Eli's Zebra Cake

When the call came in for a zebra cake all girled up with pink daisy flowers Eli was really excited. He told me that he always wanted to "do" a zebra cake.


He went right to work on his pink flowers.











He then told me he needed more boy themed cakes so he wouldn't always have pink or purple hands. HA HA HA!





With the cake being smaller I told him I didn't know where he could put the name Anna Belle and her age on the cake. There was just so much going on. While he worked I went on the hunt online for what to do. Thanks to one of our favorite youtube cake decorators I found the solution, a name plate. I set off to start it and Eli made the stripes. He then placed the stripes on the white gumpaste and rolled them in. He went back to flowers and I cut a rectangle out. It was set to dry for the end.





He also had me make his white fondant and I put it on. He just can't get the fondant picked up and placed on it by himself. Well, neither can I, we do it as a team, really. It makes me so stressed out.


He set to making the stripes for the cake. Those dark colors like black are a mess.





He got to work and I watched for a bit and then walked off to tend to Noah.








I came back to this.








Looking like a Zebra cake. :)


I then came back and placed my nifty name plate and piped the name. My contribution. Ha ha ha ha!


Then we laid flowers here and there, moved them here and there, took them off, put them there, and then we were happy and he started to "glue" them down.


Finishing touches...





...and voila!











I think this is one of the prettiest cakes yet.


Happy Birthday Anna Belle! :) Anna Belle's mother ended up going to get one of the pug puppies that we got Phoebe from. Ya think she had a great day? I do!

Who Says a Mom Can't Pass on Her Gifts to Her Sons?

I love sitting with other homeschool mothers and observing our children. It is so neat to see the talents all these moms share with not only daughters, but sons. I used to ache for a daughter, but God has really brought me full circle. I can now see that I was the mother to these men for a reason. My unique gifts were meant for them, not the daughters I may someday hold in my arms. I truly feel I wasn't gifted a daughter because I needed sons. I also feel that they needed me. They need my talents, my thoughts, and my moments in life. Our children are given to us as special on-purpose gifts. He hand picks and creates the child within us. We are meant for each other.


I know many of the moms in my life who don't get that it is okay for my boys to sew, crochet, or cook with joy. But they have been fed the lie. The lie is that you can only share your womanly arts and gifts with your daughters. Somehow in America most have decided that boys are to be MEN at all times. The funny thing is that most of the things women do well were started by men, invented by men, really.


I like that my boys can be boys. I do! I love filthy messes all over them from a day out at play. I love the creatures Remy finds. I love the movies they are drawn to because they are men. Men crave manly things. But I also find such joy in sharing who I am with them. Teaching them how to do the things I know how to do well. Because of it they tell me how great I am. I even have boys who are interested in the things I love. It isn't a one sided relationship. Through these men I have grown to love nature. I have been invited into the secret world of men just as much as they have been invited into the world of women by me. :) I know it will all serve them well.


Elijah stitched up his first garment this October. He loves Zelda. Making his own Link costume was so much fun for him. Parts of it he did, parts I did, but we worked together. He can now read a pattern and understands it isn't magic that makes a garment, just hands, and time.

















I had to laugh because he figured out quickly that sewing is much easier than knitting or crochet.


What can be more fun for a boy than to know he made most of this?





See how a little boy can learn something that is considered girly and use it to be so boyish? :)

A Picnic With Daddy

We must sometimes find unique ways to spend quality time with our Daddy person. We never know what he will work until the morning and we never know when he will be done until he is done. If he will have a late job we try to find something around the house to do. This day Matthew made a simple picnic of sandwiches and apple slices. While the fare was simple, the company was divine. ;)





I love how he made Noey up his own little homemade uncrustable. :) He is the best daddy, afterall.








It looks as if it agreed with him.





Eli, my paper folder, was hard at work with a blade of grass.





Well, how about that, a ring! What a nifty boy you are, sweet Eli.








I am so happy I caught this short moment in time, a stolen moment really.








See how sleepy the baby is after lunch?