Past Cakes part 2

October 2009: Here is a better picture of Jacob's monster cake this year. He really got a kick out of it. I know the two is backwards, but I just threw it on there so I wouldn't lose track of it. I should have paid more attention to it before taking the shot, but oh well. Soo funny!

October 2008: As you must have noticed, there are no cake pictures for Eli and Seth for 2008. That's because I was in my senior year final semester in college, I was working out a ton, and just had a new baby four months before. They both had cupcake cakes made from good old Foodland! There is no shame in that! This October cake was my favorite ever so far because it was my own idea, and I did it all myself! This may sound like a little big-headed, but I am really proud of this cake! I thought of it, and it looks so good! Jacob's personal cake was a mickey mouse cake with Wall-E decorations. I did use the nicer dye from the craft store! This used very little dye to create such vivid coloring. I used a small round cake pan and cut the ears off the remaining parts from the Eva 13 x 9 pan.

This is my Eva cake. She was easy to make. I just baked a standard 13 x 9 cake and cut out the shape of Eva (and two small Mickey ears). She turned out so cute, but I really wish I frosted her more neatly. All of the smeared frosting around the edges was distracting. I know if you cut strips of waked paper and place them on top of your cake board and under your cake, then you can slide them out really easily to prevent minimal smearing on the board. I haven't tried it yet, but I mean to.

The main cake was made with different sizes of circular pans for the face and ears. I loved decorating this cake soo much! In the top right is the Wall-E that found the little green plant on a hill. Ill of the other Wall-E's are cleaning up garbage. They had different colors of frosting on their hands depending on the frosting they were near and I made the tracks as if they all went through the center black pile at some point. I actually made the tracks with a fork tipped in black and applied to the cake behind each Wall-E. I know my family loved it, Jacob didn't care as long as he could eat it, but I adored it.....and still do obviously. Elijah and Seth's 2009 cakes were also store bought this year, but I am determined to let them choose from my beloved book for 2010. Seth already said he wants a frog cake, so we shall see.

Past Cakes part 1

February 2007: This is the first time Shane and I took on the cake project. It was my fault really. My nephew Dante was doing his school fundraiser and my sister Danna sent me the link to buy things online. I fell in love with this Birthday Cakes for Kids ideas cookbook. I bought this totally awesome cake idea book and silly me said Eli could pick out whichever cake he wanted. Of course the kid has to pick the hardest cake in the book! I even tried to get him to change his mind. Oh No! Shane and I stayed up late the night before Eli's party baking, frosting, decorating, and trying to keep those four corners together. It really turned out well considering we didn't have the right materials. Also, as a note I used the cheap dye you can buy at the grocery store with four little cone topped squeeze bottles. We used every drop of two greens to get the towers that green. It was so fun to do this with Shane, but it was hard for our first time.

March 2007: Seth's birthday came around and I was having a hard time with classes at school, so I hid that cookbook and told Seth and Eli that I was making Seth a blue mini ninja cake. It was fun and easy. Seth loved it! Once again I used those cheaper dyes from the cone topped bottles. 2 bottles later and I wanted a dark ocean blue, but instead we got a bright blue cake. It was still fun, don't get me wrong! Seth really thought his cake was the best, and Eli loved it too.

Primary Program

This Sunday the boys had their primary program. They both had their lines and were very excited. As they were going up on stage after taking the sacrament Jacob just was so upset. He insisted that we had to go too. He finally calmed down but I kept repeating, "Elijah and Seth and going to sing songs to us. Look! Do you see brothers?" Thank goodness Eli was in view from our seat. Seth was one of the early speakers and he was ready and in a good mood. He got up there and loud and clear we heard, "I am thankful for my family because they play games with me." He was so good and brave. Eli's part was in the middle and he got up there with a huge smile on his face. He just stared at everyone smiling until the primary leader helped him out then he said, "My dad provides for my family by working far from home." It's funny how those eleven words got me choked up even though I had heard him say it about thirty times. I miss you Shane. Eli was so sweet. He told me later that he was so shy when he got up there. They sang all the songs and were very obedient on stage. The program was all about appreciating our families. It was such a nice program. Jacob has been having the hardest time going to nursery the past several months. He would scream hysterically and cry until he came back to me. He even had a hard time going with Shane. So the last two weeks I came in for the first hour and after sneaking out to go to Relief Society, he would scream for the rest of the time. So I decided a new approach this Sunday. I told Jacob we were going to nursery, went in with him, then I looked him in the eye and asked if I could go to class right now or if he wanted me to stay for a little while. He frowned and said 'stay a little while'. I fully explained that I would be there a short while sitting by the wall, but I was going to leave soon. He said okay and fifteen minutes later I went to him and told him to have fun and I would be back after going to my class. He said 'okay mommy' and went on playing. No crying today! Hopefully this same routine will work next Sunday.

