Briar turned 4 years old this past week and we had so much fun celebrating! We kicked off her birthday week with some extended family at a theme park. I made some Sonic The Hedgehog sugar cookies and everyone sang to her. As her birthday rolled out I took photos and will share what we made and did below.
I am linking the best sugar cookie cut out recipe! Set the butter out the night before so it will be room temperature when you start mixing ingredients. You want to avoid having to microwave the butter. Do minimal handling of the dough once you start doing the cut outs. Make the cut outs thick. No one wants a thin crunchy sugar cookie. Here is the link for the best buttercream frosting!
I ordered the 5″ cookie cutter and it was huge! I recommend a smaller size. I also will tell you the cookie cutter is NOT dishwasher safe.
Leading up to Briar’s birthday her daddy just couldn’t resist spoiling her with a new character each day. He never did find Amy The Hedgehog but Briar had a special interest in the “Yellow Sonic” so that one is holding her place.
The characters were dad’s find, but I had already wrapped two other gifts for her birthday. We let her open them on her actual birthday as her party was not for a few more days. Normally Briar only gets one gift from us and then we go all out on the birthday fun and decor. She was a lucky one this year!
(our little secret the Our Generation Medical Kit I got was used off of Facebook Marketplace).
The cookies were gone and it was time to make the cake for her party. I googled cake ideas for a Sonic themed party and found one I wanted to recreate! I am sharing the screenshot I took of the cake and I will link the bakery that made it here.
READY TO SEE MINE?
I am a huge fan of wedding cake because it has the almond flavor. Turns out there is now a box version of wedding cake. Some day I hope to try and make my own cake from scratch, but birthday planning gets busy. However, I WILL ALWAYS make my own buttercream frosting. The same frosting I used on the sugar cookies. It is much easier to decorate with than store bought frostings.
If you are going to stack cakes make sure the top is leveled. Cake tends to dome while cooking so you will need to cut the rounded part off. When decorating the cake you will first need a crumb layer. Spread the frosting all over the cake and it will not be pretty, but once the frosting hardens (I put mine in the fridge for a little while) then you can come back and spread on the pretty layer. You can smooth it out by dipping your icing spatula in warm water.
For food we went with the Summer “Go To,” grilled hotdogs and burgers. Fun fact: Sonic The Hedgehog is always looking for a Chili Dog in the shows but it was just too hot to be making chili. We had a veggie tray, chips and dip, and a cooler full of pop and juice. If you are looking for a juice that is not full of additives and scores GOOD on the Yuka app I got one for you!
Her birthday outfit is from Shein. It fit perfect and was super affordable. She wears 3T/4T clothing and I ordered a size 4Y. We tried to get a Sonic outfit but it was slim pickings for toddler girls. Everything we found were older girl sizes. Our first purchase was this sonic jumpsuit and then I realized I was not shopping in the toddler section. In the end we went for an all blue outfit and then I surprised her with the adorable (high quality) bow from Etsy.
Party Decorations were from Amazon. I highly recommend this balloon arch contraption and a balloon air pump. I have had these for years. I have lost count how many times I have used these, as well as friends and family who have borrowed them.
This was our first year with a piñata. Briar was so excited so we decided to add to the fun with a costume. Rob dressed up as Sonic and ran around our back alley way with the piñata until everyone started to notice him.
I figured most of us mamas would appreciate a little less candy in the piñata, so I found some party favor toys to stuff inside and then I took the Fourth of July parade candy Briar picked up and added a little of that to the piñata.
Our party agenda was as follows:
People arrived at 11:30 and the food was already on the grill
As the plates cleared we gathered everyone back in for the birthday cake.
As we ate our cake Rob changed into his Sonic costume and started running around out back. He was noticed quickly, as our backyard is not huge. He ran in with the piñata and the kids lined up for the fun.
After the candy and toys were scooped up by little hands we went right into gifts.
Once the gifts were unwrapped we considered the party over, so if people needed to leave they could. We had lots of yard toys and a family sized inflatable pool set up for kids to play.
