Detroit Lions Birthday Party

 

David wanted a Detroit Lions theme for his 15th Birthday this year. He always requests beef tenderloin and potatoes for the main dish, but we added some other Lions' touches this year. I made non-alcoholic jello shots in the Lions color scheme and put together a Dan Campbell press conference cutout. 

The cake is two full size 9x13 inch cakes baked together in a large sheet pan. Everything is covered in homemade green fondant. I added blue and white fondant to make the rest of the field. I couldn't make the goal posts with one pole on the bottom, so we had to settle for two poles going all the way down. These are just pvc pipes covered with yellow construction paper. 

For the cutout, I took a picture of Dan Campbell from a press conference video I found online. I used my phone to capture just his image. Then I opened the image in Paint and went to the print preview setting. From there, I selected Fit To and changed it to 4 by 4. I cut out the images from the pages printed and taped them on to a foam board. Then I cut the foam board to fit the picture. I went to our local Dollar General and they happened to be unpacking a shipment, so I found this perfect black box in the shape of a podium. I taped the foam board to the box to get the final product. 

Founding Fathers' Dinner

 

Instead of the traditional burgers and hot dogs, we decided to look up the founding fathers' favorite foods and cook that for 4th of July dinner. 

We made smoked turkey breast for Ben Franklin, had green beans and pineapple for Jefferson, rolls for Madison, mini apple pie for Adams (and almost all of the others), cherry crumble for Washington, and ice cream for Hamilton. We also had mashed potatoes and smoked up some sausage and "shotgun" shells too. (Those are a manicotti noodle stuffed with a sausage/cream cheese/jalapeno mixture and wrapped with bacon). 

We also had angel food with strawberries and blueberries for our red/white/blue dessert.