Another Birthday Party to Plan

Buppy's oldest child's birthday is coming up in early November, and while I realize that it's about 2 months away, I want to start thinking about what we want to do for his party. We haven't had anything huge yet and I don't think we will this year either. However, Buppy's parents and his brother's family (6 in that family) come up from VA to celebrate, so there are at least 12 of us in the house for the celebration. I love having them up since we don't get to see them overly often, and I love planning the menu and cake. It's fun!

For his birthday last Nov., Buppy made stuffed shells (he has a really good recipe), garlic bread that's dipped in this wildly tasty (and a bit spicy) butter mixture before being broiled, and we had green salad. For his cake, I bought a Wilton train mold and made him a strawberry cake. It was a white cake with chunks of strawberries and strawberry Jello in it; he specifically asked for it, but it's not something I'd make again. It was alright, and very cute, but not something to repeat. (My first attempt ever at making a birthday cake!)

For the youngest's birthday in Feb., we did a sandwich buffet with all the trimmings. We had 2 different breads, slow cooker Italian beef, cold cuts, different spreads/condiments, veggies, chips and potato salad.For the cake, well, that blog is still to come. I invented the most wonderful cake ever. Well, maybe not ever, but it was still really good. Now it's time for another birthday. He'll be turning 5 . . . what do 5 yr. olds like? He's had a train, a tiger, Elmo and Pablo the Penguin from the Backyardigans. Maybe it's time for a fire truck since daddy's a firefighter and all. I guess I'll ask him and see what he has in mind. His suggestions will be taken more lightly than last year though (because of the whole strawberry cake issue). I'll peruse Wilton's website and see what they have. Oh, maybe Bugs Bunny. He loves Bugs Bunny; Buppy owns the entire Golden Collection and they're watched often in our house.

Besides the cake, what type of meal to serve? To be honest, Buppy and I keep talking about how we want to have a strictly dip (or appetizers in general) party, but I'm not sure that would fly with his family, mainly his parents. A roast? Grilled foods? Kabobs? Pasta? Buppy and I will have to talk it all over. I'm open to any ideas from visitors on here!