February In a Nutshell

Here is our busy yet fun month in review....

Missy was playing outside enjoying all of the ice in our field from the big melt then big freeze. She slipped and fell on her head. But as you can see she healed quickly.

Here she is at a birthday party at an ice skating rink learning to skate. Her brothers are in the background. The kids love skating so I have been on a quest to find skates for them. It also helped that a portion of our field turned into a rink. Pete had the best time and went out every chance he could.  Oh why didn't I get a picture?

My Valentine Chalkboard. Not an original design. I am good at copying things and putting my own spin on them.

I found this idea online (of course) and it was perfect for John. I pretended I was sleeping when he woke for his shower and snuck in the bathroom to put love notes on the mirror. He was so surprised and loved it! Would be fun and such an encouragement for your husband for any occasion. 

And of course our Valentine meal. We also had a "red meal" at my parents house the Sunday before. After all the idea originated with my Mom but the pictures must be on her camera.

And the highlight of our month was the 4H Music and Drama Festival. The kids worked so hard for this and they WON!!! I'll post more on that when the video is online.

Pete and RePete wanted to have a kids birthday party last year for their 10th but being that there wasn't any snow and they wanted to go sledding it didn't happen. Last month when it was their birthday the snow had melted but we were not disappointed and got enough for a lot of fun a month later.

I was looking for a Hobbit theme and came across a Settler's of Catan theme they liked better. She even had printable downloads to use to label the food and such.

The boys (12 in all) and one little girl went sledding first then came back to play Settlers of Catan and snack on food.

Then it was back outside to play "war". A favorite thing to play around here. And of course Little Miss gets in on the action too. John and I thanked Pete and RePete for including Missy and Seppy too in their party and they looked confused saying "Why wouldn't we?" I LOVE that everyone is included!

Here she is with her pink gun in hand. Makes me smile. :)

Maybe next month I'll actually get my pictures into individual posts. Haha!

Lego Hobbit Birthday Cake

While I love to celebrate birthdays it is not always the easiest having children that share a party and each want their own cake. January is especially difficult in that three boys share the celebration. Pete and Re-Pete have never had a problem sharing a cake but Tank really enjoys his own. Only one year they shared a large castle. This time we searched pinterest of course and found ideas for a football layered cake for Pete and Re-Pete and a Hobbit hole cake for Tank. But as the day drew nearer I dreaded having to make two different cakes and came up with the idea of making three hobbit holes. Afterall, John had just taken the four older boys to see the movie which they thoroughly enjoyed. Thankfully we convinced the three boys that it was a good idea also. In the end, I am not sure that it was any easier than two different cakes but it was fun and turned out better than I had hoped.

The boys and I all collaborated on various ideas to add or change things based on the Lego Lord of the Rings game and pictures of Hobbit holes. Each boy would have a door in a favorite color (Re-Pete decided on blue instead of his favorite orange).

Now, the hardest part for me is all of the baking and frosting making. That was especially the case as Re-Pete and Tank wanted chocolate and Pete wanted carrot. And according to the boys, in the movie Bilbo has a green door which is at the top of the hill but we could not be technically accurate on this point because Pete wanted a green door but in keeping with the different flavors of cake his had to be in the middle. I don't know that it really matters.

I am posting a few pictures of the assembly as that is what I always wish I would find when looking for ideas online. Here is the chocolate side. You can see that it doesn't have look nice as one of my layers didn't come out of the pan very well (or rather I was in a hurry and didn't let it cool long enough). The hobbit holes are made out of round layers. So for the chocolate side I baked two 9X13's and one 9 inch and one 8 inch round.

For the carrot side I baked one 9X13 and two rounds the same as with the chocolate. I cut a portion off the back of the 9X13 and added it to make the back of the hobbit hole. If I was doing only one hobbit hole I think I'd try baking it in a batter bowl instead to avoid having the tiers which I suppose I could have leveled out. The chimney's were made out of scraps from the chocolate cake. The reason the chocolate side has frosting is because we were waiting for the carrot cake to cool and didn't want to waste time. George and Pete took turns piping on some grass after I put a thin layer of green. Didn't get this all together in time to freeze it first to avoid crumbs but that is the beauty of piping. It covers crumbs quite well!

Here is the next day -- cake complete! Next time I really, really need to bake a week in advance! 

