The Birthday Boy

My little crazy man turned 3 years old. So many mom's I know can't imagine where the time has gone. How can my baby be three? Well, I've discovered I'm not one of them. It feels like forever ago that Charlie joined our family. It's a good forever and we still love that boy....most of the time.

The Cake

I had a more difficult time coming up with a theme this year. So far in his three little years the kids only been interested in cars. Lately he has really liked being a monster or dinosaur and roaring at everyone. He has an awesome roar. So I started asking Charlie what he wanted and all he could articulate was he wanted a blue cake. Blue cake? What goes with a blue cake? I toyed with a blue dinosaur and decided that was too tough, a blue whale, also a little more complicated than I was willing to tackle. At least the designs in my head where complicated. Being short on time the last month or so, I needed something I could crack out in a couple of hours vs. a couple of days. While the kids where playing at Mc'd's one afternoon, I came up with this monster cake idea. I really didn't know if I could make the image in my head match the cake. Usually I have grand images and a complete inability to make them come to life.

I was very pleased with the final results. It was fun to make and I tried a few new techniques and recipes. I had started icing the cake an hour or so before the kids went to bed. I had done most of the face and added the teeth to the monsters mouth. I put it in the fridge until I could get to it after the kids were asleep. Charlie came up to the bedroom and smiled a big, open, black mouthed smile. Uh, oh, I left the bowl of black icing sitting on the counter and he got into it. I was mostly annoyed because I had to brush his teeth again. Later that evening, I pulled the cake out of the fridge and low and behold, he was missing teeth, 2 teeth to be precise. Charlie had opened the fridge and pulled the monsters teeth and eaten them. He's my little monster and my muse. He's lucky I still had some white fondant left and could easily make replacement teeth. It could have been much worse.

Blowing out the candles

He's still trying to get the hang of it.
I think several of the kids helped him blow them out in the end.

The Presents

Leah was so excited for Charlie to open his presents. She couldn't wait for him to do it himself. He was too slow. We finally had to put her in a headlock so Charlie could have the pleasure of opening his OWN gifts.

Playtime!!!

I think all the "kids" were excited about the gifts.

All in all, I think Charlie had a great 3rd birthday. I for one am glad it's over. I'm always amazed at how much prep work goes into these things. But then, I am always trying to do too much.