[cakes: Super Mario Bros Birthday Cake.]

I thought I had gotten out of it.  I mean, I DO like to build cakes for my kid's birthdays ... but this year, Mattias was heading to a Laser Tag play-place and they had a Dairy Queen Cake as part of their package.

I just assumed ... 

Yeah.  No.  He wanted a cake ... to which he told me the morning before the party.  In fact, this cake thing has become such a tradition, he actually said that he wants me to make him cakes until I die.

EEK.

So ... I got to work.  My first step was asking what he wanted.  "A Super Mario Brothers birthday cake ..." he smiled.  

Um.  Right.   SUPER.

I hit the computer and checked out what all the other birthday-cake-makers were doing.  And honestly?  Almost every one that I saw were professionally made.  SLIGHTLY intimidating, for sure.

Ah well ... it's just a cake, right?  "I'll give it a go," I thought.

So ... I baked the cakes, and plotted my plan.

I decided to make a "Toad" character (he's the mushroom, apparently - and let's be honest - the easiest of all the characters to make!).  And I like blue ... so blue frosting it was.  Mmmm.  Frosting.

It was almost 11pm when I started ... and as you WELL know - I am NOT a cake decorator.  I would be horrified if you looked to closely ... I am a cake builder.  And a mom who just tries her best *wink*.

I needed a base for the mushroom.  I pulled out a cookie cutter and attempted to punch out a circle from the loaf-pan cake ... 

I love butter-frosting (which is the blue, of course) ... but I bought some fondant to make the Toad Character with ... just 'cause.

I tore of a chunk, dyed it red ... made the top.  Tore off another piece of white fondant, rolled it - cookie cuttered circles.  Tore off another little bit of fondant, dyed it black ... made the eyes.  Grabbed the green sprinkles ... 

Another chunk of fondant, rolled, and the "clover-leaf" cookie cutter with the bottom part cut off became the clouds ... 

It was midnight now ... 

But THIS is my favourite part ... adding the details.  I combined brown and green dyes (thanks Mrs. Elementary School teacher for that knowledge many moons ago) ... used a brick-stencil-press ... boom.   Grabbed another chunk of fondant, coloured it yellow, cookie pressed a star.  Drew some eyes with the edible-black-marker I have.  

Made some gold coins from the leftover yellow fondant for the one star *grin* ... Created a white-fondant banner to write on ... made a 3-D "8" because I had some left over from the mushroom ... and used a "scribbler" to write Happy Birthday ...

I then found a bag of silver balls from many cakes ago ... lined the bottom edge.

BOOM.  

Done.  Not perfect.  But DONE.  It was almost 1am by this point ... 

The next morning, the boys were GIDDY with anticipation.  I had hid the cake, because I'm smart like that.  I had them get on the couch and close their eyes (they chose pillows instead) ... and I placed the cake on the table.

 This is when it's ALL worth it ... 

 And Mattias was a HAPPY little guy ... yay!!

Happy birthday (um, in August) Mattias.  And thank you for loving my love-language to you ... thank you for appreciating the small things in life and for loving my cakes no matter what they actually look like *grin* ... 

 Man, I love him.

Have a great one!

[worship: I Need You More.]

The truth is - sometimes I'm a big, fat chicken.  And that's not an insult to my waistline - it's a wakeup call on my fear of approval.  Yeah, yeah - some days I don't worry about it ... but other days, I do.

Last week - I was sitting at the piano, preparing for last night's worship service,  and I felt compelled to record this song.  I was going to put it up on this blog - and then chose against it.  I was afraid that it would seem self-serving ... rather than the truth: I felt that the Lord was asking me to.  But, how could I explain that?

Well ... last night, I learned a valuable lesson.  See - I don't really think much about this blog. I mean, I do and I don't.  I have NO CLUE who comes and checks it out (unless you leave a comment, how could I?).  But after the Recovery Service, a "blast from the past" was walking by and I stopped her ... and I spoke her name.

She turned to me ... and that conversation has impacted me in more ways than I can tell you. See, for the last few years - I've been posting on my FB status "who wants free Christmas Production tickets" and this girl always answered, and came.  And as of late, I've been posting about the Recovery Service and it's times etc ... and guess what:  she came.

I had no clue ... but she's been coming for a couple of months.  And her life is CHANGED.  I stood there, in literal awe as tears streamed down her face.  She told me her story, how God has changed everything - "it's REAL, it's NO JOKE" she just kept saying as I stared wide-eyed.  

She hasn't had a drink since she gave her life to Jesus Christ.  I'm telling you - I just couldn't believe what she was saying ... I was overjoyed.   

I say all of that, not to toot my horn at ALL. BUT ... there is power in FB statuses, in blogposts.  People read them ... you read them, right?  She talked about my meal plans, about my kids (when they walked up she smiled, "I KNOW these kids" she said ...).  She said to be strong ... to keep on doing it.  To live for Jesus and not be afraid.

So.  That's what I'm going to do.  Thanks for the reminder ES *wink*.

[digiscrap: 2011 is DONE.]

HEY!

Yeah, yeah ... I'm still here.  The sun is shining (well, actually - it's night as I type this - so, not ACTUALLY shining right now ...) ... it's summer break and things are going well.

As per usual, I have a lot on my mind *grin* ... selling our house, preparing to move - I'm actually wanting to write a post on that because I'm already feeling a little bit like, "um - no thanks.  I think I'll just stay here ... I like it here.  I don't want to move.  Please don't make me."  How silly is that?  Gah, I wish I were one who thrived on change, instead of seeing it as the end of something that will never be again.   Change seems final, change makes me feel like life is passing too fast ... 

Boo on me.

ANYway - that's a different post ... 

This past week we had a family week away with some relatives and I managed to finish, yes FINISH, all of my digiscrapping for 2011.  I can officially take all of those images off of my computer (yay!!), and the massive scrapbooking files that I'm actually burning to disk as I type this ... 

They were uploaded into a 12x12 book from Blurb.com, and for $130+ I have a complete album of 2011, images and all.  EEK!  You couldn't even by the SUPPLIES at the local scrapbooking store for that price (my album is 156 pages).   I love that ... flat, tidy, all in one book.  This is the first time I've done it this way - I usually print out the 12x12 photos and slip them into a sleeve and then into a 12x12 album.  BUT this??  THIS is even better.  

I'll be sure to show you what it looks like when it arrives ... but for now?  A few of the 40+ pages I completed this week.

Man.

I'm so happy.

Have a great one!!

(click images to enlarge)