I've Ruined My Child's Face

When my daughter turned 1 we had a huge birthday party and invited about a million people. It was ridiculously over the top. We had custom invitations, a super expensive cake made, entertainment, etc. Since we had just moved back to Kansas City, she didn't really have any friends yet so we invited like 3 kids and 1,000 adults. I now look back on the guest list and laugh about all the friends we invited who were 1) single guys or 2) married couples with no children. Those people probably thought we were insane - and rightfully so.

Since that time I have normalized how we do birthday parties. In fact, I have gotten so laid back that my son just had his 2nd birthday celebration 33 days after he actually turned 2. Poor kid.

In my defense I had to leave town for work on his actual birthday and we did do cupcakes and candles that morning, but that was it. 2 went by barely noticed. Finally I told my husband we had to have a celebration of some sort because the gifts had to opened. I am a thank you letter fanatic and have been really stressing about waiting so long to send out the thank yous to aunts and uncles, etc. - but I could not send them out since the gifts had not been opened yet. Nice, huh? The reason we finally celebrated my sweet little guy's birthday is because of a need I had. Great parenting.

I decided about a year ago the "thing" I am doing for my kids is making their birthday cakes. It is something I would like them to always remember that their mom did for them. It takes a boatload of time and I am TERRIBLE at this, but I really enjoy it and I do plan to take a few classes so I can get better. Currently my cakes look like a 3 year made them blindfolded, but I figure by the time the kids can really pick them apart, I will be much better. Here are a few of the ones I have made so far:


The one I made for my son's birthday party this past weekend was a race car.


Let me tell you all the food coloring in the world does not make a true red. I know this because I tried. I'm not sure the icing was made up of anything other than food coloring by the time I was done with it. I must say though it sure does a great job of completely staining your child.

Not sure if you people watch True Blood or not - but my son looked very much like a vampire who just had a meal of a human's neck.


Yeah, ignore the bib that says "I'm a little PRINCESS" - it is just one more of those things he will tell his therapist about one day.

The next morning, still stained, he ate some red yogurt and again got more of it on his face than in his belly. A meal two days later that consisted solely of Cheetos (they are a food group, right?) hasn't helped the matter. He now has a red ring of Saturn around his face. No amount of scrubbing has fixed this. If it doesn't correct itself, I'm thinking maybe he can have a career as a clown.