Cake Catch-Up

I usually like to do these cake posts individually, but I have let so many come and go without posting, I'm just going to have to throw them all together.  So, here we go - all the way back to June: 

In June, we had the pleasure of creating our beloved Uga again.  The cake was a surprise for groom, Nick Jones, who was a player for the Bulldogs from '03 to '06.  The wedding was in Athens, so Josh and I got to spend some time in the Classic City while the reception went on, and we went back to retrieve our friend after it was over.

Le Jardin Blanc, a local events facility here, asked me to do this Groom's cake.  They sent me this picture of the bride and groom's door mat and wanted a cake to look like it.

 

This one was for the daughter of a good friend from high school.  Her daughter loves Tinkerbell.

This was for a St. Simons Island beach wedding.  She wanted a red theme with seashells.  Each cupcake is topped with chocolate buttercream, a thin layer of red fondant, and a white chocolate seashell.

Due the same weekend, this hula dancer got some white chocolate seashell decorations too.  How perfect!

And I did some girly cupcakes for my cousin's little girl, but I cannot get the computer to stop turning the photo!  I'm sure Josh could fix it, but he's not in here right now so I'm posting it anyway.

I got to do the 1st Birthday cake for my niece Maria.  She adores Elmo, so naturally, he is who graced her cake.

 
A friend of the hula dancer customer contacted me about doing a cake for her luau-themed 16th birthday party.  She thought about having me do another hula dancer, but also had a picture of this cake that someone else had done.  She decided on it, and was very happy with her decision.

The fiance of the best friend of the groom that was surprised with the Uga cake from above (did you get that?) contacted me to do Uga for their wedding on September 4th.  Anybody know why I was thrilled to do this cake on September 4th?  Huh?  Huh?

Only because this ol' dog was created especially for our wedding on September 4th, 2004!  And boy has he gotten around since then.  :)

Anyway, the bride-to-be wanted to change it up a little just so it wouldn't be the exact same cake they had just seen at their friends' wedding, so we decided to dress him in his black-out jersey.

Another friend from high school was celebrating her mom's birthday and her daughter's birthday in the same weekend, and got me to do both cakes.  Her mom turned 60 and loves animal print, so I did a zebra striped cake.

Her daughter wanted a princess cake and loves the color purple, so I made a pretty purple princess for her.

Le Jardin Blanc contacted me again for another groom's cake.  They sent me another picture, and again, I recreated it.  This wound up being one of those cakes that has a nice, long, disastrous story behind it, but it came out just fine in the end.  I don't have the energy to explain it all right now.  Feel free to come up with something on your own.  :)

So that's what I've been up to all summer.  Busy, busy.  And now I have nothing on the calendar.  Not one cake.  I'm a little sad about it.  But I'm not going to wish too hard for someone to contact me, because when it rains, it pours.

Bennett's First Game Day

After much debate, Josh and I finally decided to take Bennett to a Georgia game this year.  We knew we didn't want to take him last year, because that surely would have been a disaster.  And we almost chose to keep him home again this season.  He's still only three, has a very short attention span, and is very sensitive to loud sounds.  A crowded Sanford Stadium isn't really a great setting for that type of person.

But with some persuasion from the grands, we - well, I (had it been up to Josh, Bennett would not have gone this year) decided we could try it on a not-so-important game.  I don't really mean 'not important,' but one that wouldn't be quite as crowded, like Auburn, South Carolina, etc.  We also wanted to do it sometime when the weather wouldn't be too hot or too cold.  So the Mississippi State game it was.  And oh, what a good choice that wound up being.

The weather could not have been more perfect.  It was cool if you were in the shade, but perfectly comfortable in the sun.  Beautiful.  And thank goodness, there were several empty seats all around us.  We were able to spread out and Bennett got to move around pretty freely.  He sat with me some; Josh moved to the row behind me and Bennett sat up there with him some; Lynn and Steve were in the row in front of me (did I smell or something?) and he went down there with them some; it was great.

He did ask me if we could go home about halfway through the first quarter, and I thought were were in trouble.  But thankfully, he was occupied enough to make it through the entire ballgame.  I couldn't believe it.  This was a noon game.  His nap time is from 12:30 or 1:00 until about 3:00.  He did very well.  (And no, he is not napping in the above picture.  He did lie down and rest a little, but was very awake the whole time.)

I totally thought he would crash in the car on the way back to Lynn and Steve's house.  Nope.  We got back to their house and stayed for just a little while before heading back home.  I knew he would nap on the way home.  Uh... no again.  Not only did he not nap, but he was wired.  Here is a video I got of him doing what he did almost the whole way home:

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He's Gonna Get Me in Trouble

Monday, the Northwest Exterminating guy came for our quarterly pest control.  It had been a while since they had come inside to spray, so I asked that he service the inside of the house.  He came in and was immediately greeted by Bennett (of course). 

