The cool thing about my career as a mom is that occasionally, I have the flexibility (and sometimes, the opportunity) to try out a different career for a month or so. This month, I had the chance to be a bakery owner and a graphic designer. Yes, this came at the expense of my sanity and the happiness of most members of our household. But it was really, really fun for me. And yes, I asked Ben for permission (to make everyone in our family suffer in order for me to play) first!
A few women in our PTA were planning an event called "Family Night: a Celebration of the Arts." I was interested in helping out with such an event because of its focus on the arts. And then when I realized that these women were planning to go all out and make it really special, something about me wanted in on the fun. They chose the theme "follow your yellow brick road," and they planned to have a musical talent show and an art show for the students at the school, all based on a Wizard of Oz theme. They wanted to also have a "café" with Wizard of Oz-themed treats, but they weren't sure if they could pull it all off. Themed treats? Apparently I have a weak spot for stuff like that. I'm not usually tempted to volunteer for boring PTA assignments, but this one got me.
And with no further explanation, I bring you . . .
The Over the Rainbow Café!
I had a lot of fun making these "over the rainbow" cookies. But I tell you, my hand was really tired by the end of all that frosting.
I made 150 of them.
Here they are all packaged up!
A small group of volunteers (including Ben and Henry) came to my house and put these packages together.
And another team (including my visiting teachers) came and helped me frost 250 cupcakes. We made three different kinds - these Dorothy cupcakes (red velvet) . . .
Glinda's "good witch" cupcakes, and the "wicked cupcakes of the west." We had volunteers donate un-frosted cupcakes, and then we frosted them all to look uniform. I later got funny comments of people saying, "We knew someone was serious when we saw specific requirements for the color of the cupcake papers, and that they wanted them to be un-frosted." Yeah, apparently I am a bit overboard on the details...
A bunch of talented people decorated the school with so many cute decorations.
This was the entrance they made for my café.
We had kid helpers serving colored Kool-Aid from this stand.
As you can see, it was in a classroom, so decorating had its challenges.
But it was a fun atmosphere.
The food was all offered free of charge to all guests, so we had to be a little controlling about how to pass it out gradually so everyone could get some. I may or may not have been a little feisty about warding of little hands reaching out to help themselves.
But I think people forgave me when they got to enjoy their cute, yummy treats!
This is me with my café badge, dealing with the aftermath of the event, which is still taking over our house...
The best part of the whole thing is that 1) Sam decided he wants to have a Wizard of Oz birthday party next month, and 2) We ended up having quite a few treats left over! So you may see a very similar looking post about a month from now...
Sam was a little confused about this party though. He was in on every detail and wanted to know all about the cookies, cupcakes, etc. He also has been planning his own party as we've talked about all of the Wizard of Oz treats. But he clearly couldn't keep the two parties separated in his mind. He asked, "So is my birthday at the school?" We explained several times that his birthday would be at our house, one month later. Still, after the whole Family Night was over, when Ben was getting him ready for bed, Sam asked, "So is me 3 now?" Hopefully he'll be excited in a month when we get to have yet another big party with once again, way too much sugar. Stay tuned...
