Macy’s Great American Elf Adventure

Many of you know I have a not so secret dream to be a cake decorator… well, I’ve had my chance –sort of. Macy’s department store is sponsoring a contest to design the newest Elf balloon for the 2011 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in the Macy's Great American Elf Adventure. The best part is the PRIZE is a trip for four to NYC to watch the parade AND see the winning Elf design made into a huge parade balloon! Anchorage was one of the cities selected to participate even though we do not have a Macy’s physical store, though I’m sure Alaskan’s on-line purchases make up for it. KD /PR hosted a special event to give away 150 of these little guys FREE to anyone who wanted to decorate an Elf and enter the contest… and who could resist?!

My idea was to design and decorate a “Birthday Cake Elf” because it will be the 85^th birthday of the Thanksgiving Day Parade and I LOVE birthday cakes. I had all sorts of fun doing the research and learning more about the history of the parade and all that goes into the historic balloons –FASCINATING stuff! Keep your fingers crossed, everyone who entered will find out on August 30 if they are one of the LUCKY 85 finalists that will then let fans vote on their favorite Elf balloon design. Though, wouldn’t a BIRTHDAY CAKE ELF BALLOON be the best?!

Speaking of birthdays… Daddy-O turned the big Five-Oh today! (and no, we don't have any snow YET but it's one of my favorite pictures of Derek) Happy birthday to my hunky husband –we all know you’d rather be skiing than eating birthday cake!