Kirstie's "Dora" Birthday Party

Kirstie is turning 3 tomorrow but we threw her a “Dora the Explorer” birthday party this past Saturday. I have discovered that I really enjoy planning parties. I wanted the kids to have an adventure involving Map, Swiper, and necessities that they would find in their backpacks. By Friday night all that was left to do was clean and decorate the house and the cake that I had made that morning. It seemed doable as long as the kids went to bed at a decent time, but they didn’t. Kirstie just couldn’t get to sleep and kept getting up. She finally gave out around 10:00. Katelin did a series of sleeping and waking until midnight when she was finally down for the night. This slowed our progress quite a bit but by 1:00 in the morning we made it to bed with a list of things that needed to get done before the guests arrived at 11:30 the next morning.

Earlier in the week I had sent Allen to an import store in search of red tube frosting, one can of vanilla frosting, one can of chocolate frosting, orange and brown food coloring paste, and dark chocolate chips, so that I could make the cake look like Dora’s face. I had found instructions on the Nick Jr. website. I was hopeful that the store would have everything but the red tube frosting which I figured I would have to do without, but all Allen was able to find were the chocolate chips and a large decorating bag filled with something white. So at 10:30 Saturday morning I was standing in the kitchen in my pajamas staring at the only thing I had to decorate a cake - a small container of chocolate chips. I quickly searched all my recipe books and gave a cheer when I found the perfect decorator’s frosting recipe in some papers that Allen’s mom had given me. It even told how to make brown frosting by adding melted chocolate. I was on a roll then and felt like super mom as I made a ton of frosting and colored it all while a 4 month old and an almost 3 year old were by my side. Soon super dad came and took the girls and cleaned the house so I could concentrate on making Dora’s face.

It went rather smoothly until I started trying to put the brown frosting on. I had to add so much chocolate that it ruined the consistency. I would start spreading the frosting and it would just follow right behind the knife not wanting to stick to the cake at all. The frosting was falling off the sides of the cake as soon as I put it on. Luckily I figured out how to delicately trick it into staying in place. So in one hour we managed to clean the house, decorate the cake, shower, give Kirstie a bath, and order pizza.

The party was a great success! Kirstie’s favorite part was Daddy dressing up as Swiper and hiding her presents. She talks about that part all the time and keeps asking him to be Swiper. You can check out pictures on our website. Just look in the photo album.

PS: Thanks to Amy for sending the Dora party decorations!