Riley loves Foofa off of Yo Gabba Gabba. So I did a little research on the Internet to figure out what a Foofa was. She kinda looks like a cross between a "who" from whoville and a pink onion. I love having new themes for children's parties. I feel bad for parents when their children want a certain theme for their birthday party and there aren't any decorations to go with it. Who knew trends began as early as age 1? 
This was my first birthday cake for a man and a dog. My friend Angela has a dachshund, AJ, and it was his birthday. They were also celebrating a friend's birthday, Ronald. The joke was that AJ's name had to come first on the cake. The cake was simple, but I think it turned out nice. Had it been for either AJ or Ronald I could have been more creative, but with the two of them together I couldn't come up with anything that would be appropriate for both.
My husband's coworker, Tara, is having a baby. She isn't finding out the sex of the child until delivery. So for her baby shower at work, I decided to use baby pastels. I saw some pictures of baby blocks cakes that I thought were really cute; so I thought I'd give it a try. I ran into a few problems while making the cake. 1. I only had 1 6inch square cake pan, so I had to back all 6 eight layers one at a time. 2. I didn't think to "size up" the blocks before adding my letters. After I had the letters on I realized the two bottom blocks were not the same size. 3. Since the finished cakes needed to be stacked, I wasn't sure how to finish it and send it to work with Jason. We tried to transport it stacked and the top block fell off. Luckily it fell backwards and only squished the front. We ended up separating the top from the bottom and Jason stacked it when it got it to work. This is just one of those live and learn lessons. Some cake designs will have to have "on site" set-up. So if I am not able to deliver the cake myself, I need to make sure that I pick a design that can be transported without setup. I just hope that Tara was not disappointed with her cake. My intentions were to make her shower special. 
I try to encourage my students to work hard throughout the year. One of the ways I do it is have a ESL Super Star of the month. I look for students who show great improvement. At the end of the year, I invite them in my room for refreshments. I wanted the cake to be bright and I used marshmallow fondant to make the stars. 
