Too Tired to Party

Last night I went to my parents' house for dinner. We all had a great time! My husband did good! Really good! He doesn't usually do much (if anything at all) for my birthday, but this year he got my something. Not only did he get me a present, but he didn't pick it up at the gas station today! He came up with an idea and ordered it ahead of time. I know! I almost fell over in shock too! He gave me 38 balloons and told me that my present was in one of them. (OK, the most horrible sound on earth is a squeaky balloon and just the thought of them gives me goosebumps. I had to pop the balloons until my present fell out of one of them.) He gave me diamond earrings! I can totally overlook the awful balloon noises because I'm just so impressed that he put so much thought into the present. And the way he wrapped it was very creative! I figure he's good for the next ten years. ;)

Tonight I went out with my sister to Stir Crazy. Yum! I had mai tais and stir fry shrimp. Actually, no, I had ONE mai tai and stir fry shrimp. Why only one? Because I would've fallen asleep in my bok choy had I had any more. How sad. My sister and I get a night out and we were both sitting there yawning. We did a little shopping and then decided it was time to go home. Yes, we're quite the life of the party.

Now to start working on the second round of edits on my book...

Let Them Eat Cake

We had a joint birthday for Clay and Brooklyn tonight. I spent the whole day making cakes.

Clay's cake - Here I have 2 layers. I have just finished trimming and shaping it and am starting to crumb coat it. Can you tell what it is?

Here I've got it shaped the way I want it, I've put a crumb coat over the whole thing and I've got the red icing on and smoothed out.

I've added the white and blue windows.

Here I've got almost all the decorations on.

Ta da! Lightning McQueen. It turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself! And yes, I do know that Lightning McQueen is number 95, but I put a 4 on him because Clay is 4 and I'm just so clever that way.

Think Duff would hire me at Charm City Cakes? ;)

Top view

Yes, I know - it's more pink than red. I forgot to make the frosting up ahead of time.

Side view

Back view

After working on Lightning McQueen all day, I realized I only had an hour left to do Brooklyn's Nemo cake! I slapped this thing together and Nemo ended up looking stupid. I've done much better Nemo cakes before. I was disappointed with this one.

My two year old birthday girl on the merry-go-round

My four year old birthday boy on the merry-go-round

My mom with my totally cute nephew, Dominick

It's Not a Party 'til Someone Gets Hurt

We had Austin's birthday party yesterday. He's going to be 13 on this week. I'm going to be the parent of an official teenager! I don't know how that happened. It seems like I just had him yesterday.

Anyway, the party was fine until Savannah fell off the bunk bed. She was sitting on the top bunk, leaning back against the guard rail when the wood snapped and she fell backwards off the top bunk and landed flat on her back on top of the broken wood. It knocked the wind out of her. For the next hour she cried that her chest hurt and she couldn't take normal breaths. I really thought she was just bruised, but how do you know that nothing more serious is wrong? I had my mom, mil, aunt, grandma, and everyone telling me to take her to the ER, so I took her in and they did x-rays and an EKG to make sure her heart wasn't bruised. Everything looked fine. There were no broken bones. She's just bruised and really sore.

Honestly, if I'd had to guess which of my kids would go flying off a bunk bed, I would've put money on Clay. Oh well. It's not a party until some furniture gets broken and someone winds up in the ER, right?

My almost teenage son refused to tell me what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday, so I made him this one...





Yes, it's a bacon cake. Not terribly creative, but the kid likes bacon. What can I say?





This was his cake last year. The most warped version of the Simpsons ever!
Check out the Tuffet, Clinique's personalized bottle of Happy perfume, Pipsqueak shoes, Colour me Family personalized labels, Sugar Britches diapers, and Lillian Grace tutus at Mamaslike!

Duff Goldman has Nothing on Me ;)

Eat your heart out, Ace of Cakes! ;)

I know you probably think this is the actual R2D2 model from the Star Wars movies because it is just SO lifelike. But it's not. It's cake! This is Boo's birthday cake. Cake decorating - just another one of my astounding talents. :::snort:::

It did actually turn out pretty cool though. Well, at first anyway. By the time I cut it, little R2 had started tipping back. In fact, he'd tipped so far back that my son had to kinda hold the top on while I cut it. I tried to convince everyone that I'd made it like that on purpose so it looked like he was moving. It's not a lie. It's more of a "creative embellishment." Note to self - bamboo skewers can NOT be used in place of dowel rods.

OK, diet starts THIS Monday.