Thursday, April 26, 2012

Happy 6th Good Lookin'

Happy 6th Birthday Good Lookin' 
Another Birthday.
Another Year of Victories.
Another Year of looking back and seeing how far this little guy has come.
This child of mine who has challenged my every bit of parenting skill and made me fall on my knees and beg for His insight and help.
This child of mine who is as tough as nails.
Independent.
Incredibly brilliant and funny.
And one giant ball of energy.


 He asked for a Lego Ninjago cake this year. I googled some ideas and made the mistake of him sitting next to me. "I want THAT ONE mom! It's AWESOME!"
It was made with fondant and I've had this terror of trying to tackle fondant. I've had a recipe for a year and would look at it and then go back to what I know how to do. But a sweet friend of mine convinced me to take the marshmallow bag and sugar by the horns and go for it. It was easy!!! REALLY! Sticky at first, but EASY!!
Then I realized I had another problem. I had no round cake pans. The same friend pointed out that I had stainless steel mixing bowls. Why not try that. Viola!!! Half a head! Bake two; slap then together with icing and a WHOLE head. : )


Then it was time to roll out the Play-do...ahem....sorry fondant.
Did I mention that NO ONE has taken naps in the last 2 weeks?
That means 1 ten month old. 2 three year olds. 1 almost-6-year-old who was quite worried that the cake wouldn't look right, but by golly we got 'er done and they were truly a help!
Also, rolling fondant kept them all really busy...except the baby. He was all eyes and I kept feeding him little puffs to keep him from throwing a fit at me for not giving him fondant.


The two round halves together worked well for the sort of oblong shaped Lego head.

 Then I frosted a small flat cake to set the head on. (Kinda like shoulders only those would have to be some serious shoulder pads). I told my friend when I started that I was afraid the whole thing would look like a decapitated Ninja and that was NOT the look I was going for with 6 year old.
Fortunately when he was all done and wrapped in fondant, he looked like he was supposed to look.

 Good Lookin' and I also cut some long strips of left-over felt and made all the little party friends Ninja headbands to take home with their chopsticks and bubbles (because bubbles go so well with Ninjas?) (I was just trying to fill the party favor bags with something they'd like...not candy...and cheap). They LOVED them.
Oh, disclaimer here.
To my High School Japanese friends or cousins who live in China who might read this: I have no idea what characters I wrote on the headbands. They were copied from a decoration that I borrowed from a friend. She purchased them at the Dollar Tree. I chose those characters because they looked like the easiest to copy. I have no idea if it's Chinese, Japanese or Korean. : )
But, the little boys thought they were pretty awesome.

 We had planned on some fun Ninja-inspired games outside, but a snap of cold wet weather tossed all that out the window.
Luke and one of Good Lookin's little friend's dad from Pre-K became the bad guys and fought all the little Ninjas for a solid hour much to the delight of the boys. I stayed upstairs and away from the loud chaos that was erupting below. The poor dad of the little boy from Good Lookin's Pre-K we had only met when he brought his son to the party was a great sport at being thrown into the hand-chopping, wrestling fray.

He loved the cake and declared it his "Best Birthday Ever!!"



 Then it was present opening time. One of his favorite gifts: a fish he'd picked out from the store that very morning. (You know, we don't have any aquatic animals on our rapidly growing little farm).


A happy Birthday boy with his little friend from Pre-K.
They will go to Kindergarten next year together and I'm praying they get assigned to the same classroom or at least same hall.


Ninja Power!!!

1 comment:

The Frugal Muse said...

WOW- seriously awesome job on the cake! I know your little guy felt every ounce of love that went into making it for him!