Hanging with Hairy

Jack had trouble deciding his favorite part of the Lady Dawgs game...the giant cookie or meeting Hairy Dawg.

A bit of insider trading

This is Sam watching big brother's t-ball practice this evening. All things considered, he did okay...but this lollipop was my saving grace. Might want to consider buying stock in tootsie pops, people. I'm just saying.

Medicine for the Heart

You may recall my post from last week about how I was caught a bit off guard by my oldest's words. I didn't lament over it, although I do recall he seemed to mouth the same phrase at me a couple of days later following another incident.

And, even though I wasn't stewing on it, it did feel good to hear him do a 180, without any thought to his previous statements. On Monday, while he, Sam and I were eating lunch, he said, "You're the bestest Mom." I smiled and said, "Oh, thank you! What makes me the bestest mom?" He said, "Well you are always fixing things. And you make the bestest things." He could have meant I make the best hot dog, pineapple and pretzel lunches or perhaps he meant I had done a good job at fixing him and his ailing brother as Monday was a bit of a sick day. Either way, it felt good. I told him how much I loved hearing him say that, and that it made me feel very good.

On a related note, Saturday night as I rocked Sam before bedtime, I was telling him how much I loved him. I told him that I love him, and that was the reason I made him a birthday cake and we had a special party. Without skipping a beat, he muttered, "I wuv Ooo too!"

Bedtime

Almost nightly Sam insists on reading his "I ye book" (Ali book = photo album from last summer's VBS). Highlights include "every ba ee cups" (the photo where all his classmates have their juice cups. Also, "like a my cake" on the photo of a round road sign, which resembles a pancake to him? Of course he enjoys "find yachoo libberpy!" (statue of liberty)

Jack always lobbies for a different book, but I don't mind. I love it!

One more party post

Can you stand it? One more post about that darn birthday party for a two-year-old!? Just wanted to give a shout out to Pinterest for the great resources.

There was of course the cake!

There was the Nail It activity.

There was the Dig It activity.

 I bought two tubs and plenty of sand, but after some guest estimating I decided to only put out one since there would only be four kids 2 and under. Surely, the big kids wouldn't want to play in the sand? You can see who is crowded around the table.

Tuesday fun

Can you tell what we're doing on daddy's afternoon off?

The Cake

Since it took me weeks to prepare (and psych myself up) for making Sam's cake, it is only fitting the cake should receive its very own blog post. Again, a friend shared this cake with me on Pinterest, and I decided to go for it. When I first saw the cake, I thought it might be a challenge, but really thought it looked cool. Then, I saw the inside of the cake, which is beyond cool. But, also made me rethink my decision to make my child's birthday cake. My child's birthday cake that other people would actually see. I mean I've done cupcakes before. Cupcakes I can handle, but a cake?! I was a little intimidated by the prospect of a from scratch cake...I'm definitely more of a "semi-homemade with Sandra Lee" kind of girl. A friend convinced me I could do it with box cake, so I went for it.

I gathered my ingredients, and borrowed some gel food coloring from a much more experienced birthday cake creator. Day one was mixing, coloring, baking, cooling and leveling the cakes. Since I needed a yellow layer and a black layer, I tinted a yellow mix and a chocolate mix. I finished with four total layers, which I froze overnight on Wednesday.

Thursday morning, while the boys were at preschool, I gathered my supplies. The most important of which was this incredibly handy step-by-step photo tutorial of how to cut the cake, hence the laptop.

 

Then I unwrapped my layers and got to sawing with my bread knife. 

I think this was the most nerve-wracking part because the whole time I'm thinking: "I hope you know what you are doing. This better not be a total fail. I guess there is always the Wal-Mart bakery." When your counter starts to look like this, you might panic a bit.

 And it only gets worse, before it gets better.

But, it does get better, and you start to think: "Maybe I can follow simple instructions. Maybe this cake might actually look like it's supposed to when we cut it open. Maybe I'll bake my children's birthday cake's more often. Hey, wait...let's not get carried away here.

Then, these puppies (four total, I cut & photographed them in pairs) went back into the freezer overnight Thursday. Friday evening I pulled them out and covered them with a yummy chocolate buttercream I whipped up using butter, powdered sugar, cocoa, vanilla & milk. Thankfully by this point my mom was in house to help and was a great assistant on the parts that sort of crumbled or broke. We excavated the first cake and then covered with oreos, and soon moved onto the second cake. I already had some white cake boards, from when we created this beauty. So, I flipped it over to the cardboard side, to match my construction decor, and we were in business.

And what do you know, when we sliced it...it actually looked like it was supposed to. (Although mine didn't stay together as neatly as the original (probably because I used box cake), but overall I was pleased with my attempts. Best of all, the cake tasted fabulous. We barely finished the one cake, so we're still enjoying cake #2. FYI, it goes great with a cold glass of milk.