laeroport: The Kit Party

Last Saturday, after waiting very patiently since MAY, Aidin got to celebrate her birthday with her friends.

Originally we were going to have a pirate party. She'd been planning since last October. Then at the beginning of April she decided she wanted a Star Wars party. Fine. The only thing I'd bought were t-shirts - and red t-shirt would work just as easily for Star Wars as for Pirates.

Then a boy in her class trumped her. He had a Star Wars party the week before her birthday - and he didn't invite her.

First grade devastation.

So we decided to wait on Kit. Kit Kittredge: An American Girl opened in theaters nationwide on July 2nd. But not here. But we were not deterred! Into Kansas City we went (thanks to my KC friends for the theater advice!) and a good time was had by all.

And for what could have been complete movie schmaltz, it was actually a really fun film. The story veered pretty far from the original six Kit books in the American Girl book series, but the spirit of the film was true to Kit and the 1930s.

So with going to a movie, our program was planned. I just needed a cake and goodie bags.

Aidin wanted a lemon cake, after having lemon cake for her dad's birthday. We happened to spy an idea for a four layer colored cake in an old issue of American Girl Magazine, so this is what we came up with: yellow and green lemon icing on the outside,

riot of color on the inside.

I added 1/2 a small carton of lemon yogurt to the cake mix and then divided the batter into slightly more than one cup portions. I used simple gel food coloring in blue, green, orange and red for the different colored layers. The recipe in the magazine used powdered jello to achieve the same effect, but we worried that would alter the flavor.

For the goodie bags, we included a CD of music from the 1930's, a reporter's notebook and pencil, tootsie pops (which were invented in the 30's), and KIT Kats (Aidin thought this was a hilarious joke),

all wrapped up in brown paper bags tied with ribbon.

And those t-shirts, I had intended to embroider a scottie dog (for Inky, Kit's Uncle's dog - and not in the movie) on each one, but I ran out of time, so Grandma and her fancy embroidery machine to the rescue.