Birthday Week for my Boys

Yesterday our little man turned 3. Tomorrow Glen turns ... well older than 3.=)

Calvin doesn't NEED any more toys so we racked our brains for what we could do for our little man. He LOVES anything that has to do with big machinery: tractors, backhoes, diggers, bulldozers, trucks ... everything. So, we found the perfect gift for him. He's going to go for a tractor ride on Uncle Loren's tractor but haven't been able to put it on the calendar yet. So what to do while we're waiting? Summertime is the perfect time for some summer activities. Unfortunately, the morning we woke up to find that our usual 97 degree weather was only headed to a high of 84 with thunderstorms. So we made of it what we could. He opened his first present: bubbles. Everyone had their own bottle of bubbles and we spent a good amount of time as a family blowing bubbles in the backyard. Next present: a container of sidewalk chalk. So we all went out front to draw pictures with Calvin's new chalk.

Next present: Calvin now has his own frisbee. So we all went outside to throw the frisbee until the thunder scared Calvin indoors.

We then waited to open his final present: a slip'n'slide. Unfortunately no pictures, but the big kids had a blast running and sliding while the little kids had an adventure trying to crawl under the sprays of water. Such a fun day for summer activities to keep us busy through the rest of summer.

Then of course we had cake. Keeping with the tradition of creative cakes, my plan was to just make a dirt cake. Just a chocolate cake with chocolate pudding and oreo cookies rumpled together in a bowl with possibly some gummy worms to make it even more exciting. I asked Calvin if he wanted a dirt cake and he told me exactly how he wanted it. Funny thing was, he described last years cake perfectly. This was his birthday last year.

Calvin's words: "I want some dirt in a dumptruck with a little guy sitting in the dumptruck and a shovel in the dirt." Do you see all of that in this picture? Now how in the world does a 3 year old remember EXACTLY what he had for his birthday last year. He's amazing!!! So, I decided a bowl of dirt wouldn't be good enough. So I found my cake online (www.familyfun.com) and took 4 kids with me to the grocery store to get everything for Calvin's and Glen's cakes. I got home from the store with almost all of my supplies. I had failed to pick up a cake mix for Calvin's cake. Whoops! So I flipped through Aunt Karen's cookbook and found a Devil's Food Cake recipe. I didn't see a problem with making the cakes in 3 bread pans instead of the 3 rounds her recipe says. But unfortunately this is what came out. All 3 sunk in the middle.

But guess what? Flip it upside down, use just the end of it for the top of the excavator and vwa-lah. It worked. Calvin got an excavator (or what we would call a backhoe or digger) cake.

He saw the final product and was THRILLED! I can't wait to surprise him with a real tractor ride. HAPPY BIRTHDAY CALVIN!

And tomorrow, HAPPY BIRTHDAY GLEN!