"Happy, Happy Birthday"

Sunday (a week or so later than I had planned, do to the Snot Fairy's untimely visit) we had DD#2's first Birthday Party!! It was low key, with just the neighbors invited over for cake and snacks.

I did a veggie tray, a fruit tray (with dip, Cottage cheese blended with honey, to taste, till smooth), my cheesy meat balls (recipe below) and cake, my friend and neighbor Amy did the chicken wings (she said she'd teach me how to make them, and I have an extra bag of wings in the freezer waiting for her), there were some crackers and Kool Aid too.

It was perfect, the weather held, there was just enough snacks, and the kids ran around in the yard(s). Between the 4 houses there were 14 kids under 10!! (most of them being from just 3 houses where there are 4 kids each) I'm also including a link to my flicker page so you can see the rest of the pics from the party. I'll just include the pic of the meatballs on this page tho.

Cheesy Meatballs
Normally this is a 3 ingredient list
1 lb 93% lean ground beef
1/2 cup grated/shredded Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs

If you are out of Parmesan cheese and bread crumbs (like I was on Sunday) you can use
1 (ish ere on the more side of ish) cup shredded mozzarella cheese
2 eggs
2 tsp kosher salt
2 Tbs Basil
1 tsp Oregano
1 Tbs Sage
1 tsp fresh ground pepper

Moosh the meat together and then roll into ping pong sized balls and bake at 350 till brown.
normally they are crisp looking, if you used the mozzarella they will be gooey, but still tasty. Turns out when you add the extra gooey meat balls to the not so meaty leftover soup it's divine!

The cakes were from boxes (gasp, I know, but hey, I'm not super woman here) and I found how to make the monkey by doing a Google search and Martha Stewart has a video that explains it far better than I could ever dream of doing . The bunny head cupcakes were from a pan I picked up on an after Easter clearance a few years back in Homage to DH's mom (she gave me 2 3-D pans, a bunny and a duck) and when I saw the cup cake pan I had to have it too.