Thursday, May 1, 2008

It's Birthday time!!!!

Last week was birthday week for us!
Brielle turned ten, and Max turned three.

For the last several months, Brielle had been planning an elaborate birthday party for herself. The short list of girls to be invited to her party had 17 girls on it.
So last week, we gave her a choice. She could either have the party, or a nice gift from us.
After several days of deep thought and contemplation, she really surprised us, and decided on the gift instead of the party. (thus saving me a great deal of work, stress, and expense :0)

We took her to the sporting goods store, and she chose a pair of these!



Since her Birthday, she has been rolling all over the house.


Max, being three, did not get to choose between a party or a gift, because let's face it, there's no way I'm going to have a party for a bunch of three year olds. I did that one time, and learned my lesson. In fact, I'm still having nightmares about the experience.

We asked Max what he wanted for his birthday, and he says "I want a zamboni cake."
Okay........... What?
A zamboni cake?

ME: "Max honey, is there anything else you might want?"
Max: "Yes, I want Spongebob to be driving the zamboni cake!"

A zamboni cake with Spongebob driving it.

Well, I DID ask.

Seriously, where do they come up with these things? It's kind of like when Aaron was three and wanted to be a car wash for Halloween.

So I asked Max "What kind of a present do you want for your birthday?"
Max: "A red present!"
Me: "What do you want INSIDE the red present?"
Max: "A yayo (yellow) present!"
Me: "What do you want INSIDE the yellow present?"
Max: "A blue present!"
Me: "What do you want INSIDE the blue present?"
Max: "A purple present!"...................

Apparently, he just wanted to open a bunch of presents. So we did what any parents would do, and the day before his birthday, we took him to Toys R us to let him choose what he wanted. We called it "The present store."
Max has recently discovered all of the "Blues clue's" videos that I bought when Aaron was born. (I got them to keep CJ and Brielle from fighting just long enough for me to feed Aaron)
Max LOVES Blues clues. We thought we might be able to find him a stuffed Blue, or some other Blues clues type toy.
We looked all around Toys R us, and couldn't find anything, (Except for the fort building set that caught Max's eye, which I almost considered buying for him until I saw how many pieces were inside, and since I didn't want to have all those pieces all over the floor, so I could step on them barefoot in the middle of the night, I told Max that it was only for kids over 4)

We finally hunted down an employee, and asked where they kept all the Blues clues stuff.
Apparently, they don't make Blues clues toys anymore, but they did still have a few "handy dandy notebooks" and a video.
We bought the two things and got out of there fast.

When we got home, I realized that I had forgotten something really important. It's called:

"Don't take your three year old to the store to pick out his own presents the day before his birthday unless you plan on giving him the gifts as soon as you get home."

Because apparently on the ride home from the store, he won't forget that you bought him some nifty items and he wants to play with them NOW.
So we, being the mean parents that we are, wouldn't let him play with his new toys, and Max was VERY sad.

For hours.

He was refusing to take a much needed nap, and I almost gave in thinking that I would let him play with them and then go ahead and wrap them up the next day for his birthday, but then DH pointed out that if we did that, we would be teaching him that if he cries long enough that he would eventually get what he wants.

Good point.

So I took Brielle, and we went to the store to buy stuff for the birthday cakes, leaving sad little Max home with Daddy ;0)

Before I started to make the cakes, I went to google images to get a picture of a zamboni to copy for Max's cake. The second photo that came up in the search was (and I'm not kidding, it really was) a picture of a zamboni with Spongebob driving it!

It was a sign.
(I tried to find the photo again to post it here, but it was gone)

So after several hours of hard work, and an upset stomach from tasting too much fondant, I finally came up with this.




Brielle, who loves and collects pigs, wanted a pig cake.



They were quite tasty, and didn't last nearly long enough, considering the amount of time that I put into them. Oh well, I guess I'm just glad that we got photos.



Change of subject



I don't post any photos of our family on my blog (you know, so we can avoid all of those crazy internet stalkers who would find us, and show up at our house wanting a slice of pig cake) however, we recently had an artist draw a very nice portrait of our family. I must say that the likeness of everyone is very good, especially me, because I really am that thin :0)

Really, I am.



Here it is!



24 comments:

Melissa said...

Those cakes are awesome!! I am so impressed! I've always wanted to learn more about cake decorating, but haven't ever taken the time to do it.
Love the family picture :)

Elizabeth said...

I loved the zamboni...HAD to have been an episode of Sponge Bob!
I Most Especially love your family portrait! So Wonderful.
Pax, EJT
BTW: Ditto on the self-esteem
& comments received!

