Cannon's "Piece of Cake" Cake

First comes the post about the cake, then comes the post about the party.

So I thought for Cannon's first birthday cake I might do a frog cake like this, or maybe an elephant cake like this.  And if I did the frog cake, the invitations would have been frogs, and the elephant would get elephant invites.  But then I remembered that I had some coke reward points (or pampers points, I can't remember) to spend, and Shutterfly is always one of the options for redemption.  So I decided to get me some free invites and they looked like this:

So when I started thinking about the cake again, I thought, "Well, what does the invitation look like?  Hmm... there's really only a picture of a piece of cake on it."  And then a light bulb came on in my head and I thought, "What if I made a cake, cut a piece out of it, iced the cake back, iced the piece back, and then used the piece as Cannon's smash cake and the cut cake for everyone else?"

And the next thought was, "I wonder if that's been done a million times before."  So I got on Google and guess what?!?  I could not find one single picture of the same thing.  There were plenty of pictures of cakes that had been cut, iced back, and the piece put on top of that same cake, or just cakes that were made to look like a piece of cake.  But none that used the piece as the smash cake for a child.

Y'all.  I had an ORIGINAL idea!  Oh my gosh, I'm so proud!

Now, don't you all go Google it at once and send me all the pictures you find of this idea.  Let me believe that I've been creative all by myself for a little while, at least.

And some of you might be going - but you are always so creative!  Uh, no, not really.  When people order cakes from me, they tell me basically what they want and I go to Google and type it in.  I choose three or four cakes that I like and take the best of each and make my own version.  So I kind of steal everybody else's ideas (should I be admitting this?).

I have completely copied one cake.  That was Elizabeth's Nemo cake.  That thing was just so cute, I wanted her's to look just like it.  And the Thomas/Cars cake that I did was pretty much a copy of someone else's, but that's because Josh's cousin sent me that picture and said that's what she wanted.  But I think I can honestly say that I made it better (toot, toot of the ol' horn).

Anyway, sometimes I get frustrated that I can't come up with any of my own ideas any better than I do, but I really just am not that creative.  It's just that I can look at what someone else has done and copy it well.

But this time....  This time I did it.  And I loved it.  And it wasn't for someone else.  It was for my Cannon Man!

Cannon is One!

Happy Birthday, my big bundle of squeezable love!

His party is tomorrow, so of course there will be a post to follow.  :)

Montessori Spring Fling 2011

Saturday was the Spring Fling at Montessori. We weren't able to go last year for some reason, so I really wanted Bennett to be able to go this year. Plus, he's old enough to really be able to enjoy it. But it turned out that it was the same weekend as the tour of homes we were on. There's now way I could have done both. Thank goodness for grandparents! Lynn and Steve came and got the boys on Thursday and took them back to their house so we would have Thursday evening and all day Friday to finish getting ready for the tour, and then brought them back to Douglasville to go to the Spring Fling while the tour was going on Saturday.

Well, there's no way I couldn't at least go see Bennett's class performance. He's been practicing this song at home for the past few weeks, and I really wanted to see him sing it with his class. So I broke away from the tour for a little bit and went up there.  They had just finished up lunch when I got there.

It was a really hot day, so it apparently took him a while to really get comfortable and have fun. He wanted to play in the bouncy house, but the sun was shining right on it and making the vinyl really hot on your feet. Steve went to the car and got him a pair of socks so it wouldn't be so bad.

Then, to Bennett's surprise, Poppa showed up.  Daddy called me and asked me how it was going, assuming I was at the house for the tour, but I told him I took a break to come over to Montessori for the Spring Fling.  He said, "Well maybe I'll just come up there.  Do they have food?"  We are just alike - always thinking about food.

Bennett played a few games while Cannon enjoyed the ride.

Then it was time for Bennett to line up with his class for their performance.  I don't know why I love this picture so much, but I do.  I guess just seeing my little boy in a crowd of other little boys and girls.

Anyway, here's their song(s).  Don't ask me what they're saying, because I have no clue. Some of it is obviously in different languages, but I can't even understand some of the English words. :)

(Bennett is next to the little girl in pink.)

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Bennett's Big Boy Room

Well, it's been over a year that Bennett has been in his "big boy room," but it has only recently been completely finished and worthy of a showing (thank you, Tour of Homes, for getting our butts into gear).

So here's the transformation of our Georgia-themed office into Bennett's big boy room:

A Bennett Funny

I just got home from getting Bennett from Montessori.  As we pulled into the driveway, Bennett asked who was going to be at his house today.  He's used to either Grandmama or Poppa or Gigi and Pop being at our house lately.  My parents were there a lot this past week helping us get ready for the tour of homes that was this past weekend, and Josh's parents kept the boys for us over the weekend during the tour and then spent the night with us Saturday night. 

So he wanted to know who was going to be at his house today.  I said, "Nobody's going to be at our house today, bud.  Just us."  He got quiet and didn't say anything else.  We got out of the car and started walking up the back steps.  Bennett turned and saw a guy on Greg's back porch next door.  He excitedly pointed to the guy and exclaimed, "There he is, Mama!"  I said, "There who is?"  He said, "Justus!"

About a Chair

If any of you ever want to spend about $900 on me, get me this chair:

Oh, how I love that chair.  It's even more beautiful in person.  It's actually a lot more beautiful in person.

Mama and I went shopping yesterday at Lenox and this chair was at Crate and Barrel.  It's just so classy and calming and peaceful.  I don't know if you can tell, but it's an ever-so-light shade of bluish gray.  I love those airy colors.  I'd love to decorate a room with this as my inspiration. I'd love to have just tons and tons of money to be able to afford to decorate a room that would make this chair feel at home.

We were shopping for new artwork and such for our house, since we're on a Spring Tour of Homes in Douglasville next Saturday, the 30th.  Oh my gosh, that's just a little over a week away.  Gotta go.

Spring Cake and Pirate Cake

Okay, time to play cake catch-up.  I've been doing cakes right and left, but haven't had time to post anything here.  But I didn't want to list them all in one post, so I'm going to post a couple at a time until I'm caught up.  I'm starting with the most recent, because those are my favorites. 

Last week my mom's cousin called me and wanted a cake.  All she said was "something springy."  She may have been thinking lots of flowers and pastels, but while I agree that spring is about flowers, I don't feel like it necessarily has to be pastels.  (Can you tell I'm not a pastel kind of girl?)

Anyway, here's my interpretation of "something springy":

After finishing up the springy cake, I had to get started on the treasure chest/treasure map cake.  This one was so much fun!  This was for a little boy whose parents got married at Le Jardin Blanc while I was the event coordinator there and whose Dad I went to high school with.

Jake wanted a Pirate Party for his 4th birthday, and his Mom didn't want it to be too skull-and-crossbone-y.  So we decided on an awesome treasure chest and treasure map.

I delivered this one to their house.  Jake's mom came out to the car as I was getting it out and was so excited about it, she said, "Jake's in time-out right now, but I'm gonna go get him so he can see it!"  Too funny.  Some things are just worth interrupting time-out for.  :)