Minecraft Cake

We celebrated my middle child's birthday tonight.  He really wanted his favorite dinner (chicken strips, fries, and corn) and a Minecraft cake.  So here is what I came up with.  I made a cake that is half cake/half brownie and mixed chocolate chips into the whole thing.  Green frosting on top makes it into a huge dirt block (with a few Hersheys for depth and "pixels").  The toys are easily available right now from Target/Walmart/etc.

Our Chocolate Wasted Cake

My middle child is having a birthday and this year he wanted a chocolate cake. On Pinterest I came across this Chocolate Wasted Cake and I knew he would love it! (minus the alcohol, of course, as he's only 9). My pictures (below) do not do full justice to her cake and you should check out the original. Also, hers has a tasty twist if you are making it for adults only.



For the chocolate drizzle on mine I melted chocolate chips in a double boiler and used some Torani Almond (Orgeat) syrup to thin it enough for drizzling. If you do it the same way, be careful not to use to much drizzle, as the Almond syrup has a really strong flavor. I was thinking that using peanut butter could be really tasty, too, and would be a little more subtle.



Can't wait to try it!

Birthday Cake: Monster Trucks

Boy, n.
1. Noise with dirt on it.

K2 had his 5th birthday this weekend. I almost made a construction cake but the Monster Trucks birthday cake won out.



This cake stuck to the pan (both layers, argh) and I ended up having to frost the whole thing back together. Luckily, it's supposed to look torn up and dirty so I didn't have to remake it.



I love really simple cakes. Vanilla cake (double recipe), chocolate frosting and crushed up Nilla wafers (with a little cocoa powder mixed in to darken it). I made two 9x13 cakes and one short (2 inch tall) loaf. I cut the corners from the loaf cake to make the ramps and used bamboo skewers to make the trucks stand up over them. I got into the older boys' car stash and picked a couple cars that looked really well beaten up for the "crushed cars" and washed everything real well (including the new ones).

Rainbow cake

I'm not sure where I first saw the rainbow layer cake but I've now seen it on quite a few blogs. Of course I was dying to try it myself because I was sure the girls would flip for it. I didn't want to make a full six layer cake so I made 6 thinner layers (from a doubled cake recipe that would normally make 4 layers) and it worked very nicely. If you do the same just make sure you keep a close eye on them in the oven because thinner cakes won't need to bake as long.



And of course since it was rainbow on the inside we made some rainbows on the outside, too.



Can you tell in this picture that it is a tiny bit lopsided? Hmm, yeah. I tried to level them but unfortunately it got away from me a bit, hehe.





To continue the tradition of 2 dozen balloons on the kids' birthdays I filled K's bedroom and added a little something to her whiteboard, too.

Army Birthday ~ 10 years!

I took Joe in today to see the eye doctor. There is a very good chance that he is going to be getting some glasses soon. He's a little worried but since it's mostly only for reading he thinks he can live with it, hehe.

Since I am catching up with birthday parties, his is next in line. He opted for a at-home party with just family and thought he might like another army theme party (which I did last year too. that post is here).



I got the idea for the army tank cake from this site. I can't find the actual picture that I used but I'm sure it was from that site. The original had used black licorice to make wheel treads but, as cute as it looked, I couldn't get past the smell. :(



In a more recent tradition I have started buying 2 dozen balloons for each child on their birthday. I asked that these be in camo-appropriate colors. Joe was quite excited but then he let the other kids take all but his camo balloon.



We played pin the target on the monster.



Joe really liked his cake (big sigh of relief from mom).



Especially since it was camouflage on the inside too.



I think the presents were acceptable too, lol.

Create your own (kid) cake. Mmmm

I realized today that a few of the kids' birthday parties were not yet shared here so I'll try to catch some of that up. This particular birthday party was in December so you'll see a few shots of the Christmas ornaments hanging from my light fixture (whoops).

I try to come up with parties to match each child's personality, and Glenn is an artistic boy. So for his 8th birthday we had a "decorate your own cake" party. I made mini bundt cakes for each child and pre-frosted them and then covered the table with bowls of bulk candy and spoons so they could decorate however their hearts desired. I bought way too much candy but it was useful as treats for weeks after so that's ok.



Some candy never actually made it onto the cakes (and they thought they were sneaky, hehe) but that's ok. None of the kids actually ate the entire thing anyway and we saved leftovers.



The girls were the last to leave the table. They wanted to be sure their cakes were just right. I snapped this in between protests of "not yet! I want to finish it first!" as they scrambled to finish before I took pictures. I tried to tell them that the in process pictures are just as much fun.



But they did insist on pictures of their finished masterpieces, too.




This is the birthday boy. He looks pretty pleased with his creation.



Quick party to put together and the kids' loved it. (I liked the easy clean up, too, hehe).

