Saturday, October 11, 2014

the end of the birthday season.

We couldn't decide what cake to make. What do you do for a 2 year old who doesn't really care? Every time I asked my son what he wanted on his cake, he would agree with every suggestion. Do you want Spider Man? Yes, Spider Man. Do you want Minions? Yes, Minions. Do you want butterflies? Yes, butterflies. Do you want cake? Yes, cake, Momma. There was no deciding and I was at a loss and feeling rather uncreative after having just made another kid's cake last week.

His big sister knows him so well.  She suggested that I put some of his favorite things to play with on his cake.  "You know, Mom.  The remote, Dad's phone, the salt and pepper shakers, gumballs." She's a brilliant little 8 year old. So I did. She's my official cake consultant from now on.  The best part.  I get to decide the flavor.  CHOCOLATE with cookies and cream filling.

So after he opened each gift and played with it for 15 minutes before opening the next, we finally ate this delicious cake:






Happy birthday, little dude!  You sure are fun.

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Birth and other such things

I really think birthdays are overrated. I mean, really. The kid did nothing but enter the world. I'm the one that grew her and let's not start about the actual birth day. She had it pretty easy.  My daughter Gertie has been talking about her birthday for MONTHS. "How many more days until my birthday, Mom? 3 months?  How many days is that?" I've been over it since June.

That said, she is one of the most appreciative and grateful children I have ever known. No entitlement, no blatant "I want it my way." She's just thrilled to be at the center of the day. The sheer, honest excitement has been more than one child should be able to handle in a lifetime. She hates being on the outside of a secret so not knowing what her gifts were while the rest of us did was bordering between excitement and frustration. It was adorable actually.

This child, however, changes her mind more often than her underwear, so her cake request went from Smurfs to Muppets to Smurfs and finally landed on My Little Pony.  She did not, unfortunately change her request from white cake. I tried really hard to talk her into chocolate, but to no avail. So, here is her cake filled with golden Oreo cookies and cream filling.



As I was making them, I thought the clouds were super fun and cute and had an extra punch of creativity. ("Pride goeth before a fall") Then when my dad came and ooo'd and aahh'd over the cake, he finally said, "What are those white things? Worms? Do the ponies have worms?"
To which my husband jumped on board and suggested that we should probably put the ponies down since they're diseased.  Some of my snarkiness may have been inherited. Some of it may have rubbed off.
There she is: the happiest 6 year old in the history of birthdays.

(Stay tuned.  There will be another cake next week.)