Cakes!

I'm no cake maker, but I just wanted to post some of these cause I'm pretty proud of myself for the effort and creativity.

Hunting Cake

I made this hunting cake for my husband's birthday. I used canned chocolate frosting, graham crackers for the crust, and figurines I got from ebay. The letters are made from edible paper (which I got from Michaels) and used letter cookie cutters to cut them out.

Beach cake 

This was for my son who turned 3 and loves to swim and play in the sandbox! I used teddy grahams crushed up for the sand and bears, Swedish fish, jelly beans that looked like rocks, gummy rings, and the towels were some candy gummy strips. All candies and decor from Wal-mart.

 Cake decorating class

I took a cake decorating class from the community education and this was my first attempt. Not bad! Mainly I just love the colors.

 Fondant follies

First and last? time doing fondant! My neighbor taught me how using marshmallows as the main ingredient. Thanks Stacey!

Picnic at the "beach" birthday party

Our backyard is teeny tiny but wanted to make the space I do have fun enough for my two children to grow up with a "normal" childhood. I have wanted to do a sandbox for many moons but have not had the gumption until my four year old's birthday came up. I finally decided to go for it-a sandbox that is-expanding upon this theme to a "Picnic at the Beach." It was a freaking hard project...mainly because our backyard is somewhat inaccessible. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but the end result was really great and I'm glad I decided to go for it. Never mind the fact that my kids go to bed every night with sand crusted in their hair and lining their pockets. It's their favorite thing since Thomas the Train! We hauled in huge stone pavers, (16 inches wide) then added a yard and a half  of sand. (That was 4 truckloads, a total of $40.00. Not bad.) The waves, dolphin, and whale are made from spray painted card board, and the sky is plastic table covers. I purchased some pretty sweet sandbox toys from Toys-R-Us (the best selection in my opinion.) The Adirondack chairs were from Wal-Mart for $5.00 a piece. Add a kiddie pool and some beach balls, and you have yourself a beach in the backyard! It was definitely a huge hit with my kids as well as the rest of the neighborhood!

The arbor going from our front yard to back with a sign that says "Beach Entrance."