Ethan's Birthday

Ethan turned seven.  Sometimes I can't believe how fast time goes.  It makes me think- Am I teaching him how to be a good person, is he learning how to serve others, do I give him enough responsibility around the house, have I taught him how to know right from wrong and to make his own choices?  I can only hope the smallest part of what I'm trying to teach him is making it into his big intelligent brain. 
Ethan is my first child, so I don't have a point of reference for all of this.  He is my learning curve.  I want him to be a happy child and a successful adult- those two desires can really be hard to achieve together (especially if you ask Ethan). 
Some things I've learned:  Almost everything that is hard about your child at a certain age- they will grow out of it!;  New hard things come with every age; Don't make mountains out of mole hills; Decide ahead of time what is going to be a mountain;  Talk with you child- but more importantly LISTEN! (don't interrupt);  Routine saves you from a lot of headaches;  Lots of sugar and not enough sleep makes kids turn into monsters;  Children are always watching and they learn WAY more from your example then from what you say;  Give them chances to prove themselves;  Praise early- and often;  Be united with your spouse;  AND charity never faileth...
I don't claim to know much about parenting at all.  I get lessons everyday about how inept I am at it.  But I'm determined to be successful at doing my best and loving my kids. 
Geez- guess Ethan's birthday made me a bit introspective.  Enough about me, here is some things about Ethan:
He is super smart, funny, he likes to win, he will rise to the challenge if you let him, he can argue like a lawyer, he is so very handsome :) , he is sensitive, he LOVES to read (especially comics), he and his daddy like to share inside jokes and have similar senses of humor, he understands and applies things most adults would have a hard time getting, he is creative, he never forgets (that sounds ominous, ha ha), he is an early riser, he loves to swim, he loves video games, his favorite color is green and he likes frogs.
I'm grateful I get to be the mother of such an amazing human being.

Nora's Sand Castle Cake

Nora turned 5.
She acts like she's 15.
I love her like crazy, and she drives me crazy.  I think she feels the same way about me.
She wanted a sand castle cake for her birthday- So I did my best (I was sick as a dog!)....

Bowser Cake

Ethan wanted a Bowser cake.  So here is my version of a Bowser cake.

Cake is Vanilla
Filling is Vanilla custard and strawberries

Nora's 4th Brithday Cake

Chocolate Cake
Chocolate Mousse Frosting and filling
Oreo Dirt
Gummy Worms
Real flowers

Ethan's Birthday Cake

Lady Bug Cake Day

Nora turned three yesterday. She is getting so big so fast. Where does the time go? Anyway, she absolutely loved her birthday- especially her cake.

You see about 4 months ago she decided she wanted a lady bug cake for her birthday. No joke, 4 months. So whenever anyone mentioned her turning three she would say, "Yeah, and I'm gonna have a lady bug cake." No pressure right. Well, I've seemed to adopt a Hall family saying into my own life-- "If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing!" I've always been a "less is more" kind of a girl, but I guess I'm slipping. Although I'll admit when it comes to food I always try to go the extra mile, especially birthday cakes. Hence, Nora's lady bug cake was a bit complicated. It was a simple chocolate cake, cut into layers, homemade chocolate mousse between each layer, ganche frosting (white and milk chocolate), and lots of sprinkles. When Nora woke up on her birthday I showed her the cake. She was so happy, and giddy.

We had to run some errands (I wanted to find black rope licorice for antennae), and everywhere we went I'd say, "Nora tell them what today is!". To which she would reply, "Lady bug cake day!" Then I'd say,"No, tell them it's your birthday." Then she would say, "Today is my birthday and I get to eat a lady bug cake." True story.

Midday, we went to Chuck E. Cheese. It's a tradition!

So my brother, sisters, parents, cousin, and friend came over for a party. It was fun. We ate pulled pork, coleslaw, hot crash potatoes, and bread...Yum.... And then dined on lady bug cake. It was good.

Nora got beautiful gifts and had a wonderful day. She is funny, smart, sweet and beautiful. I love her so much! Happy Birthday Nora, or should I say Happy Lady Bug Cake Day!

Train Cake

Ok, so a lot of you liked the train cake, and well, there are some things you should know about the train cake.

You will need:
Something to put the train on (I used Foam Board)
A cake mix
Vanilla Frosting x2
Chocolate Frosting
Candy
Food coloring

First, I got the idea from Kraft... Train Cake

Second, I just made a cake in a 9x13 pan and cut it into squares. The Kraft instructions say to use frozen Sara Lee pound cakes. I just couldn't make my sons birthday cake out of pound cakes. But it would have been MUCH easier to frost.

Third, I made the tracks out of Kit Kats and choc frosting on a foam board (I don't have a big tray). I don't have any fancy decorating tools, I just spoon some frosting into a plastic bag and nip the tiniest bit off the corner of the bag. Ok, the hardest part was frosting a cut up cake. At first the frosting was not spreading at all! It was just collecting crumbs and rolling up in balls and making the cake disintegrate! Aaaak. I almost gave up. Then I had the idea to melt some of the frosting in the microwave and pour it onto the crumb sides of the cake and over the top, everywhere but the bottom. Then I let that dry on a drying rack sitting in a cookie sheet pan. After that frosting it was no problem. By the way the first layer of frosting is called a crumb layer. All the pros do it! (I'm such a pro). I added food coloring to the vanilla and frosted the cakes in different colors and placed them on the Kit Kat train tracks.

Last, the fun part, decorating! Just walk down the cookie and candy aisle and imagine the possibilities! You know, Teddy Grahams for little people on your train, Licorice for the tracks, Fruit roll ups for the windows.... the possibilities are endless. I also used more plastic bags with the corners cut off to add detail frosting.

I think that's everything. The only hard part was figuring out how to get the cake frosted, once I figured that out, it was so much fun. If you use pound cakes, you won't have to worry about the frosting getting all messed up. Oh, I almost forgot... Some women made the cakes in multiply bread pans so they were about the size of pound cakes and didn't have crumbly sides, just another idea.