Tausha said...

your cakes are fabulous! Too bad my birhtday was in Jan. or u could send me a cake. I would only want something simple-like a diamond ring cake with cream cheese frosting-not hard at all!:)
Max has quite the imagination. The fact that he acted for a zamboni cake alone-fabulous-add a spongbob to the mix= one amazing mom!
I am going to have to try the nice present or party at our house-pure genius!

Kalynne Pudner said...

"My, what big hands y'all have!"

"The better to grab slices of fancy cakes, my dear..."

Grandma Cebe said...

Will you please come to my house and make two birthday cakes for my 2 youngest? I will supply the materials. I think a pig cake for my daughter and a zamboni/Sponge Bob cake would be fine for my son. On May 7, one turns 24 and on May 9, one turns 22. After years of dual cakes and parties, I am happy to turn the job over to you.

P.S. If you can't come, please email me pictures of the cakes so I can enlarge them and put on top of the two boring cakes that they will probably get from me:^)

Leah said...

those cakes are FABULOUS!

And happy birthday to the kiddos. I'm wishing I had more restraint when it comes to birthdays. My kids get their parties AND some nice presents from us (about $100 each kid in gifts). But the three-year old parties (four-year-old, this year, in our case) involve PARENTS of all the kids as well, so I'm not left in charge of anything but my own kids and the food and "things to do". Em's party is parent-free, but I can handle six-year-olds. I hope!

Bonnie the Boss said...

Adorable cakes. You did a great job on the zamboni. My son wanted a motorcycle,toilet with spongebob cake. So I feel your pain. Needless to say I am not as nice as you. He didn't get it.
You do look fabulously thin in the family photo.

Lois said...

Those cakes are awesome! You're the best mom ever. Birthdays usually consist of shoving a match in a Hostess Cup Cake at our house.

Hey It's Di said...

Wow your kids are lucky to have such a creative cake Mom! Mine get the choice between square chocolate cake with candles or square yellow cake with candles:)

We tried that same ToysRUs trick with our 6 year old this year and it was the day before. We are suckers and just handed over the bags that day. I'm just old and couldn't stand the whining:D

Becky said...

We did the same thing last year for our older son's birthday...we offered him a birthday trip or nice gift of his choice, or a big party. He chose an amusement park, and had a blast.

This year, however, his tastes have become a tad expensive. He wants a motorized electric scooter that can get up to 15 mph! I'm not sure this mom is ready for anything motorized just yet (or rather the resulting broken wrists and whatnot).

You've got some cake decoratin' skillz, woman! Awesome!

Jen said...

Love the pig cake and double love the family portrait. Is the artist expensive? I'd like someone to draw me without this post-pregnancy weight.

RoeH said...

I love the cakes. How adorable. Cake making would be fun. I hardly ever miss an episode of Ace Cakes on the food channel. It's fascinating. And frame that picture of your family. I love it!

Mum-me said...

What a fantastic family portrait. Your artist has a similar style to mine!

Those cakes look very professional. I am green with envy. (My last attempt - last weekend - was a cat face which looked a lot like a pig face until I added the whiskers.)

Vern said...

If I had a mom who made cool cakes like that I'd ask for a zamboni too! Can't wait to see what his requests are when he hits puberty.

Jessica G. said...

Wow, I am impressed with those cakes! When he mentioned a Zamboni I had to laugh because someone asked me just yesterday if I could make one. Although it's for an adult so no Spongebob.

And I wish I had your wisdom...I had a party for a three-year-old and barely survived to tell the tale!

Laura said...

awesome cakes - they are amazing.

Love the family portrait.

Thanks for sharing!

Happy belated birthdays and birthing days!

b. said...

Ok.
I'm still awaiting my food prize for the "give me my pillow" contest.

I want a 24 inch computer screen cake with all of my bloggy friends faces in it. Oh, and I don't really like fondant....so could you make it with butter cream and white chocolate? Or brown chocolate....whichever.

Seriously....you got skill.

M said...

I'm so glad I'm not the only one with a, ahem, particular husband who won't allow personal photos on my blog. He was a little shocked to see that I had a real photo of myself posted but he's allowed me to keep it up.

M said...

BTW, I just noticed your little statement above regarding comments. Good to know that I can affect your day, for better or worse, based on leaving any comments.

Mwhahahahaha

M said...

Okay, I'm using my maniacal laugh a little to much but it's been a long day and I have to laugh to keep from crying.

M said...

or falling asleep.

M said...

Seriously.

M said...

Oh and the cakes looked fabulous

M said...

The last time I made a "fun cake" for my kids, I printed out colored pictures of Harry Potter or Yu-gi-oh and slapped them on top of a frosted cake.