Birthdayed Out!

I think it's an interesting statistic that more crying seems to occur on a child's birthday than any other day--at least at our house. Our kids get so excited that they cannot contain it and then, melt-downs happen. Anyway . . .

Matthew's special day spanned out over Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. These are in reverse order.

And not to diminish from Matthew's special day, but David is POTTY-TRAINED!!! We are thrilled about this!!!

Sunday, before church, we gave Matthew his birthday dinner choice: pizza, opened presents, and had his cake topper. I LOVE this recipe, Ruth! And I LOVELOVELOVE baking on my stone. (Thanks, Grammy and Pop-pop!)

There is a story behind this rocket. Each year, I decorate the kids' cakes with a design of something they're into. This year, it's space. So . . . instead of the regular box cake, I ventured out. I love watching Cake Boss and Ultimate Cake Off. I decided on a really tasty-sounding chocolate cake (which it was) with a chocolate ganache frosting, strawberries in between layers, and marshmallow fondant. My idea was to create a blue fondant cake with cut-out, white fondant stars and a gray, red, and white rocket blasting off (composed of rice crispy treats).

Well . . . while making the fondant, a really LOUD explosion occurred inside my handmixer, along with sparks and then, flames. Sadly, one of my favorite Christmas presents from our first year of marriage, ended its life. So . . . having to make a decision on the rather extensive list of ingredients for this cake, I chose to salvage what I could of the fondant and make it all gray for the rocket (knowing this would be a really ugly cake).

Then, after making and refridgerating the frosting for what I deemed long enough, I topped my cake with the ganache. The cake basically sopped up the frosting--yes, it was that runny.

Hmmm . . . this is not exactly going as planned.

So . . . in the end . . . we ate the cake with said liquidy frosting and strawberries on Saturday night with the missionaries and a delicious half-gallon of carmel praline Blue Bell!!!

Sunday, I assembled the rocket and above and below, you can see it's "homeadeness". Have I enterred my mad cake decorating skills in a competition before, surprisingly no. I don't want to hurt other people's feelings.

Luckily and helpful to my ego, Matthew did not mind.

And this cake recipe was AMAZING!!!

Of course, what would a birthday be without cupcakes?

Katy ISD allows parents to bring in peanut butter and home-baked goods, so we capitalized on the chance. Matthew was so excited! (However, I'm not certain the cupcakes were face-up when he arrived at school. Upon his return home, the pan appeared to have frosting everywhere.)

I guess his birthday also was extended over the weekend we spent in Dallas with Ryan's parents when we were getting his cast off. They gave him his presents and he claimed that he would wait until his birthday; it's very difficult to hold off on something this exciting for 20+ days when you are not quite five years old and you're related to Ryan or his mom. So . . . Matthew waited two or three days. Imagine!

And I'm not certain that I ever posted pics of his first day of school. This year, I was super emotional. I cried after he left and then, I was fine, and then, I cried hysterically when Ryan commented on Matthew's growing up. It lasted for a few days. I'm blaming it on the hormones.

David thought he needed to bring a "pack-pack" too when we dropped Matthew off.

Morton Ranch Elementary