Friday, February 25, 2011

let them eat....what?

One time when Ellie was here and helping me sort through some crap in my garage, she asked if we could throw out the giant tupperware cake caddy. "No way!" I replied, "I have to transport cake at least twice a year!"

I was referring to birthday cakes, of course. Between parties and school treats, a tupperware cake caddy is a staple for every family with children under age 12.

My son turns 12 this weekend, and I will not be using  the cake caddy.  

Let's take a quick look back before I explain. What follows is a random study in our family's birthday cakes, selections highlighted purely on the basis of the fact that I happened to label the online photo albums that year so I found them quickly.   

Here's a good example of a classic family birthday cake for us. Baked, frosted and served in pyrex; tasty and festooned with something special, in this case fresh strawberries. In most other cases, some class of candy or crushed cookie substance.

nice headband

 The fifth birthdays were particularly good, I must have been compensating for some other failure on those years:


His

and hers
My cakes were usually otherwise teetering right on the brink of disaster. But if there's one lesson I've learned in my dozen years of parenting, it is this: if you have enough frosting, you can fix anything

Just call it a giant oreo and pretend that you meant to do it all along

 Then there were the years of pie.


   weird.


Okay, so they weren't always home cooked, but we did always try to give the people what they wanted. Here's an example of someone wanting a restaurant cake, with the bonus element of turning out to be the world's most adorable birthday photograph:



No, no. Wait. This is the world's cutest birthday photo:


Pink handprints on her bald head. I die. For the record, that one was homemade.
We did have our share of $15 Costco cakes over the years as well. Don't you judge!



Which brings us to today, and the revelation of exactly what he desired to bring in to share with his classmates to mark the anniversary of his birth: 

cake caddy not required.
Happy Birthday, baby!

10 comments:

Me, You, or Ellie said...

Jacquie, this is beyond adorable. I love it. I love the seriousness of the candle-blowing, I love recognizing peeps in the background (me! Beth's girl! Brady!), and I love the grubby little hands of friends waiting to get their hands on the prize.

And most of all I love memories of being *at* some of those self-same birthday cake extravaganzas.

Love it.

Happy Birthday Buddy-Boy!

xxEllie

Mykle Flatley said...

Love! My official birthday cake is Strawberry Shortcake...preferably with homemade shortcakes and tons of whipped cream (really, tons...I mean, if you think you've put on too much, add some more and it will be almost enough!).

love a great b.day cake in PA said...

absolutely precious!
every.little.thing.
precious!
Happy Happy Birthday!

Rita said...

Awesome. No judgments on the Costco cake here. I don't ever bake birthday cakes. I made a Barney cake for Alex when he was two and the purple on the frosting went so horribly wrong that I vowed to let professionals take over the task forever after.

I love that he's celebrating with Pringles. For some reason that seems so quintessentially twelve.

Me, You, or Ellie said...

Oh, so much to say.... Look at Autum's girl, so wee!

I miss your boy's long hair.

I love, love, love the castle cake.

I love, love, love even more the pink handprints on the bald head.

And what I love most of all? Yes, the pringles. (Although I have a sneaking suspicion you will still be making a cake for that young man at some point this weekend!)

xo,
Beth

It look me a while to locate you, Ellie, but there you are, all a-splendor in green and blue.

Unknown said...

Oh J. I love this compilation. If I weren't hormonal, I wouldn't have cried a little. But I am, so I did... The kids were so freaking cute when they were little. So. Freaking. Cute. I miss them.

Me, You, or Ellie said...

My only regret is that I couldn't find a photo of the truly awesome skateboard cake I made for my boy's 8th birthday. I wish I were more like Ellie or my parents, with their rows of neatly labeled albums.

Sigh. It was fun looking through all of those old online albums last night, though. They were so stinking adorable!

Jacquie

Mom C said...

I love this Jacquie, can you believe our boy is going to be 12! Happy Birthday Jimbo... I love you grammy

MB said...

Such adorable photos! I love them all. Happy Birthday weekend, Jimbo. Can't believe your boy is almost 12, Jacq! xoxo

Unknown said...

Hahaha - so...the Belle cake... Apparently that cake was screaming, "FLOWERS!"
Loved them all. And really, who hasn't gone the Costco cake route?