Let's go on a tour. We'll start at the bottom which is Re-Pete's door. We all liked this hole the best in how it blended into the "hillside" so well. Re-Pete put Sam at his door sweeping up the gravel. You can see I was getting lazy as the grass is kind of crazy in places. But the boys reminded me that Hobbits don't have lawnmowers so that was okay. :)

Next we have Pete's green door which is Bilbo's door. At this point in time though we didn't have Bilbo so this is Frodo I believe (if it matters to you). The doors were made out of Wilton candy melts. I put 5 in a circle on wax paper, melted, and spread out then put a cookie cutter over to make the perfect shape. It has to be cut out before it dries or it will break. We lightly cut the lines in the door and the boys used a toothpick to make it look more rustic.

One of the boys got Bilbo for a gift and so we added him later. And if you look closely on the door you can see Gandolf's sign which the boys made sure I put on. The bricks around the door are made from modeling chocolate that John's cousin recommended I try. (Thanks for the tip Colleen!)

And here is Tank's yellow door. For the flagstone on the chimneys and doorways I used white chocolate chips and corn syrup dyed with a bit of black (modeling chocolate as above). I didn't like the white near as much as the chocolate as it was much drier and in turn I ended up chopping much of it up for the gravel. I also found with white chips it didn't need to be refrigerated as the recipe said. Tank also added a bench and a garden made from Nerds. The yellow ones are the weeds that Frodo is removing. We thought of adding windows but there wasn't enough time to add more. And we had wanted a chocolate fence but pretzels was the last minute thing. Dirt was crumbled up cake.

There you have it! It was quite a process but the boys all helped as much as they could and put everything where it needed to go. After all of that work it sure was hard to cut into it though! But it sure did taste good too!

Tank Turns 9!

It is birthday week and today Tank turned 9 years old! Often I think it might have been easier if he had his birthday first as he has a hard time waiting once his brothers have their day. Hopefully he is learning patience in the meantime!

Tank woke to streamers in his bedroom door but seeing as they were there two days ago as well I also strung balloons at the top of the stairs to welcome him. He is funny in how he has everything planned just so. I finished his portion of our chalkboard last night but apparently I was supposed to do it when he was sleeping. :)- He was adamant that the Christmas tree, which is very dead and dry, stay up until his birthday. And the playlist in itunes today is a Christmas selection. He even modified my Happy Birthday screen saver on the computer to his chosen color (yellow of course!) and font. 

Tank chose pancakes with apple topping and a side of sausages for breakfast but it really doesn't matter what I make because he is SO excited that he can't eat anyway. I think he may have had some of the apples and after the table was cleared tried a sausage. Supper will be lasagna. I wonder if he'll eat that? The same thing happens when we take him out to eat, which will be next week. He is so excited to go out that he can't eat the food in front of him. I love his little quirks!

Tank is a bit disappointed that Daddy couldn't have the day off again today but he did stay and eat breakfast with us which was really nice and last night took him riding on the 4-wheeler. The rest of the day I believe Tank has revolving around playing a video game or two (football and Lord of the Rings). Not sure what else is on his mind.

Happy 9th Birthday my Chocolate-Eyed boy! (He says he doesn't like that name but secretly I think he really does -- I just love those beautiful eyes!)

Two Boys turn 11

The long awaited day has come and gone. Pete and Re-Pete turned 11 this morning.

They were up before the sun as always ready for the day ahead. Pete was on the computer checking for an expected e-card when I dragged myself out of bed to turn the oven on for the requested cinnamon roll breakfast.

They do agree on breakfast but their choice in supper is a different story. They both have some similar dislikes for instance neither of them will eat rice unless it is mixed into a soup or casserole. Pete always chooses Chicken Potpie which we will have tomorrow night. Re-Pete had a hard time making up his mind but went with spaghetti. Unfortunately, they had a busy evening with 4H play practice followed by the monthly meeting. But we'll have their party at the end of the month.

The treat of the day for all of us was that Daddy took a day of vacation. What do you think the favorite activity was? Even though it was below 20 degrees today they all wanted to ride the 4-Wheeler of course.

Pete had his night out with John and I this past Friday and chose Texas Roadhouse as he was in the mood for ribs. Re-Pete said he is in the mood for a hamburger so we are contemplating where to take him this week.

I wrote this in my Christmas letter so some of you may already know that for the first time since they were infants Re-Pete weighs more than Pete -- a whole 4 pounds! Although I don't think it really is noticeable some say his neck is thicker. And apparently Re-Pete is also 1/8 inch taller. I have a feeling it will all even out again but we'll see.

