birthday boy

My oldest turned six this weekend. I can hardly believe it! I love that kid with my whole being. He is such a good kid and I'm truly blessed to have such wonderful children. (Yes, even when they are doing flying leaps off the couch and trying to bone crush each other.) He wanted a party and so we had one. It was Batman all the way. When he decided what he wanted to do we started talking about cake. I am no master baker but I can do alright with fairly simple designs. I've dabbled with fondant and other decorating tools. I am not nearly patient enough to apply a million frosting stars to a cake so as a result I don't bake in the character pans. (My BFF on the other hand....well she'll take you on any day!) So I designed a very simple cake to look like a building. Covered with colored fondant for a smooth finish and little yellow windows to give it character. I figured I could find a little Batman character to throw on top or at the base and I'd be good. I submit it to the committee for approval. The committee (read almost 6 year old) had other ideas. He whips out paper, pencil and crayons and promptly draws me an elaborate 6 tier cake. His version of Gotham City and how it should look. I was flabbergasted! The kid sure has definite ideas of what he likes. So we go back and forth and come to a compromise. The cake is two separate parts consisting of 9 layers covered in fondant with the cake board making the third layer. It was a challenge that I was ready to take on but slightly apprehensive about. After all, would my meager skills live up to an almost 6 year old's expectations? After all was said and done and a few last minute changes I think it came out okay. He said he liked it and although I wish I could have added a few more elements I think it came out alright too. The thing about cake is that I always think of other ways and things I could have done once I'm finished. But it's better than the last one and the one before that. This time it stayed together and we didn't have to make a quick run to the toy store for the Joker and his vehicle to proclaim it was a disaster in Gotham City. Believe me when I say that it's happened before (destruction of Bikini Bottom anyone?) and I'm so glad it stayed intact this time!

On another interesting note.....I made star shaped lollipop sugar cookies for school on Friday to help celebrate his birthday. I had a few left over after sugaring up the kids so dropped one off to the school secretary. I checked back into the office after school on another matter and was asked by one of the teachers how much I would charge to make cookie pops for her son's birthday in January. I was shocked! I rushed through those cookies like I was on fire. Leaving things until the last minute like I tend to do and being almost 11pm the prior evening when I was just finishing them up. They were alright for a classroom of 6 year old's but not great. Especially to charge someone for! Needless to say I'm flattered and now I'm working on a better design to see if A) I can make them to my satisfaction and B) If I can make it cost effective!

On a side note, we completely black plastic-ed the garage for the party. (It was a movie theater) and now I'm trying to figure out if I have enough time, energy and resources to move one wall of black plastic and incorporate the garage into our Halloween decor. I'd love to have a mad scientist or alien experiment in there. It doesn't have to have anyone in it just something to view. I would have to seriously dig deep into creativity and I just don't know that there are enough hours to make things happen. But I'm going to try my hardest. What I'd really love would be to make it a scene out of Nightmare Before Christmas! That would be the ultimate in Halloween for me. But I think it's going to be a dream this year. Maybe next year..........