A Birthday

Ever heard the phrase, "baking a cake can be sentimental?" Well this year I learned baking a cake can be a lot of things. A mess, a project, a pain in the rear, and yes-surprisingly sentimental. Maybe it's that I've birthed two kids and my emotions are shot. I cry at the drop of a hat at anything the least bit moving it would seem. You know those "adopt a puppy, and save a life" commercials? Well, you get the idea. All this is to say, as I stood in my kitchen watching the sugar, flour, and eggs mull around in my mixer, I couldn't help but get a little teary eyed thinking about my sweet Carter and how he is already two years old! Where did the time go?? My sweet baby moo, growing up so fast? I felt panicked at the idea that I couldn't slow things down, and that he was changing every day right before my eyes! I wanted his cake to be perfect, something that even a two year old would love. This was not just a cake- this was a tribute, an expression of love for all of the joy that he has given me the last two years. And THAT is why baking his cake was sentimental. How can you express to your little boy who barely gets that it's his birthday (or doesn't) how much he has meant to you, and that you'd do anything in the whole world for him? Well, let's just say- it's tough. But Woody and Buzz Lightyear were my fighting chance this year :) Carter is obsessed with Toy Story and "Wooody and Buzz". We watch all 3 movies all week, every day, all the time it feels like. And Carter spends the rest of his day jumping off of furniture yelling "to inpinity......and eeeeyond!". So I knew if I wanted to speak love and devotion, this was how. Thus I got to work on my 24 hour cake project. A two tiered, fondant toy story cake. Because it was such a project, and this post is mainly to focus on the boy of the day... I'll just give you an idea of how it went making my own fondant, making the cake, homemade buttercream frosting, dying the fondant, and decorating..... mostly it looked like this.

And I don't think this illustrates the serious MESS that became my kitchen after the fact. This was just the beginning.

Carter loves balloons, and had me blow up a whole bag until I literally felt like I couldn't stand for even one minute at a time :) Oh the things we do.

Now for the decorations!

Complete with bubbles, party hats, and blowers.

And the cake.....let's give a few angles shall we? It only last literally 10 minutes as my masterpiece. 

Blowing out the candles! (I think the clouds on the cake are my favorite)

Mater the Bubble Truck was a birthday present from Grandma Rhodes, here featured by miss Ainsley.

We were lucky enough to have Aunt Roch here for the party!

Carter's present from mom and dad. He tries to steal every scooter he sees so we decided this was for the best :)

A present from Aunt Kar. Thomas the train puzzle and book, which we now read faithfully each night.

So that's about it. We love our Carter so so much more than we could ever imagine. He is truly the reason for so much of our happiness! So I'd just like to say for the books, "Dear Carter, although you were in no way planned, and perhaps the biggest shocker of our lives.....we would never ever trade you for the whole entire world! You are our most perfect accident ;) WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!"

*My dad for lots of years made a birthday video for each of us kids as a little tribute, and we watch it on each birthday. Nate is starting that tradition, so mostly for family's sake...you can see his birthday video here.