Train Birthday cake

Micah decided he wanted a train birthday cake this year. Actually, he first wanted a Mickey Mouse cake but I worked hard to steer him away from that because it would involve so much black. After having black mouths, lips, and faces from the race car cake at Ethan's birthday, I wanted to limit the use of black! I had fun posting the stages of Ethan's birthday cake, so I thought I would do the same with Micah's. So, enjoy the construction of the red train cake!

I searched train cakes on the internet and decided I liked a 3D one, so I baked the cake in my loaf pans.

I used one loaf as the base to the train engine and cut 1/3 of the second loaf for the tall part of the engine. I used the top half of the remaining piece for a little dimesion and used two large marshmallows for the smoke stack. I then had the bottom of a loaf for a train car. If you understood all of that, you get a gold star. Check out the picture and you'll see what I'm trying to explain!

I decided that the train car looked rather silly, so I cut off the sides and piled them on top. I'm not sure why I didn't just cut it in half. Maybe because that would have been easier.

I put the crumb coating of frosting on next. This part did not go so well. I had frosting everywhere and used way too much trying to cover all surfaces. I used so much I had to make a second batch of frosting. Since I rarely think a cake has too much frosting, I really didn't mind how thick it was getting!

I set to work making the train red. My "brilliant" thought was to use a star tip and do those all over the cake. The following picture is during a break in which I was trying to keep my hand from cramping. I switched to using the black (I know, I was trying to avoid black, but I couldn't help it) and frosted the smoke stack and made windows.

Jason came and began offering his encouragement...and then snapped pictures for the "in process" stage of this post.

I may never cover a cake using the star tip ever again. A least until I forget how much my hand hurt from covering the cake with stars. So probably I'll do it again next year.

Just when my hand was sensing a break, I had to frost the train car. The cake almost didn't have a train car. Did I mention that I had a major hand cramp at this point?

Once I was done with the red, I decided the train needed a little more definition. Pretty much so you could tell it was a train and not a truck. Of course, I headed back to the black. I think someone needs to take my black food coloring away.

My hand cramp was totally worth it when Micah work up and saw the train cake. He loved it! I managed not to tackle him when he reached toward it and asked if he could drive it.

Finally, here's the birthday boy with his train cake, candles and all. He loved it when Dad, Mom, Ethan, and his grandparents all sang "Happy Birthday" to him. He thought he blew out all the candles, but he didn't realize a strong wind came from the direction of his older brother.

As an added bonus, the cake actually tasted good, too. Even though I had a black mouth.

My Micah

Dear Micah,

Today you turn three years old. You have grown so fast that sometimes I do a double-take when I see you because I still think of you as my baby. You've lost all appearances of a toddler and are a sweet little boy. One thing that hasn't changed over the last year is that you are still mommy's boy. I love to pick you up in the morning because you are so cuddly and have a way of folding yourself against me so that you are as close to me as you can be. I like to tell your dad that you only act like that with me, but I see you cuddle up to him that same way sometimes.

Over the last year you've become quite a chatterbox. Your dad and I have been amazed at all the new words that you've learned and the ways that you use them in sentences (often a lot of sentences in a row!). Midway through the year you began identifying yourself as "Micah Aaron two-and-a-half". You were so proud of that "half" that you were annoyed when we tried to tell you that you would turn three on your birthday. Thankfully, your buddy Levi (a.k.a. We-vi) turned three and now it's okay for you to age, too. For a while you would stutter quite a bit--we could see that your brain was working so fast that your mouth couldn't keep up. I think you don't stutter much anymore because you've learned to talk faster!

You are all mischief and you love to rough house. Whenever possible, you tackle Ethan. You've gotten quite strong! We often laugh at some of your facial expressions--you grit your teeth and we know you're going to try and do something naughty (or jump on someone). You also are very entertained with your GeoTrax trains. If it were up to you, we would have the trains set up every day. You love to use the remote control ones and move the people around in the trains.

You still adore your brother. There are times where dad and I find Ethan reading to you or you are playing a race together. You are happiest when you are running around the kitchen, doing laps around the island, chasing after each other. You love that you have a chance of keeping up with Ethan! There are many occasions where you provoke your brother to the point of screeching, but most days end with a "bump" or a high five before bed.

Reading books is still a favorite activity. You'll happily grab a pile of books and bring it to any lap that is available. You love any story that has Mickey Mouse in it as well as the Berenstain Bear books. At nap time (which is becoming "rest" time) you try to convince us to let you have a pile of books in your bed to look at. We usually compromise at three, though I think your dad and I started our offer at one book.

