Muffin Tin Monday - Happy Birthday, Baby!

We had her first party with the two friends she chose to invite on the Sunday before her birthday. She opened up her present (a new dollhouse!!) the night before, since we were headed off on her actual birthday to my sister's house for two days and wanted to not only give her a chance to play with it, but also let her help us put it together. Her family birthday party was the Saturday after, since I wanted to be sure and include all the people she didn't want to invite, but also wanted to respect her choice. So we compromised with two parties! 

So we didn't have a big hullabaloo on her actual birthday, other than to make sure she understood that it was her birthDAY, and the rest was just to celebrate it. I did decide to throw together an MTM, last minute, though, when she started asking for a PBHoney sandwich at lunch time.

Happy Birthday, Baby!

Banana, carrot "streamers," "cake," grape "balloons,"
PBH "presents," string cheese nibblets "confetti."

I started out with no inspiration, so just cut a banana into thirds and sliced the peel along the side, so she could easily get it off. Then I started thinking I could use my present cookie cutter for the sandwich, and found ways to make the rest of the meal go with a birthday party theme.

I used a C-shaped blade cutter and made strips down the sides of a carrot to make the "streamers." I was kind of hoping they'd curl, but no such luck!
The grapes already look balloonish, so that was an easy out. And I decided at the last minute figured that the string cheese nibblets could be "confetti."

Since no birthday is complete without cake, I opted to use one of my cake balls left over from Christmas (Yes, THEY'RE STILL GOOD! Well, the ones completely covered in chocolate, anyway. Not so much the ones with a hole in the coating. They've been sitting in Ziplocs in a Tupperware container in the fridge and I'm slo-o-owly going through them.)
I used a toothpick to poke holes in the chocolate coating, then some of my longer pink jimmies sprinkles as "candles." There are 3 "candles," for my big three-year-old!

Since I wanted to use my present-shaped muffin liners (from a Christmas brownie kit I got at Target on clearance,) I chose a segmented plate. The one I happened to grab first had round, square, and triangular shaped compartments in addition to the larger spot at the bottom, so I chose a round, square, and triangular shaped silicone liner to match each one (my square one was from Wilton, the other two were imported on eBay.) For the cake ball, I used a paper liner, since it was more festive, and the only mini silicone liners I have are red and blue, which were already covered, color-wise. The plate is from Joann's and is probably discontinued. But it has little garden sprites on it, and I had to have it! If you're looking for some cute ones, use the words "child (or toddler) divided (or section) plate" in your search. It weeds out a lot of the chaff.

It should come as no surprise what part of the lunch she went for first... but she did end up eating all her carrots. Also the sandwiches and most of the cheese. She ate only a few grapes, which was a shocker, since she's been on a grape kick lately. I ate the banana. It was about 5 seconds away from turning into mush, so maybe just too ripe for her tastes. Or just not in a fruity mood on her birthday!