Derk turns 29

Derk has been dreading this birthday, because turning 29 means 30 is quickly approaching. But I decided to try and make it as special of a day as I could anyway.

It didn't turn out the way I planned at all!

The kids and I made a big sign that we hung on the garage door for Derk to see as he pulled up....

...but it fell down. Our neighbor girls came over to tell us it had fallen down. Kyrie brought it inside to give to me so I could re-hang it, but by the time I got outside to put it up again, Derk had already pulled into the garage! :( So we just showed him the sign instead. Not nearly as fun.

I spent all afternoon making his cake. I was laying in bed one night, trying to figure out what kind of cake to make, when it finally hit me. A GUITAR! Why didn't I think of that before? Talk about perfection! Then I wondered if I could find a guitar cake pan. I went to Michael's, and I saw the spot for an actual guitar cake pan. Score!! But then when I bent down to get one, I realized the slot was empty. NO!! I had this moment of extreme frustration. I stood up and put my hand on a shelf as I calmed myself down. I looked down at my hand for some reason, and I realized it was sitting on top of a cake pan........a GUITAR cake pan! There was ONE left, and it was in the wrong spot. Had I not needed a moment to regain my composure, I would never have seen it.

This is the way it looked right after I finished it......

....but by the time he got home, the musical notes were taken off and eaten by a particularly voracious 2 year old. I'd already cleaned up by that point, so there was no fondant left to repair. :( But at least she'd left the rest of the cake alone!

I decided I was going to try fondant this time. But did I bother doing a trial run first? Did I bother watching any tutorials? Nope. "I'll just wing it!", I thought. It wasn't that bad, but it certainly gave me some grief! Making it and rolling it out was the easy part. It was when I dared try to get it on the cake that I had troubles. It was so tough to put on that I couldn't even let the kids help, which was sad. But it turned out okay. Not exactly the way I pictured it in my head, but decent for my first try.

I secretly invited some friends over for dinner and dessert, so that was fun. I was going to make homemade pizza, but I changed my mind at the last minute and decided to do baked potatoes and salad instead. And I'm so glad I did! The cake ended up taking me so long that I never would have had time to make enough pizza dough and then pizza for 9 people!

While we were shopping for Derk's cake stuff, Kyrie saw a package of trick candles. You know, the kind that are really hard to blow out. She begged to get them, and I thought that was a fun idea. The kids had a blast helping Daddy blow out his trick candles.

So while the day didn't turn out exactly as I'd planned, and I was a bit frazzled (okay, I'll admit it -- more than a bit frazzled!) by the end of the day, it all worked out okay. Derk had a nice day and a fun evening with friends, and we had fun spending the day making things special for him.

Happy birthday, Derk!
One year closer to the big 3-0!
:P