For those of you that don't know, my boys are 8 days apart in birthdays. It makes it a little difficult on me, especially me. I make the cakes for home and for school. I do all the shopping for them too.Take this morning, for instance. I haven't gotten anything for PJ yet. With Eric turning 13 and planning something memorable for him, I just let PJ's gift slip away from me. That,and I really don't know what else to get for him. With both of their birthdays being within a 2 months of Christmas, it makes it a little difficult.
For years, Eric was overshadowed by his brother. He had to share his birthday with PJ, he had to share parties with him, he had to share everything with him. There were a few years here and there that we had both on one day. PJ's 1st, Eric's 6th and 10th birthdays were parties and it was much easier to do it all in one day. I don't do that anymore. They are older, they can pick out their own cake and it is more of an individual thing for them to celebrate their own day.
The other day PJ informed me that he wanted something for his class and a cake at home. Not a big deal, I don't mind. Plus, I might as well do what I can do for him while in elementary school because when he gets to middle school, I can't do anything. So, yes, for the next few years, he will have something to take to school for his birthday.
I have this cookbook that is amazing. I have used it so much the cover is falling off the book. "The Cake Mix Doctor." Figure it out, she takes cake mixes and makes the most amazing cakes out of them. I have made several and people really think that I made them from scratch. I don't have time to make a cake from scratch, I have, but the time thingy just isn't there. And some of these cakes are so stinking creative that if I didn't say anything, no one would know the difference.
PJ goes through this book once, twice and finally on the third time he picked something that no one has had yet. He did pick something that had rum in it, but I was not running to Ooltewah to get a little thing of rum for his cake. I had to have him pick something else out. He knew what he wanted for school. But the big cake, well, it had to be chocolate. But chocolate what?
He finally picked a cake. And we hit the store. Cream cheese, eggs, butter, honey, 2 cake mixes, powered sugar, unsweetened chocolate, and cocoa. 28 dollars late we were on our way home. I could have bought 2 cakes for that much. But it means more to me to be able to make them their cakes. I make all the cakes, even my own. That way I know they are good!
For school he wanted these cookie pops.
They don't take all that long to make. They are cute too. I think it took longer to get the little bags on it then to make the cookies. I didn't have popsicles sticks, but I did have some lollipop sticks left from Valentine's Day. He and I made them together. It is always fun to do things with both of them.
Today at lunch I will be going home to bake a cake for him. He picked Deeply Chocolate Almond Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting. Go figure, my son picks something with chocolate in it. That is my child.
He said he wanted to go somewhere for dinner, but not sure where. I really don't care. It is another night that Eric will skip out on doing any of the dishes. Or he will so graciously leave them there for someone else to do. That is just another part of a morning that I have to go through with him.
Oh well, PJ was excited to take his cookies to school with him. He didn't want me to help him, he wanted to do it on his own. He was so proud that he had something special for his class.
It means a lot to them when I do things like that for them. And it is fun for me to do it for them too.