Parshas Vaeira: the First Seven Makkos

I know I'm a little behind, so let me show you what we've been doing the past few weeks. Two weeks ago we made makkos cupcakes (or makkot, as they say here). It was really cute and the kids absolutely loved doing it. The cupcakes were tie-dye, just to make it more fun.

Here's what we used:

Blood: decorating gel
Frog eyes: marshmallow and chocolate chips
Lice: sprinkles
Wild animals and dying animals: animal crackers, gummy bears
Boils: red jelly beans
Hail: white jelly beans

Anyone for a kinim cupcake?

Chanukah

Monday nights are Dinner and TALK in our home, and while I usually just focus on preparing food, once in a while my inner creativity breaks through. If I had lots of time I would plan themes and color schemes every week, but there are so many other things in my life vying for my time and mental space. So I don't. But when a special occasion comes around I can't resist having fun with it. Two weeks ago was our golf themed birthday party, and last week was Chanukah. I did a "fire" color scheme, much more fun and bright than the classic blue and silver look!

 

The kids helped me prepare these dreidel-strawberries. It was actually funny, because my husband took a small poll and not a single male around the table had noticed that they were supposed to look like dreidels, while every female thought it was obvious.

both brothers trying to spin the dreidels!

And here is the menorah challah I made for Shabbos.

Birthday PAR-TEE

centerpiece

For my husband's birthday I wanted to make a cake that reflects something he enjoys. Golf is one of his hobbies, and I've been thinking about this golf course cake for a little while. Put it together with our Monday night class in our home, and bang, you have a golf themed birthday party! There were lots of golf related foods and play on words.

"woods and irons" and "chip it in"

Full view of the dessert table and dinner table (delicious BBQ on our new grill!)

We had a cute little game- guess how many tees.

I saved the best for last. Presenting the birthday cake!

I learned more about golf preparing for this party than I ever thought I would. It was so much fun to plan. Now on to Chanukah!

Hop on the Upsherin Train!

Big Brother Jr. is 3 years old! I will treat you to loads of pictures of the beautiful celebration, just bear with me. As you can imagine, I started planning the cake months in advance of the big party. Not that it got me any closer to actually coming to any decisions, but I thought about it a lot. I looked at tons of upsherin cakes online, but nothing was perfect. I knew I didn't want to do the same thing as his older brother- too boring! I finally decided on a train cake- cute, different, and it also incorporates the upsherin ideas (kippah and tzitzis). A few days before the event which was so graciously and generously hosted and arranged by my parents, I decided that once we're at it, make it a Train Party! What could be more fun for a 3 year old boy? So it was back to the drawing board for me, or in this case, Pinterest. After pinning many more train ideas, we ended up with a cute train theme that didn't take too much extra work.

 Made from 2 loaf pans. The tray is covered with homemade marshmallow fondant, and colored coconut.

I made a train track along the length of the table. I covered containers to look like train cars and filled them with candy- it was the first thing that was finished, and there was a lot of good food!

Ice cream balls- scooped in advanced and dipped in sprinkles, all ready to eat!

 The centerpieces were plastic wind up trains that went around a track.
Look at that beautiful long hair! And there it goes...

I think this was my favorite addition to the party. I froze ice cubes of different colored drinks, and poured Sprite over it. It looked so pretty and tasted good too.

Thank you to all who helped (you know who you are), and photo credits to all those who contributed!