CAKES, CAKES AND YET MORE CAKES!

When my daughter was growing up and having those yearly birthday parties, I made many of her birthday cakes. When I lived in Wyoming, I had a good friend named Mary and she got me strarted decorating cakes. We made my daughter a Cabbage Patch Kid cake from a form. It had SO many stars on it that our hands cramped! But it was very cute and she enjoyed it, making it so worthwhile. I continued to make decorated cakes when she was younger, then as she grew, German Chocolate Cakes became her favorite. Over the past year I have started decorating cakes again. I even took a cake decorating class at Royalton Community School last fall and have been decorating more cakes this year. Hey, I even did my first cake for profit! So here are a few of the cakes I've made for birthdays for the grandkids this year.

First to have a birthday is Braiden. He turned nine this past February. He was happy with his transformer B-Day Cake. Of course the frosting is the 'bomb'.

Next to have a birthday was Ella. She turned one in February. I used the theme from the napkins and plates to decorate her cake. Of course she had a little cake all to herself.

Next was Kiara who also turned nine this year in April. Kiara likes the Bratz, so I tried to make a Bratz cake for her. The eyes were a bit tricky, but what the heck, those dolls have lots of makeup on anyhow.

Latest one the have a birthday living in around here was Emma. She turned six in May, and YES! she is into Hannah Montana, so she had a Rockin' Hannah Montana Cake.

Mark's other two grandchildren live in Michigan, so they'll have to wait for their cakes till they come at the end of July. Michael just turned 12 last week and Grace will turn 9 in July.

Well, here are a few samples of some of the other cakes I have made, (and took a picute of). These were cakes made for people at work. The one on the left was for one of our kindergarten teachers whose husband took a job promotion and they moved to New York this month. It was a big move for them and their two teenage daughters, but they are looking forward to it. The cake on the right was my first cake for profit. One of the gals I work with ordered it for her husband's 50th birthday. He is a dectective in St. Cloud.

Garden

Over the Memorial Day weekend, Mark and I worked on our gardens. Mark decided to move his tomato garden, so we turned the old tomato garden into a 'Rose Garden'. We put a fountain in the middle. I plan to make some mosaic stepping stones for the center of the garden and may possibly add some potted plants at the corners. I can hardly wait for the roses to bloom. Guess you can say the old song isn't true for me, you know "I beg you're pardon, I never promised you a rose garden", because I got mine!


My tulips are in full bloom, and they are starting to fill in nicely this year. They look so pretty and I think it means the spring is finally here in Minnesota. We go from 80 degrees yesterday to 50 degrees today, so it's hard to tell. I'm looking forward to my perenial garden this year, as it is really starting to fill in nicely. I'm going out to the farm that Mark grew up on to collect some rocks to edge the garden. Then I'm going to buy a nice swing and plan to spend many afternoons enjoying the flowers and the sound of the water as I sip a nice cool beverage of my choice. Maybe you'll have to come over and join me some afternoon!