortly there after moved the group to the living room where we had displayed some photos of Caden’s recent trip to Fenway Park:



24 children sat and calmly shared their very thoughtful gifts with the Birthday Boy:



Caden received many fantastic gifts, including a profusion of Red Sox paraphernalia:



And then it was time for Cake:



I made an 8 layer white cake with whipped cream cheese frosting which I unfortunately left for the very last minute to decorate and had to forgo any true fabulousness. But whatever the case, the kids loved it…







I think the party was a huge success! By the time it was all said and done, I’m not sure how much Caden and his 24 friends cared about the Red Sox theme, but they really seemed to have had a great time. I know it is something Caden will never forget. I want to send a great big Thank You to all of our friends and family who helped to make Caden's Birthday so special! It was an amazing day! THANK YOU! :)

Click below to see some of Caden’s previous birthday extravaganzas:
6th Birthday
5th Birthday
4th Birthday

Stone Wall 3.0

The corner stone wall has been the bane of my existence since I first started the project in the Spring of 2009.

Here is Version 1.0 [May 2009]:



Version 1.0 crashed, so we did some trouble shooting with some landscape fabric and then I rebuilt it creating Version 2.0 [June 2009]:



After a very heavy rainstorm [July 2009] Version 2.0 crashed (right before a big family reunion!). Argh! Eventually I gave the corner wall issue some more thought, and determined that the abundance of small round rocks on the very steep bank were at fault. So this past Spring I stripped the fallen wall and recycled the majority of the smaller rocks into new stone wall projects:

Here
Here
And Here

This then left the corner of the front garden empty and completely annoying for me to look at all summer long! So over Labor Day weekend we went to my Dad’s land in Vermont and collected some new, larger, flatter (hopefully more efficient) rocks to replace the old ones.

Here’s Caden doing all of the heavy lifting:



We loaded up my Dad’s truck, not once but twice with giant loads of rock! Below is a look at the unloading process:







Then, once the new rocks were here – I gave myself one week to build Version 3.0. I had a Boston Red Sox Birthday Bash to prepare for, and an anticipated 40+ guests soon to arrive, so time was limited. But I pulled it off, well, with some help from the Mr.

Here is the most recent (and hopefully FINAL) version of the stone wall:







Keeping my fingers crossed!

Fall Harvest

As you can see from the photos above, I’ve been extremely busy keeping up with the garden’s extensive produce. Right now our freezer is chock full of sauces, chilis and stewed tomatoes as well as abundance of beans and other garden goodness that I’ve processed throughout the summer. You would not believe the amount of food our little Potager produced! And it’s still coming! All kinds of peppers, eggplant, carrots, celery and tomatoes are still waiting to be harvested – I just don’t have a place to put it all! Overall I’d say the Potager/Companion planting experiment was a huge success and I’m already looking forward to next year’s gardening adventure!

Morning Glory

The much anticipated Scarlett O’Hara Morning Glory has finally flowered in the Potager:

Mexican Sunflower

Only a few Mexican Sunflower plants managed to hold their own after multiple Ground Hog ravagings. Here is one much appreciated late bloomer:

Sunflowers

Here are some of the beautiful results from our Sunflower Terrace