Over the last year you learned to say prayers. In fact, you were the one who announced that we should say bedtime prayers together out loud. I love that time, right before bed where you add your voice to prayers with Ethan, Daddy, and I. You even memorized the whole "God is Great" prayer and like to have the opportunity to say prayers for us before or after meals. A few months ago, your teacher in the two's class at church asked you to draw a picture of Jesus. You drew a Micah-version of a rainbow with stars around it. I love that your little heart is beginning to know, understand, and love Jesus.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Micah. I love you!

Mom

Birthday week

It's Micah's birthday week, so we set out to Coldstone to redeem his free birthday ice cream.


He decided this time to have strawberry ice cream with sprinkles in it. He tried the mint (because it was green) and eyed the blue (cotton candy), but since his favorite color is red, he was pretty happy to get the strawberry.


I think Ethan was more excited to go than Micah. Ethan once again had his concoction of cotton candy ice cream with gummy bears -insert gagging noise here-.


Micah liked his ice cream, but I think he had the most fun sharing tastes of it with everyone else!


Even though he didn't finish his ice cream, the smiles and giggles were worth the trip! Oh, and I'm more than happy to help anyone else celebrate a birthday at Coldstone!

Girl's weekend

If you read my previous post, you know that I had a few goals for this past weekend. I'm happy to say that I accomplished them all! I had a great time with my girlfriends and can't wait until we get together again! I think the thing I love most about this group of friends is that even though we don't see each other frequently, it only takes us moments to be chatting like crazy...as if it was only a day since we saw each other last! (Jason asked me if my jaw hurt from all the talking!) These ladies are awesome, thanks for hanging out!


We were so busy catching up that we forgot to take any pictures until right before we left. So, thanks to Brian for putting up with us all weekend and for taking a great picture (and seriously, how cute is Nathan in his sunglasses?!).

Quote of the day

I'm writing this one down in hopes that it will remind me ten years from now to NOT leave Ethan home alone overnight.

This morning I told Ethan and Micah: "Mom's going away this weekend so you get to have a boy's weekend with Dad"

Ethan's response: "I think we should have a party"

Lovely. I just hope they clean up after it! Honestly, I don't mind what they do while I'm gone, because here are my goals for the weekend:

1. Laugh until my sides hurt
2. Sit in the hot tub until my fingers look like prunes
3. Eat chocolate and drink Sangria

That's it. Is it Friday yet?

Quote of the day

This one comes from Ethan:

"Mom, we need a girl baby. So we can chase her."

Yeah, great reason to have another baby.

Disclaimer: This is not in any way intended to be an announcement of any type. :)

Race Track Birthday Cake

This year Ethan requested a NASCAR birthday cake. I searched for ideas on the internet and came across this idea for a race track. So, it worked with the NASCAR request without me actually having to draw out the NASCAR logo! I started with two round cakes and cut one so it would fit next to the other. I showed it to Ethan and he kindly pointed out that he was six, not eight. Got it.


Like a good little cake decorator, I put on my crumb coating so I wouldn't have crumbs in the frosting. A boring but helpful detail.


Nest I used a toothpick to draw the outline of a six. For some reason this was incredibly difficult for me. I did OK drawing the bottom of the six but couldn't get the top quite right. I had to have Jason come and draw it for me, which he of course did in next to no time.


Next step: make black frosting. I only had a few black fingers! I used the black for the race track. Isn't the race track a clever shape? At this point I brought the cake to Ethan and told him I accidentally made a "9" instead of a "6". He's patient--he didn't even roll his eyes at me when he told me to turn the cake around!


On to the grass around the track! I loved adding this step because it made the cake "pop" out so much more. Plus, the tip actually looked (kind of) like grass. Well, it looked like how I imagine grass would look if it were actually made out of frosting. Note to self: next time, do not show children the cake at this stage because 2-year-olds can use little fingers to swipe frosting off faster than a cake can be moved.


I added a yellow outline for a little more definition of the race track. Um, pretty much just because I could.


The grass was looking a little empty, so I added some birthday wishes for my boy. I thought about adding the NASCAR logo here, but I chickened out. I, uh, didn't have all the right colors for the frosting. I thought that was a good reason to not do it!


Ethan told me I had to add cars to the track, so I did my best. Here's where I wish I was more of an artist! He loved them when he saw them, so that makes them a success!


Every track needs a few lines to show the starting point, so I added that and a few dotted lines to make it look more like a road.

It's all ready for the birthday boy!

This is not really a step in making the cake, I just thought it was a cute picture!

Traditional "blowing out the candles" picture.

A sign of a successful cake: people ate it! Remember how I said I had black fingers? Well, we also added black lips and teeth. Maybe next time I won't decorate with so much black. Thankfully we all own toothbrushes! :) Overall, a successful cake!