Eli's Birthday Party - Turtley Awesome Sleepover

The cake...

 I baked a 9x13 for the body, a round cake for the head, and 12 cupcakes for the arms and legs.  At Eli's request the body and head were yellow cake and the arms and legs were red velvet.  I made buttercream frosting using this recipe.  I trimmed the 9x13 to make shoulders and hips and then used the cut pieces to make the mask.  I also cut the round cake to make more of a face shape.  (I guess you could say I gave the turtle cheeks.)  I used orange and green gel food coloring.  I like gel because you only have to use a tiny bit to get the desired color.  I used a tube of store bought black icing to draw the turtle's smile and chest.  My oldest son made some weapons for the Ninja Turtle using aluminum foil.

The decorations...

Decorating for the party was certainly a group effort.  Ethan and I turned plain green balloons into Ninja Turtle heads, the older boys and friends made the gift bags.  Colin hung balloons and helped me set up the table and Nic helped make labels for the candy.

The food...

Since the Ninja Turtles are all about eating pizza, I set up a make-your-own pizza buffet.  The kids REALLY liked this.  It was a bigger hit than I thought it would be.  I bought little hug jugs in the Ninja Turtle colors and put out jars of candy in each of the Turtle colors also.  We, of course, had cake for dessert and later on during the night the kids had popcorn while they watched a Ninja Turtle movie.  For breakfast the next morning my honey made pancakes.  He kept making them, and making them, and making them until finally he had all 10 kids full!  (He loved every minute of it by the way.)

For fun...

I now have an education in Ninja Turtle which includes knowing about Mutagen.  We made homemade Mutagen (similar to "slime") using the recipe below.  The kids LOVED it!

Fill one small cup with water and add one spoonful of Borax powder.  Stir and set aside.  Fill another small cup with one inch Elmer's glue.  Add 3 tablespoons water to the glue and stir.  Add a few drops of food coloring and stir until mixed.  Add one tablespoon of the Borax solution and stir well.  Let sit for 1 minute to set up.  

Eli says this was the best birthday party ever.  That's all this sleep deprived mama needed to hear.