**Updated and revised!** A shmorgishborg of birthday cakes, and a tradition is born!

**I am compelled to edit this post.  I realized after publishing this that I have failed to express some of the most memorable parts of making these birthday cakes.  The most important parts, in my opinion.  Really, who cares about a cute cake?  It's great to look at but it gets devoured in minutes and ultimately forgotten about.  If I would have bought a cake at Costco it would have tasted and looked just as great but I wouldn't have the memory of making it.  With almost every one of these birthday cakes, I have had the honor of having either my mom or my mother-in-law with me to help brainstorm ideas and conquer challenges.  Without them in these moments I may have very well had a nervous breakdown!  So, anywhere you see red in this post, I have updated with some fresh thoughts.

I mentioned earlier that my children were the motivation I needed to even attempt to decorate a cake.  As each year passes, their requests get more and more specific, and I suprisingly am up for the challenge!  I love seeing their faces when they wake up in the morning after I have been up (sometimes way too late!) making their birthday cakes.  Those moments are priceless and make every late night worth it.  I have discovered that a store bought cake is not an option and will never again be an option.  But that's ok with me!
Let's start with Logan.  Following his skateboard cake birthday, he had a bowling party, so of course I wanted to make a themed cake.  This is what I came up with using a crazy edible material called fondant:

So the story with this cake is this:  As I was beginning to decorate it there was a knock on my door.  I answered the door with frosting in my hair and on my face, I'm sure, and there standing in front of me was my MOM! (the mom who lives 2 states away and who I had just talked to 15 minutes prior!)  "Surprise!!" She yells.  And her very loving daughter, out of sheer shock and surprise proceeded to slam the door in her face!  After I recovered I got to spend the next few hours being creative with my mom (one of our most favorite thinigs to do together).  We rolled fondant bowling balls and painted "wood" on the lane and my mom was there to interrupt a moment of panic when I realized I couldn't write frosting letters!  Just one more reason to be grateful for moms! 

Then Logan became obsessed with sports and wanted me to make him a replica Cardinals jersey of Larry Fitzgerald.  Really?  Apparantly he really believed in me!  This one was definitely a challenge.  Do you know how hard it is to get a true red frosting?  Almost impossible!  I was determined not to present my son with a pink cake for his 9th birthday, so here is what he got:

What you can't see is that I ran out of frosting and the whole top collar of the jersey is exposed cake!  Good thing 9 year old boys could care less about asthetics when they are about to eat cake!

And as his passion stayed with sports, it migrated from football to basketball and he asked for anything Mavericks and anything Dirk.  I also discovered that sleeveless jerseys are way better than sleeved jerseys...at least from a cake making perspective!

This year he is thinking a Phoenix Sun's logo...we shall see...I will definitely let you know as soon as I do!

The story of Kate's cakes has been a little more, well, girly, pink and sparkly!  After her Barbie princess cake I felt like I had big expectations to live up to.  When we decided to have a pool party for her 4th birthday, I could think of nothing better than a themed cake with a real pool complete with a diving board and pool floats! 

I have such great memories of this cake.  My mother-in-law was visiting for Kate's 4th birthday and I was bound and determined to make this pool cake for her!  I apparantly love to try bold things at the last minute because I seem to do it over and over again!  We filled this pool with blue jello and let it set overnight.  What I didn't realize is how close I cut the pool to the edge of the cake.  In the morning the cake wall was bulging and it looked like the dam was about to burst!  We built a wall of graham crackers and frosting to hold it in and by the grace of God (again) it stayed!  My mother-in-law went on a quest to find Chicklets, as that was my vision for a pool tile border.  Do you know how hard it is to find Chicklets these days?  I knew if there was a store within 50 miles of us that had Chicklets, my mother-in-law would find it!

The following year for her 5th birthday we were in California visiting Disneyland for the first time!  When we got back home, I couldn't resist making this one:

Minnie Mouse was great in theory and seemed easy enough.  What I didn't realize is that black icing dye has an odor to it and when you add too much dye your frosting will taste horrible!  So you can do the math...my frosting tasted HORRIBLE!  With minutes to go, again, my mother-in-law came to the rescue and managed to find odorless black frosting and Minnie Mouse's ears came to life!  Also, who would have known a bow could be shaped out of cookie!

Kate's 6th birthday party was a turquoise and pink themed manicure/pedicure party.  I tried something different this time and decorated with inedible flowers and jewels...beautiful and quick....just what I needed!

This was a quick peek into my world of my kid's birthday parties...I tend to have more fun with these, as personally there is less pressure.  It's great experience for me and I have gotten to the point where I enjoy the challenge of making my child's vision become a reality in cake!  I can't imagine what will be next!

I have realized how lucky I am to have two of the wisest women I know, my mom and my mother-in-law, active in my life.  Not only do they bring humor and experience to my life, but they bring their heart and their love for me and Jimmy and their grandchildren.  I savor the times I have with them and realize that even through the day to day activities and the year after year birthdays, memories are made and moments are created.  That's why we take pictures.  And although my husband will sigh and my kids will roll their eyes as I make them pose for the 100th time to take a photo, I know one day we will look at those pictures, just like seeing these cakes years later, and remember that moment like it was yesterday.