Happy Birthday OLIVER!!!!!

Can Oliver be any more awesome? He is really one of the coolest person I know, and I get to spend all day with him. I'm so lucky!

Oliver just turned one on Thursday. And all the days leading up to it has brought me many joyful and teary-eyed moments thinking about how much he has grown. He's quite an accomplished one year old. Walking, singing, helping out with clean up, eating and sleeping well. There's not one night that past in the last year that I didn't say "what a good baby!" And he continues to amaze me with his curious and adventurous personality.

Although he says baba, dada, mama, and gaga, he understands pretty much everything I tell him. He can point to the object or location I'm referring to, and often the action. And he understand them in Chinese and in English! It is true that babies are like a sponge. He now imitates actions too, which is super cute.

The night before his birthday I stayed up late to finish making his birthday cake. I kept thinking I just want him to know the next morning it's a very special day. I set up all of his favorite toys in the living room, and blew up a few balloons and left them around his play area. We took our regular morning walk, but we went to a Starbucks instead because it was closer to home and we had something else planned after the walk. Oliver was excited and curious about the new setting. And the new outdoor couch he got to sit on while looking at the dogs nearby. He was taking huge bites out of a banana, and bang his hands on the metal table expressing his excitement.

After the walk we got in the car and drove to the Grove. It was also the Farmer's Market's 75th year anniversary. There was a cake that looked like the clock tower, and a stage set up for the celebration. Oliver got to see the USC marching band, and everyone sang happy birthday (we'd like to think it was for Oliver). After that we played around on another stage and near a water fountain. Oliver had fun walking around and didn't want to leave.

Shortly after getting home it was time for his nap. He woke up to his a-gon a-ma greeting him. They had fun playing as always. And grandma brought him some birthday gifts which he played with the next day. Chris got home early from work for the next gathering with GrandaD and Joan, and cousin Colleen. We set up a play area in the backyard and had some food. It was very relaxing. Joan took lots of pictures, and dad had fun playing with Oliver.

It was a really long and busy day for Oliver. He was such a good sport, operating on a single nap (he's been in transition from 2 to 1 nap) and he was so tired by the end of the day he even laid down on his bedroom rug in his birthday suit before his bath. He slept just ok that night. I think he was probably over stimulated and over tired, but I think he had a great first birthday.

He has another party coming up this weekend with more friends and family. And I'll have another cake to decorate. Fun!

Thank you Oliver for your smiles and laughter. Happy Birthday!!

More cakes!

I've been really enjoying my cake decorating class. Each week it gets a little bit easier, and I get more adventurous with my designs. Here are the latest cakes I've made:


This is the cake for Oliver's first birthday. I almost didn't make one because I had another cake that I just made for class. I'm glad I didn't get lazy and just had a cake that was not made especially for him. It turned out really cute. It was a carrot cake with Buttercream icing for the water and grass. Then I made a lily pad out of homemade marshmallow fondant, and gum paste frog with marshmallow eyes. The sign is cut Special K chocolate meal bar with icing lettering. And then there are the gold fish crackers. Oliver was very excited about the frog when he saw it!


This is my first fondant covered cake. I made the fondant from a marshmallow recipe (it was fun making it, much easier than I expected) We were supposed to make an 8x8 square cake, but I didn't have a pan. So I decided to make it with my 8" round cake and cut away the sides in to a square. I doubled up the layered and make a 5 inch cube. The design for the class was to cover it with flower shaped fondant cut outs, but I went for the more modern simple dots instead. And a Tiffany-ish blue ribbon.


This was the final cake for Course 3. All the flowers are piped royal icing. The ruffle was really hard to do, but learning how to stack and secure the tiers was fun.


This was a father's day cake for Chris. He liked lemon cake, so I did a lemon slices line art in a brownish yellow color. I was very shaky making the outlines, but I like the style of it, and would try to practice more in this style of cake decorating.