Happy 3rd Birthday, Samson!

We celebrated Sam's birthday last night since Ron has to work today, Sunday, on Sam's actual birthday. Which worked out great for everyone, really. Attending were Sam's 'Nanny' (Shirley), 'Pop-Pop' (Andy) and Natalie. We started out with supper at Spencer's (yummy) and got home to eat cake and open presents.

Earlier in the day, I took on the task of making a Thomas the Tank Engine cake. I'll admit, on Friday, when i came up with this idea, i ALMOST caved on my way out of Wegmans and just ordered a cake with Thomas on it. But then I said, "no - - no - - *I* can do this. I'm a freakin ARTIST, afterall." So i surfed online and found an idea, and decided I could do the same.

So it's Saturday morning. There's me, and cake, and melted white chocolate that i'm going to dye into the colors of Thomas. While the cake is baking, i realize that i cannot make the color BLACK. There is a lot of black on Thomas. My friend Natalie attempted to help me in suggesting i mix all the colors i have to make black and I **SNAP** at her and say "I'm an ART MAJOR - - YOU CANNOT MIX ANY AMOUNT OF COLORS TO MAKE BLACK! You get sh*t brown." Let this be a public apology to Natalie for snapping. I was starting to literally sweat. The clock with ticking; Ron took Sam out gallavanting, giving me time to make the cake.

I gathered myself together and thought to call my buddy Linda who works in the Bakery at Wegmans. I said, "Linda - how do you make black for cake frosting?" She said, "we have it here. Come get some, hunny." So Natalie came to my rescue again and went and got it and brought it over.

To my surprise and slight disappointment, adding dye (the black i got from bakery, as well as food coloring - the kind you use to dye eggs at Easter) changes the composition of the melted white chocolate wafers. It immediately turns them into hard SPACKLE! Whatta bummer. So there i was, completely using my fingers to manipulate the colored chocolate into the shapes of Thomas. In case you are wondering how i did that: I laid a color photocopy of Thomas under a piece of parchment paper (that i snagged from the Sub Shop - s'good to work at a grocery store!). The IDEA was to make Thomas all out of chocolate, then slide it off the parchment paper right onto the top of the cake. I think it would have worked great had the chocolate not turned so hard SO QUICKLY.


Well, i eventually finished Thomas, cut the paper around him, and gently placed him on top of the chocolate cake covered with French vanilla frosting (yum!). He cracked a little because the top of the cake was a little rounded. But it looked good. I stored him in the basement under a big roasting pan cover until the Big Moment.

Sam's eyes LIT UP! It was all worth it! We all said, "Sam... who is that?" and he exclaimed "THOMAS!!!" Then he dug right into him. I knew that the black dye was pretty fierce; when i was making it, my fingers were black. So right away, Sam's whole mouth, inside and out, was BLACK. Scary! But he was really digging the dyed Thomas, so we let it fly. Soon we all had a slice of cake and then migrated to the living room to open presents.

Sam's latest thing is PUZZLES, so i suggested for everyone to give him one. He got "Grouchy Ladybug" and "The Very Hungry Catepillar" puzzles (by Eric Carle), a clown puzzle, and a Halloween puzzle. He also got a Magic Thomas Marker and Activity Book, as well as a couple other activity books (tracing and counting). Sam is big into LEARNING stuff. He's mastered his alphabet (and doesn't even know the Alphabet Song), and is really into shapes, colors and new words. I would love it if we could learn to read before kindergarten. No pressure of course - just the joy of learning, working its magic.

Happy Birthday Sam! You are our awesome little boy, and you make us smile every day!

Click on this pic if you dare to see the after-effects of eating black dye...