I mean really really tired. I have been living and breathing birthday all week. Thank goodness for all of the snow days. Not only did I get to be home with my 5-year-olds for their birthday week but I had extra time for all of the birthday prep. So prep I did. Wednesday, I cleaned the house. That was dumb. My parents ended up being snowed in with us so 6 people in and out of the snow and not able to leave the house meant that more cleaning was necessary last night. Thursday night, was cake baking night. Thanks to my mom and Auntie Katie we were able to bake 21 cakes before the power went out. That was lucky.
The next morning, I woke up to 2 5-year-olds and a power outage. We continued our tradition of cupcakes for breakfast, this time in the dark! (I actually got a better picture, but this one made me laugh more than the good one.)
Our power was only out for a couple hours and we spent the day playing. Poor kids had to wait for Robbie to get home from work to open their presents. The problem with that was that the bridge was closed for falling ice (for 6 hours) so they had to wait a really long time. They hadn't been out of jammies for almost 48 hours but they decided to dress up for present opening. Here is Abby opening up the thing she wanted the very most...an island for her play kitchen. Nothing makes me happier than that smile!
She also wanted "Tupperware". I think she actually asked for the Tupperware first and then realized she would need an island to store it in. Either way she got both and couldn't be happier.
Ben looooooooooooooooooooooves Legos. He wanted so badly to build it then but it was late so we told him he could do it in the morning. But then, he couldn't sleep. He woke up a number of times to ask me how long until morning. At one point he asked to sleep with the direction booklets so that he could study them. So he did. In the morning, he didn't even come into my room...just got right to work!
When I moved Abby's island upstairs after she was in bed, this is what I found:
Be still my heart. She is so her mama's girl. Check out the drawer in my island:
After I was done swooning over Abby's organizational skills, it was time to get to work on the cake. I know you were wondering why on Earth we would need 21 cakes for a birthday party for children. Well, to make a 3 foot tall working gumball machine cake, of course! Friday was building night and here's how it all went down.
First, we glued the rim of an old plastic container (that oddly enough was actual Tupperware) from my mom's house onto the glass globe:
Then we got out the mechanism that Robbie had built (out of supplies he found in my dad's garage, of course) to make the cake operational:
We loaded it up and tested it out. Then fixed it and tested it again. Then fixed it and tested it again. Then fixed it and tested it again. Then fixed it and tested it again. Then fixed it and tested it aga...you get the drift:
When it finally worked, we really filled it up (I had 8,500 gumball, remember?) and got ready to add some cake:
A lot of cake:
And then I got to work on the crumb coat. (This is when you are supposed to think that I really know a lot about cake decorating because only a seasoned baker would know that you have to do a thin layer of frosting first so that you don't end up with crumbs in your final product. Truth: Everything I know I learned from Google.)
Okay. So far so good. Time to clean up and head for bed and hope that the darn thing was still standing in the morning.
It was! It had shifted and sunk a little but it still looked pretty good. So Saturday night (after a small operation to ensure that it did in fact work) I finished the frosting. Ta da!
It was a little short on the details but it was big and it worked and we were happy. We were just about to head to bed at a decent hour when I glanced over to see this:
Here we were, 16 hours before our guests were to begin arriving (8 of those we had intended to be sleeping hours) and no idea what to do. Did we panic? No! We patched it up with cardboard and paper towels and started frosting:
Good as new!!
And my sweet birthday kids couldn't be happier!
What a great week! I love a good snow day (or 3) and even though we will most likely be in school until July, it was totally worth it to be home with my kids in their last days of being 4. Tomorrow, the roads will be clear and school will be back on and I'm sure that my lack of sleep this week will catch up with me so nighty night, friends.
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