Stonewall's Birthday!!!!!!!!

Today is Stonewall's 5th birthday. I can hardly believe that my first child, the tiny baby boy is growing up into such a sweet young man. He was born at 6:54pm on Wednesday, November 5, 2003. I was scheduled for an induction on Thursday, November 6, but due to my increasing blood pressure, my OB/GYN decided to induce a day earlier. I was definately ready, I had already been on bedrest for 7 weeks, and was TIRED of it! When we arrived at the hospital, I was already dialated to 4cm, so my doctor broke my water right away, and I was able to have an epidural before any labor pains started! my entire labor lasted about 9 hours, but I was totally comfortable until he was crowning. My sweet baby boy, Stonewall was born weighing 7 pounds, 13 ounces, and 21 inches long. He did have a bit of a cone head at first, and a bright red stork bite on his forhead. Here are some pics of him throughout his life:

I don't have any of his infant pictures on this computer, I will try to scan some in and show them later, as Stonewall was one of the 2 most beautiful baby boys ever born (Skywalker is the other!).

Stonewall at about 10 months old. . .He has the brightest smile!

Stonewall a few days before Christmas, after his 2nd birthday, riding his new tricycle.

Stonewall at his 3rd birthday party, Cowboys!

Stonewall the morning of his 4th birthday party, with yogurt all over his face! (You should see Skywalker!)

Look at my Strong Batman! This picture was taken a few weeks before his 5th birthday.

Buccaneer Bash

Stonewall and Skywalker had a combined birthday party last weekend, and decided to have a pirate party. We had a light supper for the kids, including Golden (Chicken) Nuggets, Pirate Faces (Smily Potatoes with a ketchup eyepatch), and treasure chest fruit salad. After they ate, w

e had a treasure hunt, complete with a treasure map that the kids had to follow. The treasure was a treasure chest shaped pinata. They, we strung up the pinata, and the kids had at it. . .that thing was impossible to break! We finally had to tear it open, come to find out, it was made from a THICK cardboard box!

After the pinata, we went back inside and had cake. I made a chocolate "pirate ship" cake, and a white "treasure island" cake. They were both covered in chocolate marshmallow fondant, and decorated. I was very happy with how they turned out, except for the fact that my pirates were Giants compared to the rest of the cake. (I made them first so they could harden).

And, of course, we opened presents before everyone left with their pirate loot bags filled with telescopes, eyepatches, a small treasure map, gold coins, and the candy from the pinata. (We had several other ideas for games, but I just didn't have time to get it all together, and honestly, the kids probably wouldn't have had the attention span necessary.)

My Cakes

I love baking and decorating cakes. I started right before Stonewall's first birthday. I decided that I needed to make his cake, since my mother had made all of mine growing up. For that first cake, I used a mix, but decorated it myself with store-bought icing.

Stonewall's second birthday cake was OK, It was a train party, and the cake looked like a train with an engine and 3 cars. Not showing a picture, though, because it wasn't too cute. For His third birthday, and skywalker's 1st, I still used a mix for the cake, but made my own icing (yummo!). It was a cowboy theme party, so Stonewall had a horse cake, and Skywalker had a cowboy cake. They were pretty cute.

After this birthday was over, I decided to learn how to bake from scratch, and I sampled several recipes until I found 2 excellent recipes, a white cake and a chocolate cake. They are moist, flavorful, and firm enough to hold heavier fondant icing. I also started experimenting with fondant. I loved the way it looked, but hated the taste. I tried kneading in flavoring, but it wasn't enough. Finally, I found a recipe for Marshmallow fondant. It is perfect! Tastes just like a super-sweet marshmallow, but is the texture of regular fondant. Since then, it's what I use exclusively. Last year's birthday party was 'outerspace', so they had Rocket Cakes. Here they are side by side.

Last February, we had a wild game dinner at church. The men did the cooking, so the ladies brought desserts. I decided to stick with the theme of Wild Game, and made an Armadillo cake (kind of a throwback to Steel Magnolias) Anyway, it was chocolate cake with raspberry filling, and chocolate marshmallow fondant. Personally, I'm really proud of it. Rev wanted to help, and since he's an artist, he molded the face for me, and even helped place some of the scaley things.

My most recent cake was for a friend's daughter's 1st birthday party, and I actually got paid to make it! I would love to do more of this. It's great to do something I love, that is so much fun, and actually make some money doing it. Anyway, it was a Minnie birthday party. It is chocolate cake with (once again) raspberry buttercream filling, and marshmallow fondant for the icing. Hope you've liked my cakes. I'll post more as I make them, and If you live near me, I'd love to make you a cake!