Well, I Tried

My little Tic Tac, scatter-brained, funny, dress up king extraordinare, is turning seven tomorrow. Seven! How is this possible? I told him we’re just going to skip April 2 this year and he can stay six one more year. That was a big, “No go,” from my growing-up-too-quickly middle son. So, time is marching ever onward and he will be seven tomorrow. Seven! How is this possible? Clearly I am having a hard time with the relentless march of time today.

So, anyway, I went to the grocery store this morning and bought two cake mixes so I could make cupcakes for sweet Tic Tac to take to share with his class at school tomorrow and a cake for tonight to share with Drew’s cousin and her family and all the other people that are coming over for dinner tonight. It’s going to be something like 15 people, I think. It’s kind of nice that their vacation to the beach ended up the same week as Tic Tac’s birthday – kind of makes it seem like he really had a party or something. We took him to Savannah on Friday afternoon for his birthday dinner at The Pirate’s House and a visit to The Mad Hatter to buy a new crazy hat. This was his request for his birthday this year instead of having a birthday party. Woo hoo! I was just as glad not to do a birthday party. Anyone else think kids’ birthday parties are getting to be way over the top in extravagance these days? We’re just saying, “No,” to huge parties every year and the expensive party pack supplies that are offered in those catalogues which come in the mail which I have never been able to figure out how they found us anyway. Anyone else get those catalogues?

Back to the point of this post (there was a point?). I got the cupcakes baked and they will be frosted momentarily (soon as I get done blogging) and ready for transport to school in the morning. However. Ahem. Have I mentioned before that I do not like to bake? Well, I baked Tic Tac’s birthday cake in two round pans and, apparently I did not let the first layer cool in the pan long enough because when I went to turn it out onto the cooling rack, it disintegrated. Half left the pan and crumbled and half stayed in the pan. Now I’m trying to decide what to do to salvage the situation because he really wants a birthday cake and I do not have time to try again because I still have to fold the laundry and mop the floor and get the house ready for 15 people (fifteen!). As a little aside, when I got home from the grocery store, there was a message on the machine from my father-in-law saying that they had miscalculated and there was another family who had come south with the cousins who would be coming to dinner tonight, too, so it would be 28 people. I felt the blood drain from my face as I calculated how I had not bought enough for that many people when I was at the store and immediately called their house. When my mother-in-law answered, I said, in a very small voice, “Twenty-eight?” She laughed and said, “April Fool, Rebekah.” To which I whispered, “Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou,” and we hung up. My father-in-law thinks he’s very funny, ha, ha.

Here’s what I was thinking. The second layer came out only marginally better. I thought maybe I could put the puzzle pieces of the bottom layer together, frost it, and then crumble the top layer over it and make a crumbly mess cake. That didn’t work. I just talked to my mother-in-law on the phone. She’s going to stop at the store and get a little cake for him. I was trying to avoid buying the expensive bakery cake. Now he’s getting an expensive bakery cake, albeit a small one since we also have banana pudding to feed the 15 (!) people for dessert tonight. You get what you pay for.

My poor children do not have Super Mom. But they do have lots of love. And that matters. A lot.