I re-read their birth story that I blogged about in 2007 and it is always fun to look back. And I had a brief recollection of just how hard it was with two babies for those first couple of years. Look how far we have come and what amazing boys they are today.

Garden Cake and Dirt Cake

I know, a little over a month behind. But....For Missy and Seppy's birthday party I thought we'd go with something easy and make two dirt cakes. I planned that Missy's would be in a cute pot with flowers on top and Seppy's would be in a pail with gummy worms. Well, Sep went along with my plan but of course Missy Blue had plans of her own. I was a little surprised that she wanted an actual cake as she does not especially like cake but "everyone else does". Admittedly I was a little irritated in the beginning because her plans would be much more work. But I am truly thankful that she has a creative little mind and is able to express that. And in the end many hands made light work. Somehow I forget that everyone here likes to be creative so I don't have to look far for help.

Missy wanted to have a garden cake. A friend of theirs had entered one in the County Fair and so we went online and found some ideas. That along with the Hello Cupcake book from my sister and we had our design.

The cake was a chocolate 9 X 13 cake made with a recipe and a half so that it baked higher. I had planned on making two layers but it was much easier this way.

We covered it in a light layer of chocolate frosting although in hindsight that wasn't really necessary. and we could have used all green. The dirt was made with crushed oreos which worked perfectly with Sep's dirt cake. The arrangement of the veggies was done by Missy of course.

The kids all shaped the veggies out of Starburst and Airheads candy. Although the orange starburst is not anything close to the color of a pumpkin so I added a bit of orange food coloring to it and mixed it. Lettuce is cornflakes mixed with melted butter, marshmallow, almond extract and green coloring (like Christmas wreath cookies -- yum!) and topped with an M&M.

The carrots were made out of portions of candy corn. The original carrots were shaped out of starbursts but looked so pale that we turned them into potatoes and rolled them in "dirt".

Pete added his own creative touch in making cobs of corn (something we didn't see in any examples). And then he went on to pipe the "grass".

Seppy really liked Missy's cake and decided that next year he will have a cake that is more fun too! But he definitely thought his tasted better!

Seppy turns Five! {November 2}

Mr. Seppy turned five years old! What a sweet age to be. A time when a child is very full of wonder and so observant still taking in everything around him. I love the chubby hands still held in mine and kissing that sweet baby-face that hasn't changed too much over these few years. A time when change is just on the horizon. How I need to remember to delight in these days!

Here is one of my favorite pictures of Seppy and his sister when he was around 18 months. Love those smiling faces! And what a little chunk Sep is! They were very good friends then and still now.

Sep's party was last week with his sister and it is a little hard to understand when exactly your birthday really is if you already had cake and presents.

For breakfast he picked french toast, sausages, and chocolate milk. And for his birthday meal out with Mommy and Dadddy he chose Culvers so he could have a hamburger and ice cream. I love the one-on-one time and a reminder of what a goofy little guy we have who makes the funniest faces.

And this past week we had the privilege of hosting three college age guys from a singing group that has been ministering at church. I think it was a bit of a glimpse into what life will be like around here in a few years. The kids all loved them and they were so sweet to also help make Seppy feel special. I missed all but the ending of their singing and it is blurry but you get the idea.

Happy 5th Birthday Sweet Boy!

Guitar Cake for the Birthday Boy

George had a hard time deciding what he wanted for his birthday cake this year. Chocolate cake has always been his cake of choice, with varying designs. But, he loves cheesecake in many flavors and fondly recalls a wedding reception he went to where there was a cheesecake buffet. Oh delight! So, he thought he wanted that instead. But he also likes guitars and a guitar cake would be fun. Oh, the dilemma. His days of shaped/decorated cakes is most likely nearing an end and so ultimately he decided to go with the guitar cake.

We found some online that looked nice and then he sketched out the colors he wanted it to be. I think it would have been a bit easier to use the shaped cake pan for this as he ended up baking two 10 inch rounds and one loaf pan. That was a lot of baking and it turned out to be a big cake. (We had to use the cover of a large storage bin to put it on.) He chose chocolate cherry this year.

George decorated the cake himself and it did not turn out quite as he envisioned which often happens to me too. The colors weren't exactly the same as his drawing so he put a blue sparkle gel around and spread it to give it a variegated look.

Another problem was the heat of the day. Since the cake was so big it did not fit in the refrigerator to keep the frosting solid. So, the handle is a bit melted and the frosting kind of slide down so that the gumdrop tuning pegs fell. He also had a hard time getting those strings straight. The idea we saw used licorice stings which would have worked well but George didn't want black strings and thought white frosting would look better.