Bennett said, "What's your name?"  The guy said, "Kevin."  Bennett tried to follow him around the house carrying on the conversation, but I made him come into the living room until he was finished.

Later, Mama came by and I mentioned that the Northwest guy had been here.  Bennett said, "His name is Kevin.  He comes to our house all the time."

Oh my.  Not only do I have to worry about him repeating things that we wouldn't necessarily want repeated, but apparently I have to worry about him coming up with things like that all on his own!

Mama and I laughed, and she said, "That could be taken more than one way..."  I thought about it for a minute and agreed.  I said, "I don't know which is worse!"

Gender Reveal Cake

For the first time ever, I made a cake for myself.  Okay, maybe it wasn't exactly for me, but I was the client.  If I had made it for me it would have been either devil's food cake with buttermilk icing or yellow cake with Mama's chocolate icing (the best stuff in the world).  But for this cake, I needed it to be able to be dyed either pink or blue because it was a gender reveal cake.

Heard of this?  It's kind of a new trend.  People go to the doctor at 20 weeks, have their ultrasound, and instead of the technician telling them what they're having, they have them write it down and seal it in an envelope.  The to-be parents then take the envelope to their local baker and have them make a cake that is either pink or blue on the inside.  Then they can have a big party (or just invite their parents to their front porch like we did) and everyone finds out the gender of the baby when that first slice is cut.  I think it's a really cute idea.  Even if the parents go ahead and find out, it's a neat way to tell your family and friends what you're having (which was the case with us).

The plan was actually to tell everyone Monday night.  Every Monday, Josh and I take turns with my parents having each other over for supper.  Whoever isn't making supper brings dessert.  Well, this coming Monday is my parents' turn to make supper, so it's our turn to bring dessert.  I've known for a while that I would be bringing this cake for our dessert.  I was going to invite Josh's parents to join us so that everyone could find out together.  

I wasn't even going to tell anyone that our doctor's appointment was Thursday morning, because I knew they'd all be expecting to find out asap.  Well, I wound up having to tell because Bennett had a stomach bug this week and was home from school Wednesday and Thursday.  Josh could have stayed home with him, but he really wanted to be there with me to find out what we were having.  So I called my mom and asked if she could come over for a little while so that we could go.  

And of course, as soon as we got back they wanted to know.  I told them they'd have to wait a little while.  But I knew I wouldn't be able to hold it in.  Neither would Josh.  We're not very good with secrets, and one of us would have let it slip.  So I decided to go ahead and make the cake and we invited my parents over last night.  I still would have liked to have had Josh's parents over, but Josh is going to be out of town all weekend on a boys' trip, and like we already determined, it couldn't wait until next week.

So here is the cake I made yesterday; my first Gender Reveal Cake.

To my dismay, Josh, my dad, and my friend Miranda (who saw a picture of the cake last night) thought the feet were pink.  They're supposed to be flesh-colored.  I guess I need to work on that, since that would totally defeat the purpose of the cake.  But the only color I used to tint the fondant was brown, so it's kind of weird that it would appear pink.  Oh well.

Here's a video of the cake-cutting.  Drum roll please......

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Interesting to Bennett

I've posted before about how Bennett loves to take pictures.  That interest has not faded.  He picks up the camera any chance he gets and starts snapping away.  Well, the other day, Josh and I were in the office talking to each other while Bennett was taking pictures.  He just points the camera in a general direction and snaps a shot. 

Josh said, "Hey Bennett, why don't you try taking pictures of things that are interesting to you rather than just a whole room?"  He took a picture of this picture frame to give Bennett an example of taking up-close shots of interesting things.

 Then it was Bennett's turn.

Interesting.

Remember Us?

Believe it or not, we are still around.  How sad is it that I only posted twice in the month of August?  And I really hope I can count on my mother-in-law for a few photos from this last month, because I took about three.  I don't really know what my problem has been.  I've gotten over the lack-of-energy stage of my pregnancy, Bennett's back in Montessori, and I haven't been bombarded with cake orders lately, so I really have no excuse.

