Birthday Madness

Today, my youngest turns 6. This is the first time in nearly 14 years that we haven't had someone under the age of 6 in the house. I admit, I am a little sad that the era of little people is over, but I love the slightly bigger people they are turning into.

For little man's birthday, he requested an Angry Birds cake. Being the Angry Birds lover I am, I couldn't say no, but being fondant-ignorant, I wasn't quite sure if I could do it. Pinterest, Google Images and Amazon (for the toppers) saved the day.

The cake we originally assembled when we got to the bowling alley:

After the tower toppled just a few moments later, in true Angry Birds style, I scaled it back to just one tier and reinforced with some extra frosting:

Gardening part 3

Part 3 of probably many, many, just a warning in advance.

This one was my easiest gardening project yet and I got the idea off Pinterest. The versions there have the shoe organizer hanging off a pole or fence and I don't have either on my patio. I didn't want to anchor it to the screen frame, stucco or risk it ripping apart the soffit, gutter or whatever else that stuff is called around the edge of the roof.

I did have two long boards that were warped and needed to be replaced from the kids' robotics table. Perfect! I stapled the shoe organizer to that down each side. October 10th:

It took me about 15 minutes to paint the boards with some extra paint I had laying around and about 2 minutes to load the staple gun and attach it. I filled the dirt with a cup and planted seeds. Super easy! And I did it in maybe 45 minutes with drying time while my boys played outside.

And now, November 7th, exactly four weeks later. The only difference is that I added a piece of pvc that I had lying around to make the posts stand a little straighter. There is a ton of growth and all I've had to do is water it a handful of times:

I know I won't be able to use it in the summer because it would dry out in a matter of minutes, but lettuce, peas and most other small plants won't grow here during the hot months anyway. It is the perfect winter garden here!