Foto Friday--A Party and a Recipe

Lily will be eleven on Monday. Since our family is in the Easter Pageant, last weekend was deemed, "Lily's birthday party." And we had a wild ride.  I decided to do "The Amazing Race," since she wanted to invite 20 girls--fifteen actually came.
When the girls all got there, I divided them randomly into teams by drawing bandannas out of a bag. The brothers didn't want to be left out.

Then they were off to find the six ingredients necessary to make layered cookie bars.  When they got back to the house, they had to assemble the ingredients in order and get their next clue.

The girls were so cute with Evie.  She wanted to be included in everything. They would carry her and have her help them with challenges.  Not so inclusive with the brothers for some reason.

While they were racing, I had pizza in the the oven, ready when they got back.  They had to use their bandannas and tie the whole team together as they ate 1 piece and drank soda. First team done got a 30 second advantage when the real challenges started.

After picking a leader, the rest of the team was blindfolded and led to the elementary school just through our back yard, where they had to pick up a bag full of gum and return to the house.  Each girl had to blow a bubble before they got their next clue.

There was a mystery sign clue, a puzzle to put together with an extra message written on the back . . .

. . . skitter races across the cul-de-sac and Starburst eating contests.  The final challenge was to fill this bucket with shaving cream as quickly as possible.

Lily insisted there be a shaving cream challenge, but I did not want them covered in it.  Those bandannas came in handy yet again when I made them clean up with it and the hose.

Evie was fascinated with this bucket of fluffy stuff.  Not so much for eating, she discovered.

The final challenge was to unscramble a phrase from letters hidden on the top left corner of each clue.  This was harder for them than I thought, and I ended up giving a few hints: Two words. Second word starts with an F.

"Bieber Fever" was the appropriate phrase, since Lily got a dozen posters and a few CDs of the Biebs.
All in all, it was an easy way to single-handedly entertain 16 fifth-grade girls for three hours.  We never left the neighborhood, and they walked everywhere as a team.  Lily shouted, halfway through, "THIS IS THE FUNNEST PARTY EVER!"  Then it was worth the work.

A few asked for my to-die-for frosting recipe.  It's nothing new or unusual.  It's just butter cream.

1 cube butter
1/4 c. milk
1 t. vanilla
1 pound powdered sugar

The key to making it "to-die-for" is using hard butter, straight from the fridge, and beating the holy bejiminies out of it with a hand mixer for 2-3 minutes.  That makes it "SO FLUFFY" (name that movie) and airy and tasty.  You can also add 1/2 c. cocoa for chocolate.  My mom always adds 1/4 t. almond, but that's not my fave.

Have a fantastic weekend.  Welcome, April!