George's 13th Birthday Cake baked and decorated by George himself. Not bad for a 13 year old boy! This is the 3rd cake he has decorated by himself. (Oh, I think Pete may have pipped a bit here too.)

Little did George know that he was also getting a new guitar for his birthday!

My Two Cake Decorators

This is a month behind but I wanted to post pictures of the birthday cake George and Pete made for me this year. Usually my Mom or sister will decorate one but since the boys have had a few cake decorating lessons as a project for 4H I thought they could handle it.

At their last lesson they learned how to make flowers which is something I have never done! The flowers turned out so nicely, that although tempted to eat them, they decided to freeze them to save to put on my birthday cake. I thought they might as well make the cake for me too. To make it a bit easier for them I caved and bought a cake mix. I helped with the raspberry whipped cream frosting but they put it all together. 

It turned out even better than I imagined!

I love to see how far the boys have come in decorating cakes. It wasn't too long ago they "assisted" my Mom in putting fruit on a cake only a mother could love. (I think I need to dig out that picture!)

 

Another Happy Birthday!

Another birthday in our house with Tank turning 8 years old! The birth of Baby makes Tank officially the middle child having three older siblings and three younger and as I probably have said before he really acts the part. As of late he has chosen the gang he prefers to spend time with and that is the younger set. (Although he does play with the older boys too). The kids are all planning who is going to sleep where when we ever get around to making the boys bedroom in the basement. It was going to be the four boys moving but Tank decided that he would rather stay upstairs and share a room with Missy and Seppy and they have grand plans for that, obviously far ahead of our planning.

Tank at 4 months. Love his round bald little face. 

Tank enjoys reading and lately it is the Tintin books. He is my only child who learned to read easily and took off with it and I was so thankful for that! He also enjoys lego building (who doesn't?) and playing football. John has said that Tank has a natural talent there.

This past year Tank has grown-up in a few ways. First, he is finally able to find his shoes before we leave the house and that is a major accomplishment! He also overcame his fear of thunderstorms for the most part and no longer throws up when he hears the thunder. This in part because of the storm we drove through on our vacation. We haven't seen any skunks lately so we aren't sure if that fear still exists or not.

Tank's favorite food has been the same for the past few years and is lasagne and he also really likes red peppers.

In looking through some old pictures and old posts I found something I wrote about Tank that you might enjoy reading. HERE 

Happy 8th Birthday my beautiful brown-eyed boy!

Single Digits No More for Two Boys

Pete and Re-Pete have been counting down to their birthday and yesterday I was telling them that it was the last day of their entire lives that they would be in the single digits. It probably has more meaning for me in that it is a sign of how fast time is passing and they just laugh at my pretending to cry.

Pete sucking Re-Pete's thumb

It is nice to have a birthday on a Saturday as Daddy is home! Yay! We began the day with the requested breakfast I rarely make because is it not healthy in the least. Some people call it monkey bread ours is just caramel rolls. (White bread and brown sugar -- one of these days I'll make that one better for you too). We also had sausages and sparkling grape juice. The actual celebration is next weekend.

Pete and Re-Pete are 1 hour and 8 minutes apart in age and we had fun with that today. They are very similar in personality and are each others best friend. The bond is so close, although no, they cannot feel each others pain or know what the other is thinking. Being identical they still do things at the same time or very close to it. They wake at the same time in the morning before the rest of us, getting dressed right away and then often hop in bed with me when I finally wake up. They still have to use the bathroom around the same time. They both have the same response when upset and both enjoy math or anything to do with numbers. They both have struggled learning to read. Neither of them will wear the others clothes and are very possessive about that. (I guess they share everything else that this bothers them).

They also weigh the same (except during growth spurts when they maybe off a pound or two) and are the same height. They wear the same size shoe and have the same teeth loose at the same time.

They do have a few differences. You will almost always see Pete wearing his favorite color -- green and Re-Pete will be in orange. George would love it if they would try to trick people by switching shirts but they never agree to that. Re-Pete is more athletic and very competitive when it comes to playing football and he loves sports. He also likes to watch football with Daddy, any team that happens to be on. And while Pete enjoys it to an extent and especially the Packers he is not as intense. Pete enjoys cooking in the kitchen with me and also is a natural with little children. He will take Baby boy and hold him even when crying to get him to sleep. I also noticed yesterday how he took a puppet and came up behind the little ones having it give them kisses. Re-Pete does enjoy holding Baby too but not quite in the same way. Pete also enjoys gardening.

