over the past few days, i've been reminded of one of my favorite books when i was little called, "where did the baby go." it's an old golden book, if you remember those, and is a story of a little girl. she is about 2 years old and she finds a picture of a baby wearing a big floppy hat. she keeps asking her mommy where the baby is and i think her mom tells her that she's in the house somewhere. she looks all over the house till she finds that big floppy hat and puts it on and looks in the mirror. she then realizes that the baby in the picture is her...and she's just growing up. and of course, every time it makes me cry. so here's my baby lucy...one of my favorite pictures i took in the hospital. wow, how she has changed...



so that's how i've felt with lucy's birthday, which was yesterday. i've just realized that she's not my baby anymore...she's growing up. and as excited i am to watch her grow up...i'm just as sad. it feels like it was just yesterday that we were at the hospital in paducah, welcoming our first baby girl. this year has literally flown by. i am constantly reminded of how big she is, like yesterday at the park when this little girl told lucy, "i am a big girl, you are not a big girl." to which lucy replied " i a big girl." hilarious. she is constantly coming out with all these new big words and sentences. i'm amazed everyday at what she can do on her own. i want her to be strong and independent...and she definitely is. i know she has her moments...but she makes me proud everyday.

we have had a crazy fun birthday weekend. sunday was her birthday party, and she had a blast. she's still going out on the porch saying "my party." like she expects everyone to show back up instantly. i made her a ladybug cake, as you can see from my previous post, and she loved it. all her cousins and grandparents were there, and we thank you all for all of the gifts! monday, her actual birthday, we had lunch at the rivermarket, and went to the park when daddy got off work. she had so much fun climbing and sliding and swinging. she would not let us take her picture. every time we would call her name to take her picture, she would yell "no" and refuse to look. so...we had to be creative with the pictures. however, i think they turned out pretty good. at least we all had fun! that's what matters. so happy birthday my sweet lucy lu. i love you!

here are a few pictures. to see more, click here. and please go read ryan's blog.

let's just say that i have quite the creative aspirations, but not always the time, experience, or motivation to achieve them. however, i always do what i can to find the cheapest and easiest way to do everything. some may call me a cheapskate, some may call me lazy...i'm not going to argue with you. when you have two kids all in your business all day and trying to "help," you just gotta make things work.

this year for lucy's birthday, i was determined to make a ladybug cake. i was trying to steer clear of the elmo and dora themes, and do something more creative. i saw this cake company on "the early show" that did a cake i liked, and decided to buy the book. but i couldn't find it anywhere, so i went to their website and voila...they had all the directions right there on their blog and all the recipes on the website. however, of course, it was still a little too complicated for my taste, although i'm sure anyone reading this would have been able to do it. seriously, i don't just have "unsalted butter" and "meringue whipping" sitting around in my house. i've got boxed cake mixes and frosting in a can...that's what i call realistic. so, after all my hard work, it turned out great. i told ryan i was going to blog about how i made it, because i was so proud of how it turned out. but even more proud of how easy i made it. so, most of you will not care one bit, and that's fine. but i know there's someone out there who's dying to make a ladybug (or anything else that's round) cake, and you are a "cheap and easy" person, like myself. so here you go...



Ingredients:
2 Chocolate cake mixes (and all the stuff that goes in them)
2 cans Vanilla frosting
1 can Chocolate frosting
food coloring

You will need:
9" round pan
9" Glass Pyrex bowl
Ziplock bags

Directions:
1. Mix up your two cake mixes. I did them separately because i didn't want to screw anything up, although i'm sure it doesn't matter. Pour mix into your 9" round pan and your Pyrex bowl. Make sure you spray them good with cooking spray! Put them in the oven, and obviously, the bowl cake will take almost double the time of the flat cake. So just keep an eye on them.

Sidenote: don't google "pyrex oven safe," you will read dozens of stories of pyrex bowls blowing up in people's faces and scarring them for life...and debate whether or not you should do it...risking your life, or more importantly, your cake. And then you'll realize it's worth it and just close your eyes while you're taking it out of the oven...just in case. I actually have experienced this one time...it was quite scary and did spray shards of glass all over my apartment for years to come, i'm glad we moved. I figure the odds of that happening to me twice are pretty low...

2. After your cakes have cooled, cut off the uneven part on top of the flat cake, making it level. Put a layer of chocolate frosting on it. Then level off your bowl cake. I found the easiest way to do this is to pop it out on a plate, flat part on bottom, and cut level with the plate, since the plate dips down anyway, and then flip it back into the bowl. That's probably a duh thing to most people, but it took me a while to figure out how i was going to do it. I used a big bread knife to cut across the cakes...this was very helpful. Then put your evened out bowl cake on your iced flat cake. And there you have it.

3. Now, for one of the MOST HELPFUL TIPS i never knew...a crumb coat. So just do a whole coating of vanilla icing over the entire cake. Doesn't matter what it looks like, but it will give you a better surface for your final icing. Now, put it in the fridge over night or for a few hours.

4. When you take it out of the fridge, use a paper towel, or whatever you choose, and smooth out your lumps to make it more smooth all the way around. It should be a pretty solid layer of icing and won't be all sticky and go everywhere since it's been in the fridge for awhile.

5. Color your icing. Mix in your food coloring with your icing to get whatever color you want. I did hot pink and black. For the black, i started with chocolate icing and just added blue and green till it wasn't so brown. Be careful not to put too much that it tastes funny. But apparently you can buy black food coloring...again, not something i regularly have in my house.

6. Ice your cake! The most fun part, except for little people who come along and stick their little fingers in it. I sort of made my design on the cake with a knife before i started icing, so i wouldn't get so off. Pink icing first. Then for the second MOST HELPFUL TIP i never knew: Cut a strip of paper or cardstock, and lightly drag it across the cake to smooth out the icing! SO helpful, it helps get rid of all the messy icing strokes. Put it in the fridge for a bit before you apply the black icing. Then, after your pink icing has set for a little bit, put on the black.

7. For all your bordering needs, put your icing in a ziplock bag and cut off a tiny hole at the end...and there you have your fancy icing tools! Remember what i said about CHEAP! i told you. then you can use as many as you need and just trash them when you're done...and it cost you nothing.

8. Remember to put the cake in the fridge after each step. It just helps the icing not all mix together. Then add your black dots and your eyes. Then mix up your green grass icing and make your grass. Oh yeah, don't forget your candle antenna...so cute!

Now, see...wasn't that easy and cheap! and super cute! lucy loved her cake, and i must admit, it did hurt a little to cut into it. But it was pretty good. I mean, seriously how hard is it to screw up a cake mix. well, if anyone could do it, it would be me!

Now, if i can just figure out how to make this look like an olive for Olive's birthday in november...