Camouflage/Army Theme Birthday Party

Still catching up on my backlog. Here are some shots I took of my oldest son's birthday party last month. He is very much into all things military (games, toys, etc) so I thought that an army party would go over well.

I made sure all of the little soldiers were set up with helmets, binoculars and dog tags. Since the girls were revolting a little (not so into army stuff) I added little pink bows to their helmets/party hats and that seemed to make everyone happy.



To keep the kids occupied I gave them a scavenger hunt, disguised as military "missions". As they completed each mission a clue for a new mission was waiting for them. They had to:
~ Rescue their comrade (I tied up a teddy bear and put him in the laundry room)
~ Observe and report (Tell me about some objects in a particular room)
~ Cooperate to help our allies retreat (Get 5 army men and bring them back)
~ Traverse a mine field (Obstacle course in the living room)
~ Sneak through enemy territory (Get to the kitchen without being seen by the adults)



At the end the little soldiers were victorious (of course) and located their prize bags.

The cake I *thought* would be really easy. I looked up a few camouflage cakes on the internet and tried to duplicate them but as soon as I started frosting I quickly had misgivings and thought I'd made a mistake instead. I pushed on, however, and am glad that I did. All in all I think it actually turned out pretty nice. I just used some army toys (well washed) that he had received at Christmas time to top it off. The frosting is a homemade powder sugar/butter mix with half colored brown by the vanilla and half colored green. I just poured the brown mix over the whole thing and then put the green in spots. Since the frosting is pretty runny when first made this was very easy and then I refrigerated it for about 10 minutes to set up the frosting before I added the toys.



Joe had a little help blowing out his birthday candles.



Luckily, he seemed to think that it was a great joke and all was well.



9 years old already. Wow.

A birthday and a blogiversary

Today is my blogiversary and my birthday. I have been blogging for exactly a year, which I started on my 30th birthday.

1 year of blogging
31 years of life
200 posts
So many new friends



I have blogged about my kids and the crazy things they say (or the embarrassing things that I do).



I've talked a lot about growing up, my sisters, and written several posts for "Life By Mom's Rules: A Survival Guide".



We moved and we painted. And painted and painted and painted...

There were a few scary moments with family, some turning out well and others not and one of those moments I'll even call a miracle even though I'm not really religious.

I confessed 30 secrets, a project inspired by spudballoo.



I dreamed about going to Blog Camp in Denmark but was unable to go so Julie suggested a camp here timed to match up with Blog Camp 2.0 there (a Blog Camp Reno). Some great people (Ali/McGillicutty, rxBambi, AnOpenHeart and Zena the "non-blogger") came to Reno to meet up in September and I'm still quite thrilled for the experience.



I got all crafty this year and there are a few example here, here , here and here.



I bought my first big girl camera and started a flickr 365 project (today is day 50). I'm working on my mini project of the ABCs right now. And this year when I go on the next Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk I'll be prepared to play with the big kids (I hope).

So far my number one most popular post (based on hits) is the PVC pipe fort here and it still gets several hits a day from Google. And the most commented on posts are always the wordzzles.

So it's been quite a year. I have a lot of thoughts rattling around in my head recently about where I'm at in my life right now but I think that will need a whole post of it's own so I'll save that for now. Right this minute I'm going looking for a recipe for Pistachio cupcakes that I used a while back. Yummy Birthday to me!

6 Years old

6 years ago today a baby was born around 4:30 in the afternoon. She was the third born of three, the baby. For the first couple years her brothers played with her all the time and did whatever she told them too. When she was one her big brother would even open the front door when she wanted out and so her parents bought a deadbolt that needed a key even from the indside.



She was full of mischief from the start and you could tell those eyes had a plan.



But she was very helpful. Want the dishwasher unloaded? No problem.



Then she discovered jewelry.



And coffee (well, actually hot cocoa but at Starbucks)



And suddenly this morning I am no longer looking at my baby. Hand her some construction paper and a roll of tape and she'll give you back a birdcage or a new board game. She's creative and a little crazy and a complete ham. She has a boyfriend and (so his mother tells me) they've gotten "married". Today is his birthday too. Taking this picture this morning I had to admit that my little girl is a baby no longer and while I'm so very proud of her I'm also just a little sad. I was hoping she could be my baby for a while longer yet.

Happy Birthday, Little Miss. I love you!

7 years old

7 years ago there was a baby



Who got annoyed with picture taking for a while



Until he realized there were worse ways to get attention



My small but mighty little man



With all the youthful spirit a mother could ask for



And last Thursday (the 10th) my beautiful boy turned 7. And on Saturday in the midst of this:



There was a party for the little artist.



And the presents were opened



And wishes were made



And a good time was had by all. (Though daddy needs to practice his party face)



Happy Birthday, Glenn!