Some likes for both are: collecting football cards, playing games such as Settlers of Catan, Life, Risk and other games of logic. They can't get enough of building with legos and prefer to keep the models together.

Favorite foods --
Pete: chicken potpie, apple pie, granny smith apples
Re-Pete: hamburgers, pizza, apple slices (similar to apple pie), oranges

Happy Double Digit Birthday Boys! We Love You!!

Fallen leaves means Sep turns 4!

The leaves are almost all off of the trees and do you know what that means? It is Seppy's sign that it is time for his birthday! Seppy turns 4 years old today and he has been waiting and counting down to this and watching the leaves for a long time it seems. Although, being that we celebrated early he is a bit confused about when his birthday actually is.

Seppy is my quiet little guy. He goes with the flow and follows what everyone else does. I often get asked if he talks and yes, he does, but we do find that he likes to listen to everyone else and take it all in. He loves to give hugs and I melt when his chubby arms squeeze my neck in an embrace.

Now that Baby is the youngest Sep seems so much bigger and older as if he changed overnight. He seems to relish being a big brother and no longer the baby. He wants to hold baby which doesn't work that well but he is content to just make him smile and squeeze his cheeks.

Seppy at 4 weeks old.

We love all of the various expressions on Seppy's face. He makes the best grumpy face especially since he rarely is grumpy but puts on a show. (I do have a picture of that somewhere but can't find it today). And when he wants something he will point at it and close one eye as if aiming which is so cute! If you ask him a yes/no question his yes is not in words but he does a whole body shake in response. We all enjoy watching him he is so cute.

Ah the smell of Pumpkin Cinnamon rolls is wafting from the oven for Sep's birthday breakfast. A few more surprises may come his way yet today. Happy Birthday to my sweet little boy!

Seppy's favorite is "Stoy Stoy Free"

Birthday Girl turns 6!

Ah, another year has passed and my little girl is now 6 years old! My only girl and I am so thankful that I have a bit of pink lot of pink everywhere I look. Missy Blue is still girly but more and more she tries to do what the boys do. She climbs trees and once in awhile gets in the football game, and just follows those boys everywhere they go. And thankfully for the most part they don't mind their tag-a-long.

Missy prayed for a sister and how we all thought she needed one seeing as the boys often look at her with a clueless expression not understanding the ways of a girl. But God planned that Missy would be our only girl, although she told us she will still pray for a sister :). Missy sure does love her brothers though but I'm not sure if she'd admit to it.

I've had fun looking through old pictures to find one
 but oh my it makes me realize how fast she is growing! :(

Missy loves to sing (to herself) and we are still waiting for the day when she sings an actual song but we enjoy her renditions of sing-songy strange words and sounds she makes until she notices we are paying attention. She also loves to hold her baby brother and like her brothers she can get him to fall asleep on her shoulder.

I am a bit late in this post (what is new lately) as her birthday was actually last week. Missy woke up to seeing herself on the news as they feature six-year olds on Channel 6. Her breakfast of choice was chocolate chip pancakes in various shapes. She wanted her initial and a bunny rabbit. She had a number of phone calls that day and I was fascinated by the expressions on her face as she talked with her legs crossed and all and I saw the image of things to come. John and I took Missy and Seppy out to eat to her favorite restaurant -- Texas Roadhouse that evening. She invited him as his birthday is coming up next week and she thought it would be more fun.

My sister and her family took Missy and Sep to Build-A-Bear workshop for a birthday present and we heard about that trip for days. What a special treat! And then we celebrated their birthdays this past weekend and they had a great time only very sad to see it end. Ah, but the celebration continues as John's parents are here for the weekend and are taking the little two shopping to pick out a present. Oh the excitement! I don't think my birthdays ever lasted that long when I was a child!

Missy looks so grown up here!

It's a.....

BOY!!!! Yes, we had another baby boy a week ago today. I'd have posted sooner but I always forget just how much a c-section takes out of me. And too, I don't know that I have many followers anymore.

Here is a picture of our precious little one.

8 pounds 1 ounce -- 19 3/4 inches

Packer Jersey Birthday Cake

The theme for cakes around here seems to be football lately. The other boys had helmets for their birthday and George selected a Packer Jersey cake for his. Now, if we would have had time he really liked the idea of having the helmet also, although it works better with a player who has long hair so as to connect the two (we saw one of Troy Polamalu that was quite interesting). Being that George turned 12 it worked out perfectly to use Aaron Rodgers jersey as he is #12.

