Birthday cakes

Hubby finally uploaded some pictures off the camera and I got the network to work. So I felt like sharing birthday cakes!



Ponito's 11th birthday Lego race car driver/astronaut cake (he wanted an astronaut, but secretly I believe this was really a race car driver). I forgot to take pictures before we cut into him so this guy is actually missing his legs, but I think he turned out pretty cute and a lot like the toy.

Kitty's 15th birthday cakes are here. I actually had pictures of them.



Bob's 14th birthday Runaway Turtle cake (before the turtle's escape attempt).

Didn't take a picture of Bear's b-day cake, but it actually turned out as pretty as this. It was rectangular though.

Bear on his 17th birthday holding a Bugs Bunny balloon made for him by my fav neighbor, Sharon. Bear shares a birthday with Bugs. Doesn't he look thrilled?!

I can't believe I'm the mom of 3 teens (and a tween). I can't believe the girls will be in high school in less than 3 weeks!

Kitty's Birthday

Kitty turned 15 last week. I threw this cake together at the last minute because I had to rewash/ scrub every dish in the house (3+ hours of dishwashing!!) because the water softener apparently wasn't working and when the dishes didn't come clean in the dishwasher the kids would run it again... and again... and again - until the hard water white stuff was "baked on." *sigh* Plus of course cleaning house.

The cakes were decorated after the girls arrived.

Kitty chose Harry Potter's Hedwig for her cake and I threw in Scabbers from the leftover cake scraps. I made both out of chocolate poundcake (which used up a tiny bit more of the 25lbs of flour I foolishly bought to make the cookies and brownies for confirmation). I used white candy melts to make Hedwig's wing feathers, nose and tail, and Scabbers's ears and tail. I have no idea why Hedwig looks so mad!

I was going to make books for Hedwig to sit on, but that cake didn't cook in time and I didn't have enough icing to make colored book covers (I used all the white on Hedwig) so I just covered the third cake with chocolate - we decided it looked like a coffin. Black candles because that's what Kitty is into.

The cakes were overcooked and parts ended up too hard. Bob tried to eat Scabber's head and it was crunchy, but the kids loved asking for "rat butt."

One of my better looking cakes and I think Kitty did really well at the party! She kept both the girls engaged and involved, and didn't leave them alone once (no playing dolls in the closet this year!). My litle girl is growing up!

Parent/ Teacher Conference - NO results

As you know, Bear is rapidly going downhill (grades of As and Bs now are Ds and Fs, he's depressed and telling everyone he is "over everything" and "giving up", he's told me he wants someone to hit him so he can "beat the hell out of him," he wants to go to the off campus suspension program, his attendance has never been great - but now he's skipping classes and tardy to at least one class every day...). Quite frankly not much has changed at home, but school is finally having to pay attention because this effects them.

I have a pretty good idea why the change.

First, we finally told him that his life plan of being in the military or the police is not an option due to his mental health and medication issues. Of course we've known this for years, but were trying to get him to consider other options before we told him for exactly this reason - no motivation means no work. He didn't see a need to consider other options when he had a plan and a back up plan, so we finally had to tell him.

Second, no matter how many times I tell him otherwise, he still doesn’t believe me that he can’t move out at 17 so he’s pushing us away in mental preparation for it (he turns 17 this Summer).

Third, he’s now completely lost the support of the small, structured school for emotionally disturbed students (transition was complete in January).

Fourth, the public high school is (finally) much more aware of his actions and behaviors and is really clamping down on him. He is no longer getting away with wandering the halls freely, picking on other students, or many of the little manipulations that he did before, and he has nowhere to blow off steam because he has deliberately alienated himself from all the staff in retaliation for them clamping down on him (vicious cycle!).

Yesterday was the big parent/teacher conference to try to figure out how to deal with this. Instead it ended up being Hubby and I explaining to the staff, why Bear acts the way he does and some ways to handle him. Good information, but should have been covered at the beginning of the school year... Not Now!!

In other words we didn’t address any of my concerns or how to handle them. So Bear will limp through the end of the school year, and since he did so well last semester he’ll still pass all his classes and get promoted to 11th grade. Nothing will happen until next year… after they wait to see if things magically improved over the Summer.

He probably won’t be able to attend Summer School because they don’t offer Special Ed most of the time. The last two years he’s managed to get himself kicked out or didn’t do anything anyway. I’m so frustrated I could scream!

