Tis the season for birthdays!

Birthdays are always a great time to celebrate those very special people in our lives. Our family keeps growing as my sister and family are going to welcome a new little one this July. That will bring us up to 9! But the first family birthday of the new year will be my mom's 60th this Thursday.

We are putting on a surprise (hoping she still doesn't know) birthday with family and friends. I am doing a slight Retro theme for the occasion. Bringing in some of her old time favorite candies when she was a kid as well as pictures of her growing up.

This will be a BIG week of baking. Thank goodness I am on break from school! New recipes I hope to try this week will be Italian Cream Cupcakes (infused with coconut and hazelnut flavors) and for the savory side, Mac and Cheese French Gnocchi. I will let you know how these go with pics to follow. Now all this said, I hope she doesn't read my blog this week... Shhhh :)

The party was a success! Here are some of the pics from the day.

With the retro theme, we had pictures of my mom growing up as well as some of the different candies that you would find from the 1960's that guests could take home in candy bags.

I made Italian Cream and Hot Fudge Sundae Cupcakes (the latter pictured here) for the occasion. I believe there was only one left at the end of the day!