Baby Shower Cake

I was asked to make the cake for the baby shower for a girl in my office. I took on the task, and oh man, was it a lot of work! It took me all week, but in the end I was happy with the results, and everyone else seemed to be too. I was even asked to start making the cakes for the monthly office birthdays! Not sure if I will do that or not, but it was nice to be asked! Here are some photos of the cake. Unfortunately, the cake got a couple finger pokes in it during assembly, but you get the idea. The booties are made out of gum paste and turned out really well.

Maybe there is something to this cake thing. I hope to take a couple decorating classes next year and I want to start trying out some cake recipes, so we'll see where it goes from there!

More Adventures in Cake Decorating

My best friend, Gabrielle, is just about to have her 4th child and so today we had a baby shower for her. In light of the occasion, I decided to dive a little deeper into my hobby of cake decorating and try some new techniques for her baby shower cake. I had originally planned to make some marshmallow fondant, but then I heard about something called Plastic Chocolateand thought it sounded even better! I found the design for the cake online and put it all together this morning. I need a bit more practice working with it, but it turned out pretty good for my first try.

The bottom tier was white cake and the top was chocolate, and both tiers had a cherry filling. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, so I would say my first attempt at decorating plastic chocolate was a success. I will definitely use this again!

The Big Firetruck Birthday

Joshua informed us a while back that he was going to have a firetruck birthday party this year. Today was the big day, and what a great day it was! We had firetruck balloons

firemen cupcakes

and a firetruck cake (which took me about 2 hours to decorate this morning)

We had about 40 people here for the party, including all of Joshua's aunts, uncles and cousins. This was the first time in the long time that everyone has gotten together, and the first time since Baby Adria was born, so it was a truly blessed day for our family. The kids started the party with some water play out in the backyard, with the Slip n Slide and inflatable pool.

After eating some yummy hamburgers and hot dogs made by Grill Master Daddy, the kids got to take their best shots at the firetruck pinata.

We were hoping that the Chandler Fire Department would bring by a firetruck, but that didn't pan out. But Uncle Jonathon is a fireman in Las Vegas, and he brought all of his fire gear to the party, so we got to have a real fireman, which was such a treat for the kids!

Jonathon taught the children that, although a fireman might look scary, with his mask and suit on, he's not someone you should run away from. He's someone you run to because he's there to help you. It was so great to be able to incorporate that important lesson into all of the fun. Some of the kids were a little frightened, including Ben, but most were simply fascinated with him!

After blowing out his candles and opening his presents, it was time for our friends and family to say goodbye. Even though we didn't have a real firetruck like we'd hoped, I don't think Joshua could have been happier with his firetruck birthday party. It was a truly great day!

Adventures in Costume Making

Josh's costume is done, and if you ask me, it looks pretty darn good. I am so glad I decided to make his costume. I admit I was a bit obsessed over this thing. Every night as soon as the kids were in bed, I would get to work and wouldn't stop until I had to go to bed. If I could have, I would have stayed up all night to work on it. At least I have work to motivate me to tame the crazy a little bit. So after gathering all of my materials and getting some very helpful advice from a little old lady at Joann's, I got to work. I made the cape first, since that was easy. I can handle cutting and gluing! After that I moved on to cutting out the pattern, cutting out the pieces of material and sewing it all together. After some finishing touches of velcro up the back, elastic around the wrists and ankles, and some bias tape (which I had never even heard of until this project) to keep the collar from being scratchy, the jumpsuit was all done. The only real mistake I made was getting the grain of the fur going in opposite directions on the front, but all in all, I would say not bad! Along the way I picked up some other handy sewing experience, like threading the bobbin and threading the sewing machine needle. The costume pattern also called for a hood. I made the hood, but figured it wouldn't really work for us. Since he would be wearing a hat, there wasn't any room to put the hears on the hood. And what do a guinea pig's ears look like anyway? Plus, the hood kind of made the whole thing a little creepy. So we decided to just skip it. Then I was on my quest to find the right hat for the costume. I tried and tried to find a youth sized golden yellow or yellowish-orange cap, but the only place I could find them was online, and the shipping charges were ridiculous! So I had to come up with a plan B. I found a white hat at Michael's and got some dye to make it just the right color. It turned out perfect! So without further adieu, the moment you've all been waiting for. Drumroll please...................
Here is a photo of the real Linny.







And here is OUR Linny!

When we are getting all dressed up on Halloween, we are going to give Josh a little pink nose and some whiskers as some finishing touches. I'm sure no one else will have any idea of what he is, but we will know. Josh is so excited to be Linny. I'm so happy I could make his Halloween for him!

I do have to pause and give a couple shout outs for those who helped me along the way. First of all my Mother-In-Law, Angie, a veteran seamstress, for giving me some awesome tips along the way. And my mom who let me use her sewing machine and helping me figure out how to use it. Thanks guys for all your help.

Here are some of the pictures I made Andrew take of me during this whole process. Happy Halloween!

Feeling Inspired... or Maybe Just Crazy

Halloween is rapidly approaching. Before kids, I really didn't care much. It's not typically a holiday that excites me much. But kids change everything. Joshua is so excited about Halloween. He remembers trick or treating last year, and can't wait to carve/paint our pumpkin and dressing up. This is the first year that he has really understood the festivities, and has voiced his opinion about who he would like to dress up as for Halloween. This year, Josh would like to be Linny from the Wonder Pets. Linny is the Guinea Pig, and kind of the leader of the Wonder Pets. Josh decided a while back that he was going to be Linny, and that no other costume would do. So we set out to find him a Linny costume. Unbeknownst to us, Linny costumes for 3 year olds do no exist. So, I decided it was time to get creative. I started searching online for a sweatsuit that was a similar color to Linny's fur. Unfortunately, orangish brown is not a popular color for sweats, so I had to abandon that idea. So now I am on to bigger and better things. I have decided to make a Linny costume. So this weekend, we made 3 separate trips to Joann's Fabrics to buy the material to make the costume (fake fur!) and the cape, as well as a costume pattern. I borrowed my mom's sewing machine, and away I go. So I get home and open up the pattern, and am instantly overwhelmed. How on earth am I going to do this? I have no idea what half of the stuff means, and the directions are not totally for a beginner. The things a mother won't do for her little wannabe guinea pig! Thankfully my mother-in-law is very experienced in this area, so I think we will be speaking quite frequently over the next few weeks. I really hope I can pull this off. I figure that as long as the pieces get sewn together good enough to hold for a few hours, and are approximately the right size to fit him, I can deem this costume as a success. I'll post again with my progress (and most likely my frustration!) as I get going with this newest project, and of course will post a picture of the finished product. Wish me luck!