My Cake Creations -- the Early Days

Thankfully, my cake decorating skills have evolved a bit since the early days. This is one of my first cakes. A bit simple, but with alllllll that chocolate icing --- it tasted great and what kid doesn't love sprinkles??

Please Pray

I ask you, my dear blog readers, to please remember my sweet mom in your prayers, especially over the next few days. Today, she and my dad were watching Lane and Cohen. While she was cutting Lane's hair, she somehow managed to get tripped by the cord and fell, fracturing her left humerus (the bone in the upper part of her arm).

We are thankful that it is her left arm, so that she will still be able to function somewhat, but any of you who might know my mom personally know that my creative streak was undoubtedly inherited from her. Unfortunately, it's difficult to create one-handed.

The focus for right now is on controlling her pain. Generally, a humerus fracture doesn't require surgery or a cast. They usually heal by immobilizing the affected limb close to the body and allowing gravity to maintain alignment of the fractured bone. She is to see an orthopedist next week to make sure that no further treatment is needed.

Kaitlin's Birthday Party

When you're the big sister, you have the privilege of sharing everything with your little brothers. Birthdays mean brothers in your pictures, blowing out your candles for you and opening your presents for you. Luckily, Kaitlin loves being a big sister and takes it all in stride. The boys enjoy everyone else's birthday as much as their own. In fact, Cohen had been singing "Happy Birfffday, dear Sisseee" for three days prior to the party. Here he is "all smiles" with Sissy and her cake. Happy Birthday, Kaitlin! I can't believe you're 15!! What happened to that little girl whose hair I used to french braid?

POP Night

It's hard for me to believe that my little man is about to start the second grade. Wow! Seems like just yesterday I was waddling around the ER with him in utero! It was entertaining how many people asked me "when are you going on maternity leave" in the last few weeks. Apparently, I looked as if I were going to give birth any moment!! My response was always "when my water breaks or I have to push." Maybe it was a bit of an exaggeration, but suffice it to say, I had no intention of wasting one moment of my maternity leave at home by my fat self. In fact, I worked on Wednesday, saw my doctor on Thursday afternoon, went in to the hospital on Thursday evening, had Lane Friday morning and went home Saturday afternoon. Oh, and since I can't stand to lose, I had him at church on Sunday evening. (My mother took me to church at the same church for the first time when I was 9 days old. Nothing would suit me but to take Lane when he was 2 days old.)

That tiny 2 day-old infant has transformed into this boy at what seems like warp-speed! He's far too cool to have his picture taken and is constantly clowning --- anything to make his friends laugh and everyone is his friend. I don't know how, but apparently, the entire school knows who Lane is. They might not know me from Adam, but they know Lane. Chances are if they do know me, it's as "Lane's Momma." He loves to hear his friends say "Lane, you're so funny." I know what you're thinking. He does not get that from me ---- I promise!! I hardly spoke until I was 14 years old!! I have witnesses to support my story.

Tonight was POP night at school. We were able to go, drop off Lane's school supplies, meet his teacher and have a brief orientation. Lane is really excited about school. He was totally jazzed about buying his school supplies, but moreover, I think he can't wait to get back to his friends. He's already making arrangements as to who he's going to play with on the playground.

It's truly hard to see them growing up so quickly, but it's such a blessing too. I enjoy being witness to the loving, creative, smart boy I'm watching him become. It's my hope that he will grow into a man who can be both tough and tender. Mothering him is such a gift. I am tremendously thankful for my sweet little (or not so little) boys

Look What Else I've Made

I created this supply bag for Lane last year. It was loads of fun and turned out super cute (in my humble opinion). This is just a little supply bag that I picked up at a clearance store.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love places like that? I LOVE, absolutely LOVE to hunt for bargains. You would probably not believe how excited I can get in a Big Lots, Goodwill, a consignment store or any great place like that!! It's not normal, I know, but when did I ever claim to be normal??!! I think I picked up these bags for a buck or less each.

This is simply painted with Lane's name in acrylic paint. It's usually a good idea to mix your acrylics with fabric medium for something like this, but I'm not going to pretend I do it every time. After the letters dried, I accented them with yellow paint "stitching." The "stitching" seems to make the letters look a little more finished and three dimensional. Because we are proud to be Hornets, I added several of them flying around on the bag. Here's a tip that I love --- for small "lining" tasks like the black lines on the hornets wings, skip the paint and paintbrush and use a good gel pen. I've done this on several items. It's much easier to get your lines where you want them and has held up well on anything I've tried it on.

Past Cake Creations - Cohen's Third

My boys are boys through-and-through. They love all things boy, so it was only natural that Cohen's 3rd birthday party theme be construction. This was by far the easiest cake I've done yet. Great for when you need something cute in a crunch!

This is simply two 9inch rounds (chocolate, of course. I don't even bother to ask my kids anymore) cooled, leveled and stacked. Around the edge of the cake, I used chocolate icing to apply chocolate covered wafers. I'm not even sure what tip I used, but I piped green buttercream icing to the top surface to make it resemble grass. The "gravel road" is crushed vanilla creme cookies and the "pile of dirt" is made of chocolate ones. A few construction vehicles complete the look. Oh, the Happy Birthday Cohen banner is fondant that I rolled out and painted on with gel icing color. It's attached to the cookies with buttercream and accented by two construction cones that are also adhered with buttercream.

Cohen thought his cake was great, but he's 3, so all he really wanted to do was eat it and play with the toys!

Past Cake Creations - Arkansas

The Arkansas cake was one I made for some contest at Lane's school. It was just a yellow sheet cake iced with buttercream I had tinted red. The white diamond is white chocolate (yum). I melted the chocolate, poured it out in a thin layer on wax paper, then cut the diamond out of it once it had hardened. The word Arkansas is chocolate. I printed out the word on my computer, covered the paper with wax paper and piped the chocolate onto the wax paper. Once the letters were set, I peeled them off and adhered to the diamond with white buttercream. The blue stars and blue border are buttercream with a LOT of blue food coloring. Finally, the white stars are white chocolate too. We took it to the contest, won something-or-another, then brought it back home. The cakes were auctioned after the contest and Lane refused to bid on any cake but his own. Sweet boy!