Happy Birthday Lucas!

I've been delaying this entry long enough! Lucas finally turned 1...o-n-e. He is officially not a teeny tiny baby anymore. I guess we'll have to have another right away - not.

I didn't want to have a huge bash for Lucas. As a matter of fact, I have been known to make fun of people who have extravagant parties for babies turning 1. I just wanted a simple get together with friends for cake... just a plain old cake, which Lucas would have one slice of and we'd call it a day.

Well... then my imagination started cranking. I got excited by the idea of actually making a cool cake. And the infatuation began. A little over a month ago I started my daily internet search of how to make fondant icing. I decided I would have to buy the Wilton's fondant from a craft store, but then read that it tasted nasty, so then I read about buttercream fondant and marshmallow fondant. Mmmm. The marshmallow fondant won whole heartedly because it was easy and not full of butter. A week later I made my first batch of fondant, which was successful. The next week I made another and sealed it tightly in the fridge with the first batch. THEN it was time to start the cake baking. I decided to make the recipe for the most delicious coconut cupcakes ever, sans the coconut. Each recipe makes three 9 inch layers, so I took two days and made the recipe twice, resulting in four 9 inch layers and four 6 inch layers. The next week, I made the buttercream frosting (the glue for the fondant). Before I knew it, Tuesday had arrived and it was time to build the cake.

For the bottom tier, I used apricot jam and toasted almonds for the filling. For the top tier I used raspberry jam for the filling.

The hardest part of the cake-building process was rolling out the fondant and putting it on the cake. I did the small tier first and was successful; although, I did end up with ripples on the side of the cake. For the big tier I calculated that I would need to roll out a circle with a diameter of about 22 inches. This proved to be tricky. During my first try, when I tried to pick up the fondant, it was stuck to the counter because I didn't use enough corn starch. The second try worked out perfectly. I still had the ripples, and a little rip on top, but it looked ok once I doctored it up.

Then I had to knead colors into the fondant and cut out the circles for the decorations. It was all downhill from here. I just focused on covering up the problems I had in the fondant and ended up with a pretty cute cake! Ben said it looked like a Dr. Seuss cake. These are the names he came up with: Kirkle Sake, Layer-Ma-Loo, Boo-Jelly Wahoo, Bort-A-Snort Torte, All-Mundy B'Gundy, and Pizzle Pie.

By Tuesday night I felt good that the whole cake was taken care of. I just had to stick dowels in the bottom layer and stack the cakes right before the party. What I had not taken care of was cleaning the house for my company.

The great thing about having a sister with flight benefits is that your mom can call you on Saturday and say, "Did I tell you we're thinking about coming to Austin?" Me, "No. For Thanksgiving?" Mom, "No, on Tuesday for Lucas' birthday."

Sweet! But, I did have to do a quick house cleaning Tuesday night after Lucas went to bed. It worked out just fine. Mom and Dad got in at 10:45 and we got home went to bed by midnight or 1:00.

Anyhow... this is about Lucas, right? Wednesday morning I took Ben to work and my parents, Lucas, and I had a lovely breakfast with an eggs, bacon and toast. Then we rested and lounged around the house. It was just great. In the afternoon we were taking naps and at 2:37 I did happen to wake up and say to myself, "Happy Birthday Lucas."

We went to get Ben at about 5:30 and left my dad in charge of putting the pizza in the oven. we ate our quick dinner and then our friends came over at 7:00 for cake. Of course Lucas didn't think anything too special was going on. He probably wondered why we were all gathered around singing to him... and why there was a fire on top of a cake, but other than that it was normal. UNTIL he got a huge cake placed on his tray. This was a first for him. He kind of ignored it at first until I gave him a taste of the frosting. Then he ate some cake, threw some on the floor, and used the rest as a drum.



He was very greasy after the cake so my mom and I gave him a quick bath and then he got to "open" presents. He mostly liked the ribbons and the paper. Lucas got a cool Nerf baseball bat, a couple trucks, bubbles, clothes, books, and a tent/tunnel system. I thought he would like to hide in it... like the fireplace.

It was a good night. Lucas was very cute, the cake was yummy, and it was wonderful to have family and friends here.

The celebration didn't stop there. Sadly, my dad had to leave early Thursday morning, but my sister, Carrie, and her daughter, Madison, flew in Friday night. We spent Saturday running around like crazy, but had a good time. Everyone left Sunday afternoon, so it was back to just the three of us.

I still can't believe it's been a year. I keep remembering back to last year and thinking of how I never thought I would survive. I was so nervous, I didn't have an appetite. I was exhausted, but still couldn't sleep. And I didn't think I could be home alone with the baby. Those were a tough couple of weeks! I think you have to have one kid to understand that you won't be up every three hours for the rest of your life, that eventually the kid will sleep through the night, eventually you will be able to leave the house, and eventually, maybe some day you will want to do it to yourself all over again. Crazy stuff, those kids...