we ain't scared: cupcakes & monster trucks

we've been to birthday parties with magicians, pony rides & a six foot tall mouse {ugh...chuck e. cheese}, but we've NEVER been to a birthday party with a monster truck...until now. on saturday, we attended a sweet boy's third birthday party. his parents are dear friends of ours & we were so glad we were able to join in on the fun {the party was supposed to be LAST weekend, but we all know how that turned out...*cough*irene*cough*}. 

the kids took a ride in the truck. the driver took them around the yard. i totally thought that my son would be stoked about the monster truck. nope! aidan opted to keep swimming in the pool {with two pretty girls, of course!}, but malia dried off, put on her flip flops & got on board! she said it was the neatest thing ever!

there was even a junk car, er, truck to crush. later on in the afternoon, the driver took the big kids {a.k.a. most of the husbands} for a ride and really crushed the truck. i don't know who was more excited about the monster truck: the kids or the husbands!

and, because the birthday party had been pushed back a week due to weather, i was asked to bake cupcakes for the big day. i wish i could say the cake & frosting were made from scratch, but they weren't. of course, i made one hundred cupcakes, so i think going the box mix, canned frosting route was perfectly acceptable! {i ended up using five cake mixes - two yellow, two chocolate fudge, one white - and nine cans of frosting - eight buttercream, one chocolate.}

the birthday boy's favorite monster truck is grave digger, so i colored the frosting green, used purple & black sugar & silver jimmies as decoration. this was also my first attempt at making cupcake picks. they're not the greatest, but i still think they turned out well.

and, can you believe that i hate to frost cupcakes {and cakes, too, for that matter}?? frosting is my least favorite thing about baking. i just don't do it well. i purchased a star tip & some disposable pastry bags which helped me do a much better job than i normally would.

i wish i took a picture of his birthday cake. yes, even after baking 100 cupcakes, i made the birthday boy a small, personal sized cake. i colored the batter & the cake was green, purple & gray {for grave digger, of course!}. 

and, much to my surprise, every cupcake was eaten!

overall, the party was a lot of fun! the birthday boy had a blast, we got to hang out with great friends & there was a smile on every child's face. we can't wait to see how the birthday boy celebrates his big day next year!