Well, actually, our computer has been acting up.  If you leave it for 5 minutes, it goes into what it calls "Power Save Mode."  It's more like "Raise Marcie's Blood Pressure Mode."  A message comes across the screen telling you that it's in "Power Save Mode" and in order to restore your session you can simply press any key, move your mouse, or press the power button.  That would be just great IF ANY OF THAT WORKED, EVER.  We've learned all these stupid little tricks we have to go through and sometimes after spending 5 minutes going through this ridiculous rigamaroo it'll come back on, but most of the time it just continues to politely tell me that it's apparently doing us a favor by going back into "Power Save Mode."  So I politely slam the mouse on the mouse pad a few dozen times and storm off.  I finally realized that it wasn't worth even trying.  If I got to the computer and that nice little message came across the screen I would inhale, exhale, cuss under my breath (a lot), get up and walk away.  So yeah, I guess I do have a pretty good excuse.

But even when Josh has the computer up and running and I get to it before it decides to save power for us (which Lord knows we need; Georgia Power's getting rich off of us), I still don't take the time to blog or even write in my own little journal.  I'm just tired.  Have been for the last two or three years.  There's lots of stuff boggling my little ol' mind and sometimes I just don't have the energy or the time for my own thoughts.  There's two little rascals running around here that I'll gladly give up my own thoughts for, but there's other things that I wish I didn't have to give 'em up for.

Anyway, the whole reason I'm here right now is because I picked up the camera tonight while the boys ate supper and I just want to share with you two of the most amazing, smile-inducing, laugh-generating, heart-warming things in my life:

I. Love. These. Guys.

 
(That's a raspberry seed on Cannon's forehead.  He doesn't have an unfortunate mole.) 

(Yet.)

He is really beginning to develop a little personality.  He and I have been having some fun chasing games lately, whether it's around the couch or on the guest bed in his room with me running from one side of the bed to the other while he throws himself into the pillows, trying to hide.  His little laugh is the cutest thing.  He's slowly starting to say more things.  He's finally saying "bye bye" with a "b" instead of it sounding like he's saying "Mah-mah" while waving to you.  Every once in a while Josh will get a cute little "Hey Dah-ee."  And he's got "uh-oh" down pat.  We understand his "please" and "thank you"s, but as far as anything else, he's holding back.  Maybe he'll do it like he did with walking.  He's going to wait until he can do it right.  He'll keep quiet and then one day come sit down and have a conversation with us.

He's going to be just as affectionate as his big brother.  My favorite thing that Cannon does right now is when he comes up to you while standing, wraps his arms around your legs, buries his face in between them and says, "Mmmm.... mah!"  Bennett is sooo affectionate.  He's not afraid to give you a hug or a kiss or tell you that he loves you.  We'll be sitting on the couch watching TV or reading a book and he'll just lean up and kiss me on the cheek.  Such a sweetheart.  But he wasn't that way when he was a little thing.  He was nowhere near cuddly.  I would have given anything to have him cuddle with me or even just sit in my lap, but he wouldn't have it.  He was on the move.  Cannon, on the other hand is a cuddle-bug.  He'll sit with you any time of the day.  If I'm sitting on the couch, he'll walk up and lay his head in my lap.  I hope it doesn't happen in reverse and by the time he gets to be Bennett's age he won't be affectionate.

And, oh my gosh, is Bennett saying some funny stuff.  I have got to start writing more of it down.  I took this video because I wanted to capture the way he is saying/asking for some things.  He wasn't terribly cooperative, but he eventually kind of said a few of them.  These aren't necessarily funny; just the way he says normal, day-to-day things.  When asking for a drink, whatever it may be, this is the way he does it.  Except with several more really's.

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Just so you know, "letter soup" is not a common supper in our house. Chef BoyarJoshandMarcie are the preparers of most of our meals. But I think every mom has a Plan B stashed in the cabinets for "one of those" kind of nights. And thanks to a tenant that we were happy to bid farewell to tonight, it turned into "one of those." We were supposed to have poppy seed chicken casserole (Gibson/Chick crew, can I get an "oh... yeeaaaaah").

And can you hear how loud he is when he drinks? He has ALWAYS been that way. Even when he was a tiny baby, when he nursed, it sounded like I had a pig latched onto me. He squealed.  I clearly remember going into Josh's grandmother's bedroom to nurse during a family function and being incredibly embarrassed because I just knew that everyone could hear him in there doing that. It was nuts. And he still makes that loud gulp sound when he drinks. Too funny.

So anyway, we're here. We're good. We're holding onto what we have while the world seemingly falls in around us. Hope y'all are doing the same.

Oh, and Happy 38th Wedding Anniversary to my awesome parents today.  Love, love, love y'all. 

Little Man is Getting Older

This is not a great picture (Bennett took it), but I just wanted to share it 'cause Cannon looks less like a baby here. 

 
Oh my goodness, I hear people say it all the time, but the time really does go by too fast.  Some stages you wish would just fly by, but with those you're wishing away lots of wonderful things, too.