Drumroll please....

Well today was the day. Eli's first birthday party since he was 1. I haven't had a party for him since we've moved to Mississippi because we haven't had any kids his age to invite. But this year we decided to have a party. Despite inviting his whole tball team we still ended up with 5 girls and Eli! One day he will really appreciate that. :) We had a lot of fun decorating and getting ready. Here you see Eli stuffing the pinata. He really is having fun, he just wasn't in a picture mood at this moment. Speaking of pictures, my camera died 2 minutes after our first guest arrived and I didn't get it working again until a couple of hours ago. So, this is all I got!

This is the playroom all decked out with the totally cool solar system. Yes, Sarah is running away. By the time I got my camera to take the picture everyone was running to find something else to do.

Eli also had fun helping daddy blow up the planets. While I was getting ready Josh came and told me that he had just hung the moon. :)

Doesn't Eli look excited? Here is the "kidney cake" as I affectionately call it. I don't know if you can tell, but the "wings" at the bottom looked just like kidneys, especially before I put the candy on because even after using all of the red coloring the icing was still pink. I was the most excited about the twizzlers at the bottom, but being the genius that I am I put it on a red board so you can barely see them!! Poor Eli. People kept telling me that all that mattered was that the cake was made with a mother's love. See what happens when your mama loves ya??? The kids actually really liked it and as much as it looks nothing like it is supposed to, I decided I will enjoy making ugly cakes until my kids catch on and demand I not humiliate them with my incompetence.

This may be my favorite picture of all time!!!

Me and the birthday boy!

What do YOU think?

Okay. Since I have shared my cake making snafus (as my dad would say) I thought that I would invite you along for the adventure of choosing a cake for Eli's upcoming birthday. Now, I really need feedback here. This will be a rocket themed party (his final answer after considering an alligator party, a race car party, a pirate party, and a tractor party).




Now...these are the questions I need you to consider.
1. Which of these cakes would I end up throwing across the room before it is all done?
2. Which cake caused Josh to give me the "yeah right" look?
3. Which cake would you look at (especially after I made it) and say "What the heck is that?"
4. How many attempts would each of these cakes take?
5. How in the world do you make these anyway?
6. How many trips to and from the Pig (30 minute drive) could I make that would equal the same amount of time it would take to make one of these?
7. Are any of these even that cute?


Okay, your turn to weigh in. Let me know what you think!!

Having My Cake (And a Piece of Humble Pie, Too!!)

I will start this by saying that this blog will serve as an example of how I do "the best that I can" but it ain't always pretty. I have never been what you would consider the domesticated type. I consider a frozen pizza a homecooked meal because I have to put it in the oven. Well, the last couple of years I have felt inspired to think outside of the pizza box and I've decided that I should attempt some cake decorating. My friend Kim (you can check out her blog at http://crazyjesushalleluiah.blogspot.com/) makes some totally cool birthday cakes for her kids and I decided that I should give it a try! Well, for Eli's 2nd birthday I made a "Dump Truck" cake. It was chocolate with chocolate icing I made out of pudding and cool whip. I sprinkled crushed oreos on it to look like dirt and put some construction trucks on top of it. I was SO proud! I took a picture of it to work and the first person I showed it to laughed out loud! She said "That looks like something I would make!" She did not mean that in a nice way either. It quickly humbled me and I realized that my cake decorating did not inspire the same awe that Kim's did. Needless to say, I have not attempted to show off my skills for anymore birthdays.


Well, a few weeks ago at my mom's I was looking through some of her magazines and I came across this cake. Isn't it beautiful? Looking at it I realized that it was almond slices and chocolate chips and that crazy Martha Stewart wannabe voice came back and said "You can do that!" (I guess that voices in my head should be the first clue that this wouldn't go well.)


I didn't even dare try to make the cake from scratch. This attempt would be for decorating purposes only. So, I bought a box cake and decided it couldn't be too hard. I made sure to spray the pans. Do you know that scene from Christmas Vacation when they go sledding and use Clark's new, special lubricant stuff? Yea, I sprayed those pans GOOD. There would be no sticking. In fact, I may call this my PAMcake. Despite my excessive use of PAM, my cake did stick. This is how it looked.

As my friend Karen says, frosting covers a multitude of sins (that is so how I feel about my make-up!) and let me tell you, I was wondering if there was enough frosting in the state of Mississippi to fix this PAMcake that was turning into a crumb cake! This is the final result and I thought it looked a lot better until I posted that pic from the magazine!

It may not have been the best looking cake, but it seemed to be a big hit with the kids and the neighborhood dogs! That's Sarah, Eli, and our friend Elam having a cake picnic on the trampoline. They are surrounded by our neighborhood dogs who seem eager for a piece. Of course, they also eat our garbage, but I won't think about that!!!!!!!!!