Miles' Block Party

Since there's really not much of a party for most babies turning one (Ethan was very upset when he asked what games we'd be playing at Miles' party and I said none- "but it's not a party without games mom!"), so the cake seems to become the focus. Ethan and Isaac's first birthday cakes were kind of a bust. Ethan at that point wouldn't eat ANYTHING sweet so I ended up baking a corn muffin in a cake pan shaped like a 1 and frosting it with squeezy can cheese. At least I got the messy face pictures but it still didn't feel all that honest. For Isaac's first birthday we were in Portugal and the only cake mix I could find was written in Portuguese. So I felt fortunate to be able to bake the sucker and didn't really dwell on it not being that fun or fancy. For Miles (who does eat sugar (as much as you'll give him) and WILL be in the US for his birthday) I decided I had to do a fun, big cake. I looked online for ideas to steal and fell in love with the idea of cakes made of blocks. Most of these such cakes just said BABY and were for baby showers but I decided I could write his name and just combine 2 letters on 1 block to fit all 5 letters.
Some parts of it were very easy. I used candy melt chocolates and squeeze bottles to make all the letters and shapes. (took like 10 minutes)
The only hard part was frosting each of the blocks. Normally frosting a cake is easy, but once you've cut into the cake and then try to add frosting, all the crumbly parts fall off. Oh well, it's not like Miles or the rest of the family cared about my frosting job and then sticking on all the chocolate pieces took less than 2 minutes. So super easy.
Here's the letter S block. It had S's on 2 sides, a snake on one side, sun on the other, and smiley face on the top.
Here's the I and L block which then had an Ice cream cone on one side, a leaf on the other, and a Love heart on the top.
The E block had 2 E's, an elephant on top, and an egg and an eye on the sides.
And the M block had 2 M's, a moon, a monkey, and a #1 with the candle on top.
Here's the finished product. Sloppier than the ones online where they used fondant- but this one tastes better.
Sadly no up close picture since Miles was pretty intent on grabbing the lit candle.
He went for the chocolate pieces first and ate almost every single one.
Then he dipped his fingers in the icing and wasn't too impressed with the squishiness. So we gave up and let him have a spoon and with that he polished off enough to feed a small army.
After washing that pretty face (and removing every bit of clothing since the bib wasn't nearly enough to save them) we gave him his presents. The Block idea was also partly perfect because we gave him 2 block toys and a bunch of blocks I found on craigslist. Can I just say I don't feel bad about giving my kids second hand toys? So many people over buy for their kids and then these fabulous toys hardly get played with and they sell them for dirt cheap. Less than $20 for the incrediblock, wagon, and 20+ blocks. They're in perfect condition and my kids LOVE them. Love them enough that they won't even look at me to smile even though I've called their name 15 times in a row.
This toy totally rocks. At least that's what I think he's saying.
His favorite part is the side that has the shape sorter. He drops them in the top and laughs hilariously as he pulls them out again. A happy birthday boy and a happy mommy.