John's Birthday

John turned 9 this year. 9.  That tiny little baby that cried all of the time turned into a squeaky voiced little boy who loved Thomas.  That Thomas loving fool suddenly grew up and is now in 4th grade.  I feel old.

 His "party" consisted of Debbie, Pam, Glenn, Sophie, and the Davis family.  Small yet fun.  As long as he gets cake and a cheap table cloth this kid is happy.

 He had a ton of helpers opening presents, but John didn't mind.  He likes being the center of attention.

 This year John requested an ice cream cake.  I tried my best.  I still need to play a bit with the whipped cream topping.

Chocolate cake with chocolate ice cream and cookie dough ice cream.

John had a great "party".

I still can't believe my baby is 9.

Minecraft Cakes

I was asked to make a Minecraft cake for a little boy's birthday party. I'm sure all they were thinking of and expecting was a sheet cake with some simple Minecraft image piped on.  But I decided to try out a couple of new fondant recipes and some new tools.  I ended up making two cakes because they wanted half white, half chocolate and this was the easiest way for me to do that.

 I don't actually play Minecraft.  After doing some image searches I was able to find that this looks like part of the game.  That ends my Minecraft knowledge.

 This one took FOREVER!  Each tile is cut out and placed by hand.  About a quarter of the way through I was really regretting my decision to do this.  But I'm glad I pushed through.

Everything is edible (well, not the toothpicks).  I regret that I didn't take a picture of this cake before I started packaging it up for travel.  The toothpicks were there to ensure the pickaxe didn't topple over in the car.

It's been a couple of months since I tackled this cake and I might take on a project like this again.  I said MIGHT. It was hours of work.  I now know why our wedding cake was so expensive.

Anders' Birthday

Yes, I am a horrible mother.  Anders' birthday came and went and I never blogged about it.  Take comfort in knowing we did actually celebrate the event.  We actually still had D with us so there were 4 boys chomping at the bit to open up presents and eat cake.

 This kid actually had a couple of celebrations because Debbie and Pam had us over to celebrate before they left for Florida.  We had to have the non-birthday boys sit on the couch so Anders could actually see what he was opening.

 The present he was the most excited about was his new bike!  It was chilly, but the boys went outside right after this to test it out.

 He was ready to open the rest of his presents the afternoon of his actual birthday.

The big four year old requested a Sonic the Hedgehog cake.  This was fun to do.

His birthday fell on a Sunday and we actually had a voters meeting scheduled that day.  So we brought the cake to church and everyone sang Happy Birthday and had a piece.

Gus' Birthday Party

This was the first year that Gus actually wanted a birthday party with other kids there.  We took that as a good sign for our little introvert and invited his whole class.  We ended up with 19 kids.  It was a blast.

Gus wanted to have a Mission Marvel party so the kids were invited to dress as their favorite super heroes.

 Spiderman (with some needed accessories)

 Iron Man

And Super Anders...because he is a super hero all on his own.

These two sure do love each other.

 Hans came up with some fantastic games to play.

Games that included: silly string,

 blindfolds, 

 and throwing hammers.

 Then it was time for cake and ice cream.

 Gus had a very specific cake request.  It had to be a G and it had to have these specific faces on it.

It was a great day and fun was had by all.

Anders is 3!

A little over a week ago, my little monster turned 3.  On the morning of his birthday we had an appointment for him to be evaluated for preschool.  Gus was evaluated on his third birthday too, but decided that "being evaluated" meant "I won't talk to anyone."  Anders talked to everyone, however, but kindly told them he would only answer to the name Birthday Boy.  The ladies were all cracking up...and secretly hoping that this kid was not in their school district.

 Fritz loves to photo-bomb.

I can't believe my baby is 3.

 The birthday boy was chomping at the bit to open his presents.

 After opening the first present from Uncle Jake and Aunt Ashley it took a long time to focus this kid's attention to open anything else.

 Fritz was even infatuated with Perry the Platypus.

 After we were able to get Anders to put down the platypus, he thoroughly enjoyed opening up all of his presents.  He also thoroughly enjoyed not having to share them with his brothers that day and reminding them every 5 seconds that it was his birthday.

 He wanted his cake to be too many things to make it into anything else.  He also quickly reminded me that I left off some stuff.

 But he loved the cake, so that is a success.

He actually got to have his cake at a friend's house.  I think he liked having so many people sing Happy Birthday to him.

35 Years

My parents actually flew in for a visit on the day of their 35th wedding anniversary.  I know there are some people who would not want to spend their anniversary with 3 loud and obnoxious boys, but this was exactly where they wanted to be.  And you can't feel too bad for them as they are going to Italy this summer to celebrate.  I was explaining to the boys what an anniversary was, which was really quite confusing.  In the end they got that it is something that happens every year, like a birthday, and something you can celebrate.  So they asked to make a cake.  I'm not sure if that was because they wanted to do something nice for Grandma and Grandpa or if they just wanted cake.

