Jamie's Birthday - Field of Dreams . . . er, Cake

I am not a cake decorator. I never will be a cake decorator. I'd like things I spend so much time on to last more than a few minutes. However, I want my kids to have cute birthday cakes and (here's the rub) I don't want to spend large amounts of cash to get said cute cakes.

Earlier in the year I perfected my "grass" frosting technique with Maddie's Winne the Pooh birthday cake, and I was able to whip it out once again for Jamie's "Field of Dreams / Angel's Stadium Without Any Walls Or Other Identifiable Features" birthday cake.

The color is a bit off on these pictures because I took them with my iPhone mid-decorating at 2:30 am the morning of the party . . . cause, um, yeah . . .

I am pretty sure there are a few daylight pictures of this cake on the cd Grammy gave me, I so hope so because pretty much all I have of the cake from the party is this:

I love how the candle is standing amidst the wreckage . . . like a noble warrior among the destruction of his homeland . . .

Or something.

James seems to have enjoyed his cake and ice cream at least.

Getting ready for the James Par-tay

You still have a few days left to enter the Birthday Month Giveaway #4, click here!

My little man is going to be turning one this Sunday! I can't believe it has been a whole year since he made his speedy and rather dramatic entrance into the world! James has enriched our lives immeausrably throughout the last year, and to celebrate his first birthday we are going to be having a pool side party tomorrow . . .

The theme?

Angels baseball of course!

I am sure everyone is so, so, very surprised . . . ahem.

Here is the front of his super duper cute baseball card invites!

Who can resist that smile? What a cutie pop.

I am a busy little bee trying to get everything ready for his party . . . because, um, well, I can never make it easy for myself. Because I am working yesterday and today, I was up until 2:30 am sewing and baking a cake. Tonight it's more sewing, more baking, some decorating (I may or may not be using my previously perfected on the Winnie the Pooh cake grass frosting technique), a little more sewing, frantic searching for the birthday shirt which I seem to have misplaced, and general insane pre-party busy-ness.

A few minor side notes:

a) I looked everywhere for current logo Angels fabric to add to the fabric bunting I am making. I could absolutely not find any . . . the fabric warehouse that is one city over from Angel's stadium - nothing. Joanns, a mere five miles from the Big A? Again nothing. However, they did both have Red Sox fabric . . . what the heck?

b) My Mom is awesome. She had on hand several yards of Angels fabric and sent it out to me . . . it is the old Anaheim Angels "Disney" logo, the one with the wings, many purist fans will disparage this logo, but I personally think it was kind of cute. Not as crisp as the current one, of course, but at least we were still the Anaheim Angels . . . not the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (how does that work again?)

c) The US Postal Service was shockingly prompt this week. My Mom mailed the fabric Saturday afternoon from Peabody, MA, and it was delivered to Whittier, CA, Monday morning at 11 am. I have never been more flabbergasted. Thanks post office!

d) I have discovered about myself that I can never just settle for doing something cute, I have to ramp up the cuteness factor, create more work for myself, stress myself out totally, and usually give up in tears and desperation at some forsaken pre-dawn hour the day of the event. If I ever went into event planning I would proabably produce adorable events but most likely experience a mental break within the first year.

Wish me luck.

The weather report for tomorrow is 74 degrees and mostly sunny.

Pool par-tay here we come (ready or not)!

Maddie's birthday party - let them eat cake!

Cake?! Decorating a cake?!?! So not my forte!

Maddie's cake is my first real attempt, I got the idea for a green cake with flowers and Winnie the Pooh characters online. I found a "grass" decorating tip at Michaels along with frosting colorant. The flowers I found at a party store. The Super Sleuth figures Maddie got as a Christmas present from Grammy, which is why a few of them looked a bit loved. Darby proved too heavy for the cake and had to be propped up with tooth picks.

Any time, any place, the Super Sleuths are on the case!

Maddie took a bite out of the candle while I was

getting ready to put it on. I guess it looked tasty!

It took me a few minutes to get the hang of the grass, and it was a warm day (I frosted the day before the party) so I had to keep putting the piping bag into the freezer to cool. After about minutes it would get warm again and the grass strands would come out all smushy looking. I also tried to "grow" the grass in different directions so it looked more like real grass and less uniform.

Mmmmmm . . . cake.

And I did about a dozen matching cupcakes.

Maddie was a fan of the cupackes, she ate the frosting off of two. Check out her shirt, all those strawberry stains! And after the cupcakes she had green frosting stains. I spot treated and it all came out in the wash! Amazing!

Super Sleuth Pooh in his Hundred Acre Wood of cupcakes.