Sand in the City

Back in the end of August, Olympia had its most recent Sand in the City extravaganza. I love Sand in the City because they bring in sand on the sidewalks where amatuer and professional sand sculpting is presented and in compitition for first prize. They have food, games, and all sorts of fun things to do. This was my favorite statue this year beacause it made me laugh so much. It wasn't as difficult as others that we saw, but it was soo funny!

Several people and groups danced from the Dance Direction, my mother-in-laws studio. Shelbi, my sis-in-law was supposed to dance, but she was recently in a freak hot/cold pack accident. Okay okay, you know those hot/cold packs that can be frozen or heated in the microwave? Yeah? Well, Shelbi grabbed one of those out of the microwave just as she felt the flesh burning off her thigh and down her calf. The pack had popped in the microwave without her knowing and the scalding hot insides gave her second degree burns. Needless to say, she was unable to dance for a few weeks until it healed entirely.

Just as the Dance Direction were finishing their last group, I noticed this kids walking around with a Burmese Python wrapped around his neck and arm. He was with him mom who had an African Grey (exotic bird) perched on her shoulder. Apparently they owned a pet store. If I owned a pet store, I still wouldn't go as far as walking aroud with a scary snake on any of my children, but that's just me.

The highlight of my day was seeing the photographer in the kilt taking pictures of the belly dancers. I was taking a couple pictures of the belly dancers myself until I found a better target, the dude in the kilt! You gotta love Olympia!

The Pumpkin Patch & Wolf Haven

The Pumpkin Patch was so much fun this year. The boys had baseball games back to back on the 10th, but while Jessica Byers stayed with Elijah for his game Seth, Jacob, and I picked up Shane from the airport. It was so nice to see him after a seven week break. As we pulled up into the terminal and saw him I just felt so overjoyed. I just couldn't stop holding his hand on our drive to the Byers house to pick up Elijah. When we got there we found out they were going to the pumpkin patch. Shane is such a trooper because he was up around 4am after having four hours of sleep and he said lets go too. We went over to Hunter's Farm and just loved picking out our pumpkins. The only part I do not like about going to the pumpkin patch is all the things that cost extra. Now when Eli went to the same pumpkin patch with his school last year, they were able to have free range on the slides, the hay maze, and they got a ride to the pumpkin patch and back. When we went as a family it was $1 per ticket and everything cost tickets. One ticket for the ride to the pumpkin patch, one ticket for the small corn maze, three tickets for the hay maze, one ticket for the small slide, two tickets for the bigger slide, and three tickets for the jumbo slide. They were charging a dollar to go down a slide once and the slide was like the one at the playground. I just had a really rough time because we are trying to stick to the basics these next two months. So we had to say no.....a lot. Then it turned a really great experience into a let down for Seth and Eli. Seth asked about the slide and when I told him it cost extra money he looked at me like I was crazy. I am glad Jessica convinced us to get our picture taken together at the end. I love it! The day ended with Heavenly Donuts and homemade hot apple cider.

Just last Sunday we took a trip to the Wolf Haven. It normally costs $9 per adult and $7 per child, so never go because we are looking at $30 just to go in and see about ten wolves and two coyotes. This was wolf week, so they made it free for one day. Thank goodness because Eli and Seth had heard about it from their uncle Jason and have been wanting to go for about a year. They were mostly taken from people who had them as pets illegally. There was one that was recruited as a Hollywood star, but it didn't work out so the wolf haven took him in. I think most interesting parts were to find that they had a roadkill license to feed the coyotes and they have a pair of Mexican Gray wolves that are part of a wolf recovery program. They are two out of 54 left as endangered species. All of the wolves are unable to reproduce except the Mexican Grays.

It was so fun to go with Grandnan and Grandaddy, cousin Rosie, cousin Mary, and uncle Jason.