Elmo Cupcakes & A Birthday Bike

I didn't pull out all the stops for Silas' 3rd birthday party. We had a simple little family get-together that had a very loose "Elmo" theme. I looked online for a good Elmo cupcake idea that didn't involve using that nasty red-dyed icing and, in the end, compiled a few different ideas to come up with these.

They were SO simple. I dipped my frozen cupcakes in warmed-up white icing and then straight into a bowl of red sugar-sprinkles.


I put a bit of the icing into a zip-loc bag with a cut-off corner and squeezed out the eyes.


Then it was chocolate chips for the eyeballs and an orange m&m for the nose.


And voila...


Nice to know I didn't put in hours of labour for a treat that was gone in less than a minute.


And what birthday would be complete without a birthday present?

Hmmm, I wonder what it could be...

It's my very own bike!


Here he is, climbing on his Strider bike for the first time. These pedal-less balance bikes have been gaining popularity as an alternative way for kids to learn to ride a bike. After having such a hard time getting Micah to ride without training wheels, we were keen to try a new method. (Speaking of which, Micah finally let us take his training wheels off for good yesterday while Silas was trying out his new bike. Yay!)


Silas asked where the pedals were at first but soon he was happily walking his bike along. The idea is that eventually he'll start pushing off and then resting his feet on the footrests as he gains a bit of speed. Right now he's just in walking mode, but I'm curious how much time it will take before he gets the confidence to pick up his feet a little.

And in case you're looking really closely at that last picture, I realized the moment after I snapped it that Keziah was in tears after wiping out at the end of the street. Training wheels definitely don't always keep you upright! I'm thinking she might benefit from a bit of time on the Strider bike herself...