Planning Michael's birthday party was a blast. If you follow me on Pinterest, there was a board dedicated to it up for I don't know how long. Come the end of July, maybe August, I was jumping out of my skin trying to plan the party.

It started off with me planning to make all the food. Homemade pigs-in-a-blanket, red-white-and-blue cupcakes, Captain America cake, mini-chicken-salad-sandwiches, fruits salad, veggies in a cup with ranch, cute bags of popcorn... I wanted to go ALL out.

But as the time drew near, I realized that I could really only pick a couple of projects that were closest to my heart and do them as best I could. If I tried to do everything, not only would Michael's birthday be the price of a small wedding, but I would be killing myself over it all to the point I would lose all fun in my child's first birthday.

So, I bought prepackaged finger foods. I dedicated time to preparing veggies and fruit (or rather, my mom did), and I made the cupcakes and Michael's cake spectacular (or at least as close as I could).

So, for instructions on Red, White, and Blue cupcakes, follow the link.

To make an awesome Captain America cake, watch the video below. I watched it twice, practiced the cake twice before I made it for the party. I gave in, in the end, and bought prepackaged Wilton Fondant because making it homemade did not seem worth it to me.



What I learned from this, thanks to my mom, is that there is no way to be a crazy-perfectionist in situations like this. Things will happen how they happen, and all I can do is my best and let God handle the rest. After all, not everyone is going to get along. Not everyone is going to have a good time, but I hope that everyone who was there was happy to celebrate with Michael-- and that's what it was for!

So, please enjoy these pictures!