George wanted to make his own cake and while I baked it he helped to shape it and made the frosting. I tried to get it close to the true Packer green but didn't have the right shade of green and George didn't want too much food coloring in his frosting so we settled with darker leaf green with a touch of black in it. George drew the numbers onto paper, cut them out and then traced them onto the blank cake with a knife. I did outline them with white star pipping and then he filled them in. The only other thing I really did was the Rodgers lettering and George pipped the rest of the cake. 

Being that cake decorating is something I enjoy doing I had a hard time letting go of this one only to watch but I know George enjoys it too and does a good job. I know I wasn't decorating cakes at the age of 12 so I wonder if he'll make his own children's birthday cakes some day. :) I do know that he is going to be a tremendous help when the next group of birthdays rolls around!

George Another Year Older

I am a little behind but we seem to have an excess of things going on lately. George turned 12 while camping in Baraboo this week. Being that I couldn't make his favorite breakfast he choose what he considered the next best (at least for him) donuts. John took him to a bakery that morning and we all enjoyed huge pieces of super sweet bakery. It was a rainy day but we found dry places to go and ended up playing laser tag, even my Mom and Dad joined in the fun.

After a small train ride with Grandma and Grandpa
(a traditional place to go since George was 1)

We celebrated last night with all the family and George enjoyed himself. His siblings did too and I love how now that Pete and Re-Pete are earning money they were so excited to go to the store and buy the perfect gift. It was a big secret and George was pleasantly surprised with his spy binoculars.

Celebrating is not completely over for George as his Aunt and Uncle are taking him out shopping to pick out something he would like along with a time to play with his cousin "all by himself". :) And then John and I still need to take him out to eat for his time alone with us. He is waiting for a good fish dinner.

Birthdays are always emotional for me especially when I saw the slide show of himself George put together. And then my friend down the road reminded me that in biblical days a boy was considered a man at the age of 12 and she mentioned how he acts like it in so many ways. Thinking of my little boy inching closer and closer to being a man brings tears to my eyes more often lately.

God definitely knew I would need someone like George who is such a helper as my firstborn. I am so thankful to be blessed with George!

Football Helmet Cakes

The boys are into football this year. They love to play the game after church with a bunch of kids and especially at home with Daddy. They also started collecting football cards and trade with each other. While they each collect everyone's favorite team -- the Packers, they each decided on various teams to collect. They can sit for an hour or more looking over their cards, rearranging them, trading them, and whatever else you can do with cards. And so, when I saw a football helmet cake pan knew that would be a perfect cake for Pete, Re-Pete, and Tank for their birthdays this year and they agreed.

Because I had three cakes to do I did plan ahead and baked each cake in advance and then wrapped and froze them right up until I was ready to decorate them. Of course each boy wanted a different flavor. Pete has his standard carrot which is always a favorite. Re-Pete chose my absolute favorite -- chocolate cake, and Tank wanting to be different out of the blue decided on lemon which was strange being that I never make any white/yellow cakes. That is one I still need to perfect. Anyway, while they all liked the Packers none of them wanted the same cake so it was decided that Re-Pete would get the Packer helmet while the other two selected their second-favorite team.

The only problems I had were with tinting the frosting. I try to avoid using a lot of food coloring but as it turns out to get a true red you need a lot, and I mean a lot of red coloring. Oh well, it is only a few times a year. The second problem I had was when I was going to tint the frosting for the Packer helmet. For some reason I had green in my head and put a dollop of green in the frosting and no sooner had I done that but it clicked that the helmet should be gold! Ahh! I tried in vain to turn that green frosting yellow but it ended up a "Shrek green" as my Mom said. I was bummed being that this was my favorite cooked frosting and takes a bit of time to make in addition to wasting butter! But, my Mom assisted in that and started the frosting for me. Now, what to make with my extra frosting.

As it turned out, the boys (George, Pete and Re-Pete) assisted with decorating the cakes by pipping on the frosting. I was happy to oblige as then I really only did one entire cake myself. I decided to forgo even attempting to pipe on the logos and instead printed them out, covered them with plastic and put them on at the end. Much easier! These were fun though. Look for another football related cake in July!

[caption id="attachment_782609" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="Pete's cake"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_782610" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="Re-Pete's cake"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_782611" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="Tank's cake"][/caption]