Care Package #2: Happy Birthday!!

Unfortunately Daniel and I aren't able to spend his birthday together this year. But I still wanted to make his day as special as possible, even if I am 3,000 miles away.

I started out with a US Postal Service large flat rate priority box.  These boxes cost around $15 to ship and you can make them as heavy as you want.  I always decorate my boxes with supplies from Dollar Tree or with things I can find around the house.  I started out decorating the inside and flaps of the box with wrapping paper.  I used a Cricut machine to cut out "Happy Birthday", "Missing You", and "Twenty-three" with construction paper.  The goal of my decorations is to make them as cute and cheap as possible.

I also attached a picture of us from his 21st birthday. I added the party hats :]

I wanted Daniel to be able to have birthday cake on his birthday so I decided to make him "cake in a jar".  After looking at dozens of recipes I decided to make these Paula Deen red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting (find the recipe here).  After baking the cupcakes I cut the tops off and layered the cakes with the frosting in mason jars.  I used two jars; one I filled to the top with cake and the other I filled half way and squished 23 candles on top.  I used scrap fabric to cover the lids and tied a ribbon around the top.  I love the way they turned out!

 

Along with the cake, here is what I put in his birthday care package...

 single serve tuna packets

poptarts

microwaveable soup

nutella

pretzels (to dip in the nutella)

pretzel M&Ms

single shots of Jack Daniel's and Captain Morgan (it is his birthday after all)

red velvet cake in a jar

presents from me

cards from his family

random letters I write to him

After I squished everything into the box and stuffed it to the top with tissue paper (to prevent things from rolling around while being shipped) I popped a pack of party poppers to make the box SCREAM happy birthday (if it didn't already).  I hope he has a great birthday and enjoys the package!