 So I made a cake and the boys decorated it.  I let them cut out pieces of fondant and use my airbrush to add color.

 The grandparents were pleasantly surprised.  

The cake decorators.  They were pretty proud of themselves.

Spiderman Cake

I was totally surprised when Gus asked for a Spiderman cake for his birthday.  (Hans can't be the only one in this family that is sarcastic.)  Gus tried to get me to make a Spiderman cake with "all of the super heroes on it. Even Larry Boy."  And, unfortunately I had to tell him that I was not talented enough to pull that off.  But I promised I would do my best to make a cool Spiderman cake.

I decided this would be a great time to use my airbrush.

 The finished product.

I learned a lot doing this cake.  I was just about to give up on the whole cake thing because the cakes NEVER came out like I envisioned them.  Cakes would fall apart when I would try to put the layers together and fondant is not necessarily my friend.   So, I'm going to share a few tips I learned, and re-learned this time.

1. Cake is always easier to cut the day after it is made.  This is something I already knew, but that means you have to actually make the cake the day before you want to put it together.  I usually try to do a cake marathon day where I'm baking and decorating in a few hours and I'm always disappointed.  Maybe this time the lesson will stick.

2. After filling the cake I ice the cake.  This is called a crumb coat.  This time, completely by accident, the frosting was very thick and a little on the dry side.  This actually made the crumb coating easier!

3.  Letting the cake chill after crumb coating and before putting the fondant on makes life so much easier.

Even though fondant is not really my friend, I use it.  I know I just need to spend more time working with it.  I use it because this allows me to have bright, rich colors on the cake with out having my kids consume all the dyes.  The fondant is edible, but most people peel it off.  I'm not sure I've actually met anyone who likes fondant.  So my kids know to peel off the outer layer and enjoy the cake with the crumb coating.  Everyone's happy.

I just had to get a picture in here that showed how flat this cake was.  No lumps, bumps or sinking in the middle!

The birthday boy loved his cake.  Which makes this one a success!

Birthday Cake

Debbie and Pam gave me this...

...for my birthday.

They gave it to me a couple of days early thinking Hans could make a birthday cake for me using the new airbrush.  There was NO WAY I was letting Hans get his hands on this.  It actually has to be cleaned out immediately after each use.  I actually wanted to be able to use it myself.  So on my birthday I made my own cake.  I didn't really care how it looked when it was done.  It was a day to try out new cake and frosting recipes and use my new airbrush.

 This was the end result.  The flowers are made from marshmallows, first cut then sprayed.

The cake was lopsided and not smooth, but it tasted good, I had fun making it, and I found some new recipes.  Oh, and I got to use my cool, new airbrush.

Happy Birthday, Gus!

My sweet Gus turned 3 yesterday.  Although I believe he will still tell you he is 5.

Gus requested an Elephant and Piggie cake for his birthday.  If you don't know about Elephant and Piggie, you can view my previous post here.

This is what Gus thought of his cake...

Add some pretty awesome presents from his grandparents, great grandparents, great aunts and uncles and this kid had a great day.

John Turns 4

We have now hit the wild and wonderful 4's.  We have the wild part down and are constantly working on the wonderful part.  For the most part, the horrible fits are gone and what remains is a child who knows what he wants and will use any means necessary to get it.  Despite how he goes to bed, he always wakes up in a good mood, even if it only lasts for 5 minutes.  I love that he is easier to console and easier to reason with.  It makes for a better day.  He hasn't been 4 for a week and I already love this more than 3.

John was of course spoiled for his birthday.  I'm pretty sure Hans and I would never have to buy our kids presents again and they wouldn't be the wiser as grandparents, great grandparents, and aunts and uncles make sure our children are adequately supplied with the best toys.  Aside from numerous trains (always a hit) the two biggest hits came this year from the grandparents in the form of the Deluxe Roundhouse and a Radio Flyer Scooter.  He loved all of his presents and is still very careful about letting Gus play with them.

John with all of his gifts.

Thank you everyone for making his birthday so special.

For the past 10 months John has been telling everyone that I was going to make him a dragon cake for his birthday.  Not just any dragon, but the Chinese Dragon from Thomas the Train.  I thought he would forget all about the dragon cake and ask for something else when his birthday arrived, but alas he did not.  So, this left me to have numerous nightmares about how to make this cake and what it would look like.  Hans was a big help this year in helping me carve out the head of the dragon.  This was only my third attempt at working with fondant so while I see every mistake, I am proud of the fact that it actually did look like the dragon.

John enjoyed "helping" me make the cake.

When John saw the dragon the morning of his birthday he got so excited he ran from the room to find the Chinese Dragon train.  He brought the train into the room, held it up next to the cake and said, "Let's compare."  And then, "You did a fabulous job, Mommy."  The late night and all the worry was worth it to hear him say he liked the cake.

 Enjoying the first bite.