Birthday Madness

Crazy to think that my little girl is now seven years old!  We had her birthday party yesterday with all of her friends.  I swear I don't remember being that emotional at seven.  Nevertheless, the girls were all on a roller coaster of sorts.  Arrival was great, though our opening craft of decorating treat bags did not possess the magical quality it has in the past.  Following that was exploring the darkened bathroom with glow in the dark bracelets.  Then we had clean the kitchen with balloons and the searching for seashells in a bucket of rice blindfolded (a definite toss for this age group!).  Painting sea shells and porcelain animals came next which was met well, but was rushed through by about half of the girls.  These girls proceeded to loudly say that there was nothing to do.  In came a balloon sword fight.  A very short connect four tournament led to a quick present opening and decorating cupcakes.  Again, not a very long lasting event.  Finally the big hit of a riddle solving hunt.  This continues to be the highlight of our parties, however with differing ages (nearly 5 to nearly 8), this involved some hurt feelings for the younger girls who were not as fast to solve the puzzle and search for the next clue.  Unfortunately, after rushing through the prior events, we had about 20 minutes of free play time, aka meltdown time.  Lots of tears as the group separated into cliques.  I never imagined this would happen at such a young age!
All in all a fun, successful party, but a sour note at the end.  Next year more games/activities will be planned and perhaps more guests invited to prevent the left out feelings of some of the girls at times.  Then again, even the best planning may not stop the roller coasters!

At least as a result, we have a new favorite cupcake recipe.  My daughter loves chocolate cupcakes, which we made, but then also requested confetti cupcakes.  This is the homemade recipe I found on-line:

Confetti Cupcakes

1/2 cup milk
3 large egg whites
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
6 tbsp butter, soft
2 tbsp rainbow sprinkles

Preheat oven to 350F.
Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.
In a measuring cup, whisk together milk, egg whites and extracts. Set aside
In the bowl of an electric mixer (or a large bowl if you prefer to work by hand), combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Stir to combine. Cut in butter with the paddle attachment at low speed (or cut in by hand), until mixture is coarse and sandy. Add milk mixture and beat at medium speed for 1 1/2 minutes. Scrape sides of bowl and continue beating for 20-30 seconds. Stir in sprinkles.
Divide batter evenly into prepared tin. Bake for for 15 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.
Remove from pan and cool completely on a wire cooling rack before frosting.
Makes 12.  (I doubled the recipe and omitted the almond due to an allergy at the party, then used giant muffin tins to make 12.)