Izzy's now 5

This is becoming like my written journal ... I've got tons to share, but limited time to do it in so I either try to catch up (which usually results in never catching up) or I skip all the fun stuff.  We'll see what I can catch up with.

Izzy's birthday.  Last year I made her a doll cake where the cake was the dress and stuck a barbie doll in the middle.  The cake itself turned out great, but I told myself I'd better take a cake decorating (or even learn how to just frost the silly thing) before attempting something so extravagant again.  Then for Andrew's, I made that pirate ship which the frosting job was easily disguised.  On our way home from Washington, a grocery store had a FamilyFun magazine (where I get all these fun cake ideas.  Check out familyfun.com) and it had the coolest sand castle cake on the front.  I flipped through the magazine and saw how easy they made it look (plus a few fun articles) so I picked it up.  Izzy and I were excited to make the cake and I'm sad to say that I have vowed again that if I want to make a fancy cake, I need to take a class or at least practice other than the day before.  I'm just lucky that my kids are still young that if it's not perfect, as long as it's pretty for Izzy or cool for Andrew, they're thrilled.  With this cake, by the time I realized how lopsided the cake was turning out, and then the frosting disaster, I let all three kids, help pat the nilla wafer crumbs and the jelly belly seashells so they felt like they made the cake.  And since they made it, of course it was beautiful.=)  And like all sand castles I've ever made at the beach, they usually turn out lopsided too so my excuse is that this was a TRUE sand castle.=)