Birthday cake

Master J turns eight tomorrow. Eight years have flown by in what seems like an awfully short amount of time.

Every year for his birthday I make him a cake. This year he requested a cake shaped like a bucket of popcorn. He also wanted it to portray the movie "Transformers" and tornadoes. Due to the difficulty of incorporating those three things, we are going with a Transformers party theme and a cake shaped like a bucket of popcorn. As for the tornadoes, well, that's what went through my kitchen while I was trying to make the cake. Having said that, I did manage to put together a halfway decent cake, at least to an eight year old.

The cake is four 8-inch layers, two chocolate and two of french vanilla. I used chocolate frosting in between the layers and a butter cream frosting on the outside. The "popcorn kernels" are made from cut up marshmallows. The worst part about that was having to clean my kitchen shears every third marshmallow in order for it to cut cleanly and make the kernels look more realistic. It took me about two hours to decorate the cake after I assembled it.

Overall, it wasn't too difficult, it was a fun idea and I'm sure Master J will be very happy with it. The lighting wasn't great in my kitchen, but you get the general idea. I'll try to get a better picture of it tomorrow with Master J at the park.

Heart squeeze

If there is anything more precious than a sleeping child, I don't know what it is. Every night I put Master J to bed at a reasonable time and let him read until 8:30. Usually, when I check on him he is still reading and begs me to let him "just finish this chapter please." I almost always let him since I know he struggles with getting to sleep anyway and reading allows his mind to focus on something good rather than on any real or imagined worries. Tonight when I checked on him, he was sleeping soundly with his book still propped up on his chest. I didn't realize at first that he was sleeping and started talking to him. Then I heard him softly snore and I just stopped. I squatted down next to my beautiful and loving child snoring gently in his bed. I looked at his sweet face, his long lashes reaching far beyond where any boy's should, his fingers still clutching his book, and my heart just squeezed with the love I have for this boy. I don't think I have the words to describe how big a piece of my heart he owns. And if he figures it out before adulthood I'm probably screwed.