What a way for poor Hubby to spend his 45th birthday. Frustrating Meeting. Then back to his Boring Job (he had a small project, briefly, but now he's back to reading manuals). Major Money Worries (we partially lost a lawsuit in which a former client wanted their money back because she was insane; we have no big clients so no way to pay payroll; back taxes; and we had to refinance the house because we haven't paid either mortgage in forever and they were threatening foreclosure). No Wife (although I did come to bed before midnight for once... and fell asleep while he played video games because for some strange reason he has Insomnia)...

On the bright side, it's better than last year! Last year on his birthday he had to take Kitty to the psych hospital (6 hours of intake waiting with her).

Plus, this year I made him a homemade chocolate birthday cake and gave him a box of Whoppers for his present (kids of course gave him nothing). I cooked him baked "fried" catfish (I rarely make fish because he's one of the few that likes it) and homemade corn bread muffins we didn't eat until 8pm, but it was pretty tasty.

Happy Easter and Happy Birthday to Me

Happy Easter to y'all!

Today is also my birthday! I am now officially 40.

My "biggest" birthday present was that I discovered that I've been reading the scale wrong (can't see too well first thing in the morning). I've actually lost 20lbs since I started on this diet two months ago! So I'm pigging out today. That makes sense right?!

Anywaaay... only 50lbs to go!

Edited to add: Umm not sure what happened, but I'm back where I thought I was. *sigh* Either I gained 10lbs since yesterday (I didn't think I ate that much!), someone messed with the scale, or it was God's idea of a birthday present). Oh well.

Teens everywhere!

Bob turns 13 next weekend. Bear turns 16 only 5 days later. Kitty is already 14. This means 10 year old Ponito is my only baby and the teenage hormones will be the majority. *sigh*

Anyone else's kids always "turds" around their birthday? Bob and Ponito both have ALways been horrid for one month before their birthdays. Kitty and Bear always have issues with holidays and special days in general. Bear ended up in residential treatment 3 days before his 1st birthday with us. Kitty had only come home from psychiatric hospitalization the day before her last birthday.


Of course last year we decided to finalize their adoptions right before their birthdays. No extra pressure there! *sarcastic drip* Kitty two weeks before her 14th birthday. Bear one day before his 15th birthday.

So this year we have to decide how to handle the birthday parties. We've already told them this is a "small" birthday party year. Maybe a friend or two over, and a birthday cake shared with the family. I usually make the cakes myself. We've had some doozies.

Last year for Bob I made a monkey cake, because she LOVES monkeys. It ws supposed to be a monkey eating bananas on a small island.

I ran out of icing so decided to use pudding dyed blue between the layers of the cake. Guess what? Pudding is slippery! The cake crumbled, parts of it slipped off, the island "refused" to float (unless you count "floating" right off the cake). *sigh*

I had discovered that Tootsie Rolls could be molded like modeling clay. I spent days making an adorable (if I do say so myself) monkey holding a banana (wish I'd gotten some good pictures). There are different colors/flavors of Tootsie Rolls. So I made cute colorful fish, bananas, and even a coconut tree to put on the sand covered (graham cracker crumbs) island, made from Tootsie Pops! (the lollys were the coconuts). Then I discovered that while Tootsie rolls look like modeling clay, and if you put them in the refrigerator they would "harden," that when they warmed, they drooped. The adorable monkey and tree would not stand. Bob didn't care. They tasted delicious!

Have no memory of what Bear's cake looked like last year. This is what Bear looked like though. He outshone any cake possible!

We haven't taken pictures of every cake. I'm notorious for forgetting to bring the camera. Here's one from Ponito's 6th birthday. He wanted a dragon cake. This one was made with wings made from fruit roll ups on licorice frames. His scales made from gum drop slices. His gold was Nestle Treasures and jelly beans for gems. He was supposed to be one of those long snake-like dragons that curved in and out of the top of the cake (think Nessie the Loch Ness monster). Horrible picture - sorry. This lizard for my nephew turned out cuter. It had chocolate chip spots that spelled out his name and the message. We call this picture the "two headed boy."
This was one of the best years for cakes. Bob had wanted a princess theme. One cake was Cinderella. The other cake was Little Mermaid. The Little Mermaid "cake" was actually made from Rice Krispies made with colored marshmallows divided into different colors. This cake ended up feeding almost 200! We took it to Bob's daycare since it hadn't been as popular as the chocolate cake at her party. The entire school had it for snack and then there was tons left over that the teachers took home. I think the whole school ate it two days in a row.!

So have to decide what we'll do this year. Bear will probably want a carrot cake. It's his favorite.

Saw some lovely pictures of cakes on Cake Wrecks (an absolutely hilarious blog about cakes gone wrong). Think these will make good choices?

Can you believe someone actually had this made for their daughter's 12th birthday?! Poor Holly.