Happy DEPENDENCE Day!!

I wanted to make something special for our Anniversary and I decided to set my sights high this year. I found this amazing flag cake recipe and was counting on a 3-hr nap from Mr. Owen on Sunday so I could knock this baby out. Owen had other plans and decided on a 1-hr nap which barely allowed enough time for me to bake the cakes let alone assemble them. SOOOOO I did what any other attentive Mama would do and I put some toys in the kitchen and let my child consume MASSIVE amounts of 'scrap cake' while I finished it.

I assembled the layers, icing in the middle all the while listening to a chorus of "cake!" "cake!" from a little voice in the background. At first I was feeding him red cake because I cut the shape first, then when I tried to give him blue cake he handed it back to me and said, "cake!" as if the red cake was the only cake. I had to convince him that it was ALL cake and finally he gobbled down whatever I put in front of him. MOM OF THE YEAR OVER HERE.

Jeremy started year two with a bang and worked a "power weekend" where he was on call from Friday morning until Monday afternoon. Lowest man on the totem pole always works holidays, even when the holiday is your anniversary...yuck. But he came home in time to spend the afternoon with me and then we headed over to a friend's house for a BBQ.

I was so nervous about my cake because you really don't know if this is going to work until you cut into it.

But it worked and I was SUPER happy! Everyone at the party was very impressed (I think the host/hostess might have been ticked off that my cake stole the show...seriously. I'm not even kidding) but no one was more giddy than I was.

Because you see, almost eight years ago I made a very special man in my life a layer cake for his birthday. My very first attempt at a layer cake looked like this (note: I had no idea that you DIVIDE THE BATTER and made one cake in each pan which turned out looking like two mushrooms toddling on top of one another)

blowing out candles not judging my cake ;)

We've come a long way babe!

Our wedding day was *perfect*
Happy Anniversary - I love you!!

drunk off our asses for the first time in over 2 years (more on that later...)